Lord Belmore

I have chills, and it's not just from my A/C. 10. Only complaints are that the end felt a little rushed, Tyrion's injury scene just felt awkward, and I agree that someone(s) shouting "Renly" would have been nice. But having Cersei with Tommen on the Iron Throne was an inspired scene, and the writing was absolutely superb throughout. Wonderful, wonderful television.

I gave it a 9. I'm wondering how they're going to do John and Qhorin, I'm a bit worried about whether or not they bring in the Reeds next season and don't care for Osha, and it was a little King's Landing-light. Everything else, including the plentiful changes, was superb. I have to ask, though: does anyone really still think the show is making Theon more sympathetic? I used to see that opinion frequently, and I've always really disagreed. I love the execution of Theon in the show, but I really don't think he's any more likable or sympathetic than in the books.

I was ready to be mad about Theon killing Rodrik instead of the Boltons, but Roose mentioning his bastard erased that from a deficit to a gain. We still get the Boltons, they'll still betray the Starks, but Theon takes out Rodrik as the more emotional choice. I didn't dislike anything else, so thumbs up to the episode. I do hope Daenerys still somehow gets her visions in the House of the Undying, but I didn't love it enough that its lack will ruin anything for me.

I thought it was pretty much perfect. I was gushing throughout the episode. My only gripes: -I still think Asha/Yara was poorly cast, but I already penalized that in the last episode. -Shae is annoying, but I liked her no more in the book. As such, it's a very small issue.

It was good as usual, but I'll nitpick a bit. My three biggest issues with the episode: 1. Craster/Jon Cliffhanger. This feels really out of place, and I'm curious to see how they resolve this. I suppose it doesn't have to harm anything important (Jeor can die any number of ways without much loss, the Craster/Others reveal still occurs) if they do it properly. This could quickly become a non-issue, but it just shocked me somewhat. 2. As almost everyone has noted, Yara/Asha really lacked the spice that made the character jump out in the books. I don't care about her appearance (and very well would have expected her not to be comely), but the personality simply has not made the jump to the screen. 3. I'm still also sad about Patchface and Shireen apparently being out. The Dragonstone scenes had such a creepy atmosphere in the books, and they were part of it. Thankfully, I don't see any of these mattering too much going forward. Shae is annoying, but that will just make a certain moment that much better. Also, was I the only one kind of glad when Rakharo died simply because they scared me into thinking they'd stick him in as a love interest for Daenerys based on the previous episode?

I ended up giving it a 7. The Good: -Tyrion and Joffrey are at least as great as they were last season. Sansa and Dantos were also good. -The CGI dragons/wolves look wonderful. -They're doing a great job fleshing out Robb. -I had no problems with Craster's Keep, and it fit with how I had imagined it. -The ending bastard montage was absolutely perfect. -Stannis approving the letter denouncing the Lannisters and their incest was excellent. -The Cersei-Joffrey scene was superb. -I haven't seen many people mentioning it, but I really liked Bran's lone sequence this episode. How Bran is learning to rule is a nice foil to how Joffrey is learning to rule, and Luwin is a very likable character. It also gives a glimpse of some of the negative sentiments stirred even from a war the Starks, and the viewer as identifying with them, view as necessary and just. -They didn't have much to work with in this episode, but I think all of the new actors will be fine. -I actually liked the Ros scene well enough; however... The Bad: -My problem with Ros isn't that her scene was bad but that we're losing other scenes to stick her in. Without her lead-in to the bastard-killing, we could have had a decent scene with some actual dialogue re: Arya, Yoren, Gendry, et. al going North. -While I liked Robb's scenes, I am a little sad they took out the "send Umber" dialogue. It would've been a quick way to add some development, it would have pleased book fans quite a bit, and it would have been more clever and only equally time-consuming as what they instead went with. -The Cersei-Littlefinger scene. It just doesn't fit with my conception of Littlefinger's character, though I understand why they're doing it. On the bright side, Cersei's response was comical, and it clearly displayed her philosophy on power. Maybe I'm just a book-Littlefinger fanboy. -Without a doubt my biggest problem was moving the Cressen/Stannis scenes from the beginning to the middle. I don't think the actors were bad, but I think the adaptation essentially sucked all of the atmosphere and mystery out of the scene. I think that scene would have really benefited from being more like the book, coming at the beginning as an introduction to the new characters right off the bat (after which they could have been ignored the rest of the episode to please the crowd in seeing the Season 1 characters for the remainder, rather than randomly sticking them somewhere in the middle of this as was done). It was such a great season-opening scene, and I was really looking forward to it in advance. Unfortunately, I was left disappointed. -The Daenerys-Rakharo scene was just weird. I'd take that entire scene out and give screentime to something more worthy. -I'm sad Riverrun appears to have been removed thus far, but at the same time, I don't know what I would have taken out that would have yielded sufficient time to show it an a worthwhile manner. Maybe the Cersei-Littlefinger scene and the Ros scene would have been better replaced with a decent Riverrun, but I suppose there could also be budget issues with adding Riverrun to the mix. We'll see if they add it in the future, I suppose. All-in-all, it was solid given what they needed to do. Most things left unmentioned (costumes, setting, camera work, the general feel of the world, the shifting intro, etc.) all remain very high-quality.