Widows_Blood

Probably my favorite episode of the series so far. The action sequences were fantastic. But the quieter scenes were very memorable to me as well. Maestor Aemon's monolgue was beautifully acted and written, Jon and Ygritte was wonderful (brought a tear to my eye) some of the action set pieces were fantastic as well. Loved it all.

Because Stannis fans are the loudest group of malcontents on the internet. Let them throw a hissy fit, its actually funny to read.

Lets ignore the fact that this is being filmed in two weeks on a television budget. Please show anything on television that approaches this episode.

Yes I know. I just that it was amusing to connect the story of Orson with GRRM.

I read this on another board about the Orson story: I laughed for about five minutes after this episode aired. Don't misunderstand me. It's tragic what happened tonight. The show introduced a compelling character and spent the majority of the season fleshing him out beautifully, giving him purpose and deftly balancing his humor with pathos. He heroically fights for Tyrion in a visceral battle with The Mountain, filled with kinetic bravado, and just when you think he'll achieve catharsis, he's thwarted. He gets his confession as his eyes are gouged out and he's cranially decimated. Cersei smiles, Tywin sentences his son to death, and Tyrion stares dumbfounded. Why? Refer to the penultimate scene between Tyrion and Jamie. They talk of their simple cousin who spent his days smashing beetles. Tyrion is fascinated by his moronic actions while family legacies and Targaryen dragons fade into the background. All that's left is the sound of the killings. "And I still couldn't figure out why he was doing it, and I had to know because it was horrible that all these beetles should be dying for no reason." Orson gave no answer and he kept on killing until he was kicked in the chest by a mule and died. This is Coen Brothers level absurdity, and at the end of this episode not only did Oberyn's death make sense, but everything else did as well. Suddenly everything from the Red Wedding to Ned Stark's death was put sharply into perspective. George R. R. Martin is the cousin killing beetles and the only thing left to do is laugh.

I think he's parodying book readers. At least I hope he is.

I think i'm at the point where i'm done with this forum. At least the show part of it. The amount of constant pessimism and whining just saps any excitement I can muster for this show. There are so many better places to discuss the show. Not even worth it.

Oberyns speech gave me goosebumps. Aiden was fantastic; he really shined in this one.

Outside the Reek stuff, the Dreadfort sidestory was just poorly done, but i'm relieved at the very least that Yara didn't end up captured and that theories of her being fArya or married to Ramsay for control of the Iron Islands can be put to a rest. Hopefully she goes to Deepwood Motte or back home to Pyke. I also disagree with the criticism that she just left Theon there after building up the rescue plot. She had no idea Theon was that far broken. To her, Theon, or at least the Theon she knew, is dead. So I don't mind her leaving him. What stupid is the notion they could get into the Dreadfort so easily and then simply waltz back out and that Ramsay would let that happen.

Also, noticed the bells going off when Tywin started drinking the wine. Varys in season 2 stating bells signal the death of a king. Granted, Tywin isn't the king in name, but he is the real power behind the throne.

I really hope they don't cut Bronn turning him down. I assume they won't because alot of the unsullied just assume he will fight for Tyrion.

I've always been a proponent of the fan theory that Tywin was poisoned by Oberyn via Widows Blood. I am curious to see if the show would ever confirm this theory. Interesting... that Pycelle name dropped Widows Blood and the conclusion of the scene between Jaime and Tywin, he-Tywin- takes a long sip of wine. It could mean nothing but that shot did strike me a bit odd. I wonder if they're gonna have Tywin start to show symptoms and Oberyn give his line that "your lord father won't live forever"...

Fucking ten. From Davos pump fisting speech to Peter Dinklage owning shit. Best episode of season and maybe one of my favorite overall.

What a fucking episode. Peter Dinklage I tip my cap to you sir.

Widows blood shoutout!!!

I gave it a 7. Lowest grade so far for me. I did enjoy most of the episode. This was just one of those episodes to set up future storylines. The trial and Vale plots specifically. Some of the exposition was kinda clunky, could do without that Cersei-Margarey scene. I really liked Sansa-Lysa. Thought that was really well done scene that will pay off down the line. Particularly enjoyed Sansa manipulating Lysa. Enjoyed most of what happened at Crasters alot as well. Wished Jon would have killed Karl without any interference though...

A ton of setup this episode. Pretty much everything was to setup future events; save for the Craster storyline. Next week should be amazing. Overall this episode was kinda meh. But that should be expected for this type of episode.

The show is really starting to get into possible future book events. I`m intrigued whether the whole Jon learning about Bran being alive is something that happens in a future book and the show decided to get it out of the way rather then doing it in season 6 or 7. The whole Sansa not being a killer yet, Whitewalker stuff, has me thinking the show is laying down the tracks for future seasons as well.

Except for the whole part of the story where women are being raped in the Riverlands, mutilated by the mountain, hunted down by Ramsay, violated as corpses and even forced to perform bestiality. Other than all those parts, I agree that GRRM does not participate in using rape as a narrative device to indicate evil-ness and powerlessness.

I've always felt this applied more to the main characters. Jaime, Dany, Stannis, Theon, Tryion etc... But you can't dispute that there are plenty of characters in the story that have no redeemable qualities and are almost cartoonishly evil.

I also don't understand what people expected was supposed to be happening at Crasters. In the books it is made clear they are being raped. These are men that have profaned their vows, who are at the watch because they were murderers and rapists to begin with, who now have a degree of autonomy from their former lives and are surrounded by young women who they have complete control over. Did you expect them to be sitting around drinking tea and singing songs?

So what about the story of the Mountain raping the innkeepters daughter? What about Ramsay violating corpses of dead women? Or forcing Theon to provide cunnilingus to fArya? There is plenty of sexual violence and pointless gratuity in both mediums, yet for whatever reason, the show gets the brunt of the criticism.

I don't know if you have seen the Hobbit but that is basically all fan-fiction. LotR is really not comparable to ASOIAF as far as adaptations are concerned. The former is the size of ASoS and contains far less plot lines, characters, locations, world building that the show has to cram into an entire season. Not to mention certain characters have far less story to work with than others. Bran has what three chapters after the third book? And many of his chapters in the third book are there to provide exposition to past events. The type of stuff that doesn't work well on television. I see nothing wrong with trying to inject drama into Bran's storyline by having him interact with the Night Watch/Mutineer subplot. That is what good adaptations do. Time will tell whether they execute it well and how everything plays out going forward.

Because it was never intended to be a rape. Just poorly shot and edited and thus it was made to look like that.

Really there aren't caricatures in the books? Ramsey, Joffrey, Mountain, Vargo Hoat and the Bloody mummers, the mutineers who killed Craster and were raping his daughters. I mean come on. There was some downright evil stuff committed in the books by absolutely evil people. Its perfectly reasonable that men who have been deprived of women and freedom for some time would gorge themselves at a place like Crasters on wine and women.