Wow, divergence from the books is getting stronger and stronger. For the most part, I don't mind. The scenes with Arya and Tywin have been some of the most compelling scenes, so I thnk that has been a good change.

Littlefinger showing up will make the storyline easier to follow as they will skip the whole part about Edmure accidentally blowing up Robb's strategy and will just have Littlefinger broker the deal to bring Tywin and the Tyrell's together at King's Landing to defeat Stannis.

Dany's part I will reserve judgment on. Her story was a bit boring and needed to be livened up, plus I always wondered why no one just took her dragons, or at least tried, while she was so vulnerable. I think the warlocks stole them and this will just make the whole house of the undying scene be that much better once it happens. Plus they mentioned Ilryio (or whatever his name is) to remind viewers who the heck he is so that when he sends the boats to her, people will remember and understand who he was, so I think they are going to the same place.

The Jon Snow part worries me the most. He has to kill the Halfhand himself to be accepted by the Wildlings, I really hope they don't change that part and that they do it justice. I will be disappointed if they mess up that story line.

Yeah, I'm hoping that they're just adding a bit of meat to Dany's story since there really isn't much going on with her in ACoK. I just really hope that they don't leave out her visions in the House of the Undying.

Agreed, how they will handle that whole House of Undying scene with Dany has been one of my biggest question marks for this season. How much of the visions and prophecies will they show, and will the changes versus the book (if any) give us any hints about the prophecies and what they mean? Looks to me like we may get a little kick-ass revenge added to it to make them pay for stealing her dragons, which would be fine with me if so. Dany kicks so much ass in the third book, but not so much in book 2 (Drogon kicks butt, but not Dany). I'd be happy for her to start doing it in this season.

Sounds like I have an interesting ride in store when I finally start watching the season.

What a coincidence. I too would like to add some meat to Dany's story.

Kinda sorta' so far. Wish I hadn't read the books.

I agree.

I still have faith that it'll all tie together. I really don't see how they could possibly get away with cutting that out. It's way too crucial. I wonder if they aren't just pushing it back a little to make it more of a cliff-hanger; put it in the last couple of episodes this season.

Yeah, either way. It's the end result that matters. But I got the impression from this episode (with all the "lady" talk) that they were dropping hints that she's lying about her identity. Still won't be surprised to see if she still ends up being Jeyne Westerling.

Did anyone else find Theon's taking of Winterfell a bit..... jarring? I mean I knew it was going to happen, but it seemed like they started the episode with, "Oh by the way, Theon's got Winterfell now." Wait, what?

I hope The Battle of Blackwater Bay is epic, and that's what they're saving the budget for.

What i got from reading other spoiler sites, is that they couldnt really show that, it would have been pretty difficult or someshit to do, but i think you got the jist of it when he murdered that dude the way he did. That was pretty damned brutal.

I thought it was a great episode.

I didn;t mind the Theon part. They hinted heavily at it last week, and they showed all those scenes in the "previously on Game of Thrones" part at the beginning before going right into that story. But also, it felt true to the books because in the book, Bran wakes up and realizes what is happening and then Theon comes into his room, just like on the show. It was told from Bran's POV in the book and the show was very faithful to the book, even using a lot of the same dialog.

At least until Rodrik was killed, obviously that was different. But I liked the way they did that as it had a lot more impact than killing some unknown minor character like Theon did in the book. Plus the Ramsay storyline is being condensed, so it made sense to kill Rodrik in this episode.

Can you refresh my memory of how it went down in the book? Theon took Winterfell with a handful of men, then Rodrick came back with bannermen (including Ramsay) to take Winterfell back, and Ramsay promptly turned on Rodrick. Am I remembering that correctly?

Ramsay was in prison at Winterfell disguised as Reek. When Theon captures Winterfell, they release him and he "helps" Theon. It is ramsay's idea to take Bran and Rickon's clothes with them on their search and then kill the miller boys to pretend they are Bran and Rickon. After Asha comes to visit Theon and leaves him only 10 men, Ramay/Reek suggests that he could raise a couple of hundred men to help Theon defend Winterfell. Theon agrees (Theon is not very bright). When Rodrik comes back with his host and is about to retake Winterfell, Ramsay and his men come along pretending to be on Rodrik's side, then they butcher Rodrik and his men. Theon welcomes him in thinking he is on Theon's side, but Ramsay is on his own side, and he kills all of Theon's men and everyone else at Winterfell and burns Winterfell (Bran, Rickon, Osha, Hodor, Meera and Jojen are all hidden in the crypts at this point). Ramsay also takes Theon as his new "Reek" and begins torturing him (though we don't see that until book 5). Ramsay leaves Winterfell abandoned and goes back to his Dreadfort.

Thank God.

Dany's story mostly becomes a whiny teenager pissing and moaning about what she's going to do when she's queen...then getting all wet in the thighs anytime some purple-haired archer shows up. Her story is just awful for 3 consecutive books.

Perhaps the show will actually make in interesting.

Fortunately it appears that they're not messing around with Tyrion at all, and both he and Snow have the most consistently great storylines.

I agree - there's no reason why they still couldn't have the fight with Qhorin. And as you've said, it's a hugely critical component to the story.

Why the surprise? That's pretty much all she does in the books as well.