[Book Spoilers] Nitpick With Impunity

[Bridgeburners]

I have my fair share of criticisms, but that was ridiculous.

Ragnar put the blanket over the child rather than leave the child.

He took an action.

Ygritte did a shh motion rather than just leave, doing an action.

Both did a single action...wtf?

Ragnar's action was analogous to Ygritte closing the curtain on Gilly, in that they're both necessary to keep the potential victim hidden from their blood thirsty comrades. It wouldn't make sense if they hadn't done that. Ygritte "shushing" her was completely and absolutely unnecessary, and it only served one purpose: to tell us, the audience, that Ygritte intended to keep Gilly's presence hidden from the rest of the wildlings. The writers decided that if she had seen Gilly and then just closed the curtain and walked away, we wouldn't understand what happened, so they had to make Ygritte tell us exactly what happened. Or I'm sure Gilly was thinking "oh shit, well I was going to just wail in terror but now that you mention it, it is a good idea for me to keep quiet, thanks for sparing me!" Ygritte closing the curtain and leaving her there would have been powerful. Shushing her turned it into a Looney Toons cartoon.

- The Mountain. 3rd time was not lucky, the guy can't deliver a simple line. "I smashed her head. In like this." rather than "I smashed her head in. Like this."

Haha, now that you mention it, I'm surprised nobody brought that up. You're right, that was a completely awkward delivery there. I chalked it up to him just being exhausted and catching his breath in the middle of giving his line, but still, it just felt pretty cringeworthy.

[King of the Road]

Honestly this show is terrible, I just love the source material too much. I love Umberto Eco's novels but my only gripe with them is that sometimes I feel like Eco writes them purely for himself because the level of knowledge to get most of his writing is so ludicrous that you feel only he really gets his books, this show is the opposite. I feel like the writers assume I'm a five year old with severe memory loss from the past 4 years. The writing and directing are pathetic, the production and set design is mind-blowing though. Specific gripes for this week:

- Oberyn's fight, it was like Darth Maul. Stupid, it looks flashy but it's so absurd that you couldn't take it seriously as a fight.

- Beetles. Jesus Christ, were they letting their school teachers know that they read Wittgenstein, or are they just hack writers. Who knows.

- Darth Sansa. The hair has come at a completely illogical time, but what was with the feathers and necklace.

- Arya. She's a terrible actor and the writing is terrible. 3edgy5me crap. We're back to "Nothing is nothing." and "Death is my God."

- The Mountain. 3rd time was not lucky, the guy can't deliver a simple line. "I smashed her head. In like this." rather than "I smashed her head in. Like this."

- Everyone is stupid. Sandor declaring himself and Arya, no one doing anything about it. Yohn Royce just accepting that since Sansa is who she says that LF should remain Lord Protector

I could go on and on. The show just can't be subtle, or have any good original dialogue.

Really?

[Milcov]

Really?

Sure I'm overdoing it a bit, but all the best dialogue that there's been in this show has been from the books or a very close adaptation from the books. D&D's original stuff results in Beetles and Nothing is nothing. The writers of the show need to just accept their limitations and use good existing dialogue that's in place. Compare the writing on this, to something like The Sopranos or Mad Men and you'll find that Game of Thrones is very dumbed down and lacking any real subtlety or depth.

[Cas Stark]

Sure I'm overdoing it a bit, but all the best dialogue that there's been in this show has been from the books or a very close adaptation from the books. D&D's original stuff results in Beetles and Nothing is nothing. The writers of the show need to just accept their limitations and use good existing dialogue that's in place. Compare the writing on this, to something like The Sopranos or Mad Men and you'll find that Game of Thrones is very dumbed down and lacking any real subtlety or depth.

Chaos is a ladder was very, very good.

They can be good, they are just wildly inconsistent. Sometimes they're good, sometimes they are cringeworthy like that crazy dialogue on Vary's 'gash'...WTF.

[oursisthefury69]

Honestly Arya's laugh was one of if not the best part(s) of the episode.

