Only DT spoiler I have quoted is in post #349 and that says pretty much the same thing I edited my spoiler post to say.

I agree, though, this is very confusing.

Well played Ser.

Cool, thanks CR!

Nuggets from Larry Williams' OtakuASSEMBLE reviews on youtube (if you haven't been watching them you totally should. first time viewer...hilariously great reviews - bout 30mins each).

on HBOGO: "Which for the record it took me over half a fucking hour to get online for. I dunno if it was HBO to blame or my ISP but somebody fucked that up."

On spoilers: "When you nerd-rage (which is pretty much what it is) you spoil the series for new fans. When you turn people off people aren't going to watch the series, or pick up the books."

His thoughts on Episode 6 (spoilered for today in case people are going to watch it later)

I'm all for not talking about the following episode until it airs. I dont always get to watch the current one until the next day and while I avoid this thread til then, I really dont want to see comments from the episode that airs until the next week. (And I have HBO go and have read the books

I think that it is possible that the scenes with Theon and Roz may not just be character background for Theon. Roz might actually be an additional character herself, or she might be replacing another book character (those who read the books might guess who I mean).

I'm pretty sure she's not replacing the character you're thinking of, because that character has been cast. However, with her heading to KL, I can see her replacing another minor character who lives there in the same profession, mainly due to her familiarity with Tyrion.

If it has a direct relation to Tyrion, I think she is too full figured and too old to play that character

I know she didn't fit her at all, but that stop some other casting. But if they have already cast that character, then it is still likely she's going to be another character change or addition. I doubt it is the last we see of her. Just a guess.

I think Roz is just useful as a character to allow them to have more exposition moments primarily.

I am wondering if the Rozzie Roz scene was perhaps not quite as useless as we all believe. She said she was going to King's Landing, so it's very possible that she's going to make another appearance at some point in the series. There is a fair amount of things that happen in whore houses in the books.

So, while Roz is not taking the place of a certain whore, she could show up as some other prostitute. And having here all of a sudden appear in King's Landing, while she was always at Winterfell, without any transitional scene like we had, would seem weird and stupid. The internets would be screaming "What!?! How is she at King's Landing?!?! She was at Winterfell! OMG! WTF?!?"

So, that's my theory. The scene is setting up for Roz at King's Landing. There are a couple of characters in the books she could take the place of. It would make it more effective, too, since she's an already established and known character to some degree.

Exactly. I was reading some of the chaos over at the winter-is-coming.net set in the comments thread for Episode 7, and (minor spoilers about what Lord Tywin is doing when he's introduced below), I gotta say that I agree with those who get wayyyyyyyyyyy too worked up over tiny little things . These people who get so worked up over this stuff need to get some damn perspective and relax and enjoy the show for what it is on its own merits.

Same thing with the (spoiler for an episode 7 scene involving 2 characters, no discussion of the actual scene contents, just that it exists) . It might seem a little weird, but it gives you a hell of a lot of the backstory of Littlefinger, and if anything, will serve to make later events even more..."WTF" to new viewers. So for everyone who's complaining about that scene being out-of-character I wish they'd just relax and realize shit can't be 100% failthful to the books and enjoy the show.

Agreed. I thought the subject of the first spoiler weird, but not so upsetting. The second shows us what they want to do with Roz, and that is fine. I can think of a good many situations they can use her to "flesh" out story lines (double entendre intended).

Ratings were even with last week:

Sunday Cable Ratings: Heat/Bulls Scores Big + ‘Law & Order: CI,’ ‘In Plain Sight,’ ‘Army Wives,’ ‘Housewives,’ ‘Game of Thrones’ & Much More - Ratings | TVbytheNumbers

I just finished my reread of A Feast for Crows. There were definitely some things I had forgotten - namely the end goal of Prince Doran Martell and Dorne, as well as that of Littlefinger (yes I know...maybe I read too fast the first time around - or it's just been too long).

Dorne:

Littlefinger

No thoughts from yesterday?

HBO got their gratuitous nudity quota in this week. :)

I sure hope Pumpy got to watch yesterday's episode.

SHIT!

The scene with Roz, Littlefinger and an unnamed whore seemed ridiculously gratuitous and crude. I know the exposition needed to happen, but it seemed odd coming from Petyr himself.

Otherwise I really enjoyed the episode. Sad to see Robert go, as the guy who was playing him was phenomenal.

My thoughts exactly (hence my tongue in cheek comment above). I understand they need their exposition scenes, but it was forced and really just felt like they decided to meet their nudity quota.

Why have plain boring old, dull exposition when you can have loud, noisy SEXposition?

Yeah great scene with the whores and amazing episode. Lovin this show (haven't read the books...or even heard of them)!

It will be interesting to see how the next epsiode compares with the others. Episode 8 was written by Martin himself.

OK I've avoided any other posts in this thread, because I only got around to watching the 1st episode last night. I have no knowledge of the story prior to watching.

