MordredDayne

Gave it a 4, and that was entirely for the King's Landing scene. I thought the Walk of Shame was handled excellently. All the other story lines were pretty dreadful, in my opinion.

I gave it a 5. A definite improvement over last week, but I felt the pacing was off. Some scenes seemed really rushed while other scenes dragged on. I would rather have not had the Sam/Gilly scene and have the time used for better paced Stannis/Melisandre scene.

I gave it a 1. This episode gave me both a headache and a stomachache. This might be the first episode ever where I didn't feel there was at least one redeeming moment.

I gave it a 4. The less said about this episode, the better. At least until the rant thread opens up.

I don't think that this explanation completely justifies the choice. Roose Bolton tells Ramsay that he shouldn't expect the Lannisters to send an army to defend them if they lose the support of the Northern lords. He doesn't say that they wouldn't send an army to bring a woman suspected of conspiring to murder a king to justice. I'm assuming Bolton has reinforcements at Moat Cailin, so they should be enough to keep an invading army at bay. However, I would be more concerned with Cersei finding out and sending a small group of men to attempt to murder/capture Sansa. As the show has revealed, it's apparently possible to bypass Moat Cailin if you're heading north...

Ah, thank you. I had forgotten this. At any rate, I don't think they were in a position to recognize Fake Arya. +1 to this. Not only that, but they needed to fit as much nudity into the scene as possible.

I think by that point in the books pretty much everyone of the old Winterfell who was there when the Boltons torched it was dead. Even if there were a couple of people left who did notice Arya was a fake, it would be far too dangerous for them to acknowledge it.

I fear you're right. I'm loathing the Sansa-Ramsay story that's to come, but I'm also kind of resigned to it at this point. Mainly I'm glad that it looks like her storyline is changed sufficiently that we probably won't be getting any Sansa TWOW spoilers. LF continues to be the man without a plan in the show.

