RedShirt47

HODOR / 10 Good solid episode. The stories are really getting into gear now. Arya has a mission but is being reminded of home. Jon and Sansa are seeking support to take on Ramsey. The Iron Islands have a new king and mission. The Riverlands are back in Tully hands. My only niggle is Littlefinger. No idea where that storyline is going.

Any significance to Bloodraven (or The Three-Eyed Raven) being in the tree for a thousand years? Do they just want to remove his Targ / Blackfyre connections? Make him a generic Night's Watch man (even Lord Commander) with a simple back story.

To be fair, most of that Dorne storyline happened in the books, just with a few different characters. And in the books Mycella even lost an ear. Now I agree that a lot of the execution of this story this season was weak. The fight between Jaime / Bronn and the Sand Snakes was woeful. It did not live up to its potential. This season gave Jaime and Bronn something to do as their book material was used up. Let's face the Brotherhood Without Banners / Lady Stoneheart / Blackfish Versus Freys is end game stuff and will be best done in the last season. If Jaime goes in search of Brienne next season he is likely to run into BWB. and that is time enough for that to happen.

I just hope we get a worthy pay-off from this sacrifice. There needs to be some awesomeness in the finale to come of this.

8/10 Twas no Battle of Blackwater. Also I some misgivings about the Shireen story. There had better be some worthwhile pay off that. Shadowbaby Roose at the very least....

wow, the proper discussion thread has more pages used than that rant and rave echo chamber :O Good episode. I thought by the title it was going to be Arya giving The Gift to somebody (Trant probably) but instead it was lots of other people giving gifts to each other. Sansa a candle to Theon. Littlefinger an informant to Oleanna. Cersei a meal to Margery. Jorah a Lannister to Dany. Still another build up episode, so we're still waiting for the real action. HS was great in both his scenes. Oleanna was great in hers. The Brienne standing there waiting for a candle thing is pretty feeble though.

7/10 Another solid episode building up to later events. Some great moments though.

exactly, Robert Strong is being prep'd in Qyburn's lab so presumably we're getting one for Cersei.

That was some powerful television at the end. I'm shocked they took it as far as they did. I expected Theon to have done something before the bedding. Considering this show, it could have been a lot worse. Judging by the locked threads some people on here need to remember TV Sansa is not Book Sansa, if they check the pages of their books they will find an unharmed Sansa. The one issue I do have with the current TV version is why Loras hasn't demanded Trial by Combat, he is one of the best fighters in the Kingdom. Perhap the birth mark evidence is enough to prove guilt....

9/10 That was some powerful television at the end. I'm shocked they took it as far as they did. I expected Theon to step in before the bedding. But there was some other stuff there which I really liked, the Jorah / Tyrion exchange was great. Great to see Oleanna back and the KL stuff was good. Littlefinger's scheme is making a bit more sense now. I agree the Dorne part wasn't great...

Ends justifying the means argument. Varys (and his co-conspirators) believe having a Targaryen restoration is the best thing for the realm. So some short term pain of a Dothraki invasion for long term Targaryen reign is a price worth paying (in his view, not everyone, myself included, would agree with his logic but I can understand it).

The Dothraki plot works fine for the show in my view it keeps it simple. To take the throne you need an army, The Dothraki were an army. They are a savage lot for sure but then not much worse than The Mountain raping and pillaging the Riverlands. You don't really get nice cuddly armies who invade peacefully and take the throne with hugs. Of course I much prefer the book plot with Aegon, The Golden Company, Blackfyres and what not but the simpler show version works fine on tv. I have not read a single unsullied comment on how stupid it was to try to use the Dothraki to take the throne. Only people applying book logic find it unreasonable. Book logic doesn't apply here so this argument is null and void.

