Sword of the Morning Wood

Absolutely loved the discomfort on Tywin's face when QoT asked him if he'd ever slept with a man. :rofl:

I thought they made it abundantly clear that there was tension among the NW all the way back from the Fist. Last week, Rast was talking about 'having to look out for themselves' as Craster wasn't feeding them well and Mormont wasn't doing anything about it. Then it all came to a head as Craster was eating meat round his fire whilst the NW were expected to wait outside in the cold with sawdusty bread. Craster's remark about slitting the throats of the sick and injured just sparked what had been building up for a while. How anyone could watch the show and not understand what led to the mutiny, I don't know.

10/10 Not saying it can't hasn't or won't be bettered but it deserves the 10. Good - The mutiny at Craster's. The tension in the scene was brilliant. Craster's bluster at being called a bastard and then the seeming calming down and suddenly "but you are a bastard". Bad.....ass! Haertbreaking to see the Old Bear killed by that shit Rast but great TV. - Theon and "boy". I really like what they're doing with this part of the story. Theon's tear stained confession and admission that the Stark's were his real family and he betrayed them and burned everything good that he had was tough. And the full sadism of Ramsey dawning on everyone. - The BwB. Great scene, McCann was excellent. He IS The Hound for me. Whoever said his might be the best performances of the show, I'd find it tough to disagree too much, he's up there with Dinklage and Dance for me. Dondarrion was excellent, much better than I even imagined he might be. - Jamie and Brienne. Not too much happening but these continue to be great scenes. We see Jamie still has that fight in him but it's extinbuished only for Brienne to help light a bit of the spark again. - Loved the QoT again. Her scene with Varys was excellent. Nobody's made the Spider squirm like that before. - Dracarys. What a scene that was!!! Did the book justice for me.Dany was utterly epic and the scene with her marching out of Astapor with her army and her dragons was fantastic, sent shivers down my spine. I loved catching glimpses of the looks on Jorah's and Barristan's faces. A mix of confusion, pride and awe. OK Some the K'sL scenes were't great but weren't bad. Bad Bran. It might have been the first episode since Blackwater, for a long time with not one poor scene but I thought Bran's scene with yet another Jojen/3ec dream was rubbish. If they want to establish Brans's green dreaming ability and what the 3ec is, a simple conversation with Jojen would be much better. No need for a scene like that.

Absolutely loved this episode. We only got a snippet of Jon with the wildlings but I loved Mance's line something along the lines of "ever the artists" about the Others. I thought the meanicing undertones of what's about to happen at Craster's keep was done very well. I like what they're doing with Theon. Non-book readers are going to get smacked pretty hard in the face with Ramsey's level of cruelty and depravity when it dawns on them. I really enyoed the Riverrun scenes. The Blackfish was great, I loved Robb's reaction to Edmure (played perfectly) and even liked Cat's scenes this episode. The Jamie/Brienne scenes were excellent. Seeing Jamie's hand cut off was pretty harrowing, especially after he'd done his good deed to stop Brienne being raped. Steelshanks (I presume it's a character based on him) played that one brilliantly. Really enjoyed the council meeting. There's so many great scenes like that in the books with lots of main charcters discussing what's going on and making decisions. Loved it. I enjoyed Danearys toughening up and showing Barristan and Jorah who's boss and I loved the Barristan/Jorah dialogue which was lifted from the book. Also..."Meerenese knot"!!! :rofl:

Liked: - Theon's torture scenes. Hearing about it was pretty harrowing in the books and it looks like it'll be the same on the show. I loved the setting up of Ramsey to fuck with Theon. - Jamie and Brienne. I think they've caught the dynamic between those two perfectly. Brienne was even caught having a wee look at Jamie's 'goods' when he was taking a piss. The fight was fine IMO. Jamie still exudes danger even when he's in chains but I liked how they showed that Brienne is good enough to overcome an out of shape Kingslayer (still in chains). - I liked the introduction of the BoB. Thoros was different to how I imagined but I liked it. I thought they adapted that part of the story very well so far. - Sansa'a meeting the Marg and QoT. Rigg was excellent and again, I thought they caught the spirit of a fairly important scene very well. So-so: - I thought the introducation of the Reeds could have been better. My only real problem is that it felt rushed and the explanation of green dreams and Bran's importance felt rushed, given that it's pretty important. Liked the casting though and this can all be fixed in the next few episodes. - North of the Wall. They were just 'moving the story along' scenes for me. - Marg and Joff. It was quite funny to see Margarey wrapping Joffrey round her little finger with all her double entendres. I half expected Jack Gleeson to walk across the room John Wayne style. Dind't like: - Robb's scenes. I feel like Robb's becoming more unlikable than he was in the books and in earlier series. He's lost a bit of energy. - Cat and Tulisa. I'm not as opposed to the change in itself as some people, just found the scene boring. - Shae and Tyrion. Shae's already a well established character and their relationship is already well set up, I found that scene unnessesary. I suppose that makes it a 7/10 for me then. I'm just itching to get past the 'setting up the story' phase and get to the action.

A solid 7/10 for me. It was shame to completely miss the battle at the Fist but I understand why they saved the $$$ for other things. I enjoyed Jon's scenes. The giant looked cool. Tormund was brilliant and I thought Jon's discussion about joining the wildlings was better than in the books. I think Ciaran Hinds is a good Mance too. Robb's scene was pretty 'meh'. Tyrion's scene with Tywin was excellent. It's a great bit from the books that they kept to and the acting was brilliant. It really made me want to see Tyrion kill that prick. I liked the Margery bits. It was a nice way to show the Tyrell's 'PR campaign' to win over the people. The rest of the KL's bits just moved the story along really. I thought the Davos/Stannis bits were well handled too. This part of their story isn't particulalry great/interesting/exciting for me but they showed it well and moved it along fairly briskly. I enjoyed Dany's bits. I thought they condensed what they needed to and moved the story along quite well. The Unsullied looked brilliant and Kraznys was a real bastard and I'm looking forward to Drogon melting his face off. Thought they introduced Barristan well too and the little warlock girl was pretty creepy. I really liked as well that they left out a few major characters and focussed more on a couple of story lines instead of jumping around too much. I assume we'll see far more Arya, Bran and Jamie/Brienne next week. I think that's the best way to do it.

To be honest, I'd like the Reeds to be there as well but we all know there have to be some sacrifices in the adaptation. And any non-essential character is going to be 'on the block' so to speak. If you really think about it, neither of the Reed's are essential and if they decide to cut both (or maybe bring them in later) to balance the budget or devote more time to other storylines/characters which people would be just as pissed off if they scimped on, I'm all for it.

Make Jojen a couple of years older a bit more savvy and make Bran gay. Sorted!