The first bombshell of season four has dropped!  Two episodes in, and the game has been changed entirely.  Major character deaths have become a staple of this series but as usual, I don’t think anyone (except for those who read the books) saw this one coming.

One thing that I find incredible about this story arc that makes it stand out far more than any other show, is that it kills characters that you always think are way too important to get rid of.  Just like Ned Stark, I thought Joffrey would die, but never quite like this, and certainly not this soon.  It makes a lot more sense why they didn’t have the royal wedding last season.  I can’t believe that the little ball of terrible that was Joffrey is now gone forever.  Never again will we see his terrible face, hear his horrible voice, or have to bear witness to his monstrous acts.  Joffrey Baratheon is gone and so is his incredibly hard to watch reign over the seven kingdoms.

It’s pretty apparent why the blame immediately fell on Tyrion.  The way Joffrey was treating his uncle just moments before his death was enough humility to provoke anyone, but Tyrion is way to clever for that.  I think that logically you have to look at who has the most to gain.  I can’t think of anyone who benefits more from his death than Cersei.  At the same time, Cersei did love her son and did seem legitimately upset, as she should be over Joffrey’s death.  Her title of former queen was extremely brief, and she clearly loathed that title anyway.  She even referred to herself as the queen as she threatened Grand Meister Pycell.  With Joffrey dead, his title will pass to his brother Tommen and Cersei will once again be the Queen Regent.

There is also Sansa Stark.  After all she would have every reason to want to kill Joffrey and it was her who handed Tyrion the cup just before he poured the last wine Joffrey would ever drink.  Then we saw her escaping with Ser Dontos, but she clearly did not know what was going on.  Ser Dontos taking her was a complete surprise to her which would make me believe that so was Joffrey’s death.  Then there was also Olenna Tyrell who was in the background at just the right moment when Joffrey took is fateful sips.  Maybe it was just me, but I swear I saw her take something from Sansa’s necklace when she spoke with her.  When they showed the necklace a few shots later however, it didn’t appear to be any different so who knows, I probably imagined it.

It’s hard to think about everything that took place before Joffrey’s wedding, but we did get to see what has become of Theon.  He is Ramsay Snow’s little pet, Reek, and Roose Bolton is not happy about it.  Tyrion was a vital hostage, now he is worthless.  It seems that Theon’s only hope is his sister, who we have yet to see this season.  Ramsay is ruthless and we were immediately reminded of his cruel nature in the hunting scene.

Bran being able to interact with trees of the old gods was amazing.  It was hard to understand everything he was seeing, and I was hoping there would be a little bit of an explanation.  It seemed as though someone was leaving him messages through these trees, but who and how?

Joffrey’s death is something that will effect just about every character in the Game of Thrones universe, and I still can’t believe it happened in the second episode no  less.  What really worries me is what will become of Tyrion now.  There are countless witnesses who can easily say that he poured and served Joffrey his last drink, and it isn’t as though they have forensic science to prove his innocence.  The worst part is that we all know by now, no character is safe and Tyrion’s future suddenly doesn’t look too bright.