Konradsmith

That's a good approximation of what Brienne's screentime is likely to be next season, Colonel Green. IMO they should keep LSH's presence very minimal so as to keep up the enigma and horror of the character. If we see her too much we'll get used to her.

^Cobray is cast. He's visible in the ep. 8 promo sitting next to Bronze Yohn and Lady Anya.

^Indeed. I guess that makes up for the food talk they cut from Hot Pie's appearances that correspond with book canon.

It's not gratuitous for someone to be naked in the bath. I think it was an interesting choice to show the sister-wife dynamic between Stan's two queens, while the Dragonstone boys are off dealing with bankers. Once again Carice/Mel's utter confidence in situations where some people would feel ashamed or vulnerable is an effective demonstration of her power and her dominance. And the only time that the camera ogled her rather than just showing her matter-of-factly, was a POV shot from a woman's perspective. I will have commentary on things beyond this scene later on.

Good episode, albeit made up of mostly set up. For now I'll say just say this: Carice is so damn sexy! And Michiel of course for the ladies. The Dutch have a lot to offer!

Well I don't see how enjoying a sequence of television qualifies as fooling myself, but I'm going to bed so I'll take this no further.

Erik Adams, the Unsullied gentleman for the AV Club gave "First of His Name" the full "A" actually. The Craster's business wasn't filler to the Unsullied who didn't know if Jon or Bran would live or not. I think it was pulled of pretty well and made for a decent mid-season. When you know what's to come, I guess you could say it was buying time but I think it was a helpful addition, particularly for Jon's characterization. He learned some lessons and I think his fighting against Karl will have taught him some useful pointers for when he takes on Styr in episode nine.

^Of course it isn't. Once again, it's pretty well-reviewed. There was just a convergence of fan outrage and ideologue outrage over that one scene and that coloured how a lot of folks saw it. Wrongly IMO. I don't go by averages though for AFOIAF ep ratings, I go by which number gets the most votes. From that viewpoint, s4 is doing very well. More importantly of course, it's been the best-received first half of a season yet. As much as I love this forum, TV critics are more objective than posters who have a dog in this fight.

If there are such glaring flaws with the invented Craster's material then how come critics and unsullied haven't noticed them? Surely something that didn't make sense, wouldn't make sense to them either. And yet it's only particular people who've read the books who think that the added material is somehow implausible. That's why Mr Fixit has made the point he has. If the scenes were actually outrageous wouldn't they have inspired a little more outrage. Instead "First of His Name" has 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Mind you, that is way too generous of RT, but they try to establish consensus just like Ran's OP here.

I gave it an eight. It would've been a seven but the end saved it. Lysa's return was welcome and Sansa overhearing her wedding night was a nice comedic note from the books.

^No, her name is Sissy (according to her agency, the actress is called Jane McGrath). I doubt anyone will say her name though.

^Agh. Thanks for the correction. :cheers: I hope this emoticon explains both my gratitude to you for correcting me, and the sorts of fluids that influenced me to make such a grievous typo.

After several rewatches I am NOT un-tenning this episode (to coin a...word). The Jaime material was really well-handled, particularly his farewell to Brienne. And the last fifteen minutes or so were perfect in creating and sustaining a level of audience dread and discomfort. And then the payoff came completely out of left field with that awesome WW ending. They've sure livened up Bran's storyline and found a decent way to add material to Jon's.

Go to the GoT youtube channel, they talk about the WW scene in the "inside the episode" feature they've posted.

That was great! B. Cogz steps up to the plate! The Heresy people are going to go apeshit over this episode! Solid ten for, though perhaps I'll lower that on rewatch.

^Yeah. Him and a few other not-long-for-this-world (but brave) chaps.

^The penultimate ep. you mean. The one called "the Watchers on the Wall".

Though admittedly, as people said on the "Two Swords" thread, he doesn't have gold in show canon because the BWB pilfered his shit not because of his lack of foresight when he left KL. So really he could've just said "those outlaws you loved so much robbed from me" and that would have shut her up. I don't think it was OOC for him to rob that poor fellow though and it prompted him to give Arya a nice (albeit cynical) lesson.

Its not as though they forgot that the Hound said he had a code. The only reason the Hound said he wasn't a thief was to set up him being a thief later on, otherwise that would have been a pointless aside. D and D wrote eps. one and three so that "inconsistency" (as many have called it) was purposeful. I don't know why they chose to have him say one thing and then do another, but it wasn't accidental or forgetful on their part. That line was clearly meant to set up this episode's scene.

Queen of Whores, in some places incest is the more taboo offense. And in most cases incest isn't consensual, a la Craster. But really I shouldn't keep up this line of conversation because I want us to get talking about Oathkeeper's promo. Of course that would require that the mods approve of the Oathkeeper threads that are pending...

^Which it would've been even if she'd said yes. The books and show have gotten us so used to incest now that we seem to forget that it is as fucked up as a good many other things.

Mr Fixit is a voice of reason as always, here and on wicnet. I'm extremely surprised that this episode has been rated so lowly. It was strong and consistent and moved the plot along a helluva lot without being clunky about it. Currently it has a nine on imdb and a ninety-five on Rotten Tomatoes. I gave it an eight. But really do people think this episode is worse than "the Night Lands"? I just don't see that. Besides the over-politicised and overblown objections to THAT scene (which I by no means share), I can't see why anyone would consider this the worst episode of the entire show.

Jaime will be playing the Kevan role, visiting Tyrion in his cells. Also from the Foreshadowing feature we had a shot of him speaking to Tyrion while he's on the stand on trial as if Jaime was his lawyer.

Also he looks to have a scene with Tyrion. So a few "pet the dog" moments from him coming up. For those who are upset it might serve as adequate damage control.

Well, I don't know why they'd delay like that but if I have to wade through anymore damned complaining when I've got thoughts on that promo, you know constructive speculation (one of the things that AFOIAF excels at when its at its best)...Why I oughta!