Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon!

[Madame Adequate]

I couldn't believe I was actually cheering for Alliser this episode. Up until this point he's just been a trout head. But that's the beauty of Game of Thrones I suppose is being able to see that there are sides to everyone that you'll like and dislike.

Ser Alliser's a brute and an arsehole, but he still knows how to do his job. There is no other side to Janos Slynt except his cowardice, and every other person on The Wall including a preadolescent boy and nursing mother showed more courage. Potato Boy did his job without needing much encouragement from Sam, and then straight up killed a Wildling with his little practice bow. Gilly was ready to fight off an attacker with a leg of ham. Grenn would have been in serious trouble for pretending that order for Janos to relocate was given, though more likely busted down to the trouttiest job on the Wall than executed. Whoever is in charge now is only going to be stayed from executing Janos because they just don't have the manpower to kill him, but if he can't convince them he'll be useful in some capacity they probably would anyway.

God damn that was a great episode though. That long pan of the fight was superb, the violence was solid, but Jon Snow's face would really be a lot more messed up after smashing into an anvil like that. Also by the Seven those weren't arrows the giants were firing, they were freaking ballista bolts.

[Ayen]

Ygritte? Ygritte?

YGRITTE!!!!!!!!!!!

[Madame Adequate]

Does anyone who's read the book remember if wildlings actually did so much raiding south of the wall? I might be misremembering but I thought they were meant to keep a low profile so they could surprise attack them from both sides when Mance Rider ordered the first attack. I definitely dont remember the Thenns being there and I dislike how it takes away any moral ambiguity and just turns the fight into good vs evil. Good episode though, loved the long panning shot of the fight.

I was hoping someone more consequential and dramatic would kill Ygritte like Alisser or Sam. Or Gilly if we want maximum irony

Given that Jon Snow got back to Castle Black safely, they'd already know of the plan to attack from the south so there's little point in laying very low. On the other hand they can scare people and create general chaos by raiding Potatoville and Mole's Town and stuff, plus do you really want hungry Thenns around?

[Formalhaut]

Possibly they did lots of raiding down south to create panic and fear within the Crows, making them either more ineffective in battle, or drawing them out to protect the villages, leaving Castle Black woefully underprotected. Thankfully, Alliser (I think it's him, anyway) decides to stay within Castle Black, thinking that what the wildlings would want.

[Loony BoB]

Terribly gutted at the deaths in this episode. And I'm not referring to Ygritte. Pyp and Grenn wtf. ;_;

[Jess]

Just watched. Epic!

The giants! The mammoth! The scythe!

Gutted about the death of Grenn (more so than Pyp). Ygritte's death was sad, but her or Jon had to die, and I preferred it to be her, so meh!

I don't know if I can wait a week for the finale!

I'll be a bit disappointed if these things don't happen, but also surprised if they manage to cram it all into the last hour! - book spoilers ahead
Jaime and Varys freeing Tyrion
Tyrion killing Shae and Tywin
The Hound's "death"
Lady Stoneheart (last scene!) - Brienne and Pod to come face to face with her, perhaps?
At least a little something with Bran, Sansa and Dany.

It would be an added bonus if we get to see Stannis arrive at the wall, too, but after the Wall having a whole hour dedicated, I have a feeling we won't see anything more of them until next season? Or will we!?

Regardless of what does happen out of the above, I have a feeling it's going to be the best finale so far - by a country mile!

E: just saw the preview, glad we get to see more North! Didn't glimpse Sansa, though.

[Raistlin]

Overall a very good episode. It was a bit disappointing to see GoT revert to some overused action-movie tropes, such as the hero kneeling over his love interest in the middle of a smurfing battle to share an emotional goodbye (*gag*), but fortunately that was a relatively small portion of the episode.

[Jinx]

I didn't like this episode because a.) I hate the Wall and b.) I don't like action scenes and this was one long one. I appreciate what they did with it, it's just not something I personally had any desire to watch.


NEXT WEEK THOUGH

[Shorty]

What a great smurfing episode. The music made it for me. It was absolutely smurfing spot on, and as Del Murder mentioned, it reminded me also of Helm's Deep and the soundtrack of the LotR battles. It set the tone for every single thing, from battle preparations, being outnumbered and attacked from every side, the last glimmer of hope, to getting in order again to Jon leaving. smurfing great, all of it. Made the episode.

Some minutes in, it became apparent to me that they were just going to focus on the Wall for this episode, and I had my reservations about it at first, but they just did it so splendidly. I'm glad to see I was not the only one actually rooting for Alliser during this episode. It's clear he's a hard, unfeeling asshole, but he was a smurfing good commander in this battle and he did his duty. Not only that, he inspired those around him to defend the Wall. If the living had any doubt about their brotherhood before, they surely don't now.

I straight up sobbed to pieces when that kid shot Ygritte. Anyone could see her and Jon meeting in battle from a mile away, and it might seem sappy on paper, but they both just executed it beautifully. I sobbed my stupid eyes out while he sat there holding her as the battle went on around them. It seems to me, though, that he did them both a favor - neither of them needed to make the first move to kill one another, and one of them would have had to do it. I don't know who I would have placed bets on going first (probably Ygritte). And I sobbed again when he went below to find a dead Grenn and said, "They held the gate." Oh man, that was rough.

