Game of Thrones - TV Series (NO BOOK SPOILERS)

[irishScott]

couple giants and a mammoth to take down the gate?

the wildlings ain't too smart.

It was working, and now the Knight's Watch is out of oil. So the next attempt, if there is one, will work.

 

[BladeVenom]

Also they originally had several hundred at Castle Black, the vast majority of those got killed off in season 3.

They only had 102 at the beginning of the last episode at least according to Edd. We saw about 40 get killed. So they only have about 60 left, and that's assuming none got killed offscreen and all of Ygritte's arrows missed except the ones they showed hit.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Right, because a wilding army 100,000 strong isn't any threat at all, and would have no effect on any other part of the story if it broke through!

Just because you find a particular plot-line boring doesn't mean it isn't vital to the story. The storyline was advanced in terms of just how fucked the Knight's Watch is with character development for Jon and Sam. Basically if Jon can't stop the wildlings somehow, the wildlings WILL get through. I'm sorry you thought a battle the size of the Normandy Landings didn't warrant its own episode.

Right, because a wilding army of 100,000 strong is SOOOOOOOOOOO much more terrifying when you show .0001% of them attacking for 50 minutes than they would be if you showed .0001% of them attacking for 10 minutes.

Just because you can't keep track of all that's going on around the world and find comfort in something so simple doesn't mean that the rest of us want to watch something that looked like it came out of a bad MMORPG. It was NOT a battle the size of the Normandy Landings, it was a tiny exploratory assault to gauge the defenses. The assault could have been beaten back to the same stalemate, Ygritte could have died, Slynt could have turned coward and Jon could have wandered off to find Mance in 1/10th the screen time. THAT was all that happened, those 4 tiny points were all that came out of an entire episode. The rest was empty spectacle that would appeal to nobody except the truly braindead types that are lost when it comes to the intricacies of the bigger story and.....

Oh, now I get why you liked it.

 

[zinfamous]

Olenna is probable in her 70's, while Aemon is well north of 100. I don't think she'd have been chasing someone that much older back in the day.

queen Sideways Face is like 30+ and she's going for 10 year-old Tommen's crotch.

Also, I think Aemon mentioned how the ladies of all ages were all over his D.

 

[zinfamous]

i've never seen so many flaming arrows shot in a show before.

there's plenty of reasons against flaming arrows, and the only good reason for is to burn a ship. i didn't see any ships at castle black

because everything was dark and the audience needed to see the arrows?

No fooling--it was probably more of a visual decision for filming :\

 

[manimal]

Right, because a wilding army of 100,000 strong is SOOOOOOOOOOO much more terrifying when you show .0001% of them attacking for 50 minutes than they would be if you showed .0001% of them attacking for 10 minutes.

Just because you can't keep track of all that's going on around the world and find comfort in something so simple doesn't mean that the rest of us want to watch something that looked like it came out of a bad MMORPG. It was NOT a battle the size of the Normandy Landings, it was a tiny exploratory assault to gauge the defenses. The assault could have been beaten back to the same stalemate, Ygritte could have died, Slynt could have turned coward and Jon could have wandered off to find Mance in 1/10th the screen time. THAT was all that happened, those 4 tiny points were all that came out of an entire episode. The rest was empty spectacle that would appeal to nobody except the truly braindead types that are lost when it comes to the intricacies of the bigger story and.....

Oh, now I get why you liked it.

Just stop watching. Seems like you hate the show.

 

[BladeVenom]

Olenna already said she had no interest in marrying a Targaryen so she seduced Luthor Tyrell.

 

[irishScott]

They only had 102 at the beginning of the last episode at least according to Edd. We saw about 40 get killed. So they only have about 60 left, and that's assuming none got killed offscreen and all of Ygritte's arrows missed except the ones they showed hit.

Right, I'm talking about the group Mormont led north of the wall last season.

