Am I right in thinking y'all were worried the HBO show might cut out the Whispering Wood battle, but keep Robb's crowning? Or move WW to Season 2?

It was hard to tell if this was a "shocking lack of knowledge" moment or if you thought the show would invert the order of what happened. I think they'll keep them both, but the battle will be greatly truncated. You figure episode 9 has Ned's death, and likely the last (significant) appearance of Arya, Varys, Littlefinger, and the queen.

Episode 10 has to handle: the Whispering Wood (they can swap that out in order with the beheading, I think) + Jaime's capture + Robb/Cat find out about Ned + Tywin finds out about Jaime and sends Tyrion to KL + shenanigans at the Wall + zombie Drogo smothered by Dany + Joffery is a dick to Sansa + ending montage of Robb being crowned/Birth of dragons

It's crowded, but I think it's doable (and necessary, I think).

Agreed. Robb's bit of sneakiness with the spy pretty much has to pay off with the Whispering Wood. Even the Tyrion/Cat exchange ("You said you were taking me back to Winterfell"/"I did, often and loudly") works as set-up for the WW, thematically.

I think they might cut Cat and Robb arguing about Jaime, though. We might get a nice reaction shot of Cat's transparent misgivings, but with such a packed, fast moving climax I'd be surprised if they gave it real screen time. Jaime's in the dungeon for all of Season 2, they've got time to tread that ground.

There are no Tullys cast for season one. No Riverlords means no "The King in the North!" this season. Right?

I suppose they could do it with the Greatjon and the other Northmen, and deal with the Riverlords in Season 2. Those guys are total strangers to us anyway. They can fight the battle, capture Jaime, but not actually take us inside Riverrun at all until Season 2.

No way. Did we know about Chella's casting? The only Riverlord that has to even be a decent actor is Edmure (and Walder Frey, who isn't in that scene).

Agree. They're just gonna sneak around the major castings. Having any more characters in the first season would have been pretty ridiculous. And they absolutely will King in the North. Itll be the Greatjon, and a group of unknowns.

Agree. I think that is why they had the Greatjon throw out the line about the old Kings in the North repelling armies in the past, to remind the tv audience that the north used to be ruled by the Starks.

This.

And you can bet there will be talk of Kings in the North next episode somewhere.

Wretch... I guess this is probable but I sorta kinfa hate it.

Yeah me too. But I'd rather have that so we can have some serious castings for the major characters.

Exactly. But I feel like the Riverlords (including Edmure) are roles that are hard to cast for 1 or 2 episodes in season one, before it even airs, because those characters will be so much huger for season 2. So it's hard to get a great actor for those "important...later" roles while there was a huge amount of uncertainty of how far the series would go. Luckily, the creators did great with Tywin and Kevan (who are recognizable actors in smallish roles), but I get why they wouldn't want to rush in with Hoster and Edmure and Brydon as well.

It's an understandable sacrifice. They know they have to get in "King in the North" to close the season, though. It's such a great cliffhanger and such a gamechanger that there's no way they'd pass it up as a hook for Season 2.

I now think that the battle will make it into this season. They moved along at a rapid pace last episode, it can definitely be fit in. I can't wait to see Tywin's face when he finds out the wolf has outwitted the lion.