To start off with some humor:
Now onto the discussion of the actual episode
So many things happened this episode... and yet now that I have had time to digest it, it seems that most of this episode was just setup for later drama.
Do not read on if you don't want spoilers.
We begin with the beginning of the episode which was focused on the mourning of the death of a character that I have heard was not in the books.
I can't say that I was as attached as Daenerys to Barristan but it was a great catalyst to this:
It was great to see her other dragons in action again, I have to say that her keeping them locked up seems both sad and unlike how I imagined her character to be. So it's great to see that she is making good use of any prisoners or people she doesn't like for pet food. I also like seeing her vengeful side as it shows she's not always a scared little girl like she was when she seemed afraid of her own dragons.
Now onto my other favorite character, Jon Snow. Tyrion round out my top 3 of course. Jon Snow is finally showing more of his position and influence along with his compassion for people. It has been quite interesting to see him interact with Stannis. I really did not care for Stannis but he has really grown on me. But the fact that I like him more now just means that he's likely to be killed off.
How could you not love the softy? But I have to say that I think everyone feels like Daenerys and Jon are destined and considering how they are both learning how to rule with internal conflicts over their decisions seems to be growing pains that they experience at the same time. I don't see Cersei or Stannis even feeling as bad over their decisions or conflicted half as much as those two do but I suppose that's also because they're used to this Game.
Brienne, she was much more likable when paired with Jaime. Now I'm really not sure what she's there for... But I suppose that's part of the entire setup story.
Is it bad that I like Ramsey and that he amuses me even though he is pure evil and a sadist? I'm not sure why but he's so much more entertaining than Joffrey even though they're both villains. Perhaps it is because how he seems so completely desperate for his father's approval, which makes him less one dimensional. Or that he has these dark humor moments like the now "let's cut the tension" dinner conversation. Is it bad that I kind of want Sansa to actually fall in love with him to see him turn good? Though it is interesting that she just went from one bloodthirsty fiance to another... Well, with Tyrion as a husband sandwiched in the middle so I guess she had one decent almost spouse? Yes, I almost forgot that happened also.
Speaking of Tyrion, they finally got off that boat. As I mentioned, this episode has been just a buildup episode to setup for the future. Daenerys' part was to finally get control of her mini kingdom and set up for the gladiator battles. Jon Snow segment was for his venture to save the Wildlings and maybe bring forth the zombie story finally. Afterall, how long has winter been coming for? Stannis and Ramsey heading towards each other in epic battle I expect. And of course, Tyrion and rock diseased Jorah finally getting to Daenerys. Sidenote: beautiful picture of the twosome on the right.
Daenerys + Elsa combo
Now onto the bad parts of the episode...Theo's plan to capture Gwen just to raise Ryan's kid as a revenge sounded so ridiculous and uncharacteristic. I know Theo was losing it a bit after his sister died but really that plan was so unlike him. It would have made way more sense if he had just killed off Gwen but even in interviews, the producers had said that they were not expecting to be cancelled so they played it safe. Killing a pregnant love interest would have been memorable and risky although also seen as a bit of a copycat for a certain famous movie. But it would have been more believable and really set it up for Ryan's true conversion to be Joe's follower. This was probably what bothered me most about how they treated Theo's character. He was set up to be an even better, slicker and more ruthless villain than Joe Carroll and in the end, they made him seem desperate, dependent on others and careless. Those are completely contradictory traits from how he was presented through the entire first half of the season.
Remember this Theo?
Or this one? 
My experience of scanlation thus far... what can I say other than that it was satisfying to see the final result. It was a quick and dirty product compared to the truly pro scanlations or even the ones I've done a decade ago with a group. But having a perfect scanlation wasn't the goal really. My goal was to scanlate as fast as possible because for me being a fan of manga myself, I get impatient sometimes waiting for the perfect scanlations to come out and I read the Chinese version and sometimes the Japanese raws too. English is still the language I'm most comfortable with so I prefer reading it in English. So one day I just had a thought of why wait, why not just make my own and see if others like to have it around the same time as when it comes out in raw or Chinese? I can't be the only one who would love to see it asap even if it is in a grittier form. I am nicknaming this my flash scans because my translations might have errors, it might not be pretty but it's meant to be fast. It was also great to work on my Japanese and Chinese, though Chinese is my other native language (in terms of speech), my reading and writing isn't too great so it's great practice. This was fun and I enjoyed it enough to do it again.
