On "what the hell have you been up to?" - An A to Z post

It's been - several - months since I've posted here. I always have these great plans about writing here, and then life finds a way to distract. So, as part recap of 2014, part what I'm looking forward to in 2015, part journal, part whatever I feel like calling it, I'm posting an A to Z list. We shall call it the What the Hell Have You Been Up To? Or WtHHYBUT? for short.

Arrow
I will be the first to admit that when I heard that Arrow was going to be on CW my first thought was "teeny bopper drama, NEXT." But something (I honestly don't remember what) got me to sit through a few episodes, which turned into binge-watching seasons 1 and 2 and watching season 3 now live.  This is good stuff. They made him a little Batman-ish, but that's not so bad.

Brandon Sanderson
I try to write sometimes. And then I read Brandon Sanderson and feel a complete and utter failure. Man, this guy is good. I was behind so I read both The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance this year (as well as his YA books). Just read his books. All of them. Any of them. But particularly the Starlight Archives books.

Cinemas
Quiet year for the movies for me.  Seen a good number. Just nothing I feel worth talking about too much. Good movies were generally the ones you'd expect from me. The Hobbit, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America. I suppose John Wick was an unexpected surprise of a good, fun movie.

Dungeons & Dragons
Nerd card admission time. This is the first time I've ever played D&D. Just never seemed like it would be my thing. A friend in town wanted to start a new game and asked if I'd like to join and I finally just said "why not?" So. Much. Fun. And an excuse to write. I think I've written around 30 pages of backstory for my character. Dwarf Fighter incase you were wondering. And yes, my first act was to go to the bar and get a drink.

Expanse
This gets two nods. 1) Cibola Burn came out (book... number...  four?). And it was one of the best of the series in my opinion. And 2) the TV show starts in 2015 on SyFy. Trailer is out now. Go look it up. Then sit and wait as impatiently as I am.

FOOTBALL!!!!
It needs to be said that way.  Got a few Ravens games on TV up here (I don't live in Baltimore). And they made it to the playoffs, only to lose to Evil Little Bill (as GRRM calls him) and the Pats. /grumble.

Game of Thrones
Continues to be on TV. I continue to watch it. And continue to wait while GRRM does everything but write the next book. I'm not buying that coffee table book. No way I'm supporting him stalling the next book even longer.  I'll think about it after Winds of Winter comes out though. I like big coffee table books.

Hunger Games
I was not a huge fan of the books. Just. Not. Thought the first one was ok. But from there, meh. Not that it was awful. Just wasn't for me. But the movie was good. And then the second movie was really good. I know the first part of the third movie (why do we keep splitting third movies into two?) is out, but I haven't seen it yet.  Looking forward to it though.

I should probably have used H to talk about The Hobbit. Oops.

Joe Abercrombie
Binge-read the First Law books. I don't know why I was so reluctant to read them. I had heard countless recommendations for him. Was already following him on Twitter. Just never felt the urge to pick up the books.  Did. Loved them. Third was my favorite, so worth sticking it out if you haven't read all of them.

Keep moving.

Lawrence, Mark
If I want to cheat and use last names for some and first names for others, I can. It's my blog. Bugger off. No, don't do that. I'm sorry.  Keep reading. (Deckard Cain voice) Stay awhile and listen. So, this was a year of Mark Lawrence. I was rather far behind with his books and read all four in 2014. Prince, King & Emperor of Thorns. Prince of Fools. All good stuff. Thorns if you like the bad guy anti-hero type. Fools if you like the humorous anti-hero type. And the next Fools book is out in 2015, so there's that to look forward to.  Pretty sure I reviewed the Thorns books on here. Not sure I did Fools. SO. FAR. BEHIND. on book reviewing.

Marvel
Yeah. Insert something Marvel did here.  Awesome.  Next.

Netflix
Binge watching TV shows? Check. Weird movies I'd never go to theaters to see? Check. Wasting huge chucks of time in front of the television? Why not? I watched Troll Hunter. Yeah. I don't think I can say anything else. I might be a TV addict. And it'll be worse in April with Daredevil (see M), Game of Thrones, ... ... ...

On to the next one.

Puppy
Got a puppy.  Forgot how much work they are. But he's cute. And he's definitely not a Schnoodle. He's a Giant Schnauzer mix. What's he mixed with? A Standard Poodle. So, a Schnoodle? No. Be quiet you. Maybe a Giant Schnoodle. Speaking of... time to walk said pooch.

