Asharak

To those who think it’s completely acceptable to cut out the battles: The book series is leading up to a war with "The Others", book 6 and 7 will probably have a lot of that. Would it be okay if we never got to see any battle scenes with them, would it truly feel satisfying after 5+ seasons of build up? Same with the wildlings attacking the wall in book 3, which is the culmination of Jon’s storyline in book 2 and 3, do you think its good storytelling to not show it? I have/will read the books so I know the story in detail, but would people who haven’t read them consider the TV series a complete product in itself if it never shows any battles/big fights?

I gave it a 10, best episode so far. Its just baffling how much happened in this episode, felt like I had watched 2 episodes in a row. I was extremely pleased by the Robb scenes, from being a secondary character he suddenly felt like the main character (at least in this episode). Both confrontations with the Greatjon were great, and Robb tricking the spy was a wonderful addition. Before this episode I was afraid the character would get shortchanged, but they really fired on all cylinders for him in this episode. I hate Lysa, nuff said. Syrio vs. the Lannisters was great, the slaughter of the Stark household had me in tears for 5 minutes. I was especially happy with the Jon vs. Wight scene, probably my favorite moment in the book. Jon trying to kill Thorne was a great character moment.

I gave the episode an 8. It would have been a 10 if the sex scene hadn’t been there. I feel embarrassed on the producers behalf, it just felt childish and amateurish. It downgrades the material when they show a graphic 5 minute soft-core sex scene, in a show that is usually pretty grown up. It doesn’t make the show feel more adult, It makes it feel like it was made for 13 year olds.

Impressive. Jon has always been my favorite character, but as others have said elsewhere he has always been a little bit too much your regular fantasy main male hero type. From what we heard in AFFC and so far in the preview chapters it seems ADWD will be the book were Jon finally becomes the type of character ASOIAF is famous for. Every single moment we have seen of Jon so far as lord Commander has been great. Making Gilli feel the fire gave me goose bumps. As others have said beheading would probably have made it seem to the others like Jon did it just for his own satisfaction, and that would have been really dangerous in the future. Killing Janos will probably help keep other potencial opponents in line. He is turning into probably the first Stark ever liked by Stannis.