Game of Thrones Season 3

I haven't read any of the books. Holy smokes. I saw something coming, but not like that.


That wedding feast actually looks like a lot of fun
OH MY GOD

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A room with show only and book alumni

Here's to bachelorhood.

I think knowing it was coming made it a whole lot worse.

Was hiding behind a blanket and almost squealing in the build up. Took a days holiday to watch it before my non-reader other half watches as my overt reactions would have blown it for her.

Guess there goes the Stark heir theory. Wished it was Jaime Lannister sends his regards, like the books but can see why they changed it. Roose was a bit cartoony, popping up and finishing him. Wish they made a bit more of a meal of it. Holy **** though. Wonder if we'll have Grey-Robb next episode.

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My heart was literally on the verge of exploding as I waited for sh*t to go down.

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This will not go unavenged. There's one Stark they didn't count on.

Pretty good scene. Was a bit worried there with the Blackfish in attendance, but thankfully he stole away. I had hoped the music would be conspicuously bad, but that's not a major gripe.

My only two disappointments really had to do with Grey Wind and Arya. I hated how Robb's wolf was put down so easily; in the books someone actually let him out and he raged violently, killing several before he was finally brought down. That should have been shown, if anything to reinforce that these direwolves are not to be messed with.

And I didn't like Arya's passiveness about the whole thing. I remember in the book that she freaks out and tries to make a bee line for the castle to get to her mother. She doesn't sneak around and watch guards get killed. I guess she was supposed to be a bit shocked, but I felt like there should have been more emotion than that.

And yeah, I guess the issue of Robb's heir is settled, at least in the show. That was rough.

How long have you been waiting to post that?

But yeah, seriously, I had heard enough to have a good idea of what was coming when I read the books, and I was still surprisingly angry. Thereafter, every time I heard someone say they hated Joffrey in regards to the show, I thought "oh man, just you wait. That'll be supplanted by a whole new level of hate." But more than that, the feeling was helplessness, which I thought was pretty interesting/impressive.

I think we can pretty safely say what the closing shot of the season will be now.

I was just happy they showed Grey Wind full stop. They've cut that whole bond the Starks have with their wolves and them all being able to semi Warg. Grey Wind's reaction and The Twins was foreshadowing for another wolf's behaviour at another location in Dance...

I think my only other gripe than Roose's pop-up was that Robb didn't get to legitimise Jon

There was one part of the Red Wedding that the show was always going to be able to do better than the books, and that's the sound. In the book there's no way around basically coming out and saying "and then 'The Rains of Castamere' played." But in the show, they can just play it, and sharper viewers can recognize it for what it is and know something's about to go down.

To their credit, they REALLY emphasized that song this year, probably in part for exactly this payoff. I think a lot of people still missed it, but that was really solid.

Agreed. And I seriously got goosebumps when Bran warged into Summer. Nevermind that he should have been doing it all along, it was a great scene. When Bran's eyes went all milky and the camera cut to Summer, I actually yelled, "Driver's seat!"

Those dire wolves, man. I realize the dragons are the "easy" stars and therefore draw the most CGI attention in the show, but I was way more interested in the wolves when I was reading. They're just soooo awesome and they've soooo been shafted this season.

I'm a book reader. I thought the Red Wedding captured the feeling I had hoped it would... but I too, like Pyro, sat on the couch with a pillow up over half my face for the whole second half of the episode.

My biggest shock (as a book reader) was



The one stray thought that hit me right away was that our otherwise brilliant spy-theory about Talisa wasn't going anywhere anymore.

Great ambiance, though. Loved when the guard slowly closed the door and Catelyn started to "get it" -- lifting Roose's sleeve and seeing mail. Great acting throughout Catelyn's death scene, actually.

Over the past few episodes, as a book reader, I felt increasingly sorry for poor Arya, who keeps getting close to resolution and then having it torn away from her. Even when Maisie Williams's acting isn't completely up to speed (her stiff-armed walk away from the Hound to look at the Twins again was just weird), her face always conveys the growing sadness and despair so, so well.

"The Rains of Castamere" was well played (literally and figuratively) because we just saw Cersei explain the nasty meaning behind the song for us in what? the previous episode?

All in all, was not disappointed. Not sure the other "big moment" in A Storm of Swords is going to show up this season -- pretty convinced it'll be pushed into season 4, so unlike, Yoda, I'm not quite sure *where* they're going to pinpoint the end of this season. The previews for the finale left that open to many possibilities. They do, though, seem to like to end a season with Dany somehow. Interesting to see if they break with that this time.

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SO, any other non-book-readers here ... how was it for you? Despite our gurgling about it for months, was any of it a total surprise? At what point did you see bad stuff going down?

Yara (think I prefer her show name) was in the promo, plus showing Balon would leave some hope for the third one. Imagine too early to introduce more Iron Born, though. Thoughts?

'Rains' was almost played too well, considering part of the build up in the Wedding was how crap it all was

Agreed, Sleezy. I was just mentioning Dany because I've noticed they like ending seasons with her. But she wasn't really the driving force in ASOS, so it'd be a huge stretch.

Agreed, but then again, the whole wedding was so gloomy and filled with ugly, poorly dressed people/Freys that they didn't need to add really bad music to get the ambiance they needed. Plus, of course, the song had to be recognizable.

Yeah, I was a bit perplexed about the quality of the music being so good too. But I guess it doesn't matter: the crossbowmen were hiding behind the musicians rather than playing the music in disguise. I think part of the reason why they did it that way was to maintain an air of "levity," to keep viewers feeling like everything was fine.

Well, it's not the ambiance so much that them being bad musicians is one of the clues. They're bad because they're not really musicians; they're assassins.

But yeah, as Sleezy says, maybe they weren't one and the same in the show. I didn't quite notice. But I think it might be a missed opportunity, because discordant music is a great way to build unease.