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The fire bombs were lame. I'm not sure why everyone is complaining about the skeletons though. Could've done without the hands popping out of the ground to grab at ankles, but other than that they looked amazing. Better than the dragons, giants, or any other special effects we've seen yet.

This is an adaptation, not a show based on completely original material. It's perfectly understandable for fans of the books to have certain expectations, and the producers should expect to be scrutinized over every significant change they make. Sometimes the changes turn out well, other times they deserve a lot of criticism.

5/10 - The scenes at the Wall were good. Ygritte's send-off seemed like a bit of a waste of time though. - The reanimated skeletons looked great, but having Jojen die right there next to the tree when the three-eyed raven knew what was going to happen and when the children of the forest could easily have stopped it seemed silly to me. Bad writing. - Very underwhelmed by the children of the forest. Leaf looked much more human than I imagined, like the producers really couldn't be bothered. The grenades were stupid too. - Loved the Cersei / Tywin scene. Great acting, especially from Lena Headey. - Daenerys locking away her dragons was a nice scene. - Having Brienne fighting the Hound was stupid fanfiction at its worst. I sensed they were going to do it after last week's episode, and it's not the first time this season they've invented such random encounters. The constant coming together of known characters just makes what should be a vast fantasy world feel tiny. At least they left the Hound's fate open though. - Tywin's death scene was handled okay. The dialogue was a bit different from the books which i'm sure will get some fans riled up (just like with Lysa's death scene), but I have no real complaints. - Not seeing Lady Stoneheart was a bit of a surprise. I'm not hugely disappointed though, because I didn't love that part of the books. - Arya's voyage was a nice way to end the episode.

Leaving Stannis out was definitely the right move. It would all have been too rushed otherwise.

5/10 Big action packed battles do nothing for me, and i'm not the sort to be wowed by special effects. Could have done without all the romance crap too, and the cheesy dialogue. That said, I was expecting much worse. They didn't go overboard turning Ygritte and Tormund into hollywood badasses as I thought they might. I was also very relieved they didn't kill off Alliser Thorne. I'm sure a lot will be disappointed Stannis didn't show up to save the day in this episode, but honestly, that would have been too rushed and anticlimactic. I think it's better this way.

As I said, you can feel a sense of affection for a cute little puppy without there being any sexual desire there. Friends and relatives can also love and care about each other greatly and feel a great amount of affinity and attachment... but an actual relationship between a hetrosexual or homosexual couple absolutely requires an element of sexual desire. That's not necessarily limited to physical lust however. Someone can seem like a desirable mating partner because of their outgoing and confident personality or their social standing, even if they're not immediately desirable at a glance.

The difference between affection for say, a cute little puppy, and affection between a man and a woman is sexual desire. Without some kind of hormone replacement therapy, a man who has been castrated isn't going to experience such desire... and certainly not to the extent implied in the show when Grey Worm was watching Missandei in the river. It just seems like the show producers can't bear the thought having two good looking actors on screen without some kind of sexual encounter happening. The fact that Unsullied are fully castrated in the books - i.e. the pillar and the stones are completely removed - probably won't even stop them from showing what they want to show. And beyond being a butchery of everything we know of the Unsullied from the books, I just don't find the relationship entertaining in any way. Friendship between the two characters would be fine as long as it doesn't make up too much filler content, but what they're showing is the kind of cringeworthy tripe i'd expect to see in a bad romance drama or some awful fanfiction story. It's bad enough that I have to tolerate the cheese fest that is show-Daario, D&D's Daenerys worship, and Emilia's bad acting.

Maybe the bite isn't what finishes him. Maybe in episode 10 they'll cut straight to a scene with Arya and the Hound running away from the Eyrie with the Hound having arrows in his back. That for me would be preferable to some fanfiction scenario where Brienne conveniently bumps into the two of them and either teams up with them against hill tribes or ends up fighting and mortally wounding the Hound. Nothing makes a fantasy world seem tiny quite like the constant "random" coming together of notable characters.

