I hope they show the queen ordering Barristan's arrest and then finding out about his escape + killing of the 2 gold cloaks sent for him. I kind of think that this has been cut out since it wasn't shown in this ep, which really sucks as not only does it make Barristan more badass but it further shows how poorly Cersei is ruling.

I didn't much like the lantern throw scene, although I thought the change in the source of Khal Drogo's injury was an awesome rewrite. I'm starting to really like the way Alliser Thorne is portrayed. I also I liked Arya and Syrio, although I agree with Dids that the fighting came off a little silly.

For some reason, I didn't think the Greatjon scene where he says the meat is bloody tough carried off very well. That was a memorable scene from the books, but in the show, there's one sentence about who will be in the van and all of the sudden some unidentified big guy is drawing his sword on Robb -- readers will get it easily but I'm not so sure it will make sense to people coming to the series cold.

I think Johnny Depp would have made a better Hodor.

Are sword-fighting scenes capped out on how fast they can be or something? Why was Syrio Forel's scene not as pwnage as the books!

That was a good scene, although you're right that I would like to see more Cersei incompetence early on. God, I hate her. I wonder if the Arstan/Barristan reveal will be super-obvious in the show; I had no clue at all about this in the books until Barristan identifies himself.

Oh wow, I see what you all mean by the lantern thing being rushed... that was terrible, at least we got a ghost sighting though, despite him not doing too much I'm happy just to see him. The wight wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be, the scene really only suffers from the lantern bit.

I thought Joff ordered his arrest? I don't remember it all that well.

Most hilarious scene of series so far was Bronn's introduction to Tywin.

I finished the episode, it was pretty good overall. I don't have much complaints about the second half really, I wish they could have put more effort into Syrio's last scene though.

It is not valid to dismiss somebody's criticism of an acting performance simply because the character is "a ******" and only speaks one word repeatedly. There is still a decent performance required there, as with anybody on screen no matter what their role. Hardy har, maybe we need Johnny Depp.

The hits didn't look hard at all, it wasn't at all convincing that he was hurting them. Needed more force or better sound effects.

Wow, this episode was pretty deep. It reminds me of just how nasty things turn out. Ned obviously, and Mirri Maz Duur, most of all Robb and the Red Wedding, Tyrion and the fact he's on the "wrong team" (though how things eventually go with him, Jaime, and Tywin is heartwarming, Tywin's death will be a scene to see, and Joffrey's ahaha), Arya and her life being perpetually **** from now on, Bran going into hiding, Theon's betrayal, Sansalolol, Catelyn turning into a literal monster of vengeance, it gets really bad.

And even though the current villains get their comeuppance, the new crop of villains like the Greyjoys, the Freys, Roose Bolton, and Melisandre have much sharper teeth. Caring about the characters really underscores how dark this series is. The first seven episodes really will look like summertime by the end of season 3.

Or wooden sword shards stuck through necks.

Really though that scene could never has been as awesome on screen as it was in my mind.

I wonder if Syrio is inspired by Musashi Miyamoto, a samurai who used a wooden training sword instead of a traditional samurai sword?

The difference being that instead of harmlessly knocking his opponents out, Miyamoto would often cave their heads in...

I'm pretty sure Musashi used a regular sword most of the time.

Obviously a lot of it is legend, but it seems to have some basis in fact.

Those were my impressions as well. I'm pretty sure Mirri only had access to the wound after some time had past , and that the wound was more serious in the novel.

Has it been universally decided by the powers that be that Mirri did poison Drogo's wound ? Did I miss the memo ?

The show change would seem to indicate that. Dying from a small , shallow cut like that would seem odd to me. Even if you consider they may not be advanced medically , the Dothraki are warriors , blade cuts must be pretty routine.

I can't imagine they'll have Drogo die naturally from that paltry wound getting out of control.

This is Dids the post and not Dids the mod talking:

I know spoilers are fine an all- but did this post add anything but that. There's no need to just post a laundry list of what happens in the next book if you're not adding anything more than "lol bad stuff happens". Have some sympathy for people who haven't read all the books.

In the book, the wound was much more serious. I believe he had more than 1 gash and his nipple was pretty much hanging off.

I always thought that the whole point was that even in the book, Drogo would have been fine had he not worn the patch.

I read the book differently -- that Drogo would have recovered from the wound if he had followed Mirri Maz Durr's instructions precisely. But he continued to drink wine when she told him not to, and took the poultice off too early or some such thing; I don't recall precisely. I do remember believing that the betrayal comes more when MMD saves Drogo's life later on by letting Dany believe that the payment is easy.

Yeah, I didn't get that she poisoned him from my reading of the book. I mean, it was the middle ages, people died of **** all the time and Drogo was a dude who seems convinced of his own badassery.

In the show, man, the wound is minor enough that the whole subplot seems bizarrely unnecessary. It's literally just a scratch, he really wouldn't need medical attention. So there's no question that it was a plot by the witch, which kinda makes Dany look like a trusting idiot.

Mirri hated Drogo for destroying her life and hated Dany for keeping her alive for a worthless existence afterward. Also she's a witch. I don't think her treatment for Drogo was meant for healing. All the no wine and ten days stuff I would assume was a ruse, get him to keep it on as long as possible and experience as much pain as possible or something.

This is what I got from a Wiki of Ice and Fire , in the entry for Mirri Maz Duur.

"While Daenerys gave Mirri and the other rape victims protection from futher attacks, Daenerys' husband Drogo was suffering from his battle wounds. Though Drogo was unconcerned, Daenerys convinced him to let Mirri Maz Duur make him a poultice. The poultice itched, and Drogo tore it off, causing the wound to fester. Drogo's condition deteriorated until he fell from his horse, a symbol to his warriors that he could no longer lead them."

Having Mirri poison Drogo does seem to make Dany partly responsible for Drogo's death. Not sure if I like that change (if it is actually a change from the novels).

I'll be peeved if that scratch somehow ends up killing Drogo and it isn't because of Duur's intervention. Would be a pretty lame way to kill off Drogo.

I like the change. The books were confusing with Dany making MMD out to be a villain when as far as I could tell she did everything she could to help. Even her ritual she warned Dany that it wasn't worth the price but Dany forced it even against the advice of everyone around her. In either case Dany holds a lot of the fault for what happened, but at least in the show they're setting it up so that she's justified in burning MMD for her part as well.

I think the wight scene is exceptionally hard to film. Jon stabbed him a few times to no effect, and they did the "get knocked down open eyes and stand up" typical zombie thing, but I still had trouble realizing that Jon and Mormont were in THAT much trouble. The Mormont actor is also too much of a bad ass. When he walks out of the room in his black armor it's hard to believe that the wight is really a threat to him so when Jon throws the fire on the wight it just seems kind of unnecessary instead of an act of desperation.

The stableboy was poorly cast. He needed to be older and larger in order for the stabbing thing to make sense.

They go out of their way in Syrio's introduction to explain that his fighting style is about finesse, precision and mostly jabbing, yet he's knocking fully armored men in the helm with a wooden sword and they fall down for some reason. Pretty out of place, He should've been jabbing people in the mouth/throat/whatever it not armored.

Rest of the episode was pretty much perfect. Absolutely incredible.

lol I skipped Sansa's scenes also.

I thought that Mirri Maz poisoned Drogo in the books. She more or less admitted she had nothing but ill intent towards the Dothraki when Dani confronted her. So doesn't it make sense that the poultice would contain more infecting herbs rather than healing herbs.