Ran

654 votes, 8.77 average, 9 median, 8.94 normalized average.

Correct. I gave "Kissed by Fire" a 9. I agree it's the best episode Cogman's written to date. On the forum, GRRM's "The Pointy End" rates as the second best episode of its season, and the first 9+ average for the show. The finale of the season reached 9.09. "Blackwater" is almost one full point ahead of every other episode in its season. As to "The Bear and the Maiden Fair", the risibly raunchy Theon-Ramsay scene was the biggest beef a lot of people had (us, too), and everyone held it up as GRRM's poor writing... only for him to note that he didn't write any of it. Same with the bear pit, also from Benioff and Weiss, although there it was more of an issue of the simple realities of filming with a trained animal -- there's just so much one can do with it to "sell" it. If you look at the rest of the material in that episode, there's some really good stuff, including what I think is the best Jon-Ygritte scene in the show. That episode without those two poor scenes would have been much better rated, I think (or without the one and -- somehow -- finding a better way to shoot the latter).

Did a quick look comparing polling, and averaging out their episodes, George averages a bit higher than Cogman. Cogman has been less variable, though. George's average was brought well down by "The Bear and the Maiden Fair", though, and I suppose it should be noted that it seems a couple of the scenes people were most negative about seem not to have actually been written by George, according to GRRM's Bluray commentary, so... perhaps that mitigates. Or perhaps not. ETA: Averaging out just my own votes concurs that I hold a similar view -- George pips Cogman, but is more inconsistent (thanks to "The Bear and the Maiden Fair", but also thanks to "Blackwater"; GRRM's the only one of the two to have gotten a 10 from me so far).

630 votes, 8.78 average, 9 median, 8.94 normalized average.

601 votes in, 8.79 average, 9 median, 8.95 normalized average.

466 votes, 8.77 average, 9 median, 8.94 normalized average.

376 votes in, 8.78 average, 9 median, 8.95 normalized average. For those keeping track, this places the episode as the 9th most well-received on the forum, and the best received since "The Rains of Castamere".

I could see her being in the finale, arriving at Pyke.

322 votes, 8.78 average, 9 median, 8.95 normalized average.

From start to finish, the ironborn excursion was about 5 minutes long, 10% of the episode, FWIW. 10x.1=1. And let me tally up: 297 votes, 8.79 average, 9 median, 8.96 normalized average.

FalseKnight, Like I said. The Reek specific stuff was good, i.e. showing how far he is gone. But the stuff leading up to it and following it is nonsensical. They should have gone for something other than a commando raid on the Dreadfort.

Best episode of the season so far. Gave it an 8, which I may decide to revise up to 9 later. Why not a 9 right off? Well, the Greyjoy business was not well-executed (the Reek-specific stuff, yes, but the stuff around it, no), in shades of the Craster's Keep matter. Plus Emilia Clarke's vacillating performance is indeed started to bug me. The trial was exceptional though.

Share your thoughts!

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532 votes, 7.40 average, 8 median, 7.49 normalized average.

Someone with more mathematical accumen than I is welcome to take the raw data and provide some other ways of normalizing it. I suppose one approach might be to normalize using standard deviation -- people voting 10 are closer to the means of 7-8 we see compared to people voting 1-2, and so perhaps a flat 5% +/- isn't reasonable. But... yeah, more maths required than what I am willing or able to do.

Am I talking to the breeze? Noted that people had other issues that weren't tied primarily, or even at all, with the divergences.

I was talking about "Oathkeeper". I think anyone who came out of "First of His Name" thinking that any genuine purpose was served by the Craster's storyline beyond marking time is fooling themselves. It's a genuine closed circle. Nothing has changed.

Konradsmith, Most critics I've read called the Craster's storyline "filler" or something of that ilk. They weren't particularly keen on it. Both AV Club reviewers considered it the worst episode of the season so far, Wired's reviewer was sick of the story line almost immediately, etc. I did a quick review of the reviews out there and I can't see anyone who called it the best of the season or anything like. Critics did respond. They just responded with a shrug about it, because they were either not fully committed to it being filler and so allowed that maybe there'd be a point, or they simply strongly disliked it but they're not going to give the episode a C because of it for whatever reason. Mr. Fixit, I agree on Breaker of Chains. That's what I meant in the initial post. They executed something badly which led to a highly negative interpretation of what went on, and that spilled over to Oathkeeper. Had they executed what they had intended in a way that people understood, BoC would be more highly rated and Oathkeeper would be nearer to where "First of His Name" ended, IMO. But the vote is the vote. Daske, People also marked it up because of the divergence. You can't cherry pick. This forum has a spectrum of views, which is why it's interesting to see them all gathered in one place, and be able to draw conclusions. But I do maintain that for a number of people (i.e. me), the negative of the episode was the shoddiness of the construction of the storyline. They wasted some real opportunities. Sometimes I feel like I'm having this conversation:

