(Book Spoilers) Positive Nitpicking thread...

[Seneti]

I'm just gonna put my positive nitpickings in chronological order since I was taking notes throughout the episode:

- Margaerys stabs at Cersei - ouch, burn!
- So good to see that Pod is still loyal to Tyrion ("he hates that nickname").
- Gwendolyne Christie is amazing.
- Arya finally gets a new outfit - woohoo! Good riddance to that flee-ridden vest.
- *lol* at Arya ditching the coin ... again.
- So happy to see that they kept her moment with Needle.
- Excellent acting from everyone in the scene where Sansa arrives at Winterfell.
- "The North remembers." Make it happen, Sansa. Take back Winterfell!
- The acting between Aliser and Janos when Aliser stops protecting him is priceless. Aliser in general is one of those few characters that really outshine their book counterpart on the show. Good job, D&D.
- Wow ... that brothel scene with the High Septon ... this is so wrong on so many levels ... That scene was disturbing, but it was meant to be disturbing, so that's a very good thing.
- Jonathan Pryce is perfectly cast. I loved the High Sparrow in the books. I have no doubt that he'll be excellent on the show.
- Franken-Gregor scared the shit out of me.
- Ramsay: "I'll never hurt her." Yeah... right ... *shudder*
- Varys + Tyrion are glorious together.
- Volantis looks gorgeous (and that bridge reminds me of the one in The Perfume)
- Nice nod to book readers with the mention of the tattoos and the Stone Men. I still hope for that bridge to be in.
- Jorah's pain at seeing the Dany-copy whore - show, don't tell at its best.

[Janicia]

I really liked the Brienne and Pod backstory, and nice to get a little more fleshing out of Renly and Tywin. It was nice they included the “Brienne the Beauty” mockery and gave Renly a little hero moment; and interesting that Tywin did the same thing for Pod as he had done for Arya.

Sansa’s return to Winterfell was moving in a bunch of ways, from her struggle to contain herself during the greeting, to Theon’s shame and horror, to “the North Remembers”.

I liked the Margery / Cersei / Tommen power struggle. Fun to see Margery with something to do. And neat to see her gaggle of ladies.

I liked that Jon made a point of showing Thorne that he wasn’t going to torment him. That showed that Jon has some grasp of political nuance.

I didn’t like the Qyburn stuff in the books, but the show has muted it down enough, and the actor is great, and it works for me.

I think the show has done a good job of showing Stannis struggling to move to phase 2 of his comeback.

I really liked how real Volantis felt, and it was interesting to get to see Dany’s celebrity among far-away smallfolk/slaves. GRRM plays with that kind of thing a lot in the books.

I enjoyed Pycelle’s protest as well.

I thought it was a great episode. No huge moments, but a lot of little ones done nicely.

[RedShirt47]

Loved the smug love on Cersei's face as she thinks she's attached puppet strings to this gentle old man.

Arya holding Needle and realising she can't throw it away was very touching.

[Jamie Lannister]

I like that new red priestess. Hoping she gets a few more scenes.

I've more or less accepted that this is Dave & Dan's fanfiction hour at this point, so things like Sansa and Ramsay's marriage intrigues me more than bothers me. This could be amusing.

Jonathan Pryce is excellent.

[Mr Hodor]

Margaery and Cersei Battle of wits

Tommen and his all night stand

Stannis advice to Jon and shitting all over sun-tzu "whoever said that(keep your enemies closer" didnt have many enemies"

Slynt beheading

Brienne remembers Renly

Volantis- awesome city

[Tall Tyrion Lannister!]

Janos Slynt beheading.

Needle Scene.

[MyLittleDirewolf]

Don't throw rotten tomatoes at me, but I don't completely hate whitewashed Tyrion. BookTyrion gets so tedious and difficult to read. I couldn't stand it. He wallows in self-pity, has long internal monologues about raping his sister and killing his brother, has no remorse about killing Shae and Tywin. Ugh, who wants to watch that? The refusing sex and the brothel slave being so charmed she offers free sex were OTT, I admit that. But I'd rather see that than Tyrion raping a sex slave and puking all over the place.

[MyLittleDirewolf]

Brienne and Pod. I finally feel like they are on the right track with Brienne's character again. It did feel very Dunk and Egg, as another poster stated. I'm glad she told the story of the ball at Tarth and why she fell for Renly and wanted to serve in his Kingsguard. Except, I don't think BookBrienne ever realized that Renly was gay.
My prediction for the show is that Brienne is going to have to choose between killing Stannis and helping Stannis and co free Sansa.

[The Hand of Jaime]

One thing, though small, that I really enjoyed was the music playing when Jon executed Janos. If memory serves, it's the same as what played when Theon beheaded Ser Rodrik and when Robb executed Lord Karstark... just brilliant in terms of foreshadowing and continuity amongst the characters/situations. :cheers:

[mdrichey]

• Brienne and Pod sharing backstory

During the wedding, the reprise of the music from the very first epsiode, when King Robert's entourage rides into Winterfell

Margaery to Cersei: "I wish we had some wine for you; it's a bit early in the day for us."

