Game of Thrones - Spoilers

[Canuckle]

I will echo the previous sentiments of feeling a little underwhelmed for a GoT 'Episode 9'.

I'm not sure if it's because most feel apathetic towards both the Sam and Jon Snow story-lines, or that almost every other pertinent plot point in the show seems much more interesting (except maybe the slow-roll of Bran).

Definitely setting up for a furious finish in Episode 10. Fully expecting to not see Jon for another year.

[pigpen]

I actually thought this episode was better than the last, and pretty exciting/fun when compared to the long-winded build up and wholly disappointing end to the duel between Oberyn and The Mountain.
Maybe it's because I feel like Jon Snow is one of the more interesting characters in the show.. And the Sam/Gilly stuff was fine, mainly because I find the actress playing Gilly weirdly hot.

[Vertigo]

Meh.

I'm choosing to interpret this "meh" as an acronym for Magnificently Extraordinary Hexcellence, because that's a view I can get on board with (along with @pigpen 's sentiments on Gilly's hillbilly hotness).

[Sallos]

I liked it, first decent "large" scale battle on the show, even though it had its flaws. And those giants kicked ass.

[koz-ivan]

I also was a little underwhelmed. Sure, there were good moments and all that, some great camera shots, but I thought they would pack more into this episode. Maybe my expectations were too high or the book simply did it better, I don't know. I think the Battle of Blackwater was an unusually long episode back in Season 2, this one was relatively short. There's so much stuff left for episode 10, I really wonder how they will pack everything in there.

I kinda agree, scenes at the wall were mostly pretty good, and we did get to see a Stark direwolf in brief action for the first time in what seems like forever.

Jon starts to get some "hey I'm a badass too" time, so that was cool.

But the battle mostly felt empty, while blackwater ended with a dramatic flourish cementing the lannister's position, crushing Stanis and the attack on Tirion, this episode starts with the night's watch in jeopardy, and at the end of the episode the wildings still have almost all of their strength, and the night's watch is still holding out. - there was no real conclusion point there.

meanwhile, no updates on whatever is happening in King's Landing, or the Aerie for that matter.

[Millionaire]

I thought it was a good episode, but the pacing didn't feel that urgent for a very urgent situation. They could've tightened up the editing, maybe make up the extra time with a scene that adds more character reactions to the aftermath, like maybe Jon Snow could bury Ygritte or show whats going on with the head guy who got stabbed. After it was over it felt like "well, alright, thats done".

[kdrcraig]

All those non-book deaths shocked me.

I was surprised by that as well.

I thought this episode was good in its own right but I heard a lot of comparisons being made to Battle of the Blackwater before this episode aired and it did not live up to that. At least Ghost showed up for a second even if it was only to rip one dude's throat out and never appear again. Really wondering if they're going to finish this up in episode 10 or wait until season 5, leaning towards the latter I guess.

[skip niklas]

It makes sense that the battle should be prolonged to the next episode as in the books the battle raged for a good portion. There would be a Jon chapter, then we'd get a couple others, then go back to the Wall and the battle is still raging, and then to Kings Landing, and then back to the Wall, etc. I really liked this episode, to me it was better than the BotBW though I wish we could have seen Grenn take down that giant in the tunnel.

[blackholesun]

Just caught up on the show. Like any show, it's much better to watch in abundance rather than wait a week between episodes and a year between seasons. I think this season has been the strongest since season 1.

[AgentofChaos]

I loved the battle. Thought it was extremely well done, and tons of fun. Really made me not as annoyed with Jon Snow, and glad that Tarley was not as useless as he has been. For one of the less appealing storylines, it was a perfect way to get me back engaged with the goings on in the north, and speculate on how it could ultimately connect with everything else. Part of me was really hoping that when Jon was holding Ygritte, that she was going to shiv him though. That would have been awesome. Just when you were starting to like Jon, bam. Romeo + Juliet double death.

[Mr. Blaileen]

That was amazing.

