How would you rate episode 207?

[Hour of the Wolf]

Best of the season, maybe 3rd favourite of the series. I am assuming the last episodes of the season will be very good. I haven't enjoyed this season at all, but this will likely turn it around.

My biggest question before the season started was how are they going to handle the scene with Bran and Rickon being displayed in Winterfell. It was very well done. It was at the end of the episode like I thought it would be. Not a flaying, which I could not believe HBO would do, but burning is just as shocking. Luwin and Theon's reactions really were perfect and it was very emotional for me to see this, one of the most memorable moments from the books.

It is pretty clear what they are going to do with Dagmer. I am a little disapointed, but I am liking the acting of the person playing him, so I am fine with the change.

Brienne still does not cut it. Her impact was small though. I am not looking forward to her being more involved in the following seasons.

Jon's story is going to be a bit of a surprise. I like how it goes in the books, so I hope it is still as good.

I really like the changes in Qarth. It makes Dany's story more interesting by spicing up the people around her. I look forward to "Arstan's" arrival and I wonder how it will be different.

Edit: I have to add, the wide shot of Harrenhal was amazing. I gave the episode a 9

Edited May 14, 2012 by Hour of the Wolf

[Kvothe the Arcane]

I gave it a 9 purely for Maester Luwin's ''NOOOOOO'' at the end.

[Ran]

This one's a 7. While I think Qarth is something of a hot mess, and I'm worried about some of the developments in terms of where they're taking it... it felt more like ASoIaF than that last episode, at least. The Arya-Tywin scenes have become repetitive, as well, and there's some various other bits and bobs that bother me... but there's enough solid storytelling -- and also some excellent, word-for-word scenes taken from the novels -- that it's closer to form. Still, overall the season feels like it's underperforming a little. Yes, ACoK is a more spread out book and not my favorite, but their choices to try and streamline it for TV have not been as successful as some of their choices last season under similar circumstances.

My full look at the episode can be found here.

[teemo]

7/10, comparing it strictly to other GoT episodes. This show is obviously way better than the vast majority of the garbage on television. And I really enjoyed Hodor's dialogue this episode.

Edited May 15, 2012 by hk47

[MegasAV]

I voted a 7 good episode some great acting, and I am enjoying the new story they created for Quarth as the books events didn't really captivate me there.

Things I didn't like

1) No Stannis or Davos seven episodes in, and I don't think the non reader has any idea who these men are, no mention of the feared battle commander that Stannis is, nor of any of his backstory which I think really adds to his character.

2)Not a fan at all of the New Mountain, physically huge but not imposing in any way, also the dialogue between him and Tywin regarding finding the BWB really bothered me. I mean the Mountain in the book made a point in GOT about plucking out the eyes of outriders and Twin was questioning his brutality, seriously

3)Seven episodes in and clearly not enough has been done in the Sansa Sandor storyline, what type of emotion is a non book reader to feel when Sandor shows up in her room after Blackwater battle I think thus far they have had maybe ten mins screen time together.

Overall thus far this season has been good, but nowhere near as good as the first season in my opinion.

[duncanthemedium]

9... Loved Ygritte, love to hate Theon, and its great what they're doing both with Jaime and Dany sorylines. Absolutely LOVED the scene between Tywin and Arya.

They are setting up some things well. I mean Dany's storyline is so much more wonderful in this timeline...call me a heretic, but this Dany story is better than the original.

I wonder where the Sansa-Shae alliance is going... they might be looking to explain what Shae did to Tyrion later..

The whole Karstark thing was well-handled. This explain's that incident with much economy as well as giving good ol' Nikolai some screen time.

Roose Bolton is not creeping me out enough though...

All in all...I wish every day was Sunday!!!

[duncanthemedium]

oh and I agree... I want the old Gregor Clegane back!!!

