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packersfan

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  1. I gave a 9. Really only a few complaints, haha. I was under the impression that the battle occurred during the day or at least the sun was rising as "the ghost of Renly" saved the day for King's Landing. Thinking about it though, I see two reasons for making the battle at night: 1. Increased effect of fire and wildfire! 2. Can "hide" more soldiers in the darkness, thus not requiring a TON of extras or CGI. I wonder if they got rid of the whole CHAIN across the bay or if that will be elaborated on in the next episode as Davos and Stannis attempt to escape to safety. Obviously due to budget restraints??? they eliminated the awesome sounding ship to ship fighting where in the books actually Tyrion is attacked by the kingsguardsman and Pod saves him. Thankfully this episode did not introduce any drastic plot diversions from the books...since Martin himself wrote this episode, he stayed pretty faithful to his own work, haha. I was going to criticize the opening scene with Bronn and the Hound as just another chance to show boobs, but the scene actually worked and wasn't just wasted camera time for HBO smut, unlike earlier scenes this season. Those are my criticisms, but on a whole this episode was the best of the season, even though it had a low-budget feel to it (besides the wildfire)!
  2. Yeah, the Robb romance is just completely messed up. Granted I understand that either way he will make a stupid mistake for a king who is pledged to another to keep a strong alliance, but in the books it was so much more sudden and impulsive. He stormed the Crag, then found out his brothers were killed and Winterfell lost, then Jeyne Westerling (daughter of a Lannister bannerman...adding more depth and complication to the story) "comforts" him eventually leading to them having sex. Then Robb does what he believes is honorable and marries her, completely disregarding other consequences such as pissing off his bannermen. We are getting a little of that from the show (mostly due to Jaime's escape and killing of Karstark's son)...I don't know why Karstark really cares that Robb is with this "foreign bitch"...would make more sense if a Frey had said that. Anyways, these writers just mucking up the story. Love the show for the action, the intrigue, the incredible costuming, design, etc, but feel they are really doing too much when they have this excellent material that maybe needs TINY tweaks to fit on screen...but not these big sweeping changes.
  3. Entertainment wise 9/10. Faithfulness to the book drops it to a 6/10. This episode introduced a flurry of HUGE plot diversions from the book. The only plot the seemed to actually follow the book was Theon "killing" Bran and Rickon. Otherwise, Jamie kills this Alton character (WHY???) and accelerates the story of Karstark forward. In the book, Jaime and the Lannister men killed some Karstark men in battle. These men were captured and at some point Karstark killed them in prison and then Robb had to kill him for killing POWs. I believe this all happened after Lady Stark unilaterally sent Cleos Frey (now dead in the show), Jaime, and Brienne to Kings Landing to trade for Sansa and Arya. Just clumsy writing! I was really hoping they would finally let Ygritte go and Jon join back up with Halfhand like in the books. Now that he is captured, I feel like they are going to make Jon look more like a traitor than in the book where Halfhand ordered him to join the wildlings and ultimately kill him in combat. Now, I feel like they are going to have Jon fall for Ygritte first and then run into Halfhand and have to kill him. Again, just souring the story. I don't remember the thirteen getting off'd in the book. All I remember from the Undying is that somehow they got the dragons? Dany went to them and they almost killed her when one of the dragons burned down their dwelling? Another completely strange and unexplainable story written by HBO for no reason. What is with the Tyrion and Cersei sob session about Joff? Completely making Cersei look like a poor victim when she really is a bitch...what happened to that Cersei??? Too much time being spent making us "feel" for Cersei and Tywin Lannister. Sheesh, Tywin taking a liking to this obviously high-born girl? Feeding her? Roose Bolton didn't even do that in the book and he was from the North, thus a "good guy" at first in Arya's eyes. I didn't read the book before Season 1, so I don't know how much was changed, but I feel that not so much was changed as to endanger future plots, meaning when I read Clash of Kings and basing past events on what I saw in the Season 1, nothing clashed, but this season lots of MAJOR plot and character changes. O well.
