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Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2016 7:38:10 GMT -5
Rate 1x09.
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konradsmith
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Post by konradsmith on Aug 14, 2016 5:27:51 GMT -5
10/10.
This was the episode where GoT became GoT. Not just because of Ned's death, though that moment cannot be diminished in its impact, but because of what Alan Taylor's direction brought to the table. The previous episodes of s1 before Taylor's were essentially televisual. There were some good shots in them here and there and decent enough effects but not until 109 and 110 did we get an actual sense of the necessary scale and scope of GrrM's world. The camera movements in this ep. generally seem more cinematic. Especially in the final scene as the Sept of Baelor exterior set is established and we see the shots of the crowd, Ned being dragged in and Arya behind the statue. The previous episodes visually felt like they could be eps. of Rome or Deadwood, which were great shows of course, but still very televisual. Those shows could capture atmosphere brilliantly but very seldom spectacle and scale. Which are necessary in delivering GrrM's story. This was where GoT became cinematic, as it has been increasingly since. The world of the show cannot be shown in any diminished way. Which is why s1 is far from my favourite season because until this point it could not achieve the size of the story in its production values. "Epic" is often used as a buzzword critically to denote shallowness but GrrM's novels are truly epic and to be adapted sensibly the budget and production values have to follow suit. Of course it isn't s1's fault that it didn't convince HBO to throw it the amount of money that it later would. But I still have to hold that limitation against the end result of the season.
Until 209, this was by far the best ep. of the show. It gripped people and cut people and traumatized them in a way that hooked them. People would say, "Sean Bean died, I have to stop watching" a minute after it ended and then, shortly afterwards, realize that they'd have to stick with the show. By making them hate the show they made them love it. Which is what it all does so well. It gutpunches you and then makes you stick around so you can get gutpunched again. It's masochistic entertainment.
As before the KL material is the best. The Ned and Varys convo which opens the ep. set up the entire dilemma of it all. Will Ned play it straight or lie for Sansa's sake. It opens with Ned breathing heavily and with all other sounds dimmed out and ends with that too. I don't know if that was scripted or something Alan Taylor brought to the table but it's the sort of cinematic detail the show'd lacked until this moment. A bookending flourish that sets things into motion and bowties them perfectly in one fell swoop. Vars and Ned's discussion ties deeply into what Aemon and Jon later discuss and into greater questions which overarch the show overall. Though people in their revisionist, cynical interpretations of the story like to fault Ned more than he's due, the fact is that he in the end made the cynical bargain that was offered him and was killed anyways. If he'd been honourable until the end, the result would have been the same of course but it wasn't his honour that killed him. It was the whim of an evil egotist fucking kid.
Speaking of Joff, here was the moment that solidified him as one of TV's greatest villains. 102 did a lot of work in that direction but it was the Ned moment that made people despise him with unparalleled vitriol. To the point where people were worried about Jack Gleeson and how show-fans seeing him in public might treat him. Which is no mean feat. Not at all. What made Joff work so well as a villain was his inherent pettiness and stupidity. You knew he was wrong from a political standpoint in making this move and was making a silly blunder but did so anyways. He wasn't some psychopath genius like too many villains are. He was a fuckhead. And his fuckhead choices are what made him so perfectly hateable in ways that Tywin or Roose Bolton just can't be hated. He wasn't Chaotic Evil to invoke the Dungeons and Dragons alignments. He was Stupid Evil. Which in the end makes more sense because in history and the modern world most evil really is just bald stupidity. There are very few Hannibal Lectors kicking around. Very few demonic intellects. What are all too common however are peabrained sadists. Slow-witted sociopaths. Donald Trumps.
Outside of the final scene the Castle Black material was probably strongest. By which I mean the Aemon-Jon scene especially. Knowing now that the two men are family gives it more weight of coures...but even without that connection being made, Jon making assumptions about what Aemon might be able to empathize with and Aemon one-upping his familial anguish and its conflict with his vows spectacularly...is good enough unto itself. Jon really got shut down in a way that he needed to hear. Besides that we have our intro to Walder Frey and plenty of decent RW foreshadowing, most unsubtly coming from the Greatjon and Theon. Funny though that Cat couldn't just say, "She looks like Alexandra Dowling" instead of just "there was one..." when Robb made an aesthetic inquiry there...
The Dany stuff is strong too. From Drogo's fall to her being brought back into the tent whilst the spell's ongoing and the demons are shrieking there's a great deal of tension throughout the scenes. Beside the way the show handled MMD, which IMO was understatedly perfect, the best of this is the Jorah-Qotho rivalry which builds through their scenes as undercurrent and culminates in one of my favourite, albeit brief, fights in the show. Where Jorah is vindicated in his claims about armour's use in single combat.
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moiaf
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Post by moiaf on Aug 14, 2016 14:59:37 GMT -5
I gave it a 10.
