[Book Spoilers] EP 204 Discussion

[Craven Mummer]

I am mad about the mountain replacement. Conan was awesome, I'm hoping I misunderstood what was happening.

(null)

[jurble]

The Joffrey scene was too much, Torturing whores like that is a bit far for him, even. I can't even begin to imagine how Tyrion would react if that scene had actually occurred in the book.

[JonHo]

Carice was fierce, wow.

[AnikaUnderfoot]

I really liked this episode. Some parts more than others.

Loved the new map with Harrenhal and Quarth.

Loved Arya's prayer.

I thought Sansa was brilliant. Especially with her "loyal to my one true love" line, even after being beaten.

(Hated the whore scene. I get why they put it there, but that was hard to watch. We get it. He's a jerk.)

Gotta say, I was relieved Tywin rode in when he did. I was seriously worried they were about to kill of Gendry.

I also liked him talking to Arya.

Thought Tyrion and Lancel was hilarious!

Also, its been over a year or so since I've read the book (and they tend to run together for me), but what is the Peach that everyone keeps referring to as pertains to Renly? I can't seem to recall what that moment was, or its significance.

[J_Crews]

Hated Robb's scene with the girl that I, before the season started, thought would be Jeyne Westerling. Hope Jeyne appears, not now, maybe next season.

Pretty sure that was Jeyne Westerling. They may just be removing her status as the daughter of a lord whose castle Robb captured, yet playing-up the nurse part. It's been a while since I read the pertinent sections, but I seem to recall her mother (or grandmother?) was from a family of rich spicers upjumped to lords that married into the Westerling line (a house rich in honor, but poor in everything else) and somewhere in there somebody had married a foreigner (a Volantene, perhaps?) who was a rumored maegi, thus the foreign look. The actress playing her is Charlie Chaplins granddaughter, I think.

Margaery will occupy Lady Olena's role, that obvious (as some have preticted).

I think so as well.

[Bastard of Boston]

They really did a good job with the Loras makeover this season. Can we do something about Lancel next? The wigs on this show only look okay on Sean Bean. On anyone else, it's like flashbacks of working behind a register and wondering whether to go with "Sir," "Miss," or, screw it, "Have a nice day!"

Edited April 23, 2012 by Bastard of Boston

[Doza]

He had antlers of deer nailed on the heads of a few merchants and catapulted them over the walls during the Blackwater Battle. Torturing whores isn't such a huge leap.

[Bastard of Boston]

You’ll just damage yourself that way. Really, you will.

You should instead be trying to remember all the people who made your world better and brighter.

Trust me. It might take you forty years to see the wisdom of what I have just written, but it’s true.

I'm trying, heh. It's just so much easier to be spiteful.

[ckal]

Why no mention of Beric Dondarrion!!!!!!

He is one of my favorite characters in ACOK and you don't even see him. You just hear about him. About how he is just terrorizing all the Lannister troops. What the hell is the Brotherhood?

And why would Lannister men every say that Loras Tyrell is a better swordsman than Jaime Lannister?

[Stenbuck]

Joffrey/whores - blah, we get it. Joffrey is a douche. Sometimes I think they are trying to emphasize how despicable he is to "off-set" Cersei's wickedness, which is really starting to piss me off. Weird, stupid scene.

Agreed, 100%!

Littlefinger & Renly, Margaery, and Cat - they are definitely trying to make sure people don't forget LF. Renly scene was.....tolerable. Margaery - I don't know. Once again, Show LF stating the obvious to try to get on people's nerves for no reason. The one with Cat started out to be really bad. "I've loved you since I was a little boy..." Puh-leeze. That is not LF.

Agreed, also. LF is my favorite book character, precisely because he just comes out of nowhere in books 3 and 4 showing that he's been backstabbing everyone, everywhere, all day long. They're making him too plain.

I was a little disappointed in The Tickler. He didn't send any chills through my spine

This I have to disagree with. I think it was made abundantly clear in the book that the Tickler is one of the most ordinary men Arya has ever met. Even after having seen him torture people, she would remark that she would look at him and forget he was a Lannister man. Here are the passages

A man the others called the Tickler asked the questions. His face was so ordinary and his garb so plain that Arya might have thought him one of the villagers before she had seen him at his work.

