The hairy bear

7/10 IMHO; the problem with this episode was that it had to make up for the shortcomings of the previous ones. I think it's too late to have a scene explaining Stannis background and why he was at odds with Robert, or a scene with Robb remembering his father, or to introduce Talisa's background. Those scenes would have worked fine in previous episodes, but all together in a a single hour felt contrieved. Still, the scene between Tyrion and Cersei was pure gold. One of the best actings from Peter and Lena so far.

8/10 I take one point for the episodic nature of the episode from one location to the other, another half for the needless and out of place sex training day in the brothel, and another half for the mistep in Littlefinger's characteritzation.

He was Ser Hugh of the Vale, Jon Arryn's squire. Soon after Jon's death he was knighted, and that arose Eddard's suspicions because he wondered where a poor squire would obtain the required funds to pay for a horse and an armor. He sent Jory Cassel to question him, but Hugh refused to be interrogated because he considered him an inferior (Jory being no knight). He was killed the day later in a Tourney mishap, perhaps due to the carelessness of the Lannister bannerman Ser Gregor Clegane.

Just gave it a 6. Perhaps I've been too harsh and it deserved a 7. But IMHO, no more. The acting was great as usual and the script consistent. My main problem, I think, was with the direction. Opposite to how last week Alan Tylor was able to make ned's beheading a greater moment that in the books themselves, some scenes that were amazing in the books were disminished here. In particular, the "King in the North" scene didn't have the needed epic feel, and I couldn't help but being disappointed with the closing scenes. The worse thing was how it seemed like everyone had gone to sleep while Dany was "not burining" in this tiny pyre. :thumbsdown: This finale failed in the places I expected more from it.

Well, Ser Wyllis Manderly is freed and returned home in AFFC after Lord Manderly "beheads Davos and puts his head over the White Harbor's gates". I hope the quotation marks are appropiate... This chapter gives some hopes since... why would Lord Manderly muster an army otherwise? If his intentions were to submit to Bolton and the Iron Throne, why go to the trouble of paying for a fleet? He's so going to join Stannis! :drool:

Excellent report! Thanks Mastiff!! The visions from the House o the Undying would indicate that he's a fake. And in fact, the people that were there (Eddard, Robert,...) recall seeing the corpses of both of Rhaegar's kids. No one with first hand information was doubting this. The fact that people on ports have heard otherwise indicate that there's someone interested in spreading the rumour. Meeting the Young Griff will be exciting!

While I can see the parallel, there is a great difference in the portrayal of both situations: from the beginning of Dune it is made clear that Leto is going to die at Arrakis and that the protagonist of the story is his son Paul. Leto's death doesn't come as a surprise, and instead the author toys with the idea of an unavoidable fate.

Perhaps it's too long, but I would love to see this translated: “I have seen his face, and heard the thunder of his hooves. As swift as the wind he rides, and behind him his khalasar covers the earth, men without number, with arakhs shining in their hands like blades of razor grass. Fierce as a storm this prince will be. His enemies will tremble before him, and their wives will weep tears of blood and rend their flesh in grief. The bells in his hair will sing his coming, and the milk men in the stone tents will fear his name. The prince is riding, and he shall be the stallion who mounts the world.” It's said in the books when the crones in Vhaes Dothrak foresee the future of Dany's child. It would be great to see it in Dothraki, 'cause it includes many common words in their culture and would give us a sense of the general grammar and structure. And probably you'll have to translate it for the series anyway! :)

Thanks D&D for the fantastic job you've done, and for leting us to contribute in some way. To feel somheow involved in this project is great! I would show George feasting in both parties: as a Northman in the halls of Winterfell and then with dyed hair and beard in Illyrio's palace. :)

Many thanks Jughead! I really appreciate the time you have taken to write the notes and share them with us. This summary has been really great! Now I'm even more convinced that Coldhands is Benjen than before. "The ranger wears ringmail, a black cloak, with a black woolen scarf hiding his face." Not only his face remain unseen, but not every ranger in the Watch would wear ringmail. An very interesting chapter. While Coldhands identity is staring to become clearer to me, the mistery of who or what the Three-eyed Crow is is becoming more and more interesting. I guess it will be one of the great revelations of Dance.

