[HoosierDaddy]

Holy Christ that was brutal. Just brutal. I'm beginning to remember why I despised the Dany parts in aGoT. She breaks the flow of excitement and adrenaline that is present in the Westeros PoVs.

Joffrey.... what a shit. Good acting, though, I thought. I loved all the advisers running over to him.
Shae's foreign? And mysterious? I don't remember that.
No Tower of Joy stuff ever, then. That makes thing's potentially awkward if fan-theories are remotely correct.

God, how I want them all to die. Poor House Stark.

[End of Disc One]

My heart was pounding so hard, knowing what was coming.

But they spoiled "King in the North" in next week's preview! That's my favorite scene in the whole series!

[Ceda Cicero]

Just brilliantly done all in all, I thought. Goosebumps here and there. I forgot how badly this segment of plot makes me want to kick Dany in the ovaries. I mean she really screws the pooch with the Maegi. But whatever, it's part of her journey, I guess (insert Tyr's Bronn-loving, Dany-hating rebuttal.)

The scene at the sept of Baelor was heart wrenching and an incredibly faithful portrayal of one of the most effective scenes I think I've ever read in the genre. Ned's exchange with Yoren, where he points out Arya at the foot of Baelor's statue, was not in the books, but it should have been, because it was incredibly well-done. It was incredibly profound to be able to see that scene on screen, since we only get it from Arya's PoV in the books. And yet even without the confines of the PoV narrative structure, they still managed to make it more or less Arya-centered, which I think was important.

More later, but other highlights were definitely...

-Tyrion, Bronn, and Shae playing a drinking game in the tent--"But look how much fun we're having!"

-Jorah facing off with the blood rider--"No further, horse lord."

-Mormont presenting Longclaw to Jon, and later, Jon's exchange with Aemon.

-The frenzy on the steps of the sept when Joffrey called for Ned's head - Cersei objecting, Sansa shrieking, Varys running towards Joffrey waving his hands, etc.

-Mirri Maaz Duur (sp)'s weird shadow chant. They didn't try to make this too over the top, and because of this it succeeded in being very fucking scary.

-Robb's impromptu speech after the battle of the Whispering Wood, and before that, Catelyn's expression when she sees him riding in.

There are many, many more but I'll hold off until after a second viewing.

My prediction is that at Westeros, and to a lesser extent here, there's going to be no end of bitching from "die hard book fans" about the fact that not one, but two battles got glossed over in this episode (Twyin vs. the faux Northern host and the Whispering Wood.) To that I can only say it's a fucking adaptation on a budget, get over it. I would also hasten to point out that neither of these battles gets any big "epic" going over in the book itself, at least nothing to compare to Bakker or Erikson's page devouring descriptions of endless battles.

[amphibian]

Sibel (Shae) and Peter Dinklage (Tyrion) will give you some of the edgiest/awesomest scenes in the series next season.

Because Sibel is so spectacularly good at doing "crazy-cool" characters, it will be easier to understand why Tyrion cares so much about Shae in the series than in the books.

[King Bear]

As expected, Ned's death is turning people off the show . I just hope they're in the minority.

"Done with HBO Sun 06/12/11 10:10 PM Worst move ever. I’m sick to death of HBO choosing shock over creative and susenseful plots. And as far as “sticking around” to see what will happen next, don’t count on it. Every single one of my friends couldn’t care less. In this “world” of ruthlessness and honor, Ned can’t even be bothered to call out the woman who crippled his son and her inbred son? Yeah right. This is the Sopranos ending all over again. I’m done with HBO and their amateur writers. Bring back Spartacus on Starz so I can watch something that is actually entertaining not frustrating and completely ridiculous. Game of Thrones? More like Game OVER."

"Napoleon


Sun 06/12/11 10:05 PM


They killed the series – they killed off the best actor… and character…."

"Brad Sun 06/12/11 10:31 PM Right, series is over! This is not like reading a book. HBO just killed this series."

