New trailer was released.

 

Damnit, you got my hopes up.

There is the new-ish Inside the Wildlings promo that came out a few days ago.

 

Season kickstarter was pretty good, but they tried to touch base with way too many overarching plotlines, which made it feel like just another episode of the previous season.

Was really hoping for a long solid block of events beyond the wall.

 

This seemed more like an episode to "remind" everyone of the events etc.

Jeffery calling Cersei old was funny.

 

Don't like the change in Jon's motivation. It doesn't hold up. His previous motivation made perfect sense, but it would require an extra...three minutes to set up. The one they went with is just weak. Sure, it's a half-truth and doesn't make Jon a liar but if Mance had followed up it should have fallen down like a house of cards. It also prevents us from seeing Jon indulge his darker feelings on his role and family.

 

Question: if Tywin's wife hadn't died giving birth to Tyrion, how different would things be in the Lannister household?

 

I've been eagerly waiting to see how they portray the Unsullied. Looks like they are sticking to the books well on that. Daenerys taking control of them is going to be so awesome.

Spoiler

I hated Sir Barristen's entry. The whole, hide under a hood and billowing cloak is so overused, its ridiculous. Come on, its like painting a huge target on oneself saying, hey look here, take interest in me, I'm trying to hide myself in a huge black cloak with hood drawn over my head.

 

No Mance the singer - this will be sort of important 'cause his singing plays an interesting role later on. Jon's motivation is all weird, but I guess they don't really want to

Spoiler

sully Cat too much, considering what will happen to her in the course of this or the next season.

Overall, beyond the wall was kind of underwhelming. And doesn't Sam send message-less ravens or something to the wall? (Will need to re-read to confirm).

King's Landing was great. The guy playing Joffery is nailing him: I haven't hated a fictional character this much since I figured out Humbert Humbert. Margery's little charity scene was awesome: I hope they develop that thread substantially. In the books, if I recall, Highgarden's wooing of the people of King's Landing was mentioned but didn't really figure in the plot in any substantial way until book 5. Lena Hedley was as usual, great: I tried to rewatch a couple of episodes of Sarah Corner a while back, and man, it's hard to do that considering how often I find myself rooting for her to die.

Tyrion's confrontation was really needed: The Arya conversations made Tywin too much of a sympathetic character for what he needs to do. Bronn's scene with the prostitute was utterly superfluous and could have been conveyed in one line of dialogue.

Spoiler

Given the emphasis, I'm sort of wondering whether they are going to change his role in the Purple wedding. Also, do you not find that Tyrion's relationship with Shae is a lot more profound than it is in the books?

DragonStrone was compressed and good. Davos you poor sod.

Selmy's reveal was early, but Clark's scenes are magnificent overall. Also, Missandei's hot and I wish it weren't so.

Good episode. Missing Arya, Jamie and Brienne, though. A number of set pieces aren't exactly like I'd imagined them (especially beyond the wall), but nothing egregious. I do hope they take serious liberties with the eastern plotlines so as to avoid rendering the entirety of the Mereenese knot on screen. Other than that, eagerly anticipating the next.

 

Spoiler

Perhaps the most disappointing part of the episode was Selmy's reveal, they skipped over his fake persona and seem to have either not found or aren't bringing Big Tulwas (I think that's his name.. I don't have my books to hand currently) into this series. Still, I guess it's to not confuse the non book-readers alongside skip over some characters.

The only other thing that bothered me was Bronn not naming the 2nd Kingsguard member, though that's just nit-picking and fits in with Bronn's character given Trant's a-hole charm.

 

Wish fulfillment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdA6lQ6ymhU

 

Not surprising about Selmeys alter ego being chopped.

In a book you can read "A old man joined the group" and not know who he is. But we've seen the damn actor for a whole season, I dont care if he grows his hair out I'm going to know him, so having him pretend to be someone else and fooling them but not us would be stupid.

 

Agreed. And the character whose getting chopped up is entertaining, but is still cannon fodder for the most part. And we've got enough of those to last us for a while.

 

Why would it be stupid? They've let us know that Ser Jorah betrayed Dany and it worked fine. It lets the audience wonder when they'll figure it out. It builds tension. Now however I have to wonder how they are going to deal with the revelation of Jorah's betrayal.

Also: Tywin is so full of shit. "I'm not gonna thank you because you're a Lannister. But I don't think that you're a Lannister so...I just don't want to thank you :|"

 

Agreed, but it makes sense. He truly hates Tyrion and is far from rational where he's concerned. The thing that I'm having the most trouble with in terms of the show are the portrayal of Jaime and Jon. Mostly because I think that the direction they're being taken in now are going to make things incredibly difficult for the writers later, unless they make massive changes to the plot.

Think I'll put the rest in spoiler tags just to err on the side of caution.

Spoiler

Everyone I know that watches the show but hasn't read the books thinks that Jon really has betrayed the night's watch and I'm unsure of whether that's a change the show has actually made or whether him being a double agent just hasn't been explained well. If they let it go too long it'll be hard to pull off how he comes into his later role.

As far as Jaime, I'm not sure if its just me but it feels like the show has been trying to make him far worse than the books did. The scene in season two where he killed his past squire is the main thing that makes me feel this way. I think it might make it more difficult for them to redeem his character later then again they might simply never do so. With the first five books it wouldn't need to change much but I don't think that will hold true for the last two.

 

The people you're talking to are pretty dumb, considering

Spoiler

Qhorin Halfhand is all but winking at the audience of the show the entire time he's spazzing on Jon.

Or they're just paying literally zero attention to the dialogue, one. I'm honestly not sure how anyone could actually watch that whole setup and not get what's going on.

 

What the fuck? Peter Dinklage not returning for season 4. I hope it's an april fools day joke. Oh...wait, it was.

 

That actually got me until it got obviously sarcastic. Ashamed.

On a more relevant note, I finally saw the new episode and generally had mixed feelings. Didn't like Jon so much, while I typically do, but was a huge fan of Tyrion.

 

I'm not at all surprised that the latest episode broke the record for largest number of illegal downloads

 

I'm glad Jojen has finally made an appearance. Here's hoping they'll work in some of the more interesting Westeros backstory with his greensight.

 

Holy shit Bran. What happened to his face fat? I firmly believe that the best use of androids is to avoid the havok the ridiculous bodily change that is adolescence wreaks on production and SOD.

"It's a shame that the throne is not made of cocks or they'd never get him off it"

/dies. Lannister wit strikes again.