[Zach H]

Solid 8. Jaime continues to really bring to mind the character I envisioned even with stuff not from the novels. Wonder if non-book fans kind of forgot about him up until now, though, despite the various mentions throughout the season? Ygriite actress nails the character as well, although the constant sex talk while wandering the wasteland kind of distracted in an "It's HBO!" manner. Maybe the book was like that as well, been so long since I read it I can't remember. I dug the Cersei/Tyrion scene. Nice to see the two characters letting their guards down a bit and just talking. Establishing shot of the wrecked castle with Arya and company was amazing.

[Warden of the North121]

I gave it a 9. The last three episodes have been excellent imo.

Dany's scenes were both shocking and exciting; a major improvement from her CoK storyline.

Jon and Ygritte was really enjoyable as well though they maybe could have had one less scene. I saw Qhorin captured with Jon for a second in the promo for Ep 8 so their storyline at it's core will be the same,

Jaime's scenes were incredible except for killing Alton/Cleos which was a little jarring but you have to remember that this is pre-redemption Jaime who doesn't give shit about morals. Minus 1 for killing Alton

Arya/Tywin is again very entertaining and provided a good historical monologue as well as a BwB reference.

It looks like they go their separate ways next episode which is probably for the best because it is starting to get a little stale.

Tyrion/Cersei was very touching and humanized Cersei a little bit which I don't mind that much.

Sansa's scenes were very well acted but her scene with the Hound seemed a little rushed.

Theon's scene at the end was heartbreaking even though I obviously knew it wasn't Bran and Rickon.

Edited May 15, 2012 by Warden of the North121

[Hoo]

The worst yet

[Leto Atreides]

I give it a 6.

Other than the Theon storyline, nearly everything else is going down the drain.

[Hedge Lawyer]

For sheer entertainment, 9/10 again - it's just so gripping, even if you've read the books. This series has really gone up a notch in the second half (so far).

I don't feel too strongly about the changes because they've been relatively well written in. Alton dying worked pretty well, that was a strong scene. In fact, this was the first episode where I'd say almost every scene was acted absolutely superbly. Perhaps one too many Ygritte-Jon scenes but I'm glad they're developing that relationship. I have a real thing for Ygritte - she's uh... feisty. ;) She reminds me of girls from Scotland (where I'm from), so that's probably why. I again loved Tywin-Arya, even if they need to get moving a bit with that storyline.

Qarth worked out well, I just dunno what happened really. It was wonderfully creepy though. Theon gets A+ again. Um, what else... yeah, no I couldn't find much to complain about. I'm sure a bunch of you will though haha.

I agree with this.

I gave the episode a 9- it made an hour seem like 10 minutes. I know that the show is deviating from the books, in some cases pretty significantly, but the show holds up. I think having GRRM involved makes the differences still feel believable. I think that I like show Cersei better than book Cersei (and I like book Cersei), and I know that I like show Qarth better than book Qarth. Dany's story is much more interesting in the show that it was in ACoK. Ygritte is pitch perfect.

The show keeps me wanting more. I look forward to each episode.

[packersfan]

Entertainment wise 9/10. Faithfulness to the book drops it to a 6/10.

This episode introduced a flurry of HUGE plot diversions from the book. The only plot the seemed to actually follow the book was Theon "killing" Bran and Rickon. Otherwise, Jamie kills this Alton character (WHY???) and accelerates the story of Karstark forward. In the book, Jaime and the Lannister men killed some Karstark men in battle. These men were captured and at some point Karstark killed them in prison and then Robb had to kill him for killing POWs. I believe this all happened after Lady Stark unilaterally sent Cleos Frey (now dead in the show), Jaime, and Brienne to Kings Landing to trade for Sansa and Arya. Just clumsy writing!

I was really hoping they would finally let Ygritte go and Jon join back up with Halfhand like in the books. Now that he is captured, I feel like they are going to make Jon look more like a traitor than in the book where Halfhand ordered him to join the wildlings and ultimately kill him in combat. Now, I feel like they are going to have Jon fall for Ygritte first and then run into Halfhand and have to kill him. Again, just souring the story.

