[Poll] How would you rate episode 509?

[RJN28]

I gave it a 6, the good final scene does not make up for a lackluster episode. I really did enjoy to final scene, and the sense of horror in the Pit, but once again, they manage to cramp such a large book into small, meaningless scenes. As far as I can tell, they are only trying to appeal to casual show-watchers, which is a real shame. They have sacrificed atmosphere and tension for shock value, prefering to please people that tune in now and then, rather than those that watch intensly. I never though I would say this, as I am such a fan of the books, but I will no longer watch this show after this season.

[north of the wall]

8.5 Rounded up to a 9 because Drogon looked awesome.

I felt Braavos was "Meh", Dorne a lot better than previous Dorne scenes, but still not great.

The wall was good. Davos/Stannis and Davos/Shireen were fantastic. The burning of Shireen was heartbreaking and I'm not sure if its just because I don't want her dead or the timing of the burning or that after all D&D's good of making Stannis likeable and ruining it but I was not happy at all after that scene.

Meereen wasn't as epic as I'd hoped but Drogon looked amazing and Jorah lives to see another day so I felt happy once the episode ended.

[God-Emperor of Yi Ti]

The pit had me shaking

Shireen- it is a bit cruel on viewers to create a likeable character only for something so horrible to be done to her; i didn't think they would go that direction until I started watching the episode...What does it gain a man to win the world but lose his soul?

[The hairy bear]

Clearly the worse episode 9 of the whole series.

The execution has been brilliant: the acting, the CGI, the fights,... Everything was perfect.

Except for the writing. That part was atrocious. Huge amounts of stupidity combined with lots of nonsense.

I've ended giving it a 5. But I really wish that we could vote the writing work sepparatedly so that I could give this episode the 1 it deserves.

[roxWolfox]

Maybe this is a weak explanation buy here is my attempt at a defense: The Unsullied are skill on open ground so the Sons of the Harpy probably knew that a fairly large number of them would be killed before the Unsullied were overwhelmed by their numbers. Lets face it, most people wouldn't be willing to be the ones killed off first if they can avoid it. Maybe it was kind of like the Bystander Effect for them where they were waiting for another member to move in and do it.

There is a battle scene in Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising that came to mind when I was watching the Pit scene. It's hilarious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH5fC9H8yJA If interested, just go to 7:25. xD

Wise words. No need for anyone to be personally offended if other people have different views or beliefs about some series, it's all just opinions and no one's is better or more "right" than someone else's.

:cheers:

[AGS Martell]

9

Braavos was interesting, as usual.

Dorne got a little bit better, but just a little. The sand snakes still seem silly and the "condition" felt commical.

Stannis... I wonder why everyone is shocked? We have a man who killed his brother because the throne is rightfully his, so what exactly stops him from doing the same to his wife or his own daughter? And the reason was perfectly explained: duty. I don't see any writing problems in here and expect GRRM to do the same in the books.

Meereen was great. The ending wasn't as great as ep 8 but it had an intense build up.

[Red Dragon10]

I voted 7. Hated the Shireen burning, but I loved the Pit fighting scenes(although I think the show has had better fights) and the Jorah/Dany dynamic. I thought the flying away scene definitely had some cheese, but I really liked all the Drogon scenes up until she got on.

I did like Davos/Shireen. I hope Davos gets some vengeance and realizes who he is serving.

[Eric Baratheon]

8

Loved the pit. Loved it. CGI was great - for a tv show. Even for a move (have you seen "Hercules"? case closed)

By the way, with the exception of last week's episode, this is the only other Season 5 episode I rated above 5.

Mediocre season, but killer last episodes. No idea how they are gonna put so much into next week's finale.

One last note: Stannis. We should have seen that one coming.

GRRM get that book out this year!!!

[Laughing Storm Reborn]

I gave it a 2, because of the comedy quality...

Aside from the laughter the writting provided me, i would give it a minus 10 but that's not an option...

Rambo Ramsay and 20 seal team six... Dany's gucci dress on a docile dragon... stannis character assassination... jorah almost killed by nobodies then throwing a lance 100 meters away right in the heart of an assassin...

