I was pretty excited when I saw Theon was going to pledge himself to the Drowned God, because I thought they were going to do the drowning/CPR thing from the fourth book, but they just basically did a baptism instead.

Alan, thanks for creating this space. Really great episode. There are no spoilers, but there are book to TV comparisons.

Brienne was better than I expected. She was one of those characters who I could not imagine anyone properly playing. Somehow they managed to find an actress both tall enough, built enough, and yet she still has that innocent quality that makes the character so great.

Margaery is definitely different than in the books in that she is more forthcoming, especially about her knowledge of Loras and Renly's relationship. In the books she was just this very pretty, very polite character who everyone seemed to love, but that was all based on other characters' opinion of her.

The scene with Theon and Balon was not in the books, as far as I recall, but was one of my favorite Theon scenes in the series.

Even if I didn't know Yoren was going to die, any time a characters spends that much time opening up about himself in a TV show generally means he's going to get killed off. Pretty sad how all the strong, male figures in Arya's life keep getting taken away from her or killed.

The episode was so good I didn't even notice the lack of Robb Stark, Stannis, and Dany storylines.

It has been a while since I read the book but it seemed the me there was some nice compression in the Arya storyline... wasn't she originally in hiding with Gendry, Hot Pie and the blond kid for a few days before they were discovered again? Made sense to wrap that plot up a little more quickly and get them to Harrenhal.

This episode also did a very impressive job compressing and playing out Tyrion's little plot against Pycell.

Yeah, they really had to compress events for the TV format, but I like how they fit a lot of it together. In the books Arya managed to escape that attack with a few of the other kids and ended up on the run for a bit before they all got captured. Another element is that in the books the group that attacked was just a random Lannister raiding party, out destroying the countryside under the direction of the Mountain. They still hit all the key notes with the heroism of Yoren, the brutality of the men who attacked them, and Arya's usual quick thinking.

Overall, I'm really impressed with how well they've compressed and/or tweaked the content of the books to make a great TV show that both holds true to the spirit of the books while keeping things moving along nicely and making sure to hit the most important points. My only real complaint so far this season is the changing of Asha Greyjoy to Yara Greyjoy. :)

One major issue I have with the show over the books is the massive downgrading the direwolves have received. case in point; Craster attacks Jon in the woods and then drags him all the way back to his camp without bumping into ghost? In the world built in the book that wouldn't of been possible without at least three chapters of ghost growling suspiciously and trying to attack Craster, then Jon foolishly chaining him up.

In the books the direwolves are metaphorical, or perhaps quite literal, gifts from the gods with supernatural abilities to sense danger to Starks. Every scene a stark is in danger or hurt is preceded by them locking away their direwolf. These walking Ids have been replaced by large attack dogs, nice i suppose but nothing worth CGI-ing.

I understand why the direwolves aren't on screen that much, the cost and the time, but i don't see why the character of the direwolf should be changed as in my opinion they're one of the most interesting parts of the book

(On the same note i think they should've tried to of kept ghost bark-free because you-ll lose the symbolic resonance when he starts howling away early in the next book. Just a theory of mine.)

Also is Syrio dead, or like Nymeria or Rickon just sitting out a few round until needed. Boy do i hope so.

Right now I think the direwolves look beautiful, but so far just seem like they're an after thought---not really adding anything to the story.As long as Jon and Bran eventually develop a strong mental connection with Ghost and Summer, I will be fine with it. At least Bran is having wolf dreams. I think it has to do with the difficulty filming the CGI wolves together with the humans.

I would love to see Robb and Greywind actually fighting together as it was described in the book.

I want to talk about the Renly-is-gay storyline. I don't remember that insinuation from the books, but maybe I just didn't do a good job reading through the lines? I remember that there was insinuation that maybe he hadn't yet slept with Margaery Tyrell, that that was the claim but people thought it might be crap. But I didn't get that they were hinting in the books that Renly might be gay. Did I miss something or was that a (fun, smart, probably good) twist they added to the series to explain why Margaery probably never slept with Renly (once we get to future episodes)?

As of the fifth book, Syrio hasn't reappeared. The assumption was always that he did die, but because the books are written from the PoV of whoever's chapter it is, you don't see it. Thus why we probably won't see much of Rob for a little bit since he isn't a PoV character and once Catelyn, who is a PoV character, leaves his camp, we only hear about what he's doing second hand from other characters for a good period of time.

They are really speeding up the Arya story line this season, which while I understand since it's going to be a while before she interacts with any of the other main characters again. On the other hand, Arya is my favorite character in the books and her chapters are always the ones I'm most excited when I see coming up. I feel like it might be tough to appropriately build her character without things like her reciting the list of names she must remember. I'm just hoping that they take the time to build her relationship with Jaqen H'ghar as that really helps shape her character in the future books.

Didn't mean to have that reply quoted, doesn't look like you can edit posts either. oops.