I don't remember the thirteen getting off'd in the book. All I remember from the Undying is that somehow they got the dragons? Dany went to them and they almost killed her when one of the dragons burned down their dwelling? Another completely strange and unexplainable story written by HBO for no reason.

What is with the Tyrion and Cersei sob session about Joff? Completely making Cersei look like a poor victim when she really is a bitch...what happened to that Cersei??? Too much time being spent making us "feel" for Cersei and Tywin Lannister. Sheesh, Tywin taking a liking to this obviously high-born girl? Feeding her? Roose Bolton didn't even do that in the book and he was from the North, thus a "good guy" at first in Arya's eyes.

I didn't read the book before Season 1, so I don't know how much was changed, but I feel that not so much was changed as to endanger future plots, meaning when I read Clash of Kings and basing past events on what I saw in the Season 1, nothing clashed, but this season lots of MAJOR plot and character changes. O well.

[eyeheartsansa]

solid 9.

I've been no less than thrilled with this season and I've made a conscious decision not to care about diversions from the book because I enjoy it more that way. I have very few nitpicks or complaints... I guess I don't have the most critical personality and I've come to trust the writers.

Killing Alton was shocking and jarring.. I'm not sure book jaime would have done this, but.. I don't care. those scenes were incredibly acted, I got goosebumps.

Edited May 15, 2012 by eyeheartsansa

[pleonasm]

A solid 4 out of 10.

The Good - The Tyrion and Cersei scene. Great nuanced writing and performances from both actors. Yes - This is a different Cersei than in the books, but I'm all for it. Winterfell was solid and I would have called it great if they didn't so obviously telegraph the use of the orphans in Bran's scene.

The Bad and the Ugly -

1. The trainwreck that is Qarth. Yes - The Qarth storyline is the weakest set of chapters in Clash, however the coup d'etat felt like it was brainstormed at 2 in the morning. Why should I care about the politics of a city that quite frankly we will never see again in three episodes? Was a mass magical assasination really that 'cool'? The answer is no. At least the dragon-napping was a reasonable and dramatic reason for the trip to the House of the Undying, but the clusterfuck of scenes this week was just painful. More Danny agnst, paint drying characterization of Xaro, and Joreah in longing (again).

2. The couplings. Rob and Not-Jeyne, Jon and Ygritte, and Tywin and Arya. Benioff and Weiss need to hit up a class on how to polish up a screenplay ASAP. No one scene was particulary awful, but all ate up excessive screentime to barely inch the story and characters forward. In case of the Arya and Tywin, its more of a case of too much of a good thing. One or two scenes would have been fine, but this is third consecutive week of their dance, and given it can't go anywhere, its become increasingly pointless.

3. So Tyrion's attempt to rescue Jamie Lannister with Cleo Frey's escort guard is replaced with another 'talky' scene confirming Jamie is ruthless? And what is Jamie's master plan? Murder a cousin on the chance only one guard will enter the cell? Yikes... While I liked the performances, this was just silly. A rescue/near escape for Jamie would have made for compelling television, especially if it occured an episode or two earlier, but this was just 'meh'.

4. Shae. So why exactly does Shae give a shit about Sansa? Is she a prostitute with a 'heart of gold'? Was she asked to look out for Sansa by Tyrion? Who the hell knows... the actress is a blank slate and we have nothing in the text to give us a single clue what is motivating this character. Why change the character so substantially if your not going to provide any real insight into what the new version is really about.

[Davos55]

I gave this episode a 7.

A lot of things felt off to me for some reason, and a thing a lot of time allocation issues are becoming more and more prevalent.

The changes to Jon's storyline annoy me the most and I don't like where it is going. This season Jon has been a complete moron and has made countless bad decisions, and sometimes I wonder if Kit Harrington even cares during certain scenes. Very disappointing, especially since Jon's chapters are some of my favorites in ACOK.

