MentalMaden

And if you don't know who Elio is, GRRM will call him to ask questions about characters if he can't remember little details like eye color. He and partner Linda are helping George write the Encylopedia of the series. So I'll yield to his answer here.

I don't think that's true, Mental. If I remember correctly many castles south of the neck still have their weirwoods trees and Godswoods. Riverrun still has theirs if I remember correctly (Cat and a group of northmen go to pray) and there was something about the Eyries I'm trying to remember.

Edit- Ok after further research it seems that what you are thinking of Mental is that there is only one place south of the neck where weirwoods grow. Most castles have godswoods, but they are usually other types of trees and are for more decorative reasons.

Well technically she didn't kill him and my money is on him getting out of it somehow. Given that the vault wasn't really protecting anything, my guess is it's not as invulnerable as he made it out to be. I expect we'll see him again in the slave cities where he tries bribing her with a fleet of ships like the books.

The sack makes sense in the TV world given how they haven't introduced Ramsay yet. My guess is if they had it more like the books it may tip off the Bolton's betrayal too early or just confuse non reader fans. That said I'm a bit disappointed in how they did it. Bonking Theon upside the head "cause they wanted to go home" doesn't seem very Ironborn to me. My guess is we'll see next season that his men conspired with Ramsay's men (ala Robb's promise) that they could go home as long as they gave up Theon and we'll see Ramsay outside Winterfell with Theon in-a-sack ready for his "Reeking". My guess is the @#@&$%#@$&ing horn blowing was all communication with Dagmar and the others.

There was speculation that they would spare Maester Luwin and have him go with Bran and Hodor and have Osha with Rickon. He could use his Maester knowledge of magic (which he does mention his ring for studying it) to explain things. But note I said "kind of surprised". I'd hoped they would introduce the Reeds in 3. And after watching the (almost) full perspective of Season 2 it makes sense to introduce them in 3 anyway as there was just so much going on in 2.

I don't doubt the importance of the Reeds, but also recognize that what knowledge they impart about things could be done in other cost effective ways for television (i.e. another cast member). Now that isn't saying I think it should be done that way, just that it could be. If you look back at previous posts you'll see where I talk about the Reeds. While I don't think the kids are uber important in the grand scheme of things, they are important for exposition and some important insight into Bran's gifts (again something many characters can do). But where I do think the Reeds are important is not what they know, but what their father may know. He is the only person alive that was at the Tower of Joy when Ned went to rescue Lyanna. I believe we'll finally see him in the books and what he'll have to say will be very important to the rest of the story.

And word is he is the sweetest person and the total opposite of the character. Also he's retiring from acting after GoT is over and going out into the civilian world.

I screamed out Podrick! when that happened.

With no spoilers to the non readers, they have put out a new cast list for next season and based on what we've seen so far I think you can expect more awesome coming next year. Some great characters are added to the cast. Can't wait.

Expanding the conversation a bit. This was a breakout episode to really capture just how horrible Cersei and Joffrey (especially compared to their counterparts) are as people. And while Cersei will give reasons for her behavior (protecting her children, etc.) Joffrey is one of the few characters that has zero redeeming qualities. And in a world where characters float somewhere in the most gray of areas its nice to have someone that you can just hate because they are evil.

Yes, I saw one of the video's of an actor reading for Vargo. Most likely they just sent the scene and didn't specify on the lisp.

I have heard that maybe it was too "romantic" of a scene with an actress that is clearly underage at this point and would have been more creepy than effective. Romantic in quotes as he holds a knife to her throat while she sings. I think some viewers would be put off. They got the point of the scene across without making it icky.

(Not necessarily my opinion on the matter, though)

My guess, George wrote it, but something had to be cut and like I said the scene played out the important points.