Dormund of Ruddy Hall

This is a confusing season. So many cheap cliches, clumsy writing, heavy-handed foreshadowing, etc, but then there have been moments of greatness here and there all season. In this episode, the great moments vastly outweighed the bad. In fact, there weren't really any bad moments at all. Not only has this been an episode that stands above the rest this season, but I would place it in my top five, maybe even top three episodes of the entire series across all seasons. Bravo, Game of Thrones. It was nice to be back in the world of ASOIAF watching you again. Please keep it up!

All I have to say about the episode is this: please, George, we need Winds of Winter. I want to enjoy A Song of Ice and Fire again, not cringe every time I watch the world you painstakingly created portrayed with such little justice or fidelity. I'm not one of the regulars over in the rant and rave threads, either. I used to really love this show. This season has been weak, though, and this episode was a turning point for me and for my unsullied wife. She is beginning to see that something is off this season, and with this episode it's now wildly off the rails. I hope they are able to come back, but without the books to guide them, I fear the HBO show won't be able to pull this story off in a remotely coherent or satisfying way. They've turned ASOIAF into Starz' Camelot, but with rape, one dimensional interchangeable female characters, more tropes, gay stereotypes, clumsy and slow plot development, and heavy-handed foreshadowing. Please, George, write! (Voted 1 for the first time)

The scene with Oberyn was pure magic, the scene with Jaime was serviceable, the scene with Bronn was wonderfully adapted from the book to be in line with the more likeable Bronn of the TV show, and the scene at the Vale checked all the boxes, and the snow castle scene looked as beautiful as I imagined it. A bit more lingering in that moment wouldn't have hurt, but I thought it was fine. The only slight nitpick was the youthfulness of the new Mountain. They should have used more makeup and perhaps a wig to make him look older and more monstrous. But that is a nitpick. Great episode. Show Oberyn is younger than book Oberyn, too, but the actor is so good that I don't remotely care.

I voted 9. Tyrion's speech was fantastic.

Check it out again. First you clearly see QoT take the jewel: http://500px.com/photo/66996631?from=user Then you can clearly see the last jewel missing. See the jewel on the far right? http://500px.com/photo/66996633?from=user

Loved the episode. My only nitpicks regard the dramatization of Queenscrown. The problem with adapting any beloved literature to screen is that everyone has a different imagination and therefore no adaptation will play exactly the same on screen as it does in every reader's mind. The duty ot the viewer is to trust the adaptation as the way that the story played out in the mind of the screenwriter, and as the result of inevitable compromises related to the director's vision, the cinematographer's camera, the actors' portrayals, and the limits imposed on the whole affair by budgets, weather, and the like. I really appreciate what the whole production is doing with the story and understand that their vision is different than mine. That said, my nitpick about Queenscrown is that I wish the tower had been bigger and had been located in a lake with a submerged causeway leading to it. The tower used in the episode looked a lot like the windmill the wildlings encountered earlier in the season. I pictured something like these watchtowers near the cliffs of Mohr in Ireland, but on a small island in a small lake. http://4.bp.blogspot...iffs.Castle.jpg Clouds overhead. The whole scene could have been moodier and more tense than it was. Again, just a nitpick. Location scouts aren't omnipotent (perhaps such a location just wasn't available), and overall they've done spendidly. This was the best episode of television I think I've ever seen.