HE, I don't think your criticism is fair at all. 1) Wikipedia and the Wiki of Ice and Fire were two different projects not mutually exclusive. One is an encyclopedic approach based in notability, vericability and neutrality. The other is a place to store every single bit of trivia knowledge related to the books. 2) You speak of "dilution of resources", but we are not resources. We are fans trying to have fun. I might not be interested in writting about the real world influences of George's work, but perhaps I enjoy writting Hot Pie's biography. 3) The pages on the Wikipedia are not being deleted for lack of references. They are being deleted because they are not notable. Plain and simple. Precisely because of that valid references can't be found: the books are a primart source (not acceptable) and fan pages are not reputable source (also not acceptable). Many of the articles in the wikipedia would never belong there, regardless of the existence of our wiki or the amount of collaborators there. 4) Please, check the wiki. Less than a quarter of the articles are now copied from the wikipedia. Many of the ones that were copied have been improved. A lot of new intresting articles have been created. And I am not aware of any copied article without attribution (an attribution which is much more prominent than what common usage establishes).

In fact, Amok always says that while he allows the use of his standard portraits, the ones from the Targaryen Kings are not allowed since they were done specifally for "The Art of Ice and Fire Book". I'm sure there should not be any problem with the others: Amok wouldn't give permission to use images he has given exclusive rights to someone else.

I can't agree with this assertion. I'd suggest you to have a look on the articles from the category, read some of the entries for the Targaryen Kings, or just see the huge Years after Aegon's Landing. There was plenty of good original work done on the wiki. And it still has great potential.

As I see it, the problem with the ASOIAF wiki is just the lack of contributors. We always were a small comunity and contributions became more and more scarece. I guess it's just lack of interest/too much laziness. And too many people devoting all their efforts to a) copy from the wikipedia without creating new stuff, or b) patrolling those who copied from the wikipedia without giving credit. And while I understand the reasons behind the non-images policy, we should upload a logo asap. This ugly flower on the main page gives a very bad first impersion, and I've never liked the tullys anyway.

Great news. Things are starting to move, and apparently in a fine direction. I assume we will be having cast anouncements periodically from now on. I haven't seen anything from McCarthy, but since he seems to be primarily an actor, do you guys think that he may be casted with some small role in the series? I don't know a thing about tv business, but I guess it would make sense to use him as a recurring character at least for the episodes he may direct.

Sounds very, very good!! So, we should limit the casting for the pilot to the charachters appearing in the prologue + the fisrt 8 chapters. This limits it to (in speaking order in the books): 1-Gared 2-Waymar Royce 3-Will 4-Eddard Stark 5-Jon Snow 6-Robb Stark 7-Bran Stark 8-Theon Greyjoy 9-Jory Cassel 10-Hullen 11-Harwin 12-Catelyn Tully 13-Viserys Targaryen 14-Dany Targaryen 15-Magister Illyrio 16-Robert Baratheon 17-Benjen Stark 18-Tyrion Lannister 19-Maester Luwin 20-Septa Mordane 21-Arya Stark 22-Sansa Stark 23-Jeyne Poole 24-Beth Cassel 25-Rodrik Cassel 26-Joffrey Baratheon 27-Cersei Lannister 28-Jaime Lannister Also, there're significant carachters that appear in the chapters without lines: 29-Rickon Stark 30-Sandor Clegane 31-Myrcella Baratheon 32-Tommen Baratheon 33-Jorah Mormont 34-Khal Drogo Finnaly, if you wanted to show flashbacks, you might cast: 35-Rhaegar Targaryen 36-Lyanna Stark