Lady Catelyn is just as noble and upstanding as her late husband Ned Stark. And we all know how that ended.

On Sunday’s Game of Thrones, Catelyn continues to be torn between her wartime duties to the King in the North, her son Robb (Richard Madden), and being separated from her four younger children. “Robb is the only one that she has any sort of communication with at this time, and she doesn’t know where the others are,” Michelle Fairley, who plays Catelyn, tells TVGuide.com. “Her whole drive for the second season is to get her family back together and then protect them as much as she can. And if she can get them into the castle, and board it up, and never let them leave again, I think that’s exactly what she would do. I think she’s selfish in that respect. Sometimes when people are selfish they think that they are doing it for the greater good, they are on a singledminded track.”

Game of Thrones‘ Rose Leslie discusses Downton Abbey, Ygritte and her feelings towards Jon Snow

Catelyn has good reason to worry though. Last she heard, sons Bran and Rickon (Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Art Parkinson) were held prisoner at Winterfell and daughter Sansa (Sophie Turner) was held hostage as a political-marriage prospect in King’s Landing. Old family friend Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish (Aidan Gillen) and envoy recently told Catelyn that her youngest daughter Arya (Maisie Williams) was with Sansa, although Game of Thrones viewers know this to be a lie.

“Littlefinger has really deceived her into believing that Arya is also in King’s Landing as well, and this has got her hopes up because she now thinks that they are safe,” Fairley says. “He’s there to hoodwink her. He puts a carrot in front of her and is like, ‘Look, all you have to do is give back Jamie Lannister, and we will give you your daughters back.’”

Check out the rest of the interview in which Fairley explains why Catelyn trusts Littlefinger, her disdain for Jon Snow and her trust in Brienne:

After Littlefinger betrayed Ned, why would Catelyn take his word on anything?
Michelle Fairley: Well, they grew up together. So she’s known him her whole life. So she always thinks of him just as little Petyr, like a brother, not anything else. But he actually has been in love with her his whole life… And when he approaches her with this information, he’s paying her back for all of those years, for rejection. And he suckers her in, but she doesn’t realize it. The depth of that man’s deception will come out eventually.

It doesn’t sound like Catelyn can even imagine that people have all of this time and energy to create such deception.
Fairley: Absolutely. Irrespective of all of the deception that man has already created in her life, she thinks, “This is it. It’s going to be that easy. It’s going to be that simple.” Because ultimately she’s a good person. She’s not a strategist, she’s not a schemer, she’s not a conniver. She still believes him at his word.

What do you think is Catelyn’s biggest strength?
Fairley: Her strength, I think, is her perseverance and her drive and her passion for her family, to get them together. You know she is somebody that evolves as this journey goes on. She’s always had these hidden talents, I think. But they remained hidden because she never really had to use them because she’s always had a husband before. But now she’s mother, father, she’s a lioness, she’s a warrior, she’s a protector. Her son Robb is using her to try to negotiate peace so that the families could come together to fight against the Lannisters.

She’s not all noble though. What are her feelings toward Jon Snow (Kit Harington), Ned Stark’s bastard?
Fairley: Well, she absolutely hates him. It’s terribly sad that a woman as intelligent, and as good, and as gracious, and as high-brow as her, gives in. This is absolutely jealousy and hatred, which comes when she feels complete betrayal from Ned. And it’s displaced. It shouldn’t be taken out on poor little Jon Snow, you know what I mean? That’s one of her failings. But her family adores him. The children adore him. They love him. And he gets on wonderfully with her children, and he’s loyal, and he grew up well.

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Catelyn just learned that Theon (Alfie Allen) had taken over Winterfell. How’s she feeling about their former ward now?
Fairley: When Robb actually tells Catelyn the scenario that occurred and she says, “I told you never to trust a Greyjoy,” she is absolutely furious. But she has to be very careful about how she handles it. She knows that Bran and Rickon are there as well. She’s still hoping against hope that he will not hurt them because he has been brought up with the family. Where’s his loyalty? She hopes that surely something that they have taught them has rubbed off on him.

