I feel you for the death of Oberyn. Time and again I rewatch the fight, and I have to stop before the end. Dunno, maybe we thought that the Red Wedding prepared us for anything, and seeing how that wasn't true, hit harder.
Anyway, I gave in and I joined on the rewatch bandwagon.
Some observations about season 1:
- As everyone said, it's basically a new show knowing everyone and who's who.
- Arya was adorable and cute! and yet, when she was relentlessly stabbing the table in frustration, she said "I'm training for when I'll stab Joffrey" (after the direwolves incident). Maybe she didn't really, really mean it, but still... it showed that some kind of darkness, a violent darkness, was always in her, waiting to come out.
- Gods Sansa was dumb. But she was a naive teenager after all.
- Ned and Cat... a beautiful couple but maybe too stubborn for their own good? Cat seizing Tyrion blindly believing Littlefinger's story was not her smartest move, and Ned was so righteous with Jaimie.
- Speaking of Jaimie... dunno, maybe I'm biased by his character growth, but he didn't really seem this much of an asshole. Ok, he showed Bran down the tower, and that's a big no no, but when he was talking about the Mad King, with Ned and with King Robert, he was sincere. His story, the one he told to Brienne, was always there for anyone who'd have cared to look past the smug facade. He even correctly pointed out that Theon Greyjoy was an asshole.
- The whole "Kill Daenerys" thing... was Robert SO wrong about it? I mean, let's forget that she's a pivotal character, solely from Robert's perspective, was it so cruel to kill a young girl and prevent from the beginning a possible invasion with a Dothraki army, which is exactly what happened in later seasons? let's imagine that for whatever reason Robert keeps the throne, eventually Dany has her own journey and does what actually happens in the end, comes to Westeros with a bigass army. Was Robert so nedlessly cruel and wrong in wanting to off her right then at the beginning?
- I couldn't even remember poor, sweet, naive and scared Dany. And naked Dany of course
she really learnt quickly however, "He was no dragon, fire cannot kill a dragon" was the first of many badass lines to come from her.
- Viserys was the wimpy and whiny wannabe I remembered him to be.
- Cersei as well was and still is the goddamn cruel bitch I remembered her to be