TeethGrinder

Glad to see the positive reception as it was my favourite episode. I was mixed on the series after last week's debacle but this was a great recovery and a brilliant finale. The Storm's End stuff is the best dragon related content we've gotten from either show. The Jaws and Jurassic Park comparisons are legit - Vhagar's presence was so ominous and they built the tension up so well - I felt Luke's panic and terror and he tried to escape. I think Aemond losing control is actually quite fitting. On the whole the series delivered - Some pretty major flaws, especially with episode endings - but after late stage GOT this was always going to be a rehabilitation job and I think they've accomplished that.

He looks and sounds so exasperated. Honestly not any more hopeful about it being released, between his age and the fact that I think he's probably lost all passion for the project with the amount of pressure he's been put under to get it released. I kind of feel bad for him. He created a monster for himself with his own success.

Ok.

I can't comprehend how anything after season 6 or even most of season 6 could get over 5/10. That "capture a wight" quest? Really?

I gave it a lower rating but let's not get crazy.

By far the worst episode and the botched/convoluted endings are really starting to hurt my opinion of the show. 4/10 and that's pretty much down to how beautiful things were at times - Especially Aegon's coronation. By my count there's been five episodes where they've forced in some unnecessary drama or spectacle at the end of episodes and every time I feel it's undercut some of the great work that's been done. Episode 3 - Daemon's ridiculous solo charge and that Jon Snow level plot armour. Episode 5 - Criston straight up murdering Joffrey Lonmouth at a wedding with zero repercussions. Episode 7 - Laenor's fake out death which caused as many problems as it solved. Episode 8 - Alicent misinterpreting Viserys' words giving undermining all the previous tension to become the core drive for crowning Aegon. Episode 9 - Rhaenys killing hundreds of people and then dooming thousands more by not killing the usurpers. It's like they really didn't have confidence in the source material to provide satisfactory conclusions and while it's true that it does lack the dramatic cliff-hangers than ASOAIF has I still don't think these have done anything to improve the overall story, quite the opposite. There's going to be plenty of spectacle once the Dance starts, they should have allowed this season to be the build - The calm before the storm. I think that's what most people wanted and when they've done it it's what people have liked. Especially after the particularly nonsensical Marvel movies that were seasons 6-8 of Thrones.

It was ruthlessly out of character for her to kill as many innocents as she did. If you're going to portray her as so indifferent to causing death then you just can't have her spare the usurpers that were effectively holding her hostage and starting a war. It felt like spectacle and drama for the sake of it and the showrunners pretty much confirmed that. The reason they gave for sparing the Greens was empathy for Alicent as a mother, meanwhile she's surrounded by bodies that she just murdered. Ridiculous. She's well aware of what's coming. The preview indicates that. An absolute character assassination and the low point of the show thus far. I think if D&D had presented that in late stage GOT everyone would have called it out for the nonsensical garbage that it was.

The show will miss Paddy Considine. Similar to losing Addy and Bean in season one of Thrones - The rest of the cast were still mostly great but their charm was never quite replicated. I would say he’s up there with Charles Dance and Lena Headey in term of just making the character his own. Someone I was just indifferent to in F&B and they turned him into such a compelling, tragic figure. Great work by all involved but Considine especially.

Yup, I thought it was weird how they seemed to be indicating that skin colour was a factor when it really shouldn't be. Ryan Giggs was a pretty famous footballer - He was 3/4 white 1/4 black and yet very few even know that he has black heritage at all.

I’m extremely confused as to why they’d go this route. So what happens Laenor’s dragon? Is it really necessary to do this to Rhaenys? Ffs she probably would have gone along with the plan if she'd have been told, but now she thinks both her children are dead. I feel like they didn’t want the blacks to look too bad by killing Laenor but they just destroyed his parents’ lives, as did he. And they killed some random guard in his place. I think they could have just came up with a more narratively fitting death than the book, which is pretty lame but this just seems so convoluted.

I expect she'll be in the next two episodes a bit more given the titles, that's where we'll see her reaction. Tbh she's not used all that much in F&B either and I found the end of her story to be pretty underwhelming even if it was badass.

Would it though? This duel or battle seems very much like the kind of fanservice the show would offer and indeed what it did. If Stannis defeats Ramsay then by extension so has Jon given Stannis' key advisor has been Jon. GRRM isn't all about satisfactory endings, elsewise Joffrey would have been killed by Robb Stark. If it's a pleasing narrative he's going for then the guy to kill Ramsay should be Theon. They've been building up to this battle between the Boltons and Stannis since the end of Storm. To have the Bolton's win and then do it again with Jon at the head of the northern army would be pretty underwhelming and impractical given how much time has been devoted to Stannis' campaign. I think the biggest threat to his campaign is the Vale forces tbh. Ramsay may escape and have more story to tell but that whole "Battle Of The Bastards" concept wasn't for me. It's not impossible but I'm not very invested in it.

If Renly didn't know before (and I think it's debateable whether he did or not) he definitely knew once Stannis got the word out. There's no way that he, as a Baratheon who lived at court with the Lannisters couldn't piece it together at that point. It was in Renly's interest to ridicule the notion as opportunism on Stannis' part as he was presenting himself as the guy to overthrow the ruling tyrant - That doesn't really work if that tyrant is illegitimate anyway. Stannis' claim definitely lands with some people - Tyrion was extremely smart to not come down hard on the gossip as Cersei intended.

It's not so much to cover anything interesting but more to establish characters and relationships so that the interesting shit in episode 6 would hit harder. I wish we had more time with Harwin and Laena - There relationships and deaths felt a bit rushed and cheap when it was all condensed into one episode.

I thought it had been handled fairly well until this week. Really felt like we'd skipped an episode or two. In their defence - It's a difficult story to adapt timeline wise - So much happens at certain times and too little at others.