Yup. Good point. I'm sure we'll get her early in the season. This past season had a load of "oh f#ck" moments throughout the year. No reason why they can't replicate that mid-season with a Stoneheart reveal.

Again, just like Tysha, I don't think the general non-reading audience would have got the Cersie/Lancel thing. It happened WAY back in season two and it wasn't a major plot point. They probably found it easier and less confusing to just cut that whole exchange out.

A question for the non-book readers. Were you surprised by Tywin's death? Did you think Tyrion was going to die?

I'm not going to ramble on. I thought this was the best season by far even though it's the start of a heavy departure from the book. I think we can all agree that a good bit of next season will be new content for even book readers. The one thought I keep having is what if the show kills off a major character from the…

Exactly. The viewer is not in his head obviously, which is why the audience would have been completely confused. I have no issue that they left it out.

Absolutely. I had a bigger issue with Varys' lack of implication than the Tysha reveal. I simply figured that the writers left out Tysha because the audience wouldn't remember her. But, leaving out the Varys implication in the Tywin death? Why? That was an important moment in the book for me, as it was finally…

It's not you. HA! She's way more interesting. I found her chapters in AFFC painful at times.

My wife turned to me and asked, "what the hell is going on?" I told her not to forget that this is a fantasy story ultimately. HA!

I still think the Shae thing worked out, especially for newbies, for the simple fact that Tywin has always chastised Tyrion for taking whores and here he is sleeping with the woman that Tyrion believed to be in love with him. I can guarantee they left the Tysha part out because the general non-reader audience would…

Hopefully he comes back. I have a feeling he might not though. Maybe he'll travel with Tyrion the whole way?

I think it's down to money. This show costs a lot to make. Look at a show like Dexter. It probably didn't cost much at all to shoot an episode of that show, and as a result they were able to have 12-13 episodes per year.

It should have been spread out. Instead of reminding us that the Wildlings exists by showing them burning villages, they could have started this battle a couple of weeks ago. Stretch it out. Build the tension. Then they could have made the Penultimate episode way better with Stannis coming to the rescue.

I disagree. I think it failed to resonate because they've completely mishandled Wall story line. This should have been another Blackwater, but the lack of substance made it fall painfully short.

Right. Just had no idea that he would be offered Lord Commander, which makes his decision even more compelling. That's going to be an awesome scene. I'm envisioning that happening during the first episode next season.

Yea, like I'm really excited when non-book stuff happens. I am actually looking forward to next season as I'm pretty confident some of the material will be based off of his upcoming book.

It's amazing how the newbie opinions differ from the expert opinions. Not going into detail, but as a reader the show has done a poor job adapting the Wall/Wildlings story. I think it's awesome that there's a demographic that really enjoyed this episode. I've often wished to be a non-reader, because episodes like this…

That's a great prediction. If that happens I wonder if he'll reference Tyrion's lesson on "owning who you are." After all, that decision *SPOILER ALERT* is what kept him on the Wall when Stannis offered him Winterfell.

I completely disagree as well. Also, in Jon's defense he's not completely surrounded with compelling characters as compared to Tyrion, Cat, and even Eddard. He's pretty much separated from a lot of the goings on with the realm. That being said, his character has actually developed well since book 1 despite said…

We are almost at the point that I've been dreading for television series. There's so much action in the first three books, and then we get lots of story for two books. How is this going to translate to exciting T.V.?

A budget happened. HA!! Too much money.