The file is uploading as we speak. Here is the transcript, for the images we discussed.

My ride into work tomorrow will be so much better now. THANK YOU!!!!

Really liked the episode overall. I still am not sure I understand why Amin was so upset that Daenerys locked up XXD and Doreah. I cheered when it happened. Their actions led to the death of Irri and others and the capture and possible eternal prison for her dragons. Dany locking them up perfectly matches what she does later on in the books with the spikes and seems a very just punishment.

Since several times in the podcast people mentioned Larry, I want to say that at least for me, I dont "hate" Larry, but he has been very "meh" in his last few reviews and really didn't seem to add much. It isn't about being a hater at all. He just really didn't seem to care, so it was hard for me to care about his opinions. Getting spoiled about the Red wedding definitely explains alot of his change of heart. His latest review of the finale though was much better.

I did chuckle a bit at Ashley defending him so much though. Half the reason people were upset at him was how he kept talking over Ashley in the last episode. It seemed like she couldn't get a word out without Larry raising his voice and trampling her.

d&d shitdropers - laughed so hard
loved the ros hate/speculations
keep stannis in the fridge, haha good one ash
crappy joke, well played, little nugets of gold
'20 episodes per book you have no excuses' - true, high hopes for new seasons

great episode, when are we going back to acok rereads?

There's probably some other mentions of this as well in the book but there's a point in ASOS where Gilly asks Sam to sing a song for the baby and he sings a song about the Seven that leaves the Stranger out. She asks him why he only sang about six gods and he says that no one sings about the Stranger.

That's what I thought of when Amin mentioned it was strange that they included the Stranger in the wedding vows.

Maybe it's the westerosi version of "till death do us part"?............... I got nothing.

Maybe because neither Talisa nor Robb are supposed to believe in the Seven, so they have NO IDEA how things goes with referring to the Stranger. GRR

Started listening... I wanna see the Hounds feminine side...

really good ep , one of the better ones covering the show.

how could kyle forget ghost fought with jon

Ashely steppin it up

i feel that this season the series will have to answer a lot of questions going into S3 but as S1 ended and didnt have to answer so many Q's in S2E1

i wonder how they'll execute Brienne and Jaime cause Jaime gets to KL right after Joff's death , but if they do Joff's death toward the end of S4 if wont entirely work ( S4E1 is ideal)

Joff knew of the Red Wedding though so there should be about 2-3 ep's inbetween weddings in my opinion.
i wish we'd see the sacking of winterfell, shouldve been E8 ( they really shouldve ended some storylines for more of a better flow in ep 10 )


WEX!!!!

Great Episode. Had be cracking up multiple times. FaBio really knows TV, now i understand what they were trying to do with some of the changes they made throughout the season.

Nice one, getting the Lords of Gatewatch on to review the finale! WiC and FaB are great.

The Ros's diary idea had me cracking up. D&D ending the series that way would be the biggest fuck-you moment in television history. Hilarious!

Also, laughed my ass off when Amin casually told Phil and FaB that he gave them a feathered hat in their gift bag!

Yeah great episode, especially loved some of the interesting perspectives brought forth here. I think a lot of us agree that lengthening the season by even 2 episodes or so would do wonders towards a more faithful adaptation. I recall a while ago from WiC that the biggest reason D&D explained was that the cost differential from 10 to 12 was a big gap? Would love to hear inputs from those working the industry if the TV schedule deadline, really limits such things. For instance do they have to shoot the year around if they were to make a 22 epi season like Lost did? Most of us assume that 1 extra month of shooting should be able to cover those extra episodes, but would love to hear the logistical side of it.

As for the content itself, I agree with pretty much everyone on the pod. I still don't quite understand the reason why they ham fisted the Halfhand storyline. I know they are "minor characters" but the Halfhand did not pick random guys for his NightWatch team Six. The scout, the climber, the torturer, the archer.. they were all going to die anyways, why not toss some fan service and at least acknowledge their specialty by letting them fall one by one just like the books? The most criminal part about that scene (and idk know why people haven't flipped tables over this) is that the HALFHAND GOT CAPTURED LIKE A LITTLE GIRL. Had they stayed true and let Ygritte just run off, and have some character build moment of Qhorin asking why he let go would have been much better than Ygritte wiggling her ass to him. Then when all of his men go down 1 by 1 the Halfhand makes his decision and asks Jon to yield and obey etc.. which leads to Qhorin calling out the pile of chicken bones and have Jon fake yield which prompts him to do his fake duel etc...

Obviously I'm not a new viewer but if i was unfamiliar with the source I would have found the original source much more compelling tv and make Qhorin a badass to remember. Seriously, getting meekly captured.... There's a reason why everyone north of the wall knows who the @#@# the Halfhand was and this show just completely failed in that regard.

