If Daario had had his blue hair, forked beard, yellow mustache, he'd look like a clown.

As for the episode, it was nice that we got some upbeat moments.

Arya smiling at the very end of her scene with the Hound was great. And it was significant that the Hound referenced his brother when talking to Arya as an example of someone worse than him. Since Arya had been a prisoner of the Mountain, she can agree to that statement.

I loved the moments with Gilly and Sam, and the death of the Other. Thumbs up on the crows in the heart tree, but thumbs down on Sam clearly leaving the intact obsidian dagger behind.

I was glad we got the scene with leeches and the curses for (as Stannis puts it) the usurper kings. There's some debate online on which king got the leech with Gendry's groin-blood.

Speaking of Gendry's groin, although I'm not necessarily wanting to see him naked, it's silly for Melisandre to get naked and get busy with him having his pants on. I was thinking "man, Gendry must be uncomfortable."

And his boots still on? Really?

The Tyrion-Sansa wedding stuff was great. Cersei's ability to keep it together is just falling apart.

Thanks as always for the great podcasts. Always super-in-depth.

Hm, about the scene were Jaime promised to bring those girls back.
I don't see the conflict that the girls ain't all in Kings Landing.
Cause they also won't be both in Kings Landing when Brienne arrives. So Brienne can't fulfill her mission either.

I am also not sure if he meant to really tell Kayburn about his act of valor. He might also just claim to save a lot of people by just normally killing the Mad King? Specially as crazy-healer-guy doesn't inquire any further. Like if the King would have lived maybe more would have died? (Even without the big-fiery-boom plan?)

Something I was wondering about is how Selmy relates to his daughter. Whether 300 gold would be a lot or like just normal? I considered that she might not at best terms with him considering she's wandering around being a swordwomen aiming to get a knight.

About the talking out using the sapphire count,.. I really don't see how he could have done it otherwise. As Locke doesn't seem to be up to alot of reason.
As imho Jaimee has no real reason to feel guilty about saving Brienne once I think he just want back to save her again. ^^; Without being guilt driven. ^^;

About the Screenshot, Brienne even doesn't stand totally straight up ^^; I found the fB Recap comment on the size quite suiting

Regarding Daenerys, I did got quite the impression that she went from like "trying to take over Westeros" to "attacking cities that did a pretty good peace offer just cause she can.".
Even though the slaves surrounding the ambassador looked badly treated, it struck me as a very,… unsympathetic move for Danny to make. At least for me. I don't root for her no more ^^;
It wasn't also really Dothraki like, as she basically just told him to "Go back, f* yourself, then return and surrender/lick my boots".
Also if I understood it right, a Dothraki Khalasar would have taken the gifts, boats, maybe some slaves and moved on.

About Theon. I'd guess after mad-guy returned any "stiffy" would be gone @.@
Another thing that got pointed out to me by a friend (who also hasn't read the books yet) is that they actually bereft Balon Greyjoy on his last chance to have a continuing male line of succession. The fact that Theon really didn't like it might have been just a bonus.

Regarding the infections. Hm. Drogo pretty much died by an infection. Plus I hope crazy-healer-guy will take care of Brienne.

@Maegery: Maybe she is preparing for the possibility that something go wrong to move Loras back in (or hatch a diffrent plan). Specially as she seems to get very annoyed when Sansa get's to the point of "Did your mother teach you". ^^;

I have to check / Figure if I can leave a voice message. I am living in Germany, which kinda explains a bit why I can't make it to your live airings ^^; (9pm is like 3-4 am iirc) In general, Teylen suites me as well as Jenny ^^;

I think we just aren't going to agree on this.

I was just addressing why they were so far south of the Wall, which might confuse people who had known that the Wildlings were supposed to be heading to Castle Black.

I think it is just a slight misstep, not having a couple of extra words in there… Ygritte could have asked “how far is it to castle black?” and no one would have been confused by the Wildlings traversing the greenish countryside south of the wall…

They are trying to get far far away from the Wall so they won't be seen by the Night's Watch men who patrol the Wall. Since the Wall is 700 feet tall, to be safe, they'll need to head miles south before moving parallel to the Wall, heading towards Castle Black.

