[book spoilers]What your non-reader friends/family thought and their predictions.

[Mista C]

Joff was there at Winterfell with them!!!

[Pinkie Baelish]

AND FINALLY, a friend of mine that pretty much likes the show, but it's not obsessed with exclaimed this:

HIM: OMG! I JUST FOUND A MISTAKE IN THE SHOW!

ME: What?

HIM: See how old Bran is now? And he wasn't much younger in the first season, right? We are talking a year or two older right?

ME: Yes, where are you going with this?

HIM: Well how is it possible for Bran to have aged so little and Joffrey so much?

ME: I don't understand, Joff has aged a bit from the first season.

HIM: How? I remember in the pilot episode Cersei having sex with her brother and conceiving Joff (he was born shortly after) while Bran caught them? How did Joff got older so fast, and Bran so little!

I couldn't stop staring at him! Am I that nerdy over GOT? Or has this show became very complicated?

I'm more surprised at the fact that your friend thought they were conceiving when they were having anal sex.

[bbstark]

My sister is convinced that either Cersei or Tyrion will kill Tywin :D

She's a sharp one ;) love my sis!

(Though obviously she's wrong about adoring khaleesi, but she has yet to see the Dragon fail in Mereen)

[Dany4eva]

My friends were bored but loved the stupid Dany scene at the end. I am dying to reveal LS but they don't want spoilers :frown5:

[Dove]

@Maxime, that's incredible. I'm dying at the mental image of rapidly-aging King Baby Joffrey.

[Rhymes with Chic]

My friends all looove "khaleesi" (gawd, my friends are dumb) and think obviously she's the one true monarch of Westeros, the only one who is totally pure and good and no shade of gray in the whole world. There is no reasoning with them that Dany has gotten a good edit.

[The She Wolf]

My friends all looove "khaleesi" (gawd, my friends are dumb) and think obviously she's the one true monarch of Westeros, the only one who is totally pure and good and no shade of gray in the whole world. There is no reasoning with them that Dany has gotten a good edit.

Same. "khaleesi" or "the girl with the dragons". Only one of them actually knows her name. But he loves her too. My mom finds her annoying though, but she's another extreme and thought the Astapor scene was predictable and dumb (while everyone else thought it was totally epic)

And yeah they're not as excited for season 4, but will obviously watch it when it comes along.

[Mistress of Lemon Cakes]

My boyfriend loved the stupid Daenerys scene at the end as well. And he's still upset that Jon Snow left Ygritte even though I explained why he had to (there's bigger things at stake than just their love!) I think he came around a little thanks to that scene, but he was still stubborn and saying "no, he could have taken her with him!" He also loved Arya. I tried to get his feel for team Dragonstone and all he really said was "Are we supposed to watch out for the Red Priestess?" I was just kind of like "uh ... well ..." because I didn't want to spoil anything.

[teemo]

Sort of not related, but...I tried to get my mom to watch the show, she didn't really get into the first episode and then I realized, "she's a fanatical reader!" So I bought her the books. My mom is so funny...she has the Kindle Paperwhite which lets you click a character's name and it gives you a brief description and important quotes they've said so far. She has a really hard time keeping track of characters and is only on book one....listening to her pronounce characters names is a trip. Sansa = SanSan (ha), Arya = Aryan o.O Viserys = I can't understand her. So far she likes Dany (is she a favorite of mothers out there or something?) and really likes Ned and Bran. She doesn't trust Robert and thinks he's evil :P I can't wait until she catches up.

[The Monkey]

Most Unsullied I've talked to loved the episode, a stark contrast to the whiners on this forum. They loved Tywin being boss, Arya being a badass, and Stannis finally getting something to do. They also said GRRM must be a fucking mental patient to write the RobbWind part. :D

[1234567]

First my other unsullied half said it was lame, and then said it was alright, but that they tried to fit too much in and tie off all the storylines.

He does not (thank god) ship Tyrion and Sansa as half the world now do, but said she is still a prisoner.

Sadly he thinks Stannis is a complete arse who can't make a decision for himself and is just weak. He really can't stand him :( . But he does like Davos. :)

Dany is still his favourite, but he did like Arya and the Hound's scene and wants to see more of them.

[lyanna_maria]

My friend is looking forward to season 4, I think. He liked the episode, but he kept repeating that “it didn’t seem like a season finale AT ALL”.

