[BOOK AND TV SPOILERS] Larry's reviews at OtakuAssemble.

[Faraday]

. 2) I'm not feeling the Talisa/Robb stuff, but this guy... asks what it has to do with the plot? If I'm not mistaken HE HASN'T READ THE BOOKS AND DOESN'T KNOW THE PLOT, SO WHAT AUTHORITY DOES HE HAVE TO ASK THIS QUESTION?

Based on what he's...seen so far? It's a good question to ask. Obviously the fact we know it does is great; but I think it's a fair question for him to ask.

3) Catelyn releasing Jamie. At first I was upset that that they changed her motivation, but in hindsight it makes sense: someone was going to kill Jamie if she didn't release him and that puts her daughters lives in jeopardy... And Larry wants to call her stupid and let it ruin the entire episode for him? Give me a break. I think his hatred for this is motivated by the fact that Sansa won't die now.

No? I think him calling her stupid for doing this isn't a stretch at all... seriously?

Agree on the Ros scene, though.

Edit: I thought this was his best review this season, even if I don't agree with it. I do agree his Season 1 reviews were far better though.

[winksiemop]

Based on what he's...seen so far? It's a good question to ask. Obviously the fact we know it does is great; but I think it's a fair question for him to ask.

I think it's the manner of how he asked/his whole attitude about it. He is basically like "you're stupid HBO" with his tone of voice... It's not like he's, "HRM... wonder where this is going to lead..." Plus, he admitted he's been spoiled on the "big event" of aSoS, so..... uhh.....

No? I think him calling her stupid for doing this isn't a stretch at all... seriously?

Matter of perspective I guess. Her daughter would die (she's believe both to die) if Mr. Kingslayer was slayed, so... I definitely don't HATE her for it. Robb wasn't there to control his men, so who knows what the hell would have gone down.

[So1ar]

Her daughter would die (she's believe both to die) if Mr. Kingslayer was slayed, so... I definitely don't HATE her for it. Robb wasn't there to control his men, so who knows what the hell would have gone down.

Cat could have done a number of things if that was her concern. For one, she could have taken Jaime under her custody and anyone who wanted to kill him would have had to go through her. I doubt any of the Robb's bannermen would have cut down his mother to get to Jaime. So yes, releasing Jaime was dumb. If like in the books Cat thought that Bran and Rickon were dead then it would have made more sense for her to try and get back the few remaining children she has left by releasing Jaime.

[winksiemop]

Yeah, she is stupid in an overemotional kind of way. I've thought that way about her even from the books (I'm not a Catelyn apologist at all). I still defend her decision as a HUMAN decision, made out of faulty reasoning. TBH, in the book she was even stupider: there was no offer for a trade on the table IIRC, right? It was purely emotionally motivated and not a strategic move to save them, as it was here. Okay, yes, she could have gone about it in a smarter, different way, but to condemn her for making a brash, emotionally driven action that is not inconsistent with book Catelyn? I think my offense lies solely with his comment that he expected better. That's who she is.

Edit: Not to mention he offers no criticism of Robb. Double standard. Oh, but wait, that scene offers nothing to the "overarching plot," despite the fact that it was mentioned that he has to marry a Frey how many times this episode?

[Hear Me Roar!]

Robb falls in love with someone. It's a romance, just like in millions of other stories. And this Larry guy asks, "What's the point?!?!?! What's this add to the story??!?!!"

How does that...even make sense, even not knowing what happens next? It's a story. Stuff happens. Characters fall in love. In this case it actually has GIGANTIC plot repercussions and even not knowing what happens, shouldn't Larryremember the vow he made to the Freys? Oh wait, he definitely should remember seeing as they referenced it several times in this very episode.

[Donnycarko]

"The whole Bran/Rickon thing, I was right about that from last week's episode."

He was? As I recall he thought they were dead because his reader friend told him so, and he thought they would come back via some magical way.