Sigh getting off topic there a bit. since this is about the podcast

PS: Not to be nitpicky or anything but what's with all the ambient noise towards the end? Chair creaking, some squeaking... sounded like a haunted house for a bit. Was a mic thing or just background noise

No excuse. Epic lack of knowledge on my part. Sorry guys.

Haha. It's always a mystery to us too. When you do skype chats there's always that, "Who's making that weird noise" moment. Here's hoping it wasn't too distracting.

Creaking doors. It is known.

Kyle: "Tywin has a shitty death"

Kyle: "Sorry, that was a crappy joke"

Amin: "Sometimes Kyle has these little nuggets of gold."

The triple pun! I nearly died laughing.

I really enjoyed this podcast and it really showcases why I enjoy listening to this above others, everyone seems to have a really great handle on the characters even when I disagreed. I especially enjoyed the SanSan discussion because it summed up most of what I love about the complex relationship between Sandor and Sansa.

However, I do want to make this one point about people of color in Game of Thrones and Urban Fantasy in general because as a black female fan of fantasy I feel like it's important to make this clear. A lot of people excuse the portrays of POC in the the books are "based" on medieval Europe and that's why they have certain brown people stereotypes, accents etc... However, there were black people in Europe since the Roman occupation, not to mention the Turks who were highly civilized and some tribes of dark skinned people in medieval Europe. So the setting does not really excuse the lack of diversity in the genre. A lot of people have used this banner of historical accuracy to explain racism or stereotypes in fantasy and it's simply not based on any actual history. So it is frustrating to both see (a) stereotyped characters based on bad history and lack of anthropological knowledge and (b) the removal of the few people of color characters.

Inspired by this podcast episode...

HOW GAME OF THRONES ENDS

Lex.. wtf dude I spilled my drink all over my keyboard hahaha

I woke up people by laughing.

Great episode. I think the last time Phil/winter was on was my first episode, so with this ending season 2 everything came full circle - And Fabio really put into words a lot of my thoughts about the changes as well.

I give this episode 4.5 lemoncakes, it would be a 5 but i cant give a 5 to an episode with no Mimi.

LOL@ World Traveller Ros w/Superbad ending should go in the "best of" episode

Time 21:24 - 22:30

I hope we hear Mimi's take on the HotU at some point (and Season 2 as a whole). I know she was looking forward to it. Like Amin and Ashley it is not a chapter that is sacred to me. I like it but it is not a huge deal to me. Unrelated want to hear her talk about the RPG.

I found there Last Temptation of Christ take interesting. Personally, I do not think that Dany gives a shit that she has to destroy Westeros to conquer it so I don't think the charred remains of the Red Keep would be a disincentive.
Not a Drogo or Rhaego fan but the scene in the tent was very sweet and fun.
I would love to hear an internally logical (warlocks illusion) reason for The Wall.


Sorry, I generally do not see the utility about complaining about the lack of Mimi but felt it sharply in this episode.

Indeed, that was masterful.

The thing I don't like about how they handled the House of the Undying is exactly the reason you talked about why it was understandable what they did with it, that they made the warlocks (or Pyat Pree) have no real power.

The House of the Undying was this mysterious real fantasy prophecies thing in the books, and here they put it on a far lower level. And still they did show the wall and the throne room. What is that supposed to mean? Is it a prophecy? But then your theory makes no sense. Is it just an illusion? But why would Pyat Pree include a vision of the wall? It just is neither of both, while in the books it clearly was prophecy (I don't like prophecies that much either, but in ASOIAF I view them as one of some possible futures. While this would still be true for the show version, the fact that they showed so much of nothing doesn't make it clear enough). When I think about it it gets worse to how I actually saw it when I watched it. That is not a good sign.



As a German i did not even realize some actors have a german accent, need to rewatch that

Half way through the episode now, the 2 guests come across well amongst you guys. Great discussion as usual. Glad Kyle is back.
So far 3 out of 5...

Loved that episode so much Didn't even realise it had gone on so long until the end. Phil and FaBio come across as great guys and really blended with you well - the episode had so many of laugh out loud moments.

I actually remember coming across the aftermath of someone posing some spoilers on the New Viewer recap thread on the Winter-is-Coming site but didn't realise it was as bad as Phil described in the aftershow. What an asshole!

Once again, really great job by everyone involved, thanks for brightening up my day

I think the TV's House of Undying can be taken as prophetic as well.
-Dany gets to King's Landing and it is in ruins. By either her hand or before she gets there. And when she stares at the throne, maybe she is looking at something we didn't get to see? Herself, lil Aegon,or Robb in his wolf head...
-Maybe she dies at the wall. That's how she gets to see Drogo and her son.

I agree with the podcast with the Jon/Quorin story. The only way they could fix it is if Jon has a flashback where they discuss the plans to off Quorin. Kinda cheap but it needs addressed.

AGREED. That was one of the better podcasts you guys have done. I'm definitely gonna listen to that one again.

A few quick responses. Rapid fire.