Q-Bert
Just because.

Rothfuss, Patrick
While we wait for the third book of the Kingkiller Chronicles. And wait. And wait. And wait. *Looks at watch* Still waiting. Pat has released The Slow Regard of Silent Things. I'm not sure I need to mention this here. The book has been getting much praise. And for good reason. However, it's not for everyone. I just happen to like the playful language. Plot people shouldn't go for it.

Study
So, I am going to take my PMP (Project Management Professional) in 2015 (goal is for June, but we will see). How not bloggy for me to talk about work stuff.  This is supposed to be my escape.  Oh well. So, once I get studying for that you'll likely get some radio silence from me (again). But the bills must be paid, so...  yeah.

Twitter
Jumped on the Twitter thing. Don't use it too often. Follow / reply to people more than I post my own thoughts. Do put up some random comments or word counts or playing with the trending stuff. So, some activity. I use the Twitter under @DougCFisher. Think it might be time to remove the Szever name from this and just call it like it is.  Hi, I'm Doug. And I'm outta heeeeeere.  Maybe someone will get that.  Maybe Szever sticks around and the Doug name gets buried with this post.  We shall see.

U2
2014. The year that U2 clogged our iDevices. Listened to it once. Yup. That's it. I think they apologized for that afterwards.

VNV Nation
A new album out for VNV. Transnational. Typical VNV album. Two or three really strong songs...  Retaliate...  Awesome. Then the rest on the slower end. Not that slow = bad. But, I just love a nice strong beat.

Writing
Very, very, very slowly. Currently at 9,100 words though and the story has barely begun, so shaping up to be something big.

X-Men
Ok, so I saw the latest X-Men installment.  Meh. What I'm really looking forward to are X-Force and Deadpool. Thank you, Fox for FINALLY getting Deadpool going. Took long enough.

Yo Gabba Gabba
Kids are now 5 and 2 (almost 3). I think I've seen every episode of Yo Gabba Gabba 100 times over.  Been watching it since the older one was an infant.  Still going.

Z...  zebras? zoo? zodiac? zero... ZERO!  I got nothing for Z.

Now I know my A, B, C's...

On True Blood and Escalation

Spoiler for the end of True Blood season 6 in here somewhere (let's put something right here).

Suppose that will help with my female audience.

With the end of the sixth season of True Blood, I wanted to take some time to reflect on the season and the series as a whole.  I should start out by restating I have not read any of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, so this post will avoid my trend of "but in the book..."QQing.  

The True Blood series went to the George R.R. Martin school of escalation.  In the beginning you take a story that is mostly grounded in some form of reality - with some *slight* twists - and over the course of many seasons or books or what have you, the amount of "magic" that exists in the world escalates.  In Game of Thrones (book one of ASoIaF), we barely get a taste of white walkers, the dire wolves are just pups, and dragons don't appear until the very end of the book/season.  As the story moves forward we get the addition of dragons, warging, giants, white walkers, red priests, etc.  So, how did True Blood follow this path?

Season One:  Yes, there are vampires, and yes Sookie is a telepath, but the story is really about Rene.  Push comes to shove, season one is a human season.

Season Two:  Eric and Godric, the anti-vampire church, Bill and Sookie - Season two really focuses in on the vampire aspect of the True Blood universe.

Season Three:  Werewolves.

Season Four:  Witches.

Season Five:  Back to vampires, but now we have a developed vampire Authority.

Season Six:  Vampire God.  Faerie Vampire.  Fae.  

Which leads the show to where it's heading: Season seven - the aftermath of the release of hepatitis V.  Did this setup not look like True Blood jumping on the zombie bandwagon?  

Pitcher:  We want zombies in next season.

Executive:  I don't know.  There's a lot shows with zombies in them these days.

Pitcher:  Wait.  I got it.  Vampire zombies.

Executive:  Shit, now we're talking.  Go on.

The problem with this escalation - if it's not done carefully it can come across as over-the-top.  GRRM was very careful not to slap the reader in the face with the fantastic elements of his universe.  He made the story about his characters.  The "magic" becomes a tool to further those characters' stories.  True Blood I think has a tendency to cross that line into the camp-zone with all the sub-plots.  There can no longer be simple human sub-plots in the True Blood universe.  No, there needs to be witches, fire/smoke demons, shifters, voodoo masters, were-leopards, gods, clairvoyance, fae, mediums, ghosts, etc. etc. etc.  All of this is on top of the extreme personality humans in the anti-vampire church/government.  

