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How would you rate episode 209?


Ran
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How would you rate episode 209?  

783 members have voted

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

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      2
    • 2
      1
    • 3
      5
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      2
    • 6
      8
    • 7
      15
    • 8
      33
    • 9
      131
    • 10
      581


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Definitely enjoyed the episode and on the whole I like the choices that were made regarding deviations from the books.

However I do believe that Tyrion's chain could and should have been included. A set up in an earlier episode - Tyrion telling all the smith's in King's landing to begin constructing large links and assembling them would be enough to plant the concept in the viewers' minds and then the pay off would be manifested by simply showing men on either side of the Blackwater towing it out of the water at the signal. Men on the ships would only then have to report that an enormous chain was preventing escape. Not perfect, but it certainly could be done without an enormous increase in budget IMO. I could be wrong...

But this is a critical story/character point. It makes Tyrion look like a masterful tactician and prevents Davos from looking somewhat foolish. An empty ship approaching an armada has got to raise suspicions in any competent commander particularly one who has survived using his wits to avoid being trapped or bought by surprise.

Deal breaker? Nah. Still a great episode.

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10/10

So many great things about this episode:

The freaking Hound!! Finally he had a big space in an ep., his scenes was great, especially the one he turned away from the battle. ("fk the king" yea)

I was susprised when I saw Stannis leading the attack, that was unexpected. Melisandre must have put some weird Asshai magic to protect him :lol: (weird that she didn't appear). Didn't like the way he was dragged when it was lost though.

Cersei was great this episode, I knew how that was going to end but I got really scared when she was about to poison Tommen. One moment she was about to poison her son and 10 second later she was so happy hugging him.

Tyrion turned out to be a nice commender after all. HALFMAN HALFMAN HALFMAN. I didn't realise at first that it was his father he was looking at when he was fainting. And Podrick was so brutal he broke the spear :stunned:

The only thing I really missed was already mentioned a few times, it was when Loras got to battle, they should be shouting "RENLY" or something like this, so it would look like Renly himself was leading the attack. Did anyone noticed the look on Cersei's face after Loras showed himself to her? She looked really scared, she didn't seem to know which side was he on.

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Ok, this episode was as the whole series should have been. Perfect. My mind was blown. And the guy who wrote the script really knows something aboult writing. ;) I hope he is going to write the scripts of every episodes of season 3.

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Well god damn if that wasn't something. That's a 10/10 (but... this one goes to 11!). So, so much to love even without all the added suspense that I'm sure non-readers must've felt about how things might turn out. I loved or at least really liked just about every episode of the series thus far (with maybe 2 misfires) so I don't want to say this one blew them out of the water, but in a way it really, really did. It elevated the show to a whole other place through some combination of GRRM's script, Marshall's directing, the extra budget, and the catharsis of 18 and a 1/2 episodes worth of tension being broken in 25 brutal, wonderful minutes.

I think my favorite scene though is one that I'm not seeing mentioned much, it was just the short tracking shots before and after Bronn/Tyrion (itself a great bit) and before Tyrion and Sansa started talking (also great): just seeing men rushing through a throne room completely empty except for those massive braziers to head towards the walls. For some reason it was then (despite already knowing the battle was going to be shown) that it just hit me that, holy fuck, this is actually going to go down and it is going to be awesome.

Also, enough good stuff can't ever be said about Stannis. I wasn't really a fan of BookStannis until ADWD but since I did end up a fan I was more readily on his side earlier this season. These past two episodes though, it doesn't matter what preconceptions I had about him, I am forever and always on ShowStannis' side.

I do hope though that he sets sail for The Wall by the end of season 3, even if you don't know that's where he's headed yet. I don't think I could stand more than a whole season of him just hanging around Dragonstone. (though the snails (was it snails?) in the fire scene should be good).

Oh and the Blackwater on fire has (at least temporarily) replaced Discworld being carried through the cosmos by the Great A'Tuin as my desktop background.

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Just cruising through to see if there were any votes lower than a 10. Some surprise, but I see most are hugging 10 pretty closely. Then, there are those of us who would give it a definite 11 on that scale of 10. Me, I could go up to a 15, at least!

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I gave a 9. Really only a few complaints, haha. I was under the impression that the battle occurred during the day or at least the sun was rising as "the ghost of Renly" saved the day for King's Landing. Thinking about it though, I see two reasons for making the battle at night: 1. Increased effect of fire and wildfire! 2. Can "hide" more soldiers in the darkness, thus not requiring a TON of extras or CGI.

I wonder if they got rid of the whole CHAIN across the bay or if that will be elaborated on in the next episode as Davos and Stannis attempt to escape to safety.

