Some crazy guy had to write a battle with thousands of men, hundreds of ships and fire, so much fire.

What was he thinking?

I think a lot of fans of Rome would say that the workaround they found was not very satisfactory, though.

It's a difficult thing, getting the grand scale involved on a TV budget (even an HBO TV budget), so maybe there simply is no satisfactory workaround. But I hope D&D are giving it a go.

Excited to see what you included, how you did it, and what happens!

It will be epic =) , thank you Mr Martin for such amazing books and now this wonderful TV series, my television has use again, you are a very gifted storyteller/writer! Much love from Canada <3

...the books again, for the story to be fresh in my mind on July the 12th when I expect to get my copy of Dance. It's a different experience, this time, since all of a sudden some of the characters have real faces and others are still only imagined. As I read further, I'm kind of torn between thrilling excitement and utter dismay at the enormity of some of the scenes, the Battle of the Blackwater of course being one of them. Can't wrap my head around how you're going to fit dozens of war galleys into a TV-budget, something comparable in scale to Pelennor Fields! Then again, you did find a Mountain That Rides (let's face it, everyone was expecting the producers to succumb to the temptation of throwing a white-powdered Shaquille O'Neal into Ser Gregor's armor). So you'll find a solution to the Blackwater. But you'll never find a Brienne. Or will you?

Dismay. Excitement. Dismay. Excitement. Dism...

I can't wait to see it.

I prefer episode titles, because they're easier to remember when talking about the episodes later. I'd much rather say "The Pointy End" than Season 1 Episode 8.

Mr. Martin,

I feel as though I'm one of the few people in the world who doesn't get upset when books undergo change to make the transition from book to screen. Having said that, I also appreciate close attention to particular details from the book. This is why I believe The Lord of the Rings made such spectacular screen adaptations; through adding some new scenes, changing old ones, removing some, and translating some almost word for word, a compelling trilogy of movies was made (as opposed to Hary Potter...but I'll not concern myself with that for now).

So far, this is what I have enjoyed about your Game of Thrones TV show. As a long time avid reader of your Song of Ice and Fire series (and anxious awaiter of the upcoming fifth installment), I have enjoyed seeing many of my favorite scenes from the book appear in some form on screen, as well as enjoying many new ones from the perspectives of characters I was never able to read about intimately.

This brings me to my question - Have you included any new scenes in your script, and have you edited any of the book's dialogue to make it more suited for the new medium?

I of course understand if you are too busy writing one of your many upcoming projects to answer back. Looking forward to the episode. I'm sure it'll be great!

Fondly,

David Rosenblatt

I thought that each episode has had a title. Last weeks episode had a title card for "You Win or You Die". And I knew the episode that would crown Viserys by the title A GOLDEN CROWN :-D

On another note though, are you only penning one episode per season?

Hope there will be an "Italian version" of the first season. By now, I'll watch it in English!! You're great, George!
Marco from Italy.

Add so much green that more can't be seen.. (Blackwater rhyme)

Really looking forward to tonight's episode! And I think it's great that you argued for episode titles.

BTW, George, did you know that your 4-book boxed set of ASOIAF is now number one on Amazon's bestseller list in ANY category? (the low rating is due to the price of the Kindle-bundle, it has nothing to do with the books themselves). A Game of Thrones was number one on the Fantasy-list for a while, but was recently pushed to second place.

And if you look at the four bestselling books on the eBook Fantasy-list, they all belong to the ASOIAF-series!

We don't got no boats. We don't need no stinking boats!

A boat, a boat! My kingdom for a boat.

"I like big boats, I cannot lie."

Wait until you get to write a script involving those dragons you invented swooping down on some place in Westeros. :)

Does each HBO season follow a complete book arc? That is, does season 1 follow 'A Game of Thrones' and season 2 'A Clash of Kings', etc? Or does each season only follow a portion of each book? And if so, how many seasons per book? Or conversely, is the entire series all on book 1 of ASoIaF? (In which case we can look forward to all the follow-on series?) My wife asked this question while I was recounting your stories about production to her, and I realized I had no clue. If this has been answered before (and it probably has), my apologies.

When reading it in A Clash of Kings I always imagined so much wildfire smoke hanging over the estuary during the battle that most of the time none of the combatants would be seeing anything at a distance - just an occasional glimpse when the smoke cleared momentarily!

...but your first draft for "Blackwater" probably was too long and too expensive, wasn't it?

and in the same way, could be possible that the first scene in episode 7 (you know, Tywin and the poor deer) It was your? Because Tywin is so F great in this one...

Oh, but you're great with boats!
Case in point: Fevre Dream, my favorite vampire story.

Can't wait Mr. Martin! I hope you enjoy it as much as I expect to!

Very well done episode!

All those damned boats, indeed; I wish I didn't have to wait a year to see it!

Never a disappointment! Congrats and THANK YOU SO MUCH for such an excellent series!

My weekly Game of Thrones gathering just dispersed to their homes as we await episode 9. Clearly the master's pen took command of that episode. I'll save the rest of my comments to Winter-is-Coming. As has been the case I think each week, this is now my favorite episode.... until perhaps next week.

I do miss the Tywin manipulations of the tribesman from the book though. Other than that, amazing stuff!

Best episode thus far!!!

Guys, c'mon.

I mean, thanks for the nice words and all (most of you)... but I just said, "this is not the place to discuss the show," and here come all these comments discussing the show, asking questions, etc.

No, sorry, I am not going to comment here about the episode. I'll save my commentary for the eventual DVD and BlueRay.

Please take your thoughts to Winter Is Coming, Westeros, or one of the other sites with forums for such discussions. I'm closing comments on this post, sorry.