Interesting that they mentioned Aryas name to the guards at the bloody gate. I'll be interested to see if anything comes of that. Arya dying of laughter when she heard lysa was dead was great though

Arya was hilarious, and the fight was just about perfect

That was gross.

And all hope of them rewriting Oberyn's story is dead...

That dress that Sansa was wearing!

Sad to see the Viper go,but they did a great job portraying that scene

Did the Mountain confess to everything like he did in the books?

I can't tell if I like that death more than the Crown of gold. But it was well done.

Arya laughing was fantastic

So glad we finally got jorah's betrayal out there. Not really getting what they want to do with Grey Worm & missandei though...those were the only scenes I really disliked

The Bolton stuff is interesting, they're well into Dance material now if they've already at Winterfell. Great acting by alfie allen as always

Enjoyed finally seeing the wildlings do something. I'm cautiously optimistic about next episode with the wall battle(s?)... wondering if they'll try to pack everything into one episode with stannis saving the day

Fight was great, I kinda hoped for more carnage with the mountain taking out the stableboy or w/e but the quotes straight from the book made up for it. Especially "then I smashed her head in...like this!"

Vale material was better than expected, this is where I finally started liking Sansa more in the books

Terrible rewrite for the vale. There was the possibility of LF keeping executed instead of him orchestrating him being found innocent.

Show Tyrion dreams of beetles, not dragons...

three headed beetle

The Mountain: You must be related to that little Dornish brat I taught a lesson to all those years ago. You've been chasing me your whole life only to fail now? I think that's about the worst thing I've ever heard...

I honestly think that was the most gruesome, disturbing death they've had in this series thus far (even more so than pregnant lady stabbing)... although I have this phobia about caving in someone's eyeballs with your hands, so maybe it's just me...

I almost thought they were changing it up because it looked like oberyn stabbed the mountain straight into and through his belly... They really had me convinced there for a sec.

Crown of gold was awesome and disturbing.

crown of gold may be my favorite death in the books and the show, just because i'd never seen anything like that before

^yes crown of gold was awesome....but everyone wanted him to die...or was ok with it....oberyn was really liked by fans of the tv show alone so i'm sure they are really sad.

now we'll see if the poison was included in the tv plot, i assume so, but it won't matter in the short term, only serves to rid us of the mountain in the longterm.

best part was arya's laugh tonight...that was awesome and the hounds stunned deadpan look right before it. classic...what a comedy pair they are.

it looked like oberyn's squire was oiling the spearhead before he handed it to him, i assumed that was the poison

Well I give the show runners credit for making Sansa a good character but they are clearly not miracle workers as no one can fix the cluster eff that GRRM did with Danys story

Fight was all I could have asked for. Very good choreography

In the books doesn't the Mountain confess Tywin gave him the orders?

I was disappointed by the fight. The Mountain looked like a lumbering idiot. He looked completely overmatched from the get-go. Really wish they would have gotten a real actor to play him and then use camera tricks to make said actor look giant.

That beetle monologue, jeebs, I was about to fall asleep even though I knew what was up next.

Love Barristan Selmy still being all class in putting Jorah Mormont in his place. Unless they change the story a whole lot, Jorah is out of the picture for a long while.

Great nod to the book fans by having Littlefinger tell Robin that some people die just squatting over their chamber pot. Shout out to you, Senor Dance!

I'm also interested where they are going with Sansa and Arya both being outed in the Vale. I really hope that Sansa isn't going to start (or keep) trusting Littlefinger. She seemed a little too happy coming down the stairs, there.


Last but not least...Missandei

[This message has been edited by redline248 (edited 6/2/2014 12:27a).]

I really liked the fight, I just wish it would have lasted longer, like Bronn in Vale. I was extremely well choreographed. and the lines were dead on from the book.

Arya's scene was hilarious, shows how screwed up her morality has become.

Jorah should have been dismissed at the beginning of the season(Ep. 2 or 3), need to give him plenty of time to get to the free cities. But then again Stannis is going to go from Bravos to the wall in 2 episodes so who needs consistency(also ramsey/reek going from Moat Cailin to winterfell in 1)?

Liking Sansa's transition(and the black hair). I like how she's developed from a pawn into a player.

Doesn't the Red viper/mountain fight mark the beginning of GRRM's d*ck*ng around in the books? I hope the show watchers are ready for 2 seasons of plot building...

In the books were Arya and Sansa revealed to be Starks to the others in the Vale? It has been a few years since I've read this book and I can't remember.

Overall, another excellent episode. I keep expecting HBO to screw up some major scenes like tonight's fight but they keep delivering.

The only things I didn't like were Tyrion's speech to Jaime and the created Grey Worm/Mis romance.

With Lysa dead, I bet the Hound and Arya turn around.

Really interesting that they ousted both Sansa and Arya as Starks. I think the Arya ousting is just a minor deviation, as I imagine she and the Hound turn back now that her Aunt is dead and she still ends up across the narrow sea.

