How would you rate episode 307?

[Count Balerion]

Gave it an 8. I think I'd have to be really disappointed to give an episode less than that. Nothing screamingly exciting, and heavy on setting things up, which is fine.

Highlights:

Tywin vs. Joffrey, though I miss the family council in the books, where Tywin is much more devastating IMO.

Dany. Too short, though.

Pretty much anything with Jaime in it.

Nice to see Sansa growing up and Margaery being Margaery.

Blackfish's assessment of Frey.

Jon explaining to Ygritte that she knows nothing.

Arya.

But basta mit der Theon-torture already.

[Spilly]

That makes no sense.

agreed

[Definitely Mayhaps]

Disclaimer: Did not watch the Theon scene. I'm thoroughly tired of seeing the torture scenes; I don't like torture at all in media, it detracts from the good stuff. Ramsay was revealed to me from the point where he sets Theon free, I don't need to see anymore of him until Greyjoy becomes Reek.

Overall, this week was a 6/10

The good

- Dany. For some reason, I am really enjoying her TV story this season. Clarke is still a weak actress but she's getting a bit better; the talk with the slaver was great, the dragons looked wild and as dangerous as they should be at this stage. They have nailed the Unsullied, the dynamic between Jorah and Barristan is at least existent and Daenerys at least looks a hell of a lot stronger this season, in keeping with her development in SoS. Book 3 improved Dany leaps and bounds and the show is remaining pretty faithful, much more so than everything else. Shame the dragons aren't named 'officially' on the show yet but I'll let them off. Plus, Ramin's music for Dany is the best soundtrack of them all...

- Arya's escape. I have no qualms about this, again very faithful but I don't see how they could've altered it drastically.

- Robb/Talisa. Holy shit, a good Talisa scene? Nah not kidding, this one was good for one thing; it actually felt intriguing. They have the potential to actually show us the true purpose of our Volantene nurse to Robb's storyline and after two seasons of developing this frankly clueless love story, I'm excited to see how they can pull it off. Assuming it goes the way I speculate (can't say here, huge spoilers), the Talisa story might, just might be saved and, in retrospect, be one book departure that will truly be great.

- Anything Jaime/Brienne. The bear scene was solid and I didn't find it anticlimatic at all. The bear was obviously trained to do the stunts (strange how PETA haven't reached for their pitchforks over this) and the scene with Jaime and Qyburn and Jaime's sudden urge to go back for Brienne were, hands down for me, the best scenes in the episode. Worth a rewatch just for Jaime alone really.

The bad

- Tywin/Joffrey. The point of this please? I'm not following. Boring and only saved because it showed two of the best actors on this show.

- Jon. I really was bored by his scenes this episode. It all seems to be focused on Ygritte and this Not-actually- Orell bloke, who's crush on Ygritte was awful to watch. With Jon, it was grimace, grimace, hate Orell some more, kiss Ygritte and then do nothing. Should be 'you do nothing, Jon Snow', that's more like it.

I can't be bothered to disect the rest. I basically found most of the episode bar Dany and Jaime scenes just really boring and filler leading up to major events that we know about.

Edited May 23, 2013 by Definitely Mayhaps

[Queen Carol]

I gave it a 9. The bear pit scene really lived up to my books expectations, even though it was quick. I did want the "I dreamed of you" line though. *sigh*