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[Book Spoilers] EP104 Discussion


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Great Episode here.

I Like Ayra learning to "dance". Also when she tells her father 'No, that is not me'.

Love the wall sequences with Jon and Sam, and we did see Ghost. Yay.

The Joust was good, but I agree that Sir Hugh wasn't even trying. Still good to see 'The Mountain'.

Next week we will see the rest of tournament. Looking forward to that.

The beginning with the dream sequence and the 3 eyed crow, gotta love it, but I wonder if non-readers will get the significance of it.

And Tyrion did give directions for the basket for Bran to ride. Awesome.

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I dunno, I kinda liked Petyr's story about the Hound. I feel like they are making him more of an enigma.

I also liked that they somewhat humanized Thorne.

Very amused by Arya blurting out "Why do they call you Littlefinger???" That is totally something book Arya would do. I liked Littlefinger alot more in this episode.

This episode was ripe with backstory. The dragons. Rhaegar. Sam. Lot's of dragon names

I liked the actor who played Gendry.

Ghost made an appearence. At last!

And is there ANYONE in the Seven Kingdoms who HASN'T had sex or almost had sex with Redhead Roz(Esme Bianco)?

Rhaegar+Roz=Jon!

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Definitely better for me than last week. I wanted to cheer that scene with Catelyn arresting Tyrion! I mean, I know NOW that he didn't do it, but I remember being so happy the first time I read that, and I'm trying to not think about what's coming. (It's been years since I've read the books, so it's sorta working...)

Poor Ned can't quite connect to any of his children. :(

♥ Bran.

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Hooboy, a LOT of people are going to complain about Littlefinger telling Sansa that story. I admit I'm disappointed too, but it does build up the Hound as a frightening character the way Littlefinger told her that all the knights in realm wouldn't be able to stop him should he get mad. Hopefully the interaction we get later of Sansa and the Hound in season 2 will make up for it.

Despite that change I really enjoyed the episode. They did a good job and filling up the backstory and I think I'm going to enjoy the Jon and Sam scenes even more than I did in the book.

I also really liked the added scene with Sansa and the Septa. I thought both actresses did a good job with it, especially Sansa whom I feel is underrated compared to the more easily likable Arya.

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Loved every minute--seeing it finally come to life. But as always, so fast, so freakin' fast! Tyrion and Bran's saddle, bang, zoom, here and gone.

Yay, Ghost, we got Ghost!

I like Sam, pitiful, but smart, likeable.

And how about badass Jon? No emo Jon here...

Jon's awesome.

Just wish they didn't give Sandor's lines to Littlefinger. When Sandor tells Sansa the story, it means a lot more since you get a feeling that he never told anyone else. I can see why they did it so they can give more screentime to Littlefinger, but I hope it doesn't mean that they will underplay the Sandor/Sansa arc.

I like what they did to Jory though and really enjoyed his scene with Jaime.

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they CAN"T let Petyr tell her this story.

this is the first decision they've made that I REALLY dislike

agreed. that was sandor's best moment in the book and they gave it away.

overall a really good episode and i can't help but think this series needs 12 episodes instead of 10 to even the pacing some.

also, at the end when catelyn was listing all the bannermen tyrion had this priceless look on his face that said "wtf are you doing?"

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Oh, also, I am totally not feeling Kit Harrington. It's not solely that he is not at ALL how I pictured Jon Snow, I just find his acting to be incredibly off. Lackluster, even. Makes me sad. :thumbsdown:

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the deal with Ser Hugh was that he was incompetent, never should have been made a knight and he didn't have a squire of his own to help him prepare for the joust

Correct. He was an upjumped squire, knighted because he was the one who poisoned Jon Arryn on the orders of the Queen (or one of her catspaws). "He had no business riding in that company" is how the Hound phrased it -- and Gregor's lance goes where Gregor bloody wants it to go.

Anyway, regarding the episode -- it was blissful. Not every single decision vis a vis the adaptation pleased me, but close enough as to make it my favorite episode thus far. In the first two minutes, we had Bran's three-eyed-crow dream, and a heaping helping o' direwolf. I thought Samwell was spot on, and they did well to introduce him (with an understandably shortened account of Lord Randyll Tarly's cruelty) and establish the beginnings of his friendship with Jon. The bit of Ghost getting Jon's point across went a long way to make up for the previous lack of the direwolves.

Littlefinger grew on me a bit this episode; his dialogue with Ned helped along the mystery of Jon Arryn's death and I don't think it suffered overmuch from the condensing. Renly is still a ghost, and I hope his character is established better as the show goes on.

The Viserys/Doreah scene actually surprised me; I was waiting for it to end until all of the sudden I realized I liked it. It went on a bit too long, perhaps, but it did a lot for Targaryen exposition. Viserys almost felt uncharacteristically charming until the end, when he called Doreah an idiot and reaffirmed himself as a bitter asshole.

They did a good job establishing Theon's character this week. So far he's been downplayed and I bet some non-readers are assuming he's one of the Stark kids or something. Not only did Tyrion and his exchange explain who he was and why he was at Winterfell, but Jaime and Jory discussed the Greyjoy rebellion and the Siege of Pyke. The Thoros namedrop made me happy.

