Aside from Jon Snow and the Wildlings climbing The Wall in this past Sunday's episode, it appears that "The Climb" was very much about setting the stage for events later in this season, and presumably next season.

Having read the books, Robb's meeting with the Frey's in an effort to marry off Edmure Tully so that he can re-establish his alliance with the Frey's was a little chilling.  Simply because if you've read the books, you know where this plotline will eventually lead.

The head scratcher scene of this episode?  It had to be Melisandre coming to the camp of the Brotherhood without Banners.  Simply because that seems to be a creation of the show, and not the novels.  But it does serve to establish that both Melisandre and Thoros of Myr are both priests of the Red God.  Readers of the books will know that Thoros' actions in bringing back Beric Dondarrion will have implications down the line in novels that have already been released.  My personal belief is that Melisandre may exercise this very same power in a book that is yet to be released.

Anyhow, I don't recall this Melisandre / Thoros meeting as anything that happened in the books.  And I think it had more to do with Gendry than anything else.  My belief is that Gendry will stand in the series as the SOLE bastard heir of Robert Baratheon, and the HBO show will totally disregard the other established Baratheon bastard, Edric Storm.  IIRC, Stannis wound up holding Edric Storm captive.  And I think that for the purposes of the show, Gendry will serve as a composite character of both himself from the novels as well as Edric Storm.

The climb?  It was very cool to see The Wall like this, and not as part of the scenery of Castle Black.  And as Jon, Ygritte, Tormund and the other Wildlings made the climb, I was very mindful of some words from the book:  "The Wall defends itself".  When that ice face came down, those words had a whole new sense of gravity.

The maneuvering of Tywin Lannister and the Queen of Thorns to marry off their heirs for political gain made for a great scene.  And where a lot of people may have previously written off Sansa Stark as an inconsequential character, she now has some serious things happening to her.  Because Tywin is regarding her as the heir to Winterfell, and the key to ruling the North.

But the scene that had me wondering where it would go?  Of all things, it was Samwell Tarly and Gilly in the wild, with Gilly's son.  When Sam took out the obsidian dagger, I was really wondering if we would see the possible origin of his nickname.  But I think that may come later as they get closer to The Wall.

Based on some of RDJ's recent press, it seems like he wants to step away from the franchise to a degree.  And I think he certainly deserves some time away from the character.  Don't get me wrong:  I think he's done amazing work in this role.  And he seems to have moved past a lot of the personal problems that nearly destroyed his career a decade ago.  Plus, he's an amazing actor.  I'd like to see Robert Downey Jr. move on to some other projects so that he can show just how great of an actor he is.

From the rumblings I've been hearing, a War Machine movie may be a possibility.  Don Cheadle's definitely strong enough to carry a movie on his own.  I hope that IM3 does service to the Rhodey character so that a spin-off movie would get a good launching off point.

That being said, I'd definitely want to see RDJ return for Avengers 2.

They even gave a bit of humanity to Joffrey this last episode.

Of course Tyrion is the ultimate amoral ******* you can't help but root for.

I don't know if I'd say that much about Tyrion.  He's a complicated character, without a doubt. 

His dwarfism makes him an oddity, since life in Westeros is so hard that a child with birth defects would ordinarily be left to die.  But since he's a Lannister he's had the benefit of the best of care due to the family's riches.  But in contrast, he's always had the disdain of his own father since Tyrion's mother died giving birth to him.  And Tywin won't seem to forgive Tyrion for that.  And his siblings are near perfect, which makes Tyrion that much more of an outcast.  Tyrion's personal moral failings seem to be an exercise in him seeking refuge and comfort since he gets next to none from his family.

Where Tyrion really seems to show his character is in the dealings with the other House of the Seven Kingdoms.  When it comes to dealing with the Starks, he's been very honorable.  He acted very much as a good counsel to Jon Snow when he rode up to The Wall.  He chastised Joffrey for not showing proper courtesy to Catelyn Stark following Bran's fall.  And he was one of the few people to comfort Sansa Stark following Ned's execution at Joffrey's hands. 

Tyrion has the makings of a statesman, but a terrible personal life.  Of the three Lannister children, I think that only he would be a proper heir to Casterly Rock.  But Tywin's grudge against him has clearly stood in the way of him leading the Lannister house.

Quote from: name on April 24, 2013, 10:00 AM

Quote from: Qui-Gon Jim on April 24, 2013, 09:08 AM

The writers are so good at their craft that they can make a person feel pity for even the loathsome Jamie Lannister.

The thing that impresses me the most about Martin's writing in the novels is his ability to carefully, methodically develop a character fully into a villain you despise and then in one chapter flip your perceptions entirely on end and make turn the villain into the hero you're rooting for.

This is exactly what was so awesome about LOST (Sawyer, Jin, Linus, Locke etc) and I totally get the same vibe with GoT.  Jamie Lannister come to immediate mind but there are several others.

The scenes between Arya and Tywin Lannister from last season did that, too.  Tywin had been depicted as a cold, calculating figure with no warmth at all.  But those scenes with him and Arya at Harrenhal cast him in a totally different light.

If only those hadn't been the sole creation of the show-runners, but that's another story entirely....

Witness the aforementioned two elements from this past Sunday's episode of Game of Thrones. It gave us two things that might make it possible for the one character to take his place as the third dragon rider. First, a chant that expresses that one is no longer bound to their oath.  And next?  The ability of Beric Dondarrion to continue on, despite the fact that Sandor Clegane refers to him as a "ghost".

There are certainly plenty of significant points that are brought up over the course of the series that would lead you to think that R+L=JS is a significant possibility.  But to go over them would be something of an exhaustive process.  However, George R.R. Martin continues to allude to the mysterious events that took place at the Tower of Joy at the end of Robert's Rebellion.  And this continues to be one of the great unresolved plot points of the series.  But the events that took place at the Tower of Joy may solve the riddle posed by the equation of R+L=JS.

I bought the Assembler series Iron Man Mk 42 and Iron Patriot a few weeks back.  Target was running a sale, and they were $7 each.  At that price I could justify the purchase.  But the other armors in that series?  Eh.  And the very basic carded figures?  OMG.  I wouldn't touch those things with a 10 foot pole!

I understand that the mantra from Hasbro corporate has been "CUT COSTS, CUT COSTS, CUT COSTS".  But the Hasbro execs also need to take a long, hard look at HOW they offered that Iron Man 2 toy line, and the miscalculations that came along with that strategy.  Because this approach to Iron Man 3 looks like an overreaction to the Iron Man 2 line, and not an adjustment.  If Hasbro approached Iron Man 3 conservatively, the way they did with the Avengers line, I think they could be pretty successful.