MercyTheBlindUglyLittleCat

My general issues of teleportation, stupid characterizations, lack of total closure on R+L=J, and misused book material keep this from being a 10/10, but 9/10 is close enough for what otherwise was an incredible episode. The Mad Queen Cersei material obviously being the highlight, as was Arya's kill of Walder.

4/10. This episode was not only messy and dull, it also seemed to perversely take glee in squashing a great many great theories/story aspirations (BYE BYE CLEGANE BOWL), while continuing to rape the character of Jaime in ways that blow my mind. They way they've handled Arya and her story these last three episodes is really piss poor. A crime against Arya is a crime against me. The glimmer of hope.... if Cersei is going to burn down KL with Wildfire, than perhaps Jaime will finally snap, restore his honorable side, and fulfill the prophecy by strangling the life out of dear big sister Cersei.

8/10 - excellent episode that reshuffled the pieces, helped get things back on track for where feast/dance and tWoW are with certain storylines, and also had some major WFT does this mean for the books reveals. The biggest is obviously Benjen's return. It's super unclear if they are combing Benjen with Coldhands, or if Benjen's story here is indeed his story in the books, OR if Benjen somehow is really Coldhands in the books, despite what GRRM apparently told his editor. My theory had always been that when we find Benjen again in tWoW, he will be somehow part Other. This is because I figure a possible Benjen POV or reintroduction into the storyline via Bran's POV, would be used to give us insight into who and what the Others are. So much to chew on...

9/10; mainly because of the usual small quibbles about book canon screwing, lazy storytelling, etc. But, this time I also have to gripe about how brief and surreal it was to see the Other's origins in that way.

My thoughts are in agreement. And boy, yeah LF's teleporter is gonna be on steroids this season, and other character will be lent it's powers soon enough I'm sure. LF will be far north, maybe at The Wall, NEXT EPISODE!!! Eye roll x9000. But lol, I can't care about that anymore. Brienne will probably be down in the Riverlands by episode 6 or 7.

9 for me!! Some of it felt a little forced and cheesy, as the show is prone to with its shortcuts and lack of internal logic, but damn was it not satisfying to watch from start to finish!!

Between a 6 and 7. Going in, I was 50/50 on whether we'd get the full sequence at the Tower of Joy or not. What we did get. Plus on, Howland Reed being properly included. Negative on all the changes. Overall it was good enough I guess. Real big negative though... Three Eyed "Raven" says he's a "1000" year old?! WTF!!! I guess he's not Bloodraven on the show. LAME. So many other head scratching changes in this episode, though I admit they are minor. Saw the Rickon thing coming a mile away with the preview's "gift" line. All the Essos scenes were profoundly boring, though I'm glad Arya is moving along now. KL scenes were also meh. Next week should be better. A Sansa and Jon reunion, hell yes!! And I'm very curious to see what's up with Little Finger and the Vale this season. But I think it won't be til episode 5 that we'll get the R+L=J reveal, if we're lucky. I'm not expecting more Bran in episode 4.

Yeah who knows what the writers would say. But I think even the fact that she had a brutal biting (literally) brawl with the "man" with Arya... that alone should have been mentioned, but as we agree, the writers didn't want to deal with the obvious follow up reaction from Sansa. To them, the point of the scene is to let Sansa know that Arya is alive, and that's it.

Brienne only said "a man," which given the significance of The Hound, and specifically the significance to Sansa, this is a huge and nonsensical omission. Brienne has no idea about Sansa's relationship with The Hound, so its nonsensical from a character POV for her to omit that when it being The Hound would be significant information to just about anyone. She fought the guy as well, in very brutal fashion. The fact that she doesn't namedrop is only explainable by the meta-narrative factor that the writers don't want to have to deal with Sansa's natural reaction to that information within the context of that scene. They want her to know Arya is alive, but not that she was with The Hound, so they contrive to have Brienne only say half of the story.

To be fair, this episode continues the show (especially this season, and likely increasingly going forward) tradition of things happening with little regard to proper character motivation or logic. Brienne doesn't mention the Hound; Davos asks about resurrection; Theon wants to go "home"; we can understand WHY this is happening from a meta and narrative point of view, but not at all within the universe and character cohesive manner. This is the inevitable result of there no longer being a book to adapt for most of this, and just the fact that D&D have already made themselves accustomed to taking any and all shortcuts to get characters from A to B. I can live with it just enough, but they best not push me too far. But yes, otherwise I thought this episode was great and showed promise for the Season going forward. Things are moving very fast. I like that, even while it comes with the poor consequences of what I detailed above.

My thoughts exactly.

Clearly D&D have changed their minds and gone back and forth a number of times on this and a number of stories in their adaptation going from season to season. I imagine though after this season, their plan for the final 13 to 15 episodes is pretty locked up. We'll have a better idea once we see ho things play out this year.