 

[irishScott]

Right, because a wilding army of 100,000 strong is SOOOOOOOOOOO much more terrifying when you show .0001% of them attacking for 50 minutes than they would be if you showed .0001% of them attacking for 10 minutes.

Just because you can't keep track of all that's going on around the world and find comfort in something so simple doesn't mean that the rest of us want to watch something that looked like it came out of a bad MMORPG. It was NOT a battle the size of the Normandy Landings, it was a tiny exploratory assault to gauge the defenses. The assault could have been beaten back to the same stalemate, Ygritte could have died, Slynt could have turned coward and Jon could have wandered off to find Mance in 1/10th the screen time. THAT was all that happened, those 4 tiny points were all that came out of an entire episode. The rest was empty spectacle that would appeal to nobody except the truly braindead types that are lost when it comes to the intricacies of the bigger story and.....

Oh, now I get why you liked it.

Well then why don't you get your little director's cap out of your toy chest and show us how it's done?

A lot happened in that battle. We learned a lot about the wall's actual defenses, how vulnerable it is from the south, the tactical options available to the wildlings, etc. There was plenty of detail that was apparently quite lost on you.

You're just one of those haters who gets their panties in a twist over a single episode without waiting to see where the story takes it. People like you were just as pissed about Bran's story line until he got captured and holy Hodor broke Locke's neck. By your logic they should just have skipped everything Bran went through since escaping Winterfell and just jumped-cut to his being captured north of the wall.

I think you have way too much ADD for this show; do you throw a piddly little temper tantrum every time you see an episode that doesn't perfectly suit your tastes?

 

[irishScott]

because everything was dark and the audience needed to see the arrows?

No fooling--it was probably more of a visual decision for filming :\

Well to be fair the Knight's Watch don't seem to have dedicated archers. I imagine burner arrows at night could serve the same purpose as tracer rounds, letting them see where their arrows were hitting.

 

[Printer Bandit]

Looking forward to next week's series finale.

 

[dainthomas]

Well, no idea how I was supposed to know that...

KT

I'm sure it was mentioned in the show ;-)

Plus just look at the guy.

 

[bguile]

They only had 102 at the beginning of the last episode at least according to Edd. We saw about 40 get killed. So they only have about 60 left, and that's assuming none got killed offscreen and all of Ygritte's arrows missed except the ones they showed hit.

Those numbers always seemed impossibly low to me, even from the start of the series. Thats not accounting for the division of labor in the nightswatch (stewards, rangers, and builders), so as a fighting force they might be down to 20 rangers or so at this point, meaning they are pretty much spent. Figure in that people have to work shifts, they might have half that number available at any one moment. It just doesn't make any sense to me. I wish they wouldn't give straight numbers like that, or better, inflated the number of soldiers the nightswatch had, like they did with the characters ages.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

How can anyone say nothing happened in that episode? Jon snow had a crap ton of development during the events. He transformed from a guy who made backhand remarks to those in charge to a guy who was thrust into leadership and got them out alive. He became a leader that men twice his age were willing to follow. That's a huge development.

Anyone else laugh when ygritte said you know nothing Jon snow. No shit he just had his brains scrambled on an anvil.

 

[BladeVenom]

I thought it was funny that the boy who shot Ygritte was named Olly. I couldn't help but think of Arrow.

 

[Skel]

The only thing I didn't quite understand is why waste the wildlings on the other side of the wall if you were just probing defenses. It seems like one would be better off holding them back until the major attack when the defenses were already pushed to breaking. I get that without them being used we'd never have Jon lose Ygritte and tie up that storyline. Tactically speaking though, I'm very unclear what they were hoping to gain using them then.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

The only thing I didn't quite understand is why waste the wildlings on the other side of the wall if you were just probing defenses. It seems like one would be better off holding them back until the major attack when the defenses were already pushed to breaking. I get that without them being used we'd never have Jon lose Ygritte and tie up that storyline. Tactically speaking though, I'm very unclear what they were hoping to gain using them then.