Since they are a relatively small force of Wildlings, their attack on Castle Black has to be done by surprise. Because, you know, there's 1000 men there, according to that traitorous turncloak Jon Snow.

The show has the wildlings behaving intelligently in regards to avoiding detection.

I'll work on watching the video. Once again, thank you all for taking the time to record these in-depth podcasts.

I watched some training videos with the bears and all of their signature moves were used in GoT, the swiping of the paw, the shaking of the head, the head tilt roar. Even the fake mauling of Brienne is one of his moves. At first watching Tek and I assumed a lot of this was CGI, not the case at all, while the actors had someone playing the bear for their close up shots, anytime you see the bear, it's a real bear. Pretty awesome.

They're really ramping up the ire between Orell and Jon. Resolution soon? Also Orell really doesn't get Ygritte.

Poor Sansa. Smart enough to realize she's been naive but not enough to know what to do about it yet.

Some of the most reasonable things I've heard Joffrey say all series such as objecting to making the King walk so that the Hand doesn't have to and the dragon business. The point seems to be that Joffrey seems to be very much intimidated by grandfather and maybe that's actually causing him to think about what he's saying. Tywin seems to be about the only person qualified for leashing him.

Interesting reception scene with Dany. She was very queenly and she put a great show of strength. Unfortunately she doesn't seem to know how to bargain with it. The Yunkai made a decent offer but her dragons politely declined. I guess she values the potential of a growing crusader army of freedmen over money to buy ships.

Poor Tyrion. George is meanest to his favorites.

Melisandre: Fat Bob's your dad
Gendry: Say wut?

Death is a cruel god for a little girl.

Sadly the brotherhood is not well equipped for babysitting

Wedding: "Lannisters send their regards" lol

The second time through I caught Locke's foreshadowing of Theon's scene.

Jon giving Ygritte hunting lessons? Really? Was she just humoring him?

Ygritte's sense of scale is cute.

Ygritte: trolling all day e'ery day.

I like Hodor's answer to Osha.

Osha never asked for this.

Two foreshadows in this episode for the future: Jaime's parting message leaving and then Locke's jab at Jaime in the Bear scene. In episode transitions were mostly spot on as well.

Would be cool if you would do, dunno, something like a Beyong the Fangs podcast. ^^; (am bad at coming up with cool names)

Other show wish I'll give a chance will be Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, after OuaT got really good in Season 2.

And on foot, they would have found her again. As it is, had the Hound not grabbed her, they probably would have found her during the morning.

The small council *should* meet near the king. The Hand *should* travel to the palace for meetings.

As for Tywin discounting dragons, I bought that. He used to see all the dragon skulls in the palace, and he knew that in the past for there were no more dragons, they had been born smaller and smaller, and the generations were weaker and punier each time. He probably feels that any dragons born now would be pathetic.

I liked the part of John and Ygritte, there wasn't action but the dialog was nice.

The "Guess of which homes in Kings Landing is your fathers" quiz of Melissandre was rather streched. Plus I thought Gendry did figure it by now.

Aryas scene kind of surprised me @.@ Am wondering what he's up to. I don't think he'll kill her or will try to get back to Kings Landing. The brotherhood did look quite stupid. Like she could have bolted anytime oO;

Sansa doesn't seem to get brighter, which is a pity as the character got even to notice that she's naive, not bright and got bad timing. Doesn't seem like she wants to follow up on Maegery advice. While Maegery did quite gave a resigned impression. Specially with the "… … oO(ain't serious?) … yeah my mother thought me scene.

I don't get what Shae is expecting. She knows about Tywin? oO;
If not for Sansa it would have been someone else eventually.

And nice, Robb got an heir or heiress to come.
Plus, points for him for being open regardin the gender of his kid. ^^
How do women in Westeros notice pregnancy so fast?

