Ser Barristan and Eddard converse over the body of Ser Hugh as the silent sisters attend to the corpse. Eddard wonders if he was killed by the Lannisters before he could talk. Barristan says Hugh was Jon’s squire for four years and desperately wanted a knighthood, but he was not ready. The two head to King Robert’s tent, where he is preparing to fight in the melee. His two squires are trying to get him into his armor, but he is too fat. Eddard points this out, and Robert sends the squires looking for a breastplate stretcher. Eddard is troubled by the fact that the squires are both Lannisters. Ser Barristan tells Robert as a ploy to get him to stand down that if he fights, no one would dare strike him, and Robert throws a breastplate at him in fury and orders him out. He tells Eddard to stay and laments to him about how dead he feels. He only became king instead of Jon or Eddard because his claim was better. He married Cersei to tie Lord Tywin to him, but gets no joy from marriage. He would just leave for the Free Cities and work as a mercenary if he were not so worried about Joffrey taking the throne. He is hopeful that with Eddard at his side he can turn around his admittedly poor reign. He also mentions that Renly told him about Loras’s sister and how beautiful she is. Robert’s melancholy lifts at breakfast, and Eddard becomes confident that once he proves the Lannisters were behind Jon’s death the king will crush them.
Eddard joins Sansa to watch the rest of the tournament as Sandor and Jaime take their places. Petyr and Renly make wagers on who will win. Sandor unseats Jaime on the second tilt, and Renly laments Tyrion’s absence, for he would have won twice as much. As Gregor and Loras take their places for the second match, Eddard contemplates the Mountain That Rides. He is a solitary man who only leaves his lands for wars and tournaments. He will soon be married a third time, and both of his previous wives, as well as his sister and father, died under strange circumstances. The day he inherited his father’s lands, Sandor left to take service with the Lannisters as a sworn sword and never returned. Rumor has it that it was Gregor who killed Rhaegar’s infant son, Aegon, by dashing his head against a wall and that he raped and killed Elia afterward. He also fought inGreyjoy’s Rebellion. Ser Loras unseats Gregor with the aid of a mare in heat that distracts Gregor’s horse. Gregor is furious and calls for his sword, which his squire fetches. He kills his own horse before knocking Ser Loras from his saddle. Before he can land the killing blow, Sandor is there and stops him. They fight until Robert puts a stop to it. A shaken Loras cedes the final match to Sandor, who wins the champion’s prize. Later, a boy from the Dornish Marches named Anguy wins the archery competition by defeating Ser Balon Swann and Jalabhar Xho in the final round. Finally, in a free-for-all melee of forty men,Thoros of Myr wins the last prize of the day. At the feast that night, Jory brings Arya down fresh from a training session withSyrio Forel and with bruises. Eddard worries that Syrio is pushing her too much. He has her do strange things like walk around blindfolded and catch cats. He asks her if she would like a new tutor, but she says no.
Quotes…
Ned only needed a glance to understand the difficulty. “The boys are not at fault,” he told the king. “You’re too fat for your armor, Robert.”
Robert Baratheon took a long swallow of beer, tossed the empty horn onto his sleeping furs, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and said darkly, “Fat? Fat, is it? Is that how you speak to your king?” He let go his laughter, sudden as a storm. “Ah, damn you, Ned, why are you always right?”
“I will not keep you long, my lord. There are things you must know. You are the King’s Hand, and the king is a fool.” The eunuch’s cloying tones were gone; now his voice was thin and sharp as a whip. “Your friend, I know, yet a fool nonetheless … and doomed, unless you save him. Today was a near thing. They had hoped to kill him during the melee.”
He was at the door when Ned called, “Varys,” The eunuch turned back. “How did Jon Arryn die?” “I wondered when you would get around to that.” “Tell me.” “The tears of Lys, they call it. A rare and costly thing, clear and sweet as water, and it leaves no trace. I begged Lord Arryn to use a taster, in this very room I begged him, but he would not hear of it. Only one who was less than a man would even think of such a thing, he told me.”
by Mel
We realize that the knight that the Mountain killed is the squire that was knighted after Jon Arryn died. Second day of the tournament and the Mountain loses to Ser Loras and does not take it very well. He decides to cut his horses head off and then goes to attack Ser Loras. The Hound intercedes and fights with his brother until the king stops it. I was really rooting for the Hound against his brother, but it was not to be. Varys’ let’s Ned know that the Lannister’s are not to be trusted and that Jon Arryn was, in fact poisoned. Most likely be the knight who was killed in the tournament the day before.
Book to HBO
The claim that Ned cut down a dozen great knights is true for the show, but not at all true in the novels—Ned is competent and capable, as trained as any nobleman, and physically brave… but he’s not a great swordsman. Barristan is not present when Ned speaks to Robert, nor is he involved in convincing Robert that he can’t take part. Also, because we didn’t see the feast scene from Sansa II, we don’t realize that Robert was more or less indirectly goaded into committing to the melee (not the joust, as on the show) by Cersei. We do not see Jaime joust against and lose to the Hound (and so do not see Renly’s remark that he’d be even richer if Tyrion had been around, confirming a detail soon to be given), and it’s Sansa—not Barristan—who questions the honor of Ser Loras’s using a mare in heat to gain an advantage. Finally, Renly and Littlefinger make their wager. HBO always makes it very obvious that there is a gay relationship between Renly and Loras, which I totally missed reading the books, and in fact when the scene was on I told my husband, ‘That didn’t happen in the book’ But then looking into it on the forums the author definately states that they are lovers.