Terrible:

1. Grey worm and Missandei.

2. Beetle cousin story/ Jamie even seeing tyrion before he frees him.

3. Overall Moat Cailin and lack of Ironborn story.

4. The fact they simultaneously made Oberyn's death less realistic and more grotesque. If anything I figured they desensitize the murder and in turn make it less real, somehow managed to make it worse in each aspect.

5. Sansa and Littlefinger, Sansa basically jumping to WoW material already. Bronze Yohn is pretty bad too

6. Hound revealing Arya/ them not tying up their episode scenes, are we even going to hear from them next week? Basically anything in and around the Vale.

7. The manner Jorah is banished, absurd.

8. Jon, Sam's scene. NW numbers scaled down to 100 while wildlings up too 100,000 too dumb too comment on really

9. No shields?

.10Did I mention grey worms a eunuch? ; and im sure theres a few more thatre more intricate than critiquing sansa's dress , or the ygritte scene, maybe consider that ygritte herself didn't know what she was going to do at first

[Relic]

Honestly Arya's laugh was one of if not the best part(s) of the episode.

5. Bronze Yohn is pretty bad too

Agree that Arya is literally "cracking up". Felt that was alright, makes sense in context. But the Hound calling himself the Hound and then revealing he had Arya Stark and the idiot guard not taking him from her was just awful.

Why couldn't they at LEAST put some runes on Yohn's armor? Like...how hard would that have been? Why show him in his armor without making it look like it's described in the books? Just...baffling.

[Bael's Bastard]

I try not to get too caught up in differences between the books and show. I don't mind a scene that isn't in the book, or that is different from the book, if it is done well. A bad original scene that is not in the books, though. If you're going to make up a scene, please, just make it good. I thought the scene and dialogue with Tyrion and Jaime was just terrible. And I'm actually surprised there hasn't been more backlash aside from its quality on what seemed like a totally unnecessary mockery of a mentally challenged cousin. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect GoT to be PC. But that was an overall ridiculous scene in every way IMO.

[Milcov]

Chaos is a ladder was very, very good.

They can be good, they are just wildly inconsistent. Sometimes they're good, sometimes they are cringeworthy like that crazy dialogue on Vary's 'gash'...WTF.

Chaos is a ladder was a bit too obvious for me, it destroyed Littlefinger. That was the scene that removed the mystery from his character and just had him boasting about how great he was and all his plans to Varys. One of their better bits of dialogue mind, just not fitting with the character saying it. Good dialogue but a horrendous lack of subtlety as to a character's motives and means of operations.

And don't know how I forgot about the absurd numbers at The Wall. Polybius couldn't make that stuff up, Helm's Deep has to be about as outrageous as it gets at ~300 vs 10,000 for a traditional fortification assault scene. But just over 100 against 100,000 is absurd. It's like the writers didn't believe that being outnumbered 10-1 would sink in to viewers as overwhelming odds. More proof that they think we're all idiots.

[Cas Stark]

Chaos is a ladder was a bit too obvious for me, it destroyed Littlefinger. That was the scene that removed the mystery from his character and just had him boasting about how great he was and all his plans to Varys. One of their better bits of dialogue mind, just not fitting with the character saying it. Good dialogue but a horrendous lack of subtlety as to a character's motives and means of operations.

And don't know how I forgot about the absurd numbers at The Wall. Polybius couldn't make that stuff up, Helm's Deep has to be about as outrageous as it gets at ~300 vs 10,000 for a traditional fortification assault scene. But just over 100 against 100,000 is absurd. It's like the writers didn't believe that being outnumbered 10-1 would sink in to viewers as overwhelming odds. More proof that they think we're all idiots.

Yeah, but TV LF has been talking smack since the beginning with Varys, so they already ruined the idea of no one knowing he's a power player. He has never been mysterious or subtle since the first season.

I am waiting to laugh my ass off when the Hound and Arya announcing who they are...is totally ignored by the show....LF and Sansa will not know or speak of it....and the next time we see Arya and the Hound, I predict, they'll be back on the road....having been let go at the Vale.

[Lord Joker]

Agree that Arya is literally "cracking up". Felt that was alright, makes sense in context. But the Hound calling himself the Hound and then revealing he had Arya Stark and the idiot guard not taking him from her was just awful.