Catelyn also just witnessed Renly’s (Gethin Anthony) mysterious death by shadow. What is going on in her mind right now then? Does she even accept what she saw?
Fairley: She knows there’s a really bad force out there or something evil. She doesn’t yet know where it’s coming from, or who’s responsible for it, but it’s imperative that she achieves her goals as quickly as possible now and get away from this because there is something really rotten in the state of Westeros. In her heart she knows she’s out of her depth in many ways.

She also has a curious relationship with Brienne (Gwendoline Christie). Can you define it?
Fairley: I actually think that she sees a very young Arya in Brienne, a girl who isn’t a girly-girl who wants to get out there and fight. She sees a warrior in there. That’s exactly what her daughter wants to do. She doesn’t want to learn how to sew. She doesn’t want to be married to somebody. She doesn’t want that. She wants to get out there and be with the guys. She wants to be out hunting, and fighting, and sword-playing, and doing all of those courageous things. But again it’s just another manifestation of her daughter, and she recognizes that. And she is a woman of her word as well. And Brienne showed courage, strength, commitment, and honor, which is very important to Catelyn as well.

Do fans still ask you about Ned’s death?
Fairley: A lot of people say, “Is he really dead?” When I read the books, I thought, “No he’s not really dead. He’s going to come back.” You know what I mean? You think in some shape or form it’s contrived so that they will get him out of there. But unfortunately, it’s not. I also get asked a lot about my [TV] children, my beautiful boys. [Laughs] And all I say is, “Good genes. Good genes.” You know, or my wonderful, beautiful daughters.

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If you had your own personal sigil, what would it be?
Fairley: I think I’d like to have all of the Lannisters’ heads on spikes. I think that’s what it would be. Starting with Jaime at the top and then [Cersei], and then Tyrion I think. With a big X through them. Blooded, very blooded.

If you were sitting on the Iron Throne, what would your first edict be?
Fairley: I would just make sure that everybody has a lovely place to live, everybody is happy, serene and everybody lives in peace and harmony. If anybody wants to fight, I’m such a coward I would immediately throw them in the dungeons.

Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.

View original Game of Thrones‘ Michelle Fairley: Catelyn Is Hoodwinked by Littlefinger at TVGuide.com

Other Links From TVGuide.com

• Aidan Gillen
• Michelle Fairley
• Gethin Anthony
• Game of Thrones
• Alfie Allen
• Kit Harington
• Richard Madden
• Maisie Williams
• Isaac Hempstead-Wright
• Sophie Turner
• Gwendoline Christie

View the original article on TVGuide.com

Lady Catelyn is just as noble and upstanding as her late husband Ned Stark. And we all know how that ended.

On Sunday’s Game of Thrones, Catelyn continues to be torn between her wartime duties to the King in the North, her son Robb (Richard Madden), and being separated from her four younger children. “Robb is the only one that she has any sort of communication with at this time, and she doesn’t know where the others are,” Michelle Fairley, who plays Catelyn, tells TVGuide.com. “Her whole drive for the second season is to get her family back together and then protect them as much as she can. And if she can get them into the castle, and board it up, and never let them leave again, I think that’s exactly what she would do. I think she’s selfish in that respect. Sometimes when people are selfish they think that they are doing it for the greater good, they are on a singledminded track.”

Game of Thrones‘ Rose Leslie discusses Downton Abbey, Ygritte and her feelings towards Jon Snow

Catelyn has good reason to worry though. Last she heard, sons Bran and Rickon (Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Art Parkinson) were held prisoner at Winterfell and daughter Sansa (Sophie Turner) was held hostage as a political-marriage prospect in King’s Landing. Old family friend Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish (Aidan Gillen) and envoy recently told Catelyn that her youngest daughter Arya (Maisie Williams) was with Sansa, although Game of Thrones viewers know this to be a lie.

“Littlefinger has really deceived her into believing that Arya is also in King’s Landing as well, and this has got her hopes up because she now thinks that they are safe,” Fairley says. “He’s there to hoodwink her. He puts a carrot in front of her and is like, ‘Look, all you have to do is give back Jamie Lannister, and we will give you your daughters back.’”