All I can say after 1 episode is holy FUCK. Wow. It was like watching a 60 minute feature film. It was nearly midnight by the time it finished and my gf wanted me to put on episode 2. :)

I have to say this week's episode was the best one yet in my opinion. I'm pretty sure that I am hooked now

It only gets better!!

I was waiting to see FATALITY! after the Drogo fight.

Hot damn that was intense by Drogo. Loved it.

Rest of the episode was solid. Loved everything with the Greatjon actually. Wall-stuff was alright but nothing special. Dinklage continues to steal every scene he's in - he has the character of Tyrion just completely nailed.

This ep was awesome, you could tell Martin wrote it because the dialogue was great. Also, he left the Syrio scene open to interpretation in the show too. Martin, you teasing bastard!

One question. Is there any good reason for Ned being kept alive? Since they talked about killing him after the war, I wondered why they didn't kill him instead of imprison him.

I didn't find this week's episode to be as good as last week. Hard to match up with last week however. This week it felt more like a bridge episode to get you from one huge event (death of the king, capture of Ned), to the next huge event (the war that i assume is coming).

Alive, Ned can keep Robb and the North in check somewhat. Remember, Robert's two younger brothers are still out there and there are other "Kingdoms" and armies uncommitted. The Lannisters don't want to be fighting everyone at once.

I somewhat agree with this - but I was digging the Dothraki stuff this week, as well as the interaction between Robb and Greatjon Umber, so that made up for the rest.

I like living.

I thought it was a very, very solid episode. It was definitely a bridge episode, since it was more about moving pieces into place for further action, but I thought almost every scene was great. I suppose it had to do with the fact that Martin wrote the episode, but the characters in this episode felt most like the characters in the books.

1. They didn't disappoint in the Last Stand of Syrio Florel. I liked how they went back to the "What do you say when you meet ths god of death?" quote. I had re-read that fight in the book Friday night and was a bit surprised that they decided to scale back a bit on the violence there. The fight in the book was more bloody, but Syrio was sufficiently bad ass enough.

2. Dinklage continues to be great as Tyrion. Loved seeing them bring in all of the Mountain Clan people. He had great interaction with Bronn and his father. The Tyrion scenes never disappoint.

3. Catelyn felt most like Catelyn in the books. She was nervous, anxious, questioning Robb. I felt like they did a good job with their relationship. I also felt like they did a good job with making Robb seem both young and confident and the same time. The Greatjohn was fantastic. Great to see the dire wolves make an appearance. Both Greywind and Ghost were doing there thing.

4. I thought they did a great job with the Barristan Selmy scene as well. Very much as I imagined it.

5. I also liked the Bran/Osha scene. Again, like the Barristan scene, it really captued that scene right from the book.

6. The Drogo fight was the highlight of the episode for me. The entire scene was great, but his fight was fantastic. It really showed just what a complete and total bad ass Drogo is. I always felt like the guy playing Drogo was a built too built/body-builderesque for the role, but they fluidity and grace he moved with during that fight put that thought to rest. He used the man's own weapon to cut his throat and then ripped his tongue out through his neck. That shit was crazy. If I recall from the books, Drogo gets injured off screen, so this was a bit of an improvement in that regard.

Overall, great stuff. Hour goes by ridiculously fast.

I thought it was a great episode. They finally managed to make it through a whole hour without throwing in a ridiculously over the top scene (such as the shave or the Littlefinger whores). Now that I've seen he's still got it as a TV writer, I wish Martin would have written more episodes. Great dialogue throughout.

Do we know if Syrio survived or not?

The answer may need spoilers, I suppose.

The scene in the movie is the scene in the book. Nobody knows if he did, but I would lean towards him being alive and showing up in a later book.

And, sadly, I lean towards him being dead, mainly because the knight of the Kingsguard who fought him (who I believe is Meryn Trant in the books) was still alive after that. Since the First Sword of Bravos "doesn't run", I am not sure how both Trant and Syrio would both survive that encounter.

Good point, never thought of that

Maybe Trant ran??

I dunno - good point though.

Not much to complain about. I still don't like the casting of the Hound or Arya Horseface, and I think they have so far failed to convey the immensity of the wall. But with so very many things done well it is really just nitpicking at this point.

While I haven't really loved the Hound to date, I think Arya has been fantastic. One of my favorite castings.

That surprises me. I haven't watched the series yet, but I saw the 15 min preview of the first episode and that very first scene, I really felt like they nailed its enormous size, much better than my own imagination did.

i think the series has been great. i just finished reading the second book, and am waiting for amazon to send me the third....

i like all the casting except for littlefinger. carcetti from the wire, is all i see every time he's on screen..

Forgot to note...I kinda pity the poor kid they cast as Robert Arryn, though he's doing a great job in his limited role.

Larry Williams @ OtakuASSEMBLE is loving the "snow zombies."

"HOLY SHIT...WE HAVE SNOW ZOMBIES!!!"

They did a great job yesterday I thought

But if I remember correctly, trant was bruised up when he is next seen in the book. Syrio could have took him down.