It becomes a full invasion if the wildling assault works out.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

The only thing I didn't quite understand is why waste the wildlings on the other side of the wall if you were just probing defenses. It seems like one would be better off holding them back until the major attack when the defenses were already pushed to breaking. I get that without them being used we'd never have Jon lose Ygritte and tie up that storyline. Tactically speaking though, I'm very unclear what they were hoping to gain using them then.

i agree. we don't yet know if we have complete information on wildling strength south of the wall, so there could be more but that seems unlikely. of course the thing to do would have been taking the army to an undefended location and digging through the wall at their leisure. it would seem a large number of elite fighters making up a critical strike force have been wasted for nothing. but hey, this is game of thrones not the battle of kursk

 

[Rhezuss]

Jon Snow got some moves with the sword! While quite short, the fight with the dude with the axe was cool. Snow knows how to fight!

 

[Phoenix86]

i agree. we don't yet know if we have complete information on wildling strength south of the wall, so there could be more but that seems unlikely. of course the thing to do would have been taking the army to an undefended location and digging through the wall at their leisure. it would seem a large number of elite fighters making up a critical strike force have been wasted for nothing. but hey, this is game of thrones not the battle of kursk

I imagine digging a tunnel through a massive wall with an undead army on your heels make you look for faster options.

 

[zinfamous]

That's my point. There are a shitload of things happening all over the place, you've got the Wall and the war between the Ironmen and Bolton in the North, Sandor/Arya and Brienne/Podrick god knows where, Sansa and Petyr trying to pretty much steal control of the Aerie, Danny and her dragons, Messandrei bathing, Stannis doing something else and the fallout of the Mountain vs the Viper and they cover NONE of it to focus an entire episode on what exactly? A minor skirmish that was not even a decisive victory for either side. So much story to coherently cram into 10 1-hour chapters and now they have to cram the same story into only 9 1-hour chapters because they pissed away an entire chapter on nothing.

I think a scene with Stannis aiming his boats north, near the beginning of the episode would have been nice.

Then, of course, the episode ends with all of his boats sinking for some reason and that storyline is finally resolved.

 

[Phoenix86]

I think a scene with Stannis aiming his boats north, near the beginning of the episode would have been nice.

Then, of course, the episode ends with all of his boats sinking for some reason and that storyline is finally resolved.

If they have Stannis save the day at the wall it'll be a massive ball drop on the writers this season. Has he even mentioned the wall at all since the last season when the red lady convinced him to go?

 

[nehalem256]

If they have Stannis save the day at the wall it'll be a massive ball drop on the writers this season. Has he even mentioned the wall at all since the last season when the red lady convinced him to go?

I thought there was the scene where the Red Woman said Stannis' daughter had to go north instead of staying at Dragonstone like the Stannis' wife wanted.

 

[smackababy]

If they have Stannis save the day at the wall it'll be a massive ball drop on the writers this season. Has he even mentioned the wall at all since the last season when the red lady convinced him to go?

Why would any major plot point be the fault of the writers of the show material? Any large point was already written by GRRM. Every character's actions (especially major ones) are already "set in stone" so to speak.

 

[blackdogdeek]

Jon snow had a crap ton of development during the events. He transformed from a guy who made backhand remarks to those in charge to a guy who was thrust into leadership and got them out alive. He became a leader that men twice his age were willing to follow. That's a huge development.

I thought the most important scene regarding his leadership development was when he told that one guy to gather 5 men and hold the inner gate and then he stressed to him a second time to "hold the gate". He is essentially potentially sending one of his most trusted allies to his death and he knows it and his buddy knows it.

I also really like how the buddy managed to prevent the other 5 guys from abandoning the gate in the face of the giant's charge. We're talking about known criminals displaying courage and honor in the defense of a wall and of ideas and of people who have shunned them. I thought it was very moving even though such a short scene.