How would you rate episode 306?

[Mediumjon Umber]

Don't know if I'm more cynical than usual or if I'm just jaded with this whole fantasy bullsh*t genre after recently reading a couple of particularly sh***y books, but this episode was the worst of the series, not only the season.

Why the f**k was Sam happy? Didn't he just watch his sworn brothers kill the LC and turn on his friends? Isn't he, Gilly and her infant alone in the wolfinfested woods with the Others marching after them?

Except the climb and Melisandre's arrival at the BwB, this whole episode felt like it was composed of deleted scenes.

5. Not good enough.

[Moët]

The styrofoam ice was horrible, dawg. Sorry. Actually not talking about CGI but the actual sets. Like I said.

You're thinking of the last Star Trek movie. This was waaaay better than that.

[Lord Godric]

Maybe try and actually come up with something interesting for Bran & Company to do until they reach the wall (I did like the side effect of seizures for Jojen, that was a nice add)?

I wondered if they were going to have Ramsay hunting Bran and Rickon. He knows they are alive and commented on how fun of a hunt that would be. It would definitely spice up Bran's story and give them a reason to split up (because if they decide to split up now it would feel strange unless there was some more dire reason than "we can't travel together")

[Pure Guava]

This was waaaay better than that.

Was it now? I wonder where the proof might be since it certainly wasn't in the show. :rolleyes:

[Greyjoy67]

Speaking of ratings, this seems like an appropriate place to put this. Over at Tower of the Hand, they have a ratings system for episodes (like here) and overall averages. Seems this episode has the weakest rating of any GOT episode ever.... I didn't mind it that much! Not too surprised but what's rated and what aint though.

Season 1

Ep 1 8.48

Ep 2 8.31

Ep 3 8.24

Ep 4 8.51

Ep 5 8.76

Ep 6 9.05

Ep 7 8.89

Ep 8 9.33

Ep 9 9.25

Ep10 9.18

Season 2

Ep11 7.99

Ep12 7.53

Ep13 8.48

Ep14 8.18

Ep15 8.49

Ep16 8.31

Ep17 8.39

Ep18 7.64

Ep19 9.38

Ep20 8.62

Season 3

Ep21 8.15

Ep22 7.98

Ep23 8.62

Ep24 9.28

Ep25 8.66

Ep26 7.40

[Moët]

Was it now? I wonder where the proof might be since it certainly wasn't in the show. :rolleyes:

It was clearly in the show. Not sure what you watched, as I'm not the only one that thought it was awesome. :D :D :D

[Ran]

The forum has things rated rather differently. I believe the lowest we had was for Night Lands, which scored just above 7.0, I think.

[Pure Guava]

It was clearly in the show. Not sure what you watched, as I'm not the only one that thought it was awesome. :D :D :D

That why it's currently the (justifiably) worst-rated episode yet in the series?

EDIT: to add "one of the"

Edited May 6, 2013 by Pure Guava

[Ran]

It's not. It's the worst of the season, but not of the series, at least on this forum.

ETA: Tallying it up, The Night Lands scored a 7.07 from 391 voters.

Edited May 6, 2013 by Ran

[Greyjoy67]

The forum has things rated rather differently. I believe the lowest we had was for Night Lands, which scored just above 7.0, I think.

Yeah, that's quite low on there as well. I don't remember it being that bad, was it? Early season 2, I'm actually a bit blank because it was a bit uneventful... Season 3 seems to be following a similar pattern in terms of quality: set-up eps that are okay in quality, a few episodes that a bit more riveting, one or two dips again and then a big penultimate episode that steals the show (I assume RW will follow that trend....)

Or maybe science is just bollocks for a TV show! :ack:

Edited May 6, 2013 by Greyjoy67

[Lord Godric]

Yeah, that's quite low on there as well. I don't remember it being that bad, was it? Early season 2, I'm actually a bit blank because it was a bit uneventful... Season 3 seems to be following a similar pattern in terms of quality: set-up eps that are okay in quality, a few episodes that a bit more riveting, one or two dips again and then a big penultimate episode that steals the show (I assume RW will follow that....)

