Fan pleasing, shallow, and an unrelenting air of hollywood-esque emotive predictability. Really disappointing after last week's mostly brilliant episode, and the first episode in the whole series I actually disliked watching. - The battle tactics seemed oversimplified, everything is on this weird micro-scale like Blackwater where you feel like you're in a brawl in someone's back garden. - The cartoonish Jonas Slynt 'cowardly dog' alteration is odd and unnecessary. He is a complete sh-t head but he is formidable as a bad guy and an enemy to Jon Snow and this change is really disappointing and damaging to the character. Same with Thorne, it felt nice to see a relate-able human side to him but I know it's not right that the show is catering to shallow feelings over maintaining the harsh reality of this world - where Thorne is an eternally unappeasable c-t - and in which in the show is starting to feel less and less real. - The mid-battle, holding in the arms, cliche-romance scene with Jon and Ygritte. I nearly pulled my eyes out. “Hush now....” “You know nothing..... Jon....... Snow....” Seriously? Is this seriously happening right now? Okay yeah it's happening, f- it, I'm done. At this point I'm no longer in Westeros, I'm watching a scene done a thousand times before in a thousand different movies, interwoven with the worst kind of movie predictability. - Pyp & Grenn shouldn't have died (where's Noye?). As Jon's closer friends he needs them to add depth to his character. Last weeks episode gets an 8, this week its a 3, up from a 1 because ghost appeared (and I'm ignoring the fact that he just stops at one and chows down for a minute mid-battle) and up from a 2 because the anchor swing and giant-charge scenes (nervewracking, the vows recital made my skin shiver). Boy was this unenjoyable.. But, looking forward to next week a lot, and conversely am optimistic for how it will turn out.
