This.

The scene with The Tickler worked well in the books, but probably wouldn't have been the same on screen. The show wasn't really able to drive home the mindfuck of The Tickler's interrogation/torture techniques, or how it affected Arya. Thid was not really a fault of the writers in this case, they would have had to use too much of the show's time to show how it traumatized Arya, and I would rather they (try harder to) keep more essential scenes than focusing on a character as minor as The Tickler. The impact of her killing the guy who stole her precious sword will have more of an impact than the "Is there gold in the village... etc." line, which would probably be completely forgotten by the time that scene happened. Hell, in terms of the show, I've already forgotten it

I literally almost fell asleep during this episode. I ended up falling asleep 5 minutes after it ended.

Can I just say that I didn't watch series one, but I've read the first 3, and I think the first scene where Asha visited Theon at Winterfell was brilliantly done. I didn't take to Theon's actor at first, but in hindsight they got it spot on. And Asha was one of the best acted characters. Also the Qorin/Jon scene worked well. Seeing how Ygritte played a major part in ASOS and how they will want to save screen time for all the other batshit crazy stuff happening in the north in ASOS, I think it's good they are building up her character more now. And the actor playing Jamie is badass. Needs moar "wench" though

Is Talissa supposed to be Jeyne Westerling? Because I'm pretty sure she wasn't that "high born".

Eh, Talissa is their made-up character that replaces Jeyne Westerling for some unfathomable reason.

I'm guessing they're trying to avoid confusion with Sansa's friend Jeyne? Could be confusing for the... ahem, less smart people once season 5 rolls around.

Like why they changed Asha to Yara. Do they think viewers are really THAT dumb?

Viewers ARE that dumb.

Hence all the scenes of "I'm going to deliver some clumsily-written exposition while getting a blowjob."

Ok... Are they going to leave out all of Tywin Lannister's conniving? Because right now all we got is exposition theatre delivered by a shitty military tactician.

Wat. We barely saw Tywin in book 2, so I don't know what you're referring to exactly...

I'm sorry for bringing this if it's considered internet trash but I laughed reading this:

"Always going on about climate change."

That was the bit that got a laugh out of me, made the rest of it totally worthwhile.

That was brilliant lmfao

That was perfectly actually, loved the last few!

I'm shocked at how accurate that pic is. Hah hah.

Well Arya doesn't spend all her free time with Tywin, either. So I think we can forego the literal book plot for a bit. My point is that I found it critically important that Tywin basically sucks at being an actual Lord. It explains his children so well.

I give it to the show, that was an intence, epic and amazing battle they pulled off.

Pod!!!!

Not much to say about this episode. I thought it kicked ass. No chain, but they got the other important parts down. The fact that Tyrion was the hero of the battle, and managed to hold off Stannis until Tywin came in and saved the day was still there, chain or not. I thought Clegane's freak out was a little underplayed, and the scene with Sansa was a bit weak, but that was really my only nitpick on the episode. They did manage to pull off an epic battle with a relatively low budget, got most of the key points right, Podrick was fucking awesome, and who else was excited to hear "The Rains of Castamere?"

That certainly was a damn fine battle for the show's budget.

I think it's safe to ask about he chains now. What's about them?

In the books, Tyrion had a gigantic chain forged to stretch across the Blackwater so that Stannis's ships couldn't escape the fire. He had it forged very early on and was questioned a lot by the smiths but he told them to just do it, and it worked a big wonder in the end.

Finally a great episode! Gah... awesome...immense fireball holocaust...leg lop...so good.

I loved some of the dialogue in the episode.

"If any man dies with a clean sword, I'll rape there fucking corpse!"

"There's Honorable men at our gate. Let's go kill them!"

From Entertainment Weekly, a partial list of new characters in season 3:



Interesting.

Yeah! The Reeds are there!

I bet they'll choose a babe to play Selyse...

I've only read the books once, but are Selyse and Shireen that important that they need to be cast?

Awesome news! Beric Dondarrion was cast already last season but I assume they're planning to recast him like they did with The Mountain due to them only having small cameos.

Selyse and Shireen are important (as is Patchface, though I think his character probably works better on paper than on film, maybe they will merge him with another character), but their importance is not really known yet. Lots of foreshadowing, especially in Book 5, but I assume they'll be introduced because of their future importance more than for their roles in Storm of Swords.

I thought they made some poor decisions w/ season 2 but (I'm sure this has been said before) part of the problem is kind of inherent in that A Storm of Swords is really the climax of the first half of the series and that Clash spends a lot of time putting pieces in place for Storm and didn't have the same intrinsic momentum that made Game of Thrones (season 1) more natural to adapt. Season 3 and 4 should be pretty great, ASOS is my favorite of the books so far. Episode 9 was great, far and away the best of the season, but if Martin wrote all the episodes he'd probably never finish the books.

That explosion was badass. I adore Sandor Clegane. Awesome episode.

The show finally picks up. Even though it was probably the best episode of the season, some things still bugged me. Not enough to ruin it, but enough to be on my mind. I'll post in the next couple days though as I have a midterm tomorrow.

What I will say however is that the TV show is frustrating; there is so much good content from the books that could be used but isn't. Instead, they keep coming back to a lot of boring, non essential 1 on 1 dialogues, often accompanied by a naked courtesan.

If this is true, I am very happy.

No Brave Companions (yet?) though. I hope they make it into the final cut. Vargo Hoat would make a great TV character, but I guess if they really had to they could merge him with another character. Wouldn't be the same. Qyburn is kind of essential, especially later on, not sure how they would bring him in without having the Brave Companions, but I suppose it could be done. Shagwell is also somewhat noteworthy (to a much lesser degree) but I can't really see him as a TV character. I always imagined some kind of jumpy anime ninja when reading the parts he was in. The rest could really be reduced to extras

Oh, he wasn't in that list, but there recently was a leaked audition video (it was removed since then) from actor Ned Dennehy for the role of Vargo Hoat, so it seems pretty certain the character will be in season 3. That actor does a pretty good job of it, I thought. He doesn't do the lisp, mind you, but that possibly wouldn't work out too well on screen and might make him a bit too goofy.

I looked that guy up, and maan, he looks like he would fit in the show well.

Huh, if that's true then I might have to check out the show just to make sure.

Ah too bad. I wanted to hear him say "thaphireth"

Who didn't?

It seems like that SNL skit was barely exaggerated. From Neil Marshall, director of episode 9 regarding the nudity in the show:



Good gods, HBO...