D&D have a broad brush stoke version of the end, not a blow by blow of the next two books. Whatever they did with Sansa it would be their work entirely as they've already used up her book material at as slow a pace as they could have - it's not like they rushed Sansa. Same goes for Jaime and Brienne. They are out of book material. If lady Stoneheart will appear it will be closer to the end as her end game will coincide with other end games. If you have to make up material any how why not combine their stories with other stories, especially where these other stories don't have familiar characters. Having Jaime and Bronn in Dorne allows there to be some familiar faces involved in the new storyline. Plus it means that when the sand snakes kill someone it's not just another Red Shirt but more likely Bronn. This death will have meaning and impact. As for treating the audience like morons, this is a silly argument. TV is a medium which simplifies stories. Ellaria (who the haters have been ranting about so much) has had two scenes and the season is half over. The show has to cater to casual viewers, dedicated viewers, book readers all at the same time. As a book reader I see enough there to find enjoyable, I wish some things had been done differently but I feel the show is catering to my needs as a book reader adequately. From what I've read casual viewers are finding enough there to keep them interested also. I think this is a job well done. If the tv show only catered exclusively to book readers it would have failed, it would have had a huge budget would have taken 12 years or more with a much smaller audience. I am not seeing complaints in unsullied forums about the show being too dumb. Although I do see a lot of book snobs complaining about their favourite being missed. For what it is, An Epic Fantasy TV show, Game of Thrones is an excellent example. Name another fantasy show that come remotely close. It's nearest competitor is Legend of the Seeker or something (which I quite enjoyed but it pales into insignificance in comparison to GoT).

8 / 10 Building up nicely to some major events. Jon & Tormund heading to Hardhome. Stannis heading to Winterfell. Sansa heading to a wedding. Meereen heading to some interesting events. Looking forward to the next few episodes.

What's wrong with Red Shirts? It's an ancient and noble vocation :) As for the street fighters, I imagine that many of them were Pit Fighters trained in many fighting styles and probably excellent in these brawling or single combat type situations. Like Spartacus taking on The Roman Republic. Gladiators were able to defeat highly trained and disciplines army units. The story in the show is about re-openning the Fighting Pits and who would want this more than Pit Fighters (assuming they're all like Daario and see it was way out of an otherwise shitty existance).

8/10 After a solid start to the season setting up everything now the actions is starting. Pieces are in place for some great episodes now. Loved the history stuff too which was really good.

Will Grey Scale replace the Pale Mare? Will Meereen be hit by a plague of Grey Scale? I agree that Jorah is most likely (although Semly is possible) to pick up the JonCon Grey Scale storyline.

AA Podcast on Youtube do a pretty good review. They do one for show only and one doing a show / book comparison. Both are pretty good. They are quite long though...

^^ I agree. What TV can do better than books such as music, locations, scenery, costumes, acting. GOT does very well. The books do nuance, characterisation, build-up, background etc much better. They both have their strengths and weaknesses. GOT is one of the largest casts on TV with a huge budget. And with all that it still has to simplify the story to fit it on screen. I was reading an unsullied tv forum on other site earlier and they generally thought this episode was awesome. So the only conclusion I can draw from that is that the books themselves are causing some people to dislike the show. To me the books are the show are separate things and should be criticised thusly. I am able to do this and am enjoying the show. I prefer some of the changes they've made to the books. Some I've preferred the book version. As for this episoe I've been struggling to come up with a suitable reason why LF would want to ally with The Boltons. All I can come up with is revenge, not just for Sansa but for himself. Roose slit the throat of the woman he loved. I think he still hoped that with Ned out of the way he could woo Catelyn. But Roose ended that desire.

7/10 It's been a solid start to the season, they've set up the stories quite well, they is a lot to organise after the major events of season 4.

6. There was some good stuff like Tyrion and Pod. Tywin and LF had ok scenes. There was some dull scenes too, Sam and Gilly. But what really tarnished the episode was the Sept scen with Jaime and Cersei. Didn't like the Hound robbing the family either. And the cartoon villainy of the Thenns really didn't help. Could do better...