To continue:

This is probably indicative of the one part of GRRM's narrative style that doesn't translate well to the screen. He slowly builds knowledge about secondary characters, giving the reader glimpses and rumors about them from the point of view of primary characters. He builds the secondary character up over time until we have a specific idea in our head. Then, he's able to bring that secondary character into the limelight and, sometimes, give them their own PoV chapters which may affirm or belie the image the reader has constructed.

It's hard to do the same thing with the third-person point of view of a camera verse the way point of view is handled in GRRM's writing.

Sorry if I offended your delicate parts, sweetie.

It's certainly taken a turn in that direction.

I don't remember any "Renly is gay" hints from the books, but looking back it does seem plausible. However, if GRRM was using the "Rainbow Guard" as a hint that he was gay, then that's pretty lame.

First off, very nice episode overall. The action was great and the story progression was really interesting. I had to rewind twice to make sure I caught a few important pieces of info. The end was excellent as well.

That said, the over the top shock value is beginning to wear on me a bit. I'm not a prude at all, but it almost seems like the director is trying to throw a scene or two in every episode that pushes the envelope. That is fine every now and then, but it happens too much IMO, and is beginning to detract from the show.

Granted, I haven't read the books, so maybe these scenes are very important parts of the story. But personally I don't need to see a dude's meatsicle, the slurping sounds of dudes slobbing on each other, and animalistic fucking every damn episode to appreciate the storyline. The best shows, even on HBO, do not require this.

The 8 year old sucking on his mom was pretty nasty also, but it sounds like that is straight from the book.

I think they actually showed some restraint with how he was depicted. He's even more loathsome on the page... but they still have time to turn him into the despicable little ****er that he is in the books.

I think they're trying to get the point across that "this isn't your father's fantasy story, like Lord of the Rings". And I agree that it's a bit over the top. Just tell story well enough and people will realize that on their own.

Yes, it was in the book.

at least they gave Kate Dickie a prosthetic boob for the scene with Lysa/Robert. it would have been horrible if she had her 40 year old tit on display.

I thought the scene with Littlefinger and Varys playing verbal chess was very well done. By the end, neither had information that could be used against the other without something equally as awful being used against him.

I also liked the changeup of the Ned/Jaime scene. In the book Ned is riding and his horse is cut out from under him and crushes his leg. I don't believe he and Jaime dueled in the book. I thought that was an instance of artistic license with the script being good, it added some nice action while getting to the same place (Ned with injured leg).

The scene between Cersei and Robert was also really well done, I thought. Robert, to me, is portrayed as having even fewer redeeming qualities than he does in the books. He's a pretty shitty human being in HBO series.

Yeah, I was a little disappointed with the casting of Mark Addy. Robert was supposed to have been a fierce warrior whose weapon of choice was a battle hammer that most men could not wield with two hands. Addy nails the fatness of Robert years into his reign, but I cannot buy that he was ever a fierce warrior.

There was one way the books made it pretty obvious Renly was gay, but I don't know how to do the spoiler tag, so I can't come right out and say it. Still, pretty obvious when you think about it, if you've read the third book.

Sun and the torch, no?

i surprised that one guard got killed ... it's not like he couldn't see the knife coming.

Had this been made 20 years ago, Brian Blessed would have been perfect for the role.