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How Would You Rate Episode 109?


Ran
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420 members have voted

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

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    • 9
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Gave it a 5. Lack of battles is a real downer for me, especially not seeing Jaime and Gray Wolf in action. One could say they aren't critical for the show, but I think battle scenes are needed in order to balance out all the talking and intrique which takes place in the series. George wrote some really epic battles and missing out on them was a major let down for me.

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To those who think it’s completely acceptable to cut out the battles:

The book series is leading up to a war with "The Others", book 6 and 7 will probably have a lot of that. Would it be okay if we never got to see any battle scenes with them, would it truly feel satisfying after 5+ seasons of build up? Same with the wildlings attacking the wall in book 3, which is the culmination of Jon’s storyline in book 2 and 3, do you think its good storytelling to not show it?

I have/will read the books so I know the story in detail, but would people who haven’t read them consider the TV series a complete product in itself if it never shows any battles/big fights?

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I gave it a 10. I don't care about the battles. I like them, don't get me wrong, but I don't need to see them. It's not what excites me about these books and I don't think it's necessary for this show. The characters are the most important part, always has been and in my opinion, always should be. I think if they had more budget and 2 more episodes, they could have done it but with only 50m and 10 episodes, there just is not enough time to spend 5 minutes on a battle. I much prefer the Tyrion scene as it sets up the ending of the 3rd book and perfectly explains his character and his father's character.

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9, it was the best one yet. Ned's execution scene was just as good as I had imagined, Aemon's speech too, and Shae seems very promising. She may turn out to be a more interesting character than she was in the books.

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Gave it 9/10. I would have preferred if they did some build-up for the Battle near Riverrun. Now there really wasn't any excitement involved in it. Didn't expect them to really show much when it comes to the actual battles. It's not really that much they can do with their current budget and the limited time they are shooting.

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I gave this one an 8. It still deserves a high rating because the acting was brilliant - the last scene was absolutely perfect. I was close to tears actually, it was that well done. Arya looking on at the bellowing crowd reminded me of Narnia for some reason, another fantastical story, and yet both had a very human feel to them.

And that's what this series is, a human story - a drama. It just happens to be a drama with infrequent violence. Was I disappointed at the lack of a battle? Well... yes. I still was slightly. And that's why it doesn't get a 9 or 10 like previous episodes. I agree that after all the build up of a tension between the Starks and Lannisters, there should really have been something to show it finally bubbling over into a battle, even if it was just 2 minutes of hacking and slashing.

I did enjoy Tyrion's scene about his wife, I think they got the mood of it just right. BUT, they didn't really need an extra 3/4 minute scene introducing the girl in such depth. Perhaps it was those few minutes that could have added weight to the Robb story-arc. I also feel that the Jon Snow storyline could have been condensed a bit, and found myself groaning when they revealed the Targaryen thing in such a drawn out manner. Maybe it's because I knew it was coming, but at this point in the story it is not an interesting enough revelation next to the action that is actually happening down south.

So yeah. I would have given it a 7, but the execution scene was fantastic.

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Still can't go above 8 for any episode in the series yet. While I can understand why they didn't have them for various reasons it was still a bitter blow not to show any battle scenes. I really wanted to see Tyrion do something on the battlefield, and to be knocked unconscious before the battle even begins was rather pathetic.

I thought they did the final scene very well, and having that one word between Yoren and Ned was a nice touch.

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I felt it was damn near perfect. This was an important episode with many big scenes, and they nailed them pretty much spot on. Walder Frey wasn't really as I imagined him, but thats a minor quibble.

I'd rather miss out on battle scenes instead of having them done half-assed. That's all I can say on that subject.

Interestingly enough the ending wasn't what got me teary-eyed, it was the scene where Robb rode out from the woods and Catelyn cried in relief. Really enjoying Michelle Fairley in her role.

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Still can't go above 8 for any episode in the series yet. While I can understand why they didn't have them for various reasons it was still a bitter blow not to show any battle scenes. I really wanted to see Tyrion do something on the battlefield, and to be knocked unconscious before the battle even begins was rather pathetic.

I'd rather see Tyrion knocked out early on then acting like a superhero on the battlefield. The books are too unrealistic in this regard.

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If they want to avoid showing battle scenes, which is understandable, they missed a golden opportunity to reasonably skip a battle. After all, we only hear about Whispering Wood. I would have been happy, if we had simply heard about Whispering Wood. If maybe 30 seconds were cut from the drinking scene for someone to breathlessly explain to Catelyn when happened, before Jaime is revealed as a captive.

Or the Tywin post-battle scene where he learns that Robb wasn't in command and was riding hard to Riverrun with most of his men.

Yeah, it's about character, but how about they show how great a strategic move Robb made?

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I'd give this episode an 8.

