John the OFM | 09 Jun 2014 7:01 a.m. PST |
Of COURSE there are spoilers her, so back away if you do not want to read any, and no one will get hurt! It differred from the book, in that Jon was still hurting from his Ygritte arrow wounds in the book. But, in the fine tradition of TV heroes like Mannix and Rockford, when the final fight comes, he is fine. Just fine. Again with Ygritte
In the books, she falls in a hail of arrows, and Jon could have loosed the one that got her. But that would introduce ambiguity, which TV cannot abide. In other matters
Sam definitely needs to get on the boat for Oldtown. His parsing of the vows show he would make a FINE maester, a Jesuit one! A born equivocator, as Macbeth's porter describes. Grenn was a fine leader, leading the men in chanting their vows to get the courage up to face the giant. In the GoT universe, "saying the words" means something. Except when it doesn't. Speaking of Grenn, Alas! Pyp too. Alas. Ser Aliser was right. You were right, Lord Snow, and when this is over, we can go back to hating each other. Janos Slynt? Maybe the feel good happy moment of page 111 of Book 5 will come a lot sooner. Oh, my goodness. We haven't heard from King Stannis (first of his name) in a while. I wonder what he's up to? |
GurKhan | 09 Jun 2014 7:09 a.m. PST |
"Castle Black"? I thought for a moment you were in Steven Brust territory there. |
Dynaman8789 | 09 Jun 2014 7:24 a.m. PST |
I thought it was an excellent episode. I don't remember another one that had so much fighting in it. Next week's episode should be a great one too or it could be a crappy one (heh). What I am wondering is if the show will also have "There and Back Again" by Tyrion Lannister. Hard to do since "Bacon" was skipped over at the wedding. |
John the OFM | 09 Jun 2014 8:06 a.m. PST |
They are going to have to cram an awful lot into Episode 10. Hopefully it ends up in a cliffhanger, and not some silly crowdsurfing. |
Sajiro | 09 Jun 2014 8:18 a.m. PST |
The giants were awesome. I want to see more of them and their mammoth mounts. |
Tankrider | 09 Jun 2014 9:28 a.m. PST |
You know nothing, John the OFM! |
RavenscraftCybernetics | 09 Jun 2014 10:05 a.m. PST |
Personally, I thought it sucked a big one. Im legally blind now and while I dont expect the world to conform to my needs, did they have to shoot the whole episode in so much darkness? I could barely make out the mamoths, took me forever to figure out the lumps on their backs were giants yes I know the attack happened at night, but the night didnt have to extend into the interior scenes. Who was it that came into Gilly's hiding place? . |
John the OFM | 09 Jun 2014 10:27 a.m. PST |
Janos Slynt, noted betrayer of Ned, exiled to the Wall by Tyrion, was the skulker. |
KTravlos | 09 Jun 2014 10:47 a.m. PST |
I hate Janos Slynt, the actors does a good job making him hate-able |
altfritz | 09 Jun 2014 11:35 a.m. PST |
Is he the guy that used to be the leader of the King's Guard? |
Winston Smith | 09 Jun 2014 11:54 a.m. PST |
The City Watch. Jaime is Lord Commander of the King's Guard. |
Tango01 | 09 Jun 2014 11:59 a.m. PST |
I enjoyed the battle a lot.!! How many casualties have the Black Watch? If they were 110 men, they have lost at least 60? Can they blow up the tunnel now? The kid who kill Ygrette was in the book? Guess they would call for help to the rest of the Kingdoms? Amicalement Armand |
Winston Smith | 09 Jun 2014 12:22 p.m. PST |
Wait until next week! It's 700 miles to Winterfell and another 500 to the Neck. The Riverlands just had their Lord kidnapped by Frey. The Vale just had Lady Arryn take a header out the Moon Door. King's Landing is not about to lift a finger to help a bastard of Ned Stark. Dorne, the Reach, who is left to help ?
