I feel like there is almost nothing left of the original storyline in this season.

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Why the need to shoot the whole Gendry storyline? Wouldnt it have been much easier to just have the bastard Edric already living at Dragonstone?

There is too much going on already in these books to waste scene after scene with non critical storylines.

I did like the episode though. For not much happening, there were some great scenes... Tywin and the Queen of Thorns was especially good. "Oh yes, he's a sword swallower through and through."

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What's funny is that of all the books, the third one is far and away the best. If they wanted to to start changing things and tweaking the story do it with the 4th and 5th books. Those stories are already flying off the fucking rails as it is...

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Agree with Queen of Thorns - forgot about her scene. That was excellent.

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Watching her throw Tywin off his game was a sight to see. When she asked if he ever fooled around with his cousins I about lost it.

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Yea she is the only one who isn't bullied by him. Good contrast to see.

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I could not disagree more on the Gendry stuff. I think its great that they are attempting to correct the mistakes in the books! Gendry's character had so much promise in the books and then he turned into a total waste of time. I'm glad they are finding a way to keep him relevant and expand his role. Can't wait to see what happens when he starts interacting with Stannis and he finds out that he is the son of the king. So much more interesting than what GRRM did with him.

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Also, LOVED the interaction between Melisandra and Arya! Melisandra seeing her for the killer/assassin she will become was pretty sweet.

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Agree, I like it as well.

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I liked the third book, so I don't want things to get too far off the rails from the original story. They can feel free to change anything they want from the 4th and 5th books though.

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yea but some of the things taht sucked in the later books need to be fixed now before its too late, such as the total waste of Gendry's character.

As far as the Theon stuff, I'm hoping that they just show his scenes long enough to show him being broken and then he disappears for a long time and then next season or the season after he reappears as Reek.

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Gendry still has a big part to play in the books. He served as an anchor for Arya during their travels, but when they split he stayed with the Brotherhood and I have a feeling they will be meeting up with the newly landed person who also wants the Iron Throne. And probably not seeing eye to eye.

Edric also has a big part because he is a recognized bastard - hence the importance of his blood. I don't want to spoil further here but I don't see Davos doing for Gendry what he did for Edric.

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the thing is, every criticism of the show is "it's not like the books". it's easily one of the best written shows on television, and the books aren't exactly masterpieces themselves. "storm of swords" is great, but after that, the stories go nowhere and the TV writers don't have a hundred years to resolve a plotline like martin thinks he does.

the books are source material. there is a lot in the books that don't translate to the screen. this is almost as bad as the LOTR online discussions back when those films were coming out. and none of the criticisms were about the merits of the film, just that it "wasn't like the books". that's not criticism. that's just fanboyism.

I have a feeling Martin is going to go the way of Robert Jordan and die before he finishes the series.

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@audioidkid

I've always felt like Martin's biggest weakness is that there really isn't some larger story he's building toward. His writing style has always come off as putting characters in certain scenarios then writing them out of them. On the very, very, very rare occasion that two of them cross paths it makes me terribly excited, but then I realize that it shouldn't take X amount of books for character A to meet up with character B.

TL;DR: George RR Martin is a master at creating universes but doesn't have a fucking clue how to manage the characters he puts into that world.

The television show has done a very admirable job in condensing the source material down into what appear to be feasible plots while simultaneously slicing down characters at a pace that Martin would likely appreciate, despite the fact they have to kill characters off in the show to accommodate Martin's very own tendencies.

Is Melisandre getting Gendry weird and not book-like? Sure, but fucking go for it! Who needs an additional 6500 tertiary characters in a show that already boasts the biggest cast in all of television? Make shit happen, writers.

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That is a fair argument and I realize I am coming off that way probably. My issue isn't combining characters or condensing storylines, its some of the choices they are making now are severely different form the source material and could have a significant impact once Martin does finish the books. For instance one of Dany's Bloodriders dying, or Xaro being placed in the vault and probably dying. Those characters still have a role to play. Combining Thoros and Tom O'Sevens is interesting as well, we learn a lot from Tom because he can get into places someone more notorious can't. Had they combined Anguy and Tom I think that would have been a better choice and more plausible to relate what is going to happen. Also how would Melisandre even know where Gendry was? His identity wasn't broadcast and only a handful of people even know who he really is. And no one can find the Brotherhood, except her? Too easy.

I think my biggest gripe is trying to condense the story to fit 10 episodes a season. It feels rushed. Its wildly successful so why not give last season 12 or 13 episodes, and this one 15 or 16? They certainly aren't going to lack scenes to put in and can properly introduce and give the necessary time to each character.

