Game of Thrones - season 4 - thoughts? (**SPOILERS**)

[Plenum]

well, season 4 of GoT ended last weekend, and I managed to marathon it over the last day (10 episodes).

first impressions?

not as good as seasons 2 and 3 (which I loved), but still good.

* Lord Varys and Lord Baelish continue to demonstrate their ability to manipulate from behind the scenes. Very impressive guys!

* Joffrey, that truly sadistic and impetuous soul, made an early exit. A shame, since he is the arch-villain that everyone can truly hate on

* Prince Oberyn was the best new character (although he only survived this season). Originally coming across as uncontrolled and vicious, he eventually portrayed a type of man open to all experience. Versatile, adaptable, clever, and perceptive.

- -

the supernatural elements started to wear a bit thin. Namely the dragons (the Khaleesi sideplot was very predictable), and the animal shamanism was just so-so. It really needed some more Lord of Light antics!!

[Guardian]

If you read the storm of storms book, you will find that there was a monumental scene left out of this season for some reason.

[Patrick]

Read all the books (great books and the story is still far from finished at the end of the fifth and last book), but stopped watching the episodes during season 3.

[yossarian]

I was glad that Brienne killed the Hound. For a second I thought they were going to give her the Oberyn treatment.

The Lord of Light is definitely my favorite part of the story. Gotta love fanatical religious zealots and their black magic.

Cersei has always been an intriguing character but her apotheosis here, with the death of Joffrey, is kind of confusing and doesn't seem to be quite believable. They are showing her as going completely nuts basically... but that doesn't really seem like her.

[Adonai One]

My new favorite character is The Mountain. He seems to be the only polarized individual in continually denying the present moment and savoring every kill he has but not so much that he never wants to stop killing.

I cannot wait until he is resurrected. He has the best spiritual progress out of any individual there.

[ChickenInSpace]

I am a bit bummed that the mysterious wight who helps Bran and co. doesn't even make an appearance. Worst case scenario is that the entity solves a prickly mystery and GRRM uses it for a pivotal role.

Another bummer is that the Mountain doesn't display the effects of the poison on Oberyns spear which keeps him wailing for a few nights before he passes on.

A third bummer is Brienne punching it out with the Hound. Even though this never happens in the books the outcome is likely to be similar, should a fight happen. In original form the Hounds wound from Biter is the main issue why he gets beaten by bandits. Ayra leaves in the same fashion anyway...

The dragon problem and social unrest is portrayed fairly well but I still miss Strong Belwas =/. There is, however, much less meat on the bone about Daenerys gripe with locking her dragons up and the advice she gets to not do it for her own safetys sake.
Also, does anyone remember her prophecy of thrice betrayed? Jorah is the first .

This season felt, in comparison with the earlier ones, much more condensed and sequentially makes less sense. If they had explored the contemporary happenings a bit more I feel coherency of the series would go up.