And

The Tickler was almost too scary to hate. At times she could almost forget he was still with them; when he was not asking questions, he was just another soldier, quieter than most, with a face like a thousand other men.

Overall a good episode, IMO, though I feel they are tacking on waaay too many extra scenes that are often redundant (Joffrey/Whores) or just out of character (most new LF scenes).

EDIT:

(Beric) is one of my favorite characters in ACOK and you don't even see him. You just hear about him. About how he is just terrorizing all the Lannister troops. What the hell is the Brotherhood?

I agree, no mention of Beric seems strange, I hope they do not cut him out :( But the Brotherhood is simply the Brotherhood without banners, Dondarrion's men. I do hope they don't keep them in without keeping their awesome leader, also, especially because they kept Ned's mission to him in last season (he even called Beric by name).

Edited April 23, 2012 by Stenbuck

[J_Crews]

Joff/Whore scene was pretty scary. Those poor girls.

I was terrified for a moment that he was going to make her do something much, much worse with that mace or whatever it was. :eek: :bawl:

[ckal]

Also, its been over a year or so since I've read the book (and they tend to run together for me), but what is the Peach that everyone keeps referring to as pertains to Renly? I can't seem to recall what that moment was, or its significance.

At the Stannis/Renly parley, in typical Renly fashion, he was making a lot of jokes and jabs at Stannis which got him extremely frustrated. At the boiling point, Renly reached into his vest to pull something out. Stannis reached for his sword as he thought Renly was drawing a blade on him. Renly pulled out a peach. I forget what he said about it though. Something in typical Renly fashion.

[dtones520]

I am mad about the mountain replacement. Conan was awesome, I'm hoping I misunderstood what was happening.

(null)

Conan didn't come back because he got too if for his britches with other projects, even though he said himself that he was made to play the Mountain. Not the producers choice at all. So they hired a guy who played the White Walker in season one. He is talented with a sword and 7+ feet tall. Not the easiest person in the world to find.

[blasted_saber]

I was terrified for a moment that he was going to make her do something much, much worse with that mace or whatever it was. :eek: :bawl:

Ya, I had that thought as well.

I think that scenes is HBO showing us that Joffrey, while cruel, isnt entirely stupid. Hes playing the Game of Thrones and not just being a pawn of his mother.

[AnikaUnderfoot]

I was terrified for a moment that he was going to make her do something much, much worse with that mace or whatever it was. :eek: :bawl:

AGREED> I was getting worried that I was about to see just how twisted HBO was going to make this.

[Trebla]

They really need to put that hat back on Lancel.

[AnikaUnderfoot]

At the Stannis/Renly parley, in typical Renly fashion, he was making a lot of jokes and jabs at Stannis which got him extremely frustrated. At the boiling point, Renly reached into his vest to pull something out. Stannis reached for his sword as he thought Renly was drawing a blade on him. Renly pulled out a peach. I forget what he said about it though. Something in typical Renly fashion.

Oh, yep. Thanks!

[J_Crews]

I have no problem with them making Joffrey even more wicked than he was before. He's a disgusting, depraved little monster.

I tend to agree. He's aged-up from the character in the books (along with pretty much all the other kids); does anyone truly doubt that petulant little cat-murdering Joffrey from the books would have become progressively more of a monster as he got older?

[Cheese Pudding]

I was terrified for a moment that he was going to make her do something much, much worse with that mace or whatever it was. :eek: :bawl:

The same here.

Oh, and about Harrenhal, much more destroyed than I've pictured. Amazing.

[J_Crews]

I don't have much of an issue with the violence. The books contains significantly more violent scenes. Since the episodes are so short, HBO has to make the scenes stick. If you aren't a book reader then you wouldn't remember when the tickler shows up again, that is unless he's remembered...

Agreed. At least we were spared seeing a 3 year old boy's face smashed in with a mace for the unforgiveably crime of crying for his undoubtedly dead father. And his distraught, multiple-raped mother beheaded right afterwards. The books were far more graphic, both in violent and sexual content.