kn1tt3r

It probably doesn't, but I tend to have a bad feeling about votings dominated by rage induced decisions.

To me it probably was the worst episode this season, but not because of the WF stuff, but entireley because how poorly the Dorne part was handled. I'm not even talking about the storyline as a whole they came up with, but the scene itself. What are the Sand Snakes doing there? Swarming out to do what? Kill Myrcella? Probably not? So, to stop potential intruders? How did they know those intruders would be there at this exact time? And Jaime/Bronne... they just walk in there and immediately know their way around? Then this fight scene... if I didn't know they can do WAY better, I'd just blame it on the budget constraints of television, but seriously, this was maybe the worst fight of the entire series. The Winterfell scene... well, I guess IF Sansa is there as Ramsay's bride, then this was the inevitable next step. It just HAD to happen, as unpleasant as it was to watch. And I think it was very truthfully and gracefully done. The manner this very scene was shot was just very good television. The rest of the episode was fine. The hall of faces was impressive, Tyrion and Jorah had some very good quiet moments, and hooray Olenna's back. I still don't entirely get what Littlefinger is planning, but I really hope this is not just about making chaotic desicions merely for the sake of chaos, because he thrives on that... I really hope he has at least an idea of where he's going... Bottom line, to me it was a 7.5, and to counterbalance a bit against the many emotionally motivated votes, I gave it an 8.

Overall probably my least favorite episode of this season. Stannis' scene was great, but other than that half of the episode felt very slow and basically covering transitions, introductions or traveling ways. The other half felt very hasty and almost like fast forward (King's Landing, even the Harpy scene at the end). So yeah, it was a bit unsatisying, but I still liked it kind of. 7/10.

So, some thoughts on those "iconic quotes" the series didn't show. The main reason in the majority of the cases is that those quotes don't seem that iconic to the writers after all, and for good reason I think. "Only Cat" was mainly so memorable because it was used by the fans as some sort of headline for the scene as a whole. I admit it has more flavor to it than "your sister", but maybe the 5-10% unsullied viewers who understand the reference better due to the change are worth it...? And as for "fetch me a block" - man this really isn't that great of a quote on its own, and certainly not better than "get me my sword". The reason for why it is so popular is mainly the circumstances: Jon's original intention to hang(?) Slynt, his second thoughts and finally the reveal that he intends to behead him himself. For the show this inner conflict would be very hard to bring across (though they could have done something along those lines), so they left it out and used whatever sentence served well for the scene. Maybe they didn't even remember the exact quote because it didn't occur to them that this very sentence might be of some importance to some (and why should they?)...

I gave a solid 8. I would have like a bit more Dorne, but otherwise it was very well done I think. For the Wall it would have been a bit more dramatic to have at least a short break between Stannis' offer and the election, but that's all minor things. I really like what they did to the Meereen plot.