How would you rate episode 310?

[Rabid Grunt]

Basically, they're not half as talented as Martin and almost invariably whenever they depart from the book they screw up big time.

Tell that to episode 7.

Martins Theon scene was infinitely worse than all the others.

[YuriP]

9/10

You really have to rate it as the show and not how good it represents the books. I dont get people being upset because it did not deliver things they expected. Most times this is a good thing. things being unexpeced is great even if it differs from the books.

[DrRobotnik]

Tell that to episode 7.

Martins Theon scene was infinitely worse than all the others.

He has other projects, not least of which is the actual BOOK he's writing.

[andrew_]

We don't find out, Davos begins reading his letter then the chapter ends?

Well you do find out.......Mel or Davos say that how can Stannis be king if he doesn't protect his realm.

[SerArthurHeath]

Well you do find out.......Mel or Davos say that how can Stannis be king if he doesn't protect his realm.

And now you might hear Stannis say that line in Season 4. Which matches up when he went from Neutral-Lawful with a large smattering of "evil" and barely any good at all to Neutral-Lawful with a lot of good in the books. I don't get how Stannis' character has changed in the show

[Skahaz mo Kandaq]

Best damn show on HBO. Fabulous way to end the season, with flying dragons. Truly epic.

[CakeOfTheMorning]

Basically, they're not half as talented as Martin and almost invariably whenever they depart from the book they screw up big time.

Martin is bookwriter, DD are TV writers, and a mega production with a lot of obligations behind that. I trust Martin better for his job and I trust D&D for theirs. When you look at the episode written by Martin, I doubt the show would have gotten past the first season with him in command.

[Jamie Lannister]

A generous 6. Was not impressed, and that ending was just... no. I'm not going there. A few good scenes (albeit largely carried by the actors), but the actual content and pacing left a lot to be desired.

It was great to see the Greyjoys again, and the Boltons nailed it, but eh. I'd lowered my expectations for this episode, and was still disappointed.

[kevin1989]

Gave it an 9. Not so good as rains of Castamere. But I was happy that we hadn't had LS, because that would be to soon, better next season.

KL stuff: Wonderful. Poor Sansa. Nice conversation between Tyrion and Cercei. Joffrey scene was wonderful.

Twins and dreadfort: I really hate that Walder frey, and nice way to make clear that boy is Ramsey.

Yara: wonderfull scene. Hate Balon even more now.

Dragonstone: Wonderful. But pretty soon. Hadn't expect that they would leave that soon.

Arya: Wonderful scene.

Bran/Sam: Nice done, but I was missing the black gate. But I understand why they left that out.

Jon: Ygritte scene was nice.

Danny: Wonderful ending.

I missed a couple of things:

- LF, I was expecting a scene with him at the earie.

- No QoT :(

- Wasn't there a scene with Mance where Ygritte and co where back at his camp shot? Probably skipped because of the timeline. They probably pushed the Jon/ Ygritte scene back from the beginning of the episode to the end.

Overall wonderfull episode. But not so good as season 1, but better than season 2 ending. But what does it matter. Season 3 was overall the best season, and you must look it as a whole.

[Former Lord of Winterfell]

Gave it a 7, which is kind of low for me. I didn't judge it on how faithful to the book it was -- just on how well it stood on its own merits. A lot of the individual scenes were really good -- Arya/Hound, Tywin/Joffrey, Theon/Bastard, Jon/Ygritte, Tyrion/Sansa, Sam/Bran, and Walder Frey in particular was wonderful again. But as an episode, it was cobbled-together bits and pieces of "wrap-up", and too obviously so.

Did not like a few scenes. The Jaime/Cersei scene was like a cheesy romantic homecoming of a war hero, but this is supposed to be a twisted incestuous relationship at its core. There was no sense of wrongness at all, and they've been good on that in prior Jaime/Cersei scenes. The Shae scene didn't work for me because I still don't think they've set up why she would really love him. She clearly does, but it still makes no sense.

But the biggest problem for me was the Danaery's scene. Yes, it was cheesy, but I just don't think Emilia Clarke is very good at all. She's the exact same in every scene -- slightly superior look, with an undertone of being very pleased with herself after pronouncing a few words of Valyrian. Wooden as hell, IMHO.

