[Chief Rum]

I have gone up and down on this episode, because I don't know how much I liked it, with all of the extra scenes. Heck, I am trying to remember the Jaime-Ned fight, but it has been years since I read AGOT, and that happened. So toss that onto the scenes that weren't in the book, and I admit I felt lost a bit with the King's Landing scenes.

One thign I like about the Loras-Renly scene is that I think it sets up Renly's own ambitions for the crown better, and even Stannis in absentia. I always felt that they were either uninterested in the crown (Renly) or not around to claim the crown (Stannis) prior to both emerging as "kings" in the War of the Five Kings. I remember that caught me off guard while reading the books. So I like that Renly discussed his ambitions for the crown in that scene.

I liked the Varys-Littlefinger scene and the Robert-Cersei scene as stand alone character-builders, but I did not like that they essentially did absolutely nothing to move the plot forward in a story from a book that is heavy in plotting and of which we already have seen a lot of cutting out of necessity.

Loved the Aerie scenes and the fight on the path to the Vale. The air prison was suitably scary, although I always imagined the cell to be even smaller. Lysa and sweet Robert were suitable for their characters in the book.

This was doubtless my least favorite episode so far, but still not a bad one, just a reflection fo the quality of the previous ones, IMO.

I'm glad they showed the Hound-Mountain fight as they did. I really think that's an indicator they have just gone a little different path of introducing the Hound to the viewing audience, but he's still going to play his role, and that the concerns from last week might be overblown.