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How would you rate episode 601?


Ran
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How would rate episode 601?  

600 members have voted

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

    • 1
      78
    • 2
      39
    • 3
      38
    • 4
      42
    • 5
      50
    • 6
      63
    • 7
      103
    • 8
      105
    • 9
      41
    • 10
      31


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The only scene that can redeem what has been going on in this show for the last two seasons and now with the third one, is the following scene: GRRM is sitting on the Iron Throne. Elio and Lynda are bringing D&D in chains in front of him. They kneel and bow and say: "We will be your bitches and do your biding until the end of days. We swear it by the Old Gods and the New. We swear it by signed contracts." 

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1 hour ago, Lord Lannister said:

Well given the amount of people who hate the show no matter what and will watch it every week to comment how much they hate it, I'm not sure these poll results will be entirely meaningful.

It's not even books v TV show debate any more. I try to watch it as any other TV show out there, and when something is bad, it is bad. This episode had a lot of problems with how it's written, not just what is written. The usual suspects were there - shocking deaths (what a waste of Alexander Siddig's time that role was) and boobs. We really needed to see saggy boobs? It's like there is a bingo game and they need to check all the fields. At this point, even as just the TV product, it is not as entertaining as it should be. It was supposed to be like "The Sopranos" and with each new season it gets closer to "Once upon a time".

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I gave it a 4. Some very good interpretations, and reasonably good focus. But I found the writing was sloppy. They spend a lot of time with reintroductions and (I agree) fixing last year's mistakes, but some of the flaws were uncalled for.

The Dornish scenes where shameful to behold. That anyone among a khalasar suspects about Dany's identity seeing her distinct features and jewels with her house's arms is unbelievable. That a single speech from Thorne is enough to appease all the Watch and still put him in command was poor. I am amazed how anyone can think that it could be in character SANSA having to be reminded of etiquette by POD! And the scenes of Arya and Tyrion were completely unmemorable: you could cut them with no loss.

But they still have great acting and production values, and that makes up for many of the shortcomings.

 

 

 

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Some very very poor elements in this episode - let's not even talk about what happened in Dorne. The scenes at Castle Black were wonderfully executed, however, as was the continued Theon redemption arc. As an opening episode it did exactly what it needed to do, and checked in with most of the major players. 7/10.

Edited by The Dorne Ultimatum
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2 hours ago, Lord Lannister said:

Well given the amount of people who hate the show no matter what and will watch it every week to comment how much they hate it, I'm not sure these poll results will be entirely meaningful.

If people voting 1 are trolls, then people voting 10 are trolls too (there's no objective critique that can call this episode perfect), so it evens out. :leaving:

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The storylines were handled very differently. I liked pretty much everything in the north. Ramsey/Roose father son moments worked pretty well for me. I like how Roose is portreyed like a father who finds out that his son has smoked for the first time. Ramsey why do you play with her? Be just nice and we don't have problems. They are so weird. I like that. Also the battle was fine even if the hounds went missing.  And like how things are set up at the wall. Including Mel. I would give that part 8-9 points.

Danys story was set up nicely, I liked the talk between the bloodriders and the khal. But I frankly don't understand why they didn't cut that part out. I mean even without knowing the trailers you can clearly predict, where that story goes to. If they need to cut book stuff, they should have cut the part of Dany leaving Meeren and instead have sticked to young Griff or LSH. I'll give that part 6 points.

I liked the kings landing part. Specially the moment between Cersai and Jaimie. It is quite reasonable that Jaimie is angry. People who grief over his "delevopement" seem to see things a little simple. He has just lost a child. I would give that part 7 points.

And then there is dorne. And this part is really, really pathetic. These "Charlie's Angels" for poor just are a bummer. They really, really should have cut the scene on the ship and therefore done the killing of the prince accurate. That is 0 points.

all in all I rate the episode 5 points.

 

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Only watched it once but I thought it was really good with one notable exception (Dorne which felt rushed and completely out of place).  Clearly a lot of stuff from Winds of Winter there and those points were very good (the wall/Dany with Dothraki).

 

Shame on the trolls voting with low scores.

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14 minutes ago, Fat Pink Master said:

If people voting 1 are trolls, then people voting 10 are trolls too (there's no objective critique that can call this episode perfect), so it evens out. :leaving:

 

I would agree with this and I thought it was a good episode, it was clearly neither a 1 or a 10.

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I gave it a four and feel that was generous.