Obviously due to budget restraints??? they eliminated the awesome sounding ship to ship fighting where in the books actually Tyrion is attacked by the kingsguardsman and Pod saves him. Thankfully this episode did not introduce any drastic plot diversions from the books...since Martin himself wrote this episode, he stayed pretty faithful to his own work, haha.

I was going to criticize the opening scene with Bronn and the Hound as just another chance to show boobs, but the scene actually worked and wasn't just wasted camera time for HBO smut, unlike earlier scenes this season.

Those are my criticisms, but on a whole this episode was the best of the season, even though it had a low-budget feel to it (besides the wildfire)!

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10. Loved this episode. Also have to give credit to the actor who plays Joffrey. Everyone hates him and that means hes doing his job well. I could almost feel the heat coming off the television during the wildfire scene. Nasty stuff! The back and forth between the chaos of battle and Cersei worked really well too. Excellent job.

The Rains of Castamere during the credits was brilliant.

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This was a fantastic episode, that EXPLOSION was immense. Peter Dinklage deserves an oscar (I know its not a movie but he desreves it anyway). The fear and emotion ("what have I done") he showed when he saw the wildfire reek havoc was brilliant. Bravo!

Varys, the Hound, Bronn, Sansa, Cersei etc were also brilliantly portrayed in this episode.

I give it a 9.5/10

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I can't wait for the season finale, but I don't know how it can top this.

I don't know either, but having heard that it will be a somewhat extended episode, I'm already looking forward to it.

.... who am I kidding, I've been looking forward to it since episode 1.

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Couple of quick thoughts:

I don't think Lena Headey was nominated for an Emmy by HBO, and I know Blackwater was not submitted (I think, because either it wasn't completely done OR because they didn't want spoilers out there).

But both are a shame. I think Lena has outperformed everyone this year -- Dinklage, Dance, Maisie, even Alfie, who has been #2 -- as the script has given her more to do. I've never thought of her as a great (or poor) actress, but she's really been fantastic this year and I wonder if my prior impression was lack of great roles (I haven't seen her in a ton).

And while this episode wasn't perfect, or even my favorite of the series (Baelor, for me), it was done very well, and it was something never before done on tv.

But, please, stop complaining about scale. Complain about pace, characters, whatever. Not scale. Season one had a lot of scenes that lacked it; the tourney, the hunt, etc. Most of that was budget. When you look at this season, the melee, Stannis' fleet, Blackwater... understand that the scale you want and remember from the books may only be really possible with the type of money they aren't going to spend. Complaining does no good. 99% of networks and producers wouldn't have even ATTEMPTED to show the battle. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

This season's Emmy nomination process isn't over until May 31st, 2012. So every episode (including the last one - IF it's webcast - due to the Hanging Episode rule) will be eligible for nomination for the 64th Emmy Awards. So, let's hope more of the Television Academy members will have seen this season.

I agree with you x ∞³ about people complaining about scale.

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Only a 10 from me, guys - sorry ;) (But that's because Ran won't let us vote to 20!)

Nothing more to be said. Awesome, awesome episode. Even Shae could do no wrong for me tonight.

My only complaint has nothing to do with the show. Spare a thought for us here in the UK where the bloody stupid, bollocking, sodding, effin' cretinous commentators on Sky Atlantic talked all over the closing credits and The Rains of Castamere!! Bastards!

Phew - it's going to take some time to come down from this episode. I'd better go and plunge into a cold shower or something.

OMG. What IDIOTS. I am so sorry!
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I remember the story from the book, but no I don't recall this in the tourney scene last season Just Littlefinger making some witicisms about Renly and Loras (and showing some creepy interest in Sansa), Gregor cutting his horse's head off, and Robert being drunk. Apparently it was one of those quickie things that if you blinked you missed it.

Go here, and skip to 1:22. You'd have to blink for over a minute to miss it.

Definitely enjoyed the episode and on the whole I like the choices that were made regarding deviations from the books.

However I do believe that Tyrion's chain could and should have been included. A set up in an earlier episode - Tyrion telling all the smith's in King's landing to begin constructing large links and assembling them would be enough to plant the concept in the viewers' minds and then the pay off would be manifested by simply showing men on either side of the Blackwater towing it out of the water at the signal. Men on the ships would only then have to report that an enormous chain was preventing escape. Not perfect, but it certainly could be done without an enormous increase in budget IMO. I could be wrong...

But this is a critical story/character point. It makes Tyrion look like a masterful tactician and prevents Davos from looking somewhat foolish. An empty ship approaching an armada has got to raise suspicions in any competent commander particularly one who has survived using his wits to avoid being trapped or bought by surprise.

Deal breaker? Nah. Still a great episode.

1. The show is quoted (even in the "Previously on Battlestar Galactica" of this episode) that wildefire "burns so hot, it melts wood, stone, even steel." So why would it not destroy the chain - oh yeah, if we leave it underwater - but then it's a night scene, so how do they film that?

