[BOOK SPOILERS] What your non-reader friends/family thought and their predictions

[Cyril]

You probably know that conventional wisdom says that the Hound is alive living as the gravedigger on Quiet Isle. But just in case... LINK

Hence why I "didn't say anything." I was just glad they got the hints of infection.

[rmholt]

"Isn't something supposed to happen with the dwarf?" On the bright side it's the first sign of awareness he's shown in 3.9 seasons.

[rmholt]

He also was like... did Alisser (not that he knew his name) actually die though?

Along with the Monty Python "Wot's it like?" from Sam we have "I'm not dead!" from Thorne.

[Young Nan]

My coworker was pissed that they didn't show what happened to Tyrion after his trial, and said he heard that Tyrion is actually only a minor character in the books, and that's why they didn't show him this episode lol.

My husband predicted that Janos Slynt will get beheaded by Jon for desertion, which I agree is pretty likely.

[milkofthepoppy]

During the episode,

Me: aren't you loving that it's just the wall?

Unsullied BF: meh, this battle has been dragging on so long, and I don't even care about these people.

At the end of the episode,

UBF: well, only thing that happened is Ygritte died.

Me: what about Pyp?

UBF: who?

Me: Grenn?

UBF: was that the little kid?

Me: no, the dude that died killing the giant.

UBF: at least they have Mance.

Me: no, that's Tormund. Mance is out beyond the wall with the rest of his army.

UBF: oh.

Now my bf must not have been paying attention, and I make it a point not to explain too many things to him during the show. But I think it's safe to say that unsullied that don't have book reader friends to explain things to them (and aren't interested in spending time on forums) have NO CLUE what's going on. It's like D&D have no interest in character development or giving each episode it's own arc within the larger story series arc. (In all fairness though, this is the one episode that does have it's own story arc).

[Young Nan]

You are right, Poppy. Virtually every discussion I have with unsullied necessitates me explaining for 5 minutes who everyone is, why it's important, that it's "Roose" not "Bruce", etc.

[Wicked Woodpecker of West]

unsullied colleague of mine is already like "just let Stannis show up and kill them all"

when i asked him how he knew stannis would come to the rescue;

"cause he said so"

THAT. <3

[JonCon's Red Beard]

Readers: WHERE IS STANNIS???!

Unsullied: BEST. EPISODE. EVER.

unsullied colleague of mine is already like "just let Stannis show up and kill them all"

when i asked him how he knew stannis would come to the rescue;

"cause he said so"

:lol:

[AZAXD]

Along with the Monty Python "Wot's it like?" from Sam we have "I'm not dead!" from Thorne.

Hahahaha funny you mention that, my dad's a big MP fan!

[Skagosi Pirate]

At first my OH was just really confused at the geography. I actually had to stop and explain to him that the Wildlings and the fire were North of the Wall, and Ygritte/Tormund/Thenns were south on a raiding party. He's a really smart guy but it's over a year since Mance's plan was set in motion and he'd forgotten it all.

To be honest I really wish they'd not added all that stuff about Jon going back to Craster's and spent some time developing the wall plotlines so that non-book readers remembered and cared. Even if it was just the NW guys sitting around and eating porridge I think the battle would have been stronger.

He's also REALLY worried that Tyrion will die, and that's all he can really think about right now.

Finally, I asked him who he thinks will be on the IT at the end. He thinks all the men will die, without exception, and then we'll be left with Arya (his favourite), Dany, Brienne and Margaery. Then the women will decide to share the IT, "because that's the kind-of thing they'd do", and it's happy ever after.

[Cyril]

Virtually every discussion I have with unsullied necessitates me explaining for 5 minutes who everyone is, why it's important, that it's "Roose" not "Bruce", etc.

On this subject, my group constantly says "Samuel" (emphasis on the u) instead of "Samwell" despite corrections.

I suppose it's close enough, but I admit it does annoy me.

[lyanna_maria]

Pretty sure he's going to parley, like in the books. That's the only way he can get close to Mance, and you don't go to truce talks with weapons or large wolves. It's not as if he could fight his way through the wildling army by himself, so the guise of parley is his only option.

Makes sense. For some reason, I was a bit confused, even though that's what happens in the books. Thank you!

I explained this to my best friend and now at least he doesn't think Jon has gone nuts, but he still doesn't think it's a good plan. He's pissed off at the lack of military strategy and wishes Jon would seal the tunnel. He's also suggested that they could use wildfire against the wildlings. I explained that it's not that easy to come by and stuff, and the Throne's attitude towards the NW, but he said "they know nothing of this in KL, if they did now they'd send help. Back then, they needed to use all their force in winning the War of the 5 Kings".

My female friend thinks it was the best episode ever, shenloves Jon Snow more than ever, she's very sad for Ygritte and even Grenn and "Pypar" and she praises the admirable behaviour of all the members of the NW in general during the battle.

[The Onion Sleight]

My sister loved it very, very much and enjoyed every second! I said to her before watching so often: "You know, it's only The Wall! You know that, don't you?", but even although she worries and cares very much for Tyrion, aso. it didn't stop her from absolutely loving this episode (she's anyway one of those people who are able to enjoy almost every arc -she's bored by Dany- and says she doesn't want to have specific favourite charas, just enjoy the people and their stories as a whole).

She also loves Sam very much and was super-happy with his development and behaviour this episode, she cheered and jubilated after every Wildling death (and especially after Jon vs. Styr), thought the mammoth / giants / sycthe / aso. was extreme awesome; she even loved Sam's and Jon's sex talk and Sam/Aemon and everything with Sam/Gilly.