I get that not everyone is going to love every episode, but why does he think people want to watch his reviews only for him to say things like "didn't like that.. so I'm not gonna talk about it. That was just stupidity, so I won't talk about that." I mean, keep your reviews interesting at least, for the sake of your viewers.

[Ramsay Gimp]

Yea, he never specifies what exactly his expectations have been. Some pretty monumental shit (Renly's death, Theon's betrayal, Yoren's death, Jon's capture, the taking of the Dragons) has gone down this season, even if the pacing has been inconsistent. And I don't like how he dismisses plot points as "stupid" without any further explanation, like the Bran/Rickon "deaths"

[protar]

Well in all fairness, COK is pretty slow compared to SOS. It's a great book but it's pretty much setting up stuff for SOS. And also the show has messed up a lot that made for sense in the books. I thinking his dissatisfaction is from stuff like:

• Tywin and Robb are still fighting each other and with all the strategy removed in the show it seems like there's been no progress in the Stark vs Lannister war whatsoever.
  
• The Lannisters are still in power in power in KL and will be by the end of the season as well.
  
• Renly's death was cool, but he specifically mentioned that he had different expectations for the Shadowbaby. And as Renly does nothing but give Stannis more men, he's probably wondering why Stannis simply didn't have loads of men to start with. Hopefully in S3 the politics with the Tyrells will make this more sensical.
  
• Speaking of Stannis, he had different hopes for him as well. In the early reviews he's all team Stannis, but after E5 that changes.
  
• The big shock with Bran and Rickon's death was botched.
  
• etc. etc.
  

I've just realised I've been ranting, but nonetheless I think that's what he's talking about.

[Stannis' sense of humour]

Yawnn, I don't want to hear him whinge about stuff, I want him to recap the episode comicly like usual.

[winksiemop]

Damnit, I tried to add his opinion to the "Reception" part of the "The Prince of Winterfell" Wikipedia, but they deleted it and said it wasn't a real contribution.

[Vympel]

Based on what he's...seen so far? It's a good question to ask. Obviously the fact we know it does is great; but I think it's a fair question for him to ask.

Really, its been pretty clearly telegraphed why Robb can't fall for her, throughout this season. His mother has reminded him he's promised to another, the strategic importance of that alliance has been repeated - its really clear why its important to the plot. But as much as I like watching Larry (or did, the quality has somewhat slipped) the fact is he just doesn't pay close enough attention most of the time - and if you see his posts on facebook he simply does not take criticism very well. From his latest post, it seems as though he might drop the reviews altogether.

[JakePT]

I wouldn't go so far as to say he doesn't take criticism well, only because we don't know what that criticism is, seeing that most of it is probably in private YouTube messages, and for all we know there could be some pretty vile stuff in there that is totally uncalled for and rude. If a bunch of people are just giving him crap for not liking the episode and only that, then his reaction might be justified, there just might not be much, if any, constructive criticism getting through.

That said, apart from his Sansa rant, I feel like his problems with the series are reasonably accurate, even if they are for the wrong reason and not particularly articulate. This season has some big stuff happen, but it's all been very clumsily handled and poorly paced. I'm no purist but I can't help but notice that almost all of his, and other non-reader critics's, problems with season all stem from changes made. Robb's romance scenes are almost entirely useless and unnecessary, the book handled it far more dramatically, Bran and Rickon's deaths were handled incredibly poorly, since they serve zero purpose now, in the book it set in motion two major events, Cat's release of Jaime and Robb's seduction by Jeyne, here they come across as a cheap trick, and the consequences just appear to be two characters acting like idiots.

[Vympel]

I wouldn't go so far as to say he doesn't take criticism well, only because we don't know what that criticism is, seeing that most of it is probably in private YouTube messages, and for all we know there could be some pretty vile stuff in there that is totally uncalled for and rude. If a bunch of people are just giving him crap for not liking the episode and only that, then his reaction might be justified, there just might not be much, if any, constructive criticism getting through.

Hmm - I don't know much about Youtube, didn't know you could even get private messages.

