Arrogant Bastard

I think they're going to take Reek's story from ADWD and move it into next season, or at least part of his story from ADWD. Same goes for Asha. Obviously it will require some changes from the story, but it makes sense to me; they can't possibly have another entire season where Theon does nothing but get tortured. With this, both he, Ramsay, and Roose will have something to do next season, most of it involving rooting out the Ironborn out of the North. THey may even establish some Northern houses like the Manderlys.

I give it an 8. I liked most of it, though it was pretty slow moving for a season finale, though like the season one finale a lot of this was set up for the next season. Still, it was miles better than last season's godawful finale, and almost on par with season one. It was missing a big moment, and I think this is due to splitting ASOS in two; unless they ended the season with the Red Wedding, it would be tough to pick a good point to wrap everything up. Liked --Bolton and Frey. Liked this conversation and both actors, especially Roose. Not sure if Walder will ever show up again. --Tyrion and Tywin. Good scene with mostly lines from the book. --Bran. I'm not a huge fan of Bran's storylines, even in the book, but I like that he was given a pretty good amount of screen time here. Liked that they included the Rat Cook story. --Davos and Gendry. Cunningham is perfect as Davos, and I enjoyed his interactions with Gendry. This storyline went much better than I thought it would when I first heard Gendry would be going to Dragonstone. Did not care for --Stannis. Don't really care for how they're dealing with him. In teh books he's much more conflicted regarding Edric, even threatening Melisandre over it. Here, he's just a prick; I don't think the writers understand Stannis. --Dany's last scene. Seemed corny, and a not a great way to end the season. Overall, solid episode and a solid season. Season 3 is close to as good as season one, and definitely better than last season. It didn't have an episode that topped Blackwater, but a few came close, and there wasn't a terrible episode all season long, whereas season 2 had at least three absolute stinkers. Still, one thing I'm not sure of, is why they got Ciaran Hinds as Mance Rayder and barely used him. He only appeared in I think 3 or 4 episodes this season, and barely had any lines. Mance doesn't appear that much in ASOS either, but he his interactions with Jon in the book were much longer. I thought the short meeting between Jon and Mance in the opener meant they were going to stretch out the longer book meeting over several epiosdes, but this never happened. Just felt kinda weird how much they underutilized a good actor in Hinds, especially for Mance, a character that was consistently mentioned by name in the previous two seasons.

I also agree. I think having Lady Stoneheart show up already is too soon. First, it kind of detracts from the Red Wedding, in that after only one episode we would already find out that Catelyn has been brought back. That reveal needs more time, as the impact of the Red Wedding is still being felt. Second, if they did reveal it, what exactly are they going ot have Catelyn do next season? There's really nothing.

Probably not. The main point, I believe, of that attack happening was for Arstan to rescue Dany and then be outed as Barristan. That's already happened in the show.

Having no Theon certainly helped; hope he's done for the season though I highly doubt it. In the books, were the leeches using Stannis' blood or Edric's? I thought it was Edric but I really don't recall.

I give it a very solid nine. Certainly the best episode since episode 3-5, and possibly even better than those two. Really liked the narrow focus of this episode; I believe if you don't count the opening scene with Arya and the closing one with Sam, the rest of the episode was split between Essos, Dragonstone, and King's Landing. What I liked Stannis: Thought he was developed well this episode, and I liked his interactions with Davos. At first I thought he was being set up as a villain again, with his more certain view that Gendry needed to be sacrificed, until Davos revealed that if Stannis felt this way he wouldn't be freeing him. Slight nitpick in that Stannis says Robb's name first instead of last when throwing the leeches on the fire. Yunkai: All done well, and surprisingly I wasn't annoyed by Daario. Tyrion's Wedding: Different than the book, but I really liked how they spent a large amount of time on the wedding and the various interactions. It did not feel rushed at all. Sansa's kneeling makes sense to me from a creative standpoint; without her inner monologue, she would not come off well at all to the audience. Only thing that felt kind of rushed was Arya's scene with the Hound, which I felt would have worked better had they had a previous scene together other than the capture.

So last week's was only slightly better but this was also the worst of the season by far?

I would prefer Alfie Allen showing up in season five, even if it literally meant him saying "Hey y'all, here are all my memories. They're all torture" than watching him being tortured every episode for two whole seasons. These scenes are pointless, repetitive, and a waste of time. I don't think it's only book readers that hate these scenes as well. Every review of the show I've read from non book readers, such as Sepinwall, also find these scenes pointless.

