I think my main issue with this show is that I just read the books too recently. So many changes are unnecessary and the characters are drawn out so much less subtly and are so much more one dimensional because of it. I probably wouldn't have nearly so many issues with it if I didn't already have such a clear conception of everything.
from the previews, this is looking to be the episode i've been looking forward to the most, or at least that's what i say every week when i see the preview anyway. every episode looks like absolute gold and - for the most part - turns out to be.
Holy crap that episode was freaking amazing! Everything was just so great, can't wait for the last few episodes now
they've changed an absolute shit ton in the last episode but i don't mind so much, it's all executed pretty damn well Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler har har. but seriously, yeah good episode. lots of shit went down and it feels like this episode was the real shift from one end of the book to the other - all the negotiations with renly are over, tyrion has finished making his presence known at king's landing and now it's all kicking off, theon is released out into the world for that arc and arya is no longer simply on the run but providing some of the best scenes of dialogue between tywin that i have seen in a long time and jon is finally away doing what he's always wanted to do - ranging. dany still isn't all that exciting to me but that's largely because i don't care much for the production design or setting of her environment, nor was i that fussed for her in season 1. jorah is the only compelling part of her plot, for me at least. book spoilers for those of you who have finished ALL the books: Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler i do eventually come to like dany's narrative, i especially liked her pov stuff in a dance with dragons.
Great, great episode. The beginning at Winterfell was harrowing stuff. Alfie Allen is magnificent as Theon, and Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Bran is proving just what 12 year-old actor is capable of. Impressive stuff. Dany's parts are a drag, they they were in the book too, at least they're spicing things up with this dragon theft subplot. The riot in King's Landing was superbly executed, really harrowing near-rape scene with Sansa. The Harrenhall stuff was great as always, but I wonder how they will develop Littlefinger (apparently) knowing of Arya's whereabouts.
I understood at the first season that they had to cut a few characters and make a few minor changes; no harm in that -- saves money, and prevents a bit of confusion for there being so many different characters. Season two, has created some sort of parallel reality where the book is completely disregarded for reasons unknown. It's a bit too different from the book enough to warrant it being a re-imagining of the series. I don't understand why this has happened, and also why the nature/personalities of the characters have changed so much. Cf - the episode where Margerie expresses a desire to be The Queen, whereas I don't think she had dialogue exceeding 5 words in the entire series, up to book 4. But I like it anyway.
Some of you may find this amusing. There is a video game for Game of Thrones out right now. In the game there is a special cameo - let's just call him Maester Martin... http://www.gametrailers.com/video/author-cameo-game-of/730133
What did you expect? You do it was George R.R. Martin, right? Dude is a major cheeseball in real life, and this dialog shows why it takes him so long to make release a good book, considering this is probably how bad his books start.
Tonight's episode played more like an Emmy nomination reel, but I don't mind too much. Watched the hbo preview of next week's episode. I'm glad it doesn't look like they've skimped on the battle scenes.
of all the changes they've made to this show, there is only one that really bothers me at this point: gregor clegane. i get that the old actor had to bail due to scheduling changes or something but this new one ****ing sucks, or if not that then the writers/directors really aren't giving him much to go with. the brief snippets we got of him in season one were great - a towering, hulking, snarling mass of a man in steel plate armour who takes his rage at getting defeated out on a horse, which he cleaves with one stroke, but now he's been replaced with what is basically just a tall guy in badly fitted chainmail and lannister reds who sounds like saruman. i was kind of under the impression they would keep him in his old massively oversized armour so as to emphasize that he is basically his own one man army that is just used by tywin because he understands his thirst for battle and thus keeps him close, but he just blends in now. i guarantee that if you asked someone who was only watching the show and not reading the books to identify who this character was they wouldn't be able to say it was the same guy who basically rage quit on his horse in season one, and not just because of the change in actor. it's a complete overhaul in his persona. hopefully we'll get to see him be a bit more imposing and an actual terrifying sight in the next two episodes, or at least the last as i'm led to believe that episode 9 is basically 90% blackwater, if not all (?) until then, i'm referring to him as the mountain that hides, because he's just lurking around harrenhal right now, geddit? bah.
Well in truth he's seen very little throughout the books (IIRC). Most of the awful things he does are spoken of, not shown. Anything he did in CoK was when he held Arya captive, and that ship has sailed, so I'd get used to it. I'm not sure he appears again until Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler Red Viper battle in SoS. I'd say the most heinous and pointless alteration's been the injection of Petyr into as many completely made up scenes as possible. I don't know if it's done as an excuse for nudity, but given that the show's tendency to toss tits and ****s all over the place has just become a general source of hilarity for viewers, I can't imagine why. Probably not the worst change in terms of altering the original, but he gets a ton of screentime, in total, for absolutely no purpose, where as plenty of stuff is just left completely out or butchered.
it was more the presence of the character i was talking about, not necessarily the use. he went from being a great hulking giant of a man to a very skulking, almost quietly-malevolent evil instead of the feral creature he is described to be. i get that he's referred to as a chained dog at tywin's side, i guess i just liked the idea of him being like a chained rottweiler, snarling and pulling at it's chains eager to lash out on someone.