She still hates Alliser and hopes he's definitely dead (although she admitted he did a very good job), I've told her so often about Slynt's past she wasn't surprised at his cowardly behaviour, she was sad after Ygritte's, Pyp's and Grenn's death, but is glad Sam, Jon, Gilly, aso are still alive.

The deaths didn't affect her so much as Oberyn's - which made her the whole last week extremely angry, sad, more angry and worried - but she was the entire episode feverish, nervous, excited; more than me (because I already knew about the lack of Stannis and was still very angry, disappoited, felt trolled, aso.), but her love for the episode consoled me and made me actually enjoying the episode much more than I expected.

The best thing (which REALLY lifted my mood) was her saying: "And the rest of Westeros doesn't give a fuck about what happens there?! Nobody cares about that?! Fuck you rest of Westeros!" And I was just: "Tcha, it's The Wall, you know what other Westerosi think about the Wall, NW, threat of the Wildlings and WWs..." :lol:

She never makes predicitions (or al least she never tells me any), but she has no glue about Stannis' arrival next episode, which really surprises me; she's actually so clever and knows that a certain thing didn't happen at the end of this episode, which fucked me up, but she still thinks it's just the fact that it ended with a cliffhanger and they didn't show the whole battle (She knows I'm a big StannisFan and maybe she thinks if I had expected him, I'd have moaned the whole time "WHERE IS STANNIS?!", but I didn't say a thing about him or even mentioned him), so his arrival next episode will be a surprise for her AND she loved the episode, which all makes me really happy :)

[Neumond]

My partner was in love with the episode.

Another unsullied thought the only things that happened was: Ygritte died and Jon is now gone...

They both were somewhat impatient because they hoped to see what´s going on with Tyrion. (I am a bit nerved that Tyrion seems to be the most important character for them by lenghts. The other characters are either cool or annoying but they aren´t too interested in them.)

So they didn´t enjoy the episode as I did (I loved it!) and were actually waiting for a KL-scene...

[sj4iy]

During the episode,

Me: aren't you loving that it's just the wall?

Unsullied BF: meh, this battle has been dragging on so long, and I don't even care about these people.

At the end of the episode,

UBF: well, only thing that happened is Ygritte died.

Me: what about Pyp?

UBF: who?

Me: Grenn?

UBF: was that the little kid?

Me: no, the dude that died killing the giant.

UBF: at least they have Mance.

Me: no, that's Tormund. Mance is out beyond the wall with the rest of his army.

UBF: oh.

Now my bf must not have been paying attention, and I make it a point not to explain too many things to him during the show. But I think it's safe to say that unsullied that don't have book reader friends to explain things to them (and aren't interested in spending time on forums) have NO CLUE what's going on. It's like D&D have no interest in character development or giving each episode it's own arc within the larger story series arc. (In all fairness though, this is the one episode that does have it's own story arc).

Not a fair statement...some non book readers get it just as much as book readers. Other non book readers don't get as invested in the show as we do, and therefore don't remember the characters as much.

[Bluesnow]

Unsullied friend at work did not like the episode.

She said it was just too much random killing and not much else.
Her favorite character was John, and she is deeply concerned about his fate in the next episode, but she thought the newest episode was boring because not that much happened.

[ctid1977]

I have 2 work mates who watch it and neither of them are book readers (well one has read Game of thrones and is halfway through clash).

Both of them loved it. One was upset that there was no Tyrion, but she was blown away by the mammoths and is convinced Jon will die. The other said it was the best piece of TV he's seen and is also convinced Jon is screwed.

I asked them how they though the season would end, between them they came up with Arya killing the hound. One saw Tyrion dying and the other saw him being saved when Stannis attacks KL, one said maybe Littlefinger will save Jon which is my personal favourite, and then decided that no Jon was still screwed. They both reckoned Danerys wouldn't do much.

[Mel_Rose]

At first my OH was just really confused at the geography. I actually had to stop and explain to him that the Wildlings and the fire were North of the Wall, and Ygritte/Tormund/Thenns were south on a raiding party. He's a really smart guy but it's over a year since Mance's plan was set in motion and he'd forgotten it all.

To be honest I really wish they'd not added all that stuff about Jon going back to Craster's and spent some time developing the wall plotlines so that non-book readers remembered and cared. Even if it was just the NW guys sitting around and eating porridge I think the battle would have been stronger.

He's also REALLY worried that Tyrion will die, and that's all he can really think about right now.

Finally, I asked him who he thinks will be on the IT at the end. He thinks all the men will die, without exception, and then we'll be left with Arya (his favourite), Dany, Brienne and Margaery. Then the women will decide to share the IT, "because that's the kind-of thing they'd do", and it's happy ever after.

Of course if they did that, then you'd have everyone going "omg the Wall is so boring, they're just sitting there, doing nothing". Even if it obviously wasn't just eating porridge, if it was them doing stuff in preparation for the battle it would seem too long and dull for many viewers. I guess D&D can never win - if they spend time with the Wall characters: "why do we spend time with them, they're doing nothing, where's Tyrion" - if they don't spend time: "who are they? don't care if they die, where's Tyrion".

[Mel_Rose]

Readers: WHERE IS STANNIS???!

Unsullied: BEST. EPISODE. EVER.

This is p r e c i s e l y the reaction I have seen so far from friends and the internets.

(sorry for the double post!)

[JonCon's Red Beard]

This is p r e c i s e l y the reaction I have seen so far from friends and the internets.

(sorry for the double post!)

In my FB timeline it was more like "where is spoiler?" or "Spoiler! Spoiler! Spoiler!". :lol: