I can understand the people talking about the "letdown" of Season 2. Other than Renley's death, there haven't been too many, "Oh shit!" moments on the scale of Ned's beheading or Visery's crown of gold. That doesn't mean Season 2 has been bad or that Book 2 is bad, it just doesn't hold quite the same surprising twists that 1 did. The books are the same way. Season 3 will return to the insanity, though.

Yeah, book two as a whole is largely setup. They've done a fantastic job at getting all the pieces in place this season, though, and from the preview, I'm really excited about the finale next weekend.

I enjoyed last night's episode in particular, because I thought it would be very difficult to balance the events between the battle and the women, but Martin did a fantastic job I thought. The pacing was excellent (the hour flew by for me) and the episode never got bogged down with Cersei's speechifying. And the battle itself was everything that the tournament and battle last season were not. All the fans of gore porn should be satisfied for a while now I'd say.

I just finished the episode, and I'm shocked anyone has a negative word to say about it. Tyrion, The Hound, Cersei, the battle.....just a fabulous episode. The Hound just opened up an entirely new character favorite angle for me. Bronn sending the one flaming arrow into the bay was just outstanding work (how could you say this wasn't tense?). I find myself so terribly disappointed that there's only one left this season. I don't think I'll be able to hold out from reading the books at this point. I have to know what happens.

The Descent is awesome.

Last night was good, not as amazing as some in this thread are wanting it to be but still worth the watch.

If someone who has watched the first two seasons of the show wanted to start reading the books, could said person start with book three, or would said person be totally lost.

You'd probably be fine, although there's something to be said for reading the first two books.

What is better on TV right now? (and please don't say Meh Men)

Nothing, in my opinion. The sad part is that a week from now we'll be waiting for it to come back next April.

This season (and this year in general) has just flown by.

The wildfire explosion cost them a solid $7 million!!
It was worth it!! Best CG explosion on TV ever!

Naw man it was boring and predictable. Show is ok and still needs more exposions!!/ADD asswipes

You son of a!!

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4...40gyo1_400.gif

Nothing, and I will definitely miss the show after this season ends. But that doesn't change my opinion that this season was kind of boring and certainly not as good as the first season. Just my opinion.

I haven't read the books, but it feels like the events of this season could have been done in about five episodes instead of ten.

So did I miss the reason why the King's representative on the battlefield tried to take out Tyrion?

I do feel that way about the Jon Snow and Caleesi storylines, but the rest has been outstanding. The Lannisters, Arya, Stannis/Renley, etc. have all been great to follow.