[slave2thewage]

Mixed bag for me:

Pros:
The added Brienne scene was amazing.
Cersei was everything.
The undead battle was great, albeit slightly cheesy.

Cons:
Spoiler: No Lady Stoneheart.
No Tysha revelations.
The scenes with Tyrion in the Tower of the Hand didn't translate as well as the books.

[orestes]

So much crying during this episode. The goat herder's daughter! Viserion and Rhaegal! Ygritte!

Holy shit, that melee between Brienne and the Hound. (Also, hey Iceland!)

@slave2thewage I'm just upset Tyrion didn't shoot Tywin in the groin. The one scene that I didn't like was the one between Jaime and Cersei. Why couldn't that have been the scene between the two of them in the Sept? Also, wtf Cersei?!!!!!!

[slave2thewage]

Oh god, the dragons </3

[orestes]

Daenerys' face at the end was mine.

[ImTheWiseJanitor]

Daenerys' face at the end was mine.

That was so hard to watch...

I started reading the first book today. I'm only 15 pages in, but I plan on being caught up by the time the next season rolls around.

[richardp]

The fight between Spoiler: The Hound and Brianne WAS FUCKING EPIC.

[thelastdisciple]

Damn it must be a chore to balance all these different character branches of the story when assembling the episodes but wow definitely a wicked episode, how awesome was that scene with Spoiler: Brienne and the Hound?! and what about the undead skeletons attacking Bran and company? ahhhhh and and Tyrion vs. Tywin! also fucking Stannis shows up out of nowhere catching the Wildlings with their pants down what a jam packed finale. Loved every minute of it!

[slave2thewage]

That shot of Melly through the flames was hilarious.

[ambergris]

Fantastic episode. The change to the Hound storyline was great. He deserved it. I had already suspected that they'd fuse those two storylines because, well, there's only so much time.... So they still aren't finished with book 3.... the epilogue is missing... well, saves an actor's fee... Is Qyburn going to turn the Mountain into a sort-of zombie? I think he'll survive but I expect horrendous things. Should I read books 4 and 5? At the moment, I am leaning towards no. First I need to do my first great re-watch/re-read. And I can sort of guess what happens because people say that not much is happening in those books anyway, so I guess half of it is people getting used to their new location (and stonecold killing).
I liked that Cersei revealed it all... makes sense from a storytelling point of view. The season began with Tywin's moment of triumph, it could only go down from there. Alex Graves, director of this episode AND of the infamous rape episode, fucked it up back then. This was better.
Oh yeah, Bran is going to Spoiler: fly... I guess everyone knows what that is going to mean.
By the way, in my opinion, the most internally illogical thing of this whole story (apart from dragons and magic, etc... which make sense in this fantasy context) is that Jojen and Meera Reed, heirs to the swamplands, leave their home to look for some young paraplegic stranger to guide him into zombie-north and nobody cares that they've gone missing. It only makes sense if their father knew about it as well...Spoiler: maybe the swamp people are related to the children... Their fight by the way....awesome, reminded me of Skyrim...seriously, it was great.

[koz-ivan]

Mixed bag for me:

Pros:
The added Brienne scene was amazing.
Cersei was everything.
The undead battle was great, albeit slightly cheesy.

Cons:
Spoiler: No Lady Stoneheart.
No Tysha revelations.
The scenes with Tyrion in the Tower of the Hand didn't translate as well as the books.

Cersei was good in all the scenes except the one with Tywin, that one just felt flat all around, especially considering they had established what Tywin knew about them a few weeks ago.

Danny was really on this week.

Stannis was Stannis.

of the spoiler stuff, agree strongly with points 1&3, which imho really soured my opinion of the show / season, those could have been high points to go out on, and instead... meh.

