Episode 4 has leaked and it's one of the best episodes they've done.

Edit: Never mind, I found it.

I've only found it in pretty shitty quality, is there a decent version out there?

Gonna wait until Monday to watch it myself. Can't be bothered watching it if it's a low quality copy.

I fell for this trap before when they released the first 4 episodes once. You end up waiting an eternity for the next one.

Seems like 360p is the best quality available. I'll wait. I'll take it none of those who choose to watch will spoil before Monday!

goon wrote:

I fell for this trap before when they released the first 4 episodes once. You end up waiting an eternity for the next one.

I didn't crack last time, but i did this time

Basically - what qwiss said

Watched the first minute or so but quality was poor and had a timer running down the bottom of the screen. Ruined it and so will be waiting until Monday.

I've no problem with those timers, brain filters them out after a couple of minutes. Quality wasn't the best but it was definitely very watchable.

Been a long time since an ep of GoT had me sick with anxiety.

The unleashing of the Dragons were worth the fucking wait!

Who saved Jamie at the end? A random? I'm glad that contraption didn't take out a dragon, it would have been a bit lame to say the least.

Sansa looked like she felt threatened by Arya or did I read that wrong?

goon wrote:

Who saved Jamie at the end? A random?

Ser Bronn of the Blackwater.

It was Bronn.

Not sure if it was threatened, but there was at least something to read into. It might be that she felt she and Sansa were the only normal kids left, but realized at that moment that Arya had become some kind of world class sword fighter.

Very good episode. During the battle I was always worried that Jaime, Bronn or the dragon would die, and I do think the best outcome was that none of them did.

Ah Sir Bronn. Of course he wouldn't let Jamie die, not without his castle.

GoT willingness to kill off any character is starting to pay off in scenes like that. You genuinely don't know who's safe.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

Very good episode. During the battle I was always worried that Jaime, Bronn or the dragon would die, and I do think the best outcome was that none of them did.

Jamie is not kicking the bucket any time soon. They need him for several things still, the Dany confrontation, his relationship with Tyrion, the Cersei prophecy. 

If they've captured Jamie, which I assume is what will happen, then there will be some excellent scenes still to come between him and Tyrion, and I hope those two will eventually come face to face with Cersei at some point. Will Jamie have to make a choice?

Dragons were fucking fantastic. Dany is going slightly nuts though. Tyrion to rule the Seven Kingdoms reluctantly?

goon wrote:

Ah Sir Bronn. Of course he wouldn't let Jamie die, not without his castle.

GoT willingness to kill off any character is starting to pay off in scenes like that. You genuinely don't know who's safe.

Being the last 2 part season helps too. It's time to kill off people.

this plot thread about dany going 'full targaryen' i didn't really see coming, but it does make for interesting conflict

that final battle was so intense, because it was one of the first to have well-liked characters on both sides. i genuinely thought jamie, bronn, and drogon were potential casualties. dany was the only one i was sure they wouldn't kill

and say what you want about the kingslayer, no-one can accuse him of being a coward

How did the Dothraki and Tyrion get there?

No way Bronn was dying. He's gonna end up on the iron throne.

What a weird time to spot paying attention

Yeah well, I got distracted. I'm not really that into it, to be honest.

Oh really? What shows are you into these days?

Think its Love Island.

Love Island is over now.

The only "Love Island" for me is … Westeros.

Always thought it strange that no one really knows what show Burnsy likes myself. Hey Burns, give us a clue mate

If only he'd give us a clue by posting about his favourite show, whatever it is, in every thread conceivable.

It's the best kept secret since Biggus opinion of Wenger.

My log says … you're a bunch of philistines.

I loved those similarities when I watched the episode. Jaime's face when he saw Drogon was pure horror.

I think Dany's development has always been foreshadowed in the story. Some of the nuance has been lost on the show, perhaps because of the limitations of the medium when it comes to revealing inner thoughts and feelings (Dany is a character whose development is realised inside her head at least as much as it is outside of it), but I still think there's enough to make people reconsider if they watch it again.

In the first book she has convinced Drogo to conquer Westeros and put their son on the throne, and she's riding through a battlefield and sees dothraki soldiers raping a young girl on top of a pile of corpses. Dany's tearing up but tries to justify it to herself as "the price of the Iron Throne". I'm not gonna lie, I skimmed a lot of the Meereen chapters in the books because they were insufferable, but one thing that stood out to me was how easily she accepted the 'price of war' while at the same time being so offended by the fighting pits, and really any small compromise she had to allow the slavers outside the city walls as part of her peace bargain. I think it was one of the earliest indications that she buys into ideas of war but struggles to make a difference when the fight is no longer physical.

