yeah but - did you even get the sense that Oberyn was an amazing fighter? we saw him stab some nameless Lannister jobber in the hand and be all cocky like, but it's not like they gave the sense that this was a guy who was capable of taking down The Mountain.

No but I never really got that feeling in the books either. You get the sense that he's tricksy and for sure has some game, but him stepping up to fight the Mountain always seemed like an insane suicide mission to me.

I assumed they changed it to a necklace because it would be confusing for her to wear a hairnet.

Episode was good. Daario was crap. Would have been cool if they mitigated the character's change in appearance by having the new actor done up like book Daario. What did you guys expect from the first episode of the season? It probably had more action than any of the first three first episodes.

I want to see Joseph Gatt act like he did on Banshee. He was only shown for about three seconds.

minor character but i think dontos plays his role perfectly.

I don't know, but as someone who read the books a long time ago, I stopped myself from doing a re-read just so I wouldn't be pissed about changes. I enjoyed the episode.

just stumbled upon this and thought I'd share



DA QUEEN IN DA NORF

'Reading' being the operative word.

Let's not bring up that absurd discussion.

I just watched the last scene again, I think that might be my favourite scene in the entire series. Definitely top 3. There was so many great lines.

"I'm gonna have to eat every ****ing chicken in here" probably being my favourite.

Winds of Winter sample chapter question

In the books she kills the tickler iirc, and when she's doing it she asks the questions he used to ask in his interrogations at harenhall, like "is there gold in the village?"

twow sample chapter

Hmm, I actually like the recast. The new guy is much more like the Daario that was in my head. I thought that the original was a poor casting choice.

Do people that dislike the recast think that he's doing a poor job, or is it just that he's too different from the tv Daario that's already been established?

All in all I liked the ep, and like how much they've deviated from the books. It gives us a good chance to speculate on unknowns.

It was a necklace. So the writers are changing that up. I thought the Hound was supposed to bleed out in the tavern, but that didn't happen obv.

Anyone else notice the statue of Joffrey standing on the dead wolf?

Also small fun foreshadowing in Jaime's brief pause when talking about placing a Kingsguard near "the nights....main entertainment" or whatever the line was.

I hope they keep jaime's indifference to joffrey's death, just like in the books.

to the guy asking for the original oberyn + tyrion meeting. here it is, one of my favorite bits from the books
http://tny.cz/517841c7
tried posting directly here but it's huge.

this is the recap I mentioned earlier - where the reviewer contrasts the show version with the book events every week. it's one of my favorites b/c every week I'm like "ooohhh yeah that's how it happened"

In the books he is described with all these colorful Tyroshi traits, like a forked green and purple beard. This new guy seemed even less exotic than the last one. If contract reasons caused them to have to make a change, I wish they had taken the opportunity to make the character appear more interesting, not less. I mean, he picks a few flowers and she gets weak in the knees?

I think he is a bit miscast, but its not like it ruins anything for me. I was more puzzled and disappointed by Vargo Hoat/Locke switch.

Still a very good episode, and exciting to have the season start again.

Never been a fan of Daario in any form but thought it was a really good thing they downgraded his goofy cartoon type **** to what we saw of him last season. But this Daario is just soooo plain, and whatever it is about him he looks and feels like he could be some random Westerosi footsoldier.

lol they stayed like 5 seconds on it with nothing else on screen

Why are you guys assuming we won't get the Tyrion/Oberyn convo? They ma have just moved it to another place. There's a chance w'll get it next episode.

If I recall, there are really two Tyrion/Oberyn conversations:
1. When Tyrion rides out to meet him as he enters King's Landing with his entourage. They did cover a bunch of this when Tyrion eventually found Oberyn in the brothel.
2. When Oberyn offers to be his champion during the trial. I think we will still get that, but obviously much later in the season.

...

direct quote:

I think all of this was just such a better intro to the character than what we got last night. and I think GRRM definitely made sure we knew he was a bad ass fighter, Tyrion certainly thought so


for sure, the bit about poisoning we'll have to get at some point. but maybe you are right, they moved the details stuff to later

Oberyn and Alleria won the ep. Unbowed Unbent* Unbroken.

Arya was stone cold badass. She literally executed a guy in revenge, A+. She also got her pony.

Queen of Thorns came close to winning the ep.

Ice being melted and then CAST!!!! into two swords made me sigh and shake my head. Spellforged dragonsteel shouldnt melt, it should have been heated white hot then split up the middle to make two longswords.

They addressed Jaime's oath re: Sansa head on, but in a kinda awkward way. They are smoothing over the timeline issues with Brienne decently enough though.

The march to Meereen and the slave pointing the way worked well for me. As did the initial dragon scene with Dracarys snapping at Queen Khaleesi.

The episode was completely packed with foreshadowing. Great to have the show back.

* mostly