Oh Ned, we miss thee! Almost all the scenes are strong,e X pet for the game played by Tyrion, Shae and Bronn I could care less, it didn't really entice me or make me curious. Love vs Honor/Duty as Maester Aemon says is a hard choice. Two people in this episode will choose love and it will be to their great detriment. Ned choices to lie for the love of his daughter and dies anyway, and Dany chooses to risk it all on the possibility that Drogo can be saved by magic and as we know loses it all, she remains alive but all that she loves has died.
It makes me kind of sad that love really wins when you chose it over duty or honor in the world of Game of Thrones.
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Post by Lady Sansa's Direwolf on Aug 14, 2016 16:52:18 GMT -5
9 out of 10
Ned, we barely knew thee. Or unfortunately, we knew you too well. In choosing to lie for the sake of his daughters, only one of whom the Lannisters actually have, he deserts that which has brought him through the Rebellion, through the Tower of Joy - that unerring sense of duty and honor. It would have worked except for the one variable in the equation. Joffry's desire to 'be the king'.
An awesome episode, well directed and acted.
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dje
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Post by dje on Aug 15, 2016 7:31:56 GMT -5
10/10 for me, it's in my Top Ten episodes for the entire series...as Konrad said, this is the episode that made GoT what it is... I equate it to the first Locke episode in LOST, when you find out Locke was paralyzed before coming to the Island. It lets you know this show doesn't play by the rules of normal storytelling...Although us book readers knew it was coming.
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Envie
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Post by Envie on Aug 15, 2016 8:10:25 GMT -5
10/10If I could rate this one an 11/10 I would. It's funny that this episode has always been on the top of my favorites list, yet I am still to this day unable to watch it again without crying in despair for everyone in it. That says something for how powerful the filming was as the story itself is well-known by this point for readers. There's no surprises here yet every scene was shocking and gut-wrenching. In fact, I don't think I've watched this one for several years because of how much it always moves me. I'll just say everything konradsmith wrote in his review post is spot-on perfect and explains the magic of this episode far better than I could. There's something about this episode that really did turn the tide of the show's success. It was a great season up to this point but as Konrad said, it was on par with other great show series for television production value and acting so other than being a huge ASOIAF fan from the books, I couldn't have said it rose above others in it's class until the end of this season (ep. 9 & 10). I have given other 10s but this one was a special episode that sets it apart from the others. It's here that as viewers invested in the story of the characters, we really began to feel deeply for them. Here is the moment I fell madly in love with Arya (even though she was my favorite character long before this in both the books and the first 8 episodes of the show). I felt so moved by her sitting there perched on the statue of Baelor. My heart cried out for her. She knew her Father was lying and her own tiny sense of "honor" was ready to die for that by reaching for the handle of Needle. Thank the Gods Ned saw her and sent Yoren to grab her down off of there or we'd have lost her too. Here I cried for Daenerys, thrown to the ground on her stomach which caused her baby to come too soon even though he was already doomed by that witch and her magic. Here I cried for Catelyn watching her son ride back from battle and the immense relief she felt and his mature realization that though they had won the battle, many lives were lost for the deception he played on a more battle experienced Tywin Lannister. Maybe it's the Mother in me, but this episode really pulled all the heart strings of protection inside me. I wanted to help poor Sansa up there on that platform. She had been convinced this was the right thing to do, and she stood there smiling for her Father's willingness to do it. Konrad's so right about Joffrey. We hated him not because he was a vile evil creature at his core in the same way Ramsay was genuinely evil. We hated Joffrey because he was a mean bully - an idiot kid who wanted nothing more than to wield power over someone else and be a vindictive asshole to them when he was actually a petty coward underneath it all. I think all of us can relate to bullying in some form or another and this was the worst kind. A kid put on the throne who had no business being there regardless of his birth/blood anyways. Even if Joffrey were Robert's legitimate son he did not deserve being king or the power of that moment he ordered Ned's head cut off. So many amazing scenes... so much beautiful terror and dread. I love to avoid this episode for years like this so that it's impact is right there in my face again when I watch it. I'm definitely going to need help this week with symbolism - there were moments in this episode I'd completely forgotten were HUGE parallels to later events (Jaime challenging Robb to 1v1 for example). Please consider volunteering to help with the Foreshadowing/Parallels/Symbolism post. I'll start one today and let's really put some thought into it before now and Wednesday's Finale re-watch! *Edit: Here's the Writeup - you can help complete: housewiththereddoor.freeforums.net/thread/217/episode-1x09-symbolism-parallels-foreshadowing
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Post by Deleted on Aug 15, 2016 22:48:05 GMT -5
Easily a 10. Still one of the best episodes the show has done. Not much to add that hasn't already been said by konradsmith and others. Just a brilliant hour of television.
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izzue
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Post by izzue on Jul 3, 2017 10:48:16 GMT -5
10. This is when GOT got real. So much sadness, such a focus on honor, on the dire consequences set in motion by the choices, large and small, that are made by all characters in Martin's world - consequences that will reach all the way through the end of the series.
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