Game of Thrones begins....

[Josquius]

hmm...that their importance to the battle has been cut is one thing but the complete unexplained dissapearance of the mountain tribes is weird.


King's Landing's fortifications- I think its a case of the central castle being all important. The fortifications there are probally pretty great. The city then grew around the castle, likely undefended for many years...with the local burghers eventually pressing for/stumping up a lot of cash for, walls to be built to defend the city proper as well as the keep.
A lot of cities in our world developed this way.
And building walls around an entire city is rather pricey, they tend not to be the grandest of things.
In a world where dragons dominate warfare I'd imagine the value of city walls would be even less- the reason for building them may have been more about customs control and keeping out criminals than defending against attacking armies.

It would have been nice for the TV series to touch on this- I recall in the books a big reason for Tyrion becoming unpopular (apart from his associations and being a Lannister of course) was due to forcing the people living on the outside of the walls away since they were a security risk.

[Viking]

hmm...that their importance to the battle has been cut is one thing but the complete unexplained dissapearance of the mountain tribes is weird.

They are cutting like mad men... the mountain tribes scouting and delaying stannis is ignored since he doesn't go overland, their role in being tyrions police force is replaced by Bronn and their dispersal and removal will be replaced by the dispersal and removal of Bronn. Very simple. If you want the details go read the book.

[Josquius]

hmm...that their importance to the battle has been cut is one thing but the complete unexplained dissapearance of the mountain tribes is weird.

They are cutting like mad men... the mountain tribes scouting and delaying stannis is ignored since he doesn't go overland, their role in being tyrions police force is replaced by Bronn and their dispersal and removal will be replaced by the dispersal and removal of Bronn. Very simple. If you want the details go read the book.

No explanation for their vanishing though. THey're there with Tyrion then suddenly they've vanished. To do away with  anything important involving them is fair enough, but it wouldn't have hurt to have a few of them still knocking around, amongst the troops of the battle.
I may have missed a "Oh the mountain tribes went home" quote somewhere along the way but I can't recall that.

[Solmyr]

This episode was seriously epic.

[Viking]

hmm...that their importance to the battle has been cut is one thing but the complete unexplained dissapearance of the mountain tribes is weird.

They are cutting like mad men... the mountain tribes scouting and delaying stannis is ignored since he doesn't go overland, their role in being tyrions police force is replaced by Bronn and their dispersal and removal will be replaced by the dispersal and removal of Bronn. Very simple. If you want the details go read the book.

No explanation for their vanishing though. THey're there with Tyrion then suddenly they've vanished. To do away with  anything important involving them is fair enough, but it wouldn't have hurt to have a few of them still knocking around, amongst the troops of the battle.
I may have missed a "Oh the mountain tribes went home" quote somewhere along the way but I can't recall that.

I expect Shagga will "disappear" in exposition when tyrion wakes up.

[Tamas]

what the fuck is all this nerd whinefest again?

Haven't you realized what's happening? They took a great book and turned into a great TV series.

Since these two are completely, and I do mean completely different forms of entertainment, they made changes to make the TV series work without sacrificing the storyline.
They have been great in this, balancing on a tiny edge between failing as a TV series and abandoning the novels. They could have fucked it up so many ways. They haven't.

Then I come here and see a debate about how the defensive works of KL should look like. They should look like, well, whatever. It is an imaginary city in an imaginary land, standing there among dragons, undead, and shapeshifters.

[Habbaku]

what the fuck is all this nerd whinefest again?

I don't get it, either.  They get a great TV episode, something that few shows ever receive the budget for, and whine about how it's not Helm's Deep in Westeros.

[Siege]

what the fuck is all this nerd whinefest again?

Haven't you realized what's happening? They took a great book and turned into a great TV series.

Since these two are completely, and I do mean completely different forms of entertainment, they made changes to make the TV series work without sacrificing the storyline.

This is where you are wrong. The TV show is increasingly become another story altogether.

[grumbler]

what the fuck is all this nerd whinefest again?

That's my question, too.  What the fuck are you whining about?

Haven't you realized what's happening? They took a great book and turned into a great TV series.

That was more true of the first season, IMO.  Here, they too a good book and made it into a great TV season (though not one without problems).

Since these two are completely, and I do mean completely different forms of entertainment, they made changes to make the TV series work without sacrificing the storyline.
They have been great in this, balancing on a tiny edge between failing as a TV series and abandoning the novels. They could have fucked it up so many ways. They haven't.

True enough, so I don't understand why you are whining.  Even the parts I found less satisfactory can be explained by budget concerns, which don't impact a book nearly so much.

Then I come here and see a debate about how the defensive works of KL should look like. They should look like, well, whatever. It is an imaginary city in an imaginary land, standing there among dragons, undead, and shapeshifters.

Don't understand the whining here.  Why can't people discuss what they think a city with the background of the imaginary KL would have in the way of defenses, given some knowledge of history?  Why does it offend you that others might enjoy such a discussion?  Did somebody piss in your Wheaties?

[Queequeg]

Then I come here and see a debate about how the defensive works of KL should look like. They should look like, well, whatever. It is an imaginary city in an imaginary land, standing there among dragons, undead, and shapeshifters.

I have nothing but respect and love for GoT, and unlike Grumbles I think the second season has been far better than the first.  I just wondered about some of the details of the siege, and I was-if anything-looking for someone to prove me wrong, as I'm pretty sure there were people involved in this production who know a lot more about Medieval sieges than I do.

[grumbler]

...unlike Grumbles I think the second season has been far better than the first.

I don't disagree with the contention that the second season has been better, but I would argue that the first book was much better than the second (though the third was also better than the second, so it isn't a steady decline of writing or anything).  My primary beef with the second season was the skimping on story in episode eight, to preserve cash for episode nine.

[Josephus]

I'm annoyed that at the opening of the last episode, the title graphics showed all the regular places, but in fact action only took place at King's Landing. They ruined that neat concept they had going.

[The Larch]

Boom!

http://i.imgur.com/nQrIi.jpg

Love the look on the pyromancer's face. 

[Berkut]

Hmmm.

I was actually a bit dissapointed in the Blackwater episode. I know they spent extra money on it, and there were certainly some very cool scenes, but...well, it still looked small.

ALl the fighting was outside one gate, you never got the feeling there were more than a couple hundred men total involved.

Still a lot of fun, but not as epic as I hoped for...

[Siege]

I really don't like the armor they wear in the show.
Why couldn't they go for classical medieval armor?
Those lanister helmets are ridicoulus.