What True Blood does though, is keep at least one story-line interesting.  Ok, so Sam's girlfriend dies, and here's another chick, and now she's pregnant, and there's werewolves out to get them, but not this one werewolf, and who cares anymore?  But, systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored, persecution and murder of vampires in small-town Louisiana; that's interesting.  There's always that one element within the overarching season that keeps me coming back.  I'll expect the vampire-zombie apocalypse to be no different.  

On the Aftermath

I continue to be speechless.  More than that.  I continue to have an utter lack of motivation to think about how to avoid being speechless.  More than that.  I continue to lack the motivation to do much of anything requiring voluntary use of brain function (hence the dry spell in posts).  I wanted the Game of Thrones season to end well.  There is ample excitable material in the remainder of book three for the writers to have chosen from.  Fail.  The wait for season four feels less urgent now.  Not sure that's a good thing.  Sati over at Cinematic Corner was better able to convey the disappointment adeptly than I am capable of at the moment.  I am struggling to put grammatically correct sentences together.  How I feel when the thought of "maybe it will be better the second viewing" comes to mind...

Behind on my movie-going (still haven't seen Iron Man - *hangs comic book nerd head in shame*) and now the reviews for Superman are abysmal.  Our AMC Stubs plan is up for renewal, which means it's time to determine if we have the babysitting capacity and energy to see the six movies it takes to have the plan pay for itself in reduced fees.  I would hope we could manage six in a year.  I have a feeling my next movie may end up being Monsters U. for CrabCakes first movie theater experience.  I fear the experience may result in something like...

Only about 10% into Abaddon's Gate by James S.A. Corey (book three of The Expanse series).  I'm typically not a huge sci-fi book person (or is it SyFy these days?), but this series reads like an action movie.  I am looking forward to continuing the series, but note the motivational piece in paragraph one.

To make matters worse, another round of "The Cold" has taken residence in the household.  

Posts should pick up again as TV brings a few shows I've been looking forward to.

 Dexter series finale (should have ended with the John Lithgow season) and adaptation of Stephen King's Under the Dome.

Until then, I've been piecing together (had been before this length of the doldrums) what to use for rating purposes when the motivation to consume and review movies, tv and books comes back.  Nothing finalized yet, but I think this is fitting for the GoT season finale.

On Deceleration

Spoiler: Discussion (rant) on Game of Thrones season three finale.

Season finales typically follow one of a few basic structures; and generally there is a build to a cliff-hanger or a slow-down to a moment of catharsis.  There is merit to either structure (there is merit to any structure if the writing / acting / etc. is done well).  Game of Thrones decided to do a gradual deceleration after hammering the audience with what is being described as one of the top 10 most shocking moments on TV (listed by NY Daily News at #2 behind an episode of Maude (in which Bea Arthur's character has an abortion - aired in 1972).  The list also includes Downton Abbey and a bunch of other old timey shows before my generation - so maybe not the best reference). 

Mhysa started strong with the fallout of The Red Wedding.  The Stark bannermen camps on fire as The King in the North makes his last ride.  However, the conversation between Walder Frey and Roose Bolton was a bit contrived, a bit over-the-top.  The commentary is meant to be sarcastic and sharp and demeaning, but it comes across as slightly cartoonish, but  at least now "the Boy" has a name.

Ramsay has not been portrayed as I had imagined him when I read the books (this is not entirely bad, as I am also happy with TV Ramsay).  Part of it is aesthetics (I had pictured him as Michael Wincott from The Crow), but it's also mannerisms and diction.  And much like Ygritte has a bit of a tag line ("you know nothing, Jon Snuh"), Theon Greyjoy is given his own.  The culmination of the scene upon scene upon scene of torture for Theon has finally lead to his naming - Reek ("my name is reek, it rhymes with...").  We don't get the full spiel, but we get a Reek.  Perhaps next season will start with Reek being more Reek-y.

When, after sitting in silence as the credits rolled and trying to tell my body it needs to do things like breath, the preview for Mhysa showed we would have a Greyjoy scene in the episode, I had imagined there would be a bridge in Pyke involved.  I am fond of Asha Greyjoy, and Yara (her TV show counterpart) is played a little too seriously for my taste.  Here is where I want my over-the-topness.  The ironborn are pirates. 

