Last years was popular...Season 3 Over. Lets rate the new casting!

[Humble Hedge Knight]

Blackfish, Edmure, and Thoros were all great in my opinion. I particularly thought Clive Russel nailed the Blackfish.

[Colonel Green]

The Mance Rayder thing is odd because Dominic West said in an interview that he turned the role down because it was a six-month commitment in Iceland, which suggests the role was originally much more significant. It doesn't take months to film three or four short scenes. Maybe after West turned it down they scaled the role back in order to get a commiment from Hinds - they're both big names with (I imagine) busy schedules.

I don't really see how Mance could have been worked into the season much more than he was.

[rystine]

The Mance Rayder thing is odd because Dominic West said in an interview that he turned the role down because it was a six-month commitment in Iceland, which suggests the role was originally much more significant. It doesn't take months to film three or four short scenes. Maybe after West turned it down they scaled the role back in order to get a commiment from Hinds - they're both big names with (I imagine) busy schedules.

I thought that West turned down the role because it was a schedule conflict with another role that he had (The Hours on BBC?) and because he didn't want to shoot in Iceland in the winter.

IRT them filming in Iceland in the winter, there seems to be a growing sentiment among critics and analysts of the show that believes that was actually a detriment. The harsh conditions and short hours just made it too hard to get quality material.

And based on the "north of the wall" scenes in seasons 2 and 3 vs those south of the wall, I would agree with that. The overall quality of the scenes, especially the acting just plain seemed better in the scenes filmed in Northern Ireland.

They are returning to Iceland to film season 4, but they are going in the summer as opposed to the winter. And I can't help but think that that may be because the show runners realize that may be the case as well.

[Newstar]

Loved them all except for maybe Daario, but I almost didn't see enough screentime with the character in Season 3 to judge. Maybe I'll have a clearer picture in Season 4.

Everyone was great, but Paul Kaye (Thoros of Myr) and Tobias Menzies (Edmure Tully) just blew me away. Amazing.

Nina Gold knocked it out of the park; she's three for three now for awesome casting seasons. On to Season 4...

[Top Notch Balanter]

Showrunners or the writers butchered Mance and left Hinds to pick up the pieces he is a great actor but something went wrong along the lines. Also he isn't the Mance i think all of us wanted

The best in my opinion was Tobias Menzies as Edmure. Nailed every scene he was in portrayed Edmure to perfection if you ask me

[CrypticWeirwood]

I thought that West turned down the role because it was a schedule conflict with another role that he had (The Hours on BBC?) and because he didn't want to shoot in Iceland in the winter.

IRT them filming in Iceland in the winter, there seems to be a growing sentiment among critics and analysts of the show that believes that was actually a detriment. The harsh conditions and short hours just made it too hard to get quality material.

And based on the "north of the wall" scenes in seasons 2 and 3 vs those south of the wall, I would agree with that. The overall quality of the scenes, especially the acting just plain seemed better in the scenes filmed in Northern Ireland.

They are returning to Iceland to film season 4, but they are going in the summer as opposed to the winter. And I can't help but think that that may be because the show runners realize that may be the case as well.

I never understood why they thought that just north of the Wall was the Land of Always Winter. It isn’t. That’s much farther north. There should have been trees where they were. Definitely overdoing things.

[locke and key]

All my comments are underlined

My annual post =P

Who do you think was best and worst of the new season 3 cast? It can be based on their acting chops or how well they portrayed the character in your eyes, your choice!

Brynden "The Blackfish" Tully - Clive Russell average(he didn't get much to do in the scripts anyway) |AAA

Edmure Tully - Tobias Menzies Excellent- (exactly how I pictured edmure

Thoros of Myr - Paul Kaye Good- But he didn't really have much to do in the episodes after we'd got to hollow hill

Beric Dondarrion - Richard Dormer Really good, IMO better than in the books

Selsye Florent - Tara Fitzgerald We only got one scene so it's hard to judge, but she wasn't particularly memorable

Shireen Baratheon - Kerry Ingram well acted but it wasn't a particularly large role

Mance Rayder - Ciaran Hinds under-whelming but still good

Orell - Mackenzie Crook Ok, but the role was so typical asshole it wasn't particularly interesting to watch

Tormund Giantsbane - Kristofer Hivju - well done but nothing compared to the books

Jojen Reed - Thomas Brodie-Sangster Both reeds were really well done and I liked them more than in the books

Meera Reed - Ellie Kendrick

Missandei - Nathalie Emmanuel didn't seem innocent enough for missandei IMO

Olenna Tyrell - Diana Rigg Good, but while I enjoyed watching her I don't remember anything particularly stunning about how she played the role

