I would agree the backlash against the show is getting a bit out of hand. Yes, it's silly and pompous and confusing at the best of times. But there's some good stuff in there too. The Battle of the Bastards was a fun hour of television and that's the end of it.

I didn't like that episode. It's held up as one of the better ones but it was fairly shit.

I thought it was great.

I liked the next episode better, but yes, it was great.

Tis upon us. Will wake up early Monday morning to watch the show before work.

I thought the new episode was weak. Sick of Samwell Tarly.

It's kinda disappointing how much the show is still dragging considering how few episodes are left. 5 minutes wasted on a Gollum-looking Ed Sheeran, another 5 minutes on the Hound digging graves in a snowstorm. That's 1/6 of the episode. And then you had Brienne sparring with Podric and Littlefinger who kept being a creep, and a total of 10 minutes of Sam emptying bedpans and cleaning up toilets. Very little of this is useful. Why not just give him the fucking information he came to Citadel to fetch? Why waste so much time on this stuff? What's the point?

I did love seeing Jim Broadbent though, and the poisoning of the Freys was boss. I have a big soft spot for Jon and Sansa's scenes too. I think they're great together.

Jens wrote:

I would agree the backlash against the show is getting a bit out of hand. Yes, it's silly and pompous and confusing at the best of times. But there's some good stuff in there too. The Battle of the Bastards was a fun hour of television and that's the end of it.

They wish it was confusing! It's just badly done. Honestly, needed more frontlash. Backlash is too little, too late, and it could never really be enough.

The scene with the Hound was great, him trying to do right by the family he killed a couple of seasons ago isn't a waste of time imo. If you don't remember (I wouldn't if I didn't watch it pretty recently), they gave him and Sansa some food a couple of seasons ago and in return he stole whatever they had stowed away and left them for dead. I think the Hound's redemption arc is one of the best ones, and I certainly have five minutes for that.

The whole lord of light thing just pisses me off

Disliked the episode quite a bit I have to say. I agree with Klaus about the Jon and Sansa scenes, and like Quincy I also dont mind the Hounds arc. Everything else ranged from mediocre to rubbish. I thought the Frey feast was just some lame fan service and an underwhelming opener, the Crow's Eye was weak and the Sam stuff just a hideous waste of everyones time.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

The scene with the Hound was great, him trying to do right by the family he killed a couple of seasons ago isn't a waste of time imo. If you don't remember (I wouldn't if I didn't watch it pretty recently), they gave him and Sansa some food a couple of seasons ago and in return he stole whatever they had stowed away and left them for dead.

I didn't remember that, no. That makes it a lot more meaningful!

I forgot how clunky everything is. They've ruined need Cercei completely.

The hound scene was typically clunky but at least his vision in the fire moved things along a bit.

Overall I didn't think it was that bad. Typical set up and memory jogging that you get in GOT first episodes. The Ed Sheeran bit was shocking though. Waste of 5 minutes just to squeeze his stupid grinning mug into the episode.

Klaus wrote:

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

The scene with the Hound was great, him trying to do right by the family he killed a couple of seasons ago isn't a waste of time imo. If you don't remember (I wouldn't if I didn't watch it pretty recently), they gave him and Sansa some food a couple of seasons ago and in return he stole whatever they had stowed away and left them for dead.

I didn't remember that, no. That makes it a lot more meaningful!

It was in the recap at the start, but your stream/torrent might not have had it. I definitely wouldn't have remembered without it, although I assume Quincy means Arya and not Sansa?

just streamed it from a hotel room in london.

i thought it was okay. it was obviously going to be a set up episode to lay everything out. given the small number of episodes, i expect the pacing will quicken in the next few episodes.

Shady wrote:

Klaus wrote:

I didn't remember that, no. That makes it a lot more meaningful!

It was in the recap at the start, but your stream/torrent might not have had it. I definitely wouldn't have remembered without it, although I assume Quincy means Arya and not Sansa?

Yup, meant Arya of course!

The opening scene was cringey as fuck. Talk about playing to an audience. Rest of the episode dragged along. The start ruined it for me though. I think we will be seeing a lot more of that kind of shit where Daenerys, Jon, Arya, the Hound kick ass. A big victory for Euron would be nice but I think the gift he's talking about is going to be the Dornish (sp?) woman who killed the Lannister girl and not a takedown of one of the major characters. The season hasn't really started as I hoped it would have. All a little underwhelming.

Some of the people who have read the books (even though the show has obviously caught up to them by now) seem to think that the gift is
[spoiler]a dragon horn. A thing that can control dragons or some shit. He has one in the books, apparently.[/spoiler]

but like you I'm guessing he's going to take out the Sands. Dorne has been handled pretty badly by the showrunners, and I have a feeling that they'll be gone soon.

I enjoyed the start, but I've always had a soft spot for Arya. The rest was just a set up, which is a bit disappointing. It was a bit See Spot Run. "Here is Jon Snow, preparing the North. Here is Sam, looking for clues. Here is The Hound, searching for redemption. Here is Cersei. Cersei is cold and mean. Here is Dany, she has boats and dragons and her old home."

I want more action please.