Alboin

9/10 (-) The only big downside for me was Jaime/Brienne/Margeary scenes. Somehow Jaime/Brienne have lost all their weird tension. Also Tywin opening scene was a bit unfitting for Song of Ice and Fire world for me, its artificiality and maybe even pomposity makes it more of LOTR scene in Peter Jackson's version of it. Hound/Arya scene was brilliantly staged and played (+) Sansa's frustration and introspectiveness is greatly performed (+) Absolutely loved the Martells, vicious and sexy as they should be. (+) Introduction of rivalry between Jon and Slynt/Thorne alliance was great (+) I enjoyed this episode very much.

(-) Dany scene was terrible beyond belief. Everything was false in it: the tension, the reactions, the wait - worst example of bad television, when they go after pahos postures. (-) No Lady Stoneheart (-) No cliffhanger whatsoever (-)Stannis acting like a reflecting cub (-) One-of-nowhere Ygritte appereance (again - bad lazy television) (-) another sweet talk between Cersei and Tyrion. Who are these characters again, do D&D even remember? (-) Asha's being a beach-rescuer (-) Can't believe they are still on Pod's sexual performance. (-) Sausage (+) Silent scene between Sansa and Tyrion (+) Varys' looks at Joffrey (+) Arya becoming what she's destined to become. (+) Davos, played by Liam Cunningham. I found myself rooting for him in a way I never did in the books Gave it a 7. Would be a good ep#4 or 5, not season finale

The problem with adaptation of all great books, which initially weren't made for TV/Film/Theatre, is that no one can beat them, because they are great. Of course RW is better in the book. Does this fact mean I wouldn't want to watch how someone made it on film (even if I knew how they did it)? NO.NEVER. Even if it would be random youtube user NedIsAlive75 who staged the scene in his garage - I would watch it. Did I like how HBO staged it? I did. Was it better in the book though? Yes, it was. No dilemma here, in my opinion.

my first 9 this season. Not even because of particular scenes (althought some were really great) but overall feeling was of a very dynamic and well-thought-out episode. Sometimes on the show it feels like they have an unachievable deadline for a script and have to rush to write, just not having enough time to really create a powerfull and yet faithfull adaptation to the books. But not this time (gladly) + of course final Sam scene, amazing piece of thriller. + the wedding, with Sansa's frustration and Tyrion's escapism, his threat to Joff and that awkward moment between Cersei and Loras... Loved it. No problems with the Sansa's kneeling for me, although I wished Joff's threat to bed Sansa would be played in the end somehow. + Daario and Dany sequence was just almost as imagined it from the books. + Liam Cunningham is just brilliant... Maybe my favorite actor on the show - Only big complaint I have is Varys being an extra in this episode and overall underusage him this season.

+ Ygritte/Jon. Finally their relationship is smth more then "a spy hooking up with the enemy girl" James Bond cliche... Emilia Clarke is never been so good as at this season. I actually started to wait for her scenes (!!! can't even believe myself) Osha showing her wildling side. Fury and sadness. Tywin/Joffrey little sparring. Both actors are so good... I just can't wait when they have a chance to unleash on each other. Naked Talisa ( as much as I hate this invented character... she's gorgeous) - Tormund and Orell being way more interested in sex/relationships stuff then their raid. Bear scene being told from Jaime's POV. Despite what's in the novel, I always wanted to see it through Brienne's eyes. Rushed feeling of Arya's escape. Something has been missed there. Either some groundwork or development of Arya's attitude towards BwB or just the screen time... Margaery being a sex expert. Even not taking in mind butterfly effect being caused to the book 4, all Tyrells as they are shown are starting to annoy way too much.

The main problem with the Bear scene is that it is told from Jaime's PoV. Regardless of how it was done in literature, it would be way more thrilling for the screen to show the whole thing from Brienne's point of view. She is being tortured, she's about to die, she is hopeless. And Jaime had to show up as a sudden turn of events.

I remembered another thing: Sansa's "Can I invite my family?"... Seriously? What are they smoking??? Yes, Sansa, you can invite rotten head of your Daddy, your missing sister and your older brother we're warring with!!! We all dance and eat a lot of meat. Idioitic...

And why you have been shown obsidian dagger then? Slayer is coming.