I really liked how changed Jon seemed after the battle the next day when he decided to go find Mance. He's always been a brave dude who did what needed to be done, but something about him just seemed to have snapped and he seemed to harden himself after the battle. His last little smile to Sam was comforting, though. I'm interested to see how he fares north of the Wall.

A complaint, if I may - not buying this Inspirational Sam thing, and the scenes with Gilly arriving at the Wall and then later kissing him... ah what? They both just seemed so forced. Didn't love it. Not one bit. Also, would have loved to see more Ghost destroying!

Can't wait to see Mance. What an awesome episode, and an awesome way to leave it. This is shaping up to be perhaps my favorite season, and this finale is going to be so jam-packed. These past few episodes leading up to it have just been done so wonderfully. I'm not going to know what to do with myself for another nine months after this show is over.

[Pant Leg Eater from the Bad World]

I loved everything about this episode. Definitely my favorite of this season, maybe even of the whole show.

I remember how much I hated Alliser from the books, and he is still a gigantic prick. But his perfomence in this episode was astoundingly good. The guy who plays him did his part perfectly. I hate Alliser, but he was without a doubt a leader of warriors who could rally men who hated him around him for a cause. I had chills every single time he spoke this episode. Loved it.

Janos is still a smurfing .

Things with Ygritte happened differently in the book, if I remember right, but I liked this much much more. It helped keep the humanity of the characters in the fight. A sad thing to happen, but I knew it had to be.

Grenn. Oh Grenn, you beautiful, brave bastard. I loved you in the books and you did so well in the show. A beautifully brave stand off against the giant. Almost glad I didn't get to watch them all die.

I can't get over how intense this episode was. I know it was pretty much an hour long battle and a couple of you aren't about that. Maybe it is the Marine in me, or maybe it is the man in me, but I loved it.
The way Jon took control of the situation. Exactly how I had imagined it. omg. Favorite episode, I think, for sure.

[Ayen]

It didn't feel forced to me. I really enjoyed Sam this episode.

I agree with more Ghost destroying, though.

[Quindiana Jones]

So many great lines in this episode. "Pyp! Open the smurfING gate!" "Does nook mean smurfing draw? Does hold mean smurfing drop?!" "smurfING LOOOOOOOOSE! *flail in rage*" Ser Alliser utterly dominated this episode with his amazingness.

It was a disservice to Grenn not to show them fighting off the giant. That could have been such an amazing piece of TV. Close quarters desperate battle with a giant. I can imagine them hacking away whilst being batted away one by one, until the giant grabs Grenn and slams him into the ground, hard. With his last bit of strength, Grenn throws his shattered body at the giant's face and buries his sword deep into its skull. And then they die in the position we find them. Would have been amazing to watch, and His Magnificence The Beard definitely deserved it.

[Miriel]

BJ has this problem too--he wants to see good guys win and bad guys lose. He's admitted he would be happy just watching a show where all the Starks stayed in Winterfell and hung out and ate ham all the time and the Lannisters died of the trouts.

I'm like this too! I would seriously be content to watch happy people being happy all the time. This is why my favorite parts of Downton Abbey were the bits where they dressed pretty and would have dinner parties and hated all those episodes where they killed off people.

[Kalevala]

I was very excited going into this episode. I remember reading the chapters that covered this battle and being absolutely enthralled. I hadn't been that on the edge of my seat while reading in a very long time. Did this episode live up to that experience? I don't think so. Did it disappoint? Not at all.

First, clearly if two versions of something are similar enough the first version you experience will be the one you prefer. With the books I went in not having a clue what would happen, whereas with the show I had a pretty good idea of how things would pan out. That being said, GRRM managed to make the battle feel drawn out (I believe it lasts three days in the books?) without making it boring to read. You feel the relentless attacks of the Wildlings just as much as the Night's Watch, and just when you think it's over another wave is coming. You feel hopeless and cold and just want things to end for them, but at the same time as a reader the adrenaline is causing this excited euphoric feeling that you never want to end. I understand it's hard to convey that in an hour, and I think Benioff, Weiss, and Marshall did an excellent of working with what they had. Also, what we were shown didn't seem like upwards of 100,000 Wildlings. The force didn't seem as imposing (aside from giants on mammoths) because of this, but again, limited resources. They did a fantastic job nonetheless.

A lot of people have been pointing out the differences between Ygritte's death in the books and the show, and many were disappointed by what they considered a "Hollywood" or trope-y scene. I think it's worth pointing out, however, that this wasn't on account of Benioff and Weiss. The parts of the scene that push it into Hollywood trope land were present in the source material. In fact, their final conversation is even longer, and Jon has some pretty cliché lines that were cut from the episode. That being said, the scene tore me up when I read it and it tore me up again in this episode. I understand it's clichéd, but it's a scene that has caused me to shed a few manly tears in both its print and television incarnations.

Kit Harrington knocked this one out of the park. Not really that spoiler-y but tagging it just in case.This was a big turning point. Jon is a very different person after this battle. He speaks, moves, and acts very differently from here on out. Kit nailed that change in character. You can see it immediately.

Dolorous Edd is still alive. All is right with the world.

Season finale spoiler.Free Tyrion. Dead Shae. Dead Tywin. Lone Arya. Bloodraven and the Children of the Forest. Baby-eating dragons. STANNIS THE MANNIS. LADY STONEHEART. GET HYPE.

[Ayen]

Can I just say how much I love this series? Book and TV show?

Because I do.