[andrew_]

And now you might hear Stannis say that line in Season 4. Which matches up when he went from Neutral-Lawful with a large smattering of "evil" and barely any good at all to Neutral-Lawful with a lot of good in the books. I don't get how Stannis' character has changed in the show

Yeh same, all these people crying over the so called changes to his character are blinded by their fanatical love for what is a mediocre character anyway.

[A Redeemed Hound]

I gave it a 6. I was upset at first with no Stoneheart but the more I think about it the it would have taken away the impact of the RW to do it that soon. I did wish they showed Bran walk through the opening of the gate with the weirwood tree. Would have been great. I wasn't expecting Coldhands, although I would have loved to see him. He will save Bran and Co. next season from the wights and lead them to the Children of the Forest so no big deal here.

Basically I am a little surprised how much they left for next season but I guess that's a good thing since nothing can ever be as shocking as the RW. Next season will have many more "wow" moments I think. Smaller scale ones but still very cool.

Loved Arya's scene and I am glad they showed the coin and will have her and the Hound stick together at least for a little while longer. Loved the birth of Reek. Loved "Here comes the king of the north!" scene. One of the things I prayed they would do. Loved all the hodorings, especiall saying it down the well. Loved Snow getting hit with arrows from Ygritte. Although I am not quite sure how she caught up to him. At least show her horse or something. Loved Maester Aemon again. Missed him.

The Davos saving Gendry scene was a bit weak I must admit.

Loved all of the Tywin scenes, Littlefinger/Shae, Tyrion/Sansa, Tyrion/Cersie, etc. All of those Kings Landing scenes were excellent and either tied things up or set things up rather nicely for what is to come.

Dany's scene was good. Wished they showed what happened to the leader of Yunkai though.

All I know is that Strong Belwas better be cast next season or I will be so pissed. On to Mereen!!!

Also, I assume they are either not going to have the Kingsmoot next season or Asha will not be part of it when they do have it. I assume the latter since Euron has to take charge somehow. I actually wonder if it will just be Euron and not have Victarion as a character. Not sure if that is possible.

Edited June 10, 2013 by A Redeemed Hound

[LordZerok]

When do you reckon we'll get a teaser of season 4 trailer?

I'd guess sometime by the end of this year. December would be a good guess I believe.

[Ferrum Aeternum]

This was a solid but unspectacular episode; a good way to end the season, though it was missing the punch of a really big event or two. Still, what was done was generally done well, so I gave it an 8/10.

Liked:

- Both Arya & Hound scenes were fantastic. Arya being our witness to RobbWind made an awful bit that much worse; the look on her face was heartbreaking. Her revenge on the Frey men was a good way to show her first real kill, and in no way is meant to be a substitute for killing Polliver later (remember, she still has to get Needle back).

- Bran & Co. at the Nightfort was excellent; best Bran material in a very long time, and provided some nice momentum for his story headed into next season.

- Roose & Walder was darkly amusing; glad to hear the Blackfish escaped, though I wish we could've seen some of his heroics on screen.

- Best Ramsay/Theon scene thus far.

- Asha (Yara) got a cheer for standing up to Balon. Sure it's a departure from the books, but I liked it. Of note - Gemma Whelan has finally grown on me in that role. Only took her a season-long hiatus to get it right, I suppose.

- Davos was great in every scene. His scenes with Shireen and Gendry were heartwarming and funny. He also salvaged the scenes with Stannis & Mel that could've been superb if they'd stuck closer to the source material.

- I enjoyed all the King's Landing material with one exception (see below)

Didn't like/indifferent:

- What was up with Sansa giggling and joshing around with Tyrion? I guess the point was to show that she was warming up to him a little before the hammer dropped on her via the RW news, but...it felt jarring to me. Weird scene.

- Did Ygritte really have to shoot Jon three times? The whole scene felt a bit unnecessary but Jon getting feathered like that stretched the bounds of credulity for me.

- Stannis continuing to defer to Melisandre over Davos at every turn is frustrating. This seemed the perfect opportunity to get Davos some real equity in that dynamic.

- Dany's Mhysa scene was ok, I guess. I get the "white saviour" angle people are bringing up, but it's likely all that happened was they did a call for extras in Morocco and those are the folks they got. Don't see how this is the producers' fault. As to the scene itself, it played out pretty much how I pictured it would. The music definitely added some oomph although the crowdsurfing got a bit silly after the first moment or so.

