D-Lyrium

What was the point in tonight's Ortiz segment? It basically went: JB: Why are you here? Ortiz: Not a damn clue bro! Angle: I respect you. This means you and Rampage are both babyfaces because that makes so much sense to nobody. Bully: GENERIC BULLY PROMO #3 FOR NO PARTICULAR REASON! BYE. Tito: What just happened? -end- It was literally the most meaningless 5 minutes of TV I can remember... Oh, and can someone fill me in on the ODB/EY and Jesse/Tara splits? Are Rob Terry, Tara and EY still around? Also, as much as like the guy, what happened with Sabin? I've been 'gone' a while but surely not long enough for a former X-Division champ who wasn't on TV for ages to legit earn a world title shot and win it? The finish to Sabin/Kazarian was obvious, but when Roode came out with the chair I thought he was going to be pissed that he didn't have time to rob Daniels of 10pts. I like my booking better Oh and I hate hate hate heel Tazz on commentary. At least neutral Tazz sometimes attempted to call the match...

Great job. (y) Stickied. I edited in ReaperR's thread to the graphics mod list and added www. to all the links (as for some reason without that I'm not logged in when I click the link. Not sure if that happens to anyone else?). Hope you don't mind.

Yeah, Tenay seems to have lost it. Like, his ability, not his sanity. Although maybe that too. ¬_¬ He quite often just spouts the same thing over and over during matches, and hypes things over and over again to the point of me being bored to tears of hearing about it. I'm sure a large amount of that is TNA management telling him to hype things repeatedly, but much of it seems (to me) to be him running out of stuff to say during matches, to the point where if you're listening to the commentary alone you could be forgiven for forgetting there was a match going on.

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="JGStuart" data-cite="JGStuart" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="34905" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Has anyone done a masked Canadian Patriot character? Like the Masked Patriot but obviously with the Canadian flag instead? If not, could someone try it if they get time? Thanks!</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> There are several Canadian Elemental alts, which is basically the same thing.</p><p> </p><p> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=816811&postcount=390" rel="external nofollow">http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=816811&postcount=390</a></p>

That's the best part about not really 'following' wrestling any more but watching the shows sometimes; stuff that's supposed to be a surprise still actually is.

This was the first show I caught since Joseph Parkes' in-ring 'debut'. Not that that had anything to do with me stopping, just happens to be a memorable landmark. And erm... yeah... Imagine if House built up a rivalry between two doctors over the course of the season, and just as it came to a head, both protagonists were transferred to Seattle and the payoff happened on Grey's Anatomy. That's what TNA are doing here. I'm anti-MMA in pro wrestling in the first place (while they're still active in MMA fights), because it makes no sense, but TNA are taking "making no sense" to a whole new level. Even if they do manage to work a worthwhile storyline around this, it still doesn't account for the fact that their shock ending to a TV show was a guy who isn't a wrestler, who half the crowd had clearly no idea who he was, standing on the stage smirking derpily into a camera, while Rampage Jackson (who most fans have middling-to-little idea who he is) waved his arms about in a nondescript fashion. That's your big climax, TNA? Really? Not to mention that the "Offer you can't refuse" turned out to be MEM saying "We want the exact same match we had a few months ago, but with slightly different particpants, and whoever loses has to be off TV for a bit!" and MEM saying "meh, ok". On the plus side, all the matches were pretty good this week. Although I didn't tune in until Joseph Parkes vs. whoever it was was almost over, so I don't know what I missed. Part of me loves the badass new AJ Styles, while the cynical side of me says he looks like he's from 2003 and has the worst entrance theme ever (which in TNA is a tremendous achievement).