Why couldn't they at LEAST put some runes on Yohn's armor? Like...how hard would that have been? Why show him in his armor without making it look like it's described in the books? Just...baffling.

Maybe because it changes nothing and would cost money for nothing, in a season where i'm sure they are tight with money considering the next episode?

Not sure how baffling that is...lol

[Milcov]

Yeah, but TV LF has been talking smack since the beginning with Varys, so they already ruined the idea of no one knowing he's a power player. He has never been mysterious or subtle since the first season.

I am waiting to laugh my ass off when the Hound and Arya announcing who they are...is totally ignored by the show....LF and Sansa will not know or speak of it....and the next time we see Arya and the Hound, I predict, they'll be back on the road....having been let go at the Vale.

Yeah, weirdly some of the best dialogue on the show but it's just so totally bad writing of those characters. The two characters that should embody mystery and subtlety are completely devoid of it on the show, which is a real shame. This isn't just a gripe of the adaptation, but the general role they fit in as 'puppet-masters' or 'chess grandmaster' should be one that requires careful dialogue which doesn't blurt out grand plans or aims. The writers just can't actually do that or don't want to. Which tells me they're either bad writers or don't rate the faculties of their audience.

Agreed, completely ridiculous. It'll be like Jon with Stannis.

[Matoro]

Apparently the showwriters want to build Missandei-GreyWorm -romance instead of something actually useful, like DanyxDaario, which has even a plot relevance. Hell, why waste time discussing Grey Worm's penis if you could have last Oberyn scenes before his untimely death?

And Gilly is just boring. Everything in Mole's Town is boring.

Greatest nitpick, though, is what they did to Tyrion. Some kind of beetle cousin story? What? C'mon, it's his last scene before the trial and you waste it by making Dinklage do monologue about BEETLES? Why not doing, for example, a scene where Oberyn and Tyrion discuss about the fight? Or really anything other that stupid beetles.

[Milcov]

Maybe because it changes nothing and would cost money for nothing, in a season where i'm sure they are tight with money considering the next episode?

Not sure how baffling that is...lol

Decreases a bit of the immersion and world-building. Considering the insane detail they put into costumes on the dresses I don't see how it would be so hard, or if they didn't want to make the armour yet all they had to do was make him wear standard clothing.

[Cas Stark]

Yeah, weirdly some of the best dialogue on the show but it's just so totally bad writing of those characters. The two characters that should embody mystery and subtlety are completely devoid of it on the show, which is a real shame. This isn't just a gripe of the adaptation, but the general role they fit in as 'puppet-masters' or 'chess grandmaster' should be one that requires careful dialogue which doesn't blurt out grand plans or aims. The writers just can't actually do that or don't want to. Which tells me they're either bad writers or don't rate the faculties of their audience.

Agreed, completely ridiculous. It'll be like Jon with Stannis.

Like I said, they are random. Remember that super moving speech Cat made about the young Jon Snow almost dying. Sure, it was a nice scene...but completely pointless, it had no purpose, no relevance to anything...I remember at the time people trying to defend based on the Robb will theory, but of course, there is no will in the show.

The botching of the Jon and Stannis plots makes me really worry that its going to be Dany who survives and not Jon Snow in the end and I am wrong....because, why the fuck else have they destroyed that whole plotline??

I doubt TV viewers even remember Stannis was going to go North, because TV Stannis appears to have totally forgotten he was going to go North as it hasnt' been mentioned at all this season.

[Good Guy Garlan]

I don't remember another episode in which so many potentially good things were removed in favor of subpar writing:

1. Instead of Oberyn telling Tyrion the ending of the story "Bi-Curious Oberyn goes to Casterly Rock" and Tywin's true reason to kill Elia we got: the beetles, man! The damn beetles!

