Fredwin

First half almost flawless. The BotB was filmed extremely well, I mean it was really well shot. Good action, good pacing, tense. It was just the concept of it that was ridiculous. Armies don't fight like that, and why pretend there are 8-9 thousand men there when they show a wide shot of maybe a couple thousand? It's a total nitpick but I hate seeing lost opportunities like that. Anyhow. Finished with a 9 for me.

Yeah, I think they made that obvious by already announcing the end of the series. Apparently they're trying to lower everyone's expectations.

Dragons, white walkers and magic are all parts of this fantasy world. It's not hard to imagine these things existing in a similar universe, it's something that most people can suspend disbelief for. Arya both lost and regained her sight due to "magic". Bullshit? Basically, but at least it's an explanation. You're right that the beatings she endured should have sidelined her, but they were more in line with the realistic kind of hands-on training that a real person might endure. Certainly you can't compare that to what comes next. Arya's stomach got stabbed out and she turned the blade in it man, hard. Arya is like a 100lb girl. There's just no way, I can't suspend disbelief, I don't think most people can. It's ridiculous. Unless you're trying to make the point that because Arya is special she is some sort of demi-god, it doesn't work. It just doesn't account for how over the top it was. Game of Thrones is supposed to NOT be that show, you know, the one full of terrible cliches and etc.

I couldn't believe it was happening. I knew the story line was bust the second she had her stomach stabbed out last week. It's tough to fathom just knowing how many hundreds of different ways simple things could have been altered to make it work even a little bit better. The easiest thing to change? Have Arya take a superficial wound instead of having her insides go to her outsides. It wouldn't explain the lame smirk on Jaquen's face, but I think that's the writer's honestly trolling us to begin with. It kind of sucks, I'm only complaining because I am absolutely a fan of the show, yet watching these scenes is making me cringe instead of having the immersive experience I'd rather be having.

I'd love to see LSH(even a bastardized version) but I hope they're smart enough to have her body been preserved somewhere, opposed to floating in a river. How would her corpse survive intact in any open environment?

I'm pretty sure the secret was that Marge was going to be put on the walk of atonement, a "secret" that the HS knew Tommen would relay to her.

Exactly, the stalling is what I have the issue with, though. HBO said they wanted to show to go 10 seasons, but it's like they figured out that there's no way they can write this show for 10 seasons because they don't know what to do with it. Maybe that gives us hope for a decent prequel series, but... if they can't write this they can't very well write that, you'd think.

The point is that it's not congruent... The writing has been so subpar because they are afraid to leave the comfort of what is already written...

Think about how the way that was written portrays Arya. Here she is devoting herself to a deathcult that specializes in assassinations. She is told by Jaquen in no uncertain terms that if she fails her task a face will be added to the wall no matter what. That is a specific threat against her person, by a deathcult, who are assassins... I just don't know what else to say.

The way the season was paced, it seemed like after episodes 3-5 things were about to go gangbusters, full throttle into new territory. Then it relapsed. It's like you can literally see the line in the script where they stopped knowing what exactly to write.

I judge the books and the show on their own merits, but it's painfully obvious to see that the writers are struggling when they don't have stronger work to keep them afloat.

I have to agree, 100%. They spent two seasons building up Arya's faceless arc, for what? For Jaquen to basically smirk and say "Yeah, you are Arya, Hah!"? Varys' birds don't know the provincial capital is about to come under siege? Yeah, here we were led to believe that the mountain was about to go on a rampage, oh well. If the BwB knows about the white walkers, what are they still doing ditzing around in the Riverlands not helping? Not only did the Blackfish die offscreen but they made his character so proud and vain as to be a villain. He comes off as screwing Sansa's chances at getting reinforcements for no reason. Have fun in Lannister prison camps Tully relatives.