It almost certainly will. I was just covering my ass. ¬_¬

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c297/HeavyMetalJesus/ThePopNetwork.jpghttp://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c297/HeavyMetalJesus/TheClub.jpg Pop! Presents: The Club, Season 3 http://www.urban75.org/photos/newyork/images/beacon-new-york-14.jpg You're greeted by the beaming grin of a ginger-haired man in a casual suit, standing outside what appears to be a disused warehouse in Seattle, Washington, with a graffitied wall and roller shutter door. "Hey. Welcome to Pop! Presents, I'm Seth Koch... heh, be careful how you pronounce that". He smirks, and the camera zooms out to reveal a huge guy in a suit standing next to the door. "There ain't no Goodwill to be found in this part of Seattle! C'mon, I'll show you around. Welcome to The Club!" After The Club's regular television opening sequence is played, set to , a voiceover (provided by Koch) takes over as Seth is seen entering the building - after being patted down by security - and walking down a corridor and past several large multi-use areas. Several of the stars of The Club can be seen making brief (though sometimes humorous or characterful) cameos in the background; Chad Zuma is lifting weights in a corner, while DIAZ is delivering punches to a bag, held by his tag partner Murder One. Travis Stine stares down the camera, flexing as it rushes past him. Exodus Cade is slumped on the floor with a bottle in his hand, rambling on about something to Stevie Vortex, unaware that Vortex has headphones in and is headbanging away, oblivious. "This is The Compound," continues the voiceover, "the privately owned arena we use to contain all the high octane action The Club has to offer. Every Saturday night at 9pm, the arena enters Lockdown state. Under lockdown, The Club is waived any responsibility for anything that happens to any active wrestler under contract. The staff are, in theory, exempt... but that doesn't mean it's not dangerous for us sometimes!" A clip from last season plays, showing Travis Stine piledriving former colour commentator Ford Memphis through his own announce table. "Well, to be honest, he deserved that one. But he has refused to ever work here again. Security at the front door is tight, however; no firearms, explosives or bladed weapons of any kind are allowed into the Compound. The competitors might be insane, but management aren't! Not after what happened last season anyway. The guy on the door - Justice - sees to that." The voiceover finishes explaining the concept just as Seth himself reaches the stage area of the arena proper. "Live" Seth takes over presentation duty again as, in the octagonal ring below him, the members of Project FIGHT (Corbin Trent and Brad Novocaine) are sparring. For what it's worth, Brad has control, trying to lock in an armbar variation as Trent struggles against him. "So here's where the magic happens! The stage and entrance ramp are fairly standard, but as you can see," the camera pans across to show the viewers the ringside area, which, in addition to the eight-sided ring, features a steel-cage-like fence around the perimeter of ringside, topped with barbed wire, "the safety of the fans is paramount, due to the intensity of the action and how close we let 'em get! And that's why we call it The Compound!" We pan out to a wide-angle shot of the arena during a previous event. The match in progress is Sarvesh Dutt against Stevie Vortex, and Vortex has just wowed the three-quarters-full crowd with a tope con hilo which crushes Dutt against the cage wall - but as promised by Koch, leaves the fans unharmed. "So that's the Compound, folks! But what's been happening in it? Well, for the next twenty minutes we're here to tell you just that!" [This will continue in the backstory, but, er, I haven't written that bit yet. ¬_¬] http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c297/HeavyMetalJesus/ThePopNetwork.jpghttp://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c297/HeavyMetalJesus/TheClub.jpg The Club Season 3: Coming soon* to the Pop! Network [* Probably. Maybe. You know what I'm like by now.]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Clabobby" data-cite="Clabobby" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="34866" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>What does everyone consider "too much of a stretch to buy?" when it comes to back story?<p> </p><p> I've got an idea floating in my head about a group (2-4) younger workers banding together and starting a promotion together. It would be a 0/0/0 game for the most part, aside from that group of guys being committed to that particular promotion. Would that be sellable, or too "perfect" of a situation?</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Umm... Omega? <img alt=":p" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/tongue.png.ceb643b2956793497cef30b0e944be28.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"> Hell, even CHIKARA to an extent (Quack was only 26... Pretty sure Reckless Youth is younger than him).</p><p> </p><p> Perfectly possible.</p>

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="shawn michaels 82" data-cite="shawn michaels 82" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="27929" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>(Where's Jen Carpenter's emmy?)</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Locked in a cupboard behind a guardian that will only let her pass if her character stops being a whiny, selfish, entitled bitch with zero redeeming features. ¬_¬</p><p> </p><p> Admittedly I haven't started season 3 yet, but god damn I hate that woman.</p><p> </p><p> The character, that is. I'm sure the actress is lovely. <img alt=":p" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/tongue.png.ceb643b2956793497cef30b0e944be28.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"></p>

I think he meant that nobody seemed to care that it was an edited Cornellverse, rather than nobody seemed to care about the dynasty. I've also done an RIPW-breaks-away dynasty back in 2008, but it didn't last long. ¬_¬ Someone else did a much more successful one, but I forget who.