About the Episode, Brienne & Jaime rocked the scenes.
It was very awww-worthy when Brienne adressed him as 'Ser Jaime' and I felt they seem to have finally gotten over their animosities if there were any. Oh and I was kind of surprised to see Jaimes Sapphire con back fire like thise. I liked that the healer got some background and how Jaime convinced his escort to return. Though of all that was hinted I wasn't sure if they would go and rape Brienne first, for the first night, and do the song-reenactment after it.
Liked that Jaime managed to continue after the yet failed rich-guy-dad attempt and got them both out of it.
The fight itself was impressive. Specially with the real bear, which did really look like a real bear. (not like the polarbear in Lost) Though the choreographie appeared to be off. As the Fight starts Brienne got this major paw inprint on her neck. The bear raises up and slaps her like on the right side of the face, and I was like "Damn that'll show" but it didn't o_O; Also the next two slaps of which one like totally grounded her didn't leave marks. That's been a bit confusing to me.
They could have like have a slapping scene, and do this paw-makeup after?
Still it was pretty exiciting. Liked it even better as the Wall scaling last episode. But that's most likely thanks to Brienne. ^^
Hope the freak healer will take care of her wounds so she doesn't end up like Drogo.

I did like the Dany scene better then the last ones, though she's losing my support.
At least imho she does quite give the impression to be megalomaniac and bloodlusting. @.@;
Wouldn't mind seeing her getting a slap on the head ^^;

I thought it was a bit odd that Tywin discarded three Dragons! as curiosity?
Specially after he does know how impressive already the bones of em look?
One of the few times I understood Joeffreys arguing. Though Tywin also outruled them.

Thought it was nice that Osha got some more background and I agree on her point of going to castle black instead of three-eyed-raven hunting. Which just seems kinda stupid. I mean even if they live to find it, what do they expect?

I'm not opposed to nudity, this is Game of Thrones after all, I know what show I'm watching… but I felt that the pre-castration lap dance was just over the top. Not that it was happening, but that Theon would give in and not resist like a madman.

The rest of the episode was fine, slow in parts, great in others. But I would have preferred Theon having his junk unjunked a bit straighforwardly.

CAPTOR: Theon! Wake up!

THEON: Er, yes?

CAPTOR: I was going to arrange a sexy bait and switch with some aspiring young actresses we have around here, but I didn't think it would work even on a sex-hound like you. So I'm going to release your kraken, with this knife.

THEON: Whatever.

I'd have preferred that scene playing out.

Dany on the outskirts of Yunkai was great.

Arya as the devotee of the God of Death, great! She's had enough with the Lord of Light BS.

Shae… annoying entitled mistress? Boo.

Look, A Man Has to Vent.

Heck, most of the crew still say Jendry, so I just roll with it. I figure people listen to us for the fun, not for the facts. We\’re not that podcast.

Boo on the contest shenigans. (I had 4 Freys on my survey) Boo!

This is no big deal, but since you all had forgotten the details on the obsidian blades being found last season… Sam, Grenn, and Dolorous Edd find the cache of dragonglass weaponry at the base of the Fist of the First Men after Jon has left with Qhorin. (If I recall correctly.)

Speaking of Dolorous Edd, and I understand that you're under no obligation to change your behavior to suit me, but it irks me when you pronounce Dolorous (the adjective) like "Dolores" (the name.) The first syllable of Dolorous has the stress, as opposed to the second syllable of the girl's name. I only bring that up since I don't think that the show has ever named Edd, and I wonder how many people who listen to the podcast think Edd is named Dolores.

Yes, you have been Grammar Nazi'd. Or the equivalent if this isn't technically a grammar issue.

AEGON: Behold my throne! Balerion melted 200 swords of vanquished opponents to create this symbol of my power. I'll need a hella-fluffy cushion, but it's a righteous chair.

WESTEROS PR FIRM: Well… the focus group we assembled aren't sufficiently awed by the sound of 200 swords. Might you get Balerion to melt 800 more and add to the chair?

AEGON: Dude. The great hall's not big enough for the throne to be 400% bigger.

WESTEROS PR FIRM: Tell you what, we'll just quietly execute this group, assemble a new group, and tell them it's 1000 swords. Then, your dynastic power will be legitimized, and assured for all time.

