Original Daario left Game of Thrones, and a key pivotal role in the Essos storyline, to go play Jason Statham's character in Transporter 4. You can't make this shit up.

I absolutely had trouble believing those were real dragons. I mean, they behaved nothing like the dragons I see in real life!

The idea of a pre-recorded show being watched in "real time" is so quaint.

Joffrey

Because he's Joffrey

The bald scar-head cannibal dudes were over the top.

Jamie Lannister's new haircut is bo-ring.

And it's high time Sanza did something but simper.

Dinkelage's "British" accent just gets worse and worse.

But Mrs. Solomon is most upset about the lack of Ed Skrein. She said he is "hawt".

I think I might be sick of everyone but Arya.

I'm pissed that Prince Oberyn and the medieval gigalo only got as far as a nip slip. Bullshit!

@6 duh! obviously. It's completely unbelievable that anyone would stop having sex with that hot blond to got stab someone in the wrist.

second vote for Jaime Lannister's blond hair going brown.

If they would have had a decent gay hairdresser on site, he would have lightened the new Daanio's hair, shaved his beard. then redyed Nikolaj Coster-Waldau's hair to Lannister blond.

That kind of change in casting is pretty mean, especially since I have a hard enough time keeping these damn characters straight. When we marathoned season 3 this weekend, we kept saying "Who the fuck is that?" to either discover it was a Stark boy we had forgotten about, or see that it's moot anyway, because he just died suddenly, or both. Sometimes, I was conflating two similar-looking characters.

The least you could have done is at least style the new actor in a way that looks anything like the old actor, or have a line addressing how he looks completely different (How are you enjoying your new beard? I liked you better when you had long blond hair and dumped those heads in my bathroom, because that was you, the same guy from before.").

Saying his name doesn't count; I'm just now getting my brain around which one is Sansa and which one is Cersei. (This might be my own brain problems--I wasn't able to distinguish my five uncles definitively until I was in my teens--but I can't be the only one watching who has trouble with names). Maybe I should just sit back and enjoy the bloodbath and not worry about who's who.

I voted for King Joffery's still alive. He dies eventually, just thought it would be last season.

@5 You think his accent sounds wrong? The show does not take place in Britain, or on Earth for that matter. We might as well complain that he's wearing the "wrong" kind of clothing.

@3 seriously. I have no patience for anyone who bitches about the shit options provided via Comcast, Hulu, HBO etc. for watching television shows, but refuses to learn how to download torrents.

Re Daario - so much for my visual acuity! I didn't know it was a different actor. I read the books, so I knew the name and knew the character so had no problems accepting him as Daario.

Just checked with my husband - he saw it was a new actor, but didn't realize he was playing Daario... he thought it was a new character. (he hadn't read the books)

oh - I do agree Jaime should be a LOT blonder. He's his sister's twin - what's with the brown?

If you look up backpfeifengesicht in the dictionary, Joffery's picture is there.

@7 is correct

What's A Song of Fire and Ice? Is that a different fantasy series that HBO is working on? That's going to confuse fans of A Song of Ice and Fire, the books that Game of Thrones is based on. Google can only find the latter. *pushes up horn-rimmed glasses with index finger*

Yes, I am enough of a pedant that this simple word swap was the most upsetting thing about the post. I trust any of the nerds at your nerdy viewing party would correct you on this too. To answer your question, I would say Jaime's hair color losing its similarity to Cercei's was what bothered me the most. The books state plenty of times that the twins look very similar, to the point that Jaime jokes that he's "the one missing the hand" to help people distinguish between them.

Glad we're back to GOT, but a little tired of the repetition in this episode:

"After Jorah Mormont reminds her, yet again, that dragons are dangerous, can’t be tamed, so don’t even try — after he does that again,"

Also: Tyrion -- again -- giving Shae the "Not Now, Honey" routine. (yes, it's justified, but Jebus on a bread stick, it's the third or fourth scene of that sort in the recent seasons.)

Couldn't GOT have employed some other manner of giving the little snitch the info about Shae/Tyrion?

And I'm happy to read Dany's finally marching on to the third of the slave cities (I was afraid they'd be infinite, and that routine was getting tired.)

Howsomever: yet another slave crucified? And over a hundred more to come on the road to slave city three?

Did those slave cities have no imagination? There's more than one way to dead a slave. For instance, lynching was once much in fashion in this country among conscienceless slavers.

Generally, the way the episode jumped around and didn't really get anywhere. I realize that's the way the books are written. I realize that's a consequence of having such a large cast.

Overall, the show is a good adaptation. Most of the changes that they make are good changes. They tone down the sleaze and the places where things don't make sense. Case in point, Arya killing Polliver instead of the Tickler and repeating his words to Lommy instead of "Is there gold in the village?"

But the sometimes leave out plot-relevant information: @18, Judybrowni, in the books it is made clear that the Mereenese put up those crucified dead slaves specifically as a "We're not scared of you or your dragons, Danyeris!" You will notice that the dead slave was pointing the way to the city.

Don't worry about Cersei, you'll see plenty of her later in the season. House Lannister is in for Interesting Times!