Fez

Yeah, I'll give that a 10. I won't for the season though. There was way too much stuffed into this episode that should've been spread out better. For instance, the sept and all that probably should've blown up in ep8, that way the Dornish stuff could also be in ep8, and it wouldn't be quite as absurd for Varys to be in Meereen in ep10.

8/10 I wish I could give it higher, it was just unbelievably technically impressive throughout; but the writing was just far too sloppy and/or cliched in too many places. Which just makes me sad. A lot of it I could overlook; but Sansa not mentioning that the Vale might be coming is a bridge too far. It doesn't matter if she doesn't know for sure, just the possibility that they might would make that war council go completely different. If that's addressed next week, awesome, but there were other issues too. Mostly smaller, but they add up. Such as the fact that no army would allow itself to be surrounded the way Jon's was, as soon as they saw the Boltons coming in, they'd charge in one direction to break out before the circle could get in place. At the same time though, it all looked incredible; with the absolute highlight being that tracking shot of Jon. And the Meereen stuff was fairly solid too for the first time in ages. So, 8 outta 10.

6/10 Just not enough happening and what did happen didn't satisfy. Except The Hound, he was great.

Season 4 had the purple wedding in episode 2 and Season 5 had the Sparrows taking over early on. This season had Jon coming back and Dany burning the Khals happen early on. Most major plotlines have had events occurring throughout the seasons for the past 3 seasons. With the big exception of Dany before this season, who was just dragging in Meereen until Daznak's. Also, that's not how ratings work. The ratings went up starting with Hardhome, but people didn't know that battle would happen until after they had already tuned in. It was the episode prior to that, The Gift, that got people back on board.

That's been the problem with some plotlines, but in general I don't agree. Seasons 2 and 3 did suffer from that, just waiting for the Blackwater and Red Wedding to happen; Seasons 4 and beyond though have done a good job of having important stuff happen in the earlier parts of the season.

7/10 Was pretty bland, but still helped move the plot forward in noticeable ways; the final 3 episodes need to be really good though, considering how much set-up they've been getting. Also, the episode itself was just gorgeous; some really amazing shots throughout.

Still seemed unnecessary. The Dothraki were already loyal to her, having them become more loyal is not really worth the climatic final scene of the episode. Especially since Dany has already had far too many of these 'big important speech' final scenes and not really done much with them. I was really hoping that speech would end with something like 'Forget Meereen, we ride to Braavos, that's where the ships are.' and a command for Daario to ride to Meeren to gather the Second Sons and the Unsullied for her. At least that would've had more plot movement for her. I will say, after sleeping on it, I may have been a bit harsh on the episode. I still say 7/10, but last night I was kinda close to giving it a 6/10 whereas this morning its closer to 8/10, although not quite there. I didn't like the aforementioned Dany scene, or the Sam & Gilly scenes, or the scenes in the High Sept. But Bran was good, those flashbacks were great (short as they were), the Arya scenes were actually really strong, and I did like all the Kings Landing scenes that Jaime was in. And I do think the episode did a good job at setting up some of the next moves. For instance, now that Jaime (the one character in Kings Landing who still had unfinished business to resolve elsewhere) is going to be safely out of Kings Landing, I'm pretty confident in saying that Kings Landing is going to blow up (possibly literally) at the end of the season. I wouldn't be surprised if basically all the characters there, even Cersei, somehow die in Episode 10.

Gave it a 7/10. It was well done and all; it just wasn't plots I was interested in, and the Dany scene just seemed like a repeat of the Khal burning scene. The Jaime/Cersei scene was really good though (and I'm super excited to see Jaime in the Riverlands) and it was awesome seeing Benjen again.

It may be different in the show, but in the books the Iron Islands are so large that there are people living inland who have never seen the ocean. The biggest Island is supposed to be roughly the size of Ireland I believe. Plenty of wood for a 1000 ships.

I think it was just that the 3ER somehow knew the future, and knew that Bran needed to be near Hodor in the past so that he could be 'Hodor-ized.' I also think we haven't seen the last of the 3ER either. I think somehow Bran will continue to see him through the Greensight somehow; whatever the Greensight version of a Force Ghost is.

10/10 That was one hell of a thing. I even liked the Kingsmoot. Only weak bit was seeing Arya and the waif fighting yet again. Hold the door.

9/10 The Wall was great. The Dothraki stuff was great (albeit a bit cheesy at the end). The other scenes were all solid. With one exception, Kings Landing; which has just gotten way too boring. The Lannister scenes were okay, but everything with the High Sparrow went way too long and wasn't that interesting anyway.

10/10 And not just 'cause I'm fucking hyped about what's happening next week. My only complaint would be that they should've cut that random guy talking and then getting killed by UnGregor and replaced it by extending out the final scene more. Other than that, every note hit right for me. Great scenes all the way through.

8/10 Bit clunky, as all season openers are, but a real solid episode overall. The Dothraki were great.

