Summary: Both Stannis' and Joffrey's sides prepare for the impending battle. Stannis' ships arrive but Tyrion blows up a good portion of them with wildfire, including Davos' ships. Stannis lands anyways and assaults the walls. The Hound fearfully leaves the battleground after seeing fire. Joffrey flees the battlefield too leaving Tyrion in charge of the defenses. Lancel provides updates to Cersei who is hidden in the city with Sansa. Cersei gets drunk and prepares to kill her son so he doesn't have to suffer. Tyrion is attacked by Ser Mandon and critically wounded. Tywin and the Tyrells arrive to rout Stannis' forces, winning the battle. The Hound offers to take Sansa north and out of the city.
The Good: The build-up to the battle was fantastic. The whole season has been slowly building up to this massive confrontation, and the early goings of the episode made it clear that this episode would deliver the battle in full. I respect that we didn't have a single scene outside of King's Landing in this episode as it allowed for there to be full focus on this battle, which had been hyped up to be pivotal for the fate of Westeros. The first 15 to 20 minutes were great as both sides prepared for the upcoming war, putting over how deadly the consequences would be for the loser. This gave the episode a huge sense of importance and tension. I enjoyed a lot of small things in the build-up too. Sansa continuing to mouth off Joffrey, Tyrion having funny interactions with Bronn and Joffrey and Varys continuing to be a fascinating character (see: The Unknown) were all great scenes. With all of the hype, there was massive pressure on the battle to deliver. While I did have some big issues (see: The Bad), I thought that a lot of this was terrific. The opening few minutes in particular were some of the most tense, impressive and exhilarating minutes of television that this show has produced. The wildfire explosion was an incredible moment and opened up the battle on an exciting note, killing many of Stannis' men and presenting that Tyrion may have a chance of overcoming here. It was up to the rest of the battle to live up to the opening of this battle and I feel that for the most part they did a good job. The best parts about this battle were the smaller moments. I loved Tyrion's story here as Varys presented him as the only man who could actually threaten Stannis. He lived up to it as he delivered a spectacular speech late in the battle, playing up to the men's personal desires instead of the honourable desires. It works like a charm and his final line of "there are brave men out there... let's go kill them!" was delivered perfectly and was a satisfying moment. Even more satisfying was watching the Lannisters destroy the portion of Stannis' forces at the gate, earning Tyrion a small victory. The Hound's story was also really good. I enjoyed seeing him leave the battle due to the fire. It fit his character and adds more levels to him as he may not be quite as tough as he lets on and has some serious weaknesses. I also liked him going to Sansa as it plays off of the relationship they had been building throughout this season. It was interesting to see The Hound be so aggressive to convince Sansa to get out of King's Landing, which makes me interested to learn more about how The Hound feels about her. The scenes with Cersei and Sansa were well-written as well. I enjoyed their conversations as Cersei slowly got more drunk, feeling the pressure of the battle and being separated from Jaime for so long. I enjoyed getting this new layer to Cersei, her character has been one of the most interesting parts of the show in the last few episodes. The Bad: Unfortunately I felt disappointed overall by the end of the episode. The battle never lived up to the opening few minutes and it ended rather abruptly without any of the consequences which were hyped up. The Lannisters all win and Stannis still gets to live to fight another day. This is particularly disappointing because this entire season was structured around this massive battle, and yet somehow this large scale battle had less of an effect on the world than the execution of Ned last season. That's very bad and makes what we just watch feel like less of an epic battle and more of just a minor skirmish which can't be right. The actual logistics of the battle unfortunately disappointed me as well. There were several strange moments in the battle that confused me as to how the battle was working. We had Stannis climb the ramparts, which should be a significant development and yet it doesn't lead anywhere. The ramparts allow easy access into the city and should have been a much more central part to this battle, yet they were totally ignored. Additionally, after Tyrion wiped out a portion of Stannis' men, we had a random horde of them come out from somewhere. I have no clue where they were and why they hadn't engaged in the battle earlier. Lastly, while I thought the Cersei scenes were good, they detracted from the battle as a whole and ruined the flow. Also, it was tough for me to properly invest in Cersei's scenes because they felt so insignificant when there is a life-or-death war going on outside the walls. I can't be bothered to care about Shae being discovered when Tyrion's life is in danger as he prepares to lead an attack outside the walls. The Unknown: Varys remains a fascinating character and it seems that there is more to him being a eunuch than expected. What he will have to say about how he was cut? Is Davos dead? It wouldn't be too much of a stretch for him to survive the battle. If he is dead, it would be tough to care about whatever Stannis does next, so I honestly hope he is alive. Why did Mandon attack Tyrion and who ordered him to do it? What are the extent of Tyrion's injuries? Will he be okay by the next episode? How did Tywin get back to King's Landing and why? He said he was going to fight Robb in the last episode, so why didn't he end up going there? What happened to Salladhor Saan? I was hoping to see him again in this battle but he never appeared. Will Sansa go with The Hound then? I don't imagine she will want to stay in King's Landing. Best Moment: The wildfire explosion was a fantastic moment which the episode never topped. Character of the Episode: I'll pick The Hound because he was more interesting here than ever before. Conclusion: This episode was an epic spectacle with a lot of really good moments, but it under-delivered in my opinion. While I still really enjoyed it, there should have been more of an impact on the overall story from a seismic event like this and yet it didn't happen. This is a tough episode to score because of that, as it was terrific, yet at the same time disappointing. Score: 72
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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