boojam

Yeah that's because it got a 10 , but I don't know where that 10 came from! Anyway on the User Rating poll The Rains of Castamere is number 1 because that table is ranked by number of votes and S3E10 got 21,919 votes. Calls into question any kind of ranking system for art! Usually only time is the best judge. Ahh... it does say , at the top, in random order.

COMPARISONS I think this says more about those who post on this forum than about an episode. (Which colors how to say anything about small number statistics.) I already mentioned ROTTEN TOMATOES where this episode got a 9.5. (Talk about small number statics. However if I knew how to weight the ratings because each vote here contains an analysis, which , with a few exceptions is mostly just a statement of opinion here. Is Ran's rating included in whole sample? It that two people who rate it? I 'rate' you (youalls?) rating much higher because you (youall) give such a fine detailed analysis, the best on the site, maybe the best on the net.) IMDB I did not know IMDB lets the episodes be rated! (...and I am a member of IMDB!)* So if one looks here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0944947/eprate?ref_=ttep_ql_3 all episodes will get rated. Notice S4/E3 gets a 9.0 with 3335 votes out of ~6 million (note USA) viewers. Still small number statistics, but higher than 549.(We seem to have an international group here, but so does IMDB.) I know, I know, some ringers and trolls over there on IMDB... alas I think we have them here too. I guess the only semi-objective measure is the ~6 million ready to put down their clams (I don't care if there are HBO GO Pass Word stealer's or not). Have to see what next weeks numbers are. *Here is an interesting thing. Over at IMDB they have a per-show BEST EPISODE list: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls009924594?ref_=tt_rls_1 Top of the list S3E4 And Now His Watch Is Ended That would be mine too!

Since episode 1 Season 1 I have used the following criterion in grading an episode. These two things are fixed: 1) Production value, costumes, sets and VFX work - +3 points. (I really did not know how good the VFX were for the first season until I saw that 'behind the scenes' making off.) 2) The actors. 95% are so good (a couple are uneven but I give them a by because they come through now and then). - +3 So I give an automatic 6 points right up front. 3) Direction and cinematography ... 2 points this can go as +1 or -1. Never seen a case of -2 but +2 is common. (Direction is closely tied to the teleplay so that takes some thinking In the general cinematography has been out standing.) 4)Writing and episode composition. +1,-1, or a +2 or -2. This is difficult since sometimes awkward dialog seems to have slipped through a lot of competent hands. Being a fan of visual narrative drama I cut slack for this show, since I have read the novels too, and consider them very very difficult to translate to a 10 episode format. Not a purist so sort that of thing does not bother me, doing the Talisa thing was both to add some poignancy and some expedience (people going to sit around for years wondering where Oona Chaplin was?) (Only thing I did not really like was the unexplained Asha - Osha weirdness , maybe it's out there but I have never heard Dave and Dan address it.) Other changes and condensations have been ok with me. If the show were not so well acted and the production values so high I would probably grade harder on the episode compositions, there are excellent segues but things jump around like a room full of cats in a lightning storm! I am used to it now.

Yeah I know, but what have Iain Glen and Ian McElhinney really had to do but act as sounding boards for Dany? Barristan Selmy kills a manticore is S3E1. Jorah Mormont does a little sword fighting in S3E9. In the books Selmy does another Dany save , never know on the show they do move or re-frame things from the books. (Arya's kill at Harrenhal is moved to a Frey soldier kill after the RW.) That's about it until a certain Selmy sequence in Dragons. Still having them around as good, even in the books who the heck does she have to talk too? Well Daario does get into the act, but I wonder how the heck that will play out on the show? (All her Dothraki Blood Riders are non speaking WAY in the background, and the Dothraki hand medians are all gone. She interacts with Missandei on the show, I guess that will go on?)

I don't see that we have any disagreement... except that we have not way of saying there are more readers here than non-readers. I do think we have more show-watching people who post , which I am sure is in the minority of show watchers. I can't imagine among those ~6 million viewers more than an uncountably small percentage post here! .0008% is a representative number?

Ahh, very good, there is a Selection Bias in this forum. As I mention sullied and unsullied critics-wise that Ran's ~ 7 calculation, becomes a 9.5! We have a non-random sample of viewers here (plus some trolls). As usual I have not seen much in-dept analysis from the voters here, people should read our esteemed board leaders analysis in the The Lion and the Rose Guide.

Pretty good! Well SOME whores got to HBO.... Most go to STARZ!

Rotten Tomatoes is giving each episode of GOT a rating this season. Critics score for E3 a 95% . http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tv_editorial/news/1929960/game_of_thrones_season_4_episode_3/?hub=15 Seems to be some divergence of opinion in this threat about that.

You liked the one thing that I thought was the worst thing! Inside the Episode have Dave and Dan spouting some nonsense about that sequence.

Or they had run out of CGI People Multiplier Money.

At first glance I thought "How did Natalia Tena get here?!" But I think the Mole's Town Madam is Lu Corfield with make up that made her look like Osha.

The Iron Bank of Braavos. It's there across 5 novels, but even Dragons it aint that big a plot point. In the show it keeps popping up all the time. Is this a foreshadowing? That GRRM, Dave, Dan and Bryan know of something even bigger for the IB. Have always wondered why the IB does not worry about The Others? I mean you don't want one of best customer bases wiped out!

