A Time for Wolves

- wrong comment for the wrong Arianne chapter! -

I didn't like them in the books, but something about TV-Ygritte is endearing. Maybe I'll start to dislike her healthily after the 10th "You know nothing, Jon Snow," but I right now I like this Ygritte a lot. Right now she's spirited without being obnoxious, although maybe the obnoxious part will come out soon. I love that the TV show isn't shying away from portraying Dany as she really is - her true nature is camouflaged pretty well until ASOS. Pretty shocked at seeing her khalasar dead and the dragons stolen, but I like this and I wish something like that had happened in the books, because it in hindsight it seems really odd that nobody tried it. I'm still lukewarm on Talisa - although her being a noblewoman makes this whole thing slightly more plausible. I loved the scenes between Robb and Catelyn so much, they're such a great pair on screen. The taking of Winterfell broke my heart, on the other hand, just as I knew it would. And when the Bolton betrayal was foreshadowed...another terrible moment.

Loved this episode in so many ways. Gave it a 9.

Gave it a 9 - Qarth was great, but the Dothraki shouldn't have been portrayed as so completely unaware of how to behave. Khal Drogo and his men were just fine when they attended a feast in Pentos. That was the only problem I had - apart from that, this episode shone.

I loved this episode. My favorite of the season. Watching it again. <3

+1 When we criticize, it's because we don't want to see this show tank because of the inconsistent, bad writing. I'd like to see GoT survive till the end of the series, which will be a decade away if we're lucky. If they're making it unwieldy, disjointed, and difficult to follow in the first half of season 2, what are non-readers going to do by the time Davos goes to Skagos and Tyrion is running around with The Golden Company?

I can't believe I didn't even notice The Mountain 2.0. Will have to re-watch the episode tonight.

I liked this episode. The Lannister-saving-a-Stark juxtaposition (Tyrion-Sansa and Tywin-Arya) was a nice touch, and I liked that they brought Tywin to Harrenhal instead of Bolton. I can't wait for Arya and Tywin to interact! And like many have said, I have never been so happy to Tywin Lannister as I was when he rode up and put and end to the torture. Cateyn, Renly, Stannis, Davos, etc were all fabulous. Even Littlefinger, and I usually hate Littlefinger. The shadowbaby scene was almost creepier than it was in the books - I can't wait to see That Scene in the next episode, because it actually stands out as one of the scariest scenes in the novels for me. I can't read that scene if I'm alone and/or it's night time. I wasn't a fan of the Jeyne Westerling replacement. Was anyone else unimpressed by the Robb-Talisa conversation? I dunno, I just didn't buy it and it felt out of place...she trots out some eye-roll worthy anti-war arguments, and he bothers justifying his actions to a village healer? :dunno: Just seemed to jar with the overall tone of the series. Also, one thing that I really appreciated about the original Jeyne Westerling of the novels was that she was unremarkable. In a story where all the power-player women are strong and proud, where some of them are seductive courtiers and others are warriors, Jeyne Westerling was strangely refreshing because she's the only queen who isn't quite worthy of her crown. She's just an ordinary, timid, somewhat naive teenage girl who is nice but bland, sweet and loving but not particularly strong, shrewd, or ambitious. Like Jaime Lannister observed, she's not worth losing a kingdom for. I always thought that was interesting, and even touching that Robb Stark saw something beautiful and worth fighting for in her. Talisa comes off as a character from a lesser romance novel: the spirited commoner who wows the alpha lord with her beauty, sauciness, idealism, and I'm-not-impressed-with-you attitude. I did my time with Harlequin*, I don't need to see that again. Another bit that I wasn't too impressed with was Joffrey's uber sadism with Ros (who has impressively managed to stay clothed this season) and Pycelle's unfortunate bedwarmer. It just didn't seem necessary. We already have seen his sadistic streak many times before, and if people didn't catch on then, they certainly caught on when Sansa was stripped and beaten - which, by the way, was even harder to watch on screen than it was to read. I love how she coolly swept out of the throne room after that, even managing to impress Tyrion. No wonder Joff hates her: no matter how much he hurts her, she won't let him take her dignity and her self-respect. Go you, Sansa, I liked it when you did this in the books too. *for the laughs, I swear.

Pretty solid, I especially liked all the Lannister parts. I agree with those who said that emphasis on Ros, at the expense of some truly wonderful opportunities with Craster's Keep, was unfortunate. There was no suspense or any real exploration of the creepiness surrounding Craster's Keep (not a fan of how they depicted Craster either - weird casting/costuming), they barely hinted at the mystery of Craster's sons, and we should have seen the deserted villages. I also think they should have stepped up Bran's greenseer storyline, a complaint I also had in season 1. But that's pretty much what Benioff and Weiss have been doing since season 1, emphasis on the sensationalist sex at the expense of scenes that could helped us get in the characters' heads even further, or scenes that bring out the creepy, fantastical, genuinely weird supernatural element of this series. Sorry, I know I keep harping on this, and there wasn't even much sex in this episode. I'm not against nudity or sex on TV at all, but it has been pretty off-putting to see this rich story trashified for ratings at the expense of the storyline. I keep saying it, but 10 hours is not nearly enough time for us to get into the characters skins in the way the books do, and I want the TV show to create time for us to just explore the characters, not just squeeze in the exposition, complex plot, and fleeting character development and then devote 5 precious minutes out of a 55 minute time slot for a naked prostitute/orgy/whatever. I have heard people dismiss GoT as trash because of the excessive nudity, and while that's obviously not a fair assessment, it does indicate how pointless those scenes are. I'm not one of the people who finds the sexposition even remotely necessary (sometimes not even in the books, for that matter). There are plenty of more effective ways to relay that information, and in fact I think this episode proved it. Everything was deftly explained to the viewers without relying on monologues, unnatural conversations, or moaning whores.

Awesome about Dinklage! Couldn't access the site this morning for some reason...

[quote name='Yngwie the Enforcer' post='1607620' date='Dec 3 2008, 12.09']Excuse me, I've just soiled my breeks. :smoking:[/quote] Hahaha! I know, me too.

"The things I do for love." OMG. OMG. SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you actually start shooting in the UK by summer of 2009, I will be there and would LOVE to be an extra! Thanks for posting again to reply to our questions!

Congratulations, and thanks for posting here and taking suggestions from fans! I third, fourth, and fifth Peter Dinklage for Tyrion. It is so perfect. May I also suggest [url="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40974000/jpg/_40974236_polly.jpg"]Polly Walker[/url] (who plays Atia in the HBO/BBC series, [i]Rome[/i]) as Lysa Arryn.

Oh okay. Darn it.