How would you rate episode 302?

[a free shadow]

I didn't rate it. Because I doubt I will ever say "Take it off the air". But that was as close as it gets :D Awfuly handeled. Talisa, especially with Catelyn, Catelyn and Bran/Rickon, Catelyn and Jon Snow, Sansa's attitude towards Littlefinger, even her scenes with Margaery/Olenna. Uh.

[gmavridis]

10, up there with Blackwater and better than any episode other than Blackwater last season.

I agree.

[gmavridis]

The casting for Reeds is great.

[gmavridis]

I also liked the way they are showing us the backstory of Theon's torture and the mind games that the Bastard played on him.

[Waylin Stark]

Loved this episode, it was more of the travelling characters stuff.

Arya, Bran and Jaime's journeys are some of the best stories of ASoS.

Arya and the BwB was excellent. I love how they're so merry yet dangerous. And return of the Hound! The moment he said "Girl!" I was on the edge of my seat.

Bran's first scene with Robb and Jon and hearing Ned's voice gave me shudders. And then awesome Jojen just walked straight up, and awesome Meera took on Osha - terrific. I love the Reeds now more than I did in the books. Plus he mentioned Howland Reed!

Jaime and Brienne was funny, but I wish they fight could've lasted a bit longer. And being captured by the Boltons ... things will get interesting.

Poor Theon. I could feel his pain, Alfie's such a good actor. I like how he's being set up, " I'll say anything!!"

And hello Ramsay!! I leapt when I saw Iwan Rheon there, scrubbing the floors as "Reek".

They could've done without Tyrion and Shae, but I think it's the setup of a Sansa-Shae-Tyrion triangle for later.

Also could've done without Sam or Jon, but warging was awesome.

Needless to say Cat's scene was boring. Wanting Jon to die? Horrible.

And Sansa, Margaery and Olenna was awesome. Olenna was perfectly potrayed, loved Sophie's acting, her outburst of Joffrey being a monster.

But even better, Margaery and Olenna dismiss it so casually with a "Meh. That's a shame." Reminds me how powerful they are.

And Margaery is awesome! I love the way she's leading Joffrey on, taking an interest in Joffrey's homicidal tendencies.

Very good episode. Promises so much more to come. 8/10

[DolorousKim]

I don't think Rickon was running off for good. At least, that's the impression I got. I think he was just running around like a little kid would do or something.

Yes, I also don't think that Rickon was running off for good, but given their circumstances, I would think that their fear of someone spotting him and realizing that at least one of the Stark boys was still alive would preclude the rest of the group from letting their youngest member run willy nilly through the North accompanied by only the direwolves.

While it seemed clear that Summer was going with Rickon so that Bran could watch over him from inside Summer, I still don't think that the show is really capturing just how close the bond is between each Stark and their direwolf. First you have Ghost being unnecessarily separated from Jon Snow and now Summer is shadowing Rickon instead of Bran. I don't think that non-readers especially are going to understand the significance of the direwolves and will see them more as just big dogs/family pets.

[Retorus]

They are "nicing up" Cat to make people feel worse later this season.

This. It's pretty obvious really.

I enjoyed the episode, gave it an 8. Thoros is great.

[Ser Drizztos]

I'm getting increasingly annoyed by the fact that we only get a brief glimpse of each location/story arc per episode, and then it's a whole week's wait for the next bit. I should just stop watching now and get the whole season on DVD.

Anyway, a couple highlights were Margery's grandma (more of her please!) and of course Margery herself. The scene with Joffrey was excellent.

Brotherhood was handled nicely. Perfect timing for the Hound to show up.

On the other hand, there were many awkward scenes. Shae/Tyrion, Shae/Sansa, Catelyn/Whatshername, Ygritte...

[six]

I gave it an 8. It was better than last week's, and the good bits were very good.

The good, in no particular order:

• I love show!Margaery, she's the perfect foil to Cersei, who for all her manipulating and plotting is really quite useless. She should take notes from Marg; this is how it's done ^_^ Lady Olenna is great as well.
  

