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I think the show will change Dreadforth for Deepwood Motte and follow her story from there...

I also think we don't actually need her o be in the Iron Islands for the Kingsmoot to happen. The show just not care about the POVs tides in the books.. and her role in the kingsmoot is kind of small...

Surely "the only non-psychopathic candidate at the Kingsmoot" is a significant role. The point was that the Ironborn were presented with three options - Victarion's mindless attempt to continue his brother's stupid policies, Asha's attempt to work constructively towards a positive-sum peace, and Euron's megalomaniacal insanity - and they choose the worst one. If it's just a choice between Victarion and Euron, it doesn't have nearly the same power.

But I've no idea where they're going with the Iron Islands story.

GRRM said that was a mistake on his part

He absolutely did not, as far as I'm aware. At best, he kind of implied it without making any kind of clear statement.

How is it bizzare?! Renly is clearly gay and therefore cannot father a child, unless he starts sleeping with women also. Which he isn't, because he's gay!?! It's very straight forward....

Gay men have fathered children throughout recorded history. They do it in the usual way. Renly is about 20 and Gendry is 13 or 14. That's why he can't be Gendry's father.

I'd say, though, that, as an unacknowledged bastard, Gendry has no rights to the throne whatever. Even Edric Storm, an acknowledged bastard, has no rights to the throne. I wouldn't be surprised if Gendry ends up as Lord of Storm's End in the event of the complete extinction of the legitimate Baratheon line (I doubt Stannis and Shireen will live out the series). But I'd be shocked if he ends up as King.

I think Brienne will lead him to an ambush where he'll be killed by other members of the BWB. She's trapped in a shitty situation, she has to choose betweeen saving an innocent boy's life, or the life of a man who has done lots of evil things, but saved her from a horrible fate.

You really think that's what will happen? Don't you think that would be a rather anticlimactic end to Jaime's story?

i assume he is dead, can only save the one, and she chose the boy. i would led to believe

On what basis do you think she can save only one? I thought that, very explicitly, the Brotherhood was saying that she could save both of them if she betrayed Jaime.

Well in the books Renly is quite a bit taller then Loras.

It's certainly perfectly logical for it to be Garlan, but it makes more emotional sense for it to be Loras, since he's the one with the deep connection to Renly. Garlan (whom I actually like as a character) is just some dude we've never seen before. I guess that Garlan is probably going to be written out of the series, which is too bad, but hopefully they can give some of his role in the story to Loras - having Loras be respectful to Tyrion and kind to Sansa would be totally reasonable, I think, since he's just kind of a petulant prick in the books.

I loved how Tyrion and Bronn looked at the wildfire-nuke they set off. First, they looked with surprise that it worked, then they looked away because it was too bright, and then they looked in amazement and horror. As a spectator to both sides one couldn't help but have mixed feelings. Book readers sympathize with both Davos and Tyrion, and that part of the story pits them directly against one another.

I know it didn't explicitly say it anywhere in the books, but I always sort of took it for granted that Loras was Renly's ghost.

Who else but Loras would lead the Tyrell vanguard to save the king? His father wanted his daughter to marry the king, and the suit fit!

This better win someone at least one Emmy, it was the best hour of TV I've seen in a long time.

In the books, Garlan, Loras's older brother, is Renly's ghost. Loras is fighting as himself. I think the TV version makes more sense.

Wow. Terrible episode.

I had low expectations for the fighting but it turned out OK. The episode just did not engage me in any way.

Seriously? I kind of feel bad for you.

I just wonder if the Hound will have his transformation complete with Arya. They may skip that and have her Jarquen moment (in the preview) lead directly to Bravos/

There is absolutely no chance they will do that. Why on earth would they cut out Arya's entire Storm of Swords story? She has the most chapters of any character in that book. After Storm of Swords, she has five chapters where very little happens.

-I'm not sure if Cersei said she was 4 or "(a) fool" when her mother died. I'm going to choose to believe I heard the latter. Accents!

She said she was 4. Are people really so emotionally committed to the age difference between Cersei and Tyrion to the point that they're willing to pretend they didn't change it on the show? It's pretty obvious that Dinklage is not 9 years younger than Headey and Coster-Waldau, so this makes perfect sense.

It's funny, just a few weeks ago I was thinking Jaqen and Shae have similar accents, but never even considered they may be from the same place(that is if he really is from Lorath like he claims).

I think that place is "Germany."

You must remember it came directly on the heels of dialogue between her and Brienne explicitly stating that Jaime would likely be dead before morning. I just wish she had called-out Karstark on that in front of Robb.

Yeah, that's basically what I was saying - she should have told Robb that she did it in part because Karstark seemed to be planning to murder Jaime before Robb got back. But it's not a big deal, and I can kind of see why she might not want to alienate Karstark by doing that.

This was the first episode where the changes started to get to me. Given the fact that they hadn't set up any of the stuff relating to weasel soup, and that Roose is off with Robb in the Westerlands, I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that they didn't have it, but it was still a bit jarring.

My bigger complaints are two:

1) What on earth is the deal with Talisa? I was convinced last week by her reluctance to go to the Crag that she was Jeyne, but now she's telling a detailed and convincingly detailed story about her life in Volantis, and seems to have returned from the Crag without incident. So she is Talisa? If so, why did they even bring the Crag into it? Why do the extras say that the Crag is home to House Westerling? That's just purposefully fucking with book readers, I think, which is annoying.