2. Instead of Littlefinger showing his impressive manipulation of the Lords Declarants through Nestor and Corbray we got: him being a complete moron with no back-up plan whatsoever. Also, Sansa raided Angelina Jolie's closet, apparently

3. Instead of that great little scene of Kevan (or Tywin in the show, I guess) just placing the warrants in front of Tommen so he could sign them we got: Roose teaching Ramsay the cardinal points and renacting that scene of "The Lion King" (if Scar had won)

4. Instead of the sheer horror and drama of Moat Cailin we got: a watered-down, rushed version of Moat Cailin. It seemed they just wanted to be done with it

5. Instead of developing the increasingly irritating Dany so she could resemble more an actual character we got: Missandei and Grey Worm, a love story for the ages, I'm sure

Also, I just gotta say it: even if book!Tormund has probably killed his share of people there's a reason why Martin didn't show it: because then we would have been rooting for his death instead of rooting for him.

I guess I should have known the episode was going to be inferior, since it started with a burping whore

[Lord Joker]

Decreases a bit of the immersion and world-building. Considering the insane detail they put into costumes on the dresses I don't see how it would be so hard, or if they didn't want to make the armour yet all they had to do was make him wear standard clothing.

Understandable, but many main characters don't even wear the colors of their house like the books, so i'm not surprised a minor character doesn't get every single detail.

[Croyd]

All of the things that make the "Books" and the "First Season" so great have been watered down into stupidity.

The Book and the Show are for people of average to smart intelligence.The writers have turned an unfinished masterpiece into a pile of mud that only pigs would find attractive.

Never watching the show again. If I want retarded dribble I can watch regular non cable TV with commercials. The Screenplay writers for GoT must have been hired directly from the StarWars prequels.

Nonsense story lines, nothing holds the attention, which character is supposed to be Jar Jar?

Dany's crap acting/Horrid editing .

She isn't even looking at Jorah....

She should be looking down at Jorah and spiting him. This was obviously filmed with a green screen, she doesnt even know where the man ,that she hates the most in the whole world, is at the moment.

George, is there anything you can do to stop them from mutilating your masterpiece or has that ship sailed already?

Nevermind , even George has sold out by telling fans that he will write more about Osha , who has nothing to do with the plot anymore.

Paraphrasing GRRM, "She will be written about because she is a good actress"

Hey GRRM ,didn't you say that you set out to write ASOIAF because it was something that never could be adapted to TV or the BigScreen.

GRRM=SELLOUT

[Relic]

Understandable, but many main characters don't even wear the colors of their house like the books, so i'm not surprised a minor character doesn't get every single detail.

His armor is mentioned like everytime anyone talks or sees him in the books. It would have cost them next to nothing to have it etched into his beast plate, and it would have given the viewers an easy way to identify him in the future.

Also, I feel like the guy playing him should be playing Mace and they could have gotten someone slightly more formidable for Yohn.

[Milcov]

Like I said, they are random. Remember that super moving speech Cat made about the young Jon Snow almost dying. Sure, it was a nice scene...but completely pointless, it had no purpose, no relevance to anything...I remember at the time people trying to defend based on the Robb will theory, but of course, there is no will in the show.

The botching of the Jon and Stannis plots makes me really worry that its going to be Dany who survives and not Jon Snow in the end and I am wrong....because, why the fuck else have they destroyed that whole plotline??

I doubt TV viewers even remember Stannis was going to go North, because TV Stannis appears to have totally forgotten he was going to go North as it hasnt' been mentioned at all this season.

All through that speech I was just shaking my head at how it went against her other interactions with Jon, even on the show. But I suppose it was better than most of what they've written. But compare that to Jaime's scene in the bath.

It's not even going North, which they've also totally neglected to mention but the fact that Jon knows about Bran. Will they even keep Stannis' offer of Winterfell, the major defining decision of Jon's character? Because now he's stealing his younger brothers Lordship. Hardly the same decision. The same with Sansa and Arya, Sansa will know Arya is alive. Or maybe they could have Littlefinger find out and keep it from Sansa, which depending on where they go in TWoW/ADoS could move that story. But as of now, it's looking stupid by everyone involved.

[Lord Joker]

His armor is mentioned like everytime anyone talks or sees him in the books. It would have cost them next to nothing to have it etched into his beast plate, and it would have given the viewers an easy way to identify him on the future.

Also, I feel like the guy playing him should be playing Mace and thru could have gotten someone slightly more formidable for Yohn.

They obviously used old armor not to spend more money on a whole new set just for him, though.

I definitely agree with the second part though, he should have been a bit younger.