• Jaime/Brienne have a really fun dynamic nearly as good as in the books, and both actors are knocking it out of the park.
  

• Sansa/Shae is really cute
  

• Arya! Arya's journey in SoS is my favourite along Jaime's. I loved Thoros' introduction, too. I could do with a whole episode of just Arya as far as I'm concerned.
  

• Sam and the NW is always a winner with me.
  

The bad:

• Did we need that Shae/Tyrion's scene? We really did not.
  

• Ugh, Talisa go away.
  

• Cat's dialogue... It wasn't bad. It wasn't as out of character as some seems to believe, imo. But why was it to Talisa? Why not Robb? I can't with Talisa.
  

• Brienne/Jaime's fight, I didn't actively dislike it, but it was so different that in the book which means that book readers were always going to be disappointed. And the dialogue during the fight in the books was just perfect and didn't need changing. I don't understand this decision, tbh.
  

[Maizel]

I lioe the Joffrey and Margaery scenes. So pretentious, and Joffrey is totally messed up man. I love Jack Gleeson.

[PoorLollys]

Cat talking about Jon was to let people know that bastards can be made legitimate in some cases, so it doesn't seem out of the blue when Robb puts it in his will. At least that's my guess. If that's not the case then I agree, unnecessary and boring scene.

I wouldn't be surprised if this change begets Cat coming up with the idea that Robb make Jon his heir and suggesting it.

[BlackTalon]

The episode seemed pretty weak to me, one of the weakest in the show so far ...

The Cately scene was weird, Tyrion and Shae scene was useless and annoying, not to mention another bit of poor acting by Sibel Kekilli. Brienne and Jaime were already getting a bit old. That sword fight scene was one of the worst and most awkward I have ever seen. The introduction of the brotherhood and the hound seemed awfully quick to me even though I have to admit the Hound revealing Arya's identity was handled neatly. Overall too many and too short scenes, it felt really rushed. I'd almost say more so than any other episode so far. Somehow this episode just didn't click with me.

lady Olenna and the Reeds were pretty good and saved the episode from being a real diappointment for me.

[Iotun]

I thought this was an awesome episode, one of the best ones in the series in fact. Loved every single thing and every single scene in it. 10 out of 10. Gave the first one an 8.

[boojam]

Sort of a similar to the first episode, setting things up.

The whole idea was to not super condense , like last season, so has me a little worried that too much of season 4 is going to be pulled forward from novels 4 and 5.

Setting things up in KL, a ton of foreshadowing. I thought Diana Rigg was spot on , in the book I loved the elaboration of way Olenna and Margaery teased out the information they needed about Joffrey, some of the best dialog GRRM wrote, but even with 20 episodes to get through all this it still needed to fit the short segment format.

I can just see people complaining about things going slow at KL, but until a certain event it's all Machiavellian , and I love that kind of stuff.

To me there were four parts of SoS that made it the best novel. Dany's adventures in the East and all the action beyond and at the Wall, both are exotic and made ripping yarns. The third part that really pulled me along was Arya's travels. Tho I did kind of like , for some reason, Riverrun.

(Sorry , just me, I never could get into the Catelyn-Robb story, even the big event!)

Third I just loved Arya's travels, tho the start is a little slow, I hope they elaborate the journey with the hound, one of the best stories in the book.

Fourthly the travels of Brienne and Jaime , tho looks as if they will get through the best parts this season.

Even counting the Battle for the Wall, Dany's story had the most fireworks and exotics , if they elaborate and don't just give summaries of the battles as GRRM did.

So looks as if season 3 is going to be 'back loaded'.

As expected Harwin is gone, but did not expect the Arya reveal until latter, I guess they owed Rory McCann some screen time, but did not expect him to be the one to finger Arya. In the novels the Hound only seemed to have eyes for Sansa and didn't even seem to know who Arya was, tho he did see her both at Winterfell and KL, so it's ok.