However, Sansa being ousted is HUGE. At the end of ADWD she is still Alayne (sp?). Tonight her character grew some huge balls and started playing with the big boys. She's being smart and using her Stark status to get some protection from the Vale, but she also is clearly starting to wrap Peter around her little finger with her 'black dress'.

The Missandei and Grey Worm thing is just....weird. In the books Grey Worm mentions that unsullied sometimes seek out women basically to cuddle and for companionship, even though they can't do the deed and have no sex drive. I guess this is something like that. I also think they threw this in to have SOMETHING else to focus on while GRRM has Dany sitting on her ass in Meereen for a couple of books.

WTF was that beetle monologue about? Was there some symbolism/metaphor that I missed? Seemed like they needed a filler last minute and remembered that Dinklage is awesome at monologues. I was really hoping they would talk about Tysha. I will be very disappointed if they don't when Jaime springs Tyrion later. (Maybe it won't even be Jaime?)

That fight scene.....ugh. So hard to watch. Oberyn is one of my favorite characters; it was hard enough to read his death, and it was even harder to watch it. Pedro Pascal and HBO did a truly fantastic job with the character. My only complaint was how overtly sexual they made him. Similar to the Loras/Renly thing. Oberyn was definitely promiscuously bisexual and Loras/Renly were lovers in the books too, but it was all behind the scenes, implications, etc. Which I think make for a stronger story/characters than the heavy-handedness we saw with the show. Just my $0.02

Back to the fight....Oberyn's amazing character combined with the stakes of the combat and the horrifying/gruesome death itself all combined to make that the hardest/most gruesom death scene I've ever watched. I was physically nauseous for almost 30 minutes afterwards.......

I agree that Missandei/Grey Worm is extra stuff to do with Dany's story. I don't mind it, just not sure if there is another layer to it or if non readers will care.

As to the overt sexuality of Oberyn...at first I was like why necessary, but as long as the show keeps giving gratuitous boobs I can live with it.

Missandei

Btw is it weird I felt more emotional impact at Jorah getting the boot than at Oberyn's death? Maybe it's because I remember Jorah being handled more coldly in the books, whereas I pretty much knew what to expect with the Viper. Or maybe it's just I like Jorah more than Oberyn, we've gotten so used to him being Dany's closest advisor. It kind of made a lump form in my throat when he confessed he loved her.

The Beetle monologue was really good but not for the story it told. That was more about the layers underneath. It was a great scene to see Jaime and Tyrion just goofing around despite the seriousness of the situation. You can tell the show is trying really hard to build up the love between the two brothers that does not exist between Tyrion and Cersei or anyone else in his family for that matter.

I also viewed it with deeper meaning. Before getting into the monologue Tyrion is talking about the gods and his trial and the beetle story is a metaphor for the fact that the deities this world holds up seem to be killing everyone for no reason whatsoever. The way his cousin toyed and ended the lives of all these lower creatures, Tyrion is equating it to what the gods are doing to men at the moment in Westeros.

There was also a very back door nod to GRRM who, after all, is doing just that with all of these characters he's created.

I took Tyrions monolog differently.

In S1 LF says some men were just born with a propensity for violence. While the cuz wasn't as violent to people, he had a unique clarity in his drive as if his raison d'etre was to smash beetles. Day after day, no matter what his lot in life was crush beetles. His nature is extremely singular.

The mountain is not a complex character, he seems to only care about smashing beetles.

Wow, y'all really missed the point of the beetle monologue. (1) It's a metaphor for the futitily of life -- nothing matters, we're all just beetles being smashed by life. (2) It demonstrates clearly how much empathy Tyrion has for even the smallest living thing. He even gently lets the sowbug go at the end of the monologue, showing mercy to a creature that can't possibly comprehend Tyrion's existence and whose destruction would mean nothing to Tyrion. Beetle = Man, Tyrion/Orson = the Gods.

I was really looking forward to the Viper/Mountain fight and it really delivered (but should have been longer), but I will say, Arya's laugh made that episode.

...should have had Tyrion vomit like in the books.

quote:

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Wow, y'all really missed the point of the beetle monologue. (1) It's a metaphor for the futitily of life -- nothing matters, we're all just beetles being smashed by life. (2) It demonstrates clearly how much empathy Tyrion has for even the smallest living thing. He even gently lets the sowbug go at the end of the monologue, showing mercy to a creature that can't possibly comprehend Tyrion's existence and whose destruction would mean nothing to Tyrion. Beetle = Man, Tyrion/Orson = the Gods.

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It sounds like Texas Tide got the point of the monologue the same as you, although he didn't add your point about Tyrion's empathy, which I think is a bit of a stretch. Sure, he's not cruel like his sister, father, etc., but he's not an angel with "empathy for even the smallest living thing". Perhaps the only reason they made a point of him letting the bug go unharmed was as a symbol of "karmic hope" that he might not end up on the chopping block.