People can strongly dislike the Craster's material for the stupid logic and the fact that it's a closed circle that literally just filled time. Others have suggested things they could have done alternatively -- even things to make Jon's trip up there make sense, and then to generate something more for him-- and I suspect they would have been happier with it (I certainly would have been). Hell, some people were probably as annoyed by the fact that Locke -- an invented character taking part in a new storyline! -- was killed off in a way that they felt undercut the potential there was to that new storyline. Amazing! People who "hate hate hate invented material with a passion" who disliked the writers waste the potentials in "invented material"! You're not going to find anyone who feels apologetic for not liking when writers contort logic to make a story line work, or then fritter away anything worthwhile from it to reduce it to a (fairly unexciting) action beat. If you want to reduce that to "not liking new story lines", feel free, but I think those who rate it as they did know why, precisely, they did so.

No one started one for this episode.

Figured I'd share all the past votes for episodes, updated to today, with folks who are interested in a history of polling on the forum: Season 1 Episode 1: 8.40 (of 269 votes) | ((1*0)+(2*0)+(3*0)+(4*1)+(5*4)+(6*15)+(7*38)+(8*60)+(9*68)+(10*43))/269 Episode 2: 8.19 (of 284 votes) | ((1*0)+(2*0)+(3*0)+(4*2)+(5*3)+(6*18)+(7*40)+(8*104)+(9*86)+(10*31))/284 Episode 3: 7.87 (of 235 votes) | ((1*1)+(2*0)+(3*1)+(4*6)+(5*4)+(6*15)+(7*52)+(8*76)+(9*61)+(10*19))/235 Episode 4: 8.00 (of 291 votes) | ((1*1)+(2*2)+(3*6)+(4*3)+(5*9)+(6*25)+(7*39)+(8*69)+(9*96)+(10*41))/291 Episode 5: 8.65 (of 274 votes) | ((1*0)+(2*2)+(3*4)+(4*3)+(5*1)+(6*6)+(7*25)+(8*50)+(9*105)+(10*78))/274 Episode 6: 8.81 (of 244 votes) | ((1*0)+(2*0)+(3*3)+(4*3)+(5*2)+(6*6)+(7*14)+(8*37)+(9*102)+(10*77))/244 Episode 7: 8.15 (of 241 votes) | ((1*1)+(2*1)+(3*1)+(4*7)+(5*7)+(6*14)+(7*34)+(8*59)+(9*69)+(10*48))/241 Episode 8: 9.03 (of 280 votes) | ((1*0)+(2*0)+(3*0)+(4*1)+(5*4)+(6*5)+(7*15)+(8*48)+(9*84)+(10*123))/280 Episode 9: 8.84 (of 383 votes) | ((1*2)+(2*4)+(3*2)+(4*4)+(5*11)+(6*13)+(7*20)+(8*47)+(9*96)+(10*184))/383 Episode 10: 9.09 (of 401 votes)| ((1*1)+(2*0)+(3*2)+(4*2)+(5*2)+(6*6)+(7*13)+(8*52)+(9*141)+(10*181))/401 Average to date : 8.50 (8.4+8.19+7.87+8.00+8.65+8.81+8.15+9.03+8.84+9.09)/10 Season 2 Episode 1: 7.58 (of 573 votes) | ((1*2)+(2*0)+(3*8)+(4*7)+(5*30)+(6*43)+(7*147)+(8*198)+(9*92)+(10*44))/573 Episode 2: 7.07 (of 398 votes) | ((1*7)+(2*5)+(3*10)+(4*12)+(5*28)+(6*51)+(7*100)+(8*102)+(9*62)+(10*20))/398 Episode 3: 8.56 (of 438 votes) | ((1*1)+(2*2)+(3*3)+(4*1)+(5*5)+(6*17)+(7*34)+(8*104)+(9*176)+(10*95))/438 Episode 4: 7.73 (of 427 votes) | ((1*5)+(2*3)+(3*10)+(4*8)+(5*19)+(6*34)+(7*69)+(8*122)+(9*102)+(10*55))/427 Episode 5: 8.26 (of 415 votes) | ((1*2)+(2*1)+(3*3)+(4*5)+(5*12)+(6*17)+(7*51)+(8*111)+(9*144)+(10*69))/415 Episode 6: 8.11 (of 441 votes) | ((1*2)+(2*7)+(3*9)+(4*11)+(5*17)+(6*21)+(7*43)+(8*85)+(9*141)+(10*103))/441 Episode 7: 7.87 (of 408 