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Game of Thrones season 4


Darth Krawlie
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Worst episode of the season? I loved it. Not cutting back and forth between 8 different locations really allowed them some time for some more traditional movie style pacing. I thought it was great.

 

I like the normal pacing most of the time, but for a major event like this, I thought it was refreshing to just stick with it as it unfolded.

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So do we get more of the Wall storyline with Jon going to Mance in the finale, or was this the end of the Wall storyline this year? I thought they were gonna go all the way with it tonight.

 

Ser Alliser was a badass. Janos Slynt hiding and bitching out was hilarious. I WAS SAD THAT GRENN DIED.

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We're not done at the Wall. They're in the preview for the finale.

 

I'm really interested in seeing what they do with the Arya/Sandor storyline. They've completely changed the dynamic between the two, so I don't think I'll buy the book ending in the show.

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I read somewhere that next week's is an extra long episode, which would be welcome. edit: Yep, 66 minutes, the longest episode to date. quick google result

 

What all is going to be covered?

 

 

- Jon treats with Mance, more battling, Stannis' arrival. (I think they hold Jon's election as LC until next season)

- Arya and The Hound. I wouldn't think he's quite ready to die yet, but I think Arya pretty much has to be on a ship to Braavos by the end of the episode

- Somone told me Dany was in the preview for next week?! (boooooo! booooooooo!)

- Tyrion/Jaime, Tyrion/Varys, Tyrion/Tywin

- I also think Bran meets the Bloodraven at some point given the episode title.

- Lady Stoneheart, which I'd be willing to bet money is the final shot of the episode.

 

What else? Brienne? The Vale?

 

 

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again, i haven't read the books, so going off the basis of watching the show, what was accomplished in the episode other than killing off a couple more people and seeing that the watchmen won the battle? i guess i just didn't need to see a 52 minute episode of a battle that could have been summed up in 10 minutes and still seeing the watchmen prevail. pretty much every episode of game of thrones advances the story, usually dramatically. most episodes have a dramatic cliffhanger. a lot of times it feels like you're watching the season finale. which is great, awesome, fantastic and it's what keeps me anticipating the next episode, everyday, until the next sunday. this episode didn't really have any of that for me. when that happens, because it's just so programmed for these things to happen, it's just kind of meh for me. i just felt it dragged on. felt like helms deep, without the epicness or the funny wit of a dwarf and elf. didn't say the episode was terrible. it was good. but for me, yeah....definitely the worst of the season. Maybe Ygritte's death was a shocker to most, and had the OMG moment like last weeks GoT, so maybe it's just me. but i'm just not at all surprised by the death and don't really care. maybe because i had no attachment to the Ygritte character whatsoever. i dunno. just not really my episode.

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Re-watch thoughts:

 

- I missed who the hooded figure was that passed by the camp of wildlings (Ygritte et al) South of Castle Black the first time. She was carrying a baby so I'm guessing that was Gilly. Was that clear to anyone else the first time?

 

- Sam and Aemon in the library was a great scene. "Love is the death of duty." It was great to hear Aemon talk about being in love, but also not giving him any actually details reminding Sam that it no longer matters. I look forward to more potential Sam/Aemon interaction. "Nothing makes the past a sweeter place to visit than the prospect of imminent death."

 

- Sam with "Open the F*CKING gate!" was awesome. Samwise Gamgee Samwell Tarley is growing up!

 

- Great interraction between Alliser Thorne and Jon Snow. Leadership is being second guessed by everyone, but never being able to second guess yourself because once that happens it's over. Loved Alliser's "You get to go back to hating me, and I get to go back to wishing your wildling whore had finished the job."

 

- Sam promises Gilly that he won't die, which had me questioning the potential for his survival (even as a book reader). Sam's turn to bravery is a little heavy handed and doesn't quite exist in the book (does it?), but that's a product of him being a little more prevalent in the TV show, which I can deal with.

 

- Why would the Wildlings sneak-attacking from the South yell to announce their arrival? lol

 

- Giants riding mammoths.

 

- Sorry, one more time: GIANTS. RIDING. MAMMOTHS.