  4. Good point about the Freys and Robb...this nurse just makes the story less believable. What would the Frey's care if he fools around with a foreign nurse? However, look in the books, their issue is that he fools around with Jeyne Westerling and then feels compelled to marry her as the honorable thing to do and the fact that he falls for her. The issue is the marriage! One of my friends thinks they put this nurse in, so they could introduce this romance in the second season rather than the third (third book is when it all happens). Really? Why? We don't have enough other things to keep us appetized! We really need an even DUMBER romance??? This is going to make Robb look even stupider than he was in the books when he broke his oath with the Freys! As for Osha, Bran, Rickon, and Hodor and the lack of Reeds, I think this is going to problematic. My friend thinks that they must run into the Reeds later (next season...HBO didn't want to hire more child actors maybe this season). Since in the books Osha and Rickon go one way and the Reeds, Bran and Hodor go north, how will that work without the Reeds? Also, remember that eventually Davos is dispatched by Manderly of White Harbor to find Rickon. Hopefully, the writers have only rearranged events a little and not completely bungled up these seemingly little things, which could have far greater impact. As for Jon and Ygritte: I saw someone saying that it made no sense that Halfhand and the other rangers would leave Jon to execute her, but this IS how it happened in the book. However, HBO changed it by having her then ESCaPe and Jon chasing. In the book, he lets her go. They don't meet up again or start any relationship until he joins up with Mance Rayder. Are they just extending the time they spend together before he lets her go? If so, how are they going to explain that time to the other rangers. When he let her go in the book, it was fast. Jon was able to say he finished her off (or did he say she got away?)...either way, there was no suspicious long time where Jon was separated from the group. Seems the writers are anxious and impatient to tell parts of the story they are really excited about instead of taking their time and letting the story get there. I really think the show is a million times easier to watch when you haven't read the books. It is nice to know what will happen and who everyone is, but at the same time it is a major letdown when you know what happens next or SHOULD happen next and then the HBO writers produce a major twist that completely alters that story. Oh well, maybe I should just go back to nitpicking about movies and shows based on history that fabricate and completely change historical occurences for entertainment purposes like Benjamin Rush in the John Adams miniseries being alive AFTER Abigail Adams died, despite him dying in the real world BEFORE her. Oh HBO, sheesh.
  5. I gave it a 6, though I probably should have given it more like an 8. Loved Tyrion and the riot scene. Well done. Liked the Night's Watch scenes, though I'm worried they are condensing the story and skipping parts? Don't like this Lady Talisia. Don't mind her so much...obviously would catch Robb's eye, but why couldn't they do that with Jeyne Westerling (someone whose family has TIES to the Lannisters and all that junk.) Instead we get this random hot chick. Disappointed the Reeds aren't involved. Wondering how they are going to split up Bran and Rickon, if it is only them, Hodor, and Osha. Are Hodor and Bran going to go it alone to the Wall? I just see major problems there. Also a little disappointed they shifted parts of the Winterfell story around. Would have loved to see the Bastard Ramsey "break" the siege for Theon and then turn on him revealing his true identity. We'll see how they do it. Just seems again, unnecessary divergences from the story for no really good reason.
  6. Yup, someone said it. This episode was great because the writers focused on moving the plot forward, even if they deviated or altered things (though nothing was GLARING in the episode). See HBO writers??? Forget about spicing up the show with T'n'A and just get on with the story. That is what we are here to see! Things are started to gear up. Soon the Night's Watch will be fighting for its life against White Walkers. Wildfire is brewing. I give it a 9/10.
  7. My friend and I were just discussing how we almost wish we had not read the books first. I hadn't read the books before watch Season 1 and I just loved it and it got me into reading the books. Now Season 2 rolls around and I am seeing where HBO is making deviations and adding and changing scenes and at some points they just seem unnecessary. The two scenes that struck me as wasting time in this episode that could have been better spent developing and telling more of the actual book story were Joff and the prostitutes; Robb and the field nurse. Both seemed unnecessary to me. First, neither happened in the books (that is not to say they could not have happened, since neither Robb nor Joff were POV characters in the book). Second, what was the need? Again HBO is acting like a horny teenager and must have T&A on-screen wasting time. We know prostitutes are prostitutes and we know Joff is a "cunt". Did we really need an even more sadistic scene than him having Sansa beaten and stripped? As for Robb and this field nurse. I really hope she disappears and doesn't ruin the actual plot of Robb falling for Jeyne Westerling. Again this scene just added little in the way of plot besides throwing out the age-old argument against war that the little guy pays the price for the big guys' fights. The fact that the show has to pick and choose which characters to even show a glimpse of in each episode begs the question why they waste time on additional scenes that do NOTHING to further explain a characters inner thoughts and motivations. I am fine with HBO expanding on some things that we did not "see" in the books, like Renly and Loras relationship, since the POV characters were not able to be watching that, but these writers are having a little bit of a problem weighing which expansion is necessary and actually useful. Showing me AGAIN that Joffrey is a dick is redundant, especially when you had to write a new original scene to do it. Showing me that Robb is in a little over his head and really is still very young is not entirely necessary (though it might be the better of the two), especially when you need to write a new scene to convey it. Com'on! We have a whole plot line coming up where we find out that Robb is not completely grounded by duty as a king.
