Highlights for me, in no particular order: 1. The Hound cutting a dude in half. 2. Bronn stepping up to the Hound's challenge and being a general badass. 3. Tyrion lopping off that dude's leg out of nowhere. 4. Cersei poking Lancel's wound causing him to scream like a girl. 5. Wildfire boom!!! 6. The Rains of Castamere. 7. Stannis cutting off the top of that dude's head. You normally don't find this kind of quality violence outside of a zombie movie. Well done, HBO!
I was thinking that too! Aside from the magical fire, everything else seemed medeival-accurate - arrow storms, the sergeant yelling "Loose!" instead of "fire," the lateen(?)-rigged ships, throwing stones from the battlements... beautiful job.
No, that was his own men pulling him out of the fight because he refused to retreat even when he had clearly lost.
One thing I was thinking about; is there just one more episode this season? We have four story lines that need some resolution: 1) Jon Snow 2) Arya 3) Robb and his merry band of soldiers 4) Danearys and her babies Seems to be an awful lot to cover in just one hour...
Not to mention plots/subplots for the following characters: 5) Bran/Rickon/Hodor/Osha 6) Theon/Yara 7) Brienne/Jaime 8) Catelyn and some sort of follow-up to the events of Blackwater. While hypothetically they could leave the fates of Tyrion, Tywin, Cersei, Joffrey, Sansa, Shae, Bronn, Stannis, Davos, the Hound, Varys, Littlefinger, Loras & Margery where they were when we've seen them in this and previous episodes, one would think that they would address them in some way. And the coming attractions suggest there's at least one King's Landing scene. IIRC, the coming attractions also referenced the Dani situation, Arya and Jon Snow. Frankly, given all the other plots and subplots, I don't see an imperative to address Robb beyond where we left him: he's sleeping with the nurse lady and has been doing well in battle.
So... Loras Tyrell has joined with Tywin Lannister in killing his former banner men that went with Stannis. First of all, WOW! ... and what does this mean for Robb in his endeavor to kill Joffrey? As Phoenix Pointed out, the season finale has to touch base on the dealings of Theon, Danaerys, Jon Snow, Robb Stark, Ariya, as well as Brienne, Jaimie, Catelynn and hopefully Sansa/Sandor "The Hound" Clegane. With that said, I don't expect to find out the fate of Tyrion until next season. If and when that happens, I will spazz the fuck out. Speaking of which, is Sansa and The Hound going to hook up? I will hurl in my living room if this happens!
I just watched the Blackwater episode again. The Hound's defection bothered me because I really didn't see it coming. The only thing I can think of is that he is terrified of fire. He was badly burned as a child by his own brother according to Littlefinger... and the look on his face as Stannis' fleet and men burned in the sea... Right before his defection, a man on fire was rushing him and he froze. Lastly, when he was in Sansa's room, he told her he was going somewhere that wasn't on fire. The Hound is terrified of fire. ... and while I'm at it, the King's Guard that tried to kill Tyrion, that was the same guy that killed Ariya's unarmed "dancing teacher." He also was the one that Tyrion threatens to kill when Joffrey was torturing Sansa in the throne room... Is that right?
Technically, all of Loras's bannermen probably joined Loras in not declaring for Stannis. But I get what you are saying. It doesn't take reading the books to suspect that it may not be the best. And me! Given that they appear to have at least one King's Landing subplot from the promo, I'd imagine they are going to touch on Tyrion's plotline at least some. Could be wrong though. I think the most recent episode established Sansa wasn't going to go with the Hound. Exactly right. The book makes it more explicit that the only thing the Hound fears is fire because of being burned as a child. Being in the battle with all that fire brought on major PTSD. You may note that he said something to a random guy that if any of the flaming arrows came near him, he'd do X to that guy. I think there are at least two distinct characters you are talking about. From what I understand, Ser Amory Lorch (sp?) was the one who confronted Syrio, Arya's dancing master. [I refuse to believe he was killed until I see the body!!!!] Also regarding that: Ser Lorch was one of the people who confronted Yoren (the Night's Watch guy) as Yoren was taking Arya, Gendry and the rest of them north up the Kingsroad. He also isn't a member of the Kingsguard, which is a brotherhood of seven knights sworn to protect the King at all costs. Tyrion threatened to have Bronn kill Ser Meryn. I couldn't tell if it was Ser Meryn or the other Kingsguard who tried to kill Tyrion. It's also an open question if whichever knight attacked Tyrion did so on his own accord (say, to avenge one of Tyrion's slights or because he thought he would be rewarded for doing so), on orders from Cersei (who obviously despises Tyrion), on orders from Joffrey, (who told them to represent the King on the field of battle) or on orders from Tywin (who, as you may recall, was accused by Tyrion of trying to have Tyrion killed by putting him in the vanguard, and who didn't even bother denying it.). And that doesn't include other players, like Littlefinger or Grandmaester Pycelle, who probably wouldn't mind seeing Tyrion become Quarterman. Not that it has much bearing on the direction the show takes, but I can't remember what the books said on these points, if anything. On another, unrelated front, people here who target-shoot might be interested in this link: http://www.redbubble.com/people/bamboota/works/8877280-the-perfect-target?p=poster I'm sure my aim would get better in no time....
