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How would you rate episode 208?


How would you rate episode 208?  

408 members have voted

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

    • 1
      5
    • 2
      5
    • 3
      10
    • 4
      15
    • 5
      18
    • 6
      47
    • 7
      89
    • 8
      110
    • 9
      73
    • 10
      36


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I was pretty disappointed with this episode. I guess he is trying to throw curveballs to all the readers. The books are so brilliant that I think we all just want to see the vision come to life on screen but instead so much is being changed for the sake of change. At first I thought the story was just being abridged for tv but now I can see he is just writing a new story that is loosely based off the novels.

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9 for me, I really enjoyed all the one on one scenes and the Yara/Theon dialogue is probably my favorite from this season and it really captured some of the essence of Yara from her PoV in the later books.

I stopped comparing the show to the book so I can enjoy it as a separate entity, some things I like in the book won't make it and i'm kind of fine with that.

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First time poster, long time lurker. I gave it an 8. Iceland, Croatia, and N. Ireland are beautiful!! So glad they did location shooting. Everything I like has already been stated, so I'll just add a few things:

Roose Bolton- love they way the actor stares at Robb, wish we could have thought bubbles in those scenes!

Tyrion & Bronn plus Varys.....enough said.( For some reason Tyrion and Varys "friendship" reminds me of Jerry and Newman. Very wierd I know)

Yara- really wasn't a fan of Gemma Whalen (sp.) but she won me over this episode.

I wish they would have shown a scene with Catelyn, Jamie and Brienne. My non-book reading roommates, understood why she let him go, but they were upset with how it went down. Plus Michelle, NCW, and Gwendoline would have been amazing.

"The King w/o a castle"/Dr. Without Borders (Robb/Talisa)- I don't mind the changes. And love makes you do stupid and crazy things. Everytime they mentioned "the bridge", I yelled "and men" frey gave you a bridge and men.

Off to summer math class...wish Tywin was my teacher!

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I was pretty disappointed with this episode. I guess he is trying to throw curveballs to all the readers. The books are so brilliant that I think we all just want to see the vision come to life on screen but instead so much is being changed for the sake of change. At first I thought the story was just being abridged for tv but now I can see he is just writing a new story that is loosely based off the novels.

Curveballs?! The nerve!

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5. Partially dreadful, partially interesting. I am to the point where seeing snow.. or Snow.. makes me reach for the 'skip ahead 30 seconds' button on my remote. However, our 'mother of dragons' drinking game was a major success, even with only one scene.

The Iceland scenes are OK bc if the dialogue and action lags I can always look at those goofy feather boas the NW seem to be wearing (to look like crows) and ponder.

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agree. stop messing with the storyline.

If GRRM was enjoying himself by breaking the chains of writing for TV (which he has said he was - Rolling Stone?) and writing what he wanted no matter how complex and difficult to adapt to the limits of technology re: screen recreation then the screenplay folks have a hard hill to climb. I admire how well they have done it. The actress who played Brienne researched her character heavily and did some training to reproduce Brienne physically. It took a year. The writers have written this as if they have been immersed in the entire series almost as much as I have. They have done yeoman's work adapting work that was specifically written by a guy throwing off the restraints of writing for TV. Kudos to all of them

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'NW Deserter' "Gave it an 8. It started at a 10:

  • [...]
    Liked that Sam found the dragonglass, too.

Points off for three things:

  • [*]Half a point off for the disappointing end to Arya's stay in Harrenhall. I understand that a lot of it isn't vital to the overall plot, but I missed Jaqen's face change, the coin being given, the weasel soup, etc. I noticed episode 10 is caled Valar Morghulis, so hopefully this means we get some of that then. [*]Half a point off for nobody actually learning about Bran and Rickon, particularly Catelyn and Robb. I can still buy that they both did what they did (releasing Jaime and forsaking a vow, respectively), but it took a lot of the emotional punch out of it. I'm honestly not sure why this decision was made, but oh well. [*]The other point off for what I am legitimately pissed about - not revealing Tyrion's plan with the freaking chain! That thing does so much for saving the city, for giving Tyrion the credit he deserves from viewers/readers (but of course not from the citizens of Kings Landing), and there's not even a mention of it. What has he even really done? All I can think of is him taking Cersei's wildfire idea and doing it more, but other than that, nothing. This won't even seem like Tyrion's victory to the viewers! First thing that has really frustrated me during the entire series. "