But we do get a new storyline.  Yara is taking the toughest men and the fastest ship and she's going to save her little brother.  Ok.  Pillage away.  Maybe the scene is designed as a setup to give the Theon story-line some more weight, but if things progress as written there should be a Queensmoot soon (if you haven't read on in ASoIaF just skip that sentence and don't look into it...  slightly spoilery).

Back at the Red Keep, Joffrey is being Joffrey and we have a council meeting on the aftermath of the RW.  Any scene including a) Tyrion, b) Tywin, or c) Olenna (I'll throw a d) Varys on there, but that's less reliable than the first three) is bound to be witty and wonderful.  Having the joint scenes of Tywin and Tyrion have been remarkably humerous.  "You just sent the most powerful man in Westeros to bed without his supper."

HODOR! (HODOR...Hodor...hodor...hod).

Davos comes on screen and the episode hits the brakes.  The dialogue slows, the action ceases.  Backstorybackstorybackstory.  Sentencing the onion knight to death should elicit something, no?  I enjoy Davos' POV in the novels.  I feel tired at the Dragonstone scenes now.  Things should pick up again when they go North - and that's really all the scene was about.

Jon Snow used to be an adventurer like you.  Then he took an arrow in the knee.  The scene with Ygritte should have been included in his escape last episode. 

Elsewhere with the Nightswatch, Jon Snow falls off his horse.  "Sam?"

I can't be the only one who couldn't get whiney Frodo out of his head with that.  As a side note the LionEyes edition of Lord of the Rings is fantastic and can be accomplished in two simple steps.  Step 1) play Lord of the Rings.  Step 2) if Frodo is on screen skip to the next scene. 

Jaime is back in the Red Keep for some walking and staring (hey, Jaime, long time no see, let me shake your...  ohhh...), and Dany has slaves (well, she has no slaves, but she has slaves). 

I should have more to say.  The ending should have felt cathartic.  It should have felt like something was being accomplished, and watch out next season because this changes everything (season 1 - dragons, season 2 - white walkers, season 3 - mommy!).  But the end was underwhelming and instead of "oh, man is it next March yet?" I feel more "what else is on now?" (not to say I'm not going to start getting excited as casting news and plot rumors and March comes).  The problem with the deceleration is that if you hit the brakes too hard, the vehicle stops.

On Expectations

Spoiler: Must have read book three of A Song of Ice and Fire and/or watched Game of Thrones episode nine "The Rains of Castamere"to proceed.

Billy Idol (who knows a thing or two about weddings, but had the color wrong on his 1982 hit) was one of two things running through my head throughout the weekend, leading up to Sunday night's "shocker" episode of Game of Thrones (his facial expression above is apt for this post methinks).  No surprise the other was "The Rains of Castamere" in a low baritone (I imagine it as sung by Leonard Cohen - Listen to "Waiting for the Miracle" on the Natural Born Killers soundtrack...  go ahead, I'll wait).  

WinterIsComing.net created two versions of recaps of the episodes; one for those who have not yet read the books (those who have not read the books are aptly called "the Unsullied"), and one for those who have read the books ("Sullied").  I would fit into the latter category, thus explaining the quotes around the word "shocker."  There was little doubt the episode would contain the long-awaited "Red Wedding." In each season, episode nine contains the "big reveal" of the season (Ned's head, Blackwater), and season three is no different (will Season four wait until episode nine to off @)(#*()32@#?  (doubt it).  

As a Sullied individual, I went into this episode with certain expectations.  This was derived from the gut-wrenching impact the Red Wedding had upon the first reading (even that first line of the chapter, "The drums were pounding, pounding, pounding, and her head with them" elicits such uneasiness).  I expected to be brought on the emotional roller coaster of anticipation, dread, shock, and sadness.  As I've mentioned earlier, I am prone to outbursts of book snobbery, but accept certain changes as necessary for the change in medium.  There were a lot of changes in this episode.  

So, did "The Rains of Castamere" deliver?

