Pearlthegirl

He is not whining; his character has grown evolved even better in the books where he cowered much of the time. I enjoyed seeing Sam grow and show every man can be brave even scared shitless.

^^Like!

He saved the girl and the babe.

Looked for Intel.

Went for reinforcements(top of the Wall and Ghost)

Inspired a kid.

Had some great comic relief lines with both Jon and Pyp.

Held and comforted a dying Brother.

And killed an EFFIN Thenn!

Jeez, when did he have time to whine this epi?

Quotapalooza:

"What our vows say about other activities is open to interpretation" Sam

"I'm not a bleeding poet" Jon ("no, you're not" Sam)

"I know you never fucked a bear" Ygritte

"Old age is a wonderful source of irony, if nothing else" Maester Aemon

"Nothing makes the past a sweeter place to visit than the prospect of imminent death" Maester Aemon

"What are you fucking waiting for? LOOSE!" Aliser Thorne

"Sam, I think we're gonna die" Pyp, "if you keep missing we will" Sam

"Do you want to fill the belly of a Thenn tonight?" Alliser Thorne

"When the sun rises I promise you, Castle Black will stand! The Night's Watch will stand!" AlliserThorne

"Those are giants riding mammoths down there!" Jon

"No such thing as giants... a a a story for the children" Janos Slynt

"Hold the gate" Jon "Hold the fucking gate!" AlliserThorne

"Might as well enjoy our last night, right boys? Light the fuckers up!" Dolorous Edd

"We hold the gate!" Grenn (and then the Night's Watch Oath)

"We need you boy" Sam

"Do you remember that cave? We shoulda stayed in that cave." Ygritte

"Drop the scythe boys!" Dolorous Edd

"Don't cheer too loud, they still outnumber us a thousand to one" Dolorous Edd

"I promised you, didn't i?" Sam

"You're right, it's a bad plan. What's your plan?" Jon

"Jon, come back." Sam

And doing absolutely nothing of importance.

Besides being friends and allies to Jon Snow....then getting shipped off and not near a POV.

I do understand what they intended and I wished they had done the better job. I am not complaining about Stannis, I am actually complaining of the episode itself. When you haven't made sure that your characters for such centric episode are fleshed out enough, you do have a problem in maintaining the attention for 50 minutes. This was like never ending marathon. I do wanted nice NW episode, I wanted it to be as epic as Blackwater, but it wasn't. It failed where it should have been

This... I mean, the characters on the Wall are just group of extras, with exception of Sam and Jon... When you have this type of episode, you make sure you have enough to make it through the end. Blackwater had Tyrion, Sansa, Cersei, Hound, Bronn, all established characters. This one had nothing. It had Jon whose "learning to lead" path was done in such weird way that it is almost hysterical, and Sam who was more or less confused about what to do, with a deal of courage... The rest of gang is flat line... This just didn't push the right buttons, as the episode, not as adaptation.

You are not wrong in that they gave our brave boys no love throughout the season in order to build to this. My opinion is they didn't need to "blow the Night's Watch wad" on the 9th episode with a Wall only episode. It made for sloppy whole season pacing. True that. I can still appreciate the effort they finally got around to.

I am one of those that was thinking a shark was getting jumped until around episode 5 or so. Then they started to redeem themselves....in my eyes anyway.

He held the gate.

I'm thinking it will be between Jon and Slynt for LC of the Night's Watch, and then Sam threatens Slynt and says he'll tell everyone how much of a coward he was during the battle, unless he drops out of of the race for LC.

I can see that. Way easier than teaching/FX-ing talking birds. But that's next season I'm sure.

This was worse than Jaime raping Cersei and the beetles talk together...

I'm sorry but, no. That crap ^ plus Craster's deserters has been the absolute worst of the worst this season. I usually agree with you too, Ser! You even taught me to love Sansa! Rewatch it, I beg you! As an ode to the NW in the back of your mind. With no other expectations....I promise you, you will see some merits in it.

I'm so confused about why the fanatics are worried that Stannis will have lost his moment. If anything, the show went out of it's way to set up Stannis being some hero. They set up Jon looking as the hero of battle numero uno who talks to other heros of the battle about how they are totally fucked because Mance still so greatly outnumbers them, then our hero Jon goes off into the sunset to meet with Mance without wolf or weapon totally thinking he's going to die and he'll be surrounded by giants and mammoths and 100k wildlings and it will look impressively sinister for Jon until suddenly, this dude comes out of the trees and saves the fucking day. That's a better set up for Stannis in the books because this time, Jon volunteered rather than where he was forced to do it in the books. He's walking out there like a boss and if the negotiation doesn't go well, he's dead. Of course, Jon may likely be negotiating with Mance, like he was in the books, when Stannis shows up, but still...come on. How much more of a "stannis saves the day" set up do you fanatics need? Get a grip.

This entirely!

I was expecting Stannis myself, thinking they'd rush through the Wall story lines as they've butchered them all season. In the end I'm glad they're sticking to the books this time! They did not properly build to this all season, it's true, but this episode was a love story to the Night's Watch. And that alone. Stannis' story really builds after this(in the books). He UnderDog's his way in to save the day when the Watch has depleted themselves doing their jobs. Its where I began to like and root for Stannis when I read the books. Where he overcomes his previous defeats. I hope he gets his due from here on. I am worried considering his portrayal thus far but I'm not going to write off his looming heroism just because he didn't get an episode finale. I pray they start showing Stannis some love because I can empathize with the StanStans frustrations with his show portrayal. But really, this is a turning point for his character. Where he fights for his realm and not his entitlement. I do hope they don't blow that.

I'd like to repeat: This episode was a love story to The Night's Watch. I am pleased. There were some great technical shots :

The panoramic of the Castle Black side.

The swinging Scythe taking out the climbers.

Mammoths and Giants, oh my!

Ghost vision

And character development of, yes those guys, those Watchers on the Wall! (episode Title anyone?)

Aemon sharing wisdom

Jon and Sam showing the innocence of their youth before battle.

Grenn filling in for Donal Noye and HOLDING THE EFFIN GATE AGAINST AN EFFIN GIANT

Newfound respect for Aliser Thorne(what? Yeah!)

Slynt's denial and cowardice.

Jon's smile when he sees Ygritte aiming right at him!

The kid's vengeance for his parents.

Damnit Pyp, RIP

Sam releasing Ghost

Edd, the Wall is yours

For the Strangers sake people, not a bad little love story to the true heroes of the damn realm.

Here's hoping we're all happy with the finale next week. Not bloody likely.

Yeah, alright, it went too fast and ended abruptly...I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.

My GF hated it but she's not into a wall to wall(pun intended) battle episodes. Best shot was the panoramic of the Castle Black fight!

RIP Grenn

Bang bang Donal's silver hammer

Noye might be cut from the show, but he's there in spirit!

I'm tearing up here, and can't even see the bloody thing yet.

I'll tell you if I'm wrong...but he's been sent to hold the gate.

Grenn is Noye :(

Damnit Pyp!

Janos Slynt invents denial.

Thorne can be inspirational when he wants to be...

Is Thorne going to pull a Noye?

I hope so cuz I don't want it to be Grenn.

Smooches!

Sam drops the F bomb!

Maester Aemon is so wise. "Imagine the stories they tell of us!"

Keep walking Gilly!

Open to interpretation! --Samwell Tarley

It's for posts like this that I miss having the like feature!!

Oh, I wish we had the Like feature still.

LIKE!