Game of Thrones Review: Just Enough Story to Get on with the Battle

[Nurb]

They screwed around for 7 episodes and try to cram everything into the last 3.

The first season had great pacing, big events actually happened in a reasonable amount of episodes, then following seasons just dick around until episode 9's "huge event". Stretching tyrions trail the entire season was just rediculous.

 

[K12]

This is pretty paper thin reviewing here. I know it's more of a recap but still.

Aside from not liking an episode taking it's whole time in one place what more is there to take away from this.

I think this kind of episode is needed every now and then. A full scale battle royale. I generally prefer the way the battle at castle black panned out in the book (mainly because they wasn't all the fucking around beforehand) but having 10 or 15 minutes here or there cut across multiple episodes wouldn't have had the same impact. The Battle of the Blackwater hung together better but still... fucking giants!

The ending was quite annoying and essentially guarantees that

Spoiler

The choosing won't be until next season, which I honestly think may be a good move

but my main worry was that they'd over-condense Jon's ASOS storyline in this season and they haven't really.

Also the Ygritte death scene was really good. I know there are plenty of people who automatically cringe at that kind of thing but it was done really well. Plus how would you expect better when it was pretty much lifted straight from the book?

 

[StriderShinryu]

I'm a little torn on this episode though I come down on the side of liking it in the end. This fight really was a desperate one and I thought the show captured that fairly well. What it really lacked was more context and perhaps some more memorable characters outside of Jon, Sam and Ygritte.. We spend so little time at the wall that it's hard to focus on just how little all of the parlour games being played in and around King's Landing really matter at the end of the day. If the wall were to fall, it would mean the end of Westeros regardless of which person was sitting on the Iron Throne at the time. The show hasn't done enough to develop that sense of danger so the episode ended up feeling a little flat.

I also found Ygritte's death to be both well done and stereotypical, but that's not really something I would say is unheard of in GoT. I mean, just last week we had the apparently triumphant combatant getting trumped by the loser in the end because of deciding to boast rather than take guaranteed victory. That's a pretty stereotypical moment too and it's only the context that made it seem more than that.

 

[Dr. Crawver]

-Snip-

Ouch, scathing. Extremely scathing. But unfortunately true. I wasn't a huge fan of this episode, but this was not a good review/recap of it.

 

[frobalt]

"The blind and ancient old man tells a tale of how he was quite the catch back in his day and not to worry. "
I'd say everyone I talked to about this was WAY more into; "He could have been king and maybe is fire proof? Hunh...."

It's really stupid how the whole story plays out (infinite wildlings... and they send like a few hundred. Then suddenly fall back for no real reason. The dumbest tactic ever; send a few crows to the fort at a time, instead of, you know, start off with as big a force as possible to minimize casualties.), that made me cringe a lot more than the individual bits.

It's directed great by the awesome Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, Doomsday, The Descent !!!), but the script was just *made* of pure weaksouce.

Sorry, in advance, military tactics is something I really like to get into.
But what this was (and it was stated to be such in the show) is a probing attack. A test of the enemies defences.
Besides, sending a massive force to such a small gate would maximize casualties rather than minimise them, as that way your opponent doesn't even have to aim anymore and will just get to put a few volleys in which will almost always hit their targets in the mass of people attempting to get through such a small bottleneck. Immagine a tight mass of people all pushing at one another to get through that gate and then one of those barrels falls in...

But enough about that. Because in my humble opinion the attack at the front gate wasn't the main offensive and rather a distraction to lure the defenders away from the lower castle which was very nearly taken by the assault from the rear.


Granted though it wasn't what I would have done had I been in command. I'd have sent more climbers to either side of the Watch's defenders atop the wall, far enough from the gate to avoid being seen while I arrayed my forces in front of the gate (just out of arrow range mind you) in order to keep the defenders forcussed on what they would then percieve as the main threat. Then when the signal is given the watch would come under attack from four sides at once. The climbers atop the wall on two sides, the assault force in the rear and the door breach unit from the front. The climbers would keep the defenders from raining too much death upon the door teams and prevent too many reinforcements from heading back down to face the assault force. The wall would have been breached for sure ;p.


More on the topic of the episode though. I actually liked it better than the last one, simply because it was more focussed. The action scenes were quite nice but Ygritte's death at the hands of the potato boy and her last words were dumb though, I have to agree with that.

The thing about the wildlings is that they are unorganised and undisciplined. I can't remember how much the show goes over it, but the books make a point out of describing how difficult it is to get the wildlings to band together, as most of them hate each other - Only Mance Raydar has been able to do it - And he's not exactly the best at tactics.

Spoiler: Book spoilers - Although shouldn't be spoilers since the battles have aired in the show, but read at your own risk

In the book, castle black has no walls on the south at all, so even a small wildling force taking them by surprise can be devastating. However, due to Jon Snow's warning, they are completely prepared for the attack, and easily defeat the wildling force that attacks from the south.
Also, the attack north of the wall doesn't happen until after the attack from the south has been defeated. Mance Raydar's main strategy was to have castle black taken from the south and the gates opened for his forces.

 

[Silvanus]

Some elements, I loved: the giants, the panning shot of the battle, the bird's-eye-view shots, Ser Alliser being a badass.