At the beginning of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Ace is delivering a package disguised as an H.D.S. delivery man.  This of course is an elaborate ruse to rescue (dog-nap) a pilfered pooch (we don't learn that until later...  which is mostly after my point - yes, I promise there is one of those in here somewhere).  So, he's carrying the package, like a delivery-person is apt to do, by more or less destroying the package and it's contents (I think Ace delivered the swing set I ordered for CrabCakes and Peanut based on the difficulty to assemble said set...  but that's a story for another time).  However, upon delivery, the box is intact enough for acceptance - and here is where the woofy wackiness ensues.

Game of Thrones was like the delivered package.  The box was damaged and everything inside was shifted or broken and not exactly in the order I was expecting things to be, but the overall contents of my order were present.  This is not painting the best of pictures, so before going further I will state that I did enjoy the episode.

One of the most controversial changes in the series was the replacement of Jeyne with Talisa, a character with a background and feelings.  This change became most prevalent at the RW, wherein Talisa was present (Jeyne did not attend the wedding - leading many to speculate that Jeyne is carrying a wolf pup who could later sit the Iron Throne).  But Talisa attended the wedding, with the proverbial bun in the oven, and it is with Talisa that the massacre begins (stabbed in the baby - who was potentially to be named Ned Stark, repeatedly - and Ned Stark is killed again!).  There were theories that Talisa was a Lannister spy and would wind up as a conspirator in the RW.  Reading that theory, even though I didn't really believe it, made this scene all the more hurtful. 

The massacre continues as in the book; crossbow bolts, knives, "the Lannisters send their regards" (though it was "Jaime Lannister sends his regards" in the book).  Jinglebells or whatever Frey's lackwit son was called is replaced with Walder's wife - acceptable; one less minor casting decision/explanation needed - throats are slit.  Cat's reaction changes from mania (in the book, concerned about her hair as Ned loved her hair) to catatonia (stillness done well can show loss of all hope - and Michelle Fairley ran the emotional gauntlet through the affair). 

So, there was one band that played well and not a ton of terrible musicians (because they were really marksmen), and The Rains of Castamere is played clearly, not mixed in with the rabble, and Robb died for love - not honor like his father, and maybe the affair was a little rushed - there's a lot of other story lines to get to!  The RW wasn't perfect - but will the portrayal in a new medium ever meet the expectations you create when the entire scene is visualized your own way, as happens when you read it?  So, the packaged wedding was a little dinged up, maybe a piece or two broke, but everything was there.  And as the silence of the credits rolled, I still had that gut-wrenched feeling of FUCK (wonder if that's the first curse I've written on this - quite possible - and it fits).



On Aches and Pains

When my body is attacked by the microbial nuisance that is the common cold I tend to exaggerate the feeling; the minuteness of the inconvenience seeming to be the end of all that is holy and good.  

In order to make oneself feel better about this hyperbole one just needs to think on a larger scale.

An alien race planning to take over the Earth for millions of years are moments away from pulling it off before being thwarted by the common bacteria we encounter on a daily basis.  Small things can have devastating effects.  

The last few days has been filled with allergies, doctor visits (Munchkin will henceforth before referred to as CrabCakes - or maybe CC for short - after said doctor associated CC's irritability and crabbiness to her Celiac disease - so we therefore can do nothing about it!), and a lot of coughing (both associated with the aforementioned allergies as well as some form of cold that has taken residence within the Szever household).  

Having caught up on Dexter (I haven't decided if there will be more on that another time or if I will just wait until during/after the next (and final) season to discuss) and not caring about watching True Blood (which LE has started) has made it easier to get back to reading. 

But GoT is on tonight, so no progress in The Blinding Knife will be made today (currently at 328 / 727).  

I expect the remaining hours of the day/night will progressively worsen in the feelings department as the microscopic invading army sets up shop throughout my inner-machinery.  I will find comfort in (mostly) mindless television watching, maybe a hot bowl of something (must research if any Chinese restaurants in the area have a Gluten-Free menu), or perhaps a goblet of some liquid fire to warm the soul raised to health.  

Coming Soon:

• Perhaps further discussion on Game of Thrones after taking time to absorb tonight's episode (so far this seems a cross journal/GoT blog...  Need to fix that!)
• A project other dorks/nerds/geeks can relate to...  figuring out what to do with the vortex of wires created from housing electronics in one space (must be a child friendly solution!)

On the 22 Degree Halo

The 22 degree halo is an optical phenomenon caused by sunlight refraction in tiny hexagonal ice crystals within a thin layer of cirrostratus haze.  Easily explained and yet it is something to behold. 