I don't have so much issues with this episode as many people does. I liked the pace, the rythm of it and that feeling of inevitability of evil's victory for the most and high value of little pieces of happiness for some (Jon and Sam) Particulary I liked whole Jon Snow/Ygritte part. Her revelation didn't bother me a bit. Yes, it was big deviation from the novel, but we cannot be inside Jon's head on screen. They had to show his inner ambivalence, that he's growing fond of these people, Tormund, falling in love with one them and still keepng his oath to the NW. Ygritte, who is clever, figured it out. Fine by me, women know everything about their men. - Liked Riverran scene - liked Jaime/Brienne/Roose stuff. - Ramsay/Theon scene was slowed way too much, but as itself it was very creepy, actually gave me the sense of how Theon was brokedown as we find him later in the books. - Littlefinger truimph over Spider was fun to watch. They are open rivals in the show, when one beats another it is explainable showrunners want to show us how he celebrates his victory. - Disliked QoT/Tywin very very much. It felt like it was taken from some daytime soap opera. Meaningless exchange of stupid insults when tons of inner action and character details are thrown out. - Disliked how Gendry was taken. It almost looked they sold him into slavery, that's not BwB at all, although I kinda enjoyed Thoros' confession - Disliked they didn't show how Tyrin told Sansa. If (!!!) you already choose to include that, which I doubt they should, make it juicy and painfull to watch, not just cut to weeping Sansa, that's some sort of lazy way out for writers and director.

The walking dead (like) fetuses, spa mansion beyond the wall and Loras enjoying a boy toy was :ack: Almost everything else was great, especially how Coster-Waldau and Maise Williams nailed their scenes. Also Sheeren is very very touching, Stannis' trauma is acted perfectly.

I guess I'm a little less enthusiastic as a majority of people this time... - Dany final scene was indeed truly brilliant, perfectly staged, fantastic acting by Clarke, Djavadi score is beyond expectations, camera, CGI - everything is the best motion picture quality. Never seen anything like that on television. - Tywin/Cersei scene is moving and tells a lot about both characters. - Jaime and Brienne reflections on what has happened in the previous episiode touched me - Mormont's failed attempt to spit on Rast almost put tears on my face, and Rast himself so easily hateable, great job. - Theon's monologue was one of the best moments for the character and the actor since season 2 (-) - I didn't like how coup at Craster's Keep was handled in general. I think they were aiming at "chaos" which is it, but for a scene to work as a chaos we have to understand who is who and what they want beforehand. Otherwise it's just a montage of screams and swords and corpses. In other words - they had to build some ground for something like that, don't just pull plotters as rabbits out of the hat. - BWB scene wasn't that remarkable for me as it was in the book. Maybe because Beric didn't look like a walking corpse as I imagined but rather as a noble pirate :) Maybe because the whole thing was staged rather neutral, where in my head it was always something fierce and pagan and very wild. - Sorcerer in a box. Is this going somewhere or just another stupid joke like Pod's sexual performance? - Sophie Turner happy moment was acted way worse then her frustrations. - Bran's dream... Uhm, what? Cat doesn't let Bran get to three-eyed-crow? How come? Gave it a 7

Solid 8 (+) - I'm loving how Emilia Clarke acting has improved since s2. Her jungling men around was quite fun. - Amazing Jaime/Brienne sequence. Whole cutting the hand - the action, the reactions, montage - everyting was handled by the director and actors just perfectly I would say - not a lot of Arya (sadly) but It was delightfull to see how M. Williams has grown, that look in her eyes when they're leaving the Hot Pie.. -Tobias Menzies as Edmure is just perfect. As unfortunate and clumsy as he should be, - Loved C. Russel as the Blackfish. His confidence actually projects some hope for the North cause, even if when we know how it ends up (-) - Chair scene. What was that? - Pod scene. In course of the years i came to some terms with instant side nudity shows inside GoT episodes treating them as a necessary evil, but this one is just too big and boring. More then 5 minutes of completely meaningless stuff, which is not even sexy! just boring. Not sure about Theon stuff. It definitely has something in it, his hope and despair, but either the pace of the story progresses too slowly or it lacks something to make perfect sense, as it did in books.

Voted 7, that's two points improvement since ep1 (+) Jojeen and Meera are weirdly likeable and fun I liked QOT herself, didn't like how the scene was staged at all. Since it couldn't be as long as in the book writers and director had to invent some device to make Sanda trust marg. and QOT. They kinda skipped it Liked whole Arya sequence, although I wish she would start to develop her "bad-assoness" more intensively. (-) Jon Snow and Sam stuff is still boring. When you kill all the events because of budget you kinda have to invent other more cheaper events. Sam falling down for 5 minutes is not one of them. Theon? At this point? I sense 8 episodes of whining... I guess they are heading towards Shay being aSansa "savior" over LF plot to abduct her, she will convince Tyrion to marry Sansa to save her. I don'like that one bit. Robb and Karstark can rent a room. Cat and Talisa scene came to us straight from Days of Our Lives.