Pycelle speaking up on behalf of high-ranking members of celibate orders who visit brothels

Cersei meeting the High Sparrow

Arya dropping the c-bomb

The needle scene of course

Thorne's face when the latrine captain is being named, and again when Slynt is being led outside

Jon's momentary indecision before bringing down Longclaw

Frankenmountain!

[sj4iy]

One thing, though small, that I really enjoyed was the music playing when Jon executed Janos. If memory serves, it's the same as what played when Theon beheaded Ser Rodrik and when Robb executed Lord Karstark... just brilliant in terms of foreshadowing and continuity amongst the characters/situations. :cheers:

Indeed, it is. It's another version of "I Paid the Iron Price"...this version had more percussion in it, but I love the musical themes at work in this series. They tell a story, as well.

[Igziabeher]

Most were mwntioned, just adding the music this year has been great, loved the music during the brothel scene as well.

[MoIaF]

Very good episode overall. I feel like the episodes keep on improving from week to week. Best season so far since season 1.

Some of my favs:

• Arya and Needle
  
• Slynt's execution
  
• Alfie Allen acting the hell out of Theon without uttering a single word
  
• Brienne telling Pod her story
  

[Tall Tyrion Lannister!]

I like that new red priestess. Hoping she gets a few more scenes.

I've more or less accepted that this is Dave & Dan's fanfiction hour at this point, so things like Sansa and Ramsay's marriage intrigues me more than bothers me. This could be amusing.

Jonathan Pryce is excellent.

The girl who plays the red preistess is a pretty decent actress. Seen her in stuff like Wolverine and Arrow.

[Kabutsu]

Tommen's sex-marathon with Margaery, and her comments afterwards. "He said, 'Can we break the record?'" :rofl:

More seriously though, I quite liked Slynt's execution and Stannis' subtle nod of approval.

Interested by the Winterfell plot. One of the largest deviations from the books, I'm curious to see where they go with it.

Volantis was cool, plus I liked the little details they included like the tattoos and patting a dwarf on the head, although to me those inclusions seemed a little forced. Liked the ending with Tyrion's kidnapping, my unsullied friends were a tad shocked, looking forward to their reaction to his enslavement.

[stannisismyking]

• Pycelle speaking up on behalf of high-ranking members of celibate orders who visit brothels

:lol:

[cgf]

I'm really enjoying Show-Qyburn. "It doesn't matter" was tremendous.

[Ser Frasier of House Crane]

Michael McElhatton in the opening credits. 'Nuff said.

[Arkash]

Oh he was ??? Didnt even notice ! Gonna check that out !!!

[The Onion Sleight]

Although I was immensely annoyed by and mad about some things (mostly Cersei/Marg and LF/Sansa), I still found much stuff I loved:

- The Wall continues to be awesome, and remains the strongest and best location/storyline this season so far :bowdown:

- Just EVERTHING with any person at the Wall, Stannis/Jon (I can't describe how much I love them together and their dynamics, Stephen/Kit have a great chemistry with each other), Jon/Davos, everything that happened with Jon/Alliser/Slynt/aso. pre-beheading...

- ... the beheading itself! I really don't care that we got "Olly, bring me my sword" instead of "Edd, fetch me a block", it was done very, very well, IMO, a really memorable scene.

I loved to hear the "Pay the Iron Price" music (the show's unofficial beheadings-theme), Jon with Longclaw looked indeed like Ned with Ice, the subtle nod the approval, nice mirroring with other infamous beheadings - Awesome!

(A pity we didn't get a moment of "this isn't right", where he changes his mind from "Hang him!" to "I'll behead him!", but besides this, really good)

- FINALLY THE BOLTONS + REEK AGAIN!

- FINALLY WINTERFELL AGAIN!

- Roose owning everybody around him, his talk with Ramsay, putting LF on this right place, generally The Roose being The Boss.

- Hearing Michael McElhatton's voice :drool:

- Alfie Allen nailing completely his scenes, without even having dialogue, but just his expressions, body language, aso. He will always be my favourite cast on the show!

- Show!Brienne finally sounded again for once like Book!Brienne when she told her backstory with Renly.

- Sansa's Death Stare to Roose

- Arya hiding Needle was really emotional and beautifully acted by Maisie, much kudos! The music in this scene was stunning, too.

- The almost only person in KL who doesn't disappoint me (sorry, I know it's the Postive Nigpicking thread), who I enjoy the most and who's just as strangely-awesome and creepy as he should be: Qyburn.

- Qyburn qyburning around, doing qybueno things; scene with FrankenMountain (oh, so wonderfully creepy...)

- Jonathan Pryce already makes an excellent High Sparrow and is really nailing the role!

- Although the High Septon got the most ridiculous brothel scenes the show's ever done, everybody's reaction to (Mace's, Pycelle's, aso.) was funny.

- Volantis looked great! Red priestesses! Tattoos!

- The ending with Jorah kipnapping Tyrion.

- Ramin Djawadi's work

... I'm sure I forgot some stuff...