    Photo taken on my iPhone outside my workplace.

Robb: One time she told me the sky is blue because we live in the eye of a blue-eyed giant named Macumba.

Bran:  Maybe we do.

On Book Snobbery

Warning: Anything I discuss (be it books, movies, tv shows, etc.) may or may not contain spoilers and I may or may not mention the potential spoilers before/during a post.  

This seems to be the running screenshot used for discussing "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" episode of Game of Thrones (aired 05/12/13).

Roar.

I have read all of the published books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, and LE made a comment as we watched GoT that got me thinking about book snobbery - which I admittedly take part in. 

It's a rare occasion that I see "the movie" before reading "the book" (picture those as air-quotes) - and yes, I'm prone to outbursts of "the book was better" (not counting you, American Psycho).  So, I will watch Game of Thrones and contemplate the changes in story or character, understanding some of the reasonings behind the changes from canon, other times scratching my head, and other other times not even realizing there was a change at all until reading about it later on WinterisComing.net or the like.  But for the most part, I am willing to drop the "book purist" mode and allow things to flow.

But I digress.

I'll give you your warning this time: if you haven't read the books, SPOILER.

The Robb/Talisa scene comes on and we all watch as the couple continues to fall deeper and deeper into their doomed love, and now with news of a wolf pup on the way we get fed sensations of love and pride and anticipation (separate storyline, but what was it The Boy said to Theon?..  "if you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention").  LE looks over at me, blank, "it's hard to care knowing it won't matter soon." (that's likely paraphrased more than quoted - as a reader/writer you'd think I'd remember dialogue better, but I was also watching the show and unless I really dislike something, I am prone to tune the rest of the world out).  But she means more than "care" here.  It's hard to even pay attention.  Who cares about his discussions, battle plans, love life, family matters, etc. when the Red Wedding is at most three episodes away?  Let's get Arya's storyline moving!



Which takes us to the point of this post; maybe it would have been better to not have read the books first (in this case).  Part of me envies the "non-book reader" reviewers out there that are living in the moment of the show, trying to piece together how it will all work out (I look forward more to reading as they try to decipher the complex puzzle GRRM has laid out - vicariously living through that blank slate view of the GoT world, than I do the other reviewes of those who also know what's coming).  Not having read the book, how much more surprising would it have been to see Sean Bean's head taken off at the end of Season 1?..  Ok, Sean Bean dying is a bad example. 

I suppose in the end it is a matter of preference.  One way or another you will be spoiled.  So, which is worse, reading first and knowing how things are "supposed to" go or watching first and having character images, plot, etc. potentially spoiled and then having additional details filled in with the reading (I mean, the show just doesn't give me the details I need about Tywin Lannister's breakfast choices)? 

I will fess up and admit that I watched Season 1 before reading the book (that'll be 50 DKP minus, for me), and in the end I was not concerned about having the character images ingrained in me as Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage, etc. etc. because the show did (and continues to do) a fantastic job in the casting department (I also watched Silence of the Lambs before reading it, and why would I want to picture Hannibal Lecter as anyone but Anthony Hopkins?). 

But there's some form of dork power in reading the book first - in knowing that in front of Cersei is a creamy chestnut soup, crusty hot bread, and greens dressed with apples and pine nuts - bickering over the show's use of Gendry instead of Edric Storm - QQing over the omission of Renly's peaches. 

My personal preference will likely always remain that I'd rather read the book first, and in doing so I accept that the show is manipulating me in adding more details of Robb and Talisa's relationship so I care more about him before "The Rains of Castamere" is playing at Edmure's wedding.  I'll admit a certain lack of caring about storylines in knowing the outcome, but revel in seeing something I enjoyed reading so much transformed in a new (and let's face it, more mainstream) medium. 

What I liked: I am a sucker for witty dialogue and Tywin stole the show belittling Joffrey.

What I disliked: The eight hour march of the Yunkai delegate through the underwhelming Unsullied (LE wants the Unsullied to be CGI copies of The Rock - or maybe the members of 300...  and I can't say I disagree).  At least her dialogue with the slaver was amusing and furthered Daenerys away from the Shinji-esque (Neon Genesis: Evangelion reference) whiney little girl (if I have to hear her little voice cry "I will take what's mine with fire and blood" one more time...)