Dez

I gave it a 6. Most of it was pretty good. The big problems were in Kings Landing. The High Septon in the brothel and its follow up is the most ridiculous thing the show has ever done I think. It just stretches imagination to the breaking point that a man of such stature could be caught unguarded with his pants down in a brothel. Medieval popes at least had their orgies in the Vatican FFS. Surely they could have found a way to pave the way for the Sparrow's rise without this foolishness. And I'm sure I'll hear, the point is to lay the groundwork for the Walk. But compared to the opportunity to show Cersei as a moronic murderer, going off book seems baffling to me.

It was an entertaining episode. I get why they truncated Jon's election, and substituting an Aemon deciding vote was a nice touch to make up for the drama the book has with the raven popping out of the kettle. I liked the Dany scenes as well. I also like the Cersei scene with the Council and Kevan. The Arya stuff is dragged out a bit but I don't see it as much of a big deal. Biggest complaints would probably be Jaime/Cersei (which seems chronically screwed up) and Ellaria. If they kept Obara, they might as well have introduced her in this episode. D&D would probably defend it on the grounds that Dorne is so unfamiliar to the audience that they need a familiar face to make the introduction. But I'd reject this on the basis that she was in like 3 episodes last season, they cut her hair and therefore there's no reason why should she couldnt be just crying in a corner during the introduction to Doran.

Dany never got such a big truth drop about her father in the books. That could be an acceleration/condensing of her character development.

Lol that Lollys of all characters cut makes the show!

That's a fair point about book Loras. Apart from his Rainbow Guard Rampage being all the way back in ACOK, I think the reader gets so immersed in the culture of the series and the sheer amount of strange things that occur that they end up starting to accept some of the events as simply things that happen just as the people living in the society might. Another thing that probably makes Loras in particular and the Tyrells in general look better than they are is that we see them as the foil for Cersei, one of the most unambiguously evil characters.

They introduced it in season 1 and referenced it in season 3 and then they pulled back from it. It all comes back to their weird mishandling of Jaime in season 4 compared to their relatively flawless portrayal of the character in season 3. I suspect they decided there was no need for the Jaime/Tyrion relationship to be clouded by the Tysha conflict- ie that they never meet again. You'll never convince me that they really thought audiences wouldn't be smart enough to grasp a reference to Tyrion's twice referenced prior marriage. I think the choice they made was to sacrifice the full impact of the wrapping of Tyrion's AGOT-ASOS tragedy for a cleaner finish and an avoidance of loose ends they don't intend to or don't intend to tie down the road.

Thought it was a decent episode. The slowness was expected and I think there was some good stuff in there, especially in how they framed Mance's demise and Jon's choice to put him out of his misery. The only thing I really thought was off was the Jaime/Cersei scene. First off, Jaime talking about how all their enemies outside are going to try to divide them, is something even show Jaime shouldn't care much about. The last time they were in the sept together, Jaime didn't seem to care if anyone was to walk in them fucking, much less political considerations regarding the welfare of house Lannister. Then there's Cersei's lack of any substantial reaction to the knowledge that Jaime sprang Tyrion, something that I think is not a reaction even the milder show version of Cersei would have, considering the last time in they were together in the sept she was telling Jaime to kill Tyrion in his cell. It looks too much like the writers framing a conflict just so that it fits with the rest of their story boards. Freeing Tyrion put Cersei in enough conflict with Jaime to make him want to or her to send him off to Dorne, but not enough for her to want his head off immediately which would be the more realistic option.