Where to start... ok, I like that we are taken right back into the season cliffhangers from 5, but then some of the 'choices' made just turned me off.

Dorne: why even bother with Hotah?  He spoke like three or four lines?  His greatest act is telling Jaime it would've been a good match when he was whole?  There was no reason to hire anything more than an extra for what he contributed, I chalk it up to weak plot/weak writing.

So Ellaria kills Doran, the leader of Dorne... It's not that she would do it that bothers me, I get her character and role, but not ONE of the guards made so much as a twitch?  Yawn, the Prince was just killed... time for lunch then?  Just pitiful, they should be embarrassed as writers.

The two Sand Snakes just appear in Blackwater Bay... I can live with that plot-hole, but then I'm supposed to believe Trystane is THAT dumb as to put his back to one thinking honor is on his side?  Laughably bad.

Cersei/Jaime: not horrible, but again Jaime is like a roller coaster, is he good, is he bad?  Bleh.  Powerfully acted, poorly written.

Margaery/High Sparrow: not bad, but didn't propel anything, just more wait and see.

Tyrion/Varys: probably the best scenes for acting, but felt like too little... I mean we ended the season with Varys giving Tyrion his expose on getting a handle on the Meereenese knot only to have Tyrion see another Red Priest preaching and he says 'trouble'?  So what changed at all from last season with him seeing Benerro, while with Varys no less?  Hell if we know, they forgot to let the audience in on it!  A lil more meat instead of skin and bone would be nice... this isn't a comic afterall, we can handle some compelling dialogue.

Jorah/Daario... Daario doesn't act like his character is, imho.  Otherwise, not bad, they're on the trail and was about what should've been expected.

Dany/Khalisar: fair... typical horselord banter and Dany seems both a little less scared than she might' e been in the past but still seems annoyed that they didn't just jump at her command and that's a bit dumb to me.  Did the show forget that she's well aware of Vaes Dothrak and the Dosh Khaleen?  I didn't...

Sansa/Theon/Brienne/Podrick: decent chase and fight scene, a little silly that Pod had to help Sansa remember the 'oath'... but ok.  I liked that she mirrored Catelyn's oath but with having Pod have to remind her it seems to diminish the scene some... it would've been more powerful had she done it on her own and have Pod help her out with some other custom.  One of the better sequences but still not 'on their game' in terms of writing.

The Wall: probably the best scenes though Davos not being broken up about Shireen and/or Stannis stuck out... I guess nothing gets this guy down!  Good dialogue with Alliser and Davos.  Nice to see some dissent within the Watch and even that Alliser is forthright about his mutiny... foolish in terms of his long-term plans as he's well aware that they just let enough Wildlings through who were all part of a battle with the true enemy at Hardhome and now have some semblance of allegiance to Jon, to basically end the NW... but whatever, even GRRM has the Watch mutineering on Jon with Wildlings right there... at least here it seems they're either in the gift or at least not all hanging out at Castle Black.

Mel: good scene.  I think it speaks way more to book readers than show watchers alone, they may not quite get it, but we see her confidence is shattered, not only in herself but perhaps her God too.  She takes off her glamour and takes a good hard look at herself in the mirror... literally.  She even beds down which we book readers know she has yet to do... all good information though possibly hard to pickup for show only viewers.

I hope the coming episodes are better else it's going to be a long season... no wonder Ran chose not to bother with the show reviews any longer.  I can only imagine the eyeroll count Elio and/or Linda would have for this one.

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I gave it a 2.  It was astoundingly poor. 

Davos and Melly are very chummy.  So - no consequences of her burning Shireen then?  No enquiries about what happened to Stannis and his family?  Nothing?  Surely, it would have been better for them to have had some kind of confrontation about this, even if it's interrupted by the noise of the assassination?

All aspects of Dorne were ridiculous, but special mention goes to the speedboat the two sand snakes must have used to get to Tryskebab's ship.

The scene with Cersei and Jamie was barely audible and hardly believable.  Jamie's character development has now totally disappeared.

Tyrion & Varys walking the streets without a care in the world.  Same old, same old St. Tyrone and the odd cock joke to add the exposition.  Who'd have thought this was a city riven by internal strife?  Oo, what's that commotion?  Oh noes, Dany's plot-gift fleet has gone up in smoke.

Love that the ring is found in untrampled grass.  I thought at least they wouldn't insult our intelligence and have it found at the centre of trampled ground, but nooooo.