So much for Butterbumps, ok with me.

Catelyn thing, didn't bother me, it's zero sum due to later events.

(Something brewing with the Talisa thing? I hope they are not going some Byzantine intrigue, lord!, there is too much of that now!)

Whew! even with 20 episodes to get it in , still a lot of jamming and cramming , what the heck are they going to do with Theon next season.

Still.... my favorite HBO show , as of now.

Edited April 8, 2013 by boojam

[Eve]

Yes...I'm sure you speak for everyone who has read the books and watches the show. I don't like the casting either.

As much as I adore Natalie Dormer, she was a perfect Anne Boleyn. I'm not a fan of her casting. In my opinion, she is too old.

[Cas Stark]

Its odd that since they are splitting the book into two seasons everything feels very rushed.

I was REALLY underwhelmed by Diana Rigg's delivery, no gravitas there, all her dialogue said at lightning speed for some reason, and there was so little dramatic tension in the scene, really poorly handled I thought. Natalie Dormer is growing on me, she is old for the role but she gets the character and she is able to act the part of a girl who carries two faces, her real agenda and the one she uses to manipulate the world with.

Didn't really like the introduction of the Reeds, no one in the show knows who the hell Howland Reed is to begin with, having them do the ice and fire pledge would have been a better way to indicate they're important.

Love the Thoros character, that was great, but why introduce the Hound so early? Rushed, rushed, rushed.

I guess they threw in Peter Dinklage's scene because everyone loves him because otherwise it was pointless.

I'm surprised people didn't like the Jamie Brienne fight, while different, I thought it accomplished its goal and the banter was good. I have no objection there. Also no objection to the Cat scene, but it seems odd to throw it in there at this point, and if they're going to make Robb look like a hapless idiot for the entire season they might as well do you know what right now and get it over with.

[Funkagenda]

Pretty good episode.

The Reeds were great. I liked their first scene together. Thoros and Anguy were also very cool, just like Orell. And well, Olenna Tyrell was amazing. Some hilarious moments at her scenes. So far the new characters, they're all pretty good imo.

The storylines were very interesting, nice to see how thinks work out. Jaime was very hilarious as I expected. Such a shame Vargo Hoat isn't cast, but I will give this Locke a chance. The scene with Catelyn and Talsia was good to see, Cat's side of the Jon story. Speaking of Jon, his part wasn't very special today. Tyrion's story wasn't very spectauclar as well this time. Same for the Night's Watch, but it was good to see them again though.

My favorite parts today were the ones with Bran and Arya. Pretty cool to see The Hound already and I'm really looking forward to their scenes together.

8/10

[Jamie Lannister]

7. A tad droll in some places (that NW scene with Sam bored me rather quickly), but with some interesting twists and seeding.

I can already tell Ramsay is going to be spectacular.

[naik2902]

Cat worship Seven gods including stranger then why hated the bastard??

[Tywin's Honour]

I gave it a 5/10.

I felt that although the Jamie and Brienne interaction was rather faithful to the book, the fight scene was awful. Personally, I believe it looked amateurish and unpolished. Somewhat unexpected from a serious with such a generally high standard and attention to detail. Furthermore, seeing as Jamie is one of my favs, I took particular offence at the manner in which his formidable swordsmanship was depicted. Book Brienne struggles to face Jamie, and she herself reflects that she would not have stood a chance against an unbound and healthy KIngslayer. However, she handles him like he was some cocksure hedge knight.

Cat reminiscing over Jon's pox felt a tad forced IMO, and didn't serve much overall purpose as it is made abundantly clear, both in the series and the books, that Cat despises Jon. I guess they wanted to have a bonding moment between the mother and spouse of the King in the North.

Lastly, I wasn't much of the fan of the way Tyrion was presented around Shae. He looked like a helpless, horny teenager beside Shae, spurting out empty threats and smiling like a choir boy. Although, Shae is manipulative in the books, it seemed a bit of overkill on screen.

Edited April 8, 2013 by Tywin's Honour