New trailer. Yes:

foolish to base hopes on a brief trailer, but watching that made me feel that season 3 will be a lot better than season 2.

I know that the latter third of the 2nd book and the the third book in its entirety were my favorite sections of the the story to read so far, so as long as they don't fuck up the story too much, I'm pretty stoked.

The second season would've been better served had they only focused on half the novel. It was good television but every episode was machine gun exposition in a series of vignettes that were more or less related to one another.

Agreed...felt like watching highlight reels more than a flowing narrative....and that is why I have higher hopes for s3, as I believe I heard they were splitting it up over two seasons.

Sound analysis.

The show's strength is in it's cast, but even great performances can be dragged down by rushed, brooding exposition. I think season three is going to be a little better paced and season four will likely be even more so. After that, I have no idea what they fuck they're going to do.

I'm excited. It's starting to get the good part of A Song of Ice and Fire.

Sooooo...what did we all think?

Dayyyyuuuum!

Dug it. Can't wait to see how it's going to play out.

And as a CG guy, and someone who picks apart every little special effect, matte painting, and 3D model in every movie ever, I'm very impressed with the art direction and the cinematography. The giant walking through that winter camp and driving the wooden post into the ground was one if the coolest scenes thus far. The dragons are still a little hokey, but I'm writing them off as awkward teenagers at this point. The physics in their flight and their mannerisms are pretty damn good. Just need a little more time to develop.

Absolutely agree! It looked really fucking good.

Big fan of the casting for Tormund and Mance too.

I understand ditching the whole Artisan Whitebeard thing. It would be really strange when Dany asks Jorah if he knows him and for him to lie. Plus, they've got enough on their hands with Astapor, why waste time setting up an intrigue that the audience should already know....

I agree on both of these. The Arstan Whitebeard plot is better left to the book where it can kind of, almost, maybe be a mystery for a little while. On the show, it just wouldn't work because the audience would recognize him. I would've liked to see a bit of Strong Belwas though, if they could've worked him in somewhere.

Overall, the episode seemed pretty well in line with the end of last season. I wasn't sure on where the Night's Watch were in that plotline though, with Mormont asking Sam Tarly if he'd sent the ravens? I thought that came later, after their camp was attacked. Am I wrong in that?

Interested to see how they handle bringing in the Jaime Lannister and Arya Stark plotlines, but if the teaser for this week is any indicator, I guess we'll get some of that next episode.

I could watch Charles Dance play Tywin for the rest of my life.

Also if all we see Bronn do is tense standoffs with the Kingsguard I will be satisfied.


The dialogue with Jon and Mance took away a lot of my concerns for not making it more clear that the Halfhand ordered Jon SNow to infiltrate the Wildings and do whatever is necessary. Now it seems Jon actually wants to join the Wildings.

I like how they are pressing the fast forward button on a lot of Daenerys' story. Goodness knows it needs it.

I think we'll see Strong Belwas eventually. They could just be putting off introducing him for later seasons (like they're doing with the Reeds).

That bit with the Nights Watch confused me too. My bet is they're going to be attacked again, and that's when we'll see Sam's big moment.

I am super excited for the Jaime Lannister plot line this season.

Also, notice how quickly puberty came for Bran Stark....

And the Hound.

The camp gets attacked right off the bat in the book. They never really had a camp in the show. They've deviated a lot from the book though, and the pacing was strange. They introduced a lot of key elements of the third book right away, in that first episode.

The Harrenhal scene with Robb and the Northmen was strange too...

The dragon, manticore, and giant were all awesome. The show is good, I just like books better than television.

I was happy that we got to see the murder machine that is Ser Gregor. Well, at least the aftermath.

Would've been nice to actually see some of his more charming moments with Arya last season, but then again, I wouldn't have sacrificed those scenes with Arya and Tywin to make room for them. Which really contrasted well with his scene with Tyrion this last episode.

Well, that Brienne vs. Jaime bout was awesome...

HATED that it's the Three Eyed Raven and not Three Eyed Crow. Call me a purist, but I'm right. Useless change.

HATED the scene with Shai and Tyrion. Waste of a Tyrion scene when we could've spent that time watching more Brienne and Jaime.

Didn't like the Caitlyn scene with Robb's wife. Not the scene itself, but Cat paying over a sick Jon Snow? Bullshit.


Other than that, love EVERY second of the episode. I love the Theon arc, loved the Reeds, loved Margery's Grandma.


Anyone else feel that if we don't have a scene with Tywin and Lady Olenna that it will be a severe waste of talent?

Anyone want to venture a guess as to where the fuck Melissandre is going? She stays by Stannis in the books.

I have feeling she's going after Gendry...

that's what one of the s3 episode descriptions says...weird, but I am sure there is a reason.

Well, they never introduced the Edric Storm character or subplots in the show, so Gendry would be the only bastard of royal blood remaining. In the book, they already have Edric Storm at this point in the story, so to follow some of those story arcs, she'd technically need Gendry.

That's speculation, we'll see how it plays out.

Stands to reason to me as well. In the interest of condensation I would understand the choice. I think audiences have enough trouble keeping up with characters. Adding another Baratheon bastard after we've spent this much time with Gendry would only muddy those waters, so to speak.

This week was one of the strongest episodes this season. I'm glad that we're seeing Theon's journey. Makes me think we're going to catch a glimpse of Balon Greyjoy a little later on...walking on a bridge. But maybe they'll hold that off until the end (which would also make sense).

I'm glad we're actually spotlighting Varys too. I was worried that the past two seasons treated him more like a caricature for exposition and intrigue. At least with this episode, we get a hint that Varys has motives all on his own.

The scene with Varys and Olenna was great. As was the final scene with Daenerys...definitely my favorite episode of this season so far.

Agreed. They did the final scene as good as it was ever going to be done to live up to that moment in the book, which I think was probably the highlight of the series for me so far, just an awesome turn and really well played. I like the Olenna character and the Varys stuff this episode was pretty great. It seems like the season so far was building to this.

^ Agreed on all points...one of my favorite single episodes thus far...I also liked how the shit hit the fan at Craster's Keep, although I wished Mormont would've been able to deliver his message about Jorah to Sam...quibbling aside, we'll hopefully get to see more of Sam in the coming weeks, in addition to Coldhands.

Coldhands...that's going to be awesome.