Having rewatched the episode now that i'm over the excitement of Oberyn's death, I think a 7/10 was too generous. The duel itself along with the buildup beforehand really should have been a lot better than it was. I also think I gave too much praise for the Sansa/Littlefinger scenes. Sansa's speech to the lords of the Vale is excellent, but i'm bothered by how clueless it made Littlefinger look... and the scene where she comes down the stairs dressed in black and gives Petyr that look is a bit much. I'm surprised they didn't stick a thin black moustache on her face for her to twizzle. We get it, she's not a silly little girl anymore... Aside from Theon's visit to Moat Cailin, which was perfect, almost everything else about the episode was poor. D&D really need to improve their writing if they're going to continue their fanfiction power trip rather than sticking to GRRM's material.

For me the issue is less that they're deviating from the books, and more that I don't believe the writers are anywhere near competent enough to do ASOIAF justice with their fanfiction. Some of it turned out quite well, like Tywin encountering Arya, but most of it has been substandard garbage that's barely fit for a bad action movie or a daytime soap opera. I seriously worry for future seasons because it sounds like the fanfiction will only increase.

7/10 Good: - Loved the duel. The sudden and horrific nature of Oberyn's defeat in the books was a huge shock moment for me, and one (unlike the Red Wedding) which I didn't see coming, so i'm really glad they got it right in the show and didn't tone it down at all. - The Sansa / Littlefinger scenes in the Vale were excellent. - The Moat Cailin scene was great. Alfie Allen did a fantastic job of showing Reek almost falling apart while presenting himself as Theon Greyjoy in front of the Ironborn. The scene wouldn't have been anywhere near as compelling if he'd just strolled in and out of there confident with no signs at all of the frail, broken person behind the masquerade. Bad: - The love story between Grey Worm and Missandei is just awful. Pointless filler content that's probably going to drag on into the next two episodes. - Arya and the Hound arriving in the Vale seemed like a pointless deviation to me, and the way Arya bursted out in laughter seemed so forced and random. Indifferent: - The attack on Mole's Town was forgettable. - Not quite sure what to make of Tyrion and Jaime's conversation before the trial. I was waiting for some kind of point to the whole bug crushing story, but it never arrived. Perhaps the writers deliberately left it a mystery to get fans talking and coming up with crazy theories? Who knows. - Jorah getting caught and banished was okay. Certainly not Emilia Clarke's worst performance this season. Edit: Perhaps i'm being a bit generous giving the episode a 7/10 going by previous scores i've given this season. There was a lot of pointless filler content and bad deviations. I'm sure once i'm over the excitement of the duel scene the episode will probably seem more like a 6/10 to me.

I didn't get the complaints about his accent at all until this episode. He sounded so Irish at one point, i'm amazed they didn't re-shoot the scene.

6/10 - The scenes inside Tyrion's cell were all great. - Liked Sansa/Robin's scene, and the moon door incident didn't disappolnt. - Not so keen on the new Mountain now that we've had a good look at him. He has a better build for the role than the previous Mountains, but because of his Nordic complexion and his age (he looks mature for his age but still reasonably young) I have a very hard time believing that he's Sandor Clegane's brother, let alone older brother. I also hated the not so subtle way they felt they needed to reinforce the fact that he's an evil baddy. - I really didn't like how they had Brienne/Podrick encountering Hot Pie and Rorge/Biter running into Sandor/Arya in the same episode. Having characters come together like this always does fantasy worlds a disservice in my opinion and makes the world feel a LOT smaller and less grand than it should be. This isn't just a dig at the show, because GRRM does it too (notably with Samwell bumping into Stark children constantly). - Daario was awful as usual.

Did I say that I hate the whole series? I've enjoyed it a lot for the most part, even though the deviations from the books seem to be getting progressively worse with each season. There have been episodes that have left me disappointed or underwhelmed by certain scenes, but this is the first episode to rub me the wrong way so much that i'd go as far as to say I hated it.

I've actually been fairly tolerant of a lot of the changes they've made to the series up until now. Tonight's episode just made me cringe though. Repeatedly.

Popularity isn't proof of quality. It just proves that the majority of people lack taste.

What?

I'm shocked at how bad that episode was. Really, it must be one of the best examples yet of why they should stick to the damn books instead of fulfilling some fanfic fantasy. They're clearly too incompetent as writers to do the series justice by making stuff up as they go along.