Check out the rest of the interview in which Fairley explains why Catelyn trusts Littlefinger, her disdain for Jon Snow and her trust in Brienne:

After Littlefinger betrayed Ned, why would Catelyn take his word on anything?
Michelle Fairley: Well, they grew up together. So she’s known him her whole life. So she always thinks of him just as little Petyr, like a brother, not anything else. But he actually has been in love with her his whole life… And when he approaches her with this information, he’s paying her back for all of those years, for rejection. And he suckers her in, but she doesn’t realize it. The depth of that man’s deception will come out eventually.

It doesn’t sound like Catelyn can even imagine that people have all of this time and energy to create such deception.
Fairley: Absolutely. Irrespective of all of the deception that man has already created in her life, she thinks, “This is it. It’s going to be that easy. It’s going to be that simple.” Because ultimately she’s a good person. She’s not a strategist, she’s not a schemer, she’s not a conniver. She still believes him at his word.

What do you think is Catelyn’s biggest strength?
Fairley: Her strength, I think, is her perseverance and her drive and her passion for her family, to get them together. You know she is somebody that evolves as this journey goes on. She’s always had these hidden talents, I think. But they remained hidden because she never really had to use them because she’s always had a husband before. But now she’s mother, father, she’s a lioness, she’s a warrior, she’s a protector. Her son Robb is using her to try to negotiate peace so that the families could come together to fight against the Lannisters.

She’s not all noble though. What are her feelings toward Jon Snow (Kit Harington), Ned Stark’s bastard?
Fairley: Well, she absolutely hates him. It’s terribly sad that a woman as intelligent, and as good, and as gracious, and as high-brow as her, gives in. This is absolutely jealousy and hatred, which comes when she feels complete betrayal from Ned. And it’s displaced. It shouldn’t be taken out on poor little Jon Snow, you know what I mean? That’s one of her failings. But her family adores him. The children adore him. They love him. And he gets on wonderfully with her children, and he’s loyal, and he grew up well.

From The Client List to Game of Thrones: Spring TV eye candy

Catelyn just learned that Theon (Alfie Allen) had taken over Winterfell. How’s she feeling about their former ward now?
Fairley: When Robb actually tells Catelyn the scenario that occurred and she says, “I told you never to trust a Greyjoy,” she is absolutely furious. But she has to be very careful about how she handles it. She knows that Bran and Rickon are there as well. She’s still hoping against hope that he will not hurt them because he has been brought up with the family. Where’s his loyalty? She hopes that surely something that they have taught them has rubbed off on him.

Catelyn also just witnessed Renly’s (Gethin Anthony) mysterious death by shadow. What is going on in her mind right now then? Does she even accept what she saw?
Fairley: She knows there’s a really bad force out there or something evil. She doesn’t yet know where it’s coming from, or who’s responsible for it, but it’s imperative that she achieves her goals as quickly as possible now and get away from this because there is something really rotten in the state of Westeros. In her heart she knows she’s out of her depth in many ways.

She also has a curious relationship with Brienne (Gwendoline Christie). Can you define it?
Fairley: I actually think that she sees a very young Arya in Brienne, a girl who isn’t a girly-girl who wants to get out there and fight. She sees a warrior in there. That’s exactly what her daughter wants to do. She doesn’t want to learn how to sew. She doesn’t want to be married to somebody. She doesn’t want that. She wants to get out there and be with the guys. She wants to be out hunting, and fighting, and sword-playing, and doing all of those courageous things. But again it’s just another manifestation of her daughter, and she recognizes that. And she is a woman of her word as well. And Brienne showed courage, strength, commitment, and honor, which is very important to Catelyn as well.

Do fans still ask you about Ned’s death?
Fairley: A lot of people say, “Is he really dead?” When I read the books, I thought, “No he’s not really dead. He’s going to come back.” You know what I mean? You think in some shape or form it’s contrived so that they will get him out of there. But unfortunately, it’s not. I also get asked a lot about my [TV] children, my beautiful boys. [Laughs] And all I say is, “Good genes. Good genes.” You know, or my wonderful, beautiful daughters.

