WINTER IS COMING S1 E1
GAME OF THRONES - WINTER IS COMING S1 E1 - SEE QUOTES, CHARACTERS, AND MORE
The first episode of Game of Thrones, Winter is Coming S1 E1, follows the activities of three ruling families. Throughout the season, these three families make major moves to come closer and closer together.
SUMMARY
Fair warning, this summary has lots of spoilers! It is more of a guide of what happens throughout the first episode.
THE NIGHTS WATCH
A few rangers on The Nights Watch leave the safety of The Wall to check out a report of dead wildlings being left in the woods. The Wildlings seemed to have been killed with a purpose – their bodies left in a specific pattern on the frozen ground. A bit later, the bodies mysteriously disappear.
White Walkers emerge and attack the small group of rangers… only one ranger escapes, but he is soon labeled as a deserter. The White Walkers that kill the two rangers are not random, they are the bodies (reborn) that the rangers found on the ground earlier.
Daenerys Targaryen
In Pentos, Daenerys gets ready for her wedding with Khal Drogo. Viserys, in a very uncomfortable display of… affection?… demands perfection from her. She is important to ensure sure he takes the Iron Throne out from under Robert Baratheon.
In a short ceremony, Khal Drogo is introduced to the Targaryen siblings and he silently approves of his bride-to-be.
Dany and Drogo get married. The ceremony is nothing like what the Targaryen siblings have ever seen before. Exiled knight Jorah Mormont gives Daenerys seven books of the songs and histories of Seven Kingdoms as a wedding gift. Magister Illyrio Mopatis gifts her three petrified dragon eggs. Khal Drogo gives Dany, his new Khaleesi, a beautiful white horse as a gift.
Daenerys and Drogo consummate their marriage. She isn’t happy about it, to say the least…
HOUSE STARK
House Stark overseas Winterfell, a cold and desolate place. The man, Will, who escaped the White Walks is found, captured, and executed as a deserter. Later that day, the men of the family find a dead dire wolf mother and 6 pups – one goes to each of the Stark sons, even Jon Snow, who is considered a bastard son.
Soon, Ned Stark gets a letter explaining the death of Jon Arryn and that Robert Baratheon, the King of the North, is on his way to Winterfell. The people of Winterfell work hard to prepare for their presence. True to the warning, the royal group arrives.
STARKS AND BARATHEONS
Robert and Ned catch up as old friends down in the crypts. They talk about Ned’s deceased sister, Lyanna, and how Robert should have married her. He would have if the eldest Targaryen hadn’t killed her. Robert tells Ned his plan of combining their two houses with a wedding between Roberts’s oldest son, Joffrey, and Ned’s oldest daughter, Sansa.
Sansa begs her mom to let her marry Joffrey, but her mom does not approve. Jon Snow begs his uncle to let him join the Night’s Watch, but his uncle tries to tell him that it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Jon and Tyrion meet. At the party that night, Cersei meets and judges Sansa as her potential new daughter-in-law.
Cat gets a letter from her sister, who is residing in the Aerie. Her sister claims that her husband, Jon Arryn, was murdered by the Lannisters.
Ned makes his decision to be Hand of the King and, the next morning, Robert and Ned go hunting to celebrate. Bran climbs a tower and see’s something that he shouldn’t – Jamie and Cersei Lannister. Jamie makes the quick decision to push Bran off of the tower.
House Lannister & Baratheon
The Lannister and Baratheron Houses are the ruling families of the kingdom, joined together by marriage. They hold a funeral for Jon Arryn, who was the Hand of the King. The Lannisters, Queen Cersei and her brother Jamie discuss their suspicions that Arryn knew a secret that they want to keep quiet.
The King, now in need of a new Hand of the King, goes to Winterfell with his wife, sons and daughter, and the rest of the royal party.
FUN FACTS
The book series, A Song of Ice and Fire, had the potential to become a movie. George R. R. Martin stepped in and that it wouldn’t adapt well as a movie because too many vital scenes would be cut. He thought a TV Show would work better.