This episode was the perfect illustration of how the show is coming off the tracks without GRRM's template. The whole season is uneven, and they are hovering between the areas of the book where they explicitly know what happened, and kind of know from what the fanbase has figured out over the years. Here we are a books worth of episodes past what is written on paper and we still have barely progressed the story. With the exception of Hodor(Which they were explicitly told about) everything that's happened(or been "confirmed") this season was already a mostly predicted outcome. We've had flashbacks, time-traveling(Riverrun, not Bran) and teleports en masse and we've yet to really move out of the Book Five comfort zone. Now they're saying there's only 14 episodes left, if that is the case, why did they botch so many storylines this year in the name of expediency? If there really are 14 episodes left, that means they are basically stalling until the very last set of episodes where they have a general idea of what the last character arcs will be, and it's so apparent. I can't believe the entire season has been a build-up to the three conflicts that are the cliffhangers in A Dance with Dragons. The battle of Mereen, The battle of Winterfell, and Cersei vs. The Faith.

It's mostly the lack of potential. There was setup for the Blackfish to have Edmure's scene and do something one way or the other. Arya's storyline could have went so many different ways, more poignant ways. I thought for sure they were going somewhere, I thought we were actually going to see Nymeria when she put Arya to sleep. Also, she want's to go to More-Westeros? I guess the list is out? How about the faith having some response to the mountain basically dismembering one of them?

Wow. I was so looking forward to this episode and it just failed on so many levels. That huge thread about whether or not Arya's story line had something going on underneath the surface or it was just bad writing. Well at least we have an answer, they played it as straight and unrealistic as absolutely possible. Three wasted Tyrion scenes just to rush a goodbye to Varys and allow an entrance for Dany, great. Brienne and Pod escaping Riverrun when they already had free passage. The Blackfish commiting suicide and looking moronic, losing the opportunity to support his niece. I gave it a 4, mostly for finally seeing something in King's Landing that was watchable. Ugh.

The High-Sparrow is pretty transparent in trying to show off his convert.

I gave it a 5. Too much repetition in King's Landing. Bad pacing, poor layout of scenes, and too much build-up with too many cliffhangers(kind of sounds like ADWD). As a bonus, Lady Mormont is ridiculous, too long of a scene for a weak comedic payoff, but nice try. Now for some positives. The Hound is awesome as always. I liked the scene coming before the opening credits even though the reveal was a bit lame. We actually hear dialogue about the fact that Cercei is still the cause of all evil and the ramifications of Robb's ventures. The Blackfish stuff is alright.

It was like one step forward for Bran, Tommen, and Arya but 10 steps forward for everyone else. Except for Dany, she pretty much hovered literally and figuratively .

Not a flashy episode but you really have to give them credit for managing to cover so much ground in only an hour. They repaired some of their own missteps by moving all the Riverland facets back into play. They filled in Sam's entire back story in 20 minutes and they even mentioned to name drop Bronn and the BWB lest you forget them. Giving it a 7 for the fast forward on the exposition, just on a technical level. They really brought things up to speed in a way I thought wasn't possible.

None needed, I apologize myself for posting from my phone. It's tough to articulate what I'm trying to say until I get back to my PC, heh.

Not sure where you got that impression? Clearly the books stand on their own and there is a reason the direwolves exist. Yes, I remember GRRM stating that when he originally thought up the first fragments of the story he got the image in his head of the Stark children chancing upon their direwolves. So yeah, they're kind of a big deal. Notice how I said strictly speaking? Down to bare plot essentials(which is what the show is concerned with) what point do they have going forward? I'm merely saying that people should really lower their expectations(especially for the show), as this could be an unfortunate sign that the direwolves may be nearing the end of their road in the books too. Sorry, but it's true.

Obviously they have a meaning man, geez, but how can you say that they play individualdly important roles? Strictly speaking they are mostly just used as a narrative device so that the Stark kids can experience things otherwise not possible. For instance Arya being able to see Westeros and to assumably be a vessel for Jon's soul. At the end of the day the show chose to cut most of the wolves(literally) so honestly, how important to the story are we talking here in terms of end game, etc.?

Yeah, I mentioned that in the last sentence.

It would make sense for them to tie it up in one season budget-wise. No need to pay for the cut-rate 'young' actors and for the filming location for longer than needed. I guess they could always film it now and fit it in next year though.

Right, most of the dialogue is terrible, but have you noticed how it's much worse in the exposition and monologue scenes? The rest of the dialogue is pretty hit and miss, but it seems to be a tad better when there is actual scene taking place and not just a plot dump.