[params7]

http://i.imgur.com/LnadL.jpg

[Amir0x]

How can one suspendered old dude write such an awesome episode. C'mon GRRM! Channel your awesome into the new books!

GRRM: "Well I would sure love to, aceface, and I will sometime soon - and when I say soon, I mean it! - but right now I have to finish what is to be my true legacy, editing more Wild Cards books. If I die before editing the next Wild Cards book, I don't think people will be able to look at my body of work the same way, whereas if I suddenly died and never finished the Song of Ice and Fire series, who would really notice anyway?"

[Fuzzy]

Awesome.

BTW if you put a large image in a quote it'll make it smaller.

[Kuroyume]

That episode was fucking amazing!

The Hound fucking killed it! :D

Green fire! Green fire! Green fire!

Also, Stannis was badass in the episode. Didn't recall him fighting in the vanguard in the books.

Bronn had some great scens.

I think Lena had her best scenes as Cersei yet.

Sansa, Joffrey, Davos... Just great all around.

The violence! Holy crap, it was excellent. People getting cut in half. Scalped. Limbs severed.

Tyrion's scar!

Renly's ghost!

The Rains of Castmere during the ending credits... So damn good.

I can't believe how well they pulled this off despite not having the chain.

[Zeliard]

George R.R. Martin killed it this ep. The dialogue was fantastic. Neil Marshall was the sugar on top.

And the key to making Cersei more interesting is clearly - as it goes for many people - to get her drunk.

[Sho_Nuff82]

Fucking great episode. I'm amazed they managed to fit so much into so little space, and still have time for extra characterization for Davos, the Hound, Bronn, and Shae.

I only wish they had time to fit in Varys' story about his cutting. Guess they're saving it for later. Oh, and if they took 5 seconds to show Stannis squinting out over the battlements and whispering, [ACoK]"...Renly?" would have made Loras' appearance at the end much more meaningful. As it stands, I don't think it's terribly obvious for non-book readers what really happened with Tywin's appearance.

[Chuck Norris]

GRRM to abandon TWOW and ADOS and just write the whole script for those seasons

[Blastoise]

Man, I guess my imagination is bigger than HBO's budget.

[Dany M]

GRRM to abandon TWOW and ADOS and just write the whole script for those seasons

Screw that, an episode a season.

[Loofy]

So from this episode and the next episode preview it looks like they'll be making these changes from the book I think.
Arya goes on an adventure with Jaqen. Sansa goes on an adventure with the Hound.

[woober]

Man, I guess my imagination is bigger than HBO's budget.

You weren't satisfied, I assume?

[Zeliard]

Man, I guess my imagination is bigger than HBO's budget.

Your imagination has an unlimited budget and doesn't have to deal with logistics, much like books. Would do well for a lot of people to understand that.

[Sho_Nuff82]

Casting question [ACoK, series]Have they cast anyone for Prince Rhaegar? "The dragon has 3 heads" is probably one of the most important lines of the entire series.

So from this episode and the next episode preview it looks like they'll be making these changes from the book I think. Arya goes on an adventure with Jaqen. Sansa goes on an adventure with the Hound.

Neither of those makes any sense for some pretty major events of the third book/season. Besides, it looked like Sansa stayed behind when the Hound left.

[adamsappel]

Charles Dunce. The best role in any of the Alien films, outside the first one. I said it!

It's Charles Dance, you dunce!


Fantastic episode, best of the series by far. Wildfire explosion was incredible and I didn't miss the chain at all. Every actor nailed their part tonight.

[-Pyromaniac-]

The promo man...next episode is gonna be AMAZING.

[Leeness]

Holy crap. Just finished.

That was just...I'm speechless at its flawlessness. Wow.

They hit pretty much every single note perfectly (okay, I kind of missed that Sandor didn't get Sansa singing at knife point, hand on cheek tears, etc, that's one of my favourite moments, but other than that).

But. Goddamn.

[dmann]

Man, I guess my imagination is bigger than HBO's budget.

Get that negativity out of here. Be happy we at least got a battle and an awesome explosion.

[PhoenixPause]

Holy fuck @ that episode. Not just the best episode of Game Of Thrones, that was one of the best episodes of television. I've been hard on this show at times, but that was simply stunning.

