The Sword and Laser discussion

Did anyone else feel a little let down this week when they didn't include the battles? It seemed like a cop out when Tyrion gets knocked out and misses all the action. I seem to remember him doing some actual fighting and gaining a little bit of confidence for joining in the battle in CoK. Skipping the fight in the Vale where they capture Jaime was even bigger let down. I know that these scenes are expensive, but I felt like there were gaping holes where these scenes should have been.

Whispering Woods.

But yes, lack of battles has made me don a unhappy face several times during this season. Completely understandable because of budget restrictions. Hundreds of extras in armour and weapons with horses, arrows, etc to be reset during filming would be rather pricey. They did the Syrio fight well though, and Ned did a good job against Jaime. For every atrocious extra combat occurring in the background, they at least have a couple good fights spread out.

I come down on the other side of the argument - battles are kind of a waste of time when there's so much information for the show to convey. Unless the battle can show us something that significantly carries the plot forward, there's not much point to them other than eye-candy.
I did, however, love Drogo's fight in episode 8, which communicated a lot of information as well as being awesome to watch.