To me it's realistic that Catelyn and Robb don't know about Bran and Rickon's "deaths" yet. There's too much distance. I imagine it will be revealed to them later and push the story further. I also REALLY missed Weasel Soup, but my guess is that we'll see Arya in full warrior mode at some point. I'm hoping to be surprised.

Edited by Sunni
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First time poster, somewhat long time lurker.

I've read the books & love 'em, as everyone here likely does.

However, a reality check -- their job is to make the best TV show they can, not do a frame-by-frame Frank Miller recreation of the novels.

There are two salient points that I have not seen anyone bring up and drive home in these recaps:

1) What makes the novels great is that no one is ever safe, and you don't know what's going to happen next. Why would you want to watch a TV show that is the exact opposite -- a totally predictable reenactment of the novels?! By consolidating characters, altering minor story arcs, and adding some non-novel twists it CAN recapture some of that GRMM unpredictability -- if you let it. I think many of you are too busy over-analyzing and being hyper-critical to the point where you'll never enjoy the TV show.

2) By extension of #1, you're also basing all of this critcism that the TV show must and will follow the books going forward. Overall, I believe they will -- but I for one hope they keep throwing in the surprises (kidnapped dragons! hot battlefield nurses!) now and forever. Regarding things missing in e208 -- before jumping off the nearest bridge (or wanting to push the writers off one), perhaps consider the following:

* Jaqen is waiting a short distance outside the gates & meets Arya for the coin and final resolution.

* We share Davos' surprise when the chain makes its appearance.

* Robb Stark is a fan favorite, and needs screen time to both please the TV audience *and* make them emotionally invested in him, so that later events become that much more powerful.

* As great as the Jon Snow/QH scenes were in the book, they only have 10 hours total to paint the story. The Snow/Ygritte story line is much more important over the long haul, so it was simply more important to establish Ygritte for her important arc in season 3 than it is/was to have a bromance-on-the-run chase through the wilderness.

Bottom line - Season #1 followed the first book near-perfectly. And it was awesome. But we all knew Seasons #2+ were going to be breaking the chains from the source material and telling the best story possible within the constraints and reality of TV. That means streamlining characters, resequencing events, even fabricating new events to tell the story in a more concise and audience-friendly manner. To some, I guess this is "dumbing down" from the source material. To most (I hope), this is just basic reality.

At the end of the day, it's all subjective - you either love it or you hate it (most likely somewhere in between). One person can argue a decision's terrible, and another can argue just as strongly why it isn't. But without knowing the end-game, none of us truly can say definitively. Writer decisions in episodes 1-8 that feel wrong now might make a lot more sense after viewing episodes 9 and 10 (or it might even take until the 3rd season, or later).

Sorry for the long post -- nah, no I'm not. :-)

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I gave it an eight. I liked that they slowed down the pace and allowed in some interesting character-developing scenes. I also liked that they didn't try to shoehorn in a silly cliffhanger, which has been a problem this scene.

I mostly agree with LeggoMyEssos's articulate defence of the show, particularly the point that

their job is to make the best TV show they can, not do a frame-by-frame Frank Miller recreation of the novels

I've really enjoyed the series. I can see why people who are extremely emotionally attached to the characters in the book might find changes difficult to accept, and there's the occasional alteration which I think hasn't worked - for instance, the complete change in Littlefinger's character has made him less interesting, and his role as a wandering exposition-machine could have been better served by an entirely new character - but, for the most part, they've got things right. Many of the best scenes this series weren't in the books.

