[Book Spoilers] Nitpick without repercussion!

[boojam]

Aggo, Jhogo, Rakharo

Irri, Doreah and Jhiqui

Ok what's deal?

First they mess around with Aggo, Jhogo, Rakharo , I don't even know who is left? First of the season she has three, now there is only one?

Well we know about the acting career of one of those, would minded if he had his place taken by one other warrior in Dany's Khal, there seemed to be others.

Last year they messed with Irri, Doreah and Jhiqui... have to go back and look but seemed there three, tho not those three last year.

Now zero Handmadiens!

What's the deal, not major characters, but not minor characters.

As I have said before those 6 continue a Dothraki continuity as a spiritual undertow that George has kept through out all five novels. An essential trimming.

Yeah I know even more characters to be added next year, but the contracts of these characters must have been year by year. They could not have been than expensive! Their speaking roles were minimal but their presence added to the spirit, why take that away?

[Guest]

I am not going to nitpick too much, but there was one special effect thing that really sucked to me.

I'm really satisfied with how the dragons look. I think they've done a great job there. But when we get to "dracarys" their fire was just weird, and I would not have thought that this should have been so difficult to pull off special effects-wise.

[Buckwheat]

The board just ate my long post. I blame Pod.

The short version: pretty much everthing said: House of the Undying could have been left out completely if they were not even trying to show what was important about it, Loras is not of the Kingsguard, Margaery's clothing is getting weirder by the episode, Robb acting stupid, the lach of point of Ros etc.

I do not care that much about Robb marrying the Volantene in the name of Seven, we do not know which religion his bride follows anyway. But I thnik it would have been good to show him putting a cloak around her - a good opportunity to introduce Westerosi wedding costumes.

What was the point of introducing Dontos anyway, if he is not going to talk to Sansa anymore? Now, it is LF, who also got some Hound's lines - again.

The White walker sequence was horrible. They were completely different from last season (which presented them horrible as well, but why not be consequent?) and they left Sammy to survive?

Where are Ghost and Greywind?

A lot of nitpicks this episode, I did not like it.

[tyrions sliced nose]

http://www.bestweekever.tv/bwe/images/2012/06/Stannis-Looks-Into-The-Fire-1338798288.jpg

[Morrigan]

Where the hell were Xaro's guards? The guy is the King of Qarth, yet Dany's handful of men just waltzed their way right into his bedroom with nodody trying to stop them. [...] What were the dragons waiting for until Dany came if they could release themselves so easily? Did they love being chained by people they didn't know or something?

1. She did have her dragons with her though. Might have helped intimidate a few guards away.

2. I think the chains were magical, and when Pyat Pree died, it undid the chains.

Not that I want to defend the Dany story since it was so stupid but I didn't have a problem with those two specific things.

6. Maester Luwin did not tell Bran and Co. that Ramsay/Dreadfort men sacked Winterfell. I doubt he did not see it. If he did see it, he would have warned Bran? So I guess he did not know? I'm getting confused.

Maybe he limped away to the godswood and stayed there the whole time and missed the action... lol. I dunno. I thought it was odd too. I agree with all the rest of your post.

I wonder if there is a rule in TV shows that forbids underaged characters killing others in cold blood. As having sex as underaged.

I have no other exlanation for the change in the Arya plotline.

Of course not. Ever watched The Wire? In season 1 two underaged boys shoot another underaged boy in cold blood.

The other explanation is that the writers are morons. :)

[Obsidiana]

aside from all the changes to the story, one visual complaint:

the hands of the wights looked perfectly normal, instead of black.

with the wight girl in the first episode of season one I thought: okay, maybe not because she just recently died, blood didn't have time to congeal

Othor: wore gloves, couldn't tell

but this episode there's been a whole army of wights, would if have been so hard to give them black hands?

i mean, that's what stood out about Coldhands too, and would have been an important detail in showing there's more about him

[Arkash]

I'm really satisfied with how the dragons look. I think they've done a great job there. But when we get to "dracarys" their fire was just weird, and I would not have thought that this should have been so difficult to pull off special effects-wise.

Fire and Water are the two most difficult CGI to make.

[Greenseer Stark]

I wonder if there is a rule in TV shows that forbids underaged characters killing others in cold blood. As having sex as underaged.

I have no other exlanation for the change in the Arya plotline.

I thought this too then remembered they let Arya kill the stableboy in season 1 so there is no excuse for the absence of her not killing anyone this season.

Anyway I'll try not to repeat what other people have been saying, but i feel some of the issues with the changes to characters/plots are more than nitpicks. Leaving the HotU prophecies about the 3 threasons, etc. is an integral part of Dany's development over the subsequent books. I'm not sure the writers will be able to undo this easily or convincingly unfortunately and get back that feeling of mistrust she develops.