You know shipshirt and sockpuppet are two different people, right? ¬_¬

A good idea for people who you know are on more than the run of the mill guys of their level (Mark Henry, Big Show, Lesnar) is to leave it blank, start a new game, and then write down what the game gives them, then use an inflated value in the database. These are also good for guys who are in positions of power in a company but not part of the actual power structure in the game. For instance, Shane, Stephanie and Triple H probably all have both of these (if you include the former two in the game), but aren't actually owner or head booker of WWE. In some mods, Linda is in the game as WWE owner and Vince as head booker; giving Vince these would also be a good idea in this case. Great post again though. Also, you mixed up "Semi-Active Wrestler" (which is a role) and "Occasional Wrestler" (which is a push) several times throughout.

My bad, I meant Jazz the second time. ¬_¬

Great post, Derek. I have a queries/suggestions/opinions on it though: Suplexes and powerbombs and such go here too. I've seen mods making Taz out to be a fantastic mat wrestler, which isn't really true. He had fantastic Brawling, not Mat Wrestling, and was certainly not a "technician"! ...HEIDENREICH! Also worth mentioining is that just because Japanese workers tend to drop people on their heads a lot, doesn't mean they have low safety. If anything, they have HIGHER safety. If guys like Kobashi had low safety, Japanese wrestling would've died a long time ago. Literally. ¬_¬ Also, it's not necessarily how likely you are to injure your OPPONENT, but also how likely you are to injure YOURSELF also (hi Randy, how're you doing?) The Undertaker example is a great point. He shouldn't be rated terribly highly or anything, but just because he DOESN'T sell doesn't mean he CAN'T sell. There is a notable difference, when you watch his matches, between him intentionally no-selling a move because it's part of his character, and him not selling a move because he forgot. He does a cool facial expression thing when he's being all supernatural (as opposed to forgetful ¬_¬). Most unusually large monster types have an element of no-selling to their character (usually just 'brushing off' lower-impact moves, like strikes and stuff, and occasionally clotheslines with the traditional "you can't knock me down" spot), and shouldn't be marked down because of that if it's intentional. If it's intentional, like Derek said, it ADDS to the match, not detracts from it. There's a difference, in other words, between NOT selling and NO-selling. And there's an opposite of 'no-selling', which I've come to call 'selling the intent', which is where when a move is botched you know what was supposed to happen, so you sell it as if it did happen. This is terrible, IMO, and makes both parties look stupid. Obvious examples are an embarrassing number of early RKOs, where Orton misses his opponent's head completely and falls over grabbing thin air, so the opponent falls over too for no reason a second or two behind him (another example is a worker very obviously ramming his own head into a turnbuckle during multiple head-ramming spots regardless of whether his opponent is doing anything). Obviously mega-spots (like Shane O'Mac's elbows from ridiculous heights) are exempt from this, as if you no-sold them you'd probably be fired. It's not like he can do it again while keeping the suspension of disbelief. ¬_¬ I know that this is probably the most subjective stat in the game, and this is probably the opinion I'll have most trouble getting across, but I have to disagree with some of what you said here (mostly with Christy and Dawn being 90+). To me, Sex Appeal isn't so much about how physically attractive a person is (because that's immensely subjective), it's about how well (or not) they USE their attractiveness, and like all stats, the main question should be: "If they appeared in an angle rated on sex appeal, how well would the majority of fans react?" To me, Trish, Torrie and Stacy from your list are legit bonafide 90+, probably 95+. Trish definitely 95+. But below that sort of "godlike" level, I think we need to be a little more careful than some mods in the past have been. There's no point in having the stat if everyone who's a little bit attractive gets a 90+. Dawn Marie, for example. Imagining for a moment her primary method of getting over was her looks (it wasn't, she was a damn good wrestler). Did she get over? Really? No. Her looks killed Al Wilson, I guess, but is that something you want on your CV? For