Solid episode, about on par with last weeks and the premiere. Still not as good as episode 3, 4, or 5. Liked --Jaime and Brienne. Pretty good scene of Jaime departing, and I thoght they did an excellent job with the bear scene. I also like Locke more than Vargo; he's certainly more sinister and nasty, whereas Vargo just came off as a buffoon in the novels. --Jaime and Qyburn. Good dialog there, though I do wish they had kept Jaime's dream, which for some reason the show is dead set against showing. --Jon Snow. Finally Jon has some interesting material, and I do think he works well with Ygritte. I thought Jon had one of the better storylines in season one, and then one of the worst in season two. He was getting short shrift this season, but finally the past two episodes he's had something interesting to do. Also nice to see funny Tormund for once. Meh --Osha's story. Not bad, but not particualry good or interesting either. --Sansa and Margaery--same as above Can it please be over already? --Theon. In the past I kept thinking they had to work Theon into this season, as it wouldn't work having Alfie Allen absent for possibly two whole seasons. Audience would forget about him, he could get work in another series etc. But enough is enough, these Theon torture scenes are beyond tiresome at this point. There's a good reason why George didn't give Theon a POV chapter in ASOS; because there's nothing interesting about an arc that only involves one character being tortured over and over. Also, I'm not sure why they haven't revealed who Ramsay is yet. It's not like it's a big twist or anything; he's the bastard of a so far pretty minor character--big whoop.

I give it about a 7.5, but will round up to an 8. Certainly not the best of the season by a long shot; I'd put it on par with the season premiere, and definitely better than episode 2. Liked --Queen of Thorns and Tywin. Good little scene, and I laughed at the sword swallower line --Melisandre and the Brotherhood--contrived yes, but I thought the interactions worked. I didn't particulary like to see the BwB handover Gendry like that, but I think it happened that way to . --Jon Snow--first time he got a considerable amount of screen time, and it worked. Liked the ending long shot and his chemistry with Ygritte. Meh --Jaime, Brienne and Bolton. I was really looking forward to this scene, and it just sort of fell flat. Not bad, but cut really short. I imagine they're --Theon. Not bad, but scene ran too long and until it's revealed who this torturer is, just seems to be going nowhere.

I enjoyed it. Very much in character for Roose, who is definitely cruel in the way he strings people along

I give it a very solid 9. --Great ending, captured the scene from the book as well as could be done, though just like the book, I imagine a lot of people saw this moment coming a mile away --Liked the Jaime Brienne stuff; toned down from the book, but still effective --Enjoyed the Varys story, though I wish Tyrion showed a little sympathy to Varys as he does in the books. Great acting by Conleth Hill, though I do agree the segway into that scene didn't feel right --Great added scene between Tywin and Cersei. Loved how it mirrored his talk with Tyrion, and shows that Tywin also treats her pretty shitty as well --Good introduction of Beric, though I feel this might have been better suited to have the duel in the same episode; this bit might have been better next episode Only things I really didn't care for was the continuation of Pod the sex god, even with just Varys speculating about it--I doubt he would give two shits about Podrick. Just pretty lame.

Speaking of which, do you think the show will revisit this? To my knowledge it hasn't been mentioned since season 1, and it would be difficult to explain how Tyrion and Jaime come to the conclusion that it was Joffrey. Of course, they may have a scene of Joffrey explaining it t someone, possibly Ros.

I tend to agree. I didn't think any of the scenes were garbage, but I think they could be spending the time better. That scene wasn't bad, but wasn't necessary either. I'm not really sure what hte point of it was to be honest. I don't really like that we're getting more Margaery and Joffrey this season so far than Arya. That Tyrion scene also was kinda pointless. Frankly, Shae is annoying, and they just seemed to throw that scene in so we know that Tyrion is still around.

I give it a 6; not bad, but not particularly good either. Too many storylines not given enough time all crammed into one episode with not really much happening. I liked the Queen of Throns, liked Thoros (who I think they're merging with Tom), liked Jaime and Brienne's interactions, and liked the introduction of the Reeds. Still, not all that much actually transpired other than Arya being outed by the Hound and Jaime and Brienne fighting. Still, nothing stood out as being bad either, so 6 is appropriate. Hope the next episode is better.