So XXD is stuck in that vault for a few seasons and then we learn that through some Hollywood cliche he managed to escape? Oh wait, I bet the vault has a secret magic tunnel *sarcasm*.

My biggest gripe is with LF. (He's my favourite book character). Book LF would kick TV LF's ass if he heard him saying in COURT his plan to get Sansa out of King's Landing. Writer's I beg of you, do not let this character trait continue into season 3!

For all the bad points of the episode there were some redeeming parts. Winterfell remained a strongly written and acted part of the show (luckily) and I quite liked the look of the Others and the wights, even though it's different from last season.

[ckongo]

Awful season. Awful episode. I'm not sure if I'll be going back because I just get frustrated at this ego-stroking expression from D&D. Awful things this episode include:

-Jon/Quorin half-brain's relationship. None of the "ride with them" business. Quorin being taken in chains... No. And it just looks like Quorin attacks Jon for no reason. When would they have time alone to stage this? What's Jon's reasons for being with the wildlings now?

-Robb breaks his oath absent of grief and with full premeditation. He even discusses it with Catelyn who wasn't even there. Bran/Rickon's "death" has nothing to do with it. He just decides to break his word because of Jeyne/whatever her name is who kept following him and questioning his politics.

-When did Hot Pie learn Arya is a girl? He does know, right?

-Petyr opening approaches Sansa. They've completely ruined one of the twists of the third book.

-When the last scene appeared, I joked with my family that it would be another scene where Sam goes on about Gilly. Sadly, it actually was the case. That type of talk is suggestive of oath breaking. Although the glimpse of the whites who don't kill Sam for some reason was great, the ending of the 2nd book with Bran was much better. Speaking of which...

-WTF! Winterfell burns off-screen! Theon's finale ends with being bonked on the head? Seriously? A great speech's with what could have led to a great scene with Ramsey (who never shows up) lost all its thunder with that. Why did they kill Maester Luwin? And why did he act rather well in his last scene? I was hoping for the last line of Bran's last chapter to be the season's last words, but that was hoping for too much from these writers.

- When Theon asked Luwin's council, I expected to hear "take the black" but he says "run." My jaw dropped at that. And Dagmar and the others just leave like it'll be no problem.

-No prophecies for Daenerys. There were over 20 to use, and instead they made up their own.

-Why are the dragons so small? Have they still not eaten? That was one of the dropped topics from episode 1; as was Tyrion getting the poison from Pycelle. Anyway, that seen in the house of the undying was so unimaginative.

- Daenerys is now a looter. And she puts Xaro in a valyrian steel (right...) safe with nothing in it. How's that going to work for the fifth book?

- Jaime learns Brienne is a good fighter through 3 annoying guys who won't stop asking questions instead of going at her himself. :-(

- No Selmy. Instead Daenerys gets $$ for a ship by looting.

- When did Arya leave Harrenhal?

- Why would Varys care about Ros? None of the fans do.

The sad thing is I hear D&D have gotten 2 more seasons on their contracts for such a pitiful performance...

[moonsblood]

No Shade of the Evening really bummed me out, I could have possibly forgiven what they did to HotU if there had been Shade of the Evening.

Seriously what was the point of even introducing Dontos? I suppose he can still be the go between for Littlefinger, but....

Why didn't the Wight horse have blue eyes? I liked the pilot episode wights way better.

[SerMixalot]

noone all season refered to brienne as wench, i mean come ON! that is a unmissable phrase from the books. I can see no justification for its removal.

[FierceElite]

Awful season. Awful episode. I'm not sure if I'll be going back because I just get frustrated at this ego-stroking expression from D&D. Awful things this episode include:

-Jon/Quorin half-brain's relationship. None of the "ride with them" business. Quorin being taken in chains... No. And it just looks like Quorin attacks Jon for no reason. When would they have time alone to stage this? What's Jon's reasons for being with the wildlings now?

-Robb breaks his oath absent of grief and with full premeditation. He even discusses it with Catelyn who wasn't even there. Bran/Rickon's "death" has nothing to do with it. He just decides to break his word because of Jeyne/whatever her name is who kept following him and questioning his politics.

-When did Hot Pie learn Arya is a girl? He does know, right?

-Petyr opening approaches Sansa. They've completely ruined one of the twists of the third book.

-When the last scene appeared, I joked with my family that it would be another scene where Sam goes on about Gilly. Sadly, it actually was the case. That type of talk is suggestive of oath breaking. Although the glimpse of the whites who don't kill Sam for some reason was great, the ending of the 2nd book with Bran was much better. Speaking of which...

