The Killer Snark

A few weeks back, I gave episode 6 a 10 and have regretted it ever since, because it was only actually slightly better than the episodes which preceded it. I gave a 9 to last week's, which on a second viewing I may actually consider the same or better. I have no qualms about giving a 10 to Hardhome, though. It was totally spectacular. The most I've been entertained by extended action sequences this year outside of Mad Max: Fury Road. The Daenarys and Tyrion scenes were perfect; I far prefer this barking mad narcissist version of Daenarys to the fudging ditherer she turns into in the 5th novel, even though there's plenty of hints she's beginning to lose her marbles there. But the Hardhome sequences were galactic. Not a single nit to make apart from the sexy Bela Lugosi woman dying, who I'd actually quite taken to. Neat cameo from Rattleshirt. Excellent scenes involving Arya, Theon and Sansa. One of my favourite episodes of the series so far.

I gave it a 9. I gave last week's a 10, and probably slightly overrated it. This wasn't too far off last week's in quality. Some caveats, though. The pointless compression or elimination of content and fanfic tendencies have been niggling at me this season even though I've praised it and enjoyed it. Some of these deviations from source are actually improvements, but a large number of them are either middling or just bad. That scene with Gilly and Sam was simply thrown in out of context for cheap luridity value, and it makes no sense that she'd seduce Sam just after almost being raped and that he wouldn't have tried to stop her on account of his vows, since after all he is within the precincts of the Castle. The Sandsnakes and Bronn scene was amusingly bad, and featured some of the season's worst dialogue (which when I saw it leaked here a week ago I thought might have been a spoof). Some beautiful toplessness, however, and at least it was entertaining. Tommen is really annoying in this. Bad overacting, and terrible dialogue does not a better adaptation of the book character make. But a somewhat erratic first half was made up for with a consistently terrific second half. The Meereen and King's Landing scenes were beautifully handled, even if in the latter case slightly nonsensical. Exactly why was it necessary for Lady Olenna to gain information about Cersei's adultery when it turned out that the High Sparrows could just as easily have got that information from Lancel of his own accord? Ah, well, sod it anyway; I've given it a 9. On the down side, we're getting no Abel, so it seems that Mance is truly dead, and we're probably now not getting any besieging of Meereen. We certainly aren't getting any involvement from the Greyjoys. But in spite of my reservations concerning the lurid altering of Sansa's story arc, the Bolton scenes have been consistently very good.

Ajax - You know, I actually agree. I think what makes it insensitive or not is how far it deviates from source and how clumsily or elegantly it's handled. I think it's more of a question of internal logic and aesthetics in the end. Or at least it's that way with me.

Ser Desmond - Thing is, though, and I don't want to start an in-depth discussion on the subject as has got a lot of other recent threads locked, I knew the rape was coming from the moment they substituted Sansa for Jeyne, and though I disagree with D and D's methods of character transplantation, they either had to go through with it, to my mind, or develop an uncanonically nauseous romance between Ramsay and Sansa that would have wound up actually outraging even more purists. So I believe they had to go there once they'd made their bed (meaning the producers): I think they would have been cowards if they'd not chosen to lie in it. I didn't enjoy the rape scene. No-one was meant to. But at least it was treated sensitively. If D and D had set out purely for cheap shocks and to be insensitive, they could have followed it on the credits by playing Sir Mixalot's Baby Got Back.

Ser Desmond - Ramsay did say the same thing, though, in slightly different words. If I remember right, he complains that Jeyne is too 'dry' and says, "Reek, prepare her for me.". Reek says, "But I have no..." and Ramsay replies, "Use your mouth, fool." That's close enough. The Jeyne scene in the 5th novel is much worse.

To be fair about the Dornish scenes, they aren't any better in the novels, where they are somewhat hit and miss. We're missing a minor character, Darkstar, who only turns up in Book 4 for a few pages. We're missing the ultimately pointless romance between Arys Oakheart and Arianne Martell. We're missing some of the most sluggish and hit and miss writing of the fourth novel. Sadly, we're missing Arianne, but we're missing no character development re the Sand Snakes, who aren't any better characterised in the books. The basic fact of the matter is that Martin himself jumped the shark with the Dornish by killing Oberyn off too soon.

I think it's the Sansa rape scene that's getting people's hackles up. People aren't criticising the episode except on emotional terms. As stated, D and D boxed themselves in there and it was the only thing they could do. And as someone else pointed out earlier, at least Theon, and Ramsay's implied interest in coprophilia and threats of forced bestiality were not involved.

I'm going to buck the trend here and admit I loved this episode and gave it a 10. I have my misgivings. There's no Darkstar, but I expected that; otherwise I actually enjoyed the Dornish scenes, which I'd expected I'd probably hate, given the deviations they've been making. The Arya scenes were very fine, and I don't much mind her responsibility in what was essentially the killing of an innocent girl as part of her training since in the books she is already a sociopath. I doubt we'll get to see her face transplant scene, but overall the Arya arc is going better than I'd assumed it would given Jaqen H'ghar's non-source appearance. I already knew the Sansa rape scene was going to happen, and really with the way that D and D have boxed themselves in by putting the Sanster at Winterfell instead of Jeyne Poole it was the only thing there that could happen. The alternative was having a bizarre blossoming romance with Ramsay that really would have shat over the source material, not least because Ramsay looks like a freak in the books and they've decided to make him into a ladies' man. Overall, this episode was very well structured and very well paced considering its necessary slowness in relation to plot. The only problem I have is how perfunctory the arrest of Margaery was, so we're missing out on a lot of entertaining scenes with mad Regent Cersei, but I could see that coming a mile off, so I'm not exactly spitting blood. Note: I will admit that the Sand Snakes showdown with Jaime and Bronn was like something from a Pirates in the Caribbean film, but I quite enjoyed the corniness.