Or maybe science is just bollocks for a TV show! :ack:

the Red Wedding will be in the penultimate episode.

[Juli Greyjoy]

Gave it a 9, liked it a lot, except maybe the stuff with Ros, which was rather pointless.

Somehow I can't feel for show-Theon. Ramsay was fucking hilarious this episode. :lol:

[Greyjoy67]

the Red Wedding will be in the penultimate episode.

I know, that's what I was saying :)

[Tywin's bastard]

Well if we completely ignore the books then it makes sense, yes. Thing is, Beric was one of my favorite characters in the books so the scene where Gendry was taken away like a prisoner really hurt me. BwB follows R'hllor because of Thoros' powers, not because they agree with human sacrifices. Book Beric is a perfect example of a man who would sacrifice himself to save another. He would never allow a member of BwB to burned in order to makes Stannis a king. The whole point of BwB is that they are not on the side of any king, but on the side of smallfolk. Or at least they were uner Beric, under UnCat it's hard to say on whose side they are on.

Slavery may not be the correct expression but they sold a man so that Mel may use him as she pleases. That is pretty damn close to slavery.

Again, I can see no reason why BwB would sell their member to Stannis. I do not know what Mel told them, but if she told them that Stannis is AAR and that the battle for dawn is coming, wouldn't a company of religious zealots join his cause? And if she did not tell them that, then why did they let him go?

It's not about completely ignoring the books, it's about that it's completely illogical to use the books as explanations for things in the show before you use what the show has presented.

And Mel definitely isn't doing things just so Stannis can be king, everything is about him opposing the coming darkness and him being king is only to make him more able to do so as it means that he has more power.

Thoros and Beric are shown as believing that R'hllor is the one true god and as Thoros says in this episode; all men must serve. We also get Beric saying that he's been to the darkness when he died and therefor knows how important Melisandre's task is. He's seen something of the true threat and he realizes that R'hllor sent Mel to them for a reason. She says that she's sent there because R'hllor needs Gendry and they give him up because of that.

So how exactly does that make them mere slavers?

As for them not joining Mel, they must think that what they already do is what R'hllor wants as well. Otherwise he wouldn't be bringing Beric back. Just because there's a greater cause doesn't mean that nothing else can matter, and just because there's more than one task to be done doesn't mean that they are all equal.

Edited May 6, 2013 by Tywin's bastard

[Table8]

Gave it a 7, but in hindsight should have given it a six. The episode was rather slow and plodding. It's understandable that not every episode can be as good as the last 2, but as the season moves on, it's becoming very noticeable that certain storylines just aren't moving well at all. So far, Bran's scenes are just horrible. Slow, uninteresting and tedious. So far it feels like each scene has been put in just to remind the viewer that this kid Bran is still around. Jon Snow's story is a bit uninteresting as well. It seems the show runners are doing everything they can to force feed us a relationship between Jon and Ygrite. Reminds me of Anakin and Padme - you know they have to get together, but the relationship is contrived and not organic at all. My least favorite actress in the series has been Ygrite (her name is escaping me now.). Also, i'mdisappointed that they killed off all but 3 of the wildlings. I expected the season to end with a decent battle at Castle Black, but it's hard to think how there can be any battle with so few antagonists.

I've come around on the whole Theon situation. At first I was excited at the prospect of experiencing his story as it happens as opposed to an after-the-fact narrative ala the books. But seriously, what is the endgame here? There's only so much torture I'm willing to digest. Theon became one of my favorite characters as the story unfolded and Alfie is my favorite actor in the series. But these torture scenes are not really doing much anymore except grossing me and my girlfriend out.

I really liked the scene between Varys and LF. Elio and Linda might have a problem with the frankness of LF's dialogue, but honestly, that scene had my hair standing up. Seeing a dead Roz and a crying Sansa with the creepy music in the background was very powerful.