Haha, you're not the only one. Season 2 actually does have some great individual scenes and one great individual episode--Blackwater of course, though episode 3 is mostly good as well--but everything else is very inconsistent. Really good scenes are followed by just outright bad ones, and vice versa. I'm trying to forget most of the stuff I hated in seaosn 2 for this season, which is pretty much all of Qarth and almost all of Jon's storyline. They're definitely doing better so far at least.

Overall, I wasn't a big fan of this episode and preferred the premiere. It had it's moments, but way, way too jumpy with not really all that much happening in any of the storylines, except maybe Jaime's. Overall, I counted nine storylines this episode, and I really wasn't feeling the pacing; felt like three minutes were spent with a character, then cut to another three minutes, then cut, and so forth. WHy not just have Arya's scenes with the Brotherhood back to back? Also, while I didn't dislike any of the new scenes this episode, they also didn't really do much for me. I don't really see hte point of that Margaery Joffrey scene, which was probably the longest scene in teh episode. I think the time could have been better utilized on Jon Snow--who really does nothing this episode--or even providing a longer intro for the Brotherhood without Banners.

Hmmm, I thought episodes 4 and 6 were two of the weakest in season 2. She did a great job with the Rodrik death scene and the birthing of the shadow baby, but the rest of those episodes were really uneven. Episode 4 has that absolutely awful scene of Dany at the gates of Qarth and Xaro invoking the rite of Sumak or whatever the fuck that was, and episode six had some pretty lame Harrenhal action with Arya running around and also Dany's horribly written speech to the Spice King. At least they had the sense to cut the Doreah strangling Irri scene from episode six; I just watched that deleted scene on youtube and had it been kept it would have been by far the worst scene in all of Game of Thrones.

I'd give it about an 8.5, which I rounded up to 9 since I'm glad the show is back and just because it was so much better than the season 2 finale, which I'd probably give a 3. I've seen a lot of critics complain about the jumbled nature of the show, but I thought this episode did a good job of not constantly shifting; or at least, I never got annoyed by it moving to other storylines. I think the slower pace also helped; this didn't feel nearly as rushed as the season two premiere, where Stannis' letter about Cersei's incest arrives the same episode it's sent (which occurs almost midway in book 2 form what I remember).

Well, they could have added some Northern forces for Arya to try and free, and used that time to spare us any more Robb Talisa scenes. Yeah, the whole Roose takeover was confusing in the books and would have been very difficult on the show, but they could have come up with something.

Why is Cat having the upper hand in the morality debate a problem for the show? I'm still not sure why they changed it; makes more sense for Catelyn to free Jaime and Robb to sleep with Jeyne (Talisa) after they found out Bran and Rickon died. The timeline matched up too, if they just waited an extra episode. It's not like they needed to move up Jaime's escape.

Disagree about Robb and Talisa. The show version to me makes him seem like an even bigger selfish idiot. At least in teh books he was wounded and had just learned about Bran adn Rickon, so it made sense that he succumbed to temptation. Here, he admits he doesn't want to marry a Frey and then just sleeps with her after she tells a long story about her drowning brother.

Check out The Thick of It on youtube. Veep is pretty good, but this British show by the same creator is miles better. Yeah, if htey do fake Arya it will have to be someone different. It was never mentioned that any girl went to King's Landing with the Starks, so it will have to just be some random girl that is around the same age as Arya. Could be somewhat problematic if Theon recognizing her is important, but it didnt' seem to be in ADWD adn they can write it around it pretty easily.

Well, I think the people that missed the weasel soup sequence would be happy if it happened and wasn't named weasel soup. Maybe it doesn't have long term signfificance, but if that's your view of what they should adapt, then they might as well skip all of Arya's scenes, since they don't impact the long term storyline at all. Plus, it's not just the big moments that are important. That's where I feel like this season is failing. They're mainly just capturing the big moments and losing out on a lot of great little stuff and characterization. Weasel soup was one of my favorite parts in ACOK, especially Jaqen wiping the blood on Arya, so yeah, I feel like griping when it's taken out, especially when the new scenes that took the time away weren't very good.

Did she escape already? I wasn't clear on that, if they had only just gotten past one of the gates. If that's really the end of her stay in Harrenhal, that's really lame. Having her slit the guard's throat and not care at all is the best ending for her arc for the season. Plus, she has to meet up with Jaqen again; him knowing her real name and giving her the coin is very important.