SuperMario

Episode gets a solid 1 from me. Horrible.

They should have called it A Song of Tyrion and Tyrion because this episode was all about him. This was the Peter Dinklage Emmy reel.

2 out of 10 for me. It gets an extra point for the effects and cinematography.

But everything else was horrible. How can anyone be nominated for an Emmy this season? There has been practically zero dialogue. Lena Headey has had about 5 lines the entire season. If this is George's idea for bittersweet, God help us all.

2 for me.

It only gets above a 1 because MissWorm finally is over.

48 minutes ago, alinoris said:

Just my 2 cents on some reported tactical issues.

Winterfell isn't a huge castle (just compare it to the Red Keep, or to the Dragonstone Fortress, for instance) and so are its walls...therefore you can't put trebuchets or big catapultss up there. Consequently also the courtyards aren't that large, so again...big trebuchets (u really need a big empty area for them to work) aren't an option there as well (to make it short, it's Winterfell, not Minas Tirith ^^). Catapults: if u place them inside, u need a very long space ahead to hit very far, otherwise u will hit your own walls, or u will be forced to aim too high (and that will shorten your shots a lot).

This is all D&D's fault. They made Winterfell this pathetic castle since season 1. But at least season 1 you could blame it on the smaller budget. Winterfell is the seat of the north, and they treat it like a small little fort. There is nothing grand or spectacular about it in the show, and it has been a letdown from the get-go.

4 out of 10 for me. The only things that increased it were the visual effects and Baby Mormont finally biting it.

The rest was a complete jumbled mess that was barely even able to be seen.

3 out of 10 for me.

Pod singing was the highlight of the episode even if it was a ripoff of Mist and Shadow. And anything with Edd is great.

But this episode just boils down to the writers not having the ability to write tension. For 8 seasons, we've been waiting for this - The Battle of Dawn. And yet, it felt so underwhelming. Not one time during this episode did it really feel like the characters were really in the moment.

But as others have pointed out, the show now just proceeds to have big announcements be cut short by some interruption.

4 minutes ago, House Cambodia said:

"Sandra", as a dynamic character has demonstrated a superb character arc through the series. Jon's still pretty dumb though.

Pretty sure her relationships with Joffrey, Cersei, Tyrion, Ramsey, Littlefinger, etc. would state she has been pretty dumb throughout her existence. And now they are setting up this awful catfight between her and Dany. No thanks.

Though, her put down of Tyrion in the first episode was a pretty good slam.

3 out of 10 for me.

The only things to elevate it were seeing Edd, seeing Arya smile for the first time in forever, and John Bradley's acting.

The How to Train your Dragon seen, while necessary, was cheesy. And Arya stating Sandra is the smartest person she's ever known was laughable considering Sandra is, along with Jon, the dumbest character throughout the entire series.

Episode gets a 2 from me. The wall falling with the blue fire was the only thing that prevented it from being a one. Everything else was so blah. The damn Wight for Cersei scene took almost 40 minutes when it was all said and done, and almost nothing happened in that whole scene.

I have been waiting for LF's death for almost 2 seasons now, and they couldn't have pulled it off any worse. So are we to just pretend that Arya and Sandra were hating each other all that time? Sandra was almost as complicit as LF in some of the treachery she accused him of. Since when is Arya an executioner? One of the lamest scenes ever on this show.

Nice to know Sam could get to Winterfell from Oldtown traveling over 3000 miles in about a day and a half in a covered wagon.

42 minutes ago, Gargarax said:

I'm sure Aidan Gillen asks himself the same question every week - it wouldn't surprise me if D&D receive weekly emails from him with that question as the subject line ...

15 minutes ago, Meera of Tarth said:

But I barely saw Dany drop a tear??

Well, how was she expected to cry for her dead child when the showrunners are ramming the forced relationship of Jonerys down our throats?

"See everyone! Clearly there is chemistry between them. She even cried for him!"

Poor Viserion. He can join Rickon and others in the Hall of Forgotten.

Episode gets a 2 from me. The good special effects and dragon death scene were the only thing that saved it from a 1.

Once again, why is Littlefinger still alive?

1 hour ago, Daske said:

I think it's the opposite. GoT has raised the bar so high that people are freaking out about a perceived drop in to poor quality when it doesn't match their own fan fiction. It should be this, it must be that. OK, everyone wants different things, how you rate stuff is subjective, sure. But there was a full on AD&D fight with flaming swords and a freaking undead bear. Right there, on screen! Viewers are spoiled these days. I spent a month once waiting for a schoolmate get me a dodgy VHS tape copy of a Hartnell black-and-white Doctor Who episode that was barely visible through the snowstorm and the sound was a full second out of sync. But it was AMAZING! I know I'm not alone in being so grateful that we have this show to watch - whatever faults it has with some of the writing and some of the pacing. So what? There was a freaking undead bear fight!

 

If you hadn't used the phrase undead bear fight, I would have thought you were describing Michael Bay movies.

Once again, any episode where Littlefinger remains alive gets no better than a 5. With that out of the way, this show went from a lot of filler in the first couple episodes to all meat with not a chance to breathe in this one. The showrunners have really said F it to timelines and timeframes at this point. Everyone can get everywhere within seconds, yet Jon can't return to Winterfell once for the better part of a year?