 

- Turns out Thorne is actually a semi-effective leader. Unfortunately his band of merry men are terrible soldiers. He had a good moment when he personally goes down to the southern gate to defend it. Of course he also leaves Janos Slynt in charge, so...

 

- "Sam, I think we're gonna die." "Well if you keep missing we will!"

 

- Tormund Giantsbane is a bad ass.

 

- My favorite part of the episode might just have been when Slynt totally loses it. "No such thing as Giants... only stories to frighten children," despite the fact that he was currently looking at giants. Thankfully, Grenn comes to the rescue by telling Slynt that Thorne has requested his presence at the bottom of the Wall. Jon takes over command of the Wall.

 

- The best fighters on the Night's Watch are apprently the kitchen staff.

 

- Janos Slynt, former commander of the City Watch of King's Landing, runs his little bitch ass to the very cellar that Gilly and the baby is in. So, ostensibly, he ends up hiding in the same place that Samwell effing Tarley refused to hide earlier in the episode. Janos Slynt is terrible.

 

- OH NO! PIP :( :( :(

 

- Jon sends Grenn to hold the inner-gate after it becomes evident that the Giants are going to likely breach the outer gate. Jon knows it's a fools errand.

 

- Grenn and the Brothers reciting their vows as the giant charges them. Yeah, that was awesome.

 

- Jon's entrance to the battle for Castle Black with the GOT theme picking up in the background. Yeah, that was also awesome.

 

- GHOST!

 

- Jon vs. the magnar of Thenn. Not sure how Jon survived the anvil to the face with nothing to show for it, but I loved the hammer to the head.

 

- Made for TV moment with Olie killing Ygritte (who killed his dad a few episodes back). However I don't buy that Jon would stop in the middle of the battle and hold her body as long as he did.

 

- The scythe (blades/chain) they dropped on the climbers might have been a tv show addition, but it was badass nonetheless.

 

- Tormund telling Jon he should have thrown him from the top of the Wall as Jon responds "Aye... you should have."

 

- "You're right. It's a bad plan. What's your plan?" Jon's going after Mance which he sees as the only way to stop the Wildling advance.

 

- Grenn held the gate :(

 

 

There were some really stunning visuals this episode. All the wide shots of the Wall were pretty terrific.There was one really long take after Jon got off the elevator that visited several different parts of the battle which was really cool. Jon definitely took charge of the Wall after Thorne went down and Slynt proved how useful he was. I'm interested to see how things turn out next week. The most important thing in this episode though... is probably that we finally learned which actors were playing Edd, Grenn, and Pip. lol

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Dany's banishment of Jorah was pretty anti-climatic for this show. In the preview it looks like she's crying. I'll bet they show her just once to deal with the sad side of the betrayal and her loss.

 

At least I'm assuming she feels that way since she NOT ****ing IN A FEAST FOR CROWS OMGWTF

 

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If we're going to Essos, I'm thinking we might see [very minor, Dany-related, early ADWD spoiler]

 

 

I'm thinking it might be Drogon killing the shepherd's daughter or some other way showing Dany's dragons are getting too big to control. This is my only guess because it's the only thing early in ADWD that cold maybe fit for a season finale type setting. It's always possible that I'm forgetting something else though.

 

 

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- Sam promises Gilly that he won't die, which had me questioning the potential for his survival (even as a book reader). Sam's turn to bravery is a little heavy handed and doesn't quite exist in the book (does it?), but that's a product of him being a little more prevalent in the TV show, which I can deal with.

In the book you hear it from his perspective (and he still considers himself a huge coward, even though he is doing some pretty heroic things), so his fear and doubt is a lot more pronounced. But I don't think there is much difference between what we see on the screen and how he actually held himself in the books (correct me if I'm wrong, it's been awhile since I've read them). It is just that our perspective has changed.

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You could be totally right. It hasn't been all that long since I read ASOS (sometime last fall), I just didn't remember that bit from Sam's perspective. I just had a couple friends pick up AGOT to start the series, I'm thinking I might start a re-read with them.

