Jaime L

Yep. Gotta say, My, felt pretty inspired by that scene. It changed my view on...everything. Yeah, unfortunately we had to close down the petting zoo due to recent unpleasantness. Hahaha, how the hell?! Amazing, My!

I think what cracks me up is what wins over the Greatjon is that Robb's wolf takes it upon himself to maul the guy and that's what wins him over. Or maybe it was Robb's clever with the "doubtless you meant to cut my meat" line. Still the guy lost three fingers! Fingers he probably had intentions of using at some point in the future. But there he is chuckling merrily 30 seconds later, presumably as Grey Wind proceeds to much on his finger sandwich on the floor next to him. Moreover this is what convinces him Robb's meat is bloody tough. Robb didn't do anything! He just has a freaking direwolf for a pet. If Drogon bit off his Greatcock he'd be pledging undying loyalty to Dany screaming how she has the toughest meat of all (pun strangely unintended). Granted I had the same issue when everyone in the books was whispering about how Jon defeated the Halfhand. Once again, dude has a direwolf. People aren't gonna give me credit for beating up Manny Pacquiao if my bear mauls him from behind. People of Westeros, stop giving credit to people for what their animals do! Anyway this isn't a criticism of the show and I never had a problem with how it was presented in the books. It's just seeing it go down on the screen which has me revisiting the surreality of the scene. I still love the show for trying to bring the sequence to life, and if I knew how, I'd make that 3 second clip of Grey Wind biting off his fingers my avatar.

Best scene from EP108 for me was the final scene in the throne room that captured the off-kilter kingdom gone corrupt feel you get from the books. Poor Sansa. Haven't thought much of the actor who plays Joffrey to this point but he really nicely captured his unique brand of malicious ennui. Cersei, Pycelle and Varys all nicely came into focus as well. Hell, so did Robb, Drogo and in a different vein...Hodor (Sunlight, motherfucker! Do you get it?!) It's been mentioned before but with RR at the helm the whole thing felt more self assured and the storytelling when you're jumping from character to character has never been more coherent. Everything that needed to be conveyed was conveyed and it didn't take a 5 minute long monologue with ass-to-ass going on in the background. Also thought Catelyn was just perfection in this episode in the subtle play of emotions that crossed her face seeing her eldest Robb leading an army to war. Think Michelle Fairley has captured the essence of Catelyn beautifully throughout but this episode especially gave us that first window into both her misgivings, regret and setting the seeds of her future despair. Think over the progression of her plot arc we'll once again be reminded of the dichotomy between those fans heartbroken over what befalls Catelyn and those without souls. Other things I noted: -I laughed out loud probably 4-5 times in this episode, sometimes because the show intended I should and sometimes not. Arya stabbing the stable boy felt a little Afterschool Specialish (Lesson to the kids: this is what happens when you stab 'em with the pointy end) and Grey Wind running over to bite off the Greatjon's fingers had me on the floor. All it was missing was the Monty Python gusher of blood spurting straight up. And, of course, the line: "Your meat...is bloody tough!" I mean, I'm not sure what I would expect the show to do differently - after all that is exactly what happened. Just the execution cracked me up for some reason. -Drogo is legitimately more bad-ass than I was expecting when I saw the first stills of Jason Momoa (who looked like an emo WWE wrestler to me at first.) Loved the way he pulled out his two daggers only to drop 'em on the ground as he continued to shout out all the things he was gonna do to the guy. Momoa's been perfect - a shame he won't be with us much longer. -Rickon's appearance was jarring because he's been gone so long. Thought they were just gonna merge the two characters into Brickon. -I've noticed beyond aging up the Stark children it also seems to apply to the Greatjons and Hodors of the world. I'm vaguely terrified of the cryptkeeper that will await inside the Twins. Hope they use a muppet, but that's just me. -Loved that we (and Tywin) got introduced to Shagga, Timmett and Chella. That was a treat. Was like a "who's who" of the Mountain Clans.

I think this whole debate comes down to something very basic: How do you see the board? I see it as a place where the lionshare of individuals who post regularly are intelligent, thoughtful and willing to use the post rating feature in the manner in which it was intended. I think every group has a few assholes...but to get rid of the feature because of concern for this minority (rather than using the post rating feature diagnostics to determine who precisely is misusing it) seems unnecessary. Yeah it gives them peashooters, but for the majority of us, it gives us a nice tool.

An alt exists when a established boarder creates a new board identity often for the purposes of villainy. Sometimes "new" boarders appear acting questionably or with knowledge they can't possibly have are accused of being alts. However in recent years we've relaxed our standards for alt accusations and have pretty much extended them to all new boarders. Examples of alts include MeanMrMustard, Marcus Antonius and Jaxom 1974. Also any mention of N00bcentration camps definitively proves you are, infact, an alt.

I'm really surprised people hate the rating system so thoroughly. It's such a small part of the board experience. It's only as big as you want to make it. There's a lot of talk about the hidden menace of people giving negatives, but it ignores the flipside. I would venture that most of the ratings given are positive (I'm sure Ran has a total count somewhere of positives versus negatives) and in that regard it's actually a useful feature. It highlights well made posts without disrupting the flow of the thread or for those who lurk, allows the silent majority to weigh in without having to put themselves out there and risk being ripped to shreds as can happen whenever someone expresses an opinion. One thing I can't stand about most forums/comment sections on the internet is there's little reflection on the post just made, instead just the rush to get your point across. People just waiting for their turn to speak. This board is far superior to anything I've experienced on the internet as far as people taking the time to give credit to a particularly well constructed/thoughtful/funny post, but even here so much of what's quietly great gets lost in the wash. The rating feature allows a simple, no frills way to pay credit to the posts you've read before and appreciate without having to make a post solely to say that. I mean, people have stated many times, they hate posts that simply say "I Agree", but to me, those are tremendously useful, selfless posts. And it helps provide a sense of where people stand, rather than just an endless litany of screaming heads desperate to make their point like a cable news show. This is a mature forum and the lionshare of people who post on it wouldn't and don't abuse the post rating feature. And for those select few who have so far, I'd imagine there's some diagnostic which can identify them as targeting another boarder or only giving negatives or whatever. But as it stands, I'm in favor of the post rating feature, if only because it leads me to believe that posts are actually being read.