I thought the episode was good, but there were more than a few questionable writing decisions imo - some of which are book related, some of which aren't. The abrupt Winterfell sacking was rather puzzling to me, first off. I had thought Theon would have a few men start sieging Torrhen Square while he walked into Winterfell easily. The episode throws you immediately into the situation with no set up, and it felt rather odd/rushed. Still, overall I thought it was a good scene. And the beheading, damn. I'm fine with the change, it worked well.
The beyond-the-Wall scenes were good, I just felt odd about the Ygritte changes. Sure the ambush was awesome, I like the actress, the Halfhand is great etc. But [ACOK]
spoiler (click to show/hide)
What's the point in having Jon run off with Ygritte? Also from a writing perspective, it makes no sense that the Halfhand would simply leave Jon alone with her and not even watch from afar, or note how long the whole thing took. And another thing...the whole "Jon sleeping with his head on a rock in below zero temperatures" thing was just weird, but that's kind of nitpicky. So I'm guessing Jon will be captured by Wildlings, they'll throw him in a cell with the Halfhand, and he'll demand Jon kill him in order to infiltrate them. I guess I'm cool with that.
The scene that really bothered me was the Arya one with Hagar/Loche. It felt completely unnecessary and trivializes the nature of her relationship with Hagar. And how unrealistic is it that a commanding officer would have to chase a servant through camp and not a single soldier would stop her? Once again, weird writing decisions.
And of course Dany...eh? It certainly makes sense that someone would attempt to steal her dragons, so I can't really complain about that; in fact I always wondered why that didn't happen as I read ACOK. I'm super bummed about Irri dying, come the fuck on. And also, I'm tired of Xaro's story. We get it, it doesn't need to be repeated in every episode.
Solid ep. I loved the King's Landing stuff, even the Shae appearance. The Hound being a boss, Tyrion slapping the shit out of Joffery, that peasant zombie attack lmao, good shit