In the end the people turn against her because she has liberated a society and eradicated its entire economy without putting a better one in place. Meereen is one long governing disaster, sometimes oddly similar to what the US were doing with Iraq if you're a fan of real-world allegories. Peace requires compromise and diplomacy whereas Dany is as blunt as her moral convictions. Tyrion does try to sort this out after he arrives and is left in charge when Dany mounts Drogon and escapes the uprising in the coliseum, but it's too little and too late. The slavers think him small and weak and realise that both Dany and her dragons are gone, and they come to take back their slaves. Dany ends up burning them all when she returns, and she seems pleased to do it. The fact that this wasn't a solution at all seems to escape a lot of people. In the end she just leaves Daario (who no one elected, who has no dragons or special abilities) in charge and embarks on her next conquest.

Dany's story can be seen as a thoughtful exploration of someone who was capable of bringing peace to her part of the world but found that she was much more suited to conquer and vanquishing instead. The point isn't to turn her into a pantomime villain but to plot a character who slowly starts taking what she wants through fire and blood, and then leaves it to others to pick up the pieces. The violence and the ignoble tactics were easier to justify against the slavers of Meereen, but there are none of those in Westeros. Instead there's a dragon queen who rides into a country she's never lived in and accuses Jon Snow, who has literally given his life for the North, of being a traitor to it, all while she's throwing hissy fits because her authority is being questioned by the people who actually live there.

I believe they made an important point in that lambasted Ed Sheeran scene where Arya meets a bunch of chirpy Lannister soldiers who are on their way to King's Landing. Around the fire they're reminding her - and us - that most of the people involved in a battle are just poor boys who are fighting for the rich houses when the highborn decide to play their game. This is the first time Lannister soldiers have ever been humanised on the show. Two episodes later some of those poor young boys can be seen lining up against a dothraki army that outnumbers them ten to one, with a dragon flying overhead to top it all off. Some soldiers are shaking when they get their spears ready. A few minutes later most of them have been burnt to ash and cinder in gruesome scenes. They make a point of showing people screaming and crying, their skin literally melting off their bodies. Dany doesn't seem to give them a second thought.

Klaus wrote:

Around the fire they're reminding her - and us - that most of the people involved in a battle are just poor boys who are fighting for the rich houses when the highborn decide to play their game. This is the first time Lannister soldiers have ever been humanised on the show.

And that was a major part of why people had a problem with the scene. Its shitty writing to have the Lannister army be absolute scum for 6 seasons and then try to humanise them because you need them to not all be savages 2 episodes later.

Yeah, I didn't like it either. I'm just pointing out that they probably included it for this specific purpose.

If they're really making Tyrion believe that Cersei will respect the truce, then he's nothing else than a parody by now. Did they make Daenery's army so overpowered that they'll just have to make stupid mistakes all the way in order to keep it interesting? Hopefully it's a double-cross.

The Hound, Tormund, Gendry, Jon and Jorah is a team-up I didn't see coming.

the biggest moment for me was gilly's inadvertent revelation, which strongly hints at jon being a legitimate child of rhaegar and lyanna

drogon 'recognising' jon was a cool moment as well

Yeah, especially as Sam followed it up with "the answer to winning this war could be in a dusty book somewhere!"

Things are building up nicely, and hopefully next ep will love up to previous seasons' penultimates.

Few things though:

1) The Littlefinger stuff is just cartoonish. His character has been butchered in the show, and is so one dimensional.

2) Cersei's persistence in seeing the War out, despite now being pregnant is infuriating. I guess her character has always lusted for power, but I wish she'd just concede and sail off somewhere with Jaime. I just want Jaime to live!

3) I enjoyed Davos' "thought you'd still be rowing" to Gendry. That was definitely a nod to the fans who have been crying out for his return

4) The teleportation is just silly now. Anyone can get anywhere in the blink of an eye. I guess D & D have written themselves into a corner.

5) I actually enjoyed Emilia Clarke's acting when Jon stroked Drogon. She can be quite good when she isn't reciting some "I am the Mother of Dragons, bend the knee!" shit. It's been nice to see how she's fallen in love with the King in the North.

6) Northern lords growing dissatisfied with Jon already is bullshit. Can you not wipe your own arses while he's gone?

It's also interesting to note that one of Jon's grandfathers (Aerys) burned his other grandfather (Rickard) alive!

The time skipping is definitely odd given it would have normally taken Tyrion a full season to get to Kings Landing and back previously. It's just ridiculously poor planning.

Hope Arya isn't being played.

If Jamie is to end Cersie then this pregnancy is the perfect tool to make that a gut wrenching scene.

Arya is being played. That letter was written under duress in season 1. He's trying to drive a wedge between the Stark Sisters.