The first episode of every Game of Thrones season starts slowly. Season 4 was no exception.

“I’d probably go to sleep but I’m getting old,” says Bronn.

Reddit discussion of "Two Swords":

http://reddit.com/r/gameofthrones/comments/22dyc7/season_4_spoilers_premiere_discussion_401_two/

Grantland recap is worth reading, too:

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/game-of-thrones-premiere-recap-welcome-back-to-westeros-dont-mind-the-blood/

This writeup from Grantland is delicious:

Tywin Lannister is the steel that girds the Iron Throne. Importing a blacksmith may have been necessary to split Ned’s sword in two, but the radical thinking behind it was all Tywin’s. This is a changed world; the old gods still hold sway, but new methods are now required to hold on to power. Ever since Bran Stark dropped like a dead raven out of a tower window, those who remained attached to outmoded concepts like “honor,” “loyalty,” and “revenge” have lost — some figuratively, others their lives. The current winners in the titular Game of Thrones are those who are willing to play fast and loose with the rules. So far, this has meant good things for Tywin, a man who uses his children as bargaining chips and orders wholesale slaughter with the stroke of a pen. It takes a flexible mind like his to consider the fearsome symbology of a giant Valyrian sword and realize that two sharper blades are a lot better than a single, clunky one. Maybe not at representing anything, but definitely in terms of killing. Which, when you think about it, is really all that ought to be required of a sword.

Yet why did Tywin’s victory lap in the opening moments of “Two Swords” feel so much like the end of something? Perhaps it was because, after an entire season of watching him wreak havoc by longhand, someone finally insisted on a rewrite. Jaime Lannister’s time in captivity changed him mightily. (As he says to Brienne, since returning, “every Lannister I’ve seen has been a pain in my arse.”) By refusing his father’s demand to become his rightful heir, Jaime drove his blade right into the heart of Tywin’s one vulnerability: time. As this season begins, Tywin is the most powerful man in Westeros, but he’s just one man. And, thanks to HBO’s current advertising blitz, we all know what happens to them. Tywin can move the chess pieces to the perfect spots, but he can’t control them once they’re there. And the next generation of threats — dragons to the east, wildlings and White Walkers to the north and, right under his nose, imps and little girls — all have plans of their own. “The war is over. The king is safe,” Tywin intones in the voice of someone unfamiliar with the legal teachings of House Murphy. “The king is never safe,” Jaime replies. He should know: He’s already killed one himself.

One way to regard Tywin Lannister is with fear. Another way is with patience. He’s an old man with a lunatic grandson on the throne, an alcoholic depressive daughter upstairs, and two sons: the one he disdains and the one he just disowned. The future of Westeros can’t be written. At least not from behind a desk.

Just as Tywin can’t control what’s coming, neither can we anticipate it. It’s foolish to make predictions at the start of a new season of Game of Thrones, other than “really terrible things will happen.” (Of course, this doesn’t apply if you’ve read the George R.R. Martin books upon which the series is based — and get ready for nine more weeks of me reminding you that I haven’t.) Still, I can’t shake the feeling this will be the year when the old Game board is finally tossed aside completely, revealing an even more chaotic and fearsome competition in its stead.

Dis gon b gud.

"I'll wear it with pride." ~Sansa Stark

Bronn YES Tyrion NO: http://pandawhale.com/post/40620/bronn-yes-tyrion-no-gif

Phantom limbs are the connection between S3E10 and S4E01:

Jaime Lannister sends his regards:

I murdered people so I can be here with you. ~Jaime Lannister to Cersei

http://pandawhale.com/post/40695/i-murdered-people-so-i-can-be-here-with-you-jaime-lannister-to-cersei-game-of-thrones-s4e01

And that's how you get a pony. ~Arya Stark

http://pandawhale.com/post/40770/and-thats-how-you-get-a-pony-arya-stark

Now I'm a knight. ~Bronn

http://pandawhale.com/post/40924/now-im-a-knight-bronn-gif

What really happened in S4E1: http://imgur.com/a/H0wTs

Reddit comments:

http://reddit.com/r/gameofthrones/comments/25nq1f/s04e01_tldw_what_really_happened_imgur/

List of Ser Jaime Lannister's Great Deeds

Maybe getting together someday?

They're foreshadowing that but the writers have faked us out before.

The white horse was beautiful, but stands out too much ;)

True -- Westeros is full of dirt and grit, not white horses!

Source:

http://reddit.com/r/gameofthrones/comments/229ko0/spoiler_asoss4_exciting_still_from_hbo_promo/

150 more Games of Throne season 4 wallpapers of this quality: http://imgur.com/a/h4Mw6

Reddit comments on those wallpapers: 

http://reddit.com/r/gameofthrones/comments/22bdmr/all_spoilers_in_hodor_of_season_4_starting/

Arya and the Hound as Hit-Girl and Big Daddy from Kick-Ass.

Reddit comments:

http://reddit.com/r/gameofthrones/comments/22egxg/s4e01_this_is_what_i_kept_thinking_of_while/

The Hound sure does love chicken.

Thank you Sabvegas for making this gif.

Grantland explanation of this:

The episode ended with the reclamation of a third sword: Needle, the thin blade given to Arya by Jon Snow before everyone’s world turned to wildfire. D.B. Weiss directed the hour, and he used claustrophobia and sound to imbue the final tavern showdown with all the delicious tension of a classic Western: Polliver’s thickheaded provocations, the clink of mugs, the gulp of ale, the crying of a woman, the slow, inevitable sizzle of the Hound’s temper. When the violence was over, five men lay dead — the last of whom, Polliver, was dispatched in brutal and theatrical fashion by Arya herself, who recited the words Polliver had once used on her friend Lommy back on the road to Harrenhal. She then pierced Polliver’s throat, a smile flashing on her face as the man died drowning in his own blood.

At the premiere screening of the episode, the crowd of jaded journalists and society types erupted into cheers at this moment, and the adrenaline was undeniable: Finally, a Stark fights back! Arya gets her revenge! The Hound gets his chickens! But look deeper, and an ugliness begins to pool just beneath the blood. Arya is still a child; watching her kill someone, even a prick like Polliver, shouldn’t feel so exhilarating. I hope her buddy comedy with the Hound plays out for a few more weeks at least, if only so that she might learn something other than how to hold her nose around an unwashed knight.

“A man’s got to have a code,” the Hound said just before the stabbing started, echoing another beloved killer who once prowled HBO’s schedule. Left unsaid is that a successful man’s code ought to be one of his own devising, not an outdated oath to a higher power like the one Jaime Lannister swore, or the hot-tempered swearing of revenge that may now have blinded Arya. These are the sorts of oaths and codes that leave little room for fulfillment, let alone survival. In the moment, they can provide armor against the chaos of the world, but they soon reveal themselves as straitjackets. Not all games are worth playing.

Game of Thrones season 4 behind the scenes offers hints of what's to come:

They're dragons, Khaleesi. They can never be tamed.

http://pandawhale.com/post/40579/theyre-dragons-khaleesi-they-can-never-be-tamed