19 replies to this topic

[Howdyphillip]

This thread is shameless stolen from CrypticWeirwood who had the brilliant idea of starting this last week.


Credit where credit is due...

CREW

HBO, D&D, and GRRM - For bringing this story to life...

Niel Marshall - For taking a $10 million budget and making it look like he spent $80.I love his other works, but this is a crowning achievement. I can't wait to see more from him in his career.

Ramin Djawadi and The National - For giving us some of the most memorable music in television history.

Pixomondo studios - for making wildfire the coolest combustible ever to be seen

Cast (using show names)

Cersei - You were insane, tender, and terrifying. I'll drink a glass of wine to that.

Tyrion - Here is to the Giant of a Lannister that saved the day through cunning and courage.

The Hound - When you weren't busy cleaving men in half, you were delivering the most memorable lines of the season

Stannis - To a man as hard as iron, who will break before he bends

Bronn - Here is to the nose that can smell out a fight, and various other things that may give a man pleasure.

Sansa - You may have bled earlier, but you became an adult here.

Davos - It is terribly hard to drown an onion. They float you know.

Varys - One of these days you will have to tell me the story of how you were cut.

Shae - I thought you were someone else when I first met you, but I am now glad for who you are

Joffery - You wanted to do the right thing, I could see it in your eyes, but you just weren't made that way

Lancel - You used to be an adventurer, but then you took an arrow to the knee.
(I know... It was to the shoulder... I am using another pop culture reference here so shut up.)

Loras - Now I know why Westeros calls you a bad ass.

Illyn Peyne - without a word, you bring death into a room.

and last, but not least...

Tywin Lannister - You once again proved that no matter who is in the room with you, your manhood is larger.

[TeamDanyArya]

Not that I think we need this thread quite yet, but since there was one started for episode 8 and I suggested one of these get started for each episode, I'll give it a go. We have nitpicky threads for each epiosde, let's have a gusher thread.

I'm not one for long posts so I'll try to keep this brief.

Really, this was just epic awesomeness from the start to finish.

Cersei - Ahhh, her armor. New meaning to breastplate. Her wine fueled "speech" to the ladies with the contrast of Sansa's innocence and rallying of the ladies was well-done. Her sitting on the throne with Tommen at the end had me close to crying in an episode that had me on the edge of my seat. And her telling Pycelle to go away was nice.

Sansa - It really showed off how understated and I think, underappreciated, Sophie Turner is doing with Sansa. She isn't one of my favorites but I do enjoy the actress and the show's take on her. And her dialogue with Joffery, her sarcastic responses, and his slow to pick up on it reaction, were well-played.

Joffery - Gods is he a little prick. I loved his expression as he realized he might have to fight after all. Some vunerability from the second-coming of mad King Aerys.

Tyrion - He's Tyrion, what can you say? Scared and brave at the same time.

Varys - He only needs one scene to make an impact. I love how he was on the verge of tears when he was talking to Tyrion especially when talking about the dark arts and Mel. I wonder if he knows Mel? He is the Master of Knowledge after all.

Stannis - Not one of my favs but I dig the actor playing him. Makes you almost root for him as king.

Tywin and Loras - Leave the viewer wondering why a Tyrell is next to a Lannister. Good cliffhanger for non-book readers. Sets up the next season quite nicely. And I've always loved Tywin's armor. It suites that character well.

The Hound - I almost lost it as he looked around at all the fire. The fear on his face and his willingness to just leave was great. And I liked the scene with Sansa. Less creepy than in the books. In the books, I feared Sansa would be raped but in the show, it played out better. Sansa gained a lot of courage in this episode and confronted a couple of her fears: Joffery and the Hound.

The battle scenes - BOOM. So glad I have surround sound. I don't think I've ever seen a TV show attempt anything like that and try to make it look as good as possible. They don't have a Hollywood budget and they did a fantastic job. It looked movie quality and I don't think anyone else could ever pull that off. Mad props to HBO for doing it and doing it well.

[Noelle Snow]

I'm amazed that even with that epicness there's a nitpick thread. No, we didn't get the chain and we didn't get the song from Sansa, etc. But seriously? I didn't see one thing that was a flaw in that episode. Perfect. From start to finish.

The acting, the writing, the effects, the cinematography, the direction, everything. And I think as much as we should heap praise on GRRM for giving us this brilliance, we need to give props to D&D for working so hard to even get to this point and to HBO for having enough faith to even expand their budget for this one episode.

Give it up for everyone! *applause*

[victim]

Apart from the Wildfire and Stannis being a badass and the other obvious stuff, my favourite thing in the episode has to be Joffrey. When he says "what did my mother say exactly, did she have urgent business with me?", wow! He's looking for any excuse, no matter how weak, to get the heck away from the battle. His voice was cracking, oh my Gods, I cannot get over it.

Other than that:

- Sansa's doll.
- "I saw you kill a man with a shield, you'll be unstoppable with an axe." - Bronn.
- That is exactly how I imagined Cersei would be when she is drunk.
- Head explosion via rock.
- The Hound being afraid of the fire was houndled perfectly.... Sorry.
- And Pod.

There really is so many more.

[Ser Adam]

Bahaha "houndled perfectly". Rofl. Ok, I'm done.

I too just want to say thanks, to HBO, GRRM, and everybody else involved with any and everything ASoIaF related! My all time favorite series I've ever read, and my current favorite show!

[sennahoj]

Joffrey and Tyrion having a conversation on the battlements with the aid of Lancel und the Hound was just terribly funny, as well as the punchline: "that would make me the quarterman." Classic

[Dannyisnow]

That episode was absolutely sublime, i'm not one to point out flaws and complain at minor changes, but if i did wish to be that way i don't think i could with this episode it was fantastic !

