Greywolf2375

well that answers how aging Tommen up changes it.

But that is in contrast to what HB said. The people who left because of the confirmed knowledge that the show would finish first were more likely than not not giving 9s & 10s for each episode. While I do think that there is disappointment with the season so far, I think a lot of it is that we are getting more realistic ratings of the show. Everyone rates on their own criteria but I think we've started to move from "comparing to everything else on TV" to "comparing what it to what it could be/to prior episodes". It's still amazing TV, it still is entertaining but there are things that regardless of source material are weaker than they should be or could be.

Sure, but in that case that was one of the instigating actions in Stark v. Lannister. Here, the instigator for the Alayne/Sansa story is secrecy - questioning the decisioning of why LF is parading her around is valid. At the end of the season this may all make sense but since all we (whether it is from the books or the show) is that Sansa Stark is still wanted surrounding Joffreys death and is the last known Stark alive him having her out and about doesn't appear to follow valid reasoning. For me it's not that the story doesn't follow the books, it's that what LF is doing doesn't really seem to follow reason.

I would have liked to Sam play the intrigue game like the book, but at least he nutted up and stated his piece.

I like Kevan. Far more backbone

Well, for the first scene they nailed Doran, etc.

Cuz he's directed by LF.

oh, please Lord Bronn...let's see some sibling rivalry like the Clegane brothers.

so that's an interesting turn.

guess Arya will know if the Braavosi wear boxers under their kilts now...

house of black and white...hopefully the characters won't be descried as such.

may not have been the wisest of ways to get them under control.

why would an Unsullied go to a brother?cuz HBO needs bewbs!

amazing...those two can turn a conversation around shit entertaining.

need to see that again to see if there are any more obvious ties to the three eyed crow in there

Cersei flashback to start it off!

and now the fastest hour of the week.

back to old friends. And Lannisters.

Well, it is a different name, but it is one of the driving characters through the books. We call her LS instead of Catelyn Stark, but it is still Catelyn coming back. The exclusion of that is rather large. She can come back mid season, but having a character like that come back and be the cliffhanger is, as shown by the books, a pretty solid ending.

It's interesting to see what the triggers are. People are having specific scenes or interactions get changed, mutilated or even left out and pinning it mostly on the specific episode. I think this season has been very good up to this point, but I think there has probably been 3 episodes worth of screen time that really hasn't added to the series as it stands now. For example, Missandei & GreyWorm. I don't see any value in that romance story. The hint there being that GW may not be a eunuch (fine, it's a change from the books for what we know now) just goes against everything we've been given/shown/told. if we find out in the next book that GW isn't actually a eunuch (somehow) and there is a romance for him, cool. But right now that seems like a waste where there definitely have been things missed or cut short that should have (in my opinion) been given better time. Less talk of crushing beetles, more talk of Oberyn/Mountain. Less Missandei, more prep at the Wall.

Stannis is still on the way. He'll show up. No, I don't have to agree with that - it's going to be fine when Jon goes into the camp and we then get to see what 100,000 wildlings looks like and how fucked the NW truly are. It would be great if people gave opinions of the show and not just other peoples opinions or name calling. Pretty much this. This was the set up. This was the fight to set up the battle. We get to see it as all holy hell, and Mance hasn't even sent in his army. The episode was ok - I'm much more interested in the politics and intrigue, so an episode of mostly just a battle isn't as interesting to me. For what they were doing, they did fine. Thorne was a badass - he ALMOST sounded like he was going to be nice to Snow and then dicked him. Snow - Kit's very much coming into his own, though the Ygritte scene looked like it was a dress rehearsal and not the real thing. Course, since they haven't seen each other in forever, might be forgiven. Sam - did an amazing job this episode, I just wish we got a little less of them so that what - may - happen later is that much more a surprise/event. Ygritte - Rose looked wooden. Maybe that was her trying to portray showing no feelings, but it didn't come across well. I give it a 7. Fight was fine, the giant arrow through the NW was cool, Ghost looked great for the 3 seconds he was there, but just didn't have the oomph I expect based on the source material.

This. Paying attention to the last few episodes, how many times was it said there are more than 100,000 wildlings out there? And how many were killed in the battle? So there's still more than 100,000 out there and the NW lost...40% of their men? That fight might be over, but the battle is far from over. Stannis not showing up in the middle of that fight is fine - my hope is that they don't go back to the wall until the 2nd to last thing next week. Have Jon with Mance...have the horns blow and watch Stannis and his men run through the Wildlings right after Mance says he will crush all the crows. He gets his moment in the sun. This isn't anything with book purists...it's specifically about Stannis not showing up in this episode. It actually is following the books from that standpoint. Just because someone doesn't think that Stannis not showing up isn't a crime doesn't mean they are D&D fans. I agree. Since they have decided to add in a lot of filler/additional scenes it needs to go back to episode 1 - and prior seasons - to drive the critique of the sitation being rushed or split. Could this have been handled in one episode? Maybe, but I don't think it would have looked/felt as strong. While I would have liked a better cliffhanger ending - Snow getting to Mance's tent maybe - I think splitting it is going to be fine. Stannis will come in and save the day with his men, the NW will live on and next season we will see the discussions about the castles of the NW being turned over.

the shorting of the episode time is still annoying.

So this was the episode from Dinklage's interview that was the "stabby stabby stabby" part of his take on the show.

Aw Grenn. :(