The scenes on the Wall, with Jon and Mormont and Jon and Aemon, were well done, I also liked the Dothraki scenes. We finally see Jorah fight. And the horse sacrifice was ... well ... bloody.

Walder Frey was great, although I imagined him older-looking. Bantering with Catelyn, putting his offspring in their place, and fondling his teenage wife, all at the same time.

While I agree that the bonding scene with Bronn, Shae and Tyrion was a bit long, I liked the feel of that sequence. And I think Sibel Kekilli will be great as Shae in season 2.

As for the Battles-Not-Appearing-In-This-Film, I felt a bit disappointed at first due to the build-up with armies marching on one another, but I understand that there are budget reasons. I thought it was a clever idea just to show the aftermath of the Green Fork. At that moment I guessed they chose not to show that battle in order to show at least some of the Whispering Wood. Even considering the budget constraints, I still think the Whispering Wood could have been handled differently. You don't need to have to big armies clashing as it's basically an ambush. Maybe they could have shown the aftermath of that battle too as they did with the Green Fork, with fighting dying down and only a couple of soldiers cutting the remaining foes down. At least the capture of Jaime should have got some screen time in my opionion, to give both him and possibly Robb some fighting time.

That said, I'd rather they did not show these battles of which there are no POVs in the books anyway, than not showing the Blackwater later on in the series. But if the producers do not show them, at least give the audience a hint why Robb splits his forces. Dramatically, it makes sense for the audience to find out that Robb's not at the Green Fork at the same time as the Lannisters, but the whole point of dividing the army is lost without some exposition. It could have been easily done. Take a map (as in episode 8), take some markers (cups, coins, chess pieces) to point out where the Starks and the Lannisters are, where Riverrun is and why it's so important. And then some bannerman of Robb's, the Greatjon for example, could say something along the lines of "You can't fight two battles with just one army, boy!" and THEN the non-reader might understand why Robb and most of his men didn't show up at the Green Fork.

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Reading a lot about how the budget held back the battles. Not good enough.

There are a lot of pointless scenes in the seires that cost a fair amount of money, such as long, drawn out, hard core sex. Those women get paid well to preform, and preform they did.

Don't defend this with budget constrains when all it needed was a few clips.

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Reading a lot about how the budget held back the battles. Not good enough.

There are a lot of pointless scenes in the seires that cost a fair amount of money, such as long, drawn out, hard core sex. Those women get paid well to preform, and preform they did.

Don't defend this with budget constrains when all it needed was a few clips.

Is this a joke or do you actually think sex scenes cost as much time and money to do as battle scenes? Rome had twice the budget of Game of Thrones and showed insignificant amounts of battle.

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Mr. Bastard,

At any point in my post did I say sex scenes cost as much as battle scenes? No.

What I said was sex scenes cost more than, let's say, your average person to person interaction in KL or at the Wall. Cut back on sex and have more money to do other things.

It's called managing your money.

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I gave an 8. I know it was great television and I had not expected to have Whispering Woods. But no Whispering Woods AND no Battle at the Green Fork? That's two points down, sorry. I really hoped for at least one, even if short, battle scene. I also hoped to hear some amazing pipe music that could be heard in the preview, but again the music was immemorable and flat as table.

ETA:

SPOILER from CoK

Now I am dreading the Blackwater. My bets are that Pod will accidentally knock out Tyrion (and give him a non-CGI demanding nose scar), Davos will fall overboard while taking an arrow in the arm and we will only know how the great strategic move by Tyrion played out by having Bronn discuss with him the aftermath of the battle. Kinda sad.

END OF SPOILER from CoK

Edited by Xray the Enforcer
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My first 10 as well. Amazing.

I thought it was amazing, as well - a definite 10...there are so many details that the writers and directors are addressing. It was a difficult episode to watch - Dany's struggles and Ned's death; however, it stayed true to Martin, and that is what matters. I cannot believe that next week's episode will be the last. The series is phenomenal...

On a completely separate note - can someone help me? There seems to be some problems with my account, and as a fairly new user, I have no idea what to do, but Ran, I know you are an administrator - please help...I cannot look at my own profile - I keep getting error messages saying that '(I) do not have permission to...' What do I do? I haven't logged on since June 6th, I think, yet when I tried this morning, I was BLOCKED from everything?????????????????

Edited by NovemberElizabeth
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Mr. Bastard,

At any point in my post did I say sex scenes cost as much as battle scenes? No.

What I said was sex scenes cost more than, let's say, your average person to person interaction in KL or at the Wall. Cut back on sex and have more money to do other things.

It's called managing your money.

Or, more correctly, managing someone else's money. Since it's not your money they're spending.

There are a lot of back-seat drivers along for the ride: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZXM_g3mqew.

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