re: Game of Thrones S3:E10 "Mhysa" Hodors Beware, SPOILERS INSIDE

I thought it was a very decent finale. some thoughts..

- I didn't have anywhere as big a problem w/the Dany crowd mosh ending. Yes, a little cheesy, but they just showed the Lannisters basically conquering Westeros, so they ended with a counterpoint: Dany's rising star. which is the directions the books go in anyway, gearing up for a Lanister/Targaryon throwdown (be it Dany or Aegon).

- Am I wrong, or did they shift the emphasis of Stanis' decision to go to the wall. My recollection of the book is that it emphasized his personal integrity by having him choose to forestall his personal conquest of Westeros in favor of going North to save the entire realm. The way it palyed last night, Stanis is basically pushed into doing it by Meisandre and Davos.

- Arya's looking at the coin and saying "Valor Marghulis" doesn't do anything, does it? Doesn't she need to give it to a Bravos guy?

- The Shae/Varys scene was completely new, right? Interesting in that it propagates the notion that Shae is utterly devoted to Tyrion, when she will ultimately betray him, right? So why did the writers feel the need to prop up the idea that she truly loves him?

- I'm fuzzy on what Asha/Yara does in the book. Does she go all the way back to the Iron Islands, and then back again to rescue Theon? Or did she not return to the Iron Islands until after Balon died, and then we got the Kingsmoot?

- Every scene with Tywin in it was spectacular, from Tywin/Joff to Tywin /Tyrion. They're especially setting up Tyrion's patricide very nicely.

All in all, a solid season - hope they can keep this up. I'm hoping we get 2 season per book, so that we're done w/book 5 through s8, and then s9&10 are book 6. Hopefully by then there's an outside shot that book 7 is close to done? (not holding my breath).