I think the fire was alchemical, not magical. As for the ep, outstanding!! Ive watched the wildfire go up about 5 times now
No, things like that really did used to exist. I doubt as effective as in GoT though http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_fire
Well yeah, but 'in those days' chemistry was not separate from alchemy, philosophy was not separate from science But it wasn't magic
The Kingsguard that tried to kill Tyrion was Mandon Moore. I'm pretty sure the one that killed Syrio and was threatened by Tyrion was Meryn Trant.
Rumors on the web are that Book 3 (A Storm of Swords) will be split across two TV seasons and filmed back-to-back. So basically, if true (and I don't see why it wouldn't be), we've got at least a couple more seasons ahead of us!
Ok, the season 2 finale wasn't bad, but I admit that I was a bit underwhelmed. Liked the plotline in Qarth. That was a nice, reasonable twist to things. Beware Kahleesi, she now has dragons and means! Did not mind the Robb Stark subplot events, but based on some spoilers I've seen--does this not move the TV series much farther away from the books now?!? I'm hating Sansa more and more these days. How senseless can this chick be?!? Tyrion getting the shaft...it figures. Wonder if/when/how he'll rebound. Jon Snow's plotline was fairly predictable. Bran and Rickon plotline - meh. Briaane and Kingslayer plotline - meh. Arya plotline - different than I expected. I like the idea of the Faceless Man/Assassin. Hope that element returns at some point.
^Nautica, what spoilers did you see regarding Robb Stark and why do you think it moves his subplot further away from the books? (use spoiler tags, obviously) I understand wanting to keep Osha around because of the acting caliber of Natalia Tena. [?=Minor book-related spoilers]Since they did not introduce Jojen and Meera Reed, it makes sense to have another character besides Hodor tagging along with Bran.[/?] It will be interesting to see where they go with her character and how long she sticks around. Not sure what the fuck they're gonna do with Rickon, though. I was disappointed that in Dany's plot line they barely touched upon any of [?=Minor book-related spoilers]the prophesies in the House of the Undying,[/?] but otherwise a nice resolution to the Qarth story arc. Agree with Nautica: Sansa is as pointless as ever. Brienne is pretty badass and it will be interesting to see more of her and Jaime next season. Fucking BRILLIANT conclusion to Theon's season arc. I had to rewind the episode because I was cracking up at that whole scene in the courtyard. Tyrion and Varys are still some of the best characters of this show. The snow zombie ending gave me chills.
I'm not sure of what you've seen, or if they are spoilers from the book or spoilers for S.3. My memory of book stuff doesn't suggest a significant difference. Cut her some slack...she is only 13-14. Despite all of what she's seen, she still has a head full of storybook fantasies. It makes sense to her that if she doesn't have to marry Joffrey, maybe they would just let her go. If Joffrey doesn't love her and loves Margaery, probably will be faithful to Queen Margaery and not bother with other women. She's not old enough to have put two and two together that the whole scene between Joffrey and the rest was scripted, that Joffrey as king would still beat and rape her just because he feels like it, and that things actually became worse for her because now Joffrey doesn't have to be restrained about his sadism because she isn't a future queen. I don't think it even qualifies as a spoiler to say that it just might. For those who haven't read the books, I will put what Chad is referring to behind spoiler tags: You really should not refer to things that happened in the books and not the show without spoilers, IMO. Anyway, the TV show can introduce