Kudos to David Peterson , I think that is the longest High Valyrian he has ever had to write!

Ran, man!, our perceptions of Dany sure differ. I mean in the books, George made her a Juggernaut until Dance. I don't agree with the analysis.

A strong 9 until Dany. Then a 10! Emilia can really nail it when she is speaking High Valyrian. She was excellent this episode. I thought all the dialog was unformly better written this episode

George did write the teleplay for this episode. The whole wedding sequence must have been discussed by George with Dave, Dan and Alex Graves. Quite apart of who the perpetrators are ... what did you think about Alex Graves remarks about how carefully they composed and edited the visual narrative for that sequence?

Do you mean Marge putting down the cut but we don't see her turn lose of it? Unless my eyes deceive me there at least two sequences of (I guess these are digital) frames where one can see the end of the wedding couple's table, the place where it looked like Marge placed the goblet, and it is just flat not there! By POV I mean that the the camera is pointed at someone else or something else than the table. In fact as one poster noted there is shot where the end of table is just out of frame, so we can't count that shot. But the others are there.

Look at the frame just after Jof has cut the pie the pigeons are flying up Marg is clasping her hands , her mouth open apparently exclaiming. The long shot. The cup is just flat not there. As Jof returns to the table and the servants are picking up the pie , no cup! Medium shot. (By the by apparently the "pigeon pie" for the cutting is just to hold pigeons, apparently the real pie is elsewhere, because the serving maids immediately appear with plate of already prepared pie, actually that makes sense.) Anybody ever had Pigeon Pie? Does not sound tasty to me!

One thing that mystified me in the book is the hairnet amethysts. Now , if I remember, from the book The Strangler crystal does look like an amethyst. I figure the ones in the hairnet are all real except for one , have to know where the Strangler is, but that can be arranged. So if one can drop it into a cup of wine , at the last second, the damn thing dissolves in a microsecond? What was it a centimeter , millimeter in size? Leaves no residue? All that bothered me in SoS. I notice on the show , as most other readers have, that the necklace has almost greenish clear stones, tho, I must admit, have seen amethysts that are very light in color. I don't see the Olenna thing as a diversionary ploy, why make it so inconspicuous? The poison may not have been Strangler. Notice the first piece of pie that anyone eats is Joffrey (by the by one can see other people eating the pie in the background a second later). So did Marge have poisoned fork? Or was it the serving maid who had knowingly or unknowingly the plate with the only piece of poisoned pie?

Stepping through the 'frames' you never see Marge set the goblet down, that is she sets it on the table but her hand never releases it. Then we have quite a number of beats where either the camera POV is not on the tables or the area where the goblet was set is obscured. That all camera POV mind you.

If it's allowed in Dorne, ok. But that still would not make Myrcella queen in KL if women are not allowed to ascend to the throne. (By the by it seems that way, but I can't remember any where in the books where George explicitly says a woman cannot be an absolute monarch , so many pages maybe he does somewhere.)

Does anybody here ever ask this? It does seem if Joffrey was indeed poisoned , not sure how good forensics were in GRRM world?! Where did the poison come from? The books says, in order, FM knew the most and supposedly had everything on hand , the Maesters were just about a well equipped and knowledgeable, then random folk, such as Oberyn ... a few others knew. Now KL is big a FM could be anywhere, but seems an unlikely suspect. KL have other Maesters besides Grand Maester Pycelle, a possible suspect? Qyburn , studied to be a Maester, seems he nearly made it... a very good suspect. As I said KL is large, so not telling what kind of black market there is there.

I thought maybe somebody had photoshoped those grabs. But I just stepped through the sequence. Sure enough Marg does set in on the end of the table, tho, we dont see her let go of it. Then sure nuf it is magically gone! There are indeed some missing camera POVs. It does look as if it is magically back on the end of the royal couples table when Tyrion picks it up, but don't know if it's forced perspective or not, it does not look like it's in the same place Marg set it down, if she set it down. This kind of visual narrative is not exactly in the book, but then giving all the visual details on the page can make the writing seem awkward. Anyway , I think we know , pretty sure, that at least LF , Marg and QoT are involved ... others, I don't know. How it was done, has a front end, but a magicians back end!

That is some interesting frame captures. Since the scene and it's sequencing are so important , I can't image they made any continuity errors, tho I know they have made them in the past but Graves, Dave and Dan, and editor Katie Weiland eyes would have been in on the cutting. (I am supposing Bryan Cogman too.) Also this (again!) Hollywood Reporter:It's a mystery who killed Joffrey. If they look closer at this scene, will viewers be able to figure out who's responsible for the poisoning? Alex Graves:" I tried to shoot it and then edit in such a way that so that if they reveal later in the season who did it, it makes sense. If you watch what's going on, where the killer is and when, you'll go, "Oh, it's happening and progressing visually." It's not like you see it happen, because of the way he dies, but you will notice the movements and the adjustments." I don't think a mistake was made.

Some book readers got into a snit about it years ago, way before the show. Saying that LF lied to Sansa.... (Except that LF had to be part of plot ,no matter how complex.) A case could be made for several parties at the wedding and not at the wedding, or a collusion of parties. There is even some argument over wither the poison was Strangler or something else and if there were a lot of faints within faint within faints in the whole sequence... and that's the page ... not the show. Some of still puzzles me too.