The pilot episode was filmed but determined to be unacceptable, so they had to reshoot. Major details, like Jamie and Cersei being siblings, was not shown. The viewers of the first pilot essentially told the show’s creators to start from scratch and change everything. The show’s creators also recast several characters, including Daenerys Targaryen, Catelyn Stark, and Magister Illyrio.
The stag that the dire wolf mother had killed was not a prop… it was a real stag. The corpse had been rotting for two days and the actors had difficulty going through the scene with the stench.
QUOTES
NIGHTS WATCH RANGER
DO THE DEAD SCARE YOU?
NED STARK
HE WON’T BE A BOY FOREVER. AND WINTER IS COMING.
THEON
THE RUNT OF THE LITTER. THAT ONE’S YOURS, SNOW.
TYRION LANNISTER
LET ME GIVE YOU SOME ADVICE BASTARD. NEVER FORGET WHAT YOU ARE. THE REST OF THE WORLD WILL NOT. WEAR IT LIKE ARMOUR, AND IT CAN NEVER BE USED TO HURT YOU.
Magister Illyrio
A DOTHRAKI WEDDING WITHOUT AT LEAST THREE DEATHS IS CONSIDERED A DULL AFFAIR.
JAMIE LANNISTER
THE THINGS I DO FOR LOVE.
IS IT LIKE THE BOOK?
COMING SOON
CHARACTERS
This is not an extensive list of the characters that we see in Winter is Coming S1 E1. Rather, these are the characters that we see the most of in this episode, and who will be important to watch in episode 2.
NED STARK
Ned Stark is the Lord of Winterfell. He is married to Catelyn, with whom he has 3 sons and 2 daughters. Ned Stark is also a father to Jon Snow, although Catelyn is not his mother.
Ned is offered the opportunity to be Hand of the King.
He is an incredibly loyal and ethical man who protects his friends and family.
ROBERT BARATHEON
Robert is the King of the Iron Throne. As old friends with Ned Stark, he travels to Winterfell to ask him to be Hand of the King.
Robert is married to Cersei Lannister but has always loved Ned’s sister, Lyanna, who died many years earlier.
He is not a good king. Robert was a great warrior who killed the previous king and therefore inherited the title. He is often drunk and spends most of his time hunting and sleeping with women.
CERSEI LANNISTER
Cersei is the Queen. She inherited her title through marriage to Robert Baratheon. She does not love or respect him. However, she is VERY close to her brother. So close, in fact, that she is often intimate with him and has been throughout their entire lives. It is rumored that Cersei’s children are not from Robert’s lineage, but from her brother, Jamie.
DAENERYS TARGARYEN
Daenerys, or Dany, is the youngest sibling in the Targaryen family. They were overthrown many years earlier by Robert and Ned. In the first episode, Dany is sold off to Khal Drogo in exchange for use of his army to take back the Iron Throne.
With her marriage to Khal Drogo, she becomes Khaleesie to the Dothraki.
VISERYS TARGARYEN
Older brother is Daenerys, Viserys is working to claim his “rightful” place as King of the Iron Throne – a title that his father held before being overthrown by Robert and Ned.
Viserys has one goal in mind – to be King. He is willing to sacrifice anything to get what he wants, including his little sister.
KHAL DROGO
Drogo is the leader of the Dothraki, a large group of tough and wild warriors. He marries Dany in exchange for the use of his army for Viserys to take the Iron Throne.
Drogo is a complicated man. He is gentle and a good gift-giver, but also rough and takes what he wants.
TYRION LANNISTER
Younger brother to Cersei and Jamie, Tyrion is the black sheep of the family. He is either hated, looked down on, or completely invisible to everyone in the kingdom, including his own family. He has been treated like that since birth because he is an imp.
Tyrion spends most of his time drunk and in whorehouses.
JON SNOW
Jon Snow is the bastard son of Ned Stark and an unknown woman. He has three half-brothers and two half-sisters. He is a little socially awkward and insecure about his place in the family, and in the world.
When his uncle comes into town, he tries to join the Night’s Watch.
SANSA STARK
Sansa is the eldest Stark sister. When the Baratheon/Lannister family comes into Winterfell, she decides that her one and only desire is to marry Joffrey and become his Queen.
She is beautiful, and skilled at sewing and needlework. Everyone believes that she will do well in the Capitol and in royal life.