He is obsessed with how much he hates Jon, which I don’t really understand. He keeps saying that he is a total, total jerk and he shouldn’t have left Ygritte alone. He even said that, in a way, he was sentencing her to death by leaving her by herself, south of the Wall where she is considered an enemy. I tried to make him understand everything in a thousand ways, but I’ve just given up, it’s impossible. In the end, he concluded that maybe he is too romantic and gives more value to love than people in Westeros do. :lol:

He liked the Daenerys scene, and he thinks the Hound is quite cool, too.

[aedalia]

My unsullied thought it was a very hopeful episode and they are looking forward to the future.

One of them is still hooked on the idea of who gets the Throne, though. He's happy because his favourites (Tyrion, Dany and Arya) are still in the running for it. Sweet summer child...

[DarkAndFullOfTurnips]

I'm more surprised at the fact that your friend thought they were conceiving when they were having anal sex.

Uh, you don't need to be having anal sex to be behind a woman. It's not like there's 2 feet of space between the two...areas.

But on topic, another unsullied told me "I'm glad they answered a lot of questions this episode. I can't wait for the next season." So I think the episode resonated quite well overall with non-book readers, or at least non-westeros.org-forum-book readers, whereas many of us were a bit let down knowing certain events that occur later in aSoS. I wish I could unread the books just for an hour ever Sunday, to be honest.

[teemo]

I know someone (not a friend) who has read the books and keeps saying (and he's dead serious) that since the show has deviated enough from the books that Dany should be required to be nude in every scene. He thinks it would have been a more powerful season finale if she was nude.

....

[Dove]

Look at all these trick-ass bustas calling it "anal sex" and not "rumpy pumpy".

On-topic though for all we grump and grouse about stuff like Dany's last scene, all this shit seems to have been a HUGE hit with casual show watchers. Most of the folks I watched with went nuts for that, I'm a little surprised that she seems to be the most popular character by a long shot but I guess dragons and a can-do attitude get you pretty far.

I'm also kind of blown away by how popular this show is getting in general. I've heard it referenced as a "pop culture phenomenon" and all that silliness but I'd never actually seen evidence of that until recently. Our little viewing parties have gone from being five or six close friends on any given Sunday to about half my dorm and their extended friends, I see people all over campus in like Stark sigil hoodies and "Fire and Blood" shirts, and some dork even scratched "Winter Is Coming" into a stall at the pool. (though to be fair that could've been before the show IDK)

[bobbybuilderton]

I advise any of you who have friends who called this season slow to point out that there has actually been a lot of character development for many of the characters. Where Jaime started, Arya, Daenerys, Jon, Robb's fall, Catelyn, Littlefinger's TRUE true colors, The Tyrells, Joffrey trying to stand up to Tywin, etc. There were few big battles or whatever, and a lot of waiting for people to get where they're going...but there was a lot of character fleshing out. I actually think that this season was one huge prologue to next season. Developing characters and getting them in position for next season. Because thinking of just how much is likely happening next season, it makes sense that you would need an entire season getting all the characters ready.

[Shitmouth the Wise]

Even as a book reader I got kinda nervous that Roose was going to kill Walder Frey, and then that Yara was going to kill Balon.

Roose had a certain look about him in that scene and it might have made sense for him to waste Walder there assuming that GRRM doesn't have a more appropriate fate in store for him. Which I hope he does.

No good reason for assuming Yara would kill Balon, except that knowing Balon must die soon. Yara's turn against him started to look like she was rising up against him before she went off on her monologue about rescuing Theon.

[Mistress of Lemon Cakes]

I think book-readers were just unhappy with the final sequence because we are all disillusioned and know where Dany's story goes from this point. Freeing the slaves is very admirable in contrast with all the selfish characters we have in the series. Show viewers see only that aspect, not the "now they are Dany's burden" because they have yet to see Dany's growing army/following with any negative effects. I suspect they will discover it next season and realize that by freeing all these slaves, Dany is essentially being pulled further and further away from Westeros.

[Mav Of The Canals]

My unsullied friend loved the finale, and he said he was worried when Dany walked through the crowd given what happened last week, heh. Personally, I think it'd be hilarious if that scene ended up like the King's Landing riot scene last season, but then I just really don't care for DA MUDDAH OF DRAGUNZ. He thought it was a cool ending, though.