Into the Weirwood

It'd be really interesting!

Honestly just for the feels and my immediate reaction after watching it, I gave it a 10. Especially considering how bad the other episodes were in comparison. Once I rewatch it I can make a more rational analysis though. But for now: almost made all this shitty season worth it, finally!!!!!!!!

Visually, this episode was a 10. As a story, it was better than most of the other episodes this season, but somehow I was expecting more. I think some small changes would have made it better. For example, I'd have absolutely loved it if as Jon's punching Ramsay and he sees Sansa, she comes and finishes the job by killing him herself. To me it'd have a bigger impact than having the dogs kill him. It could have ended right there.

I'd love seeing the Hound kill Ramsay, this hadn't ever crossed my mind

We're at episode 8 already. I expected so much more. It's not like nothing happened in this episode, but they take great opportunities to make something really amazing and just ruin them. The Blackfish dying off screen? Daenerys arriving in the most obvious way possible, super clean? Arya, despite being careless and hurt last week, now suddenly has the strength to defeat the Waif (a fight we couldn't even see)? It's like they pass all the exciting moments and we're left watching what happens next. We just get to see action in some less significant scenes - like the Hound killing those guys. I'd much rather see Blackfish fighting. (I'd actually much rather see him going with Brienne, but oh well.) I'm especially disappointed in how they handled Arya's story. Why after months of training would she wander around the streets of Braavos last week the way that she did? Was hoping for a logical answer this episode but I see the writing was just bad. Gave it a 3 because of Tommen's announcement about trial by combat (kind of unexpected), Jamie and Edmure's conversation (even though I hate how they decided to go with Jamie mad in love with Cersei in the show) and also because I recognized some streets of Girona - Spain I've walked before in the Braavos scenes (mainly the stairs Arya falls for what seemed like 3 minutes)! lol

If she got better at fighting they made a poor job showing it. And that's the only thing I can think of that would make sense for her to spend all this time with the FM and then leaving.

Honestly the impression I was immediately left with after watching this episode wasn't so great - I kept waiting for a huge "wow" scene and maybe because I was used to this season's fast pace my expectations were too high it never happened. But after reflecting upon it, I realize there were some good moments. I've never really cared for House Tyrell, but I enjoyed the symbolism on the rose drawing Olenna received - "Growing Strong". This right there confirms Margaery - like Cersei and unlike Loras - is not so weak minded as to be broken by the High Sparrow, but rather smart because she'll take advantage of the situation. I admit I liked seeing her back with the crown because she's a real player - Tommen on the other hand is such a bore that his whole lack of action (until recently) makes it look like King's Landing is kingless. At least with Margaery back on her feet we can expect some better scenes in KL in the future? It was nice seeing the Hound again, but the scenes involving him were a bit confusing and repetitive. I understand they had to introduce his new context now but it was the main event in this episode (it kept coming back and forth) and it wasn't exciting enough for the amount of time it received. Considering it was a slow episode though, I was happy to see him back! Theon and Asha: what makes them think Daenerys will make a deal with them? Also you're in a pretty fucked up situation; the scene being in a brothel was unnecessary to me but okay. Lyanna Mormont was the highlight of this episode imo and saved the North arc. She reminded me what true northerners are supposed to be like; I was so glad to see an authentic strong personality in this season which seems overall weak when it comes to characters (we do have strong characters, but things happen and they don't quite react as proportionally expected). And speaking of characters, it was good to see Jaime 1) in Lannister clothes and 2) away from Cersei, which seems to bring his true self out in the show lol. The whole Riverrun scene was great. The characters' actions and dialogue made sense which has been pretty rare. Arya, honestly... I expected more. I don't have a problem with her getting hurt by the waif, on the contrary - I actually think if she got rid of all the FM traces in her life and moved on too easily it'd be extremely poor as a story. But would she be this careless, wandering around Braavos after knowing she disobeyed the kindly man and he said "one face would be up in the wall one way or another" (quite a threat)? It's a mess to me.

I've heard some people say that BR was "downloading" all his knowledge (or something like that) into Bran in that short amount of time before his death. So maybe Bran will know this because it was put in his conscience. If that was the case though, why did the last vision took him specifically to Winterfell and the Hodor situation? (I imagine if he was receiving a great amount of knowledge, they'd portray it visually by making Bran see a lot of visions super fast?) And if BR knew what was going to happen all along, why didn't he teach Bran faster? I think maybe some of the flaws we find when we think about this are caused by the way they had to portray the situation in the show (they can't explain everything), but in the books we'll find more answers.

I strongly believe in the second option. I think he knew what was going to happen and for that reason pulled Bran into the vision (otherwhise it'd make no sense to do so during an attack). If Wylis hadn't become Hodor, Bran wouldn't even be there.

Being a major fan of Bran's storyline, he's the main reason I still watch the show. Gave it a 9 only because this episode finally gave me something new and good about it (even though at this point we can't know if it'll match the books). Also up to now I don't remember seeing in season 6 a better scene than today's final one.

I feel like season 1 was the most loyal to the books because there was less to tell and time enough to do it. A major problem in the adaptation process, for me, is the need the show had to diverge from the original story throughout the following seasons because of the lack of time. The unalterable mold of 10 episodes of approximately an hour each, in my opinion, doesn't cover a book that's almost twice as big as the first one (as I believe is the case of ASoS). But as they have budget priorities and stuff like that, it's understandable that they have to cut parts of some stories and change them so they make sense without the missing parts.

Agreed. The whole Jamie/Cersei/Tywin scenes tonight just felt weird. Pretty unexpected behavior from characters whose actions follow a pretty well-defined line.

That's an interesting point. I think even when we try to judge it just by the show, it's sort of impossible for the readers to not have in mind some things we remember from the books, like what was going through certain characters' minds in some scenes. I always come here and rate the episode right after I've watched it, and maybe if I waited longer and reflected a little more upon it my score would be lower, because right now I'm influenced by the momentary impression the episode gave me. So I admit maybe there are some flaws I failed to see at the first watch. Also I like reading everyone's opinion here because that can really open my mind and make me see it from a different perspective. Anyway, it would be interesting to see how D&D's writing would be if it wasn't based off the books!

Gave it a 10 judging only by its quality as a TV series. I don't like to be too critical by comparing it to the books - I mean, of course it could have been much better if they followed the written story, but for me that didn't get in the way of the fact it was an amazing episode. Didn't think they'd show that scene of Bran right now considering in the books there's not much that happens for him after that.

Right! Sorry, my mistake, heh. Glad to hear that though!