E09: Blackwater
Game of Thrones: The HBO TV Series
How would you rate episode 209?
By Ran,
May 28, 2012 in E09: Blackwater
783 members have voted
1. What's your rating from 1-10, with 10 being the highest/best
Crone of War
Best episode of the season. Up there with the Pointy End and Baelor (my two favourites of the series). Gave it a 10 despite my nitpicks. Yes, I would have wished for something even bigger, with sweeping shots of massive armies outside of King's Landing, etc etc... but it's TV, not a 60-million dollar movie. And with the little budget they had, they did a fantastic job.
Lena Heady stole the show, IMO. What a perfect, perfect Cersei.
Slychd
Gaius Martell
Location:Granville, OH
This was the best episode yet. I guess that's to be expected when they spent the whole episode on four POVs; there's enough time to spend on each one. Lena Headey was spot-on, and Peter Dinklage once again gives Tyrion such bravado that he is impossible not to love. The only scene that seemed new was the Hound/ Bronn scene, which I thought added quite a bit, and since both are among my favorite characters, it was like "fan service" in a way. Changing the battle to nighttime was a wise decision by the directors, methinks.
Adding to the glory of this episode is what's needed in the next one: closure on Arya/ Jaqen, Arstan and Strong Belwas, HotU, and Jon Snow's next actions, Ramsay in Winterfell (I hope!) and perhaps a bit more Jaime/ Brienne. Yeah, this season turned out alright.
Edited May 28, 2012 by Gaius Martell
The Halfhand
Fragile Bird
Location:Toronto
This was a 10.
MrFreezy
No idea why, but this episode just didn't quite do it for me.
_Oberyn_
Location:York
Indeed, and i think I have a braid fetish now :leer:
Awesome, awesome, awesome! It was a little reminiscent of Peter Jackson's The Two Towers, but I don't care! (There were a few moments when I thought Halidir, or someone in a similar role, would fall to his knees with Tyrion/Aragorn screaming in anguish.)
I loved the battle scenes and appreciated the Cercei lulls in between. It was definitely worth the anticipation and the wait.
Oh, I give a ten and, like others, wish I could give it an eleven!
Edited May 28, 2012 by Heathered
I was telling my buddy who is a huge LOTR fanboy that the battle was going to be a lot like Helm's Deep from Two Towers. I had no idea how close it would actually be though. The mere fact that this episode can even be compared to the battle of Helm's Deep is incredible in itself. Everyone involved should give themselves a pat on the back because that was one of the best hours of television I've ever seen, and I've seen it all. This should put all the newbie fans concerns about the show not having enough action to rest and I'm willing to bet that the show grows in viewers again next year because it pulled off such an epic episode.
I'm a nasty woman
I literally couldn't blink from the moment the ships blew up until the credits! It was bloody brilliant. Everything was so great but my personal favorite was having a tune to go with the "Rains of Castamere". It's stuck in my head now. :)
TyrionFan82
Location:Olympia, WA
This episode was AWESOME! I loved the wildfire scene....they really captured that. The fight scenes were amazing. I loved when Sandor was fighting and saw the flames, and you could just see the fear in his eyes. Him telling Joffrey to go fuck himself was an added bonus. I loved the end when Tyrion got cut even though he was on a ship in the book it was done well.
Direwolf Lager
9/10 wildfire scene was incredible
amazing performances by all. Tyrion and Joffery giving there normal stuff and drunk Cersei was fantastic. The battle was the best fantasy battle scenes since LOTR.
Prince of Dragonstone
Location:New York, New York
Cersei was magnificent. Lena Headey is a goddess! It's hard to pull off terrifying and comical at the same time and she's perfected it!
The actress playing Sansa has come so far from last season. I really enjoyed her performance tonight. She's rocking the role now.
I didn't think there was any way they could meet the expectations for this episode - but wow. That has to be one of the greatest hours of television ever. Martin is brilliant.
BarrileteCosmico
Location:As far South as you can go - Argentina
For 60 minutes I forgot this was a TV show and thought I was watching a blockbuster with a 300M budget. Fcking fantastic.
bardgal
Location:Burbank, CA
Ten out of ten for me.
Great acting by all, but Rory McCann in particular was absolutely spot on. The Hound went from an absolute terror (I counted two men cleaved in half) to absolutely terrified in a way that was very believable. I like the palpable tension between him and Bronn before the battle.
I've seen plenty of epic battle scenes in plenty of films by now. What separates the great ones (Braveheart, LOTR, Saving Private Ryan) from the mediocre ones (Kingdom of Heaven, Troy) are the ramifications, the emotional investment that the viewer has in the outcome. The scenes involving soldiers from both sides leading up to the battle, the dialogue on the battlements between Joffrey, Tyrion, Lancel, and the Hound, the silent fear of the women and children confined below, away from the fighting, Cersei's description of the inevitable rape/murder that the women would face if Stannis were to breach the gates, all of this made me care about The Battle of the Blackwater.
A tip of the hat to everybody involved in this episode. Fantastic hour of television.
Agree completely. Except Kingdom of Heaven. See the Director's Cut. There's another 45min that was missing from the theatrical release, and it's an entirely different AWESOME film. The theatrical release is crap.
Oh...my....god...this episode had my eyes watering from straight passion during the last 10 minutes.
The best episode I have ever seen. The changes the show writers made worked out fantastically. The best parts were...
-Podrick saving Tyrion and then the Imp slowly losing consciousness as he sees the combined Lord Tywin/Loras(in Renly's armor) cavalry storming in.
-Cersei's story to Tommen as she is accepting suicide and killing Tommen.
-Stannis' stubborn screams of fighting to the death as his soldiers pull him away from the battle.
-Sandor "Fuck the kingsguard, fuck the capitol, fuck the King"...and then San/San
-An honorable mention to Tyrion's "Lancel, tell the Hound to tell the King that the Hand is extremely busy" I lol'd
I can't think of other parts but, my god, that episode was perfect. :ack:
HyacinthGirl, Heathered and Akisut84
fede989
Regarding Hollywoodizing Stannis and other major characters in any movie/show, it's the fact that they rarely given them helmets. Stannis could have had his head crushed.
But this episode: 10 10 10 10 10, 10 on everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well the helmet didn't save the guy who got his head crushed in front on Stannis.
Edited May 28, 2012 by fede989
J_Crews
Location:Appalachia, U.S.
Kingdom of Heaven. See the Director's Cut. There's another 45min that was missing from the theatrical release, and it's an entirely different AWESOME film. The theatrical release is crap.
I agree. I loved the theatrical *UNTIL* I saw the Director's Cut. Now it's crap, for sure.
Good episode, But, I just do not see how everyone is rating it so high. The battle of Blackwater wasn't anything like the book and was dumbed down and cheesy. I love the show, But the battle was terrible. With CGI nowadays, no excuse for not following the book more closely. I think it looked like a B movie battle actually. Dark and cheaply made. My opinion.
Ok. Please explain HOW the chain and all the wildfire burning all over the Blackwater Rush could actually BE FILMED for an hour episodic television show. No really. Go on. I want to you to explain all of it. The shots, the story boarding, the camera angles, the way THE CHAIN would be filmed underwater - and above with all the green flames on top, with bodies underneath, and oh - HOW MANY SHIPS burning and for what distance.
Then you need to tell me WHERE that would be filmed, and HOW MANY DAYS you'd schedule to do that. Oh, and how much you think all of that, WITH POST, would cost.
What they did was brilliant x ∞ for a visual medium to tell basically the same tale.