[ambergris]

Oh yeah, one last thought... they should have made episode 9 as long as this one, with Stannis in there. Oh, and now I remember that his offer Spoiler: to Jon Snow also didn't make it into this episode. And there already was maybe one development too much in episode 10. Interesting choices to delay certain stuff from book 3, but already going beyond it with other things... This season could have used an eleventh episode.
Does the end of the supply of Craster's children now mean that the countdown to winter has started? When the last one underwent his/her transformation I thought that these sacrifices might have delayed winter which is why this summer has been so long. I think Gilly's child is going to become important.

[Millionaire]

FTheir fight by the way....awesome, reminded me of Skyrim...seriously, it was great.

So did I. Also got a bit of a Zelda vibe from the Spoiler: tree child stuff afterwards.

Really great episode to close the season, and like others have said this, to me, is the best season since the first one. That Spoiler: Tarth vs. the Hound scene was great; this Alex Graves guy should do that Highlander remake they keep threatening to make, with the nice melding of brutal fighting+lush hilly scenery he did.

I see now that Cersei said Spoiler: "I don't care" what they were thinking when they did the rape scene a few episodes back. It was still a badly done scene, but I kind of see what the intention was now.

[Conan The Barbarian]

Edit: nevermind

[orestes]

Oh yeah, one last thought... they should have made episode 9 as long as this one, with Stannis in there. Oh, and now I remember that his offer Spoiler: to Jon Snow also didn't make it into this episode. And there already was maybe one development too much in episode 10. Interesting choices to delay certain stuff from book 3, but already going beyond it with other things... This season could have used an eleventh episode.
Does the end of the supply of Craster's children now mean that the countdown to winter has started? When the last one underwent his/her transformation I thought that these sacrifices might have delayed winter which is why this summer has been so long. I think Gilly's child is going to become important.

IIRC, Stannis didn't make the offer until after Spoiler: Jon is Lord Commander and Stannis is pretty much using Castle Black as his headquarters.

I've been thinking about it more and Cersei's threat to Tywin in order to protect Tommen was just stupid. Did she really think the people of King's Landing would protect their king once they realize the rumors of her and Jamie's relationship was true? Oh Cersei.

Should I read books 4 and 5? At the moment, I am leaning towards no. First I need to do my first great re-watch/re-read. And I can sort of guess what happens because people say that not much is happening in those books anyway, so I guess half of it is people getting used to their new location (and stonecold killing).

Two words: Sand Snakes. I wouldn't say "not much" happens in these books but the focus is more on political and court intrigue. I read books four and five separately but I would suggest you combine both books into one-there are sites that give a chronological chapter list to follow-because things tend to go at a slower pace in Essos.

[slave2thewage]

A random musing (show and book spoilers contained within): Spoiler: Drogon not being chained implies that we will see Dany's escape from Meereen/"reunion" with the Dothraki, no? If so, ughhhhhh.

[orestes]

Does anyone have info on the music played over the end credits because that was fantastic.

[Trains]

Brilliant finale, very happy to have finally seen the Spoiler: Tyrion/Tywin death scene on screen at last. One question to those reading the novels, when does the Spoiler: Horn of Winter show up? I'm foggy on the details, though I seem to remember it being quite an important plot point in Storm of Swords. Do you think the writers will save it for the next season, or that they simply won't include it in the show?

[orestes]

It was supposedly in Spoiler: Mance Rayder's tent Jon went to parley with him, which was later burned by Melisandre.

[littlemonkey613]

Great ep. Great season. Cersei will forever and always be my life. <3

I understand people's complaints about the lack of Tysha stuff, but ya'll that aspect of Tyrion's character has been dead for seasons. As soon as they made Shae love him, that entire arc went out the window. Show Tyrion being so different is actually my biggest complaint about the show, but I came to terms with it I guess.. I have just been happy that the trial scenes, and the scenes this episode were more or less how I imagined them.

This ep was a great example to me of how great changes can be made to serve the show characters. That Brienne stuff was amazing.

Also I can almost forgive them for the awful Cersei/Jaime shit they pulled earlier this season b/c THAT was the sex scene I have been waiting for.

Dany shit was on point as well.