I gave it a 9, same as always, though technically if I'd had the option, like ep.2, I'd have given this 8.5. For me, the deviations from the books are something I've gotten used to. I'll only complain if they take over an entire episode and are inconsistent with character, compromise faithfulness to story arcs in a damaging manner, and are unnecessary and bungled. The Dany scene at the start was absolute fanfic, but at least it was fun to watch. I understand why they've made the alterations to the story arc of Mormont, though I do think they've possibly thrown his future place in the series into disregard in relation to the novels by unnecesarily eliminating Jon Connington and Young Griff. Still, the only caveats I have are with the plodding pace of the later Stannis scenes and the wastage of time on the uncanonical and also tedious Missandei and Grey Worm romance. These took up space that could have been better served by having at least one scene with Cersei. On the other hand, Valyria looked great, and I do prefer Mormont as a character to the unlikable Jon Con. Loved the Dreadfort scenes, of course, and the earlier scenes with Jon at The Wall. It was overall an excellent episode, the same as all the others in this season. But I would prefer the season to now find a quicker and less padded pace.

That the Faith Miltant would be homophobes is part and parcel of them being obviously modelled on Savonarola and his adherents, who were also Nasty Stormyropers. But I'm personally not sure I like the direction they're taking Loras' story in.

Oh, it definiely did. It just seemed all of one piece to me, pretty much, the odd scene that was a snoozer or the odd scene that was exceptional being made allowance for. I doubt this season will reach the same peaks as season 4 did, but I reckon it will stay at this level the whole way through.

I voted 9, same as I have with every episode this season, which I watched in one go when they were leaked, and there was no real quantifiable rise or fall in quality: with 2 being the weakest and 3 the strongest, but by marginal degrees. I dislike the writing out of Ser Barristan Selmy, and the massive shortcuts they've taken with Tyrion's arc. One wonders by now exactly how many characters D and D are going to leave out of this. But it still was excellent TV. It isn't so much the deviations that are frustrating me a little, because at least the writing is up to par, which it clearly wasn't during major deviations in previous series, but more that the eliminations of major dramatic material from what were already very slow paced books (numbers 4 and 5) are unnecessarily slowing down instead of adding to the pace.

The Search function becomes unavailable on the site now pretty much at one point or another every day.

This is probably wishful thinking on my part, but I believe that Martin, who is actually an expert on Scottish history, may have been influenced by my own family lineage in his choice of sigils covering the Baratheons and Tyrells: in a sense of at least subconscious correlation, anyway. I'll explain why. My surname is Robb, and we were a splinter group of the MacFarlane Clan. The Robb coat of arms consists of three deer. So we have the association of the name Robb, with the fact the Baratheons, who the Starks were affiliated with, have a stag as their sigil. Plus the MacFarlane coat of arms consists of four roses. The last earl of Robb came up with his own coat of arms by taking the MacFarlane coat and making the roses pentagonal. So the Robbs who could somehow trace their lineage back to him could adopt the pentagonal roses rather than the deer. The Starks, if only through Sansa, have become involved with the Tyrells, whose sigil is a golden rose.

At first I thought with the alterations from the book regarding the Sansa at Winterfell thing, WTF, but I'm on the fence with it enough to think it might have some possibility of working in the series. It won't improve on the Jeyne and Theon arc previously existing, and LIttlefinger seems to be showing an uncharacteristic recklessness and naivety, but it will probably be an improvement on what Martin otherwise has planned for Sansa, since her arc in the novels has become quite dull.

You know, I really like this Wiki. I have a fair amount of my own additions on it myself, and I have never once been upbraided for unsourced content as I have been several times on Wikipedia, who left my edits as they were on many occasions after upbraiding me for unsourcing because they realised the content couldn't be sourced but I was entirely correct. I've had no problems with the Ica and Fire Wiki either. Big chunks of the current Theon Wiki are by me, but I'm not telling you which parts I added. Most of the entry for the Blue Bard is mine as well.

Gave it a 9 easily. Best of the season so far, and only escaped a 10 because I'm not sure about the Jaime going to Dorne scenario and the short cuts that are being taken with the Cersei and Tyrion arcs. But the Janos Slynt scene was just fabulous, and the characterisational depth and dialogue throughout were beyond reproach.

Edit: accidental double post.

Oh, don't worry. Margaery in the upcoming episodes is up to a whole load of smirky fun.

Ran - Tried it. The email link doesn't work. Reset my password anyway, but logging in via Twitter works fine.

I can only log in here via Twitter. My password is not recognised if I just go directly to the site.

I voted 9. There was nothing particularly wrong with it, and I really like how they're treating Jon and Stannis this season. I'm not going to spoiler anything for non-leaked episode viewers, but it gets better from here on in. The pace of this season is unnecessarily slow however on account of too many missing characters and drastic shortcuts in dramatic story arcs. What I didn't like about this episode was the rather silly, too narratively convenient, alteration of the original keeper of the House at Braavos for Jaqen Hghar.

I've been locked out of the site for a while due to a glitch while changing computers, so my reviews for the four episodes I've seen will have to be briefer than usual. I really enjoyed it, even in spite of complaints I've noticed online about its slowness, but it's never picked up beyond the same level over the other leaked episodes. A solid 9.

Bendubz - I believe that GRR Martin already admitted this was part of what the RW was based on in an interview a few years back. That and an incident in Scottish history involving two clans whose names I can't recall.

That Biblical reference Weirdo spotted I spotted as well. I knew it was from the New Testament, because I remembered it. i just forgot from where it was quoted. It is most certainly deliberate on the part of GRR Martin. It partly requires knowing Ned's fate beforehand to really pick up on it.