  8. Again, the Danaerys scenes were just slow and dull, though it is nice to get a visual for what we are dealing with in the East. Enjoyed getting a glimpsed of Harrenhal. Disappointed with the combination of the stories of Melisandre birthing the shadow. In the books she and Davos don't smuggle until they get to Storm's End and need to break into that fortress. I really think they should have stuck with the book on this and had Renly just killed by a shadow out of the blue and leave everyone wondering what just happened like we all did when reading the book...THEN have the revealing scene with Davos and Melisandre just like in the book. Amazing how Martin in the books revealed things in a much more interesting and cinematic way than these directors and writers of the show, laying everything out there so that the idiot viewers don't have any mystery. I rated the show a 6...I gave last weeks' (the best so far - an 8). I think this episode continued to move forward, included many great things from the book, but dragged in places where they show writers insisted on introducing their own material (Joffrey torturing prostitutes, Robb receiving an anti-war diatribe from a field-nurse). Neither scene was necessary, Everyone who has read the books OR watched the shows knows that Joff is a royal prick monster. And everyone knows that war hurts the innocent and those who have no real stake in the whole matter. Again, why this scene. Wasting time on things like this forces the show to combine acts like moving the Davos and Melisandre scene to before Renly's death. In the show, it makes no sense. Where is Davo's smuggling her into. Why do they need to go to a secret passage? Renly's camp is in the open. It seems like they actually filmed and wrote the scene intending them to be breaking into Storm's End, but then in editing stuck it before Renly's death (which I am assuming is going to be in Ep. 5, unless they scrap it and confuse viewers completely.) I just will never understand the need on the part of directors and screenwriters to rewrite excellent source material.
  9. Good, someone said that the drowning did not happen in the book...I know in future books their are those who are drowned and brought back.
  10. Number 1 reason I think this episode is the best so far: No wasted f#*king scenes. I mean I don't recall there being so many sex scenes in the book just for the sake of a sex scene. The first two episodes were plagued by this horny need to have the brothel featured. Littlefinger's conversation with Ros (A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME and NOT EVEN IN THE BOOK!) This episode, the only sex scenes were with Renly (to remind of his homosexual relationship with Loras...is that in the book, I can't remember) and to bring that question of Margarey's viginity that is a big deal in later books ;) My tip to the producers, directors, creators of this show. Stick to the books...don't add in extra sex scenes just for the sake of sex scenes...The show could have absolutely ZERO sex and would still be great. Stick with Martin's sex scenes and you will be golden, since those actually move the plot forward in some way! I gave this episode a 8/10. We finally got some real action. I LOVED Tyrion's scene with Pyrcell, Littlefinger, and Varys...at first when Varys popped up I thought Tyrion got caught in the act, but then I remembered that Tyrion was throwing different stories out to the untrusted others to catch the leak. Loved Pyrcell getting grabbed up, just like in the book...except we didn't see him piss himself, haha. Isn't it a little early in the story for Shae to be Sansa's handmaid? Wasn't she a handmaid for some other noble first? And live in her own secret mansion and have that singer that Tyrion eventually had turned into stew? I suppose they have to condense...and all those things are not ABSOLUTELY necessary to move the story along...as long as eventually Shae's identity is discovered, etc, etc. This episode showed the potential and brought back memories of the first season! 8/10...remember less sex is better (if we wanted porn, we would just watch porn).
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