Finally got a chance to see it. Gave it 7/10. I'm probably not in the right frame of mind to be watching it right now (lunch break on a Wednesday), but that said, the episode just wasn't clicking for me. It just felt like nothing was happening, except for Stannis and Daznak. Stannis the character I'm disappointed in, but the scene made sense given what we know; so that's fine. Daznak, while visually kind of cool, just wasn't doing it for me.

Considering what little of the setup we see in the preview for the next episode, I don't think you need to worry much (at least, in terms of the budget being all spent; you may still be disappointed depending on how expansive your imagination while reading can be).

Ratings were back up to 7.01 million for this episode. Hopefully this quiets the doubters who were arguing that last week's massive dip was anything other than the usual Memorial Day issue (I didn't watch that episode live either). There's obviously been some decrease this season (that article points out that this still isn't quite as high as episode 8 last season), but its not the death knell some were trying to make it out to be.

It might not be this guy, but there's something specific up there in the Heart of Winter. Bran saw it in one of his first visions.

Different theory about Olly: He befriends that dead wilding's daughters and learns that all people have value.

10/10 Easily. Hardhome was incredible. Legitimately my favorite battle in the series so far. The Dany and Tyrion scenes were also incredible, that's stuff I've wanted to see/read for years. Arya was also great. Everything else (which is what, ~5 minutes? at most?) was less great. But I so don't care.

8/10, leaning closer to 7 than 9. There were plenty of very good scenes, including some long overdue ones like Tyrion meeting Dany, but I was kinda bored by most of the first half of the episode. Granted, at least part of that was because I wasn't watching live last night under my usual circumstances, I watched this morning, on HBOGO, while dealing with a massive hangover. So it just wasn't the event that it usually was. Still, despite that, I think I would've had problems with the WF stuff no matter what.

Ha! Genre snob? I suppose its fine to think that, because you don't know me, but that just makes me laugh. I've been reading fantasy and sci-fi since I was 5 (read the Hobbit), I love the stuff. And I read the first two ASOIAF books in '99, when I was 12 years old, I've grown up with these books and I've grown up with the genre. There certainly are fantasy/sci-fi books that are classics of all literature (Gormenghast, Hyperion, LOTR, arguably some of Jack Vance's work, etc.), but ASOIAF isn't one of them. And many other genres have their own classics that don't reach the status of classic of all literature, its not like fantasy/sci-fi is its own little ghetto while everything else freely mingles. ASOIAF is incredibly deep in the sense that there's a well-written, multi-layered plot (at least for the first three novels) and a well-constructed world; but that's it. It doesn't have a point or something to say, it doesn't critically examine its characters, its a fun operatic soap. It doesn't tell us anything about our world or ourselves. And the one time it really tried to, the Riverlands chapters in AFFC going on about the horrors of war, it was hamfisted, repetitive, and boring. Its some of the best popcorn fun around, but that's all.

The books are FAR from modern classics. They are classics of fantasy, but not of all literature. Its not a question of not seeing how deep the books are, its that they aren't that deep. GRRM has quite good prose, and that's something that's gotten better over time; but the books themselves are a well-built epic fantasy soap-opera. True literary classics do more than provide diverting entertainment, they elevate us; they can make us think about the world or aspects of it in ways we hadn't before, they can inspire us, they can devastate us, they can introspection like little else. A true classic can change some small part of the world. ASOIAF does none of that. The books are quite good, but nothing worthy of reverence. ETA: And the show isn't as good as last season, I won't deny that. I still think it is very good though. Although I never would have put on the very top tier of TV shows. The only reason it gets talked about that way is because it is the only "water cooler" show left in the US besides The Walking Dead, and nearly everyone agrees that it is much better than that show.

Sure, the show has plotholes (albeit not nearly as many as some people on this forum like to think), but the thing is, almost all works of fiction have serious plotholes (the books included; it makes no sense why the Greyjoys attacked the North instead of sacking the Westerlands except that GRRM needed them to for other plot reasons). We accept and ignore these plotholes for the most part because otherwise we'd have no fiction to enjoy. Except in this case, where some people here are acting like Game of Thrones needs to be something perfect, which almost never happens and is totally unrealistic, and are attacking the show because it isn't. The books are fun, well-written pulpy genre fiction, nothing more; the show is also fun, well-written pulpy genre fiction, nothing more. The books aren't To Kill a Mockingbird and the show isn't The Wire.

Pointlessly insulting, block time. Before I do that though, I'll say this: Of course I have an opinion. But like any intelligent person, when that opinion conflicts with opinions from people I trust, I find it useful to determine whether I think my first impression was wrong or whether I think they are wrong. Sticking with your gut at all times is no way for your tastes to grow and mature; its important to recognize when maybe you still have more to learn about something. ETA: And of course it goes the other way too; when I dislike something that critics I trust rave about. And also of course just because I reevaluate doesn't mean I'll necessarily change my opinion. For instance, I will never understand the appeal of cringe-humor shows like The Office, no matter how lauded they were/are.