[BOOK SPOILERS] Vanessa Taylor always has to write the torture scenes!

[Khal Pono]

Looks like D&D always give Vanessa Taylor the gruesome assignments--a thankless job!

How did you like her writing in episode 2? I liked that she left much of the book dialogue between Sansa and the Queen of Thorns intact. I also loved the non-book scene between Joff and Margery--wonderfully twisted!

I wasn't crazy about the Reeds' dialogue though.

What say you?

[victim]

She's been my favourite GoT writer since 'Garden of Bones.' That was such a delightfully twisted episode, it actually made me feel physically ill in the sheer amount of discomforting scenes it offered: birth of the shadow baby, the rat torture scene, Joffrey punishing Sansa and the prostitutes, and Renly saying "Is he a ham?"

[Queen of Whores]

I hated 'Garden of Bones' overall. The writing ranged from bad to acceptable. This episode was a lot better, and one of my favorites since season 1. I always prefer a slower, more calm paced episode over the big action ones, cause we know there are a lot of them to come soon, so it's good to enjoy these quiet episodes while we can.

The Sansa/Tyrell scene was great because most of the dialogue was lifted from the book (no surprise it was good, since the Tyrion/Tywin scene was nearly word for word, and everyone loved that).

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the Joff/Marg scene as well. I really couldn't care less about the Theon torture stuff though. I would have prefered they kept him offscreen until his shocking reveal as 'Reek', but whatever, I know there are reasons.

[Eira Seren]

I disliked the scene with Dany/gates of Qarth in Garden of Bones. the whole Sumai thing (what another forum member called 'cutting one's hand for the sake of plot progression'), and the rest of that scene seemed like it had wandered in from some other B grade sci fi flick. and the dialogue. . . George Lucas-worthy.

most people objected to the prostitute torture scene because of the content (prostitutes, torture); while in poor taste, i really object because it UPSTAGED Sansa's ordeal, getting humiliated in the throne room in front of everyone. maybe they just didn't want to put a teenage actress through all that, or thought they couldn't portay the extent to which she's humiliated in the book? but it sure detracted from her character's experience, and as far as i'm concerned, really giving Sansa center stage there, even filming it in such a way that they didn't have to show anything indecent, would have allowed them to portray quite conclusively what a perverse monster Joffrey really is. and we'd already been set up for the Tyrion/Joffrey angst in Season 1, and are reminded of it when Tyrion gives Sansa his condolences for Ned's death. . . in front of Joffrey. . . so we wouldn't have lost the element of Joffrey getting back at Tryion, which some people have argued was the reason that the prostitute torture scene was necessary.

this time around i'm glad to see that Oleanna Tyrell was so true to character. i know i sound like a hopeless book purist, but there really are times when staying close to what GRRM wrote really works best, and this scene proves it. they've definitely made some changes with the Reeds, but for the most part, i think it worked. i was a little puzzled by Rickon suddenly running off to live with the wolves. . . that seemed to lapse back into the bad writing. why? to what purpose? with no warning? and Bran just lets him? i realize Rickon is supposed to be a more spontaneous character, but as far as that moment's qualilty, it was just poorly set up and badly explained. otherwise i thought the introduction of the Reeds and working them into the story in a different way was well done.

the theon stuff remains to be seen. so far it seems plausible. my dad is even convinced his sister might be behind it.

[Our Blades Are Sharp]

Re:Rickon & wolves

I think that was for the convenience of getting them off camera without wondering, 'what happened to them?'

[shiola]

Judging from just this episode, I thought she did pretty well. She left a lot of good stuff in, I liked her additions with Margaery, and the Reeds were pretty to-the-point as well.

[Loras]

I was impressed by her writing in this episode. I tend to find her the weakest of the writers so it was a pleasant surprise.

The scene between Olenna, Margaery and Sansa was wonderfully adapted. I know it was very close to the book version but I thought she did a great job.

The stand out scene for me was Bran's dream sequence. Not much in the way of dialogue, but the idea was excellent. I loved the throwbacks to the pilot and Jojen's introduction.

Another highlight was Cersei's great line regarding the fabric.

I did have a problem with the fairly nonsensical Shae-Tyrion scene, it didn't flow very well at all.

[shiola]

I did have a problem with the fairly nonsensical Shae-Tyrion scene, it didn't flow very well at all.

They seemed to have some chemistry after Blackwater, but this season it's gone. I didn't like the scene.

[hazlnut]

Looks like D&D always give Vanessa Taylor the gruesome assignments--a thankless job!

How did you like her writing in episode 2? I liked that she left much of the book dialogue between Sansa and the Queen of Thorns intact. I also loved the non-book scene between Joff and Margery--wonderfully twisted!

I wasn't crazy about the Reeds' dialogue though.

What say you?

I say a "mostly intact" version of the any single book scene would run 45 minutes to an hour.

The writer does a brilliant job of lifting a few lines of dialogue from the books and creating a scene that book readers actually believe (re-remember) is close to a line-for-line, moment by moment version of the book. It's a magic trick, really, to use just the right lines of dialogue to create the illusion of a bigger longer conversation. Several lines of book dialogue were recreated with just: "He's a monster".

Since this thread is labeled book spoilers, I'll remind readers that that scene when on for pages with discussion of Sansa traveling south to marry someone from their family, which spurred the Lannisters to move faster and get her hitched to the Imp.

[RememberTheNorth]

I say a "mostly intact" version of the any single book scene would run 45 minutes to an hour.

The writer does a brilliant job of lifting a few lines of dialogue from the books and creating a scene that book readers actually believe (re-remember) is close to a line-for-line, moment by moment version of the book. It's a magic trick, really, to use just the right lines of dialogue to create the illusion of a bigger longer conversation. Several lines of book dialogue were recreated with just: "He's a monster".

Since this thread is labeled book spoilers, I'll remind readers that that scene when on for pages with discussion of Sansa traveling south to marry someone from their family, which spurred the Lannisters to move faster and get her hitched to the Imp.

True! I find it odd that they failed to present anything about the possibility of a marriage for Sansa as they did in the books in this scene. This is very important later for when Sansa is forced to unexpectedly marry Tyrion. Maybe next episode though...

[Loras]

True! I find it odd that they failed to present anything about the possibility of a marriage for Sansa as they did in the books in this scene. This is very important later for when Sansa is forced to unexpectedly marry Tyrion. Maybe next episode though...

I think the 'second half' of this scene will come up later. It could be a case of trying not to give the game away! :)

[victim]

Different strokes for different folks, I guess. I liked Garden of Bones because it got rid of a lot of exposition that the season had been built on at that point and actually started showing us some stuff. Yeah, the Dany/Thirteen scene was pretty bad, but that wasn't a huge departure from the rest of Dany's season 2 storyline, which was all pretty terrible.

Admittedly, Taylor jumps between characters too much, but this episode she found good ways to tie them all together. Like Cat mentioning Theon, cue cut to Theon, or Cat mentioning Jon Snow, cut to Jon Snow.