My reviews so far this year:

Episode 1: 7

Episode 2: 7

Episode 3: 5

Episode 4: 9

Episode 5: 8

And this one got a (restated) 6

[King Tyrion I]

I gave it a 9.

[Little Wing]

Didn't love it, but didn't hate it either.

7/10

[Ser Drizztos]

Weakest episode this season. 5/10

The only scene that did something for me was Tyrion with Cercei. Everything else was overacted, too melodramatic, or plain boring.

[WhatIsDeadMayNeverLive]

It's not about completely ignoring the books, it's about that it's completely illogical to use the books as explanations for things in the show before you use what the show has presented.

And Mel definitely isn't doing things just so Stannis can be king, everything is about him opposing the coming darkness and him being king is only to make him more able to do so as it means that he has more power.

Thoros and Beric are shown as believing that R'hllor is the one true god and as Thoros says in this episode; all men must serve. We also get Beric saying that he's been to the darkness when he died and therefor knows how important Melisandre's task is. He's seen something of the true threat and he realizes that R'hllor sent Mel to them for a reason. She says that she's sent there because R'hllor needs Gendry and they give him up because of that.

So how exactly does that make them mere slavers?

As for them not joining Mel, they must think that what they already do is what R'hllor wants as well. Otherwise he wouldn't be bringing Beric back. Just because there's a greater cause doesn't mean that nothing else can matter, and just because there's more than one task to be done doesn't mean that they are all equal.

I guess you can look at it this way, it's just not how I saw that scene and BwB. The BwB I know would not give him up without knowing what Mel will do with him. Maybe she said she needs him to battle darkness and I can see BwB acting as they did in that case but what she said on TV is that he will make kings rise and fall. BwB would not give him up to aid one of the kings, R'hllor or no. If they believed in Stannis' cause they would aid him, but they clearly state they care about smallfolk not the kings. I also think it's completely wrong to call them religious zealots but that is not really the point. They follow R'hllor because he has shown himself as a true god, not because they agree with the ways of his followers. Thoros is not exactly a typical red priest and I bet he does not approve of human sacrifice.

I hated the changes to BwB storyline and if you liked them we will just have to agree to disagree.

[King of the Wall]

I gave it a 6, but it was a very weak episode.

I liked the scenes with Sam/Gilly, Theon/Ramsay, Cersei/Tyrion, Jaime/Roose and most of all Littlefinger/Varys.

I completely hated Loras on this episode. Why did they make him the commom gay stereotype? I'm not a fan of Loras, but he was a completely different character. They made him so flat and simple he lost all his charisma.

I think D&D are really struggling with Bran's story line. They give it some small screentime without giving it meaning. I felt that the only reason for Meera and Osha's discussiion was so that Meera could have some dialogue.

What was Melisandre going after Gendry? I am looking forward to know where they are going with this. I guess Mel or Stannis will tell Gendry who his father was. I don't know if that's good or not for the story. Will Mel succeed on using Gendry or will Davos protect him, like he did with Edric in the books? At least it makes us, book fans, wonder about the future of a character too.

I liked Thoros' interaction with Mel, and her reaction to Beric, but I think it was a little out of character to ssell Gendry just like that.

The scenes of Jon/Ygritte were good. I think it was a good change Ygritte knew Jon was still a crow when he went over to Mance's side. And now she's trying to make Jon be loyal to her, to forget the Night's Watch for her. It was good.

I had hoped Jon would toss Orell down the Wall, once they reach the top.

I didn't liked the Olenna/Tywin scene. Olenna asking if Tywin had never tried boys before. God, what were they thinking?

The best was Varys and Littlefinger. I always like their exchanges on the throne room. I loved how they made Littlefinger talk about a friend who would deal with Ros and later they show Joffrey leaving a room with his crossbow, before showing Ros' body. Damn, Jack Gleeson does a great job.

They should've ended the episode with Littlefinger's monologue about chaos, instead of Jon and Ygritte atop of the Wall. It would've been much better.

Edited May 6, 2013 by King of the Wall