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in some ways the writers of this show have done a better job with storytelling than martin has lately. i would trust that martin is still a script supervisor so he has to know these changes may affect his own story. that's the potential problem with adapting a series that isn't complete yet.

as far as rushing it--think about the difference between reading and watching. a book tends to be better at length. viewing has lesser attention span. things need to happen. otherwise it gets dull. think if they left in all the food stuff alone!

Boring episode. I don't mind book changes. But make it exciting. Those Frey guys looked like extras from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

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Back off, Warchild. Seriously.

What the holy hell is going on? I expected them to over-produce a big scene for the bear fight only to have it end like an Anchorman scene.

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It seemed like they touched on every single storyline which was cool but hopefully it was some sort of
set up for the final 3 episodes because I wasn't that impressed with this one.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

What happened to Rickon? You would have thought he would be at the campfire scene with Osha and Bran and the Reeds. Also there has been a severe lack of direwolves this season. A few Ghost sightings in Samwell scenes but thats all I really remember. Maybe Summer during the first or second episode.

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Rickon cant catch a fucking break. The kid gets boxed out of all the books and even on the show, where they spend 5 minutes each week showing Theon getting tortured (WHY?!?!?!), the poor kid doesnt even get to be on camera during a campfire scene.

I've enjoyed the last couple of episodes. Setting the table for the final 2 episodes.

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Episode 7 thoughts:

A vast improvement over last week's episode, IMHO. Some stray thoughts:

• The Jon Snow/Ygritte relationship is so vastly improved in the TV series, and this week's writer, George RR Martin, clearly relishes being able to revisit and reshape his own characters. Their dialogue this week was a lot of fun. It's difficult to take an actor as wooden as Kit Harrington and make him open up, but some clever interchanges with Ygritte (yoo no NUTHEN Jon SNUH) are working wonders.
• Also THIS
• Jaime became my favorite character in the books, and now the show is finally starting to give viewers some reasons why. He steals a few scenes tonight.
• Emilia Clarke got totally screwed last season with a lot of dull, pointless episodes that finally ended with a circle jerk festival as she left Qarth (the greatest city that ever was or ever will be, not to be confused with Bret Hart). Thankfully we've seen her at her best this season and her scenes have been my favorites. Tonight we finally saw her as the Mother of Dragons (and those dragons looked fucking awesome) as she intimidated some punk-ass slavers. You just KNOW she's going to fuck some shit up before too long.
• I'm sorry, but Bran's story sucks. It's not going to get any better (spoiler be damned, non-book-readers), that is to say I hope it gets better, considering the infinitely slow movement of his book arc. I'm getting to the point where I hope they re-cast him and just...just figure some shit out with them, because outside of Jojen and Hodor that whole group's acting/writing is dull as hell.
• Arya used to be my favorite character, but she's still figuring out things from the second season. With the Hound in the picture it can only go up from here. The Brotherhood Without Banners isn't exactly the most titillating TV experience.
• No Varys? Tisk.
• Tyrion/Bronn simply cannot miss. They could do a show with just the two of them.
• Sansa is sad, what a shocking development. And now she's too good for Tyrion, master of whores? Pssh.
• Robb knocked up his old lady. *lukewarm thumbs up* Way to not pull out.
• Yeah, I get it - Theon's being tortured. It was great to see some full frontal nudity just before Theon's castration, but god damn - how many weeks in a row do we need to see him just cyclically be destroyed? Move on.
• This appears to be our final "checking in" episode.

Bonus link: Tormund Giantsbane

Bonus Bonus Video: Episode 8 preview (spoilers, obviously)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... RznGg9KAsI

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Bad episode, maybe worst one ever. I still don't get this theon torture story line. Kill the Guy n move on. Bear scene was awful.

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I can't tell if you are being facetious or not

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I remember seeing Rickon in the scene.

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You know me like that.

Really? OK I guess I stand corrected. I will have to re-watch that scene.

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I bet his family was really happy when the scripts for this season arrived.

'Hey look mum!!! In episode 7 you get to see my legs sticking out of a tent!'
'In Episode 3 I get to make a sad face at the camera!!'

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I thoroughly enjoyed his torture this week.

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Team Cutler.

It just isnt necessary to the story at this point. I think we all get the idea. He's being mentally and physically messed up. Lets move on to the cool stories and I can flip on Youporn when I'm done.

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