-WTF! Winterfell burns off-screen! Theon's finale ends with being bonked on the head? Seriously? A great speech's with what could have led to a great scene with Ramsey (who never shows up) lost all its thunder with that. Why did they kill Maester Aemond? And why did he act rather well in his last scene? I was hoping for the last line of Bran's last chapter to be the season's last words, but that was hoping for too much from these writers.

- When Theon asked Aemond's council, I expected to hear "take the black" but he says "run." My jaw dropped at that. And Dagmar and the others just leave like it'll be no problem.

-No prophecies for Daenerys. There were over 20 to use, and instead they made up their own.

-Why are the dragons so small? Have they still not eaten? That was one of the dropped topics from episode 1; as was Tyrion getting the poison from Pycelle. Anyway, that seen in the house of the undying was so unimaginative.

- Daenerys is now a looter. And she puts Xaro in a valyrian steel (right...) safe with nothing in it. How's that going to work for the fifth book?

- Jaime learns Brienne is a good fighter through 3 annoying guys who won't stop asking questions instead of going at her himself. :-(

- No Selmy. Instead Daenerys gets $$ for a ship by looting.

- When did Arya leave Harrenhal?

- Why would Varys care about Ros? None of the fans do.

The sad thing is I hear D&D have gotten 2 more seasons on their contracts for such a pitiful performance...

Maester Luwin, man. Maester Aemon is at the Wall.

[ckongo]

Maester Luwin, man. Maester Aemon is at the Wall.

Thanks. Gotta fix that.

[Tetrarch42]

Stannis' characterization... I always saw him as stoic, brooding, and irritable, not a man who flies into rages and strangles others on a whim. It seems like the different screenwriters are interpreting his chracacter completely differently. He went from a determined, just, and somewhat depressed/dour commander in episode 8, to a reckless action hero in episode 9, and now he's a tempermental domestic abuser? Pick your key chracteristics and stick with them until there's adequate explanation for a personality change, Stannis seems like he'd be diagnosed with dissociative personality disorder at this point. Pretty upsetting that they've reduced my favourite character to a mercurial bully.

Qhorin Half-hand acted like a moron and so is Littelfinger and Robb, like every character's IQ dropped 20 points from last season, must be the change of seasons.

[Reposado]

the thing that bothered me the most, and others have mentioned it, is that just weeks after pyat multiplied himself and killed 12 guys at once, he is destroyed by a short blast of flame. i would have used that much to light the candles on a birthday cake

[Jolene Brown]

I wrote a long post complaining but it got swallowed, so I just want to re-iterate more briefly that in addition to eliminating the impact the news of Bran/Rickon's deaths had on Robb's relationship with Talisa, and the (to me) annoying change in personality to supposedly make the character more "interesting," I really think that the fact that Robb married a Lannister bannerman's daughter of all people, was also too important to change. The irony that Robb twice in close proximity put honor/justice toward the children of his enemies over the well-being of his own cause, particularly courageously so in the case of Karstark's murders, was really beautifully tragic to me. I am no Stark fangirl, I root for the Lannisters in all situations, but it was still so moving and sad to see Robb make those choices knowing full well what their cost would be. You need that echo of Ned. Sure, people will say it's stupid, just like Ned was sort of stupid, but dammit, that's the point. The Starks do the right thing when it's stupid. I don't root for them, but I admire it, and you can't cut that out of the story.

[Lord of Many Faces]

Can someone explain to me why the blue rose is important in a way that would impact TV viewers? It's not like non-book-readers were told that Lyanna Stark like blue roses, so how would a vision with blue rose on the Wall make any sense for non-book-readers?

[Spidey]

-Jon/Quorin half-brain's relationship. None of the "ride with them" business. Quorin being taken in chains... No. And it just looks like Quorin attacks Jon for no reason. When would they have time alone to stage this?

Watch episode 8 again.

-Why are the dragons so small? Have they still not eaten? That was one of the dropped topics from episode 1;

Watch episode 5 (or was it 6?) again.

- Daenerys is now a looter.

That's what Dothraki do. And she's their queen.

And she puts Xaro in a valyrian steel (right...) safe with nothing in it. How's that going to work for the fifth book?

They can cut that out for all I care. The less time spent in Meereen the better.

- No Selmy. Instead Daenerys gets $$ for a ship by looting.

And next season she will get an army by breaking a contract. That's how she roles.

- When did Arya leave Harrenhal?

Watch Episode 8 again.

[ckongo]

That's what Dothraki do. And she's their queen.

They also keep slaves, and you know she feels about that.

[teemo]

the thing that bothered me the most, and others have mentioned it, is that just weeks after pyat multiplied himself and killed 12 guys at once, he is destroyed by a short blast of flame. i would have used that much to light the candles on a birthday cake

:lol:

@congokong - I agree with everything you said, and you pointed out some things I haven't even thought of.