2. Why would Tyrion waste two ships and the men on them to wildfire just to pull a chain (since there is no Star Trek transporter in Westeros to magically get them out of the massive river full of wildfire that doesn't magically not go past the chain) and have those ships not able to hold the chain in place because they're also destroyed by wildfire, when the massive wildfire bomb that happened in this episode makes Tyrion look even smarter than he did in the book?

3. It's at night. In the fog. They don't see it's only one ship until it's almost upon them, and then can't see that it's unmanned until they're right next to it. There are no motors, or oars on these ships. There is no forward, reverse, or neutral. There is no ship to ship satellite radio to tell the other ships anything. There's only sails and a tiller. And I'm not sure if you've ever sailed yourself, but once you get inertia on water in a ship/boat controlled only by wind power, there is no stopping, only steering, furling sail, coming about (which isn't fast in a ship that size), and rope on a cleat for a break - but you need a dock for that.

The scene as written in ASoS, is unfilmable. What they accomplished in this episode is stellar, and never before done for television. It's groundbreaking. I wish more people could understand that.

As has been said before, but bears infinitly repeating: We've been given a show that is by and large unproducable for the screen. Start there in your mind. We're so damn lucky to be getting as brilliant, and perfectly cast a show as this! I don't care who writes the episodes. I love every last one of them.

Edited by bardgal
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Fantastic episode. Strange that any changes from the novel or plot points that didnt make sense this week get a pass because of the writer. The other writers for this show cant buy a bucket on this site. Im sure that next week because the writer isnt named George any changes made wont make sense and will be nitpicked to death and some characters will be forever ruined.

Edited by Patchface Is AA Reborn
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I'm guessing that George didn't have complete freedom when writing the episode. He had to write the episode so that it fit the changes that have already been made and probably had to add stuff that David and Dan wanted. An example of this would be Stannis on the front lines. I still don't like all the changes and wish that the show was an exact copy of the books, but George created this world and even if he did choose to change things himself, it's his world and he can do whatever he wants with it. That is the reason why other writers changing things for no reason is worse than George doing it. They didn't create the world and therefore don't have any authority over it.

Edited by Buster
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Go here, and skip to 1:22. You'd have to blink for over a minute to miss it.

1. The show is quoted (even in the "Previously on Battlestar Galactica" of this episode) that wildefire "burns so hot, it melts wood, stone, even steel." So why would it not destroy the chain - oh yeah, if we leave it underwater - but then it's a night scene, so how do they film that?

2. Why would Tyrion waste two ships and the men on them to wildfire just to pull a chain (since there is no Star Trek transporter in Westeros to magically get them out of the massive river full of wildfire that doesn't magically not go past the chain) and have those ships not able to hold the chain in place because they're also destroyed by wildfire, when the massive wildfire bomb that happened in this episode makes Tyrion look even smarter than he did in the book?

3. It's at night. In the fog. They don't see it's only one ship until it's almost upon them, and then can't see that it's unmanned until they're right next to it. There are no motors, or oars on these ships. There is no forward, reverse, or neutral. There is no ship to ship satellite radio to tell the other ships anything. There's only sails and a tiller. And I'm not sure if you've ever sailed yourself, but once you get inertia on water in a ship/boat controlled only by wind power, there is no stopping, only steering, furling sail, coming about (which isn't fast in a ship that size), and rope on a cleat for a break - but you need a dock for that.

The scene as written in ASoS, is unfilmable. What they accomplished in this episode is stellar, and never before done for television. It's groundbreaking. I wish more people could understand that.

As has been said before, but bears infinitly repeating: We've been given a show that is by and large unproducable for the screen. Start there in your mind. We're so damn lucky to be getting as brilliant, and perfectly cast a show as this! I don't care who writes the episodes. I love every last one of them.

The chain was pulled up from the bottom of the river by two winch towers on opposite banks of the Blackwater.

As I mentioned in my original post, you could easily allude to the chain without actually showing it in the river - the audience would know there was a chain by the earlier set up and then demonstrating the winching/rising of the chain at the riverside and then having the sailers/soldiers realize (through panic and dialogue) that there's no escape.

The fog still works to the plan's advantage but to count on it as an essential part of the plan seems sloppy as it wouldn't necessarily be a given.

The show was still great, I just thought that this one aspect of Martin's original material was particularly clever and should have been included. YMMV

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In one vast swoop of Sandors sword, that episode made me forget every complaint ive had with this series, sure it wasnt *quite* like the book, but as far as bringing the best of Blackwater to the TV screens, the did it with stunning results.

It was directed well, produced brilliantly and very well written.

I have no real complaints to add, except for the need for ad breaks!!

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