I also loved how every time a character was about to start telling a story, they were interrupted. It was almost like Martin trolling lol

[Tess3ract]

Even with the missing chain, it was still badass. God damn the direction of that episode owned.

[Leeness]

I also loved how every time a character was about to start telling a story, they were interrupted. It was almost like Martin trolling lol

Pretty sure trolling is Martin's natural way of being.

[petethepanda]

Screw that, an episode a season.

I'm fine with him doing one a season but I wish they had him on to do some minor supervising on the overarching beats of a season. He does such a good job of focusing down his events for TV.

[PhoenixPause]

Apparently there's an extended promo of ep10 out there, but I keep seeing it taken off youtube. Hopefully it shows up later tonight

[Fuzzy]

So from this episode and the next episode preview it looks like they'll be making these changes from the book I think. Arya goes on an adventure with Jaqen. Sansa goes on an adventure with the Hound.

Neither of those makes any sense for some pretty major events of the third book/season. Besides, it looked like Sansa stayed behind when the Hound left.

Exactly, plus the way Arya said "I want to" to Jaqen sounded like the next words out of her mouth would begin with "but..." which would lead off her journey with Gendry and Hot Pie to Riverrun.

[Dany M]

I'm fine with him doing one a season but I wish they had him on to do some minor supervising on the overarching beats of a season. He does such a good job of focusing down his events for TV.

I'd like for the books to finish in a reasonable time

[jett]

Man, I guess my imagination is bigger than HBO's budget.

Well, this obviously wasn't the battle described in the book, at all, but it was still cool. As it is written on the book I doubt it could even be done on a hollywood blockbuster budget. The wildfire was nailed and that is good enough for me.

[Tess3ract]

They could do it if they had Star Wars level of backing, but probably little else.

[Socreges]

So. Fucking. Good.

In the words of a fine lady, "I feel like we deserved an episode like that [after the last few]."

[Lothar]

Can we please get GRRM to write every episode? (Not like the series is going to be finished either way) As amazing and awesome as the fighting was, I thought the episode was 10x more awesome because of the dialogue. Dialogue had been a bit on the weak side in recent weeks IMO. This week, almost every dialogue scene was powerful. Cersei, Sansa, Tyrion, Stannis, it was all done wonderfully. The Tyrion speech was damn good. There was more characterization for a few characters in this episode than they had all series up to this point. Lena Headey is the perfect Cersei. I'm sorry for doubting her in season 1. I had high expectations and was blown away.

If HBO didn't give them the budget to do a big battle, I think they could have still pulled off a really great episode. The best scene for me in the entire episode wasn't even part of the battle. It was Cersei sitting on the throne telling her son a story before she's about to poison him.

[Tiktaalik]

Pretty damn amazing episode. I couldn't imagine anything better really. They nailed it.

[Tess3ract]

Yeah I generally hate Lena's previous acting but she hit it out of the park this time, but I imagine that's because GRRM wrote the episode out instead of D&D

[PhoenixPause]

Can we please get GRRM to write every episode? (Not like the series is going to be finished either way) As amazing and awesome as the fighting was, I thought the episode was 10x more awesome because of the dialogue. Dialogue had been a bit on the weak side in recent weeks IMO. This week, almost every dialogue scene was powerful. Cersei, Sansa, Tyrion, Stannis, it was all done wonderfully. The Tyrion speech was damn good. There was more characterization for a few characters in this episode than they had all series up to this point. Lena Headey is the perfect Cersei. I'm sorry for doubting her in season 1. I had high expectations and was blown away. If HBO didn't give them the budget to do a big battle, I think they could have still pulled off a really great episode. The best scene for me in the entire episode wasn't even part of the battle. It was Cersei sitting on the throne telling her son a story before she's about to poison him.

I agree 100%. It would have been very easy for those dialogue cutaway scenes to slow down an episode like this, or cause groans/rolling eyes. But the dialogue was truly good, as was the acting; Lena was amazing as Cersei tonight, and Sophie Williams turned it an impressive performance as well. And Dinklage, oh man.

[shintoki]

Outside of the terribly abrupt ending, it was fantastic. Show drastically improved being able to focus on one group, rather than having to jump between 5 other areas.