AEGON: Unless someone bothers to count the swords…

WESTEROS PR FIRM: Seriously? Have you ever seen one of these fools counts beyond 20?

Patman you made me giggle so much!

Also, this bit about 200 swords, or 1000, it proves the point that most people in Westeros can't count

But yes, who cares? It's Aegon, the first of his name and his effing dragons.

You guys have touched on how overtly villainous Baelish is being portrayed, and I know from reading other recap sites from book-readers, that there's a sense of loss over the lack of mystery around Baelish. Shade of gray is often mentioned when talking about book-Littlefinger.

I'm kind of okay with Little Pete being more overtly portrayed as self-serving and amoral. There might still be room for nuance, for example, he does seem to have an irrational blinder when it comes to Catelyn, which caused him to overplay his … position (as Bolton might say) when talking to Cersei last year about power, and to totally lose his savoir-faire when negotiating with Catelyn last season, literally over Ned's dead body.

I have some more things to say about Baelish and his portrayal, but I really want to wait a bunch of episodes before I do.

Branching from that, I'd like to respond to some comments about the Varys/Baelish scene. I think PG felt it was kind of atypical for Baelish to be so up front and overtly gloaty evil in front of Varys, but I think Christiana was on target saying that the scene was not inconsistent for the show, and we just don't have contrary evidence from the books due to the POV situation.

This might be a controversial statement, but I've not really fully accepted any of the Varys/Baelish pairing up scenes. They are so surreal that I can't take them seriously. Seriously might be the wrong word. I mean that when they start talking, I unconsciously interpret it as some kind of allegory. Time might as well have stopped, and the two of them are archetypes inhabiting the same kind of narrative dimension that Greek Choruses do.

So, if Pete is extra mustache twirling villainous, it doesn't really bother me. It might as well be a thought balloon.

You guys mentioned Baelish counting the number of swords on the throne, and his dismissing the symbolic importance of the throne (and therefore the entire idea of the realm) because there really weren't 1000 swords, but less than 200. I think I've read online people deconstructing his chaos:pit:ladder speech and using the number of swords to illustrate the illusion of the state and how we believe these lies and so on.

I might give Littlefinger his credit in his ability to count, but I think he's totally missing the point. Or 200 points. Regardless of how many swords were melted down by Aegon Targaryen's dragon to make the iron throne, the iron throne was created by A F**KING DRAGON MELTING DOWN THE F**KING SWORDS OF AEGON'S VANQUISHED OPPONENTS. (Forgive the expletives, I'm allowed once a year to go off like that.)

I'm still freaking impressed by that, and I'm not really interested in the actual amount of swords that went into it. Should Aegon have wanted a throne roughly 5 times the size, he could have made one. Easily. If Littlefinger wants to boast of his counting skills, he is welcome to do so. But it made him look like an idiot to me.

I think this showed two things, one, there is no question, Joff is a sociopath, and two, Littlefinger isn't as non threatening as he seems to have gotten, while he doesn't like to get his hands dirty, he is just as ugly when it comes to people he doesn't care about, and that is almost all of the realm.

I think it is violence against women, but that's the point isn't it? Joff is a sociopath, he sees people as toys, he feels he can do what he likes with common folk, and whores especially. It's very common among his archetype. He is not being persuaded by Margery to learn to love the common folk, he's doing it just as show. He's still an evil SOB. (and that's all I will say without getting into spoilers)

I'm using this is in the cast tonight!

I believe Melissandra just travels at the speed of plot XD XD XD
With the almighty Lord of Light helping. Even though she's kinda skinny, she's still to fat for a raven ^^;
I do just have fun imagine that she maybe catapulted to some nearby town
(attention, attention red priests dropping in XD)
So the red comet could have been a traveling red priest xD
(sorry just being silly)

Melissandra I believe got her information from reading the flames, how did she get to the Riverlands so fast? I don't know, she hopped on the back of a Raven?

I actually liked Theon's scenes, and Ros's death, WOW! That shocked me too