Xasthur

I just read over this again, and there is a female arena fighter, who is half naked and who's tits are bouncing? Oh, that's my GRRM again...

I couldn't watch it until a few hours ago, I think everything which was great about this episode has been said. What bothered me: - No dialouge between Robb and Roose. I expected Roose showing off that letter with Theons skin, they even showed Ramsay flaying his little finger, why not use it. That would be a great, indirect reveal, and give the whole episode more impact about how the Boltons changed sides. - Roose stabbed Robb with a knife. I hoped he had no helmet on, so we could see it's Roose, but there is no pink cloak, no sword through the heart. You can't really distinct the lord of the Dreadfort from a mere foot soldier, that sucks. - No mentally challenged Aegon for Cat to kill. But I can live with that - I didn't like the music during the slaughter - I didn't like The Rains stopping before the actual slaughter and that there was nobody singing Thats it. Other than that, they nailed it. Hats off for the guy who plays Walder Frey, and all the Extras who played Freys (they really looked "frey-ish").

I think we can say for sure that KL was mainly influenced by Konstantinopel. The geographic location, the way enemies are forced to besiege it, the courts, the Hills, ... and the Great Sept of Baelor even looks like the Hagia Sophia (after the Ottomans attached Minarettes). So i think it's pretty obvious... like the Wall was influenced by Hadrian's Wall in Britain.

Good episode overall, I liked the camera angles and the staging of the Wedding. If they already used so much extras for Tyrion's wedding I believe RW and PW will be visually impressive. Not much jumping arround, I don't mind when we don't see every character in every episode, so everybody has long scenes without a cut. In The Walking Dead they had complete episodes only about Andrea and Michonne and even though the story development was kinda slow, I prefered it this way. Sansa kneel - well, Sansa is already getting all the hate because she discriminates dwarfs so they have to make her kneel. The sex talk has to stop. In every added scene they do it. When Mel used "dried-up-cunts" - she is a priestess after all. This is a line I expect from Cersei or the Hound... I don't think it hurts if you have leeches on your penis by the way, but maybe these were cursed leeches or something, or something like the mutant leeches Khan uses in Star Trek II. The ending was weird - like, just, badly edited. The cut from Sam to the credits was clumsy and the music wasn't really playing ... But I have to say one thing: PETER DINKLAGE WAS NAILING IT TONIGHT. Holy shit, you can see he studied drama in London...

I think he was the bear in Harrenhal.

They need to make him more likable, because they've made him more horrible before...

I think the strength of this series, the good writing, is more and more fading. I remember scenes from season 1 and 2, which are not plot-driven and have a boring/filling setup. But they were still enjoyable because of the good dialogues. Always something unexpected happened, and somebody always dropped something cool. Wasn't happening recently. It's like when somebody tells you a story, and you always wait for the punchline, but the whole story somehow fades into obscurity.

Probably the worst episode of the entire series. Hard to watch... the few nods to the book readers don't do it for me. 1. Robb/Talisa awkward as fuck. 2. Roose Bolton scene was rushed again. 3. Jon/Ygritte was good. I like Rose Lesley more and more 4. Drogon is one ugly monster, god. I imagined the dragons a bit more majestic and less directly jumping out of Resident Evil 5. Jamie/Brienne was fine 6. Is Gendry retarded or something?? 7. I'd like Theons daily torture more when it's without the vampire chicks from Bram Stoker's Dracula. Why did they use the spearwife-scene from ADwD for Ramsey's whores? 8. I expected some more from the Tywin-Joffrey-scene. Thank God there are two outstanding actors doing this To be honest I am a bit worried about the future of ASOIAF if GRRM really wrote most of this stuff. I'm fine with one weak episode however, as long as they carry everything out in an epic way in the last three episodes. EDIT: "Hodor" cracked me up though

I always found Tyrion something like a parody or satire on the classic fantay dwarf.

Ros was the TV shows plot device. They needed a character who could interact with Theon in Season 1 and Varys and Littlefinger in Season 2/3 to give those characters scenes. Plus she filled that hole caused by the lack of Alaya (or whatever that brothel momma was called in ACoK) and Dontos. I'd say she did her job. I mean, she was so much of a side character, only-TV-viewers were asking who that woman was Joffrey killed at the end of this episode. I always got the impression, only book readers were caring about this character and even know her name... I would state that if you all were watching another show not being based on the books you've read, you won't mind her either.

