Dope in Highgarden Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 I gave it a 9 - John's story isn't my favorite but it was nice to see some awesome battle scenes,and Ygritte was a beast with that bow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eliamo Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 9. Pretty great, but odd ending (even if it was faithful to the book) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cold Crashing Waves Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 (edited) It's the penultimate episode. I don't know why people were expecting the ending scene to be super climactic and final. Edited June 14, 2014 by Blood Loss Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eliamo Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 It's the penultimate episode. I don't know why people were expecting the ending scene to be super climactic and final. Because the whole episode was basically a self-contained story. A self-contained story without a resolution is not satisfying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cold Crashing Waves Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 It isn't a self contained story at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Count Balerion Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 Episode 9: actually pretty good on the whole, although it's hard for me to judge action-y stuff. Themammoths and giants were cool. The dialogue was decent, with a bit too much whispering. I like the waythey have AT show some leadership and even take a sort of a stab at being statesmanlike. On the debitside, Jon's leadership was downplayed at a time when he should be coming into his own (part from theend), and I found the J-Y scene rather rushed. Showing Y's conflicted feelings worked well, though. Iguess I'll give it a 9; it helps that they stayed focused instead of hopping about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmholt Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 I guess I didn't like it because the strategy was so stupid ie unrealistic. There should never have been sword fighting out in the open. BW and Book Wall made sense. This was just a bunch of nonsense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WinterisAlwaysComing Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 I don't understand how people can criticize this episode (and the show in general) for not closely adhering to the books, then complain that Stannis' arrival was the next day, which in fact, does adhere to the books. The books clearly set Jon & co. defending the Wall and Stannis' arrival as two separate moments, and the show follows that. I thought the decision to have a simultaneous north/south attack on the Wall/Castle Black was brilliant. The bouncing back and forth between the castle and the Wall was great, kept the tension moving. My giving the episode a 10 had nothing to to with "Awesome violence, bro!" and everything to do with the nonstop tension, excellent editing, writing, and acting from start to finish. (Okay, the violence was cool, too!) :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
High-born Plumber Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 I went with 9, as high as I've rated. Not much I can say that hasn't been said...Off toppic here, but as an (primarily)unsullied it bothers me we haven't had anything about Walder Frey since all his scenes in s03e10 ...I look forward to the finale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St. Daga Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 Loved the episode! The real enemy has always been north of the Wall.(And I don't mean the wildlings)10 out of 10. Would have given it like 15 out of 10 if they had not killed of Pip AND Grenn! One of them dead is enough of an emotional blow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebevan91 Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 I finally watched the episode last night as I was kinda put off by the fact that the rest of the battle was pushed to episode 10. Still a very good episode. I wish I hadn't been spoiled on Pyp/Grenn's deaths though. Would've made it even better. It's like they decided to get rid of some of Jon's group since Stannis would be showing up very soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrey Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 (edited) after rewatch it's 3/10 Edited June 15, 2014 by Andrey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boojam Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 (edited) Ratings from elsewhere, just FYI. IMDb 7735 weighted average vote of 9.5 / 10 What's odd here is this is about ~ 5000 less voters less than episode 8, thought that was odd till went back and looked at earlier episodes, some range from over 10,000 to ~6000... a little at loss to square this with the ~ 8 million + totals for fist night showings. O well. I do think the NBA finals put a hit on the show. The TONYS award show must have had soke influence too. Still total USA first showing and second are holding at ~ 8 million, HBO may finish with a record breaking season. (The NBA seems to have snookered HBO the MEMORIAL DAY skip thing, but I see HBO continuing this formula.) Rotten Tomatoes, taken with a grain of salt gave The Watchers on the Wall a 93 , only 33 reviewers this time, not clear why the aggregate of critics ranges from ~ 40 to ~30+ when seems all those reviewers no included , who were included before, did write reviews... a puzzle. Since there were 3 (0 scored reviews out the 33) I read those. Actually RT should rate the reviews in fractions of 1, since all three of the 'rotten reviews' mostly were positive. For the 'negative' reviews it seemed to come down to a comparison of Watchers with Blackwater... since they are both battles. Points were subtracted for there not being an 'end'. Blackwater had a beginning, middle and end... (I have got say this episode surprised me too ... since they saved the Battle for the Wall's ending for today... even with more time... things are going to get jammed.) Positive reviewers , which was most of the critics, like that the episode had character driven events and was not all sword. HBO and D&D must have some Iron Clad circle they draw around an episode's ~60 min. , and I still don't see the rational for it.) I did not notice anyone mentioning , what to my eye, looked like last min. editing problems , a technicality but bothered me. By the by I notice that RT carries an overall non-critic users rating for the season, but not per episode. My usual note that Myles McNutt's lengthy reviews at Cultural Learnings is always an aesthetic profit because of the extensive analysis behind the critical assessment. Edited June 15, 2014 by boojam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmavridis Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 It is 9 for me because I think a finale with Stannis arrival would have got a 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Blake Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 After a couple of rewatches this is honestly one of the greatest episodes in the entire series. It is an amazing tribute to the Night's Watch and is just flat out fun to watch. It honeslty felt more like a movie than a TV show. What's sad is that the rating for the episode is being weighed down by the absence of Stannis. If he were in this episode then I truly feel like it would be among the top 5 highest rated episodes of the entire series on these threads. Although it felt weird the first time watching it, saving Stannis for the finale was the right decision. This episode is about the Night's Watch not Stannis the Mannis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grand Moff Mithrandir Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 Gave it a straight 8. It was a good episode overall save for some unnecessary killing off of characters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodor King of Westeros Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Awful episode. Least faithful to books Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cold Crashing Waves Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 All the absence of Stannis complaints are truly stupid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay21 Posted July 19, 2014 Share Posted July 19, 2014 I love this show! I started watching it before I read the books and it was Joffrey's death that prompted me to finally start reading. Unfortunately, I read about the defence of the Wall before I saw this episode. What a crummy episode! In about an hour they crammed every Hollywood action movie cliché into ASoIaF. The crap between Jon and Igrette was ridiculously overblown and the casting of Ser Allser as a capable and believable battle commander contradicted everything that we saw about the character up to that point. Overall, even after reading the books I am very impressed with a Game of Thrones (The Mountain and the Viper was perfect), but this single episode was poor and well beneath the standards set for the rest of the show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonifer Tasty Posted July 19, 2014 Share Posted July 19, 2014 I love this show! I started watching it before I read the books and it was Joffrey's death that prompted me to finally start reading. Unfortunately, I read about the defence of the Wall before I saw this episode. What a crummy episode! In about an hour they crammed every Hollywood action movie cliché into ASoIaF. The crap between Jon and Igrette was ridiculously overblown and the casting of Ser Allser as a capable and believable battle commander contradicted everything that we saw about the character up to that point. Overall, even after reading the books I am very impressed with a Game of Thrones (The Mountain and the Viper was perfect), but this single episode was poor and well beneath the standards set for the rest of the show. I have to agree with this completely. Still LOVE the show, this episode really failed me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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