Plem

Gave it a 9. The opening scene seemed a little sudden, but Alfie Allen acted the hell out of it. I really hope he gets at least considered for an Emmy this year. Bran's face when Rodrik was killed broke my heart. I was also happy with the way they handled Osha's character. I cheered a little when she helped the Stark kids escape even though I knew it was coming. Ygrittes introduction was done pretty well, even though I'm not sure about the way she acted towards Jon. Wildlings and Crows are supposed to hate each other's guts, but she behaved as if she had never been in the company of a man before - five minutes after he killed her people she was all giggles and cuddly. Wasn't a big fan of Qhorin Halfhand in the books and I don't really like him on the show either. He just comes across as an arrogant know-it-all. In the books I was always a little disappointed with the way GRRM completely disregarded logic by having Arya not "come out" to Roose Bolton (yeah, I know he's a son of a bitch who can't be trusted, but Arya didn't) and not having Jaqen kill Tywin, so I'm really glad they are removing both those problems on the show. She is getting pretty close to Tywin and it makes sense that she feels some sort of bond with him. I didn't really like the Amory Lorch scene though. Seemed quite silly and she could have told him just about anything, he wouldn't have suspected a thing since he can't read. It would have been a great opportunity to show how smart and quick on her feet Arya is. The scenes in King's Landing were really hard to watch, because I felt so sorry for Sansa. I was surprised that they went so far as to show her almost being raped after they chickened out on showing the repeated beatings she took from Joffrey. It was sweet of Tyrion to be so concerned for her, although he was probably more worried about what would happen to Jaime if something happened to Sansa. I kind of feel sorry for Nikolaj Coster-Waldau - he's only been in one episode out of 6 and I'm getting a feeling he won't appear again until the last one of the season. At least it shows that the writers aren't afraid to get rid of certain characters for a significant amount of episodes - makes me wonder how they will handle Theon's/Reek's arc later on.

I gave it an 8. I think they did a very good job of reminding the casual viewers about where the characters are and what they're doing without making it too boring for us die-hard fans. The only major problem I had was the introduction of Mel and Davos. If I hadn't read the books those scenes would have meant absolutely nothing to me. I had my doubts about Carice van Houten, but she did a great job, as did pretty much everyone else. Kit Harington still has the same facial expression for every emotion, but he's pretty much the only actor I have anything bad to say about. Stephen Dillane as Stannis nailed it! I loved how he delivered the line about Robert not being beloved and adding Ser to Jaime's name.

Hey everyone! I've been lurking around here for quite some time now, but today I decided to join in on the fun. I'm from Austria and I've discovered the books after watching Game of Thrones on HBO. My favorite characters are Dany, Tyrion, Sansa, Davos and Jaime, though I enjoy pretty much everyone else too in one way or another.