What I liked: - The climb and the cheesy hopeless romantic ending with Jon and Ygritte. The climb was visually impressive and scary (ok, I'm scared of heights by myself :ack: ). The cutting of the rope by Orell was also needed, I don't get why people complaining about too much action. It's a TV show and the climb was the title of the Episode - there has to be a terrifying moment otherwise it would come over as too much of a cakewalk. The romantic kiss at the end was also pretty touching. I don't care if it's cheesy, there are also some cheesy kissing moments in the books too. I think it came over as strong since Ygritte and Jon had the discussion about betrayal before... the death of Ygritte has to have some sort of impact on the viewer at least. Actually I didn't really care for this romance in the books. I really liked her in this episode. I thought her accent was annyoing but in this episode, with the clothes and the messed up hair, she really comes over as being a wildling. - Littlefingers ladder-monologue. I like voice-overs over different scenes in this show, and it's never wrong to show how much of a maniac Joffrey is. And they finally gave Littlefinger something badass and villianized him. Before that he was like Cersei's bitch. - Ramsey and Theon. Alfie continues to be the best actor on the show, together with Charles Dance. Sadly he only has torture porn in this season so he won't get much critical appreciation. And the Ramsey guy - well, actually I imagined Ramsey a bit more animalistic and savage, this portayal is more like a typical Hannibal-Lector-Hollywood-psychopath thing. But he does it so well. I really liked how he puts the knife towards his own finger before he tells Theon he is lying, that really shows the audience "Hey, this guy has some serious issues". It implies that there is something more going on in his twisted mind than just sadism. What I did not like so much: - Arya and Mel. I never really liked the Gendry and BwB storyline in the books, maybe that's way. I know it has to be done, since Gendry is Edric now, and Arya needs scenes because she can't go to Braavos too early. But it bored the hell out of me. But that's maybe just me - Despite how good NCW and the guy who plays Roose Bolton is, I expected that scene to bit a lot more dramatic - it felt rushed inbetween other importent scenes which doesn't do that chapter justice, since it actually reveals for the first time that Roose is playing his own game. Maybe we see more of that when he leaves Harrenhall with Jamie. And I expected the hall to be bigger. I know, the Budget, but it can't be so difficult to find a bigger indoor location??

I've read that too, long time ago though. It's a good book but you have to remember that it a) displays the 14th century which was basicly a time of crisis and decline (before that, medieval europe seem to prosper, generally speaking) and b ), as far as i can remember, the book focuses very much on the decline of France in the Hundred Years War. That being said, this book is more of an attempt to get into a 14th century guy's mindset confronted with misery and decline than being an accurate academic description of that time. There were also flourishing elements, like the rise of Burgundy, the beginning of the Renaissance, the consolidation of Castille, etc. But considering the aesthetics of Westeros, that book seems to be quite close to them. The muslim world however had little to do with the western middle ages, despite all their interactions. Only because a society hasn't gone through the enlightment of the 18th century doesn't mean it's an equivalent to the Islam.

I was wondering the same. If Barristan really lied to his face so he can keep his little secret about Jorah only to backstab him later, that would be pretty much out of character, wouldn't it?

I'm really suspicous how they build up the Purple Wedding. It CAN'T be in Episode 10 - it just can't. So Tyrion is arrested directly after the wedding - maybe they stretch that and making Tywin/Cersei research first and then imprison Tyrion?? Because otherwise, Tyrion just rots in the dungeon until he kills Tywin and Shae, and that has to be in Episode 9. If they rush through that in like the middle of Season 4, they introduce Oberyn just to be fodder for the Mountain an episode later - that would be a huge fail having in mind that most TV watchers won't even know who the Martells are. So my conclusion is that there can't be a Purple Wedding this season. Maybe then they shouldnt build that up so heavily?? Is it just distraction for the Red Wedding which is going to be the peak this season?

I hope so much that they are going to add something with leeches. Of course, it makes him more of a cliché James-Bond-villian, but really, they add so much evil badassdom. They also need to give him better clothes. That grey cloak served him well when he was a side character in the background, but he really needs his pink cloak with the blood drops now. I hope we see all this after/during the Red Wedding...

I really liked this episode. They reduced the jumping which makes it definitly more comfortable to watch - and the cuts were better (cutting to Daenerys for instance when Shireen talks about Aegon). Showing Stannis as a family head was also a good idea, he still repelling to me but the scenes had some sort of eerieness, even though Selyse is too pretty. Bathtub scene was nailed. I didn't think it would be legit if Jamie changes that much after being such a villian in the show, but I bought it. Well delivered. I am still wondering who will reveal Jorahs former betrayal, did Barristan just lied straight to his face when he was talking about small council knowledge?? Littlefinger doesn't come off as creepy enough for me, maybe because they made him Cerceis bitch last season. The fight between the Hound and Dondarrion was nicely performed, even though I expected to see some differences in the fighting style between them. It looked like both of them were just doing hack 'n' smash. And no story about Grendels children. Actually unnecessary for non-book-readers, but the lacking of some kind of monologue by either Ygritte or Jon made that scene look like a sex-scene for the sake of a sex-scene. But that's just minor complaining...