Ramsay Snow - Iwan Rheon amazing- I never thought anyone would be able to portray such a fucking sadistic person on-screen but he was brilliant

Daario Naharis - Ed Skrein Enjoyable- I preferred his character to that in the books, but I think that was more down to the script than the acting

Locke - Noah Taylor Excellent- a really interesting take on a character

Overall, I think that once again the casting has been brilliant

Any other (talking) roles I'm forgetting. although they were only in a few scenes I thought both Qyburn and steelshanks Walton were both well played, as for other roles you forgot I think the 2 freys who went to see robb were horribly malicious so well done, anguy was annoying as ever so another good performance there, Burn Gormans Chett was brilliant, Roslin frey was good, the 2 lannisters who were killed were both well played, Mero was different to how I imagined him but still good in fact the only other talking cast members I can think of that I was under-whelmed by were kraznys, prendahl and grey worm

I think Diana Rigg was a great Queen of Thorns, actually overall I think the casting for this season was phenomenal. I can't really think of any "bad" portryals. I suppose Ciaran Hinds didn't fit my vision of Mance and but that wasn't any bash on his acting ability. Same with Tormund...too serious compared to his book version. But they didn't have much to work with this season either. Iwan Rheon as Ramsay really knocked it out of the park as a sociopath whose scenes consisted of torture 24/7.

[Citer]

I wish Ramsay Snow would look more disgusting and less creepy. Mance Rayder was just misscasted completely. I far prefer the more colorful character from the book than the generic king we got.

[Ignacia]

My favorites were Paul Kaye as Thoros of Myr and Diana Rigg as the QoT. Iwan Rheon and Kerry Ingram were great too.

The ones I liked the least were mostly in the wilding group (Tormund, Orell, Mance). Like a lot of other people I found those characters were unmemorable and a bit generic. It seems to be a problem with the writing of the wildings, though. Last year, the Lord of Bones didn't cause any big impressions either. My unsullied family had a bit of trouble keeping track of all the wildings, and I think that was part of the problem.

Compare to how they handled the BWB. They chose to only develope Thoros, Beric and Anguy, but each of them had distinctive a personality or role and my family was able to easily recognize each of them every time they were onscreen, and remember them after the episode was over.

[go joff go]

I liked everyone that was cast but agree with the general feeling that they aren't writing the wildlings as well they could. If I could ask the writers to change something next year it would be to make the wildings more caricature-ish and less serious.. All those quirks that the wildlings have, they probably thought it too cartoonish and toned it down, but I gotta thinnk that they realize in retrospect they would make it more like the book. Jon storyline in particular the last two years has needed more scenes. Things move too fast in his story, sometimes.

[Tyria Targaryen]

The standouts for me were Diana Rigg and Iwan Rheon. I didn't even realize it was Rigg until after I saw her episode on Doctor Who. I was just focused on how perfect I thought the Queen of Thorns was being played. I suspect that they cast Rigg because she can absolutely share the screen with Charles Dance - as an equal - without wilting.

Iwan Rheon did not look the way I expected Ramsey to look, but I actually liked that. Crazy sadistic psychopaths don't always look as disgusting as we expect them to. He played the part brilliantly, I thought.

To be honest, I started watching the TV show when I found out that Brodie-Sangster had been cast as Jojen. He looks perfect for the part, despite being too tall. I agree that he's been under-utilized, but I hope that he can stretch out a bit more after we start following the Bran-Reed party north of the Wall.

[intheswamp]

Good:

Brynden "The Blackfish" Tully - Clive Russell

Thoros of Myr - Paul Kaye

Shireen Baratheon - Kerry Ingram

Olenna Tyrell - Diana Rigg

Locke - Noah Taylor

Edmure Tully - Tobias Menzies

Okay:

Beric Dondarrion - Richard Dormer

Tormund Giantsbane - Kristofer Hivju

Missandei - Nathalie Emmanuel

Daario Naharis - Ed Skrein

Disappointing:

Mance Rayder - Ciaran Hinds

Orell - Mackenzie Crook

Jojen Reed - Thomas Brodie-Sangster

Meera Reed - Ellie Kendrick

Ramsay Snow - Iwan Rheon

To be decided:

Selsye Florent - Tara Fitzgerald

[victim]

From what I saw of Hinds, I really liked him. There I said it! His Mance is older than I imagined, and a little less refined around the edges, but his portrayal had this sort of warmness to it that I really got behind. He doesn't wear his charisma on his sleeve, like BookMance, but that didn't bother me too much, because it was there anyway. He did what he could with little screen-time he got, and it was more than enough to make me excited to see what he does with the role in the future.