But I agree, I left the episode feeling as if it had fallen short of the mark it was aiming for. They've kept all the plot developments for the last episode, leaving this one battle-rich but without much plot.

 

[Branindain]

This episode crystallised something for me that I've noticed in small doses, here and there. But here it was unmissable.

Martin, I'm convinced after reading the books, likes to lead people on by setting up storylines that start out looking like the common storytelling tropes that we all identify with as consumers of fiction. Then he can throw us for a loop simply by taking things in a different direction. The show writers, on the other hand, will give us our more "traditional" fix if they can.

The case I'm referring to here is that of Sam Tarly.

When reading the story of Sam Tarly, subconsciously I'm pigeonholing him as the Coward Who Discovers His Inner Hero.(I'm sure there's a tvtrope for that but I don't know what it's called.) But for all that he goes through, and he DOES have his fair share of big moments in the story, he never actually grows a pair. He remains an uncoordinated craven throughout.

Compare that to the events of The Watcher on the Wall, in which he lives up to the trope to a tee. He shouts Pyp down for Gilly, gives her a big speech about what it is to be a man, kisses her, then goes out and fights semi-bravely, even providing motivation for scared brothers. Compared to book Sam he is fucking Rambo.

I enjoyed it viscerally, because I like Sam and he finally got what I had been waiting for for him the whole time. Yay Sam. However, I had believed that Martin was intentionally making a point with this character. He's likable, he has skills which most other brothers don't have and which are undervalued in this culture, but physically he's useless and cowardly, it's just the way he is, it's not going to just magically change just like he's not magically going to become stupid. Except in the show, he has changed. It really leaves me torn.

 

[Colour Scientist]

I found that lil Olly killing Ygritte had some nice karma (since Ygritte was the one to kill his dad) and her death scene didn't really bother me since it thankfully didn't drag on too long.

I thought this part was a bit naff.

You could see it coming from the scene in his village and from when he arrived at the Wall, saying he was the best archer in the village. I mean, I understand why they did it, it's neat and poetic that the only arrow he fired would pierce Ygritte in the heart but it's so predictable and boring, not something I want in my Game of Thrones episodes.

I don't want to be one of those people who goes on and on about the books but the show came up with the whole Olly storyline, as far as I remember, and it just seemed a bit forced and lazy.

 

[K12]

This episode crystallised something for me that I've noticed in small doses, here and there. But here it was unmissable.

Martin, I'm convinced after reading the books, likes to lead people on by setting up storylines that start out looking like the common storytelling tropes that we all identify with as consumers of fiction. Then he can throw us for a loop simply by taking things in a different direction. The show writers, on the other hand, will give us our more "traditional" fix if they can.

The case I'm referring to here is that of Sam Tarly.

When reading the story of Sam Tarly, subconsciously I'm pigeonholing him as the Coward Who Discovers His Inner Hero.(I'm sure there's a tvtrope for that but I don't know what it's called.) But for all that he goes through, and he DOES have his fair share of big moments in the story, he never actually grows a pair. He remains an uncoordinated craven throughout.

Compare that to the events of The Watcher on the Wall, in which he lives up to the trope to a tee. He shouts Pyp down for Gilly, gives her a big speech about what it is to be a man, kisses her, then goes out and fights semi-bravely, even providing motivation for scared brothers. Compared to book Sam he is fucking Rambo.

I enjoyed it viscerally, because I like Sam and he finally got what I had been waiting for for him the whole time. Yay Sam. However, I had believed that Martin was intentionally making a point with this character. He's likable, he has skills which most other brothers don't have and which are undervalued in this culture, but physically he's useless and cowardly, it's just the way he is, it's not going to just magically change just like he's not magically going to become stupid. Except in the show, he has changed. It really leaves me torn.

I agree completely. What happens in the books is that Sam discovers his value whilst still remaining a coward with absolutely zero fighting ability, which to me is actually a more inspiring message.

 

[Uncle Comrade]

I found that lil Olly killing Ygritte had some nice karma (since Ygritte was the one to kill his dad) and her death scene didn't really bother me since it thankfully didn't drag on too long.

I thought this part was a bit naff.

You could see it coming from the scene in his village and from when he arrived at the Wall, saying he was the best archer in the village. I mean, I understand why they did it, it's neat and poetic that the only arrow he fired would pierce Ygritte in the heart but it's so predictable and boring, not something I want in my Game of Thrones episodes.

I don't want to be one of those people who goes on and on about the books but the show came up with the whole Olly storyline, as far as I remember, and it just seemed a bit forced and lazy.

What annoyed me even more was that a few minutes earlier this kid was cowering in the corner with his hands over his ears. Then Ygritte gets shot, and it cuts to him standing on the stairs in a heroic pose. And then he gives Jon the cliche action movie "'sup bro, just saved your life, don't mention it" nod.

I mean, it was obvious that he was going to be the one that shot her, from the moment she was the one who shot his dad, and that's fine I guess. I would've much preferred it if we'd seen him pick up the bow and fire it wildly at the wildlings, and just happened it hit her than the 'terrified little boy suddenly turns into this coolkid sniper' thing they gave us. Between that and what Sam was getting up to, it's like they're saying that the only good characters are the hard-fightin' badasses, and everyone else just gets to die like a chump (or have a panic attack and hide in the pantry).