From Game of Thrones to Spartacus: TV’s unsexiest sex scenes

If you had your own personal sigil, what would it be?
Fairley: I think I’d like to have all of the Lannisters’ heads on spikes. I think that’s what it would be. Starting with Jaime at the top and then [Cersei], and then Tyrion I think. With a big X through them. Blooded, very blooded.

If you were sitting on the Iron Throne, what would your first edict be?
Fairley: I would just make sure that everybody has a lovely place to live, everybody is happy, serene and everybody lives in peace and harmony. If anybody wants to fight, I’m such a coward I would immediately throw them in the dungeons.

Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.

View original Game of Thrones‘ Michelle Fairley: Catelyn Is Hoodwinked by Littlefinger at TVGuide.com

Other Links From TVGuide.com

• Aidan Gillen
• Michelle Fairley
• Gethin Anthony
• Game of Thrones
• Alfie Allen
• Kit Harington
• Richard Madden
• Maisie Williams
• Isaac Hempstead-Wright
• Sophie Turner
• Gwendoline Christie

View the original article on TVGuide.com

spoilers

Treachery! Murder! Dragonnapping! Joffreyslapping!

We only got half of this on The Sopranos. And, surprisingly, the same half in The Lord of the Rings.

Man, this really is a lovely thing to see:

Can we slap Theon next? The rat. Did he learn nothing from Ned Stark? No honor. No decency. No loyalty. Occupying Winterfell? You bastard. I really was hoping that Osha was gonna murder him in his sleep. Why didn’t she do that before sneaking off with Bran and the others? I mean, she had a knife — we saw her use it. Or is she up to no good, gonna keep the Stark boys hostage herself or something? Ooo, or is her plan all to continue what Theon had been doing himself: looking weaker and weaker the more badass he tries to be? It won’t look good for Theon when the Stark kids turn up missing…

Let’s look at this again:

Could only have been better if Tyrion had had a cowpie in his slapping hand.

Okay, so, big question: Did Petyr recognize Arya serving at Tywin Lannister’s table, and if so, did he plant the letter about Robb Stark for her to find and accidently help Petyr commit some treachery of his own with?

Fun fact! Jaime Lannister is dyslexic. I wonder if this will be a thing later. Or perhaps it’s meant to humanize him a little.

Fun fact! Jon Snow cannot kill a woman. This is not a thing of no consequence in a world where women are nearly as perfidious and violent as men…

One more time:

Yes.

(next: “A Man Without Honor”)

“A Man Without Honor” introduced us to a somewhat confusing explanation on the history between the wildlings and… well, everyone else. I touched on it briefly in my review, but it seems like a good subject to go into in more depth. The history goes back eight thousand years (as common lore puts it, though it seems likely that there are maesters who’ll dispute that precise dating), and features Others, the Long Night, the founding of the Night’s Watch, the raising of the Wall, and more. But the main thing to remember at all times: the wildlings and the northmen are basically all First Men by descent. Their different cultures and customs are the result of thousands of years of separation, not simply a matter of the northmen being from some different culture entirely as Ygritte implied in the show.

According to the common histories, some 12,000 years ago the First Men first crossed into Westeros. At the time, they used the land bridge that connected Westeros to Essos, a land bridge that legends say that the children of the forest (Westeros’s first inhabitants, along with the giants) destroyed with magic in a futile attempt to stem the tide, leaving Dorne’s Broken Arm and the chain of islands called the Stepstones. It’s interesting to think that the very oldest evidence of the First Men in the Seven Kingdoms might be found in Dorne rather than in the North, as it would almost certainly have taken centuries for the First Men to expand their way through the continent and into the North.

Some claim that the great barrow at Barrowton belongs to the legendary First King, “who had led the First Men to Westeros,” so one supposes accounts differ. It doesn’t seem impossible that Dorne proved too inhospitable for the greater part of the First Men, and they went north to find more pleasant climes, but surely the stormlands and especially the Reach would have been more to the First King’s liking? That’s the problem with some of the legends and tales: they don’t necessarily make sense when you examine them, much like legends and tales in our own history.

