71 replies to this topic

[Loras]

8/10

I enjoyed this episode, but it didn't quite have the magic of last week's installment.

The highpoints for me this episode were in the Danaerys storyline.  While I still think Emilia Clarke needs to grow into the role, she had some excellent moments tonight.  My favourite scene was the horse heart scene, beautifully realised.  Harry Lloyd also did a wonderful job with Viserys' final episode.  I am going to miss him, but I am ready for the change of focus in Dany's story as we amp up towards the finale.

One thing that bugged me with this episode was the lighting - in the hunting scene and the Sansa/Joff scene particularly.

[Popgun]

9/10

I liked last weeks episode slightly better but this week was almost as good. I loved the part where  Ned denounced Sir Gregor and ordered Tywin Lannister to King's Landing. Plus the crowning at the end was great.

Was surprisedthey didn't include Loras offering Ned to hunt down Gregor for him. Whould've tied in well with the "bj scene" of last week where Loras was plotting away with Renly.

[John (Snow) Doe]

9

A welcome balance of dialogue and action; and within the dialogue, both exposition and plot advancement.  

I'm really enjoying how the Winterfell scenes focus more on Theon - I find him generally more interesting than Robb and I think they've cast him perfectly

The Dany storylines are gaining some welcome momentum thanks to clever directing - they no longer feel like a needless sideplot.

Mad props on using the title of the episode to allude to both Ned's revelation of Robert's "heirs" and Viserys' ultimate fate.

Best episode yet, IMO.

[reiver]

I loved the episode but there were a few things missing that would have made it even better.

I understand the lack of the wolves in the fight for purposes of getting the dogs to behave but they could still have had them tearing at the corpses or finishing off a downed man as he tried to rise. Surely getting a dog to eat sausages dressed to look like intestines isn't beyond the dog wranglers and if it is then hire better ones. It would have made the scene bloodier and more horrific and would have kept the wolves there as characters. At the moment i'd be suprised if many viewers even remember them.

Robb and Theon was again a bit too much. We get that Theon isn't a Stark, we get that he resents his position but they're overegging the pudding to the extent that Theon's betrayal is an inevitability. It was quite shocking in the books and i'm sad how much of that they will have lost in trying to justify and explain it early.

I loved the fight in the eyrie and liked that they managed to tell a lot of the story visually. I'd have liked the contrast in armour to have been a bit more pronounced. Bronn's was spot on but Ser Vardis looked too lightly armoured for the contrast. i suppose that's very much a book geek quibble and something that wont even flit across the mind of a viewer but it's something that i feel would have added to the scene without any effort.

My favourite so far. I gave it a 9

[TheEvilKing]

Definitely 10 for me. So many "holy shit" moments, even though I already knew what would happen. The Targaryens owned this one.

[The Anti-Targ]

Yeah, the minute or so spent with Roz and Theon could have been better spent on actual events of the story.

Osha came of as rather Gollum-ish. We swears to serve the master if you spares us our life. The scene as a whole was OK. But I was looking to see a direwolf there. I really hope we see a bit more of the dire wolves.

Golden crown was golden. Seeing the heart eating was great. Showing Arya's needle prowess, even while distracted with her troubles, marvellous. Just one more scene with Syrio I fear. Gosh such a pity, would have loved to see some more dancing lessons. Good opening scene.

No doubt second watch will be even better.

8 from me.

[thistlepong]

I liked this one.  It had some flaws and I'm missing the direwolves because I know they're supposed to be there and not going to be.  But they laid off the scenes that were nothing but exposition masked by sex or violence and allowed the story to tell itself.  9.

[Zezibesh]

I've been pretty conservative with the numbers so far, but this was definitely an 8. Brilliant episode, they just keep improving.

Edited by Zezibesh, 23 May 2011 - 07:54 AM.

[StrongBelwas]

Low moments and high moments:

Low moments:
I was not pleased to see the Moon Door in the floor.  As soon as I saw what they were doing I knew that it had been placed there specifically for the obligatory moment in a fight scene when two opponents are locked in combat and leaning against the void.  And what do you know?  There was Bronn for a moment, pressed against the brink.  The little moments when Hollywood intrudes upon Martin's story upset me.  They pull me out of my belief suspension.

Why haven't we seen the specifics to Vaes Dothrak?  Where are all the looted momuments?  Part of what made Vaes Dothrak engaging were the shadows of dead gods and fallen kings scattered upon plains grass.  I think our filmakers dropped a ball here.

High Moments:
The speech delivered by Eddard in regards to Gregor Clegan was completely excellent.  Bravo.

I also want to acknowledge Harry Lloyd for a moment now that we will not be seeing him again.  I felt that he nailed his character perfectly, even though Dany's brother is a man we like to hate.  Every moment he was on screen matched the character described in GoT.  I hope Harry gets more work quickly.

[Ferrum Aeternum]

Superb from start to finish.  This is what I envisioned this TV show being when it was first announced several years ago.  No major complaints and nothing this week that felt like filler.

Ghost Cat, on 23 May 2011 - 03:47 AM, said:

I'm not completely pleased with the series relationship between Rob & Theon. My understanding from the books was that they were friends and that Rob trusted Theon (else wise, why would he send him where he did later). My take was that Theon was treated fairly and equally with the "trueborn" Stark children.

It's necessary so that Theon's turn of the cloak in Season 2 will make sense.  If he and Robb were all buddy buddy right now with no conflicts between them, his change of heart next year would feel much too rushed and random.  Externalizing conflict is one of the unfortunate consequences of any TV adaptation of a written work.

Edited by Ser Helman Tallhart, 23 May 2011 - 08:38 AM.

