valacirca

Wow, the only episodes rated lower than the finale here on westeros.org are Episodes 3 and 5.

Oh wow these ratings are really bad.

yup. and hated the rape scene :P

Not sure where to post this but I tallied the ratings for each of the episode rating threads and ranked the episodes based on the results: Apologies if this has already been posted. [8.77] E06 - "The Laws of Gods and Men" [8.33] E07 - "Mockingbird" [8.32] E02 - "The Lion and the Rose" [8.18] E01 - "Two Swords" [8.16] E08 - "The Mountain and the Viper" [7.99] E09 - "The Watchers on the Wall" [7.78] E04 - "Oathkeeper" [7.38] E05 - "First of His Name" [6.99] E03 - "Breaker of Chains"

Yes you can.

I feel like as good as the episode was, I couldn't give it a perfect score after they cut out the two major battles included in the source material. Cutting out the first one was actually not a big deal, intriguingly. I thought that knocking Tyrion out and then him waking up after the battle added to how they were portraying him and all we lost were action scenes. But cutting out the second one was a bit more detrimental to the story because it seemed to quick and were weren't given enough exposition to explain what Robb's plan was and how they carried out that plan. But for the most part, everything else was top notch. Most of the scenes were adapted excellently from the book. I especially loved how Maester Aemon revealed that he was a Targaryen 9/10

Okay then. If you're just as convinced by soldiers being incapacitated by wood smacking on their steel helmets as you are with eye-gouging, kneecap-shattering and windpipe-crushing, then I guess there's no arguing there... :dunno: Seems as different as night and day, but so be it.

Yup. I guess they just didn't get the head right. Isn't he something like bald and has handlebars as facial hair?

I was not pertaining to the soldiers being clumsy (but yes they were, both in the book and show). I was pertaining to the direction and choreography - the overall adaptation of that fight scene - being clumsy.

It goes like this... either: 1) Tyrion was recognized, thus escorted to where his father was; or, 2) he was not, thus the advancing party of tribesmen would have met resistance. Either way, it's just crazy that anyone would have just allowed that party to move to and through the Lannister camp without acknowledgement.

The way Syrio disables the guards in the show is mostly just by whacking them in areas that shouldn't make them end up severely injured: Like on their helmeted head or behind the knee/thigh area. The only strike shown in the show that could have really put down a man was when Syrio hit one of the guards in between the shoulder and neck. That much was in the book, but it wasn't even a finishing blow (the strike to the throat was what put that guard away in the book). Other than that, the fight was totally implausible. In the book, we have Syrio taking out a guard's eye with the pointed end of his wooden sword, shattering a guard's kneecap, and making one unable to breathe by striking the throat. Other than that, there's a kick to the face, which might be the only arguably weak move from the book... but for the most part, the book was amazing while the show not, at least for this sequence. Showing someone whack several armored guards in the head causing them to lay disabled is totally unconvincing.

Surely you're just talking about the physical aspect though? Because by god... Charles Dance nails the role.

re: Syrio vs guards, the book is so great and convincing in describing how Syrio won that fight, while the show was just so f!@#ing clumsy in showing it, not to mention it seemed really implausible: From the book:

*double post; my bad*

I totally agree with all of these criticisms and they aren't even nitpicks to me. They're clear shortcomings of the episode. That's why I'm having a hard time swallowing all the 10's the episode has been getting on the ratings thread. The Tyrion scene was especially befuddling. How the heck could that party get that close to the Lannister camp without either any resistance or escort?? Crazy.

And I quote: "The arakh cut was wide but shallow; his left nipple was gone, and a flap of bloody flesh and skin dangled from his chest like a wet rag." That's definitely a far cry from how it looked like in the show :P

I love how it's not obvious in the show what Mirri Maaz Dur has in store for Drogo :D

It doesn't matter how one interprets the scale. When you consider the ratings that the previous episodes got on this site compared to this one (which takes comparisons against any other TV shows out of the question), it's just crazy how much higher this episode is rated over the rest. Nothing particularly special happens, the action scenes are clumsily handled/directed/edited... really couldn't see how anyone can consider this a 10 relative to the previous episodes.

Intriguingly, I found that the material from this episode has been the most sharply written of the series. The written-for-TV scenes also seem to be then most well-integrated ones into the story so far. No doubt this is due to the genius of GRRM... but I thought that the directing from this episode left me wanting more. I felt that there were a handful of scenes that were clumsily directed and the episode as a whole left me underwhelmed. I gave the episode an 8. A far cry from the torrent of 10's that it's been getting so far --- no doubt due to the fact that people must be thinking that if it's written by GRRM, it must be perfect... :dunno:

whoa the 10's are leading the other ratings for the first time...

Tally of episode scores so far. Episode 7 emerges at the middle of the pack: E06 - 8.75 (206 votes) E05 - 8.62 (245 votes) E02 - 8.12 (241 votes) E07 - 8.09 (151 votes) E04 - 7.96 (252 votes) E01 - 7.91 (142 votes) E03 - 7.87 (235 votes) Overall series score: 8.21 / 10

Considering the personas that have been introduced into pro wrestling through the years, that description could very easily be made into a pro-wrestling character.

Actually it was WWE'ish in some parts. That's not to say it was bad. I loved that part.

Yes it was ;)

Tally of episode scores so far: E06 - 8.68 (136 votes) E05 - 8.63 (235 votes) E02 - 8.14 (235 votes) E04 - 8.00 (248 votes) E01 - 7.88 (241 votes) E03 - 7.87 (136 votes) Overall series score: 8.19 / 10 (so few votes for the pilot episode)