Yeah, i've read better asoiaf fan fiction than this... but, that´s personal taste

Edited June 8, 2015 by Laughing Storm Reborn

[Eric Baratheon]

double post, sorry.

Edited June 8, 2015 by Eric Baratheon

[Fearodh]

Give it a 6. Could have been more if the Arya scenes would have been shot better. Was kinda dumb how she just keeps on following him all around with her cart and he sees her like 100x times. High oaf of Highgarden was best in that scene.

Daznak's pit was another scene were I believe much could have been improved. The way Jorah survived was too comical, but his spear throw was nice and Drogon rocked. Though was kinda weird how everyone froze when he came in and we had that really long shot of Dany and Drogon until another spear hits him (and not her).

Shireen scene was done well, though it made me sick.

Doran finally did something, but overall I am happy Dorne is over.

[Ser Desmond Wine's Bane]

But that's all book knowledge, isn't it? I'm not sure if that information has ever been provided in the show. In the show, seeing as how Stannis's army came along the north side of the Wall, it's barely arguable that travelling along the north side made more sense. But to me it's another example of the show's occasional carelessness over relatively easy things to get right - if Jon and co had simply left Castle Black along the north side of the wall in the first place, I wouldn't have registered the return on the north as weird. But the fact that they left from the south side, and then came back along the north side, made it jarring.

The show has established that

1) Eastwatch-by-the-Sea is one of the 3 fortresses manned by the Night's Watch

2) Stannis's Fleet was harboured at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea.

So, no, its isn't all book knowledge whatsoever.

[William_Tell]

7/10

I'm being generous. I liked Braavos and Mereen. Drogon was great. The rest was just.... incredibly sad

[robasp2]

I do not know WHAT the fuck is wrong with people rating it 1/10 ?!

That said, I too found the episode quite bad but some people can only vote 1/10 or 10/10 :(

_____

Stannis character assassination

Jon snow scared like a pussy

Comical vfx esp fire and flying

Epic weakness of dragons. A spear?

Greyscale plot holes.

No ramsey's pov

I give you 4/10

[Red Tiger]

2, I am done, there is nobody left for me to root for anymore. Dorne has been a waste all season, Meereen was okay I guess, Stannis can rot in all seven hells.

[The Anti-Targ]

5.

The Wall was good but short and inconsequential.

Dorne was boring for the most part with some unfathomably dumb scenes, what was tyhat slap fight all about? No one cares about character development on the Sandsnakes so that was just wasted time.

Mereen was OK, but I felt like Dany flying off on Drogon was some of the fakest looking SFX of the entire series. But I really liked the SFX of Drogon while he was in the arena. Kinda lame that some Sons of the Harpy were just standing waiting to get flame grilled. But really great to show that a half grown, grounded dragon is very vulnerable. I worry what the show will do with Viserion and Rhaegal because the Sons will know that the dragons are very killable? Though in the confined space of the dungeon it'll be harder to flank them, and there's 2 of them.

Braavos was weak this time around. I fail to see any point in Arya follwing Ser Meryn right into the brothel, if there's someone who will recognise Arya its him. And following him to the brothel was enough of a distraction from her duties for her to have to offer excuses to Jaqen on her return.

The burning of Shireen was so telegraphed, and I just can't see the sense in it aside from baiting an emotional response from the audience. It feels like it was done to affect the audience, get their sad on for Shireen, get their hate on for Stannis and perhaps start to be a bt mad at Davos for him not spiriting her away to the Wall. I do wonder if there will be some shennanigans in episode 10 with is being called mother's mercy and that Shirren will either come back or she was subbed in by a glamour as some sort of homage to the subbed in glamour in the books. It feels a bit like a set up, but I know how much D&D hate Stannis and killing Shireen dead permanently would be their style.