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One thing I'd add re: changes from the books. A common criticism of the changes (made repeatedly in the reviews on this website) is that they mostly make for worse, not better, TV. The reasoning for this is often along the lines of 'it's implausible that the character would do this!' or 'that's inconsistent with scene x!' or 'it was unnecessary for the character to do that!'. But I think these 'problems' are only perceived as problems by Martin obsessives who scrutinise the show extremely closely. A large majority of viewers simply don't care about them. On spoiler-free discussion of the episodes, these scenes are often praised as particularly strong, and any inconsistencies waved away with a laugh.

Take, for instance, the scene last episode where Jaime killed his relative. One response could be: 'that's absurd, he didn't need to kill him!'. But who cares? It was an exciting, well-written scene, dramatic and tense precisely because it was clear he was going to kill him. It was entertaining television. AGOT is not The Wire; it's just entertainment, and it was never going to hold up to the level of analysis some fans want to apply to it.

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I rate the episode a 6, but it was a "6" kind of episode, based on the point in the storyline. Lots of build-up, set-up, waiting, etc. Sort of the calm before the storm. (Of course, compared to most TV shows, it was 12 out of 10.)

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Take, for instance, the scene last episode where Jaime killed his relative. One response could be: 'that's absurd, he didn't need to kill him!'. But who cares? It was an exciting, well-written scene, dramatic and tense precisely because it was clear he was going to kill him. It was entertaining television. AGOT is not The Wire; it's just entertainment, and it was never going to hold up to the level of analysis some fans want to apply to it.
What the hell? So even if a scene is absurd and a plot hole, it should be absolved from criticism because it's "exciting and entertaining"? How preposterous. If a scene makes no sense, then it's badly-written, regardless of whether or not it's "exciting". And AGoT is easily as deep as The Wire (the book, at least, the show isn't precisely because they focus on cheap entertainment rather than the depth of the story and characters), just because it's fantasy and not a modern setting doesn't mean it's just fluffy entertainment. Edited by Morrigan
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^ Dude there are plenty of things in the wire that don't make much sense. The difference is that the wire was a gangster show not based on a book. So when noone kills Omar everyone cool with it. But if GOT watchers were really giving that show the same treatment they would be writing WTF why didn't they kill Omar, that doesn't make any sense. There are an infinite number of examples in that show, so please stop bringing that show up as some kind of gold standard for GOT.

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What the hell? So even if a scene is absurd and a plot hole, it should be absolved from criticism because it's "exciting and entertaining"? How preposterous. If a scene makes no sense, then it's badly-written, regardless of whether or not it's "exciting". And AGoT is easily as deep as The Wire (the book, at least, the show isn't precisely because they focus on cheap entertainment rather than the depth of the story and characters), just because it's fantasy and not a modern setting doesn't mean it's just fluffy entertainment.

I'm saying that the TV series (as opposed to the books) sets out to be slick entertainment, and succeeds. The dialogue is interesting and often funny, it's consistently well acted and generally pretty exciting.

At times, for the sake of making a scene interesting, the writers have the characters do some implausible things. But most people a - don't notice, and b - wouldn't care if they did notice; not everyone over-analyses in the manner of some book purists on here.

Yes, I'm saying that a scene which doesn't strictly make sense if you sit down and think about for twenty minutes should be absolved from criticism, provided it's exciting and has great dialogue (like the Jaime scene).

As much as I love the ASOIAF novels and enjoy speculating about their future direction on here, I don't think the characters are as nuanced, the writing as good (or, indeed, the world as fully realised) as The Wire, which is one of the best-written works in any medium. So yeah, it is the gold standard as far as I'm concerned. Feel free to disagree :)

Edited by woweezowee
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^ Dude there are plenty of things in the wire that don't make much sense. The difference is that the wire was a gangster show not based on a book. So when noone kills Omar everyone cool with it. But if GOT watchers were really giving that show the same treatment they would be writing WTF why didn't they kill Omar, that doesn't make any sense. There are an infinite number of examples in that show, so please stop bringing that show up as some kind of gold standard for GOT.

So, (The Wire spoiler)

Spoiler
that particular example doesn't make much sense, right?

I would hold it up as a gold standard. I wasn't suggesting that it was entirely realistic; I was suggesting that it was more than just entertainment, and I would add that I think it's remarkably internally consistent considering the vast world they create.

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