The joust was great, though we only got a sliver towards the end. I've been waiting for Gregor's introduction and he was imposing enough. The end scene where Catelyn arrests Tyrion in the inn was better than I expected it to be. When all the men of the riverlands drew their swords, it was chilling, and the look on Peter Dinklage's face was perfect. We also got a taste of Marillion and poor Masha Heddle.

Things I didn't like so much: Ser Alliser Thorne is far more sympathetic than he was in the books. In fact, despite his cryptic diatribe on cannibalism and how delicious Sam would taste, he made Jon seem very immature and arrogant. Which, I suppose, is true in the books as well, though since you're only seeing it from Jon's perspective there's an easy bias on the page. The dragon name dropping was great -- Meraxes, Vhagar and Balerion, at least. The other made-up dragon names sounded weird. Especially Ghiscar. Ghiscar was an empire, not a dragon! It was Valyria's rival! But whatever.

Hodor was funny but way, way too old. In the books it's pretty clear that Hodor is younger and good looking, at least if Osha has good taste in men. Which she probably doesn't, but still.

The little scene with Cersei and Ned towards the end felt unnecessary; I'm still not sure what the point of it was.

I actually liked the Gendry scene, though in my head the name's always been pronounced with a soft G (as in gentry). My major qualm is that there was no mention of Stannis's involvement, which is fairly crucial considering later developments.

Most importantly, giving the Hound's monologue about Gregor burning him to PETRY BAELISH of all people was disappointing. That is one of the best Hound moments and now it's never coming. How much of that character are they going to carve away? Are we ever going to see the Hound get to be the fucking Hound? So far he just stands around grunting and looking dour.

Overall, 8.5/10.

Things I'm looking forward to next week: Bronn comes out to play, but most importantly, GREGOR VS. SANDOR, arms getting cut off, the Knight of Flowers, a bad ass tournament, fuck yeah! I just hope the scene with Sansa and the Hound is kept, even if he can't spill his beans to her since Littlefinger already told everyone his story.

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Oh, also, I am totally not feeling Kit Harrington. It's not solely that he is not at ALL how I pictured Jon Snow, I just find his acting to be incredibly off. Lackluster, even. Makes me sad. :thumbsdown:

I actually like Kit Harrington's Jon Snow.

Anyways, I loved the look on Tyrion's face when the Frey soldier said that Lord Walder was taking another wife. It was a silent guffaw.

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This was easily the best episode thus far. No doubt about it. The pacing finally worked and they explained some back story to Sam, Theon, Littlefinger and the Hound quickly and to the point. Plus more Targaryen history!

Jon stole every scene he was in.

My only two complaints: the Ser Hugh stuff was sort of rushed, but I am sure next episode will clear that up for the non-readers. Also, the beginning cut to Robb and Tyrion in mid-conversation felt like shoddy editing.

I was blown away by this episode and it finally proved to me that this show can and will work.

Plus three wolves and Ghost!

9/10

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Oh, also, I am totally not feeling Kit Harrington. It's not solely that he is not at ALL how I pictured Jon Snow, I just find his acting to be incredibly off. Lackluster, even. Makes me sad. :thumbsdown:

Really? I'm liking Kit more and more with each episode. He and Viserys are the only two characters I like more in the show than the book.

I admit I found Jon too emo in the first book, while here he's badass so that's probably why I like him more.

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Oh yeah! We got Grey Wind, Summer, and Ghost all in or episode!!!!

(But yes, Ser Greguh, I was sad Ghost was verbal.)

Maybe its because the concept of the silent Ghost is amazing to read, but doesn't translate to screen? Whatever, we got Ghost, I'm happy!

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I admit I found Jon too emo in the first book, while here he's badass so that's probably why I like him more.

Ditto. Not saying I like 'badass' in general, just that I was getting really weary of emo Jon in the books. Glad to see he's gone.

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I just love the scene between the Hound and Sansa and the book as was sad to see it changed, but the whole tourney scene was very short, so I guess it was a fast way to work the story in. I don't think it really added too much to Littlefinger's character though. Oh well, not a huge deal.

I really enjoyed the scene between Jaime and Jory. It's going to hit people harder when Jaime orders his men to kill Jory.

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I liked the episode, even if it felt a bit like one of those passages where everyone is getting into place for some awesome stuff to go down next week.

I liked the actor who played Gendry.

Me too. I only know Joe Dempsie from his work in the first two series of Skins, but he was fantastic in that as well.

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The dragon name dropping was great -- Meraxes, Vhagar and Balerion, at least. The other made-up dragon names sounded weird. Especially Ghiscar. Ghiscar was an empire, not a dragon! It was Valyria's rival! But whatever.

I don't know. There very well could have been a dragon named Ghiscar. There were more than 3 dragons so they presumeably had names so I see nothing wrong with giving them names. But there is something to be said for economy of words and I think that exposition was too wordy so if there is any complaint about the dragon naming is that they didn't need to name all of them.

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