Game of Thrones. Season 2, Episode 7: "A Man Without Honor"

When you have a saga with a huge universe, either of these two problems will crop up. One, you will tend to concentrate all your characterization into the lead character, then tend to ignore developing the other major characters. Or two, you tend to characterize everyone equally, making it seem like there is no single main character at all.

In the case of Game of Thrones, it's the first problem. Everyone was too busy thinking about what would be the best way to kill the bastard Joffrey Baratheon that they forgot there's an even bigger sociopath in the Seven Kingdoms─his father uncle father-uncle, Jaime Lannister.

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Now he totally looks like an incestuous redneck.

Ser Jaime Lannister is known by everyone in Westeros as the Kingslayer, a title that would probably command respect in a parallel universe. But in Westeros, most people spit after saying the name Kingslayer, to cleanse their mouths. At first I thought that stabbing the Mad King was an act of cowardice, exposing Ser Jaime to be as yellow as Lannister hair. But in truth, killing the king is an act of craziness, not cowardice. Jamie Lannister is a deranged, despicable douchebag who will kill his own cousin just because he needs the exercise.

That murder scene, along with Theon Greyjoy's display of iron brattiness and the throat-slitting at the Qarth council meeting, are the only acts of violence we'll see in this episode. Nudity, nada. What we have instead is talking. Talk, talk, talk. Lots of it.

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Jon Snow knows nothing about sex.

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The Hound knows nothing about menstruation.

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Robb Stark knows nothing about a maester's supplies.

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Maester Luwin knows nothing about the "iron price".

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Jorah Mormont knows nothing about rejection.

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Cersei Lannister knows nothing about Sansa's thoughts.

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Lord Karstark knows nothing about prisoners of war.

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I've run out of captions about knowing nothing.

I'm starting to enjoy the dynamics between Tywin Lannister and Arya Stark. A young highborn lady posing as a common cupbearer to hide her identity, and the high lord who knows her secret and yet chooses to keep silent. From that premise can spring a million scenarios, and one wrong word from either of them can turn the tide of this series.

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"He's like the grandfather I never had."

With three episodes left in the season, I really don't know where creators David Benioff and DB Weiss are going with the adaptation, and frankly I don't really care. They've done a good job so far, and I can't wait to see how they'll end this season. It'll probably end with another major character's head being lopped off, but that wouldn't be the fault of Benioff and Weiss. That would be George R.R. Martin's.