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Thoroughly enjoyed this episode though COULD have been a little shorter and covered a bit more... But that's typical GOT formula so not a disappointment or surprise there. The only reason people are upset about this episode are because they read the books, know what happens and want to get there already. But I think it was pretty good. Obviously not as huge as Joffrey dying, Tyrion being sentenced to death, or Oberyn being killed off but not every episode can be filled with such bombshells. At least the ginger minge is dead now.

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And there are two types of book-readers. 1) People who realize Game of Thrones is an adaptation and its portrayal, while mostly-awesome-but-sometimes-deviates-from-the-source, will never be bad enough to ruin my enjoyment of the books and 2) It needs to be exactly like the books because fuck THAT FIRST GROUP OF PEOPLE THEY'RE WRONG AND THIS SHOW SUCKS AND THE WAY I WANT IT IS THE ONLY WAY.

 

Group number two contains a lot of dicks, by the way.

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One thing that drives me nuts is the lack of credit some book readers give to non book readers. I just got done reading an article on EW.com written by 2 people who have read the books. They complain about Mance not being in the episode, which is fine, although I don't think he is needed at all in this one. However what drove me nuts is one of them commented that she doubted most non book readers would even know who Mance was because he hasn't been on in so long.

 

This is crazy. Obviously there are some very casual viewers who may not know. But my guess is that most viewers do know who Mance is, or at the very least may say "who is Mance" "The King Beyond The Wall" "Oh, okay".

 

There just seems to be a notion among some book readers that any tv only fans are "casual" fans. This is just silly. You can be a hardcore fan of just the show. I mean there were plenty of hardcore Breaking Bad fans, and there are many GOT fans who are fervent viewers of the show who have never read the books.

 

Now someone who has read the books is going to have a better understanding of backstory and the world as a whole, you can't deny that. However on matters of plot and character on the show that have been covered on the show, tv viewers can be just as up on it as book readers.

 

Oh yeah, another thing they said that tv only fans wouldn't get is that the Wildlings are attacking the wall to get away from the White Walkers. Again, this is silly. The majority of fans understand this, although it's only really been referenced a few times. You have to give people credit, they can pick things up and remember them better than you think.

 

I actually think thats one of the strengths of the show, its ability to not spoonfeed people the same thing over and over to get the point across and to be economical. Oberyn died in Episode 8 of this year, I'm not sure if he appeard in every episode. He probably had 12-15 scenes max in the entire series. Basically he wasn't on the show much, yet everyone loved him. This just shows how great the tv writers are at getting the essence of characters across.

 

The samew goes for the Wildling attacks on the Wall and Mance. You don't have to tell everyone 100 times why they are attacking, just once or twice. You don't need a ton of Mance to get the character across, all you need is the story about why he left the Night's Watch to realize he isn't evil or a bad guy. That one story gives you about all you need to know about Mance.

 

Basically fans who watch the show and haven't read the books aren't as dumb as some book readers think. They can, ya know, retain information and know whats going on.

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When I told my brother I didn't care about Ygritte's death, he said, and I quote, "You shut your wildling mouth." Seriously, was anyone invested in that relationship? I'm not sorry to see her go, though I'd trade her death for Gilly's in a heartbeat.

 

As David mentioned above, this episode didn't do a whole lot to advance the story. When we finished the episode, my friend said, "Aaaannnddd they're in exactly the same position as when they started." It was a cool battle and all--and nice to see Thorne do something awesome instead of douchey--but plotwise it was pretty weak. I could live with that if it wasn't GoT. We only get ten episodes a season, so I expect each one to be freaking spectacular.

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Guest El Chalupacabra

When I told my brother I didn't care about Ygritte's death, he said, and I quote, "You shut your wildling mouth." Seriously, was anyone invested in that relationship? I'm not sorry to see her go, though I'd trade her death for Gilly's in a heartbeat.

 

 

No, I'm just glad the story line is resolved. Shooting Jon Snow several times with arrows and almost killing him, then going on a murdering spree with a bunch of cannibals makes Ygritte sort of irredeemable for me.

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