snowzombie

I loved the premier, the second episode a bit less and this episode just wasn't doing it for me. But last season the first half dragged while the last half was almost all pay off. And next week is shadow baby time. Cannot. Wait. Jon and Bran - snoozefest. Shae - hated it. I've wanted to like Yara, especially since people were ragging on her for not being hot enough after seing a single screencap of her. This actress does not have the charisma necessary to play the character. Asha was no great beauty, but she had a magnetism. Yara is just playing Balon's mini-me. Balon, however, is excellent. And Theon's speech to him about letting him just be taken was truly excellent. The thing I am enjoying most about the show right now is all the subtlety and nuance Lena Headey is bringing to Cersei. Her anger towards Tyrion over Mrycella was my favorite part of the episode. The Arya/Yoren scene was electric. I'm sort of mixed on them making him the origin of the "people I want to see dead" prayer, but I understand it was a necessity. Same with Jaqen's rescue being anti-climatic.

This was maybe my favorite episode thus far. I felt like almost all of the changes for the sake of narrative economy ended up making the show better, tighter, more exciting. The non-book scenes - Cersei and Littlefinger, Cersei and Joffrey, the City Watch and the bastards - were thrilling. The look on Lena's face when Joffrey pretty much tells her he'll have her killed if she defies him, it really makes you feel how high the stakes are. Sansa, Cersei and Tyrion all have to walk a very fine line when it comes to reigning him in without provoking his wrath. Tyrion comes into Kings Landing with the swagger of a conqueror. It's going to be even more bitter and disappointing to see how he leaves. I'd imagined Craester looking like King Theoden in Lord of the Rings, before Gandalf kills the spell Wormtongue had cast. Gray, frazzled, a droopy ear, crazy. But the set of his keep definitely grew on me as the scene went on. Richard Madden was the stand out, his Robb is really, really strong. He really conveys the weight of all that he has to contend with. I find his character far more compelling on screen than I do in the books.

YES! Everything you said a million times yes. :bowdown: And to answer your question: no, we heard about Whispering Wood after it happened. There wasn't a POV character there.

I remember the Arya and stableboy scene feeling a little off, just the editing beats not flowing together really well. I questioned it at the time...but decided that they wanted to show her first murder seeming almost like a mistake. She seems shocked that she's actually got him on the pointy end. It's a way to make her arc seem more sympathetic - she didn't want to start killing people but circumstances gave her no choice. By the end of AFFC she is punished for her killing, because she's no longer killing for survival but for revenge or retribution. She has to start far away from that to build up the drama.

I'm a noob but here's my 2 cents: There should be a nitpickers' thread and a "I mostly enjoyed it so I'm not going to pur over obscure details which caused me displeasure" thread. Some of us are "glass half full" types, others see but the negative space within the upper half of said glass. There also could have been a separate thread for Syrio's ability to render guards crippled through use of his wooden saber. And while my imagination is at it - a whole Sansa thread. Weighing motivations against age against experience against actress's depiction against the square root of pi. And don't forget to talk about her southern hairdo. Wait, I just realized we won't see Lysa and Robin again until Season 3. How old is that kid gonna look when we next see him pawing at Mom's blouse?