[Emo Jon Snow]

My first 10 of the season, I loved the episode.   I rate the nitpickers in this thread a 4

[End of Disc One]

Lord Godric, on 22 May 2011 - 09:35 PM, said:

A solid 9.  Not as good as last week's IMO. But still very good.

This.

[valacirca]

Dracarys, on 23 May 2011 - 08:59 AM, said:

My first 10 of the season, I loved the episode.

This.

Haven't said it yet but I'm saying it now: Best. Episode. Yet.

[Huan]

9/10. I am going to miss Harry Lloyd going forward, he was brilliant in this episode, managing to convey Viserys' bewilderment and resentment at the love for Dany, and convincing me to feel sorry for the boy who would be king by the end. Fantanstic crowning scene. The hunting scene left me cold, and I am tired of Ros already, but everything else was good. I was expecting no direwolves in the wood, so wasn't disappointed.

[maxlongstreet]

Best yet, I say. More Jane Espenson next season! This was written better than the D&D episodes, in my view - hardly a wrong word in it. Anything you could find fault with in the episode - lack of wolves, not enough people in the hunt, etc. - had nothing to do with the writing.

[Bronn Stone]

maxlongstreet, on 23 May 2011 - 11:24 AM, said:

Best yet, I say. More Jane Espenson next season! This was written better than the D&D episodes, in my view - hardly a wrong word in it. Anything you could find fault with in the episode - lack of wolves, not enough people in the hunt, etc. - had nothing to do with the writing.

I thought the episode had the single clunkiest bit of poorly constructed exposition in the series to date.  There HAD to be a better way for Littlefinger to remind the audience that Catelyn's family sigil is a 'fish' than pretending to be confused about it.  It doesn't make sense in the context of a ploy either.  Of course LF knows, the little twit grew up there.  And Eddard knows he knows.  Genuinely painful on the ears.  Could have been much more effective with "A slap in the face of your wife's father - mocking his very sigil".

For that and poor direction, I can only go as high as 8.  The wolves issue and the hunt issue could have and should have been resolved with a glimpse of the wolves chasing someone into the brush and sound effects handling the rest.  If you HEAR the sounds of the hunt in the distance, you haven't spent much money but you make the scene bigger all the same.  If you hear the wolves savaging wildlings, you know it happened and you understand later when Osha is so damned afraid of the things.

[Starkess]

Bronn Stone, on 23 May 2011 - 01:13 PM, said:

I thought the episode had the single clunkiest bit of poorly constructed exposition in the series to date.  There HAD to be a better way for Littlefinger to remind the audience that Catelyn's family sigil is a 'fish' than pretending to be confused about it.  It doesn't make sense in the context of a ploy either.  Of course LF knows, the little twit grew up there.  And Eddard knows he knows.  Genuinely painful on the ears.  Could have been much more effective with "A slap in the face of your wife's father - mocking his very sigil".

I've heard a couple complaints about this, and I don't get it at all. To me the comment played off very much as a taunt/jab at Ned. Ie, remember your WIFE recently upset the Lannisters, what a coincidence that it's her family's sigil...

[reiver]

Ser Helman Tallhart, on 23 May 2011 - 08:37 AM, said:

It's necessary so that Theon's turn of the cloak in Season 2 will make sense.  If he and Robb were all buddy buddy right now with no conflicts between them, his change of heart next year would feel much too rushed and random.  Externalizing conflict is one of the unfortunate consequences of any TV adaptation of a written work.

Some of the previous groundwork was necessary. We're at the stage where we're being beaten about the head with it now to the extent that it's ridiculous that they allow Theon to even have a bow if he's so much an outcast and prisoner let alone sent off as a trusted envoy. I'm now thinking Theon's capture of Winterfell, within the context of this adaptation, would not even be the slightest betrayal whereas in the book i had a fair bit of dissonance about it.

[Tywin's bastard]

reiver, on 23 May 2011 - 03:37 PM, said:

Some of the previous groundwork was necessary. We're at the stage where we're being beaten about the head with it now to the extent that it's ridiculous that they allow Theon to even have a bow if he's so much an outcast and prisoner let alone sent off as a trusted envoy. I'm now thinking Theon's capture of Winterfell, within the context of this adaptation, would not even be the slightest betrayal whereas in the book i had a fair bit of dissonance about it.

Theon is trying to make Robert go to war for the honor of the Starks and he has said that he would stand by his side, just as Robb already knows. That's in essence about as much as the book tells us about his loyalty, only in more examples. None of the other Starks seem to have any fondness for Theon, they seem to see him as cocky, arrogant and annoying, or just ignore him altogether.

I don't feel that it makes it strange that he's allowed to go as he pleases. They are just telling back story and explaining a character that will become important. If the show doesn't alter the story from the book we'll even see first hand that he had no intentions whatsoever to betray Robb when he went to his father. It's his father that has the plan and Theon then acts to get his father's approval because he's just found out that no one cares about him anymore and everyone sees him as someone the Starks has made into a soft weakling that's not worthy to be lord of the Iron Islands.

[Icebreaker]

I gave it 6. The 5th episode was the best so far IMO, so this one was a bit of a letdown for me. I don't know, perhaps I'm not being objective. It is all very painful for me to watch when I know how it will end for the good boys. Overall, I'm happy with the fighting scenes which seem quite realistic and brutal, although some of the characters aren't depicted as I had imagined them - Bronn for example. He is atleast 10-15 years older than he should be. Ser Vardis even more so. On the other hand, another fantastic performance from Peter Dinklage, brilliant actor. He really is the star of the series for me.

Edited by Icebreaker, 23 May 2011 - 04:47 PM.