Search

» » Игра престолов Mother's Mercy (2011– )

Short summary

Stannis attacks Winterfell. Sansa and Theon find themselves on a difficult situation. Arya challenges the many face god. Daenerys is surrounded by acquaintances. Jaime and Myrcella leave Dorne. Cersei confesses. Sam goes to oldtown to become the new maester. Jon receives news about his uncle Benjen.

The Iron Throne is never shown this season.

The first season finale since Game of Thrones: Fire and Blood (2011) in which Arya's final line is not "Valar Morghulis".

Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss won their first Emmy award for writing this episode. David Nutter also won an Emmy award, for directing.

While this is the first episode to show Tyrion speaking High Valyrian, it was implied earlier in Game of Thrones: High Sparrow (2015) that he had some understanding of the language, as he was able to understand portions of the Red Priestess' sermon in Valyrian.

The only season finale of the series not to end with a wide landscape shot.

When Daenerys is stranded in the Dothraki Sea with Drogon, it can be seen that she is wearing riding leggings. While some television viewers called into question the probability that Daenerys would have been wearing riding leggings while attending the opening of the fighting pits in the preceding episode, Michele Clapton, the costume designer of the series, explained Daenerys always wears riding leggings under her gowns out of habit, because throughout her life she had to be prepared to escape at any moment from assassins sent to kill her.

The leadership of Meereen in the novels runs a different course after Daenerys disappears with Drogon, as Hizdahr zo Loraq and Ser Barristan Selmy are still alive. After Daenerys disappears, Hizdahr declares himself King of Meereen as he had recently married Daenerys, but is shortly thereafter deposed and imprisoned by Ser Barristan, who believes Hizdahr collaborated with Daenerys' enemies the Sons of the Harpy and the Yunkai Wise Masters. Ser Barristan remains the Queen's Hand and rules in Daenerys' stead with a council that includes Grey Worm and Daenerys' loyal subordinates. Daario, Jorah, and Tyrion are not members of the council because Daario is being held hostage by the Yunkai, while Jorah and Tyrion have not met yet with Daenerys.

During Cersei's confession with the High Sparrow, he dismisses the charges that her children were not fathered by King Robert and are actually the products of incest with Jaime. In the novel, the High Sparrow's decision was explained in more detail, that if Cersei's children were determined to be bastards it would make Stannis Baratheon the rightful claimant to the Iron Throne, who is no longer a follower of the Faith of the Seven but of the Lord of Light, which the High Sparrow considers a false faith to a red demon.

The episode won 3 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Makeup for a Single-Camera Series (Non-Prosthetic), Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series and Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series.

In the books, Sam did want to be a Maester when he was younger, but his father Randyll was horrified by the idea and essentially tortured and abused Sam by chaining him up (like a Maester's chains) until Sam swore to never consider the idea again. So, when Jon tells him to go to Oldtown to become a Maester, he's very much against the idea and begs and pleads not to go as he is still traumatized. Jon sends him anyway. In the show, this is completely changed as Sam himself is the one to ask to become a Maester and be sent away, while Jon initially protests.

According to the show's linguist David J. Peterson, when Tyrion says "Apologies, my Valyrian is a bit nostril", he confuses the Valyrian word "puñilla" (rusty, obsolete) with "pungilla" (nostril), an easy mistake to make for someone not fluent in the language.

This episode was Lena Headey's submission in the Supporting Actress in a Drama Series category in the 2015 Emmy Awards- her second nomination for the show.

In Game of Thrones: Winter Is Coming (2011), Ned Stark told his sons that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. All three Starks who followed that rule so far - Ned, Robb and Jon - were killed in the same season they performed the execution: Ned - season 1; Robb - season 3; Jon - season 5.

HBO ran into difficulties shooting Cersei's walk of penance as Dubrovnik's Catholic Church of St. Nicholas, which stands in for the Great Sept of Baelor, refused to allow filming of nudity on their property. The show eventually built facades of the interior and exterior of the church for the scene.

The face Arya wears while pretending to be a prostituted child in order to ambush and murder Meryn Trant, belonged to Ghita, the terminally ill girl who came to the House of Black and White to be euthanized earlier in the season in Game of Thrones: Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken (2015).

The walk of penance is the first nude scene for Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), though a body double was also used for the scene in the series. While Cersei is nude several times in the novels, Headey said that this was avoided in the series from the very beginning, to establish clothing as a symbol of pride for the character, and make the disrobing all the more painful for the character. She said in an interview with Blastr, "I've been very adamant about keeping [Cersei] kind of clothed because I think that's part of her power. And she can still be sort of sexual and weird and female, but she doesn't have to be naked. And I think it makes for a more shocking disempowering moment when this happens." One scene modified to adhere to this mantra was the final scene of Game of Thrones: Winter Is Coming (2011) when Bran discovers Cersei and Jaime in coitus; they are naked in the book but clothed in the series. This was filmed in 2010 before "A Dance with Dragons", the novel that contains Cersei's walk of penance, was released.

