Marjie Eilie Myatt

So.....the first part of your post is funny. Touche' --who can't take a little ribbing? But the complaints aren't always about "playing spot the difference" 'twixt book and TV show. I think (but could be wrong) that non-book readers are wondering why the Halfhand is so mad at Jon for not killing Ygritte and going AWOL to the point of being captured, that he wants to literally pick a fight with him here & now and kill him as a traitor. Because I'm wondering it myself. I kept thinking he was going to whisper to Jon about infiltrating the wildlings. (Did I miss this? I have to watch clips on YouTube this year.) And, I'm sorry, but the Other looked like something out of the Jim Henson workshop. Why didn't it kill Sam, exactly? Is Sam toting around the bundle of dragonglass like some kind of Others kryptonite? (not that non-bookies would understand its significance yet, so that can't be it.... I guess he's too insignificant a threat to them, though that never stopped them from killing children.) Am I wrong? Did it not notice Sam behind the rock? Didn't mind how the Shae & Tyrion relationship has shaped up; can't believe they wasted more time on Ros in this episode (WTF?) being enlisted by Varys --c'mon, wasted scene, people! It seems we will never be free of this invented persona, while other characters have been merged, eliminated, name-changed, etc. Maybe she ends up being the one to betray Tyrion later (?). And thank goodness he gets to keep his nose. Not even Rorge was missing a nose during his brief screen time. I don't see the point of saving Ser Dontos earlier in the season because if he shows up in S3 non-book readers will, say, "Wait, tell me who that is again?" Liked that little touch with Theon being driven to total exasperation by that damn horn (though the horn sounded so fake). But did I miss something between Theon being knocked unconscious and the burnt ruin? Aren't non-bookies wondering what exactly happened to the ironborn and which parties did the burning? (I know what a cliffhanger is, but this one seemed a bit of a gap.) Certainly don't mind that Bran is being wheeled off in a cart instead of expecting poor Hodor to carry him on his back the whole damn way. . . . Don't mind that Luwin dies at the weirwood and Osha finishes him off actually. Not in the book is it? I'm just not going to say, "Oh, I'm so grateful they're making this series at all that therefore every episode is the best they could do for television. 10 out of 10, perfect score."

Ros is the whore in Pycelle's chamber in Season 1 Episode 10. I just watched that episode tonight by coincidence. Somebody's got to do the requisite HBO sex scenes, I suppose.

Time constraints? I could have used less Cersei monologue. I thought she would never shut up. They'll probably submit that episode for her Emmy. blecch.

One person's "nitpick" over "trivia" is another person's criticism about cliched writing or internal inconsistencies with the changes that were made if you're going to make them. . . . That being said, liked Yara better in this episdoe. She's looking like her father rather than the character in the book's description. It works on TV. Liked her dialogue, including her very brief moment of sentimentality, couched, as it was, in a tale of a colicky baby she wanted to strangle. But before that she was pretty clear why even she would wash her hands of him. LOL moments with Tyrion and Varys, Tyrion and Bronn, and the three of them together. Thank goodness it didn't get campy or sitcom-y. Liked Stannis' monologue. I generally like the Stannis character and his motivation (he has the better claim), except for killing his own brother.

He could wrap it up in 2 books (depending how far you want the story to go before you consider it 'ended'), by forgoing some of the rich description, since by now the world is already "built" for its audience. By the fifth book, I was saying, "Enough of the 'aimless glance' already!" (See Umberto Eco's critique of minutiae that don't advance the plot and what purpose they serve, such as setting us up for implausible or violent action.) I realize this is now a tangent not directly related to Episode 7.

You know what, I thought she was going to reject him horribly on the episode, like in the book, and when she didn't--they merely had an awkward moment--I thought, where am I remembering that from? Did they do it already in Season 1 ? Is it in one of the books? Is it earlier? Later? When Tyrion was so hesitant, I thought, yeah, because you know what happened last time. But on TV that has not happened (?). And I hate when people turn on you like that, but it's parallel to Joff turning on Sansa when she witnessed his shame and injury, isn't it? It's like you think they're going to have a tender moment and then Snap!

I don't mind the humanizing of Cersei through conversations, or the humanizing of Jaime in his conversations with "Alton," nor even the humanizing of Tywin with Arya. TV viewers don't get the benefit of internal monologues and backstory and so forth, and I think that absolute villains don't work well on the screen; it's like producers think we're dumb. Nevertheless, I'm perplexed by some choices--whether one has read the books or not, and I admit that I have--as others have complained, Jaime kills his cousin and adds kinslayer to his repertoire, kills the Karstark here instead of on the field of battle where it's legitimate, Catelyn knows the senior Karstark wants his revenge and she promises him he'll have it, she knows Robb is coming back tomorrow, and she doesn't know Bran and Rickon are "dead." But she frees Jaime Lannister? It makes her seem like a crazy woman. She's not role-modeling her gender very well at this point. I mean, where does she get off? And for Cersei to open up to Tyrion in particular; she doesn't seem to hate him for everything he is, as she did in the books. Not a problem if you haven't read the books--unless the producers still intend to send Mandon Moore after him, and all the other horrible stuff Cersei does and says to Tyrion in the future. I don't mind that she's not a one-dimensional villainess, but I don't know if the relationship with Tyrion is the place to establish that. Although all this conversation with Sansa and others about loving your children so fiercely sort of sets up her total grief and outrage that makes her fixate on Tyrion as the assassin later. At least she has started drinking visibly, and we can attribute her lack of inhibition to that. And I'm sorry, but with all that padding there's no way Ygritte felt any boners! :closedeyes:

Okay, we won't call them Vikings, since that is etymologically suspect. But why can't we call them Norsemen or Old Norse? There's more to the vikingr than Danes.....

Well, at least they got rid of Lancel's laughable pageboy haircut....