BastardlyRock

:agree: I'm this boat. I'm in the group that is oft laughed at because I would genuinely enjoy a word-for-word adaptation over what we’ve received thus far, even if it meant a smaller audience for them in the long run. It’s all wrapped up in the money, and as long as the money keeps coming in, it will be seen as justification for the changes and alterations made to the plot/timeline/characters that have been made. At this point I’m honestly willing to watch a hundred hour + animated version of aSoIaF ala Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 Lord of the Rings over these four seasons (and promise/threat of only 7 by the end). Before the daggers come out, please, I don’t hate the show. I enjoy it for what it is, but I don’t think that admitting that has to also come with me smiling at all the (often unnecessary) changes and not also being allowed to confide that I idly wish for a true, if not verbatim, adaptation. :drool:

Assuming they keep the plot it would make more sense in the confines of the show to give that role to Tormund (as much as I hate to say it... :frown5: )

Alright, I've thought about it all night and morning and I'm going with a 7. At first I wanted to go lower, maybe a 5 or 6, as sadly I do agree with many here that it was underwhelming, anticlimactic and only a bit trite. The fact that Stannis didn't show up bothered me at first, not because I like deviations from the books, but because I think of all the changes they have made, this was one I was expecting them to make for a while. So initially, the end left me feeling like I'd spent the time waiting for it to really develop, then being horribly sad when I realized it never does. That being said, now that I've put together (more or less) how they seem to be moving forward with the finale, and I've garnered a bit of appreciation for the episode as a means to showcase the struggle of the Night's Watch (look at the episode's title, after all...) AND there were a handful of very entertaining moments, I would be lying if I said I wasn't entertained last night. So, a 7 from me, with cautious optimism for an epic finale...

:agree: It's no secret I agree with this... As for people who don't "agree" that it was offensive, hi, it offended me. :agree: :agree: :agree: And this. All day this.

A fair enough reason for a monologue, especially in GoT, I just wish it hadn't come at the expense of comparing a person with a mental handicap to a mindless killer and going for some chuckles while they were at it :/ not the quality of writing I was initially drawn to...

Don't worry, you're not alone. My wife and I were almost too embarrassed by this one to keep watching. Very dissapointing stuff here (overwhelming, admittedly, a couple good scenes).

This.

Happy to see I'm not alone here -- my least favorite episode to date. I love the justifications I'm seeing here for the beetle scene as well, because using someone with a mental handicap as an analogy for the blind evils in the world somehow became synonymous with good writing... On a positive note, the fight was accurate enough for me not to have any glaring complaints, regardless of how difficult it was to watch.