For the purposes of this poll I gave the episode a 9/10. That's rounding up from the 8.66 I arrived at by averaging how I felt about all the scenes. This is a significant improvement over the previous two eps, which were in the 5-6 range for me. That's not surprising, as the focus has narrowed somewhat, giving the scenes more time to breathe. It also didn't feature any Jaime/Cersei scenes, which were my least favorite parts of the first two eps. Locations, from favorite to least favorite: The Wall (~9:12 mins) These scenes were fantastic. The actors were given enough time to do their work, and they delivered. I still love the way Dillane and Harrington play off of one another. Jon Snow continues to develop as Lord Commander. Owen Teale puts in a great performance even though he doesn't get any lines. Dominic Carter actually made me feel bad for Janos Slynt, which is a credit to his performance. His "I'm afraid. I've always been afraid." was one of the best line deliveries of the episode. The whole scene gave me chills. Loved Dillane's nod of approval at the end. Slight nitpick: I really would have liked Jon to mention the whole White Walker situation to Davos during their convo. It's like Jon has forgotten that they're the biggest threat that he faces. Braavos (~9:30 mins) I like how eerie THOBaW is. These scenes do a great job of letting the visuals speak for us. Arya is out of her element, and answers to her questions aren't forthcoming. They seem to largely be taking their time with this story, and I hope they continue to do so. I quite like Faye Marsay as The Waif, and Tom Wlaschiha's Jaqen continues to be good. I particularly liked Maisie's scene with Needle. Very true to the books. Volantis (~7:21 mins) Much as I love Dinklage and Hill, it was nice to get a couple of other characters in this story, and to see some of Volantis. I enjoyed the explanation of the tattoos, and the scene with the red priestess, though Tyrion's line about greyscale seems like a bit of forced foreshadowing. There was some nice witty banter between Dinklage and the prostitute. Tyrion's apparent impotence is an interesting addition. Dinklage plays his surprise particularly well. It was nice to see Jorah again. I look forward to seeing Glen and Dinklage acting together. Now that it seems that Varys and Tyrion are parted (though for how long, I'm not sure) I kind of wish we had gotten more out of their scenes in the previous episode. Winterfell (~7:38 mins) The flayed people look wonderfully grotesque. Excellent practical effects, there. Alfie Allen joins Owen Teale in giving a great performance without getting any lines. I enjoyed Roose's speech to Ramsay. Because Ramsay talked with his mouth full I could not make out the name of the lord that he flayed (Cerwyn?). Sansa's homecoming felt a bit anticlimactic, maybe because the scene was quite short. The implication of jealous drama with Myranda is something I'm not looking forward to. I did love "The North remembers." Littlefinger's scene with Ramsay and Roose was my least favorite,mainly because LF's plan doesn't really make sense to me. He just seems a bit foolhardy about the whole thing. I don't see how he can claim to hold the Vale when he gave up his only bargaining chip(Robin) to Yohn Royce in the last episode. I also don't understand how Cersei has yet to learn about Sansa, seeing how quickly information travels in the show (more on that later). Moat Cailin (~8:41 mins) The Littlefinger/Sansa scene was all right. As above, I'm not convinced of LF's plan. What would he have done if Sansa said, "Nope, I'm not marrying him. Let's go back to the Eyrie."? His whole "Stop being a bystander, but hey, you should do what I tell you to do." was just confusing. Avenge them? What? Wouldn't that eff up your whole plan? Whatever. Brienne and Pod was a great scene. I loved how they largely stuck to Pod's back story. Brienne's back story was touching and well acted, but it seems a bit less severe than it is in the book. I wish we had gotten Pod's half of this scene in the first or second episode, and then Brienne's half in this one, giving a bit more time for the KL scenes which seemed to need it. King's Landing (~14:12 mins) Despite getting nearly twice as much screen time as the other areas, KL still manages to feel rushed, which is not surprising, seeing as they work in 10 separate locations in that time. The wedding and bedding scenes were fine. Due to the aging up of Tommen it's unsurprising that her influence over him is overtly sexual, unlike in the books. The Tommen/Cersei scene and the following Cersei/Margaery scene are a bit heavy-handed for my taste. I understand making Margaery more of a direct rival to Cersei, but having her be so openly disrepectful seems unsubtle and unnecessary, much like Oberyn's rudeness was at the beginning of season 4. Instead of having a Cersei who increasingly becomes largely irrationally paranoid, we have a Cersei whose paranoia seems completely justified. Obviously they're continuing to make this Cersei more sympathetic, but I think they're just making her less interesting. I'm hoping they at least ratchet up the paranoia a little in upcoming eps. The High Septon scene was funny, but it really just seemed like an excuse for the show to reach its nudity quota. One would think that the High Septon would be smart enough to have prostitutes brought to him rather than frequenting the most popular brothel in KL. It also serves to make Cersei look better, as she has good reason to dismiss him, whereas in the books it plays out quite differently. The High Sparrow scene was probably my favorite, largely due to Jonathan Pryce's performance. I think he was a great choice. Final Nitpicking: HOLY JETPACKS, BATMAN! I know that they've consistently shrunken the world in the show, but it's getting kind of ridiculous. LF and Sansa get from Moat Cailin to Winterfell withinone episode? I guess they're only like, 20 miles apart. I'd also like to know how Varys and Tyrion make it all the way from Pentos to Volantis riding in a carriage. By far the worst though was Cersei having Qyburn send a message in one scene and having Roose Bolton receive it in the VERY NEXT SCENE, despite the fact that it was first sent to the Eyrie, and a rider had to bring it from there to Winterfell. That's just freaking insane. Either Qyburn has an email link to the Eyrie and the Eyrie has a jetpack toting messenger, or these scenes take place weeks/months apart, or the writers and showrunners have just given up trying to demonstrate the scale of the world. Very disappointing. I want to be charitable and attribute it to time differences between the scenes, but if that's the case I would like them to make that a little more clear.

Do you also have info as to the number of votes for each episode? I'm sure it doesn't make much of a difference as far as averages are concerned, but I'd be interested to see how they have changed as the series has progressed. Has the numbers of voters stayed pretty consistent, or has it grown over the years?