8 for me. Though I refuse to count Dorne in that sense, because that is a 1 out of 10 for sure.

No I think this was to set up a situation similar to the books where the Iron Fleet arriving in Meeren will play a role. They will replace Victarion with Asha/Yara

8 out of 10. I could easily rank it much much lower due to Dorne, but I'm choosing to relax on it, and hope Season 6 can right the wrongs on it in someway. In many ways it was better and more true to the books than I was expecting, and lacking in spoilers, which I was VERY worried about. One surprise that I didn't like of course Varys showing up at the pyramid. I was really hoping /excited to maybe see the show attempt to do the ADWD epilogue, and square it with how they wrote Varys back in 501, but alas we got something very far from that. HOWEVER, it's more than possible that scene could play out in Season 6. Especially if season 6 gives us aka Young Griff or some other suitable stand in. Speaking of which... WTF Dorne!!!! Was the whole point of this "nothing to due with the books and not even remotely worthy storyline" just done some Myrcella could bite it in Jamie (of all people!)'s arms.?To avoid the Riverlands? To keep Dorne in the story, while they bided their time in order to hold out on the real story for Season? All three?! This was the biggest surprise, and the least welcome one by far. What the bloody hell are they doing with Prince Doran? Id complain about the cliffhanger to, but they did that with every other story, so you know. Side Note: Stannis dying (or not???) really doesn't matter after last week. I really was surprised, though ultimately pleasantly so, that the show left the cliffhangers for Dany and Jon faithful and fully intact. I was pretty convinced, given the anti-cliffhanger chapter turning tone of all the past finales would carry over enough, that they would include beats afterwords that suggested more certain or less speculative outcomes beyond ADWD, i.e. spoilers, but we were spared that. That said, GET OUT BOOK 6 BEFORE APRIL 2016 GEORGE!!! On the major plus side, the Arya scenes in this episode were amazing, and totally surprised me with the way they were done. I think it was a great choice to not setup Arya getting the face, and just jumping right into her murdering Trant. And the execution, so awesome (though it was proceeded by more excessive GoT cruelty). I really loved how it ended with the Blind Little Girl cliffhanger from Feast, totally unexpected!! All this leads me to believe that the Mercy chapter (and the story in between in Braavos) has yet to be fully adapted by the show, and will be in Season 6. There was casting rumors of "head of acting company" or something along those lines, plus Arya didn't use Needle on Trant, and Mercy's story looked to continue beyond the preview chapter in The Winds of Winter. In any case, Im excited for my favorite character in book & show.

This was the episode that just brutalized the mind of a sullied viewer. I went from outrage at what felt like a horrifying and irreparable change from the books, to shock, disbelief, outrage, and anxiety the minute the inside the episode started and just flat out dropped the bomb that this change was not change, but a BOOK SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!! This is exactly the sort of conundrum we all feared. I totally feel for David and Dan actually. If they didnt just come out and say it, the outrage would be all at them, and for no good reason, but on the other hand, I, and I'm sure most sullied, would have much preferred to learn the truth BY READING IT WHEN IT HAPPENS. Damn it George, you need to get The Winds of Winter out before season 6 starts. Next week I'm already terrified of. As for the rest of the episode, well damn it to, the whole aforementioned moment hung over what should have been a most treasured book scene coming to life. And the stuff prior. Solid and enjoyable set up, I guess.

Best Episode of the Show yet, easily, and I don't take that lightly at all. This season has been a bummer for me really in general. They've been catching up to the books, the final two less exciting books, and the changes they've been making, some sensical, some so far terribly nonsensical, have left me with little to be excited about. Ive been awaiting the big book climaxes, and those are coming, but even still I've been worried some the changes might leave them neutered. But this episode CHANGED ALL OF THAT in my mind. It gave us excellent, lead ups for stuff we expect to come, finally, but far more importantly, it gave us a massive non book sequence, that showed this show is moving at full steam towards something we've been waiting sooooooo long for, and it was perfectly realized. The only thing even sweater than this episode's actual content, was the taste it left in my mouth for next week, and the week after, to see the remaining iconic moments from the published material realized with some well renewed trust and faith, and faith in some of the changes as well. I still cant be sure Sansa and the Dorne stuff will shape up, give us what they can from their book counterparts memorable climaxes, but for Danny, Jon, Arya, Cersei, and Bolton vs Baratheon stories, the new and old alike are finally looking to collide to deliver us some climaxes I can hardly breath when I think about. I'm desperate not to be let down, but I really don't think I will be foe the first time this year. Godspeed GRRM, get Book 6 done before next season!!!!!!!

Seems like everyone else gave it an 8 as well. It was great, but there is a limit to what can be done in the first outing. And even though Arya didn't make the cut, Im so glad they kept a limit to the POVs in this one. Last year's opener was stretched way way way too thin.