The highlights for me were, of course the wildfire explosion ! which made me physically "Woah !", the battle scenes were immense and i thought the Bronn and Hound undertone was particularly good ( I don't think i picked that up in the books too much, so if it's been added I like it ! ). One of the things i most liked was the evolution of characters, Sansa finally took control of herself, Cersei proving she's not bullet proof and the Hound's absolute terror at fire and we even got a glimpse that maybe he has a pinch of affection somewhere...  Otherwise we saw Joffrey for what he really is, a coward, however i think non-readers had that one already established , Stannis the fearless king leading the way until the very end having to be dragged away, and of course Tyrion the lion.

I cant wait for next weeks finale, i have a feeling things will tie together and certain book changes that have received many criticisms will come back around bringing the show back in line with where it needed to be with the books.

[BastardPoetry]

I created an account just to share my excitement over this episode and how great it was. Neil Marshall is a complete genius, when it comes to working with a budget 1/1000th the size of a LotR budget and making it look just as good.

I've been lurking here for quite awhile, and I know a lot of people get upset over the little things that D&D might be doing "wrong," but I feel it's important to praise them for the overall work they've done. This series is spectacular, and you can really tell that they love the source material as much as we do. Little changes are made, for the budget, for the time limits, or for viewer-friendliness in general, but the passion is still there. (Plus, I'm one of those people who sees every alteration as either a good change at best or an understandable one at worst).

Finally, I made a poster to express my excitement over Blackwater.
It's a SPOILER if you haven't seen the episode yet--but why would you be reading the "praise for episode 9" thread if you haven't seen it yet, honestly!? I'll just put the link itself, rather than an IMG tag, because it's fairly big.

http://i47.tinypic.com/izrz7s.jpg

[Mulled Wino]

I have absolutely nothing to fuss about this week.  Gonna make it a pretty lame week on the forum.  

Kudos all around, this time i want to shout out the costume designer for the show.  Loved the armor, loved Stannis army looking deathly and drag in their greys and i LOVED cersei's armor.

[Arkash]

I want to raise my glass to the men of the shadow, because I am one of them too: technicians: light, sound, make-up, settups, scripts, assistants, engineers, editors, design, costums, visual effects, producers, colorists, cameramen, steady-cam, drivers, cooks, stunt-men, fire-men...

Edited by Arkash, 29 May 2012 - 06:51 AM.

[protar]

There's too much to list, I wish Martin had time to write every episode. One thing I did notice was Shae about to tell a story before getting interrupted. It was probably nothing, but I felt like it was Martin poking fun at all the non-canon anecdotes that are written in.

[TeamDanyArya]

Or perhaps a way for Shae to deflect Cersei's attention from her. She knows Cersei's knows something is up with her.

[TeamDanyArya]

BastardPoetry, on 29 May 2012 - 04:13 AM, said:

http://i47.tinypic.com/izrz7s.jpg

Thank you for the new background! And welcome!

[moonsblood]

This episode actually made me feel a little bad for Joff, Jack is that good.

Edited by spiritguides, 29 May 2012 - 08:43 PM.

[protar]

TeamDanyArya, on 29 May 2012 - 08:08 PM, said:

Or perhaps a way for Shae to deflect Cersei's attention from her. She knows Cersei's knows something is up with her.

Well, no doubt that was the in-universe reason. It's probably me just seeing things but kudos to you Martin if you were doing what I thought you were.

[Catherine Storm]

Holafernando Torres, on 28 May 2012 - 06:25 PM, said:

Joffery - You wanted to do the right thing, I could see it in your eyes, but you just weren't made that way.

Agree with this. Don't get me wrong - no sympathy at all for Joffrey!!! But his response, lol, what freakin urgent business would Cersei have with him mid battle!!! Lolol
Jack Gleeson definitely portrays this brat well.

I love this episode. Easily my favourite episode of the SERIES. And maybe even of any tv show I've watched!

You guys have heard about the 70-min episode next week, right? THANK YOU FOR 10 EXTRA MINUTES!!!

[SerMixalot]

Here's to guys getting their heads crushed by rocks, tops of heads sliced off, legs loppoed off by axes, bodies brutally chopped in half, spears through heads, bodies aflame and a good old fashioned body or two atomized in a massive explosion.

[SerMixalot]

catherine, on 30 May 2012 - 04:11 AM, said:

Agree with this. Don't get me wrong - no sympathy at all for Joffrey!!! But his response, lol, what freakin urgent business would Cersei have with him mid battle!!! Lolol
Jack Gleeson definitely portrays this brat well.

I love this episode. Easily my favourite episode of the SERIES. And maybe even of any tv show I've watched!

You guys have heard about the 70-min episode next week, right? THANK YOU FOR 10 EXTRA MINUTES!!!

agreed the actor did a great job, I was even feeling bad for him, i keep thinking of him as a 13 year old kid in this position.  I half expected, when they were on the battlement for Tyrion to turn and offer a word or two of encouragement.  Well acted.

[TeamDanyArya]

What it shows also is that while Joff may talk a big talk, he truly is not fit to be king. He inspires no love in his men. Even Stannis can muster that much. It was odd, Stannis came off as the man in that battle. I like that better than in the books. It showed the viewer that Stannis should be on the Iron Throne and no one else. He is the one true king.

[madman2711]

I really think the order of thanks is
First second and third GRR Martin for giving us the books and D&D + hbo for having this marvelous premise that they put on screen
This episode almost wiped away all the major nitpicks and i think its a epic TV hour