As preparation for filming the final scene where Jon is betrayed and assassinated by the officers of the Night's Watch, episode director David Nutter had the actors playing the mutineers recite the Night's Watch vows together, off-camera. He did this because he wanted the actors to understand that they were killing Jon because they truly believed that he had betrayed the Watch. He wanted their performances to reflect the solemnity of men who believed they were doing their duty, even if it meant murdering their commanding officer.

HBO went to great lengths to prevent any leaks during the shooting of Cersei's walk of penance. Reportedly over 200 security guards were hired to keep paparazzi away from the set. Cast and crew were banned from having cell phones on set and were required to sign confidentiality agreements threatening fines of $250,000 for leaking any images or information about the scene. The Daily Mail did obtain one paparazzi photo of the backside of Lena Headey or her body double covered in filth.

David Nutter, the director of the episode, was personally asked by US President Barack Obama about the fate of Jon shortly after it aired. Nutter's response was "Jon Snow is deader than dead."

The death of Stannis in this episode renders all branches of House Baratheon extinct de facto. Stannis' wife and daughter are also deceased, as well as his brothers Robert and Renly, neither of whom had any legitimate children. King Tommen is legally considered a Baratheon, but has no biological relationship to his supposed father King Robert, as he is actually the product of incest between Cersei and Jaime Lannister. At this point in the series, King Robert's bastard Gendry is the only person with Baratheon blood known to be alive.

The casting notice for the male extra who exposes himself to Cersei during her walk of penance leaked online shortly after the episode's airing. The part was cast only one day in advance and the offered payment was £900.98 (or roughly $1,430). Apparently, there were some concerns on set before filming, because the actor who was hired was circumcized; this was something never seen before in the show, as no major culture in Westeros practices circumcision. In the end, however, the shot of the man exposing himself was too brief to make it out.

In the books, Jon whispers "Ghost..." before losing consciousness. Curiously, Robb's last words were "Grey Wind". The fact that each of them muttered the name of his direwolf before collapsing, led to a fan theory that they warged into the direwolves. Robb had no chance of survival since Grey Wind was killed shortly after his death, but it is not the same case with Ghost, who was not around when Jon was stabbed: Jon might have warged into him and survived that way.

Many of the full body shots of Cersei (Lena Headey) during her walk of penance were filmed with actress Rebecca Van Cleave serving as a nude body double. Headey had previously done nude scenes in other media, but she feared that being naked among all those spectators would visibly affect her performance. Although she was asked to help with the casting of the body double, she declined, saying that she would applaud anyone brave enough to do this. Many shots were filmed twice, once with Headey wearing a body stocking, and again with Van Cleave copying Headey's movements while nude. Headey's face was then superimposed onto Van Cleave's body in post-production. Several television writers criticized the use of 27-year-old Van Cleave, who is fourteen years younger than Headey, as a key part of the humiliation Cersei suffers in the novel was the common people mocking signs of aging and three pregnancies visible on her naked body. However, the makers insisted that out of the seven finalists for the role, van Cleave was selected because she most closely matched Headey's body frame.

The bloody scene in which Arya kills Ser Meryn Trant was influenced by the work of Quentin Tarantino.

Starting from season 1, every two seasons there has been a major Stark death: Ned in season 1; Robb and Catelyn in season 3; Jon in season 5.

Originally, Stephen Dillane had several lines in the scene when Brienne takes her revenge on him, but they were all cut when his performance carried it all. "Go on, do your duty" is the only one he needed. The makers reportedly didn't show his death on-screen to prevent it from becoming gratuitous or longer than it needed to be.

When Stannis is informed that half of his men deserted in the night, in actuality over 75% of his total army had deserted, or half of his Baratheon men and all of the sell-swords. Roose Bolton stated his scouts estimated Stannis' army at 6,000 after being bolstered by sell-swords, who populated half of his army. When Stannis' army reaches Winterfell, the wide shot shows he has approximately 1,300 men left.

The three servants who give Stannis increasingly bad news in a short period of time is extremely similar to biblical story of Job, who was informed by several servants in a matter of moments of the deaths of all his livestock, servants, and children.