I absolutely loved some of the lines too.
"Bunch of brave men on the other side of the wall"
"Lets go kill them"

[dem]

One more episode doesn't seem to be enough to end this season decently

[Cornballer]

Content round up



Reviews:
- EW.com
- Onion A|V Club
- WiC.net
- memles

Other content:
- Promo for next week's finale (please spoiler tag any discussion, youtube vid)
- EW.com: How the producers pulled off 'Blackwater'
- Inside the Episode (HBO vid)

Reviews are a little slow coming this evening as there were no screeners this week. I'll update and repost a few times as necessary.

See Cornballer? The love is back for a while.

It bought us a few hours, yeah. ;)

[Fuzzy]

I agree 100%. It would have been very easy for those dialogue cutaway scenes to slow down an episode like this, or cause groans/rolling eyes. But the dialogue was truly good, as was the acting; Lena was amazing as Cersei tonight, and Sophie Williams turned it an impressive performance as well. And Dinklage, oh man.

Just because Larry is starting to stop hating her doesn't mean he'll marry her.

Sophie Turner

[Gunloc]

The Sansa/Cersei scenes were awesome. Sophie and Lena just killed it tonight.

Excellent episode.

[Rookje]

Between this and Mad Men, Sundays are seriously draining me.

[PhoenixPause]

I'm arguing with someone on another forum who is claiming the finale battle in Spartacus S2 was better executed than tonight's. I just...*throws hands up* outside of Band Of Brothers (a miniseries with a far larger budget) NOTHING compares to tonight's battle in terms of television. It's not even close.

[Socreges]

Don't know if this will make much sense, but.... I'm glad I didn't know that GRRM wrote this episode. Would've enjoyed it just the same, but afterwards I might have felt that I was biased, knowing that GRRM was behind it. Instead I thought it was amazing ('elevated' is the most appropriate word), but just thought it was because it was a special episode in the season.

Really enjoyed how much was pulled from ACOK.

....that sounds weird.

[Meier]

So nice to read positive reactions. :) The wildfire was absolutely immense and I loved how the Hound was just cutting through people like butter. A man of his size and stature wielding a greatsword surely would be able to do so.

[lacinius]

Great episode... liked the fireball up the middle of the explosion like it was an atomic blast to go along with the ships getting torn apart. The battles on the field, and the verbal clashes behind the fight, were all interwoven quite well. A nice mixture and good balance, as opposed to just mindless action. Can't believe it all ends next week... and then another year long wait. :\

Certainly they must resolve something about Winterfell next week, and not wait a whole year for that?!?

[Magnus]

So nice to read positive reactions. :) The wildfire was absolutely immense and I loved how the Hound was just cutting through people like butter. A man of his size and stature wielding a greatsword surely would be able to do so.

Most people I view such battle scenes with in any show or film always laugh at how unbelievable the violence is, claiming there's no way single sword strokes could wreak that kind of devastation on the human body. I personally, honestly have no idea how realistic such scenes are. Would Sandor's one stroke slicings be in the realm of reality?

That was a great hour. Wildfire spectacle aside, the battle was a little hohum as far as I was concerned. Hollywood battles have obviously spoiled and ruined me. Dialogue and characterization was fantastic as always.

The notion that every other season 2 story will be wrapped next week (likely each with their own bang) makes for an extremely packed and exciting prospective episode. Can't fucking wait.

[PhoenixPause]

I might die if I don't get a Larry Williams review tonight, oh man.

[GCX]

The wildfire scene has gotta be one of the best scenes in television history. Such a perfect build-up for it.

The episode was edited so well between the battle and Cercei's scenes.

[Meier]

Probably been posted, but if not, here is a youtube link for The National's version of the Rains of Castamere: http://t.co/TVSXfbDj

[theignoramus]

best episode of the series. Loved Cersei's ending monologue, that was when I remembered GRRM wrote the episode.

[wenis]

some reaction gifs

[i_am_not_jon_ames]

Holy SHIT the wildfire.

[Cornballer]

NOTHING compares to tonight's battle in terms of television. It's not even close.

Everything else I can think of that's comparable (e.g. BoB, The Pacific, Rome) is in a different weight class when it comes to budget.

The notion that every other season 2 story will be wrapped next week (likely each with their own bang) makes for an extremely packed and exciting prospective episode. Can't fucking wait.

I think we're getting an extra few minutes next week for the finale. WiC.net has it listed at 64 minutes. :D

[wenis]

bonus