votes) | ((1*5)+(2*8)+(3*9)+(4*7)+(5*14)+(6*23)+(7*53)+(8*108)+(9*118)+(10*63))/408 Episode 8: 7.32 (of 399 votes) | ((1*5)+(2*5)+(3*10)+(4*15)+(5*18)+(6*46)+(7*88)+(8*107)+(9*71)+(10*34))/399 Episode 9: 9.5 (of 738 votes) | ((1*2)+(2*1)+(3*5)+(4*3)+(5*2)+(6*8)+(7*15)+(8*28)+(9*126)+(10*546))/738 Episode 10: 7.63 (of 914 votes)| ((1*18)+(2*14)+(3*23)+(4*32)+(5*47)+(6*72)+(7*112)+(8*196)+(9*236)+(10*159))/914 Average to date: 7.96 |(7.58+7.07+8.56+7.73+8.26+8.11+7.87+7.32+9.5+7.63)/10 Season 3 Episode 1: 7.58 (of 782 votes) | ((1*3)+(2*3)+(3*3)+(4*17)+(5*26)+(6*73)+(7*186)+(8*298)+(9*126)+(10*45))/782 Episode 2: 7.61 (of 657 votes) | ((1*6)+(2*8)+(3*9)+(4*15)+(5*20)+(6*54)+(7*153)+(8*194)+(9*143)+(10*59))/661 Episode 3: 8.40 (of 693 votes) | ((1*5)+(2*1)+(3*4)+(4*6)+(5*17)+(6*11)+(7*72)+(8*182)+(9*282)+(10*113))/693 Episode 4: 9.23 (of 842 votes) | ((1*0)+(2*1)+(3*0)+(4*2)+(5*2)+(6*12)+(7*28)+(8*105)+(9*275)+(10*417))/842 Episode 5: 8.81 (of 684 votes) | ((1*2)+(2*0)+(3*2)+(4*2)+(5*8)+(6*14)+(7*36)+(8*139)+(9*288)+(10*193))/684 Episode 6: 7.31 (of 746 votes) | ((1*7)+(2*11)+(3*9)+(4*22)+(5*42)+(6*87)+(7*183)+(8*225)+(9*103)+(10*57))/746 Episode 7: 7.14 (of 749 votes) | ((1*15)+(2*12)+(3*14)+(4*19)+(5*54)+(6*91)+(7*171)+(8*226)+(9*102)+(10*45))/749 Episode 8: 8.36 (of 735 votes) | ((1*2)+(2*4)+(3*5)+(4*6)+(5*9)+(6*26)+(7*80)+(8*206)+(9*286)+(10*111))/735 Episode 9: 9.24 (of 1270 votes)| ((1*10)+(2*2)+(3*4)+(4*9)+(5*10)+(6*15)+(7*26)+(8*138)+(9*295)+(10*759))/1270 Episode 10: 7.38 (of 1097 votes) | ((1*28)+(2*15)+(3*30)+(4*34)+(5*69)+(6*88)+(7*201)+(8*287)+(9*217)+(10*128))/1097 Average to date: 8.11 | (7.58+7.61+8.4+9.23+8.81+7.31+7.14+8.36+9.24+7.38)/10 Season 4 Episode 1: 8.18 (of 661 votes) ((1*3)+(2*1)+(3*2)+(4*10)+(5*12)+(6*23)+(7*99)+(8*228)+(9*189)+(10*94))/661 Episode 2: 8.41 (of 595 votes) ((1*6)+(2*1)+(3*3)+(4*15)+(5*15)+(6*33)+(7*66)+(8*153)+(9*181)+(10*134))/595 Episode 3: 6.98 (of 597 votes) ((1*13)+(2*10)+(3*14)+(4*28)+(5*55)+(6*72)+(7*137)+(8*141)+(9*83)+(10*44))/597 Episode 4: 7.78 (of 633 votes) ((1*16)+(2*9)+(3*18)+(4*20)+(5*23)+(6*38)+(7*72)+(8*118)+(9*203)+(10*114))/633 Episode 5: 7.40 (of 509 votes) ((1*3)+(2*6)+(3*6)+(4*8)+(5*34)+(6*65)+(7*119)+(8*138)+(9*95)+(10*35))/509 Average to date (mid-season): 7.75 Midpoint average: 7.75 Series average to date (35 episodes): 8.13 (8.4+8.19+7.87+8.00+8.65+8.81+8.15+9.03+8.84+9.09+7.58+7.07+8.56+7.73+8.26+8.11+7.87+7.32+9.5+7.63+7.58+7.61+8.4+9.23+8.81+7.31+7.14+8.36+9.24+7.38+8.18+8.41+6.98+7.78+7.40)/35 ----- A couple of points: S4's first 5 episodes are the lowest rated first half a season to date -- yes, even season 2 comes out better. Similarly, S4 is the first season to score 3 sub-8.0 episodes in a row. Of course, this is all thrown off by the dooziy of a mistake they made with the sept scene, an outrage that certainly had a spill-over effect on to episode 4 when the episode didn't really touch on it. Had the sept scene gone differently, I expect the show would be on track to match season 1.

504 votes in, 7.39 average, 8 median, 7.49 normalized average.

465 votes, 7.4 average, 8 median, 7.49 normalized average.