Robb's romance scenes are almost entirely useless and unnecessary, the book handled it far more dramatically,

This is a complaint I've heard from another, and it just makes no sense to me. I read the books relatively recently (last year) and the simple fact is you just couldn't do what the book did. Robb got together with Jeyne entirely off-screen. We have virtually no idea what happened, because its all after the fact, from Catelyn's point of view, she meets up with Robb again and boom he's got a wife. That simply wouldn't work on the show.

I agree however it makes no sense to me that they had Catelyn release Jaime a: without thinking the boys were dead and b: where the hell Jaime's oath?! Oathkeeper? Hello? The only possible explanation is that they didn't have time in their script to give proper attention to Robb and Catelyn discovering the boys are dead, and pushed it off to perhaps Episode 10 or the beginning of Season 3, and it doesn't address the oath issue.

[Castel]

• Speaking of Stannis, he had different hopes for him as well. In the early reviews he's all team Stannis, but after E5 that changes

I found his opinion on Stannis weird, I think that he either didn't realise how terrible the situation was or he just didn't care. I go with the former, because the latter is just idiotic imo. TBH, I don't think that the show really showed the disparity between the two forces, so I can't blame him.

I wouldn't go so far as to say he doesn't take criticism well, only because we don't know what that criticism is, seeing that most of it is probably in private YouTube messages, and for all we know there could be some pretty vile stuff in there that

is

totally uncalled for and rude. If a bunch of people are just giving him crap for not liking the episode and only that, then his reaction might be justified, there just might not be much, if any, constructive criticism getting through.

Well, people have been calling him a sexist and all, I doubt anyone would take that nicely. As terrible as his opinions on Sansa are (although he is right on about half of it), I don't think that he deserves to be called a sexist, and I'm not surprised that he went nuclear.

I agree however it makes no sense to me that they had Catelyn release Jaime a: without thinking the boys were dead and b: where the hell Jaime's oath?! Oathkeeper? Hello? The only possible explanation is that they didn't have time in their script to give proper attention to Robb and Catelyn discovering the boys are dead, and pushed it off to perhaps Episode 10 or the beginning of Season 3, and it doesn't address the oath issue.

I guess that they felt that the oath was unnecessary because Littlefinger guaranteed the deal, I disagree but w/e. But moving Bran and Rickon's death makes everyone's motivations skewed terribly. I guess they didn't want to stretch credibility by having them find out about it too quick, but it makes everyone look random and worse for it.

[Ran]

Guys, use the proper spoiler code, not these attempts to color the text black. Instructions here.

[Vympel]

I found his opinion on Stannis weird, I think that he either didn't realise how terrible the situation was or he just didn't care. I go with the former, because the latter is just idiotic imo. TBH, I don't think that the show really showed the disparity between the two forces, so I can't blame him.

I think the show did it just fine - Stannis states outright that he can't defeat Renly in the field. What else really needs to be said?

[tripleseq]

Larry seem pretty immature for his age, but his reviews are reasonably entertaining so I watch them. It will be fun to see his reaction to the RW! That will probably be the biggest WTF moment in TV history. Last weeks review was pretty annoying, however, he was correct on some of the pacing points. That said, non book reading young women are actually a pretty big demographic for this show and I think that this segment does drive certain aspects of the story adaptation that he is frustrated with.

[winksiemop]

^ He's already been spoiled on RW, unfortunately.

[Neddy]

Have been boycotting him since he started disabling comments after his Sansa rant but am still subscribed. I understand why he did it- no one likes recieving hate on the internet however I do not condone it as it prevents discussion on the topic and looks like he is just balnking out anyone who disagrees with him.

[protar]

Have been boycotting him since he started disabling comments after his Sansa rant but am still subscribed. I understand why he did it- no one likes recieving hate on the internet however I do not condone it as it prevents discussion on the topic and looks like he is just balnking out anyone who disagrees with him.

The comments disabling happened before the Sansa rant. He did it because people kept posting spoilers in the comments so it's understandable.