Spaßvogel

I thought the cousin Lannister speech dragged on way too long...same with the Grey Worm/Missendei scene. That was 20 minutes of the episode right there.

Well, every interview about that scene indicated it was supposed to be consensual. The director just massively failed to convey that because it wasn't apparent at all.

The black gate was one of those "necessary" things IMO, because it sets up so much stuff that pays off later. Bleah.

I don't buy that it would tip the hand too much. They establish so hard that Walder Frey is being a jerk. Hiring a crappy band could just be another dickish move on his part and doesn't necessarily ruin the surprise. It's still a pretty big leap to slaughter. I think the potential "aha" moment by the audience when they realize WHY the band is so bad is far more fulfilling outcome and was worth the risk of the probably handful of people who might guess what was coming. I mean, even if they do guess that it's a trap, which by the larger context isn't that much of big guess, they aren't going to fathom the depths and completeness of the slaughter. That stuff would still be a shock. I think they overplayed the value of the shock and gutted the surreality that leads to it.

I know people have mentioned this, but I don't get the completely arbitrary change of the musicians being good.

Man Grey Worm was scrawny. Removing Dontos has messed up the pacing of Littlefinger's departure...seems like he has been leaving for three episodes...and unless they move the PW up, he is going to be still around the rest of the season isnt he?

I don't think they can get Xaro out of the Vault can they? There is only one key, and I assume that they aren't going to leave it around.

I had a feeling I would be let down after Blackwater. The shortcomings of this episode have been well expressed here in the previous pages. The burning of Winterfell was very shoddily explained. They never showed the "army" outside. If they hadn't gotten Ramsay cast, they still could have put a guy in full plate on a horse with the flayed man on his shield, pointing at the horn player to blow again, and the point would've gotten across just fine. I suppose they wlil have a call back in the beginning of season three and actually show this scene...at least I hope so, because I don't think the TV viewer is going to be able to figure things out. House of the Undying was short, simplistic, and a huge let-down. Dany's big Drakaris moment was such an anti-climax...it came off as an episode of Sanctuary or something instead of HBO's Game of Thrones. There was one shining moment in this episode, however, that almost makes up for the rest; Maester Luwin's death was the first scene in the TV series that actually made me get teary. I knew it was coming, and it had been a very moving part of the book as well, especially with Rickon for whom Luwin was almost his only father figure. I guess we'll see what happens next April.