yeah would have been way more off putting (better) if it was very clear that the girls were being forced to do this and were just as scared as theon.

Joffrey sent the assassin, and then Littlefinger told the lie about where the dagger came from, which really set things in motion.  If anyone's the cause of everything, its him.

So up until now I've been SURE that Tyrion and Shae's relationship would end differently than it does in the books.  But that gold chain…

A leaner 24 without all of the incredibly frustrating, mind numbing, extraneous subplots with b characters nobody cares about sounds pretty great to me.  Let's just have a 6-10 hour mini series exclusively following Jack on an operation.  Just cold open on a helicopter, have the whole thing play out like an extended…

I dont really like tossing the word meta around but I think in this case its pretty apt.  When Finn and Jake marvel at James Baxter the horse's ability to make people happy, they're really marveling at James Baxter the man for the same reason - after all the horse is Baxter's handiwork, and he DID make me smile.

I think Melisandre was seeing the people Arya would eventually kill.

Well yeah which is why I like that that final line tempers the sympathetic nature of the monologue, it reminds us who he is at heart in a subtle way.

I love how Jaime's monologue cements his place as a sympathetic character (in my opinion), while still staying completely true to his character - "By what right does the wolf judge the lion!" reminds us of jaime's douchey sense of self importance, and its at the END of the monologue, not the beginning.

I love how in the Mark text it even goes on to say that the tree didn't have fruit "because it was not the season for figs."  So the tree wasn't even a particularly barren tree, just a normal tree.

That is very true.  He probably should have done that.

I think in any other circumstance, he wouldn't have given her all 8,000.  Even if she had the gold to pay for them all, he'd probably only let her take a certain percentage that he knew wouldn't be able to overpower his reserves.  But in this case, she's offering a DRAGON.  I think the show doesn't quite get across…

In response to your response further down:  that's essentially what I meant.

To be fair, Robb's been established at a pretty adept strategist, having not lost any battles yet.  And I think its been implied that Ned was the same way.  But yeah, otherwise they're in over their head, too good (in a moral sense) for this world.

Well, they're devoting two seasons to book 3, so technically we're getting 20 episodes for this particular part of the story.  That, thankfully, gives things some breathing room.

It was probably a mistake to have Rickon be a character at all, if he had never existed the books would be virtually the same.  I think the regrettable aspect of writing him out of the books was that it also took Osha out of the books, who was actually a character.

that's true

the way they've built up her character I can't see Tyrion's actions toward the end feeling justified at all.

Yeah, i mean she doesn't actually kill someone until Feast for Crows, and it's sort of a big deal for her.  In the series she straight up executes two of Renly's guards after his death like its nothing.

Has anyone commented on one of the weirdest departures from the book, that being Ghost hanging around Sam and the Night's Watch instead of up north with Jon?  Why?  Having him reappear as Jon was fighting the halfhand would have been a  perfect way to reunite them.

I too am a little perplexed why they decided to let Robb and Catelyn continue to think Bran and Rickon are alive.  Both Robb and Cat have just now done very stupid things - Robb marrying Talisa and Catelyn letting Jaime go.  The catalyst for these actions was the news that Bran and Rickon are dead.  Robb, in shock and…