4/10 - Yara's assault was just plain bad. Underwhelming. Hated how they turned Ramsay into a "badass" fighter. - Iron bank of Braavos was a disappointment despite a decent performance (as usual) from Liam Cunningham. - The dialogue between Daenerys and Hizdahr zo Loraq was some of the worst acting i've seen in the entire series. - The constant reminders about Oberyn's sexuality were cringeworthy. Far worse than previous episodes. It's just getting embarrassing now. - The trial itself was okay. Nothing exceptional, but not particularly disappointing. Sibel Kekilli once again proved that she's not a good actress. Overall, one of the most disappointing episodes I can remember. Something about it just rubbed me the wrong way.

7/10 - Good to finally see Daenerys start to falter a bit. - Lysa's scenes with Sansa were great. - Pleased they didn't have Bran and Jon meet each other. - Hound/Arya were good as usual, as were Brienne/Pod. - Disappointed to see Locke die so soon, although Bran using Hodor to kill him was a nice touch. - The 1v1 between Jon and Karl felt a bit contrived. I guess that's what the average viewer wants though.

This would actually fit quite nicely. I don't see it happening though.

6/10 The liberation of Meereen started off okay, but I hate how it suddenly cut forward to another Daenerys cheese moment. I'm now wondering why they even bothered with Grey Worm's first seen at all. They could have had an extra few minutes of Daenerys walking around like the Pope to cries of "mhysa". :rolleyes: Even the crucifixion scene felt rushed like they couldn't wait to show another shot of Daenerys being glorified. Cersei and Jaime's scene was good. Surprise, surprise, she's not acting like a rape victim, confirming that last week's scene was consensual. I think they went too far revealing how Joffrey was killed. I fully expected Littlefinger to brag to Sansa about his involvement and go into detail about the necklace, but Olenna blurting her own involvement out in a city full of spies seemed a bit much to me. I think most viewers already got the message the moment Littlefinger's scene cut forward to the Tyrells. I was surprised to see Locke at the Wall so soon. His interactions with Jon weren't a bad deviation from the books though in my opinion. Alliser Thorne was great as usual. Loved the scenes at Craster's Keep (especially the character Karl) up until they caught Bran and co. This seemed like a huge and unnecessary change to me that could result in things happening that I didn't want to happen (Stark kids reuniting). The final White Walker scene was an underwhelming surprise. I wasn't at all impressed by their homeland, icehenge, or the leader who looks like some kind of frost vampire. And the confirmation that White Walkers are created using human babies sort of cheapens them as a fantasy race in my opinion.

They should have forseen the age issue to begin with and picked someone as old as the other child actors to play Tommen right from the start. Or at the very least, they should have given us glimpses of a new Tommen last season. It just seems so forced and ridiculous how this random boy showed up magically only moments before Joffrey died, and now suddenly he's going to be king.

6/10 Overall it was a decent episode, however I find it completely ridiculous how new Tommen has been shoehorned in so fast. I can only imagine how utterly random it must seem to a lot of non-readers. I actually liked his coversation with Tywin, and unlike some of the show's other casting screw ups (e.g. Ramsay) the actor isn't necessarily wrong for the role,.. I just think the timing of the change is so off that it's tantamount to inventing a new Stark child and giving them an important role in the next episode like they've been there the whole time. And yet again I found myself rolling my eyes at their portrayal of Daenerys. They seem to be trying to re-create the same scene over and over again with a show of power followed by the cheesy delivery of a Valyrian word.

This description of the events sounds way more horrific to me: "Joffrey began to claw at his throat, his nails tearing bloody gouges in the flesh. Beneath the skin, the muscles stood out hard as stone. Prince Tommen was screaming and crying. He is going to die, Tyrion realized. He felt curiously calm, though pandemonium raged all about him. They were pounding Joff on the back again, but his face was only growing darker. Dogs were barking, children were wailing, men were shouting useless advice at each other. Half the wedding guests were on their feet, some shoving at each other for a better view, others rushing for the doors in their haste to get away. Ser Meryn pried the king's mouth open to jam a spoon down his throat. As he did, the boy's eyes met Tyrion's. He has Jaime's eyes. Only he had never seen Jaime look so scared. The boy's only thirteen. Joffrey was making a dry clacking noise, trying to speak. His eyes bulged white with terror, and he lifted a hand... reaching for his uncle, or pointing... Is he begging my forgiveness, or does he think I can save him? "Noooo," Cersei wailed, "Father help him, someone help him, my son, my son..."