midi Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 In terms of pure story-telling; S02E09 takes the cake. Blackwater was really good at this. The narrative from both sides of the battle, making us care about the participants. "Fuck the king!" :bowdown: :bowdown: I wish GRRM would write more episodes for the series, because he is, by far, the best writer on the crew. Sadly it seems that he is focusing on his project eternity (finishing the tWoW). In terms of making something out of nothing, seeing as people weren't really invested or interested in the Wall storyline last season, S04E09 takes the cake. Watchers on the Wall really made us see the conflict that everyone knew would happen at the Wall sooner or later. We even saw a different side of Ser Alliser, and even book readers got some shocking and interesting moments like Grenn reciting the Night's Watch oath as he and his crew die holding back the giant. It also established Olly as an important character. And of course featured a real tragedy with Ygritte's death :bawl: But S05E08 Hardhome takes the cake when it comes to pure action and even more so when it comes to significance for the overall plot. This makes it, in my opinion the best one out of three very good battles. The giant messing up the house as if a bomb had gone off, Snow running through the battlefield and cutting up a wight right down the middle, and Edd screaming like a girl at the sight of a wight avalanche were all epic moments. The fight between Snow and the White Walker was also good, but perhaps suffered a little bit from the obvious plot armor that Jon has - why didn't the White Walker just stab the crap out of him while his back was turned as he was getting the dragonglass..? Still, even that duel was enjoyable. And the Night's King's Jesus-moment at the end was a very heavy moment in the series in my opinion - a sign of things to come, what many fans seem to have started calling the Icepocalypse. The symbolism was also very well thought out in this episode (the four horsemen, the wooden wall coming down, and the very devil-like saviour) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbrowne Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 In terms of pure story-telling; S02E09 takes the cake. Blackwater was really good at this. The narrative from both sides of the battle, making us care about the participants. "Fuck the king!" :bowdown: :bowdown: I wish GRRM would write more episodes for the series, because he is, by far, the best writer on the crew. Sadly it seems that he is focusing on his project eternity (finishing the tWoW). Yeah, but.... GRRM didn't even write all of Blackwater. Baelor, And Now His Watch Is Ended, The Rains Of Castamere, The Children... All written by the hated combo D&D... that incidentally also wrote some of Blackwater. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the silver queen Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 For me, the vote goes to Blackwater. As others have said, BW has many characters that exhibit great acting, great dialogue, great tension and story-telling. With BW, it wasn't about the action per se, it was about the characters involved. Although the battle scenes themselves aren't much to remember, I can certainly remember Tyrion's speech, Davos commanding the ships and seeing the wildfire, Stannis saying how thousands would die, Cersei's drunken speeches to Sansa, the Hound fucking off the king and visiting Sansa, Cersei on the throne with Tommen ready to end it all before Tywin emerged proclaiming victory and the poison drops and Cersei's face afterwards... on and on. Hardhome was certainly the better one in terms of quality of action, no one could doubt that. Whereas BW slowly built tension, HH induced horror in the audience. I certainly enjoyed HH and think it's one of the greatest scenes in the series. I loved when Jon killed the WW. I loved the stand-off at the end. But I just feel it's not comparable truly to BW. HH didn't have any characters I was truly invested in (we knew Jon would survive so the beginning of his fight with the WW just felt a little long, and while I was hoping Tormund wouldn't die, he's certainly not a huge character. And I knew NotVal was a goner once we had that super long goodbye with her kids). The acting was fine, but nothing compared to the acting and dialogue present in BW. So why BW wins for me? Because no matter how many times I re-watch that episode, all those scenes I mentioned above give me physical chills as it all just feels brilliant to me. That's why it wins for me. BW makes me feel emotions that HH simply couldn't ever achieve. HH was fun, and horrifying and exciting. But I never once got a physical chill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winterfell Resident Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 In my opinion, I believe that HardHome was much better than the blackwater episode. There was no winner or loser of this battle. Even after narrowly escaping the clutches of the white walkers and the army of the dead, it still feels like it hopeless to win the war against the white walkers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crastors Child Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 "There was a fricking giant pulling the undead apart with his bare fricking hands.... Did ya fricking see it....?" Hardholme wins hands down for this Crastor. No competition in it, plus arm raising madness at the end of the episode to put icing on the cake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thi4f Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 Blackwater was better. Blackwater has awesome actors, dialogue, tension. Here is emotionless CGI fest. I felt nothing. It doesn't have any impact on the story after all... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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