Maester Ruin

sorry for the double post, but i do think Berics reveal was a bit clumsy. they built up his introduction as if he was a character that the audience would recognize and instantly go like "SHIT GOT REAL", when the non book readers has no idea who he is. i was watching it with a friend who was like "wait, am i supposed to recognize this guy? i sure dont remember seeing him before"

Im surprised so few have mentioned this, but i was amazed by how many bones they threw us book fanatics in the sept of baelor scene, in terms of references to the Lore. I never even dreamed of hearing Aerion Brightflames name mentioned on the show! Show Joff really comes off as a closet Targaryen loyalist though :)

The mutiny at Crasters always bugged me since i first read it in the book. Seriously, why would Mormont be so protective of Craster? he is a twisted wildling who starves Mormonts men to death while constantly trying his patience. i dont buy the "We need men like Craster" BS. if they needed his keep they could just set up a garrison from the NW to guard it and feed the pigs.

The thing is, not much happened in the first two episodes of S2 either, but Dinklage and Headey's acting in their dialogue scenes carried those episodes. What 3x01 and 3x02 has really lacked is good dialogue scenes, with the exception of Tyrion and Tywin in EP1, QoT - Sansa and Margaery - Joffery in EP2 they should have cut the Tyrion - Shae scene in episode two and squeezed in a scene with Varys. The way the character is written and played, any scene that includes him is guaranteed to bring a spine-chilling dialogue, and since he basicly knows about most of whats going on in the story, he works as a nice "Narrator" character that ties togheter the different storylines.

even though i have always liked diana rigg, i just couldnt get over the fact that Maggie Smith was not cast for the role. She basicly plays that sort of edler female character in every Movie/TV-series she has done since Gosford Park... but Rigg played the part beautifully, and when you think about it Maggie Smith does have a very strong posh brittish accent wich would probably be hard to hide and out of place since it would deviate from Margaery and Loras accents.

in the show, Roose has been very good at establishing Robbs trust. We almost always see him by Robbs side, giving him loyal advice and he has been seemingly very acceptive of Talisa from the start (in S2 he refers to her as "My Lady" with a sincere tone) and in this episode he called her "my queen".

to aryas defense, the scene kinda put things in perspective and explained why she chose the names that she did, without actually using words to explain it to the audience: Gendry, being Older than Arya, was able to see the bigger picture and see that big picture wise, she could have picked much better people for jaquen to kill, while arya who is much younger acted short-sighted to get out of the trouble she faced at the time (he got us out of harrenhall!). She did plan to Name tywin as third though, but since he was gone she cleverly used her last name to get them out of harrenhall.

i loved how Gendry made fun of Arya for not naming Tywin Lannister and Joffery to Jaqen. that was something many viewers where kinda distracted by, and it was nice of the writers to acknowledge that in the show.

the rumour is that it was too hard to find an actor who could pull of the lisp without spoiling the characters sinister and intimidating nature... its one of those characters that is far easier to write than to play. the lisp easily becomes comical and spoils the tension and tone of despair in his scenes. probably has something to do with the cutting of the brave companions altogheter aswell. You might aswell make up a completley new, but similiar character instead of turning Vargo Hoat into a servant of House Bolton.

I dont think we meet him in the book until Tyrion is brought back on the small council.

we need to get a good scene with Varys in the next episode.

Neither was taking Tyrion against your husband and Littlefingers advice a very smart thing to do. And Tywin had his daughter in the position of queen and a king who was heavily in debt to him, he could do pretty much whatever he wanted and get away with it.

But in the book the Reeds meet up with Bran before he escapes Winterfell. In the Series its completley different, they seem to know that he survived (presumingly through warging) yet they never inform anyone. If you are refering to the ToJ incident, i dont think Howland would want to betray Lyanna/Neds confidence and speak of what happened.

Both LF and Ned told Cat to watch her temper and not do anything until ned could find solid evidence and bring it to robert. Yet the first thing Cat does when she sees Tyrion is to arrest him, wich caused the deaths of thousands of people in the riverlands a the hands of the Lannisters. Catelyn taking Tyrion prisoner did cause the Lannisters invasion of the Riverlands, to "Remind her that lannisters pay their debts" as Tywin puts it.

This episode did contain a few plot holes if you think about it. 1. I interpreteted that the reeds, through Jojens Warging, found out that Bran was alive. How come they didnt send a Raven to robb to inform him? if you are going to walk like hundreds of miles to find him, you might consider making that small effort aswell. 2. What Reason did Jamie have to fight Brienne really? i dont remember if he had a better motivation in the books, but since she is literary just serving as his guard on his way to kings landing, what interest could he possibly have in killing her? she is taking him back to the capitol to reuinite him with his family, why would he want to escape her if you think about it?