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Doctor X | 09 Jun 2014 12:24 p.m. PST |
I counted roughly 24 dead Nights Watch last night. Give or take. |
Winston Smith | 09 Jun 2014 12:30 p.m. PST |
That's as many as were on duty at the police station when Arnold the Terminator dropped by to visit. |
FreddBloggs | 09 Jun 2014 12:39 p.m. PST |
only 24 dead, GRRM was slacking, he normally kills that many at breakfast. |
Brian Smaller | 09 Jun 2014 1:32 p.m. PST |
only 24 dead, GRRM was slacking, he normally kills that many at breakfast. Did you see what they had for breakfast? I enjoyed the episode. Lots of bits taken from the books and given to existing characters. I am just glad that Edd didn't get killed off. |
RazorMind | 09 Jun 2014 6:47 p.m. PST |
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corporalpat | 09 Jun 2014 7:31 p.m. PST |
Personally I thought it was arguably one of the weakest episodes yet. Lots of running around aimlessly, and pointless fighting with tactical mistakes abounding on both sides. Nobody on the wall can see Ygritte and the boys camped right outside the castle with fires blazing and sound the alarm? What, are they too busy being afraid or wondering what it's like to be with a woman to post lookouts? (oh wait that's right) Snow KNOWS they are out there and even he's not watching!!! And are you telling me anyone with a big lever (or a giant) can open the tunnel gate? It's not even LOCKED?!?! And, instead of sealing the tunnel at this point, Snow ABANDONS HIS COMMAND and wanders off to certain (well, for ANYONE else maybe) death for some kind of macho showdown. And
and
!!! At that point I would have cheered if John Snow had gone down in a hail of arrows as he would have in any other reality. I know it's fantasy, but that was just unbelievable. OK rant over
let the sniping begin! |
Winston Smith | 09 Jun 2014 9:12 p.m. PST |
Blame the tunnel not being blocked on Ser Aliser Thorne. Didn't he say as much ? |
Box of Rocs | 09 Jun 2014 9:39 p.m. PST |
Can it be winter already
. |
Parzival | 10 Jun 2014 5:52 a.m. PST |
No, it can't. There are still three more books of meandering, pointless plots to film. Maybe four. |
Winston Smith | 10 Jun 2014 8:27 a.m. PST |
Bring "Much ado about Dorne", the War of the Iron islands Succession, more Dornish Crispy Princes, the Pale Mare
. All that exciting stuff. |
KTravlos | 10 Jun 2014 1:40 p.m. PST |
I find those stuff quite interesting in truth! Warre, vengeance and more Yara/Asha. How can that be borin? No sirs, I fear you are mistaken! It shall not be boring at all! |
Thomas Thomas | 13 Jun 2014 2:25 p.m. PST |
Regarding the battle (at least as filmed): The Night Watch of course had lookouts facing both ways. They had already decided not to send out patrols due to lack of numbers but they were well prepared for an assualt from two sides (they even include a scence of fire arrows and weapons being pre-positioned along Castle Black's much weaker "rear defenses" – moslty wooden hoardings). The Watch uses horns to sound the alarm (two blasts for Wildlings) and its quite clear that the horn is sounded for the attack on the wall and another is sounded for the raiding party attack as they appoarch. Both attacks are met with a storm of fire arrows. The Watch must juggle its limited resources aganist an attack from two side (coordinated by the Wilding's use of a skin changer owl). The Wildling's attack and breach the weaker rear defenses but are met by a pre-postitioned counter attack force lead by Ser Thorne. Meanwhile the direct attack on the gate (which is clearly shown to be down and gated – but it also repeatedly stated that these defenses can be broken down by giants not to mention mammoths). Jon seeking the threat sends down a party commanded by his best man with instructions to avoid the fight in the yard and defend the inner gate which they do in admirable example of discipline and sticking with their assigned task. Jon then gets world that the court yard defenses are failing and fearing his gate guarders will be taken in the rear (again its clear he understands that holding the gate is the critical objective), correctly determines the attack up the wall is developing very slowly so that he can commit his last reserve lead by himself to saving the yard. A decent display of tactical manuver and disciple for a TV show. A few legit commplaints: 1) lack of helms and armor for the Night Watch – silly 2) too much "hero" dominated combat 3) Night watch fought as individuals and not formed units even in the yard fighing where they could have formed up Jon's final plan (which he admits is borne of desperation), is to use a fake parly with Mance to assisnate him. In the books this is forced on Jon by Thorne/Slint and is clearly a suicide mission. That he comes up with it on his own is a major departure from the books. TomT |
KTravlos | 15 Jun 2014 9:21 a.m. PST |
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doug redshirt | 15 Jun 2014 3:59 p.m. PST |
I think the Night watch is used to being used as Rangers on the other side of the wall. They might only really be trained to fight as individuals or as defenders of fortifications. In the book when they sent a large force out, the first thing they did was fortify a spot and wait to be attacked. |