ETA, I can't see how Davos can remain loyal to Stannis. Davos hates R'hllor already and he believed Stannis was not fully in Mel's sway. But Stannis killing Shireen, the last person in the world Davos actually loves with great affection must mean he turns his cloak. Though I think if I was Davos I'd just head back to the wall and take the black, because there's no king/queen or prospective king/queen worth serving as far as he knows. I'm also pretty sure no one in the North will prefer Stannis over the Boltons, if Stannis is willing to kill his own daughter (he's a kinslayer, which is the most accursed thing in the world to pretty much everyone except Mel) then you're better off just kissing Bolton arse to avoid a flaying.

Edited June 8, 2015 by The Anti-Targ

[Tolsimir]

3/10. Would have been a 1 if not for some superb acting (again). The show is wasting so much potential with this amazing cast.

[Lordi Nietos]

I find it brilliant that with one scene they made me hate Stannis more than Ramsay. If that is not great writing and storytelling (kudos GRRM for the idea) then I don't know what is. Right now I am trying to figure out what death for Melisandre would be painful enough for me.

I know, I know! Great writing would be doing it with five scenes where you see the a logical progression from a loving father to a murderous fanatic and the perverted motivations that led to the slide to villainy.

[Marakesh]

Can't believe I got sucked in last week. This series is worse than ever. At least, I will always envision Tyrion as Peter Dinklage, although he should be much worse for wear at this point in the story.

The scene. A part of the problem is they made TV Stannis better than book Stannis and then all of a sudden much worse. It felt like cheap sensationalism and very contrived that he went from loving father to child sacraficer for such a nebulous gain. I was suprised the Sansa scene drew as much criticism as it did, its not that far off from what a wedding night was for a great deal of human history. This, however, felt like sensationalism on the level of playing up Theons castration. Unneccesary and played to the hilt for every bit of horror and outrage it could wring out of us. This is only the surface of the issue here though.

While Stannis has become a complete villain, Varys has been boiled down to a "for the good of the realm" good guy. I interpreted him saying that in the books as if he really meant it, but actually he was just fooling himself. He had done terrible things along the way, yet he raised the perfect kid and so, it would all pay off in the end, right? In actuality he's doing the same thing as the other players in the game of thrones underneath it all, and especially a lot like Stannis in that he really does believe he is in the right. How people convince themselves of these things is interesting. In contrast, TV Varys wears a white hat while TV Stannis wears a black hat, and "shades of grey" seems to mean occasionally villains aren't always monsters and the heros sometimes have to play dirty. Maybe at one point in time I would've seen this as a step up from the normal pulp fiction, but now I just find it disingenuous. I've seen it so much now, I just interpret it as a lazy writer's path to getting a mass market while also getting to eat their critical approval at the same time.

You can say the series is hard to translate to screen all you want, but at the end of the day I can only judge it by what they produce. There are other TV series that can make complex characters and this isn't one of them. There are at least 5-10 TV shows that have been on in the last few years that can match the level the book series is at, why spend time on this dreck?

I stopped watching originally when I thought the Renly/Loras reveal was handled so hamfistedly. That they were gay wasn't very interesting, but how it was revealed through the reactions of the other characters circling around them was. I started again thinking I would at least get an ending to the series. The problem is, I've either seen a really bad fan fiction kind of ending, or I've spoiled the real ending with this lesser interpretation of it. I should've remembered how things I read in detail about were handled in this TV series before coming back to it. Basically, I'm out. I really hope GRRM didn't give these guys the full plotline, it would be terrible if people are going to experience it first this way.

[Alayne Stone]

I started to understand just why they had to send Jaime and Bronn to Dorne. Without them nobody would give a flying fuck what happens to anybody in Dorne. Not a flying fuck, we are to far into the show to introduce such an important player to the game screentime realestate wise and have it have nothing to do with the rest of the show. So the error for Dorne is mostly... Dorne and it's storyline existing at all. That's not "bad writing", the problem is rooted much deeper in the source material

THIS. I love when folks compare the series to the good old days of season one and its excellent writing, when book one is coincidentally the best written. D&D have done a spectacular job of turning GRRM's meandering, worthless second act into meaningful drama.

Edit: turned into a wildling and started cutting off my 'g's.

Edited June 8, 2015 by Alayne Stone