That said. Best casting? Burn Gorman as KARL! Well. Sort of. The "You are a bastard. A daughter fucking Wildling bastard" line may be the best delivered line in the entire series.

On to the actual characters now. Ramsey, Edmure, Olenna and Thoros were all cast to perfection. The only time the acting has ever annoyed me in the show is when Arya stabs the stable boy, and when she grabs Hot Pie by the ears. Season 3 was great.

[Tall Tyrion Lannister!]

Brynden "The Blackfish" Tully - Clive Russell

Pretty good

Edmure Tully - Tobias Menzies

pretty good also

Thoros of Myr - Paul Kaye- I really like thoros in this show.

Beric Dondarrion - Richard Dormer Bit different from how i imagined him, but still great.

Selsye Florent - Tara Fitzgerald- i think she was very good too. I don't remember her being that batshit crazy in the book, but no w i can understand why Stannis doesn't hang out with her too much.

Shireen Baratheon - Kerry Ingram- in the couple scenes she had she was adorable.

Mance Rayder - Ciaran Hinds- not given enough time to do much, was okay i geuss.

Orell - Mackenzie Crook- meh

Tormund Giantsbane - Kristofer Hivju- I liked this version of tormund even though he's different from the book and thought the actor was good.

Jojen Reed - Thomas Brodie-Sangster- thought that he was real good

Meera Reed - Ellie Kendrick- she was good i geuss.

Missandei - Nathalie Emmanuel- nothing really stands out but i thought she was good as Dany's replacement for irri and doreah.

Olenna Tyrell - Diana Rigg- great

Ramsay Snow - Iwan Rheon- great, I loved him and roose trolling people.

Daario Naharis - Ed Skrein_ i enjoy this versionf of darrio more than in the book. i could see why Dany would have the hots for him

Locke - Noah Taylor- very good villian.

[Ferrum Aeternum]

That said. Best casting? Burn Gorman as KARL! Well. Sort of. The "You are a bastard. A daughter fucking Wildling bastard" line may be the best delivered line in the entire series.

That was a fucking great line. Wish he could've gotten more screen time.

[Dragonstoned]

I was skeptical about Iwan Rheon's ability to convey the psychopathicness of Ramsay (as opposed to creepiness Simon in Misfits had) but he was outstanding.

Mance Rayder was about 1,000 times less cool though, hopefully this can be atoned for next season but it looks like the writers have just gone for a straight different version of Mance.

[stanniswillwin]

i always thought of the blackfish as a bad ass clive russle just confirmed that.

didnt like tormund but i think it was because he was merged with some other wildlings he may become more like book tormund. really hope they is some mention of his member next season

[Chuck88]

Perfect

Ramsay Snow - absolutely killed it, even if he isn't an exact match of the physical description. Best new casting of the season

Freakin' Mero - did exactly what he needed to do in a very short space of time.

Great

Tormund

Edmure

Kraznys

QoT

Ugly wee Freys

Locke - Don't see why he couldn't have still been called Vargo Hoat but it makes little difference

Beric

Thoros

Shireen

Good

Anguy

Orell

Jojen

Meera - although neither Reed had that much to do so far.

Selyse

Qyburn - I suspect he will shine in the coming seasons

Blackfish

Grey Worm

Daario

Missandei

Not so good

Mance - ultimate anti-climax of the season. The fact he has been shortlisted for an emmy over all the above names (except the QoT) is unbelievable.

[Flou]

Generally speaking the casting was good and/or great. I just felt that most of the new characters were really underused in the series and some just didn't have that same feel they have in the book.

Meera, Jojen, Beric and Thoros should have gotten more lines. Arya's storyilne felt really rushed again and Meera&Jojen were pretty much a no show most of the season with little or nothing to do or say.

Hivju did good job as Tormund, but I think D&D have turned the jovial/funny Tormund from the books into a much more serious guy in the series. I didn't feel like he warmed much on Jon as he did in the books. Tormund is one of my favourite characters in the books, but the series version of him just doesn't give me that same feeling.

Ciaran Hinds as Mance just felt wrong when I saw him. Hinds is a great actor, but he is nothing like the Mance I've imagined in my head. Also he could have used some extra lines.

Diana Rigg and Iwan Rheon were probably two of the most spot on castings of the season, but then again those two surely had the spotlight on them much more than any of the other new characters.

[JonDunn]

honestly they were ALL good. Only Mance really remains to be seen in more detail but everyone else was perfect.

Standouts - Thoros, Missandei, Ramsay (even if that storyline dragged), QoT, SHIREEN