Ghost of Crackclaw

Underwhelming in the highest degree...but it's been building to this the entire season. It's disconcerting how well the showrunners have hewed to such minor but iconic points, like Tywin's horse, and yet stray so far from the plot points with actual teeth. Production quality was good, and there were bright points in it, so it rates an 8. But this is where we part ways. I'm done wasting time on what is essentially big-budget fanfic.

Nope! Certainly not this season. Maybe we watched two different shows.

My first 10, in two seasons of this show. Every element was pitch-perfect, and no character was written against character. (It helps that the writer was, well, the Author.) This is how you adapt a show for television, departures and all, while remaining faithful to the text. Would that all the episodes had this same fidelity.

Ghosts don't have money. But they can haunt people, who in turn get scared and pay the priests to quiet the ghost... It is my honor to chip in for this excellent forum. Thanks for the reminder, and keep up the awesome work!

Perfectly cromulent all the way up to the end. Better by far than last week. A few nitpicks (save the end), but also some very tense scenes and fantastic acting. Alfie Allen, you have won my heart. Despite being a horrific departure from the books, Charles Dance and Maesie Williams are milking their scenes for all they're worth. Fantastic. I'm sure the San-San shippers nearly soiled their clothes tonight. Still a well done scene--the entirety of it. But I had to poke the bear. ;-) But...really, Jaqen & Arry? I mean, it was mostly harmless, but really? Nice work doing the groundwork for Jeyne, Cat's speech included. The non-readers won't know what hit them. OK, now for my rant: Dany is not a victim. D&D seem to think they're better writers than GRRM. This is false. Making her prone to thievery strips her of all agency; now she's just a tool. I'm so fuschia-ing angry about the last scene. Wrong, false, bad. Indefensible. Which is why I only gave it the 8 instead of a 9.

Meh. I'm not as concerned about the minor changes (axing the Reeds is fine, and whatever re: Jaqen H'Gar's dialect shift), but for episode 5, the pacing seems off. And why wouldn't she have just chosen Tywin? By advancing the timeline and cutting out Arry's side trek, they're making a hash of major plot points. This barely earned a 7, but its production values were still top-notch. I have no clue what you people base your 9s on. I'll be reading the thread to find out, but call me a skeptic of this season doing well. Edit: yeah, I got nuthin'. It was alright, but I haven't seen proper justification for a 9. Pass to the left, would you :stillsick:

I can't give this more than a 7, even though Peter Dinklage is ragingly awesome as ever. The dialogue in front of the gates of Qarth was abominable. Charles Dance is excellent as well, but the Harrenhal thing is just too compressed. I freely admit that I despise Aidan Gillian's approach to Littlefinger, too. I can't give it a 6, because omgshadowbaby, but so much of this episode felt mechanical and stilted. 7.

Straight-up goodness, with only minor nitpicks. This episode earned an eight. Finally, into things with some momentum! Hat tip to Margaery Tyrell, who may not attract the attention of the King, but she sure had me looking! Brienne is perfection itself. She looks like an ogre. Amazing. In fact, I'd say it was the ladies who stole the whole show! One beef--Hot Pie actually fought in the book :( But they did a good job of telescoping Lommy's demise. I had hoped they'd keep that in there, and they sent him up with justice while plausibly keeping Gendry alive.