- It was said that the King's Guardsmen were a bit indistinguishable. I don't think so. Ser Meryn Trant was all over the end of Season 1 and in Season 2. He's Joffrey's top henchmen. "Ser Meryn, make sure he drinks his fill>" was when Joffrey ordered him to pour wine down Ser Brothune's gullet. Ser Meryn also slapped Sansa around twice; in front of her father's head, and then again during the clothes ripping scene where Tyrion saves her. Tyrion also tries to order Meryn to rescue Sansa when the mob attacks and she's lost, but he says something like "I only take orders from the king." And finally, Meryn is the one who slashes Tyrion across the face in the Blackwater. So he was a henchmen whose death I was rooting for ever since I noticed him surviving his Syrio encounter. I'm surprised you guys didn't notice him. But then again, he jumped on my radar during Season 1 (when I hadn't read the books yet) and I was trying to decipher whether or not Syrio made it out alive. I noticed Ser Meryn front and center of the Kingsguard after the Syrio fight and despaired. There will have to be a good explanation if indeed, Syrio is still alive. Cause it doesn't look good.

- I agree wholeheartedly with the Jon/Quorin issues. For me, Dany's dilemma of whether or not to walk into the flames is the climactic dilemma of Book 1. Whereas, Jon's dilemma of whether or not to kill Quorin upon his "orders" and whether or not to go into spy mode with the wildlings - that's the climactic dilemma of Book 2. So although, as I reader, I understood Jon's motivations there. I perhaps over-read into the scenes where Quorin brief talks about the Wildlings methods for killing captured Nightswatchmen - how Quorin gets Ygritte to say that if he were captured, they'd likely kill him "slow,"... AND THEN the very brief Quorin conspiring with Jon about how he'll have to go all "covert ops" if he wants to survive this ordeal, before pushing him down the slope and making a show of their issues. Does he provoke Jon with all of his sensitivities? Sure. Does he cut to the core of Jon's rage and get him to kill him? Sure. But the question remains, did Jon understand Quorin's "orders?" Did Jon understand that Quorin would likely be tortured and given a slow death by the wildlings if he didn't kill him? I'd like to believe so. Then again, I agree with the podcast. Characterizing and crystallizing this dilemma was botched by the filmmakers and I'm very upset about it. I really wish they made things abundantly clear to the viewers so that they could enjoy Jon's dilemma on the show as much as I did in the books.

- I love the way they pulled off the Winterfell takeover. I have many friends, show only viewers and some of the more savvy smart people I know, whose heads were swimming with all of the new characters introduced this season. So if they were befuddled, and had to resort to rewatching the episodes many times, or consulting the HBO character guides in order to get all of the players straight in their minds, then I imagine David and Dan did the right thing NOT to bring in ALL of the ACOK characters in now. If you know that Book 3 will span 2 seasons, then you can save many of those introductions for a later date. So I'm thrilled that the Reeds, the Tully's, Ramsay, etc... will be joining the cast come Season 3, and I understand the need to condense even more minor roles like Chataya into other already established characters, even if that means more Ros, whose boobies in episode 10 made me happy once again. Stop knocking Ros so much!!!

-Ros is the hype girl!!! She's the Flava-Flave of Westeros. Whenever David and Dan need a character to round out and puff out their chest, they can talk to Ros after sex and boast about themselves. We got some much needed Theon exposition, some much needed Littlefinger backstory, and an ominous Varys scene in this last episode that I think serve the plot well in the show. And don't forget, it's how we meet Tyrion, which I thought was a perfect intro. Without those scenes, how could you have gotten to know all these characters? Yes, the scenes could have been less sexually explicit. Yes, they could have been more creative with how the exposition played into things. But "men like to talk when they are happy." It's the truth. Ros gets these guys to talk quite a bit. She does have a role to play here. Without the POV chapters, which much of would translate cinematically as the dreaded use of Voice-Over narration, you must dramatize all that necessary backstory in other ways. So I cannot hate on the Ros character method of hyping up all these characters. Especially when those boobies come onscreen. TEAM ROS!!

- Finally, I'm a little aggravated by the final moments of Season 2 as well. I really wish the wights weren't so clearly - Zombies. Maybe I'm misremembering the books, but I liked the blue eyed, seemingly aware wight that was attacking Jon Snow in Season 1, and trying to kill Lord Commander Mormont. A blue eyed army, still undead, but maneuvering like a regular army would have been preferable. I really wish the White Walkers didn't have to cowboy them around and lead them like cattle to the Fist of the First Men. They'd be much scarier to me if they moved more like an army of somewhat cogent, Season 1 wights. Blue eyed and frozen would've been enough for me. Instead we got zombies, and my same friends were kind of pissed about that.

- That being said. Those White Walkers were awesome up close!!! Sam's stare down was absolutely terrifying.

Another awesome podcast. I love these things! Amin, Kyle, Ashley(!), Great Job, again!