Latest episode wasn't a hit. Didn't really go anywhere, and the Dany scene was unusually pointless, even for her. Also, why hasn't the information of Bran & Rickon's "deaths" been spread around yet? Sure would make Robb's dumb move of fucking Jeyne/Talisa all the more understandable, as he would seek comfort for his grief. Now he just seems like an irresponsible kid (which kinda works if he's 15 like in the novel, not fucking 25 like in the series) Removed some of Arya's finest scenes too (put it in spoiler in case it happens in episode 10, but I doubt it) Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler Not freeing the Northmen I can do without, but why didn't they make her kill the Bolton guard (or Lannister guard as it would be in this case, had it happened)? It was one of the biggest character development moment in the whole story, as it very clearly marked her path to a darker and more violent nature. The Tickler is dead too, so now we miss her murder of him in season 3/4 as well (which was THE best Arya moment for me in the novels). Judging by episode 10's title and desciption, we will be seeing Jaqen again,though, so her getting the coin it pretty certain. Still, I can't see how they couldn't fit in some more of Arya's badass moments. If they can fit in shithead Littlefinger threatening Ros, surely they could find room for that. That's to say, I'm not a book purist, and most of this season's many deviations I've liked, both with Dany (her story needed some spicing up, it was boring as shit in the book) and Arya (the scenes with Tywin have been gold; that was a match made in heaven) . But when they remove short, inexpensive but vital scenes from the show, I just get pissed. But seeing as book 3 will have 20 episodes, here's hoping they will squeeze some of the book 2 elements in there.
this was mentioned within this very episode, shown too if i recall - all of the ravens to winterfell have been killed upon arrival, and there was a lot of dead ravens at one point. no one outside of the walls knows of the raid because it was so stealthy.
Um... no? Everyone knows Winterfell was taken, what people don't know was that Bran and Rickon were "killed". But yeah, its not surprising that word hasn't leaked out. The show's put a pretty big importance on Ravens spreading information as opposed to people, and they very deliberately showed that there ain't no Ravens flying out of Winterfell.
I was more questioning the external decision of the writers not to have the information spread, rather than the internal logic of raven messaging.
Could they have emasculated Jon Snow any more this season vs the books? He's just been three-stooging around beyond the wall, Ghost is nowhere to be seen, and Ygritte has pwned him even more than usual.
Holy ****. This episode. Jesus. I can't even begin to describe it. When the Rains of Castamere started playing at the end I nearly had a heart attack. It fit so perfectly. Lyrics for those unfamiliar. Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler And who are you, the proud lord said, that I must bow so low? Only a cat of a different coat,that's all the truth I know. In a coat of gold or a coat of red, a lion still has claws, And mine are long and sharp, my lord, as long and sharp as yours. And so he spoke, and so he spoke, that lord of Castamere, But now the rains weep o'er his hall, with no one there to hear. Yes now the rains weep o'er his hall, and not a soul to hear.
Great episode. The visual effects were spectacular, especially the wildfire. Sublime acting from Lena Headey (Cersei) too. I only wish we had gotten a better sense of how big the competing armies were. In the episode it seemed like it was a few hundred on each side, when it reality they numbered on the tens of thousands. But yeah, limited budget, I get it, and they did a tremendous job with it so I won't moan further.
The only thing I could even nitpick about the episode was how fast Tyrion's little outting went. I dont think it showed them outside for even 30 seconds before suddenly there were no Stannismen left and they began chanting halfman.
Yeah, should've been both a better speech/leadership bit and battle for Tyrion. Also, I feel like they completely overdid it with the Hound with his made-up conversation with Bronn and general attitude. We get it, you're a dark character.
Looking back, that is my one real issue with this episode. It just ended too fast. Ten minutes more would have been great.
Yeah, the scenes at the wall just screamed budget to me. Not to say it wasn't good; they did the best with what they had. I just couldn't help keep comparing LOTR Helms Deep to this episode lol. Anyone else feel the same?
Some confirmed characters for series three that I think some were worried were cut: Jojen and Meera Reed Cat's brother and uncle Edmure and Bryden Stannis' wife and daughter Selyse and Shireen Margaery's grandmother, the Queen of Thorns Thoros of Myr
I didnt so much feel the budget constraints as much as I felt the time constraints. A lot of it felt hurried (like the aforementioned bit with Tyrion charging out) due to the length of time left in the episode, rather than issues with the budget.
More season 3 casting: Tormund Giantsbane Beric Dondarrion Daario Naharis Mance Rayder Beric Donarrion did make a small appearance (without any lines) in season 1, but that was no doubt just an extra, and they will get a new actor for season 3.
season 3 will be a much more enjoyable experience. this season - on reflection - has really suffered in it's condensed format. it's still been fantastic, but so much more could of been done with it. i guess it's taken them two seasons to really get the executives/producers attention, and if the overall quality of the show, even in it's said condensed form, keeps up throughout season three then it's going to be mindblowing.
Aye, and book 3 is fleshed out over two seasons, so they will be able to go much more in-depth with the characters and plot points than they have been able to this season. Great stuff coming...
I imagine they'll be bringing a lot of the stuff from the Feast/Dance storylines into the Storm of Swords seasons as they've been introducing a lot of plotlines early already so rather than it being two for Storm and one to share between Feast and Dance it'll be three seasons mixing up and spreading out the three books.
Oh man, they managed to fit in the absolutely essential characters who should've been in the entire last season anyway. Sweet.
They could have so much more if they cut out stuff like Joffery's sadomasochist scene, and Little Finger's talk with the weeping prostitute. OH ARE THESE CHARACTERS SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONES WE DON'T LIKE? I COULDN'T FIGURE THAT OUT YET.