2) More subtly, I was a little bit irritated by the way Tywin took his leave of Arya. Which I guess is a complaint that the show runners haven't changed from the books as much as they should have. I guess I kind of thought that Tywin's interactions with her would prove to have some importance in the plot - that maybe he knew she was Arya, or something. Because we saw a ton of them sitting in that room talking to each other. And then he's just "Alright, I'm heading out, take good care of the Mountain for me." It didn't feel very satisfying within the context of the show. But perhaps that was inevitable.

Other than that, I was fairly satisfied. I don't mind the change in Catelyn's release of Jaime, although I wish she'd have said that she did it in part because she was afraid Karstark and his men would murder Jaime if she didn't, and end all chance of her seeing her daughters. And some of the other "changes" turn out not to have been changes at all, as I expected - Jon and Qhorin's endgame will play out basically as it did in the books, Bran and company are still hiding in the crypts.

And lots of good scenes - I loved Stannis and Davos, Theon and Yara, Cersei and Tyrion, all the Tyrion/Bronn/Varys business, and Brienne and Jaime. Still not sure what I think of Robb/Talisa (I guess I have to start calling her that, now), as I'm too confused about what's going on, but Oona Chaplin certainly has a great body, and the book version obviously wouldn't work given that Madden isn't 15.

The Dany plot I still don't really care about, but I'll be interested to see the House of the Undying.

I suppose I'll also have to admit that I was stupidly wrong in thinking they wouldn't use Ros in Alayaya's role. I thought it wouldn't make any sense why Cersei would think she meant something to Tyrion, but I guess it was fine, and it was obviously pretty predictable, since everyone else predicted it. Ah well.

1) Catelyn should NOT release Jamie before she finds out about Bran and Rickon. The action of betraying Robb (which is what it is) only makes sense under the prism of her finding out about Bran and Rickon's death.

In the context of what they're showing, it makes total sense for Catelyn to free Jaime. If she doesn't release Jaime, he's going to be lynched by Karstark and those sympathetic to him before the sun rises. To have any chance of getting her daughters back, freeing Jaime is the only thing to do. In this context, I think it becomes less of a betrayal of Robb - Robb isn't there, and doesn't see the situation. Robb wouldn't want Jaime lynched any more than Catelyn does. Sending him off to King's Landing with Brienne is making the best of a bad situation.

edit: so was the jailer one of Karstark's sons?

edit2: I guess he was, that's sort of stupid as a change but eh.

Really? Would you prefer that we are introduced to a Karstark who already has a grudge against Jaime? Or that they had introduced Karstark last season just to have his son killed, and then had to awkwardly remind us of it now? Changes like this are the kind that are absolutely necessary for an adaptation. It was the only way to make Karstark's story work.

Some things that did not make alot of sense:

What happened to the 200-300 men that Rodrik took to Torrhens Square?

This one bugged me, as well. One could wank up an explanation, I suppose - he left them at Torrhen's Square and rode back by himself to either let Winterfell know what had happened or warn them of the danger - but this is, indeed, not well-explained.

How did the mob in Kings Landing manage to rip a mans arm from his body, and why did they do it, are they cannibals?

This isn't a plot hole, and there are examples in history of men being torn apart by angry mobs. It was a bit silly, but I don't see the problem here.

Why did Myrcella have to cry when the books specify that she doesn´t?

This is, again, not a plot hole. The showrunners are trying to up the drama of Myrcella's departure, and Cersei's anger at Tyrion over it. Having Myrcella cry does that, and doesn't affect the overall plot in any significant way.

How is it possible that Amory Lorch managed to send a raven to the wrong castle? Why wasn´t the ravens handled by a Maester? Did Lorch just grab a random raven and sent a sensitive message to whereever that raven might land?

I suppose he might have told the Maester to send it to the wrong place? Who knows? It might be a minor plot hole, but it's not actually important.

When Amory Lorch chased Arya, how come they ran through a yard crowded with Lannister soldiers and noone grabbed Arya. Why didn´t Lorch call out for the men to grab her?

He's not too bright?

When Ygritte escaped from Jon Snow, why did he chase her? He wasn´t going to kill her, he´d shown that already. He couldn´t take her to Qhorin because Qhorin would kill her. So was he just gonna tie her up and keep her as a prisoner and forget all about the Halfhand and his own mission for the Nights Watch?

I think you are conflating book Jon, who explicitly decides not to kill Ygritte, with TV show Jon, who is nervous and flubs the physical act. This is not a plot hole, it just shows that Jon is not thinking very clearly, which is totally plausible. Jon's actions don't make sense because he's not acting rationally.

How come Qhorin couldn´t find Jon and Ygritte, the man is a master tracker, the best ranger of them all and an expert survivalist, but he couldn´t track Jon and Ygritte in the snow?

Who's to say he will not find them next episode?

How come Robb Stark is talking to Talisa in the middle of their camp. Everyone can see that he´s falling in love with her and "everyone" would include all of his bannermen, most importantly the Freys who might be upset about Robb drooling over someone other than the girl he has promised to marry.

The Freys don't care if Robb has sex with some nurse. An infatuation is meaningless as long as Robb is willing to follow through on his oath to the Freys.

When Catelyn came back to camp, how come Robb didn´t ask about what happened to Renly and who Brienne was? That would be the most logical thing to ask, especially if they´d heard rumours about Renlys death. Instead Robb just casually introduces Cat to the girl he has a crush on.

Numerous possibilities: this may not be the first time Robb and Catleyn have met since her return. Alternately, Robb doesn't want to speak of sensitive matters in front of a girl who he thinks might be a spy; they talk about what happened at Renly's camp in private and off-screen.

because Doran (1) sees a weak King, (2) Cersei as Queen Regent,

Is he sending Arianne off before or after he hears about Kevan's murder? We also don't know if Cersei even gets back her job as Regent after Kevan's death.