instance, even though most of them are pretty attractive to me personally, I wouldn't give the following females a sex appeal stat of more than about 80: Lita, Molly Holly, Dawn Marie, Michelle McCool, Jacqueline, Stephanie McMahon, Victoria, Ivory, Vickie Guerrero. As I say, most of them are perfectly attractive, but they didn't have the sort of... I dunno... "thing" that made you want to see them in an angle rated on sex appeal. On the other hand, I'm looking at a mod in which Aja Kong has 0 for sex appeal. So... let's not go too far the other way either. In my opinion, Sex Appeal should follow the same sort of guidelines as other stats (for women at least): 70-80 for regular run of the mill females, 80-90 for particularly attractive female wrestlers or not very successful female valets/model types (including WWE Diva style 'valets who wrestle'), 90+ for the cream of the crop, workers who are known for getting over almost entirely on their looks. As intoxicating as Portia Perez is, she's unlikely to get over based on her looks (because she'd probably beat the crap out of any booker brave enough to suggest she try to). Whereas someone like Sable is more inclined to use her looks to get her over (no pun intended). Mmm. Sable. Portia isn't significantly less attractive than Sable (or, less attractive at all) she's just less likely to flaunt that fact. Below 60 would be reserved for particularly masculine women (Chyna, potentially Jazz), and women who for whatever reason aren't considered attractive by society in general (not just the mod maker!) - Aja Kong, Luna Vachon, Linda McMahon, Lioness Asuka, etc. Or more senior ladies, like Fabulous Moolah. Below 40 is probably insulting, except to Nicole Bass. Mostly agree with that section, although IMO you don't have to be physically intimidating to have a high menace. Three good examples of people I'd give a highish menace score too even though physically they're not up to much: Paul Bearer, Kevin Sullivan, Brian Pillman. Also, less of a good example because he's physically quite intimidating too, Raven. You talked a lot about examples, but not much about WHY those guys are good. Something I see in loads of mods, which always annoys me, is anyone who isn't American or William Regal being SLATED for mic skills, almost automatically. It'll probably happen less these days because of the likes of Wade Barrett and Drew McIntyre doing well in the WWE, but a few years ago practically every mod was giving guys like Nigel McGuinness a D. D?! McGuiness was GOLD on the microphone. So much so he went into commentary when he retired. Magnus is too to a lesser extent. Also, you don't have to speak English to be good on the microphone (Hiro Tenzan), though obviously it's much harder to judge if you don't speak their language. Mic Skills should be about the confidence and smoothness with which they talk, not just the pitch of their voice or their accent. Kurt Angle, for instance, has one of the more annoying voices in pro wrestling for me personally (which actually HELPS when he's a heel, same with Heyman), but nobody can deny the guy is great on the microphone. Tell-tale signs of bad microphone skills are constant "umm" and "er" and pauses while they think of stuff to say or remember the script, mumbling, etc. Constant freudian slips (accidentally putting words - often embarrassingly - into sentences where they don't belong at all), catachreses (mixed metaphors and misuse of words to an extent that the phrase no longer makes sense) and malapropisms (using a similar - but contextually incorrect - word instead of the one you meant to use, often giving the phrase a vastly different meaning) are also generally signs that a worker doesn't deserve top grades. Scott Steiner is king of all of those things BUT he doesn't deserve too low a grade (I'd go with a C) because his actual delivery is very good, and when he doesn't screw up, he's capable of good promos. Nick Dinsmore deserves a bit of credit... he never went FULL retard. [/obscureReference] Chris Jericho, surely? He may not have actually done any movies (or has he?), but he's done TV presenting and has fronted a successful rock band. That's got to count. I'd probably say Vince McMahon, too. Just for his facial expressions. Bryce Remsberg makes him look a rank amateur. ¬_¬ Seriously though, Bryce sells more than the guy getting hit sometimes. He's also a solid announcer. Edit: Not that I'm saying Remsberg is better than Robinson. That'd be silly, even taking my massive CHIKARA bias into account. ¬_¬ Just putting it out there really.

