Reviewing the Rains of Castamere

[Westeros]

Usually, we work for several hours on the recap, analysis, and book-to-screen breakdown for our episode guides and release them all together more or less in time with the west coast airing. But tonight, we’re deviating to share my analysis—a briefer-than-normal one, but also a more-focused-than-normal one—of “The Rains of Castamere”, which can be found here.

Naturally, there are spoilers, so read at your own risk. The rest of our content will, we hope, follow in a few hours.

Visit the Site!

[Toxspecific]

Great episode, lots of playing with the viewers' feelings and emphasis on the tragedy of Grey Wind dying and Arya not reaching. Although, you could say some more foreshadowing would have been good, but still great stuff.

[The Scabbard Of the Morning]

I completely agree with you Ran, and that's why I gave it an 8 out of 10 on the poll. For an scene that they said was their whole reason for making the show, they kind of dropped the ball. They should've had George write this episode.

[Aemon Stark]

Eh, more relentless nitpicking that criticizes the show on the basis that the interpretation chosen isn't quite what you had in mind.

The silence at the end is what makes it great.

[The hairy bear]

Why I don't entirely agree with the reasons and causes, I agree that it was just a "good" episode instead of a "superb" episode. Given that this is the scene they had been planning to adapt for three months, I expected better.

Also, I wouldn't blame only the writing. I feel the direction was just OK too. The work of Alex Graves has really stood up this season.

[The Scabbard Of the Morning]

Yeah, I felt the direction of certain scenes were really awkward. I don't even understand why Roose Bolton ran out of the room after Cat slaps him.

[gande51]

Oh god !!!! I'm shaking from that episode , is that even an emotion I have !!! One thing to read it and then to watch it !!!

[Mexal]

Yeah, I felt the direction of certain scenes were really awkward. I don't even understand why Roose Bolton ran out of the room after Cat slaps him.

So he isn't accidentally shot by all the crossbowmen?

[Ran]

It's more the actual dash being rather comical in appearance. Sort of a Snagglepuss, "Exit, Stage Right" kind of thing. I suppose some kind of imagine Roose never does anything in quite so undignified way.

But I can't think of any better alternative, when they decided that it was Roose rather than a Frey who gave it away by wearing armor.

[Pinkie Baelish]

It's more the actual dash being rather comical in appearance. Sort of a Snagglepuss, "Exit, Stage Right" kind of thing. I suppose some kind of imagine Roose never does anything in quite so undignified way.

Pretty much this. Roose doesn't scuttle off like a lowlife Frey weasel. He glides away gracefully, with everyone's gaze placed firmly upon him, taking in his elegance and awesomeness and sculling down tankards of moon tea to ensure that they aren't impregnated by his majestic presence.

But I loved, loved, LOVED the devil-may-care smirk he had on his face when Catelyn discovered the chainmail. It may not be exactly true to the character in the books, but it firmly establishes him as a sadistic and ruthless villain, which is what his character needs. One of the AV Club Unsullied reviewers praised his reveal as a traitor, and I'm glad that the character has received a positive reception, and I hope this is indicative of the general consensus. Roose is not a nice bloke at all, and I thought the scene exemplified this.

[Ran]

As an aside, this is what traffic looked like during and after the episode. Maxed out our 100mbps connection. The server did not meltdown, though -- the forum got throttled, but the wiki and website kept on serving pages like a champ.

[voodooqueen126]

I kind of think the direction was poor. Perhaps because they really dropped the ball with ShowRobb! and I was kind of looking forward to him dying (where as book Robb's death was completely tragic and seering), but I found myself feeling nothing.

[Beric Zoolander]

Pretty happy with how this went down. Basically been looking forward to this episode since day 1.

If I wanna nitpick, Roose saying the Lannisters instead of Jaime Lannister sends his regards annoyed me, as well as Catelyn's reaction in the show vs. hers in the book to Robbs death. While I think it was done brilliantly and Michelle Fairley killed it in my opinion, her scratching up her own body and face was always something that stuck with me and was sad not to see it play out on TV. I'm sure it might have looked ridiculous and less believable of a reaction but I always like it.

Also it always felt like it was paced slower in the book and ramped up, I almost wish they had devoted the first 25 min to the other stories and then gave us a straight 25 min of the wedding because it was tough to set that pace when you cut to other scenes.

All in all was much anticipated and I think it actually came off sadder than it did in the book. Especially Grey Wind getting it, while Arya watched.

[Ser Not Appearing]

A pretty spot-on review that articulated much of what I felt and couldn't find words for. It worked... my wife was in disbelief (she hasn't read the books)... but the effect of a shocker and stabbing a pregnant woman in the stomach isn't quite the same as the mounting sense of foreboding that grew as one read the actual book chapter. It was an entirely different feel / different take on a plot twist that was bound to be effectively entertaining no matter what. For me as a reader... this different take seemed a bit of a wasted opportunity.

(also, I received numerous overloaded server notices... both last night and even today in trying to post this message... in the event that's useful to know)

[boojam]

So was this the ploy all along: George started , minor, Jeyne Westerling plot and planned to never mention it again?

I mean she is mentioned in Feast, but that could be it she just disappears?

I am not sure this D&D invention wasn't for the sake of extra pathos.

I don't think it telegraphs us anything about the future novels, does add an odd discontinuity to George's narrative.

We know he was involved since he knew the way all of season 3 was blocked out and had D&D change the character and place of origin.

Well that gets Oona Chaplin off the payroll.

(Tho not to forget Lucy Lawless as Lucretia came back from a similar fate in Spartacus: Vengeance, which did a brain burn on fans who thought she was dead, but D&D don't think that kind of way.)

[Javi Marcos]

In my opinion the review is too harsh. For me it's almost impossible to translate the RW to a very different media like TV in a better way. I'd give a 10/10.

[Zarco]

The RW in the book takes a lot from Cat`s internal monologue, i think thats very difficult to pull off on screen.

[Ran]

Sometimes one should do things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. :) (That said, atmosphere and tone may be challenging, but it's not exactly unheard of to be able to raise feelings of dread, nervousness, etc. on the screen. It's done all the time.)

[samih]

I was disappointed by the RW too....Not sure if they did a bad job, or they just set my expectations to high for this...."not so bad job" to let me down. They hinted several times that they've been waiting to depict this event since the series started; and each time they did it I was building up expectations. Since I watched the episode I've been wondering if that's the reason why I wasn't amazed, but the more I think of it the more I realize that it was just a failed attempt regardless of my expectations.

[The Meeraculous Third Reed]

I agreed almost entirely with the "official" review. However, I also think that some of the impact of the RW was dulled by the poor characterisation regarding Robb and Cat over the past two seasons. It's hard to care for the show characters as much as their book counterparts.