That's a good point except we saw prisoners as prisoners in robes etc, but in the scene we see fully armored forces with pikes and swords etc

About 5 I guess... (-) Where is 2nd season finale Ros-Varis cliffhanger resolution? What a weak way to get out of "we-have-no-money-for-another-battle-scene" situation... Don't invent an army of TWD zombies to begin with, so there won't be a problem to deal with it. I just didn't get whole Herrenhol massacre thing... Are we supposed to think that Northern forces took over it somehow and then someone defeated them? Where was it explained? Yes, i know whole Roose Bolton and the brave companions story from the books, but on the screen it was just messed up. Charity (by Margery) in a middle ages setup? It looks just plain wrong, even if she has smth in mind Davos/Saladoor scene was just extremly boring. (+) Tyrion/Tywin scene is amazing (always happens when they stop inventing stuff) Dinner with Margery was ok, expect I found funny how they played that Cersei is so old and Margery is so young, when both actresess are lookikng pretty much of the same age (although I guess Lena Hadey is about 10 years older, but that's 30 and 40 older, not 15 and 40). And why not to give Loras at least smth if he is already included in the scene? Drogon and giant were cool, good job CGI team. Liam Cunningham hate to the Red Woman was very well played Whole Selmy scene including creepy little girl was great. I'm totally ok with skipping Arstan story, that could work in Shakespear theatre not on 21st century television.

Anyone else saw something from an actor who played Uncle Benjen in that mounted screaming WW with ice sword? Could it be Benjen Stark in his new fine look? And Esme Bianco boobs are so much more important then Rhaegar and prophecies on which whole ASOIAF saga based... No, really...

Everyone seems to like "Blackwater" (including me), perhaps none of previous episodes received such warm welcome... And such bad ratings, half a milion fall. Any idea why is this so?

I'm having zero problems with Jeyne Westerling/Talisa switch. We hardly ever met Jeyne in the books and even when we did it was sort of abrupt - yesterday, Robb was warring at Westerlands and all of a sudden - bam! - he's married. Such thing would never work in film, they had to establish something for the girl to make this turn believable. I'm pretty sure we'll find out why they made her Talisa from Volantis and not Jeyne Westerling from Crag, they will never leave it without explanation, it's just ahead of us. On the other hand in the books this affair happens AFTER and BECAUSE of the news Robb hears about his brothers, Jeyne comforts him. That was a way more better explanation to abandon his debt to Freys, then some random story about Volantis kids. Producers could easily recreate same reasoning with current Talisa.

I'm 100% on board with adaptation concept, especially since I understand that producers have a limited budget for each episode and have to avoida lot of horses, a lot of fights, a lot of extras, a lot of locations as much as possible... But... 6 minutes talk with a half-random Lannister guy (even ending up as it ended)? More and more scenes showing that Dany isn't happy to loose her dragons? 4 Minutes talk between Cersei and Tirion giving pretty much nothing to the plot progression or story? GRRM books have way more intersting things to boil this TV soup.

I would agree with your second point, except that you're mixing book and adaptation here. On the screen we see Arya as she is, yes, with short hair and some dirt on her face, but still this is Arya and she talks, walks, looks like a noble girl, despite of all her wilderness. Tywin would see that. Same thing happens in Shakespeare plays when some character switches clothes no one recongizes her/him, but if you would film that play nowdays (not in Globe Theater back then where this was a rule that all viewers accepted - if an actor changes his clothes-that's another character) - you would have to come up with something that will justify that no one recognizes same person in different clothes. Yes, Tywin never met Arya Stark before, but the fact that she didn't have a good bath for some time, doesn't make him blind. And that's why Arya doesn't serve him in the books, so he wouldn't see her all the time. Regarding your first point: yes, most of the Westeros thinks Cersei has Arya, but not Tywin because Tirion already told him that she doesn't.

Venting my likes and dislikes: - Tywin having no idea that he sees a noble girl in front of him al least... Tywin, as cunning as he is, would have guessed that the girl is little Stark in hiding right away (although scene is well played by the actors) - The ship with Meera and Jojen sailing away (Bran seeing green dream) - Gwendoline Christie's initial reaction to Renly's death. Too quick, too obvious, overacting; + Brienne swearing loyalty to Cat. Well done, Michele Fairly is always amazing, + Jaqen. Exactly as I pictured him. + Arya reaction to the Tickler's death, assassin incoming, well done. ~ Davos leading the fleet? Not sure about that... How Stannis and Mellisandra are going to forgive him when the siege fails? ~ Not sure about Halfhand yet, he seems good, but had too little screen time so far.