Jon's story brought it down a lot for me, but this episode did have some great parts, especially with Theon's story and great acting in Jaime's scenes. I was so pumped to see him back that I nearly gave this episode a 9 on that alone..but other issues brought it down to a 7 for me.

Edited May 15, 2012 by Davos55

[Dragon greyscale]

I gave it a 6, the lowest this season. I generally felt that the episode was slow and probably a set up for the last three episodes. Ironically, the story that worked the least was the bran/rickon/theon chase while it was the most faithful to the books. I think they gave too much foreshadowing information about the orphans and the walnut clue wasn't really obvious. On top of that, the bodies looked really fake. All of which point to the fact that the bodies weren't bran and rickon. I've read several posters whose nonreading friends didn't buy it at all and my nonreading GF reacted the same. I don't know how they could have make it seem more believable though. The series shows so many brutal deaths explicitly, and any offscreen death immediately raises suspicion.

I like what they did to Quarth. Now, Dany has some real stakes at play and her burning HotU makes sense. Pyat pree and XXD are true threats to her.

I'm sort of neutral towards Jaime's scenes. I guess his long absence has made me forget about him a little. The fact that he tried and failed to escape was in the books but I think it's wise of D&D to have it have immediate repurcussions (cat freeing him). The story is a lot tighter this way. Sidenote: I wonder if we'll see the boat chase this season. That felt very cinematic when I read it.

Jon's story was meh, but I didn't care much for it in the books either. The focus is so much on the wildlings/ygritte, you'd almost forget about the others and wights. It's a shame because they were the very first thing introduced in the books and in the show.

Robb's love affair is really slow... People see this relationship coming from miles away. They need to move beyond the flirtatious pleasantries and get into some physical stuff (not sex per se). Either that or show some sort of twist (like she is actually a spy or something)

Anyway, did not like the episode that much. It has nothing to do with changes but with pacing.

Rant out

[icefiregirl]

like a kindly old grandfather with his granddaughter.

Tywin and Arya are very entertaining but Tywin is not a kindly old grandfather, and Arya is not anyone's grandaughter! Tywin, suspecting that Arya is highborn, would find her value to him and use her for his own purposes. Does he know that Arya is missing, or has no one dared to tell him? He doesn't even seem to suspect that she might be a Stark.

Loved the scenes between Jon and Ygritte - so funny. Loved her taunting and his squirming.(The only problem is her strong Hull accent - sorry, anyone from Hull, don't mean to offend.)

There was a beautiful shot of Robb's encampment by the lake - quite unusual to have a scenic opening shot, I thought.

Excellent episode as always.. LOVE IT

[Giskard Reventlov]

Well. I gave it an 8 because it was good as a tv show GoT. As a book adaptation, it is deviating more and more...it would get 5-6 in that department maybe less.

Most of the time its not that bad. I mean, characters get where they were going in the books only by some different route. I mean, both physically and mentally. It is more or less OK if they don't change their motivations and behavior.

However there are some bad examples. Couple of episodes ago it was Littlefinger, who lost all his subtlety, and now it is Caitlyn.

For, it seems to me that she will let Jaimie go, not only for love and fear for her daughters, but it will look as her hand was forced by Karstarks. So she'll let him go in order to prevent him getting killed for nothing in return. And that is...mmmmehhhhh

Yes, and new Mountain was terribly casted. Get me someone tall....said the casting director...with a beard perhaps, that'll make him look more scary...

Edited May 15, 2012 by Giscard Reventlov

[scotcat]

I gave it 8 out of 10.

I really enjoyed this episode and there were some excellent scenes in it - the cersei/Tyrion scene and the Tywin/Arya scene in particular. Theon is progressing nicely.The gorgeous shot of Harren Hall was a treat.

Its not perfect - the new Mountain is just wrong casting, I'm just not sufficiently creeped out by Bolton and Qarth could be stronger as a storyline.