In any case, at some point, the First Men reach the North. And they keep going… north. They spread themselves to the deep woods, to the hills and mountains, to the riverbanks and the shores, to the plains… and even beyond that, even to the regions of tundra and permafrost where the forests disappear. The TV show’s choice of using Iceland — with its stunning vistas — does rather drop the notion that the vast majority live in the great forests, instead making them all rather Inuit-like in their garments and apparent lifestyle. The Fist of the First Men was similarly changed, and is instead a great outcrop of rock and ice and snow as opposed to the steep hill rising out of the surrounding forest.

The Fist was one of the ringforts of the First Men, the earliest defensive fortifications they made, precursors to the castles that we now see dominating the Seven Kingdoms. Why was the Fist fortified? The show suggests, perhaps not implausibly, that First Men tried to use it to defend themselves against the Others. And the show’s probably right that it didn’t work, if that was the the case.

On the other hand, before the Others fought against the First Men… the children did, for many centuries, trying to defend themselves and the tall, strange people with their strange gods who chopped down the carved weirwoods wherever they found them. It wasn’t until the legendary Pact that the First Men and children settled their differences, and in time the First Men — at least those on the continent proper (the Iron Islanders are a different story) — took up the old gods of the children.

Go forward to that legendary 8,000 years ago date. It seems likely that the Battle for the Dawn — the legendary stand against the Others that brought about the end of the Long Night which legend says darkened and froze the world for a generation — took place further south than the lands that are now beyond the Wall. How far south? Well, some speculate that Winterfell’s names commemorates the site where “winter fell” and the Long Night ended (there are, of course, other readings of that name; perhaps none of them are meant, or even all of them). Regardless of what really happened, the Long Night ended… and at some point the Night’s Watch was founded (the stories claim that they were already existence at the Battle for the Dawn, but who knows whether that’s true). And then what happens? It seems someone decides that the Others are such a threat that a huge wall is needed. Not just any huge wall made of ice, mind you, but one that has “more” in it than just ice — magic, in other words, presumably provided by the children of the forest. Legends claim that the Wall was built with the help of the giants as well.

But if you’re building a Wall at the narrowest point in the far North that you can — it makes sense to do so there rather than anywhere else — what happens to all those people north of it? We don’t know why it is that the ancestors of the wildlings chose to stay in the regions that would be first victims of a resurgent attack by the Others. Possibly they believed the threat was done for good. Possibly they supposed it wasn’t, but that if it was beaten once, it could be beaten again. But one possibility sticks in my mind: there was already a rift forming in the First Man culture, between those who prefered the “free”, anarchic like to those who had begun to settle into larger, more organized communities… communities that were led by lords, and even kings. If Brandon the Builder and the Starks were already beginning to dominate much of the North, you could see some who’d prefer not to have to bend the knee to them prefering to live out in the wilds beyond the safety of the Wall.

It also raises the likelihood that in the first decades and centuries after the Long Night, the wildlings simply weren’t all that bothered by the Wall being raised, or by the Night’s Watch. Even if they didn’t want to bend the knee, why wouldn’t they cooperate with them to make sure everything was safe and sound from the Others? But over time… Over time the wildlings stayed in their particular habits, while the rest of the North was becoming more settled, more organized, less anarchic. The First Men under the Kings of Winter may have been hard, ruthless men, but they had tempered it to some degree to cooperate with one another and improve their lots in life. The wildlings hadn’t, and you can just imagine their beginning to covet the wealth of the more settled south, while still not wanting to become “kneelers”.

And so a cycle of violence was born, that has seen the wildlings raiders become so hated that they’re seen as savages that can never be trusted under any circumstances, despite the fact that there’s a shared history when they go back far enough. The wildlings have never bent the knee… but from time to time they’ve elected a war-leader among them, calling them the King-beyond-the-Wall. Mance Rayder is just one of a long line of them: The Horned Lord, the brothers Gendel and Gorne, Joramun and the Horn of Winter, Bael the Bard, and most recently Joramun Redbeard who attacked the realm more than a century ago. The enmity the wildlings and the Watch feel towards one another all lies in the very different ways the First Men north and south of the Wall went, and the violence we see now is the legacy of that choice.