This is surprising to me as well. On the other hand, I gave it a 5, so... Granted, I'm new to the forums and the rating system. From watching the videos, I would say that my scale is closer to Linda's than it is to Elio's. I think I remember them saying that Elio's lowest rating for an episode has been a 6, while Linda has had some 2s and 3s. I would say that most of the episodes of the series would probably fall into the 5-7 range. It takes a lot for me to rate something 8-10 or 1-4. It has to be seriously awesome or really terrible. After rewatching the episode I would probably adjust up to a 6. It's not a terrible episode, but I didn't feel that it was a great episode, either.

I gave it a 5. It could possibly go up with a rewatch, but that's my initial reaction. What I Liked The acting, pretty much across the board. Even people like Dany and Mance, who I don't usually enjoy, were doing great this episode. The Unsullied/Harpy scene. It was nice to get a peek into something that is only ever talked about in the books. Varys and Tyrion. Loved the camera shots through the crate holes. Not wild about the Varys change, but those two work really well together. I do wonder if he'll be sticking with Tyrion for the duration or heading back to Westeros at some point. Tyrion throwing up and then immediately pouring more wine was awesome. Jon training with Olly at Castle Black. Loved the banter between the two of them about the shield. Jon is really developing a commanding and confident presence, which is great. Dany and the dragons. The dragons look awesome. Really enjoyed the lighting in this scene. Jon shooting Mance with the arrow. Seeing as it looks as if it was actually Mance and not Rattleshirt, I think this was a good addition. Putting him out of misery before he starts screaming in front of all the wildings made sense, and having him do it while not even Lord Commander makes the act that much more defiant and powerful. What I Didn't Like The Maggy scene seemed rushed. I also wasn't a fan of the young Cersei. The omissions bothered me, as well. Jaime and Cersei in the sept. The acting in this scene wasn't great, nor was the dialogue. This felt like a completely different pair of characters to me. Mossador. He seems less like a character than a lazy way of explaining things about Mereen. I had completely forgotten that in the books he (or a character with the same name) is an Unsullied and Missandei's brother. The whole Sansa/Littlefinger storyline. Dropping the Vale like a hot rock doesn't make any sense to me. Littlefinger has gone through all of this trouble in order to gain power there and now he's just leaving? And leaving Robin with Royce is funny, but it seems to make no sense, seeing as in the book this is exactly what Royce suggested and what LF was against. I also quite liked the relationship between Sansa and Sweetrobin in the books, it was a nice way of showing how she could competently control a situation. Brienne and Pod. Usually I like their scenes, but Brienne's downer attitude seemed very much out of character. Loras in general. I hate what they're doing with him on the show. He's just an excuse for some man on man action, which is a admittedly a nice change from some of the gratuitous female nudity, but it's still just as pointless. Also, why would Loras EVER want to go to Dorne? He's a Tyrell for crying out loud. They freaking HATE Dorne and the Martells. I also hate how calculating they have made Marge, even though I really like Natalie Dormer. Lancel. It's nice having him back, but like Mossador, it feels as if he's more of a lazy way to bring in the whole sparrow storyline. The whole thing felt abrupt and unsubtle. It's also weird to me that he looks so much stronger than he did previously considering how wounded he was supposed to be. The Yunkai mission. It was just laughably successful. They immediately agree to a council of elders that are both freeborn and former slaves. This makes no sense. They're asking Dany to reopen the fighting pits? Why not just do it themselves? How is it that Dany has so much sway over Yunkai when she can't even control things in Mereen, where her army is actually located? Also the scene change from the council to Dany in bed was really abrupt and disorienting. Jon and Mance scene. Loved the acting, didn't love the dialogue. Mance's reasoning isn't really compelling to me. I guess that sums it up. Mainly what worries me about this season and the future of the show in general is how many storylines have been cut and how many of the remaining ones have been significantly altered (and not usually for the better.)