sertravisredbeard

I'm loving the people around Winterfell saying they're still loyal to the Starks. Does anyone else think that Brienne's horrible choice will be between killing Stannis and saving Sansa? Seems like it's going to take the place of having to choose between serving Stoneheart and killing Jaime.

Had anyone else been pronouncing "Cerwyn" differently in their head this whole time? I've always read it as "Ser-win", but apparently (according to Ramsay), it's pronounced "Ker-win." Or I might just have noticed something stupid that no one else dwelt on.

I think they saved Stannis for the next episode to throw off the whole "Episode Nine" being momentous and shocking thing. We all knew the battle was going to be this episode, and all the bookreaders knew it ended with Stannis showing up and saving the day. Throwing off the bookreaders and the Unsullied at the same time might have been the goal. I'm still upset about Pyp and Grenn though. Was Slynt dead or just shellshocked? If he's dead I'm more upset about that. His scene with Jon in Dance is Jon's best in the entire series. I liked Thorne's duel with Tormund. Him being more of a main character lines up with some people's predictions of him warming up to Jon when he comes back from his ranging and R+L is revealed. I hope so anyway.

Wow. The duel was one of the first scenes that I thought was better than the books. The Mountain slowly crushing Oberyn's skull was way more brutal than him just punching it. Ygritte's reaction to that baby made me think she's preggers with Jon's little snowbunny.

So did anyone predict that Locke would have his neck snapped by Hodor?

So was anyone else getting the vibe that Tywin sanctioned the Joffrey hit besides me? Or is that silly?

Wasn't Volantis the Free City that tried to reestablish the Valyrian dynasties after the Doom? I think it would be interesting if the Volantene slave revolt didn't go exactly as the readers expect it to. The Volantene leadership could be receptive to Dany when she shows up, since she's obviously blessed with very authentic Valyryian blood. If she explains to them what happened in Yunkai, Astapor and Mereen and insists their slaves be let go, will the leaders display any pragmatism and end their slavery? I know all through Dance the difficulty of upending a slavery based economy is made apparent, but it'd be surprising if Volantis chose to free its slaves instead of being burnt down by Dany.

Yeah I'm on the boat with people saying Victarion will die in Mereen. Moqorro, Barristan, Daario and Dany herself are all candidates. Once he's gone Dany will give the other Ironborn the chance of serving her or burning, and they can transport all her freedmen and whoever else wants to come with her to Westeros. Barristan will live because of the foreshadowing in Clash when Renly and Tywin were both trying to figure where Barristan was. I'm pretty sure they both said something to the effect that whoever goes to battle with Barristan the Bold at their side will win a lot of the hearts and minds of the smallfolk in Westeros. As for Jorah I'm being sentimental and hoping he meets up with Sam at some point with Sam's eyes going wide when he hears Jorah addressed as a Mormont before stammering and mumbling about how Jeor died in his arms and with some of his last breaths told Sam of his last wish being that Jorah take the black. GRRM might not give us that one though. It'd be cool.

That old man had other horses. That could be how Ygritte catches up. And Theon's Reek arc can still fit in if him and Ramsay simply leave the Dreadfort for Barrowton before Yara gets there. She'll probably turn around when she finds out Balon is dead anyway.

I just watched this episode for the second time to make sure I didn't miss anything. I thought it was good, and accurately conveyed the horror that was the Red Wedding. I understand that the TV medium can be difficult to translate and the producers are challenged to match anything up to the books. But am I the only one bummed out that they couldn't show any of the heroics of Robb's guys during the massacre? I was affected by the killing of Robb and Catelyn like everyone else, but some of the most memorable images from my reading of the chapter were those describing the actions of the Smalljon, Dacey Mormont and Raynald Westerling when everything goes downhill. Even the image of Wendel Manderly getting a quarrel through the throat without actually getting up and doing anything was surprising in its own right. I was really looking forward to seeing any one of Robb's guys throw a table on top of him that immediately gets punctured by crossbow bolts, then start whacking guys with turkey legs. Dacey knocks a guy out with a beer glass before getting taken out. I might be picking nits over an altogether excellent episode, and I understand that the audience wouldn't have cared about how nameless characters died but I was disappointed in this regard. Robb, Catelyn and Talisa weren't the only victims. The heirs to most of the Northern houses got decimated.