100% agree with this. WWE stars would be almost as over in places like Australia, UK and Europe as in America because there isn't really anyone in the UK, Europe or Australia... hell, even Canada really, to overshadow them. As far as fans in those places are concerned, even though it's in America the WWE is still the biggest show in town. Japan and Mexico are different though, because they both have thriving scenes (relative to the above) with national companies of their own (IMO, calling any company in Australia, the UK or Europe even Regional is probably pushing it, certainly there are no cult companies at all). So while a WWE star is a big deal in Europe purely by virtue of being in the WWE, that's not good enough to get them over in Japan unless they've also done something worthwhile over there. Not saying they should have the same popularity in places like Europe as they do in the USA, just that it should be higher than in Japan and Mexico.

Also guys who've been IWGP champions (Brock Lesnar, Tensai, Sin Cara) are probably more over in Japan in than in the US (especially the latter two as they haven't really done much in the US. Sin Cara is almost certainly more over in Mexico than he is in the US too).

The basic way I do it in GIMP is: - Paste your picture onto a transparent background. - Make sure that wherever possible, the background of the picture doesn't have much going on, and is largely a different colour from the foreground (ie, a picture of Mistico on a predominantly white background would be bad). Also, the more plain the background the better. - Use the Magic Wand. Adjust the Threshold of the tool until it selects as much background as possible, but no foreground. Select the largest area of 'plain' background you can. - Hold down shift and keep clicking areas of the background until the majority of it is selected (you may need to adjust the Threshold again for this step). The shift key adds the newly selected part to the existing selection instead of making a new selection. If you make a mistake, use the ctrl key to remove parts without having to start over. - Using Shift and Ctrl keys, you should be able to get a pretty accurate cut. Note that you can use the free select tool to select or deselect parts too as long as you hold down shift/ctrl. So for example, you might want to select the hair with free select, as it's notoriously difficult (although in this example his hat should save you the pain ). - Once you've selected the entire background and no foreground, go to Selection on the toolbar, and then Grow, set it to 1 pixel, and then hit Grow or OK or whatever. This'll grow the entire selection by 1 pixel, removing any "halo" of background that normally occurs if you skip this step. - Hit Delete. - Save the cut, and paste it onto the C-Verse background.

It's a useful thread, that's what stickies are for, right?

That sounds awesome. Is it a scenario that developed naturally in one of your games, or one that you created? I'm guessing with 20 regional US companies it's at best a mixture of both?

Yeah, while I certainly understand that some people want everything to be exactly as it was in the books, those people are idiots. But just like not all changes are bad, not all changes are good either. Some things happen differently in the show because they need to cut back on the number of characters and thus merge several book-characters into one, or create new characters to fill in for cut characters in some scenes, who then get a more pronounced role in the story to make them 'worthy' of being on the show (Ros is a perfect example. She's basically a Chataya/Ayalala combo character, but shows up in various other places that make logical sense even though neither of those characters would've been there ). Another example being Tyrion naming Bronn as the new Commander of the City Watch. Big Damn Hero though he was, there was no great need for Jacelyn Bywater to be in the show. Some things happen differently in the show because the medium of television means that they miss out on a lot of description and hearsay about certain characters up until certain points in the story, or don't want to include certain scenes because character cuts would make them less emotional or meaningful for the new audience. Great examples are some of Joffrey's scenes (what he does to the whores that Tyrion gives him, for instance, or the crossbow scene with Margaery) where he doesn't actually do it in the books, but it's perfectly in character for him to do so. It "gets him over" as a cruel, sadistic ****, which is what they needed to do. Xaro stealing Dany's dragons is another example. Didn't happen in the books, but covered for a lot of stuff that did which didn't need to be filmed, and kept things interesting for book-fans (because frankly I almost quit reading Dany chapters altogether at that point. She was never my favourite story arc and never got terribly interesting at any point, but seven hells, Quarth! Ugh). Examples of this being done terribly: The scene with Ros and Pycelle. Still gives me nightmares. Also, the latest episode, the scene with Pod and the whores. What even...? You cut Vargo Hoat, yet put in a scene where Pod gets pleasured by whores. Really, HBO? The phrase 'own worst enemy' comes to mind. Other than the suave Meereenese Knot reference, that scene was just porn. You're not helping yourselves. Some things happen differently just because it wouldn't have worked on screen. On-screen, we all know exactly who Barristan Selmy is. The same actor with the same voice turning up to Dany wearing a robe and calling himself Arstan wouldn't have fooled a single person. So they just did away with all that (as it won't really affect much, other than Barristan looking even more perfect compared to Mormont in AFFC and ADWD). But there are some things that are just stupid. That they didn't need to change at all, and if they did, changed really badly. I'm perfectly entitled to complain about those things no matter how awesome the rest of it is. Like the fact that because Osha and Asha sound too similar, they changed Asha (by far the more important of the two characters). Why not just change Osha? And not only did they change Asha, but they changed her to Yara. Which of course sounds nothing at all like Arya? Damnit HBO! And the Robb's Wife thing is just completely moronic. There is absolutely no reason. In the books, Robb goes off storming castles in the west for a bit during Catelyn chapters and comes back with a wife that he bedded because of his grief after being told of Bran and Rickon, simultaneously sticking his finger up at the Freys (to whom he was betrothed) and the Lannisters (as he'd married a Westerling). In the show, he meets a random non-canon girl from Volantis in a field and marries her. GG HBO. Oh, and I'm pretty sure I saw a bear in the trailer for the next episode. So they've cut the Brave Companions, cut Vargo Hoat's name, yet they're still doing the bear scene? Maybe I'll still get "YOU THLAYED MY BEAR!" then. ¬_¬

No. You're really not. I ranted endlessly about it when he was first introduced. It's like when you do online dating, and the girl who turns up at the bar is nothing like she said she was in her profile. ¬_¬ Expectation from the books: http://www.badhaven.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/stellan_skarsgard.jpg What turned up on TV: http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121230201824/gameofthrones/images/thumb/2/2f/Mance_Rayder_banner_for_Slider.png/640px-Mance_Rayder_banner_for_Slider.png Sorry Ciaran mate, I know not everyone is as cool as Skellen Skarsgaard and you're a lot cheaper, but you can surely understand my disappointment? It's not you, it's me.