"Adam

Sun 06/12/11 10:37 PM I couldnt agree more. I was so happy to find a good series finally. As a father i loved the Ned character. I have little interest in this series now as the other characters were just background to Neds Story. Bring on Entourage and Rescue me i guess. Big let down."

[End of Disc One]

Man those people must have hated episode 8 also since Ned was hardly in it. It must suck watching 55 minutes of characters and plotlines you have no interest in.

Or they're just whiners.

[worry]

Did you get those quotes from imdb or something? They're braindead stupid.

[HoosierDaddy]

First four minutes are spectacularly funny.

"Someone has to be held accountable."

Lol.

[worry]

Haha that's awesome, cuz I just watched this video of him filmed by his roommate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owf6D2vfZqM

This post has been edited by worrywort: 13 June 2011 - 05:05 AM

[worry]

I've noticed a lot of people think Drogo is dead too though. They don't really get what the maegi is doing. So I think they're gonna be surprised in ep 10 by her spell's outcome. And then of course surprised again by what comes next.

[worry]

[amphibian]

worrywort, on 13 June 2011 - 04:57 AM, said:

Did you get those quotes from imdb or something? They're braindead stupid.

The shows they cite - Entourage (terrible), Rescue Me (lost steam and primarily connected with a slightly older but still Entourage liking crowd), Spartacus (cheesy semi- and full nudity plus stylized gore with a passable at times storyline, now crippled by the loss of its star) - show that they hate it when main characters get the surprise axe. Fringe characters dying? A-ok. They are sheeple.

They're going to loooooove next season's cliffhanger. I expect the absolute heights of outraged sheeple pouring forth in forum posts and youtube reaction videos.

[Gothos]

was the red wedding in aCoK or aSoS? I never remember.

[HoosierDaddy]

A Storm of Swords, towards the end.

[Tyr]

amphibian, on 13 June 2011 - 05:57 AM, said:

They're going to loooooove next season's cliffhanger.

What was CoK cliffhanger?

Have not seen the episode. Want to watch it with friends to get their reactions.

Enjoy some Bronn in the meantime.

[amphibian]

Gothos, on 13 June 2011 - 06:30 AM, said:

was the red wedding in aCoK or aSoS? I never remember.

I do this too.

HoosierDaddy, on 13 June 2011 - 06:32 AM, said:

A Storm of Swords, towards the end.

Fuck. Then my ironic "loooooove" turns into an honest "They'll actually like the next season's ending".

The season won't end with a cliffhanger per se, but it'll mostly wrap up a season-long threat and have Jon and Daenerys about to jump off on some serious ass-kicking.

[worry]

Also, apparently wikipedia was wrong before, and the finale isn't gonna be two weeks away, so that's great news.

[Rhand]

worrywort, on 13 June 2011 - 05:04 AM, said:

Haha that's awesome, cuz I just watched this video of him filmed by his roommate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owf6D2vfZqM

Gods I love that guy.

[Ulrik]

worrywort, on 13 June 2011 - 07:30 AM, said:

Also, apparently wikipedia was wrong before, and the finale isn't gonna be two weeks away, so that's great news.

It isnt, I´ll be in Turkey! We have premiere of episode 9 today. Hope my wife wont be depressed from work or it will finish her...

[Bauchelain the Evil]

Damn, that was hard even knowing what would have happened. Nice touch having Ned search the crowd for Arya. I can't wait for Joffrey to choke on that pigeon.

The Aemon-Jon conversation was well done albeit I'm pretty sure that Aerys father was Jaeherys not Aegon V but perhaps they wanted to make Aemon a closer relative so his choice would have been harder. Another problem is that Aemon didn't really act like a blind man, IMO.

The Tyrion,Bronn,Shae scene was nice especially how they balanced the humour with Tyrion's tale. Of course for those who know the truth about the story,it's even worse.

Liked the duel between Mormont and the bloodrider and how it echoes what Mormont said in a previous episode,i.e: the arak is useless against an armored opponent

This post has been edited by Bauchelain the Evil: 13 June 2011 - 11:09 AM