That's pretty good. I like the mockingbird pin reference. And

What's more impressive than a fur-covered man-bag? An actual wolf.

In that case, why does he get more of a pass than Cersei or Jamie?

For me, it's because what he learned from that whole horrific episode (and I'd question the "willingly participating" bit) is that his father is an evil shitbag, that no-one else in his family will protect him from his father, and that if he wants to be anything but a tool in his fathers hands he'll have to be twice as clever and careful as everybody else in the world. Unfortunately, he's also learned that pretty much everybody else in the world is an evil shitbag of one sort or another.

What Jaime and Cersei have learned from their own horrific episodes is that being an evil shitbag is awesome.

There's no way to continue this conversation without TV spoilers, so I'll just say I disagree. I think Tyrion gets a pass with fans because fantasy readers prefer the unpopular smart kid to the prom queen/football captain. But I don't think you can look honestly at the actions of any of them and say Tyrion is objectively a better or nicer person than his siblings.

So far Tyrion has been okay but I acknowledge bad shit is coming. Like Winter.

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I don't know that Tyrion gets a pass (and you're right, this is tough to talk about without getting into spoilers) but unlike the rest of his family, he spends a good amount of time trying to do the right thing (and mostly getting shit on for it).

Of course, he also does some pretty horrible things as well. Though some of that stems from the afforementioned being shit on (not that it makes it okay).

Yes, the Lannister family are all warped.

You've got to take in to account that Jaime jumped at the chance to get out from under his father by getting inducted into the Kingsguard when he was just 17 -- and like Jon and the Night's Watch, that's a vow for life (and celibacy). But even that couldn't get him away from his family's orbit, what with his father maneuvering to get his sister married to Robert and taking up residence in Kingslanding.

And even when he manned up and did the right thing -- Aerys needed assassinating, the sooner the better -- he's paying for it for the rest of his life. "Kingslayer" is not an affectionate nickname, not in this culture, even if the Lannisters ended up on the winning side. Jaime's moral center has burned out long ago in a massive puff of PTSD and snuffed honor.

As for this episode -- I'm really pleased with how things are off to a good start, and that the pieces are in play on the board in a big way. I think we covered like a quarter of the book, which leaves us to get to the Good Parts sooner.

As someone who has not read the books, I was very confused by the end of the episode. Joffrey commanded that all babies(?) all bastard babies(?) all boys(?) be killed because any of them could be his half brother? Who was the kid at the end with the bull helmet? Had we seen him before?

Yes, he was somebody that Jon Arryn had investigated and Ned followed up on - one of Robert's bastards.

ETA: He was first in episode 4 of season 1.