Yeah, he's one of those weird combo characters. He's definitely supposed to 'represent' Vargo (he looks almost identical to how Vargo would look. As much as I'd love that to be hilariously ironic given poor Anguy, it was more than likely deliberate), but since the Brave Companions have essentially been cut (for good reason, really. They don't do anything else important) it'd be silly to have them in for one small passage. So they've essentially made him one of Roose Bolton's lieutenants. Which doesn't work out too badly, all things considered (it works out a lot better than "let's have Robb marry a random non-canon Volantine girl!" in terms of future impact on the story), they can easily have him butchered by Roose for letting Jaime go, rather than by Clegane. No real biggy in the bigger picture. They've bollocksed Roose up already by not having him at Harrenhal while Arya was there. So I'm kinda worried what they'll cut from Roose's storyline. Currently he's "one of Robb's right-hand men that looks a bit like Tywin Lannister". At this point, I'm not even sure they're going to acknowledge him turning on Robb, since they've already jumped the gun on the main catalyst for that happening in the books (Robb's marriage). I know there's another very obvious catalyst for it coming up they can use instead, but... I had hoped they'd retain more of Vargo's character though. Or at the very least, KINGTHLAYER, YOU ARE MY CAPTIFTH! should've made it in. Rather than "oo by 'eck lad, we can't let you go or t'King will have me 'ead!", which is all we got.

GoT S3E3 spoilers: Bbbbboooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Seriously, HBO? Vargo Hoat has two phrases he's known for. Two. One is a single word, even. And he manages to get through by far his most meaningful episode - with the scenes which include both phrases, in the books - without uttering either of them? I am dissapoint. The casting was good, IMO, but he was nowhere near flamboyant enough for my liking. He'd better come out with them at some point (although given that he's already cut Jaime's hand off, which was a bit rushed IMO, he's rapidly running out of time). What this episode did have in abundance was great new casting choices though. Iwan Ifons as Ramsay Snow? They say Peter Dinklage was born to play Tyrion Lannister, but Jesus, anyone who's seen Misfits will know that nobody was more born for a role than Iwan Ifons as Ramsay Snow. I cannot WAIT for some of his scenes with Reek. Theon, Theon, it rhymes with DAYUM (near enough, throw me a bone here)! Clive Russell as Brynden Tully? Hell yeah. And the "fishscale mail" looks AWESOME. All of the costumes do and they've done an excellent job of making houses look distinctive other than just in colours, but God damn who wouldn't want to be a Tully? You get to live in the coolest castle, take virtually no part in the war at all... sure, you have by far the weakest rulers (the plural is for if you include Lysa and her council of idiots) in the entire series, but then to make up for it you get given the BEST one later on! And you can just sit there and chill, take in the awesome views, wearing your awesome armour. As far as I'm concerned, the Vale wins. Not necessarily the Tullys... ¬_¬ But the Vale, for sure. But yeah. Shame on you, script-writer people, for depriving me of my THAPPIRETH! KINGTHLAYER! YOU ARE MY CAPTIFTH! The Ramsay Snow thing though... man, if anything it's even better in the show than in the books.

A lot of people were confused by S3 E2 because they thought Jojen and Meera Reed were younger versions of Theon and Asha Greyjoy appearing to Bran in a dream (fair enough, they got the dream bit right in their first few scenes... ¬_¬). ...really?! Jojen I can kinda see as a young Theon. But Meera? Meera is perfect. She even has her trident! Also, would it be so hard to have cast a ginger guy as Anguy? I really hate it when they do that. Take a character with really distinctive features, and then cast a guy with... none of those features. Generally the casting is awesome, and I agree with most of the occasions where they've merged several characters into one (Ros, Bronn, Thoros for instance, and the actor playing Thoros is awesome, although it's funny that Rains of Castamere is the only song anyone in the show knows. ¬_¬). I'll never agree with Robb marrying some random Volantine girl who isn't in the books though. Would it be so hard to have named her Jeyne Westerling ffs?