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How would you rate episode 409?  

898 members have voted

  1. 1. What's your rating from 1-10, with 10 being the highest/best

    • 1
      34
    • 2
      13
    • 3
      13
    • 4
      21
    • 5
      36
    • 6
      45
    • 7
      80
    • 8
      139
    • 9
      216
    • 10
      298


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Hopefully someone drops their vote a point just because of other people voting not how they feel, but as counters to others.

It really polarizes the results when people vote with agendas. Just vote what you really feel about the episode, and don't worry about what anyone else says.

Hopefully the 20 people who voted 1.

Probably the same people who vote 1 or 2 every episode and yet inexplicably keep watching.

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I wouldn't knock it because of the ending. They cut it short to make the finale INCREDIBLE! Why would you give a bad rating because Stannis isn't in the episode? It's not like they cut it. THEY JUST HAVEN'T GOTTEN TO IT YET!

This^^ exactly. I thought this episode was spectacular in terms directing, plot and acting and it had plenty of action, thus I gave it a 10. I can understand why people were disappointed when Stannis did not make an appearance and save the Nights Watch from the wildlings as it would have made the episode even more action packed. However, I feel it would have made the episode play out in a manner too similar to Season 2's Blackwater episode (e.g. one army is on the losing side of the battle suffering huge losses, then another army rides in to save the day). Thats why I feel it is better they kind of left the story on a cliffhanger, thus making more anticipation and suspense for the finale. I have to admit though that having read the books, because you know what is generally going to happen, big events in the episode (e.g. Ygritte's death) dosen't have the same impact as if I hadn't read the books, as I was in complete awe and shock when watching Baelor and the Rains of Castamere (I read the books after watching Season 3.

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Wow.....wow.....gave it a solid 10. Yes, I was waiting for Stannis but I am patient and can wait till next week. I agree that it was too short.



I thought is was a WONDERFUL episode and am so glad they stayed at the Wall through the whole thing.



10....10....10.....10....all the way.



It looked to me like there was a quick shot in the scenes from next week of the Tyrion arc....can't wait to see that too.



TEN!!!!!



(Ran I would not tally the votes so soon if I were you, it looks like there is a group of posters who vote with low marks just for the heck of it)


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After I watched it I still give it a 10. Not the same amount of drama in comparison with Blackwater (and no drunk Cersei), but the scale was much bigger. If you wasn't entertained, then you have no heart. So 9.5 with 0.5 as a bonus for raging fans of you-know-whom.


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Hopefully someone drops their vote a point just because of other people voting not how they feel, but as counters to others.

It really polarizes the results when people vote with agendas. Just vote what you really feel about the episode, and don't worry about what anyone else says.

You're right. Apologies. Have changed my vote accordingly.

(And was actually really surprised when I voted earlier and saw the results - the numbers didn't match my impression from the thread of how people feel. Mind you, I seem to be voting on a different scale anyway, since 7 for me is solid, 8 is pretty good, 9 is amazing, and 10 doesn't happen.)

Edited by lostinasia
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5/10



Very very very disappointed with this episode. They dragged out the start way to long and it was really messy. All the one on one conversations didn't serve much purpose.



It didn't feel like they were in a battle. Giving slow orders and taking there time to load crossbows and walk around.



No Stannis which was a complete cop out. This wasn't half as good as Blackwater and ended on the most boring note possible.



They could have easily cut out most of the start and had Stannis arrive in at the end which would have ended it on a high. They've completely stripped Stannis of his finest moment and pushed into next episode where he will be overshadowed by the final Tyrion scene.



Even the ending music didn't come across as epic.



You can spend 10-20 million on a 50 minute episode with crazy CGI but bad writing and pacing will bring it down.


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Actually, you know what irks me most about Grenn's death? We didn't see it. We didn't see a human/giant brawl fight. It's just like the season 2 end/season 3 beginning nonsense. Set up something big, go back to it when its over for... budget cuts, maybe? I feel like that proves Grenn's death was for shock value.

