Slow start, but that will only make the payoff that much more rewarding. A Storm of Swords starts off slowly before unexpectedly exploding with awesome chapter after chapter...
You're right, the Arstan thing would have made no sense off of the page and any big fan of the show that hasn't read the books would have just seen it as an insult to their intelligence/waste of their time. I wonder how Jorah's spying on Dany will be revealed to her since Barristan wasn't at the small council meetings in season 1 like he was in book 1. The removal of the Sorrowful Men from the series by having the warlocks of Quarth doing their own dirty work is just plain logical when you think about it. After that thing with the manticore the Sorrowful Men haven't appeared since and the show doesn't really need two seperate guilds of assassins.

The giant looked fucking amazing. Also... Qyburn!!!

Makes me wonder if Tywin will get offed this scene or next.

I think they'll do that at the end of the season... but anyone else notice the letter Tywin was writing? BWAHAHAHAHA

Totally cool with revealing Selmy already, as it makes much more sense for TV. Mance's reveal I was fine with too. Giants!

Lots of calm before the storm. Looking forward to it.

Remember that ASoS is being split between Seasons 3 and 4. (Good, because it needs it.) So that one scene you're referring to won't happen until next season.

I was hoping for a more flamboyant introduction for Mance, him being a musician and all. They're really making him a lot more low key here. Not sure what to think of that yet.

All the reviews are indicating that stuff really picks up after this first episode, so looking forward to it. And while this first episode was a ton of exposition, which makes me go meh by default, at least it handled it a lot better than Season 2's premier did. Focusing on just a few plot points this time around really did it a lot of good.

Yep, I realize. I think, for this season, The, uh, Scarlet Nuptials is the season ender, and Tywin end of next season (Keeps Charles Dance around longer, happened at the end of ASoS anyways, need something big for season 4 ender, etc).

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