Reviews

It's unavoidable to compare this show with GOT, however do not jump the gun yet.

HOTD as I see it is about vicious politics for the throne in season 1 within a house unlike GOT. I wanted to see this with least expectations and more importantly how targaryens paved their downfall.

Takeaways:

1. With the incredibly long lineage for the targaryens, a time jump was a necessity. Hope more time jump follows in the upcoming seasons and ends with Robert's rebellion. Although I highly doubt it.

2. Season 1 had a pretty decent introductions to house Targaryen and valaryon, the oldest we knew from books.

3. It did draw lot of similarities between the dragons and the targeryans. Both of them can be good, bad and sometimes uncontrollable.

4. There is always a little finger to light the fire.

Open ends:

1. GOT had a lot of character introductions in season 1 and opened the perspective. It's missing here. Most of it are up to our imagination.

2. The relationship between hightowers and Targaryen's are not properly established as they did with valaryons.

3. Killing of characters did not create an impact as there was no proper connect between the audience and the characters.

4. All these chaos because viserys mistook Alicent for rhaenyra in his death bed. Instead alicent could have gone on war directly with Rhaenyra for rightful heir to the throne. Childhood friendship aside.

These are just for season 1. But yes I'm invested in this.

Well I should say I was hoping that the makers dont mess this up like how House messes with his relationships. And boy I was glad for this ending.

Reasons: 1. Glad that House did not suddenly get enlightenment and start to respect people.

2. Glad that there was no cliche ending like house trying to save Wilson by finding the cure.

3. Glad that they did not show what was going to happen to wilson after 5 months even-though it was evident and inevitable.

4. Glad that how was able to con everyone to buy the time to spend with wilson. Infact this is the best part hands down.

5. Glad that everyone made a small cameo ( wish cuddy joined too)

This episode is the most important episode for this series and not just for season 1.

Why did schofield go leaps and bounds to save his brother? This episode had the answer.

Michael was about to give up on his brother when linc was in prison and When he came to know the truth about the $90000 that linc borrowed , he was literally crushed. (Wentworth miller had that look on his face. Brilliant acting)

The dialogue " You are where you are because of him" and " He is where he is because of me" broke my heart. I loved what linc had sacrificed for his brother.

The bond that defined the series started here guys. Started right here.

Arguably one of the best episode of the season.

Points to cherish: 1. The living decided to unite. 2. Littlefinger politics is no more. Required a super power to bring him down! Kudos Baelish! 3. Jamie's redemption. 4. Cersei's plot. 5. Night King's kick-ass attack. 6. Jon's loyalty to the queen. 7. Jon's bloodline revealed. 8. Rhaegar targaryen, finally! 9. Theon not being a reek anymore. Miss Ramsey! 10.Tyrion's strategic mind.

Points to ponder. 1. They still believe Cersie. 2. Little fingers death was too quick. 3. Jon and dany. Disappointing! 4. Tyrion's reaction is questionable. 5. Sam taking the credit for Gilly! sad, hehehe! 6. Theon's mission looks suicidal against Euron's army. 7. Jon not meeting his long lost family,yet! 8. The pace of the season!!!!!

If the show is such a massive hit across globe why should they rush to the end??

Wait?!? Is it for real?? Did I just see a happy ending in the show??? This episode has startled me!

This Episode has restored my faith in the show. One of the most incredibly shot battles in the history on motion pictures! Probably the best among the TV shows.

The death of Ramsey is overwhelming,but one has to agree to the fact that without people hating Ramsey or cersei as much as they do, this show would not have been so interesting. Iwan(Ramsey) has given a life to the character that has kept the show on its toes. Ramsey getting eaten by his hounds would have brought an orgasm of satisfaction to the audience!

Talking about the battle, this is easily rated as one of the best in the history of battles shot. The screenplay literally shook me. Wun wun, Tormund and Jon stole the show for me. The plan laid by both the bastards are similar and their victories should be shared. They tried to annoy the other by staying composed but Ramsey won that race by drawing Jon all alone on the field by so Ramsey way. All is fair in war. Some credits to that please.

Probably the death of Wun Wun did not create the impact as much as Hodor from "The Door". I would have loved to see Wun Wun in another battle with the white walkers. Sadly that is never gonna happen again.

Icing on the cake was certainly the death of Ramsey(What an actor!), however, the battle at Mereen was a welcome bonus to this incredible episode. It was an epic battle by itself within that short story line overshadowed by the battle of bastards. Had this battle taken place in the previous episode GOT would have had another incredible eighth episode in its sack. Probably Arya stark's survival should have been pushed to this episode and then this episode would have been dedicated as the episode of the wolves!

Totally thoroughly enjoyed this episode and this has certainly raised the bars of the show to a whole new level.

10/10

This episode is certainly not the best episode of the season by far or the "Entertaining Eighth" types like the "Hardhome" or "The Mountain vs the viper"but did did lay the plot for the upcoming episodes. I was a little disappointed like most of the viewers for not having seen the battle between "the waif" and Arya Stark. Then it made sense to me. First, Arya Stark has failed against the waif on numerous occasions for obvious reasons, the waif was better at fighting. Second, Arya is severely injured and although she is a great fighter, her body would give up eventually and the waif would have killed her rather easily. Hence Arya had to defeat the waif by drawing her into her ploy. Arya was blind for a while and she was trained in darkness. So it makes sense that Arya has deceived the waif and brought her to the place where Arya will have the edge over her. We could not see this battle but we will get to see her battle at better fronts. Thanks to the waif and the many faced god. What an entry for Daenerys! The queen of Mereen has returned when the kingdom was under crisis. Will we get to see the war? lets wait for the 10th episode. There was some interesting developments with the hound, Jamie and Brienne of Tarth. These were mostly the plot for the next episode. Brienne failed to convince blackfish so she does not win the Tully army. She goes empty handed to Sansa who is all set to fight the Boltons with a small army and "Jon Snow" by her side.

I was not here to review the entire episode rather i was here to explain why the battle was not shown between the waif and Arya Stark. The ending is as epic as the ending of the "Home" earlier this season. When Arya says "The girl is Arya Stark of Winterfell and she is going home"!