sammycakes

I'm with those who were put off by the staginess of the Syrio fight scene. I don't expect blood and guts and ripped trachea-tongues in every death, but I'd like my fights to look more physical than a high school Shakespeare production. It was bad enough to be distracting for me.

EDIT: Just to add that I appreciated that the choreography attempted to show the difference in technique, to show what makes a water dancer a water dancer. I don't feel that changes anything about my overall critique, though.

One observation: seeing Robb getting enough attention this episode, I really wish he had been given more development throughout the show. It felt awfully abrupt compared with what we've seen of him so far.

I agree, though I thought he was always pretty boring and underdeveloped in the books too.

I was also disappointed with Arya's first kill, but another scene that was disappointing was Sandor's interaction with Sansa. Now I'm not a "San-San" supporter or anything like that, but I just think Sandor is a great character that's being wasted. And I'm not asking for a long scene there, I just thought something more than "Why do you think they sent me?" would be nice. Does anyone who hasn't read the books even know who Sandor is at this point so late in the season? I wonder because for the most part he's been muzzled and relegated to the background. He seems like a minor character more along the lines of a Meryn Trant or Kevan Lannister (characters you might notice but wouldn't really lose much if you didn't) than the major character he should be.

I think most non-book readers know him by now as the bad-ass loyal knight of the Lannisters, someone to be feared. That doesn't seem too different a characterization than book-readers had after the first book. They're aware of the Sandor/Gregor backstory. It's not until the second book, if I recall, that you start peeling back the layers a bit.

Oh, forgot my most important critique: Arya killing the stableboy was a waste of a huge moment. This is so important in Arya's development, yet the killing seems almost accidental, like a matter of course. Is she panicked? Is she reluctant? Resolutely determined to survive? Angry? I have no idea based on how the scene was filmed. Pity.

Solid 9. Probably not the best episode of the season but definitely the most entertaining. All the Robb stuff was extremely well done, and I can see myself getting a lot more invested in TV Robb than in Book Robb. Tyrion stuff was gold, as always. Momoa really showed off his physical acting chops; you can see why he works perfectly for Conan. I didn't have a problem with the location-hopping at all. We know all these characters and their situations by now; the rampant scene shifts added to the urgency of the episode, to the feeling that the shit is really coming down now for every character.

(very minor) Quibbles:

* The opening slaughter of the Winterfell men seemed a bit stagey, as did the Syrio Forel fight. Especially so compared to the physicality of the Drogo fight. Lines were well delivered, though.

* The fight vs the wight didn't have the urgency or danger it had in the book. Also seemed foreshadowed much too heavily.

* Drogo's gash doesn't seem deep enough.

Voted an 8 though I'd have preferred to give it a 7.5. I hated the LF sexposition scene. I thought the writing was clumsy and clumsily delivered by Gillen (you'd think he'd be much better at monologuing after The Wire). Porn star-ishness of the whores is really distracting; I can't imagine whores actually looking/acting like that in Westeros. And while the Khal's speech was fine, I'm annoyed that every Essos scene looks like it was cast and filmed at Burning Man. Vaes Dothrak and Dothraki culture looks smooth and cartoonish when it should be rough-hewn and raw.

That said, I thought the opening Tywin scene was wonderful, and the economy of plotting continues to impress me.