[anaron]

Jon & Ygritte scene was a low point for me... they could have had same result with just an exchange of looks between them in the last episode.

I liked the Jon & Ygritte scenes from 3e09 and 3e10 a lot. Rose Leslies performance was excellent. Both scenes had suttle actions that said a lot. In 3e09 Ygritte was ready to stand with Jon aginst the other wildlings. She aims her bow at them, but Jon pushes her down. My opinion is it's implied that he wants to keep her from making her own people an enemy of hers. In 3e10 Ygritte obviously left the group and went after Jon, but Jon chooses the watch. Ygritte though still can't let go of him. Even though it is established by now that Ygritte is a good shot with her bow she manages to hit him 4 times without killing him. I'd say it's implied here that that was her, intentionally hurting him badly, without killing him ( The wrath of a wildling-woman ;-) ).

Speculation: I think Ygritte might be the first character who lives longer than in the books. Her death in the books was very arbitrary and I thought that there would have been much potential for more interesting material if she'd have bothered Jon a little longer.

Don't get me started with Dany's crowd surfing.

Dany is in heaven right now. In the books it has been similar, but the series intentionally polished this "perfect" moment for Dany. Probably because that'll give people someone to route for after the shock of the Red Wedding and because it'll be more dramatic when all those problems from the books will pop up in Dany's path next season.

My favorites in 3e10 were the Arya & Hound scenes because they condensed her getting darker slowly into that breaking point when she sees Robbs mutilated body (Priceless remark of the hound in the last scene: "Next time you're going to do something like that, tell me first."). Second favorite was Jon&Ygritte (see above).

The weakest one was Theons. His breakdown to agreeing to be calling himself reek seemed off. Either the initial resistance was to much or the breakdown to fast, concidering, that those 3 blows were "harmless" and "unimanginative" compared to what Theon had to endure from Ramsay before that. The idea of showing the birth of Reek onscreen was a nice one though.

Edited June 10, 2013 by anaron

[Herb]

I'd give it a solid 8/10. Think it was good in making the intentions of a lot of characters clear going into the next season. However, I thought they should have ended the season in a different way. Was a bit underwhelming how they did that. I also thought the initial Jon Snow scene wasted a bit of time that could of been used elsewhere and they should of had the Ygritte interaction in the episode previously. I had hope Coldhands would of been in the episode aswell, but as he wasn't previously I didn't expect him to show up here.

[Corgi Targaryen]

There were a ton of book differences. I know it's tough rounding out a season roughly 60-70% into the book its adapting, but a lot of the rounding out felt contrived. I thought the "Mhysa" thing with Dany was contrived and underwhelming compared to the mid season climax in Astapor. The Ygritte/Jon scene was implausible and weighed down by the cliche'd love story. The buddy/buddy Tyrion/Sansa scene was off. The Shae/Varys scene almost gave me a heart attack. I thought for a minute they were going to walk right into the abyss with changing things. It felt like D&D were trolling book readers.

In regards to the whole Shae thing this is the one time I wanted them to change something. Tv show shae is way better than book shae. Maybe I'm wrong but she does seem to truly care for both tyrion and sansa.

[ExBruinsFan]

In regards to the whole Shae thing this is the one time I wanted them to change something. Tv show shae is way better than book shae. Maybe I'm wrong but she does seem to truly care for both tyrion and sansa.

I agree.

[Winterfellian]

I gave it a 5. Nothing that caught my interest save that Arya scene. Luckily I can say I am officially done with this show.

[Jory Cassel]

The weakest one was Theons. His breakdown to agreeing to be calling himself reek seemed off. Either the initial resistance was to much or the breakdown to fast, concidering, that those 3 blows were "harmless" and "unimanginative" compared to what Theon had to endure from Ramsay before that. The idea of showing the birth of Reek onscreen was a nice one though.

agreed. him breaking that fast bugged me. And he still looked pretty much liked theon, so why not end the season with theon resisting

and the appearance of rreek in the next one.

arya+hound was amazing though, loved it that they picked up her coin-trick from Harrenhal that has been left out earlier.