So - the Dothraki didn't recognise Dany then?  Huh.  Given what we saw with our travels with the Dothraki in season 1, I'm surprised she wasn't raped and/or beaten straightaway then, let alone being taken to the Khal and to give him her Khaleesi sass.  Every note of that was off.

The chase: what rubbish!  The music is dramatic and exciting, but the action does not reflect it but is actually quite plodding.  Sansa can't run.  She's afraid of water when she knows what awaits her if she's caught?  Oh, come on! And get rid of that blue filter.  She squirrels herself in some tree roots whilst Theon doesn't even run to distract the pursuers, but just stands a couple of feet away!  There's no tension at all.  She doesn't even really look frightened when the dogs find her!  But, it's okay, the dogs vanish when Brienne and Robin appear by magic, and the Bolton soldiers obligingly dismount to fight them.  Sansa getting Theon's nod to accept Brienne's oath and then forgetting the words to the oath was really dumb.  Courtesy was once her armour - the one thing she knew how to do.  But D&D just can't let her have a brain. 

Meeting of the NW - really?  No one, but no one, brings up Hardhome and why Jon brought the Wildings through the Wall?  It just hurts my head.

Mel ageing - possibly the only real spoiler, although readers will have realised it from her PoV chapter.  I saw no need for that scene to involve any nudity, but, hey, that's D&D for you.

 

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Gave it an 8. I usually enjoy the show quite a bit. Other than the ridiculous sand snakes I think it was a decent episode. A couple things that came to mind:

 

-it's been too long since I've read the books because I keep finding myself feeling sorry for Cersei

-when Brienne  rides in "Hell yes!"... but then the fight was terrible. Not choreographed very well & just dull.

-love Davos 

-Castle Black scenes were great

-Dany scenes were good

-Always love seeing Tyrion 

-it's alot easier to enjoy the show now that I don't know what to expect

-Oh also Roose & Ramsay! 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Lord Lannister said:

Well given the amount of people who hate the show no matter what and will watch it every week to comment how much they hate it, I'm not sure these poll results will be entirely meaningful.

Given that this is a poll from a forum of A Song of Ice and Fire fans, the results were never going to be "meaningful" to begin with. At least if by "meaningful" we understand an objective evaluation of the episode's merits on its own, as perceived by a representative sample of the average population.

The results so far, though (So far, with 200 votes, I think it's breaking "Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken"'s record as the show's new low), clearly indicate that to many people in this forum the episode has been far from satisfying, and a significant people of them are even very upset with it. And this, I think, reflects reality. It's not reasonable to dismiss the people who rate 1 as trolls when their vote is the mode, and the average borders 5.

 

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A solid start so 7. It was mainly set up. I liked Brienne coming to the rescue, put paid to all the daydreams of Stannis coming back. And Sansa not knowing the oath perfectly makes sense, she has probably never had someone swear one to her directly like that and besides she will be a little flustered having just survived dying five times. Cersei as fatalistic and calm was a good twist as most here were expecting her to go off the rails, and good that Jamie took the revenge lead. Bitching about Dorne is really tiresome now and why shouldn't the sandsnakes have got on a boat straight after Mycella's death and followed them to KL? They knew what was going down immediately so no speedboat needed at all. Overall things are getting a little stale so the thing we really need are new characters, Euron, Randyll etc to enliven the show.

Edited by Valhalla Morghulis
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I'll give it a three, only because of the scenes at the Wall and I still feel like I'm being generous. Dorne is just a total mess, I can't think of a single thing I like about that storyline and I'm not sure what is worse, Areo going down to a 9 year old or Doran proving himself to be totally pointless and useless compared to his book version. The Sandsnakes are just as awful as they ever were as well.

I will say though that I don't get why people are saying that Jamie's character development has been ruined. His reaction seems pretty understandable given his daughter has just been poisoned. I will say though that his general dialogue seems to have suffered horrendously and it only gets worse the more D & D have lost the reference point of the books. His Riverrun storyline arc in the books was far superior really.

Daenerys storyline is just doing nothing for me and I don't see any character development happening within her either. Arya's scenes are just too brief to have any impact at all as well.

Although I liked The Wall scenes somewhat, I did think that Aliser Thorne's dialogue when he was talking to Davos wasn't too well written but not to the point of being episode breaking.

Mel's scene at the end was probably my favourite thing because it was the perfect way to symbolize her personal crisis. Definitely the best bit of character development in the whole episode.


All in all, the dialogue and storyline development have both taken massive hits and that is very sad.

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