[Re-Watch Project 7/30] Season 1 - Episode 5

I'm completely ok with it being the other way around in the books as you said. The fact that Aegon was far more well prepared and landed first in Westeros definitely supports your take on it that he was the main player they were hoping for and Viserys/Daenerys were the backup plan. I still think that likely has everything to do with Illyrio realizing (and thus Varys) early on - well before the Khal Drogo marriage, that Viserys was going to make a useless king to promote taking back Westeros... he was his father's son through and through at a much younger age than his Father started doing terrible things. 

As for the inconsistencies on the show, I'm still not sure yet what that's all about. It may be entirely possible Varys organized the assassination attempts as fakes but that seems a bit tinfoil-y too so I don't know. As you said, they may not have made all their plot decisions until after they started Season 1. Maybe they were trying to get final end-game answers out of George before deciding if Aegon should be included in the show. 

I don't think D and D ever intended to include fAegon. But there may still have been some retconning going on surrounding Varys's motives. The closest we have to a definitive answer at this point is what Tyrion said to Dany in 508, that he suspects all the attempts on her and her brother's lives as they were growing up and moving from city to city around Essos, were deliberately incompetent. So basically Varys was assigned by Robert with various attempts on their lives and he botched them deliberately again and again. He wanted them to live but he wasn't going to argue against Robert or anything, so he took the middle route. Which I think is probably true to some extent in the books too. That wineseller plot seemed needlessly elaborate, even with no weapons being allowed in Vaes Dothrak. So it stands to reason imo that it was never meant to succeed.

Well, Varys could have sent a message to Jorah warning him that Robert had hired assassins to kill Dany at Vaes Dothrak. This would have had Jorah on high alert. He would have been expecting an attempt on Dany's life at any moment and would have been suspicious of any stranger trying to ingratiate themselves with Dany. I think it's quite possible that Varys both sent the assassin and warned Jorah the assassin was coming.

Meant to multi-quote earlier and forgot! Your reminder of what Tyrion says later is definitely a good clue too about how Varys may have purposely tried to keep the assassinations from working. It's also possible he wasn't entirely sure about Daenerys yet back then. Would she end up being her Father but with dragons? Bad idea. They already knew Viserys was a lose, so after Drogo crowns him, they have keep an eye on Dany.

This early in the show we don't really know much more than Robert is obsessed with having her killed and Ned refuses to go along with it.

The scene where he finally goes off on Robert and says: "Then we're no better than the mad king" when Robert yells it's fear and blood that keeps the seven kingdoms in line is brilliant and so true. Robert hates being king, he only liked the challenge of fighting a war to become the king. There's some telling warning here for all future kings in the story as well. Becoming king and being king are two entirely different things. In the case of Daenerys, being a conqueror doesn't make her a great ruler and that's the criticism her character often gets when I read arguments about it. Varys knows this and so did everyone in that small council who spoke out in favor of having Daenerys assassinated. Her coming to Westeros with a Dothraki army and three dragons (not yet known or born at this point though) would be a devastating massacre and still could be, we just don't know what direction it's going to go until she gets there! I do strongly believe Dany has the right team backing her up to keep her conqueror ancestry in line and she actually trusts and listens to Tyrion so I think she's going to be ok.

Well that's probably a small point to argue over in a way. Avenging Ned's Father and brother being burned alive by Aerys in court was also just as much a part of Robert's motivation to start the war too. He hated all the Targaryens for what they'd done to those he loved. Also, if I'm not mistaken, didn't Aerys order the heads of Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon both in his craziness and Jon Arryn refused the order and raised his banners? One could argue it was Jon Arryn who went to war with Aerys to defend Ned/Robert and Robert's desire to smash Rhaegar because of Lyanna. I think the becoming king part was an afterthought to Robert for sure.

Another solid episode, I loved the Jaime/Ned fight, although IIRC, he and Ned didn't fight in the books, Jaime just had his men killed.

I finally got around to watching this. Solid episode. I forgot this was the one with Theon's dick.

Bran and Maester Luwin going over the houses was my favorite scene. Followed by Arya mouthing off to the guards, and Varys and Littlefinger's amusing pissing match.

God, I hated Jaime so much back then.