Also, I think they can explain why Gendry will go back to the BWB after Davos saves him, if he does end up back there. Melisandre can just be like "I was going to pay them anyway, but after I told them who your dad was they agreed you should go home to your uncle." If he escapes it will be pretty simple for them to tell him that. They were just trying to reunite him with his real family. It's not their fault they didn't know she was into burning people to hatch dragons made of rock.

I think this has been mentioned before but does anyone think that the non-book readers should have no illusions as to who has Theon? Every shot they show of Theon on that torture rack looks exactly like Roose Bolton's banner. Especially during tonight's dinner with Roose, Jaime, and Brienne displaying a flayed man directly behind them while they're eating. It's getting pretty obvious. I hope I'd be smart enough to notice that even if I hadn't read the books. Paul Kaye's depiction of Thoros keeps getting better and better. I liked the revealing of his history as to why he was in King's Landing and the type of priest he was before the war. The merging of Melisandre and the Ghost of High Heart was an interesting way to include some of the things said about Arya in the books. I was really hoping Jon would just throw Orell off the wall when they got to the top. Those wall scenes were just awesome. They made me think of how dead I'd be if I even attempted to climb a wall like that. The repeated "LORAS IS A HOMO" reminders are getting pretty silly, although I did laugh at the "sword swallower" comment. Those Freys are so weaselly it's great. I like that they included the line about Walder Frey having bad experiences when it comes to lengthy engagements. Ha. Oh. And Ramsay blowing the horn to wake up Theon was a nice reminder of Theon vowing to kill the man who was blowing the horn outside of Winterfell. I was actually kind of bummed to see Ros die. She was a good way to get inside different characters heads. I guess the writers are listening to wishes of some of the more vocal character-hater-fans.

Dillane did some good acting with that one-sided grimace he made while he was dealing with his wife and daughter. Brienne's facial expressions while listening to Jaime's retelling of his greatest moment were poignant. Ygritte was one hottie truly kissed by fire (and now ice). hahaha. But I was a little confused about how well that cave was lit up with one torch. I could complain about it not being realistic but that's stupid. I'm totally on the Talisa-honeypot bandwagon. In the books all of the older Westerlings did the same thing, so they're just streamlining it in the show. Sybelle Westerling and her brother Rolph Spicer set her daughter up to seduce Robb (intentionally on her part or not). Pretty much the same thing is happening, just with less complicated characters for the audience to remember. Roose's delivery of the news from King's Landing was hilarious. Letting Jaime hang their for so long without knowing was cold. Barristan is stringing Jorah on. He knows Jorah was the one feeding Robert info on Dany. We'll still get the Dany/Jorah rift later on, if not in this season but the next. I'd almost feel sorry for Cersei the way she's treated by her father, but we've all seen the shady shit she pulls. It was telling to show that Tyrion was the only one to say how straight up cruel it is for them to make Sansa marry in to their family after the way she's been treated by Joffrey and Cersei. And it showed how heartless Tywin is when it comes to promoting his precious family name. Him and Cersei both deserve what happens to them. Overall awesome episode. They keep getting better.

Yessss! That duel was one of the main reasons I wanted to see this book on screen. The firesword was pretty amazing. Plus I'm really included that scene Arya had asking Thoros if he could back a man that only died once. Friggin' heartbreaking. Shireen's a cute little girl, even with the greyscale. I think that will be confusing for non-book readers, just exactly what she has. I like that they're combining her with Pylos and Patchface, and she's teaching Davos to read. Her version of Patchface's song is way better than Patchface himself singing it would be too.

These discussions about "realistic" characters and their obviously implausible traits are cracking me up. It's a show and set of books about dragons, ice zombies, resurrected-by-fire immortals and magically face changing assassins. But apparently the notion of whores reading and women fighting are completely unbelievable. It's like GRRM and D&D don't take the fantasy genre seriously or something. That sarcasm aside I enjoyed the episode. I think the Dondarrion actor change works because this one looks older and more worn out, it's like each time he dies and comes back he actually ages. The duel should be great.