An Ironborn Son

I'm going to start with two things that I really, really liked. The first being the moment where Stannis brings forth the flame sword. For me this will go down as the first real moment of grandeur this season. Robert's elder brother is ready to throw down and that scene came across beautifully. The other was Lord Mormont's reaction to Jon Snow. Yes, I know that Jon was a little out of character in the way that he reacted but it gave the Lord Commander a chance to talk it through with him and provide a key bit of mentoring. I thought all of the new characters were great, though I had similar problems as others did with Dontos and Craster. I think in my head that I pictured Dontos as being more Quixotic as a drunk and not just looking like a more out of place Samwell. Although he may surprise us, we'll have to wait and see. I think for Craster it was more that I didn't get the overall feel that I wanted, it didn't seem like a more than slightly dangerous place to be. I also thought that this would be the scene that if you were new to the show and had only seen season 1, this would probably seem out of place as you'd be waiting to see if Jon was going to do something more related to the other characters. Shae's portrayal continues to bother me and I don't blame the actress I think it more has to do with her lines being akin to Storm in the first X-Men movie. Basically, Shae's supposed to be a worldly gal who isn't just a floozy and has substance but you wouldn't know it from her very basic and cliched lines. I keep reminding myself that this girl has captivated one of the greatest minds in the Empire and I just can't see it with the bland pillow talk that seems to fall from her mouth. I know that HBO wants her to be some sort of sexpot vixen but whoever is directing them needs to tell her to try a less is more approach to the whole thing. As to that, my biggest beef with the brothel scene is that it is setting something up but how big can this moment really be? Readers of the book can probably figure out where I'm going with that notion but it seems like the whole scene then gets digested as nothing more than an execution which kind of takes away from Eddard's death, a death that worked so well because it comes out of almost no where and is a shown act of violence where so much of the other acts of brutality are off stage. Bringing it to the forefront seems like a mistake. I give the acting an overall 8 I give the feeling and mood after the episode a 10 I give the pacing and build up a 5