Do you realise how challenging that fight would be to film. The giants are basically tall dudes who are shot against a green screen and then digitally enlarged into the shot. Correct me if im wrong, but choreographing a fight in that enclosed environment between Grenn and the giant would basically involve two people fighting nothing in seperate shots and then layering the images onto each other.

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>Truth.

Also how laughable was them last week putting that scene with Jon's friends. I bet most of the people don't know their names let alone which is which. Emotionally flat episode all the way, the only one who managed to shine was Sam.

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I'm a musician so the part that really killed this episode for me was the ending music. Its so epic and is the perfect cavalry charge music. You can visualise the mood going from utter hopelessness to victorous as Stannis's forces ride in and route the wildling army. Pause to zoom in on Stannis's face. Credits and music again.



Instead we got "I love you Sam" and a terrible cliffhanger with epic music behind it that didn't fit at all.



I've been looking forward to this episode for two years and it completely fell short of my expectations.


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More nitpicking bringing it down from 10 to 8 for me:



1) With Jon fully fit, wouldn't it have been an opportunity for Thorne to order him to stay in a CB tower shooting arrows to defend the gate from the south side with the boy as a means of belittling him, preventing Jon from upstaging or undermining his battle plans? We could have had all the Satin bonding stuff with this Olly boy- a Bran or Rickon substitiute- and provided a sense of sequence as Jon would have started off basically on his own in command of one boy- Jon then could have wrestled with his discipline as we watch with him the wildlings killing his friends as he's stuck in a static position contrasting with the melee of the wildings advance as they get closer and closer to the gate and closer and closer to the tower roof before having to defend the boy- thrilling. With Jon fit and able, that would have been even better than the books IMO, and the book was better than the show here IMO. Battling to maintain discipline, defend the gate with arrows, and not rush out and be the hero leader like Thorne.



Eventually, Jon sees Thorne try and play the hero, fall, and enters the fray to organise a discliplined defense of the gate and tactical withdrawal up the stairs. THEN we get very clear progression in Jon's ascension to authority rather than Grenn tricking Slynt away (which makes me think we WONT now get Sam's trick next season to enable Jon to become LC, as GOT seems to use these homages as substitution- like Thorne sending Jon off to Crasters instead of sending Jon off to speak with Mance- if we get one, it's because we wont get the other).



2) I really sorely missed the stair collapse moment. Rather than "outfight" the southern wildings- a mental solution for the show where basically, a few more men of the NW come down and - defeat the Thenns due mainly to Jon's unstoppable fighting prowess (!!!). -this trick was brilliant as it really showed they had been outmatched in fighting, but not in wits. Jon could even have improvised it organising a disciplined withdrawal, and coming up with the stairs plan on the hoof after Thorne fell- with barrels of oil from the wall- pouring oil down the stairs and destroying the charging Thenns.



Then Jon could have progressed from stuck in a little tower, impotent, to coordinating the defeat of the southern wildlings, to FINALLY getting on top of the wall, where Slynt was making a mess of it and taking the initiative back.



3) There was no sense of the watch's need to defend the gate from the wildlings to the south, which is why for half the episode, the fight seemed chaotic and unfocussed. I badly missed that clear sense of progression in the books.



4) WHY did the giants and mammoths stroll up to the gate, attach ropes, insert crowbars, and start pulling without a single arrow being fired at them? Why did the final giant, after the oil barrels fell, not face a single arrow being fired at him as he went about lifting the gate? I understand the angle issue, (he was so close to the wall) but without an order being given ("save your arrows- he's too close!") it made no sense- at least have arrows landing behind him as the watch desperately tried to stop him from the top of the wall. Instead, we had Jon chatting to Gren and the Giant calmly went about his work, as unhurried as a british road worker.



5) One mammoth and 2 giants sauntering up to the gates unprotected, and unmolested? what happened to the massive turtle slowly advancing? again- no tactics here.

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Sati, my intial reaction to the ending (not having Stannis ride in) was also wtf. But if you don't expect that and watch the episode, I think it's a really good episode. And like others have said my only gripe is that we would have felt more for the characters on the wall if D&D had fleshed them out better. But now I believe the only way they could have had Stannis in this Ep and not have it feel rushed is if they had built the attack on the Wall storyline over 2-3 eps.

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