And everything in this episode was unearned and so rushed - Gendry's chance encounter, The Fellowship of the Wight, the decision to just appease Cersei for reasons unknown. Too much stupid in one episode. Gets a 1 from me.

44 minutes ago, johndance said:

She literally has been doing her water dancing training every morning for the past however many weeks, months (years!) however long it's been since season 1. She's had extensive training with the FM, including while she was blind. We as viewers have only seen a small percentage of this. She's obviously had formal sword training and a lot of it. This scene was very plausible and very realistic. 

Has she? Let's look at this rationally. She was on the run/held captive pretty much through season 4. Not sure how much training she got during that time. That covered three seasons. Then she was on a boat to Braavos. Again, not sure who was training her on the high seas. Then she hides her sword before joining the FM. The FM have no swords inside The House of Black and White, and she doesn't retrieve her sword until she leaves Braavos. Then she is back on the boat over to Westeros before somehow making it to The Twins to murder Lord Frey. Even if she was practicing her water dancing and steps, at no time was she training and sparring with another person with a sword. I can punch a speed bag for years, but I don't think that's going to give me enough skills when I actually box someone who punches back.

The only thing that's obvious with the sparring scene with Brienne is that the showrunners want you not think too hard on the implausibility of Arya's "skills" and her ability to beat Brienne.

14 minutes ago, dbunting said:

I assume (as the writers want me to) that she learned this with the FM while training. She already had some lessons with Serio(SP?) and then spent excessive time training with staffs and such with the FM. The way she stood was clearly water dancing, and the dodging and striking reminded me of staff training.

Except training with a bo staff is different than training with a fencing epee/sabre. If you remember she actually hid Needle when she reached Braavos and didn't retrieve it until she left. So other than some basic initial training with Syrio, she had no formal sword training.

Not a chance in hell she could parry Brienne's attacks. The writers did it for pure fan service, plain and simple. And it was one of the dumber things I've seen this season.

20 hours ago, JordanJH1993 said:

Don't say that to Conor McGregor...

FYI, I am Conor McGregor, so I was speaking from personal experience.

15 minutes ago, King Louis II (KLII) said:

Fights don't work this way sometimes is almost like a Rock, Paper, Scizzors.

Like Oberynn may beat the mountain but Loose to Barristan Selmy

And Sir Barristan may loose to the Mountain.

 

(whether each character would win or loose is not relevant, just making a point)

Yes, point taken. Similar to sports. The Patriots beat the Steelers one week but not the next. However, we are talking about a 12 year old girl beating trained/grown fighters. I don't care how much I train, I will never beat Floyd Mayweather. My ass will get beat 100 times out of 100.

15 minutes ago, nara said:

I thought the COTF created the white walkers and then quickly lost control of them and had to join the Men to fight them.

Re: Jaime and the Deepest River, I decided to believe that we were looking at it from a drowning man's perspective.  It would seem deep, even if it wasn't really.  Same thing I did for the Theon/Sansa leap from Winterfell into barely any snow.  Sometimes you have to just patch the holes in what D&D have created in order to not drive yourself crazy.

Except that would take all the spackle in the world to fill in that many holes.

As I've said since week 1, any episode where Littlefinger is still alive automatically gets no better than a 5. For some stupid reason, he remains alive after episode 4. Arya's fight could have brought the episode to a 1. Arya beat Brienne. Brienne beat The Hound. The Hound beat/will beat The Mountain. So Arya could beat the Mountain....Sure. That seems reasonable.

However, the battle at the end brought the episode back up to a 4. It was on par with some movie productions. Good stuff.

Any episode with Littlefinger still alive automatically gets no more than a 4. Horrible dialogue. Timelines make even less sense than before, if that's possible. Sandra is a master armorer now

Lady Olenna's final scene with Larry saved it from being a 1. It gets a 3 in my book.

9 minutes ago, Cron said:

I considered giving it an 8, but the fact that it was the season premiere, after we had waited so long, pushed it up to a 9.

(Not surprising it wasn't a 10, though.  As a season premiere, we can't expect much in terms of big events mor major developments)

No offense, but why does waiting longer for the premiere cause it to be rated higher? Shouldn't the episode be based on the episode's own merits? If we had waited 10 years for it, would it have earned a 10 because we waited even longer?

I have been awaiting TWOW from GRRM for years and likely will wait another year or two longer. But the fact that the book will have taken so long to have been released will not cloud my judgment about its quality. If it sucks, it sucks. And if it's great, it's great.

It got a 3 from me. Sandor was the only thing that saved it. Boring. All set up. Littlefinger smirking around the entire episode while Sandra acts dumb was almost too much to watch.

I gave it a 3. My highest of the season. Sandra was stupid. Davos was stupid. Tommen was stupid. The wildfire scene was the only one I liked.

5 minutes ago, dbunting said:

But that's what I think is better about the show. When they were asking the northern houses for help, the houses weren't all rah rah Starks. They told them like it was, we followed you and we died. Robb betrayed us, Boltons helped us get our house back etc..

I will have to reserve judgement on how the Sansa Jon thing plays out, not happy with how the show is doing this so far.

Except the show was inconsistent with this as well. The Glovers don't join the Starks because Robb betrayed them, yet they fail to remember Roose betraying them first. The whole reason Robett was captured and put in Harrenhal was because of Roose's failure and betrayal. Not to mention the Red Wedding.