Ran

Book spoiler discussion of the show goes here, for those who want to discuss the episode in relation to the books, and with reference to spoilers from them. This topic should open automatically around the start of airing.

Non-spoiler discussion of the show goes here, for those who've not read the books or those who have but are happy to not actually reference them at all in discussion, taking each episode as it comes. This topic should open automatically when the show begins airing.

602 votes, 8.28 average, 9 median, 8.39 normalized average.

592 votes, 8.29 average, 9 median, 8.40 normalized average.

That's the HBO.com interview she did (here): So... not her favorite thing, but she found the performance easier if everyone on set was just used to her body -- no discomfort from them, no discomfort for her, I guess.

It's the double standard that there's something more shocking in showing the vulva than there is in the (unerect) penis (first season featured non-prosthetic male genitals). Hence merkins on the ladies. I recall an interview with Steven DeKnight with several of the actors -- male and female -- and they were asked something about Roman grooming, and so DeKnight explained how the evidence suggests Romans depilated, so the male actors who had nude scenes shaved... and then the ladies asked, well, wait, why do we have to wear these huge merkins? And DeKnight said something along the lines of it being "another conversation entirely". GoT certainly has gone almost entirely without merkins, for whatever reasons that may be.

You need to have a certain number of posts on the forum. The idea is to weed out spammers. :) It's either 3 or 5 posts I think.

555 votes, 8.30 average, 9 median, 8.46 normalized average.

You're thinking Daario. Oberyn has no beard.

539 votes, 8.30 rating, 9 median, 8.42 normalized average (top 5% and bottom 5% removed).

485 votes in, 8.32 average, 9 median, 8.44 normalized average.

400 votes in, 8.32 average, 9 median, 8.45 normalized average.

It's not true. The HBO Canada schedule shows episode 8 airing June 1st. They will be airing The Normal Heart next Sunday.

288 votes, 8.29 average, 9 median, 8.42 normalized average.

238 votes in, 8.34 average, 9 median, 8.47 normalized average.

I think he's been dubbed. Björnsson has a very heavy Icelandic accent in real life. It may be the same person who dubbed Ian White in S2. So, the delivery isn't necessarily his fault, per se. And just to say it again, Pedro Pascal was stunningly good. I got goose bumps when he asked, "But what about what I want?"

First 9 of the season for me. The weakest stuff was either very brief (the Gregor scene, which was just too cliche to take seriously) or not all that weak at all (mostly it was just kind of weird, like the Rorge scene where he just sort of stands there and has a chat and then dies; I'm thinking Sakharov is homaging something, maybe something from Kurosawa I keep thinking), and the strong stuff was really, really strong (Pedro Pascal hits it out of the park in this one!)

What'd you think?

Book spoiler discussion of the show goes here, for those who want to discuss the episode in relation to the books, and with reference to spoilers from them. This topic should open automatically around the start of airing.

Non-spoiler discussion of the show goes here, for those who've not read the books or those who have but are happy to not actually reference them at all in discussion, taking each episode as it comes. This topic should open automatically when the show begins airing.

Yeah, forum traffic is about double what it was last year, although admittedly our higher levels of stability since getting the second server doubtless plays a part in that -- doesn't necessarily mean twice as many people are looking at it. The most I can suppose is that more people feel like they don't care to vote either way and don't bother.

We're averaging fewer votes per episode than we did for S3. Don't know what that means, exactly, but it doesn't seem sound to try and guess at who is and isn't voting.

666 votes, 8.76 average, 9 median, 8.93 normalized average.

Factoring in the poll result for episode 3, the average drops to 7.92. Here's the results of just averaging the polls for the first six episodes of each season: S1: 8.32 S3: 8.16 S4: 7.92 S2: 7.89 What's worth noting, of course, is that we're talking less than half a point separating S3 from being "equal" to S1. In the grand scheme of things, it's not like there's a truly enormous difference in how the forum is reacting. It's a bit of dissatisfaction or disappointment, not outright rejection (for the poll-participating membership of the forum as a collective group).

A little more number-crunching. Given my feeling that episode 3 is being very heavily penalized for one botched scene, I thought I'd average the scores of the top 5 of the first 6 episodes of each season, thereby dropping the lowest performer for each season. Here's the results of the forum polls, ranked in order. S1: 8.41 S3: 8.326 S4: 8.108 S2: 8.048