George R.R. Martin stated that Cersei's walk of penance is based on a similar punishment inflicted on Jane Shore, a mistress of King Edward IV of England. After Edward's death, his brother and successor, King Richard III, punished Shore for her promiscuous behavior and charges of conspiracy by forcing her to walk through the streets of London barefoot in her undergarments while crowds taunted her.

The new member of the Kingsguard that carries Cersei away after her walk of penance is referred to by Qyburn as "Ser Robert Strong" in the novel, though several characters, including Kevan Lannister, as well as many readers, suspect he is actually a reanimated Gregor "the Mountain" Clegane. HBO confirmed this assertion by casting Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, who played Clegane, in the role, as well as identifying the character as Clegane in the episode viewer's guide. In the novel, Strong/Clegane wears a visored helmet with no part of his face visible, and it is speculated he has no head, as Qyburn claims Clegane had died, and his skull was sent to the Martells by Ser Balon Swann.

Numerous television critics and writers have compared the death of Jon to the assassination of Julius Caesar by the senators of Rome. Both were ambushed and stabbed by their subordinates after making a controversial decision, with the final blow coming from a trusted friend and protectorate, Jon by Olly and Caesar by Brutus. Jon's last word is to call out to Olly, and while Caesar's last words are lost to history in the popular Shakespearean version of events his last words are to call out to Brutus.

This is the first time Benjen Stark's name is even mentioned since Season 1. It was thought that the character would make a return as, in the books, there is more background to his disappearance, whereas in the show, the last hint of his whereabouts was the return of his horse to Castle Black in Game of Thrones: You Win or You Die (2011).

Selyse Baratheon is the first prominent character to commit suicide. The only other named character to cause their own death was Maester Cressen in Game of Thrones: The North Remembers (2012), but his death was not an intentional suicide but the result of an assassination attempt on Melisandre gone awry.

In the books, it is explained that the khalasar that surrounds Daenerys is in fact an offshoot of the khalasar previously led by Khal Drogo. This offshoot is led by a man named Khal Jhaqo, one of Drogo's former bloodriders. On the night Drogo died, all three of his bloodriders dispersed, taking a portion of Drogo's 40,000 strong khalasar, leaving Daenerys with the old, the crippled, and those too young to ride. This resulted in her seemingly endless struggle across the Red Waste on the way to Qarth.

The episode title refers to the Mother, the aspect of the god in the Faith of the Seven symbolizing mercy. Those accused by the Faith of the Seven may seek the Mother's Mercy prior to their trials if they confess their sins. The title has further meaning as almost every parallel storyline includes a character receiving judgment and punishment for a transgression: Stannis is executed by Brienne for his murdering his brother Renly; Arya gets her revenge on Meryn Trant and is blinded by the Faceless Men for taking his life; Cersei is forced to complete a walk of penance for her confessed adultery; Jon is stabbed by the Night's Watch mutineers for allowing the Wildlings through the Wall.

This episode revealed the outcome of Stannis' siege on Winterfell before it occurred in the book series. In the most recent book "A Dance with Dragons" Stannis is three days away from Winterfell, and the battle has not begun yet. George R.R. Martin stated that the siege on Winterfell will occur early in the sixth book "The Winds of Winter".

In the books, Selyse, Shireen, Stannis, Ser Meryn Trant, and Myrcella are all still alive, though it should be noted the Northern story line extends beyond what has hitherto been published. Jon is stabbed in the end of the fifth book, but his fate is unknown.

In the books, the conversation between Jaime and Myrcella does not occur. Myrcella never says that she suspects Jaime is her father. In the fifth novel, Jaime contemplates about revealing that to her, but he is uncertain if this is a good idea.

In the books, Alliser Thorne is not involved in the attack on Jon. Jon sent him much earlier to find Tormund, and he has not returned yet. His fate is unknown.

After the attempt to take Winterfell from the Boltons, Brienne finds Stannis wounded in the woods. It appears that she beheads him and the producers of the show stated that Stannis was very dead. But the author of the books, George R.R. Martin, has stated - "Stannis is very much alive... At least in the books."

In the books, Melisandre does not see any visions of Stannis defeating the Boltons, and does not accompany him and his army on their march to Winterfell, opting to remain at the Wall because her powers and visions are stronger there. When Melisandre attempts to see visions of the Lord of Light's chosen warrior in the flames, she is only given visions of Jon Snow, some of him surrounded by skulls and others of him surrounded by enemies with daggers.

In the books, Theon and Jeyne Poole (replaced by Sansa in the show) escape from Winterfell before Stannis faces the Bolton army, with the help of a bard named Abel and six women (actually, Mance Rayder and six spearwives). They are eventually brought to Stannis' camp, and Stannis takes Theon prisoner, planning to execute him for his crimes, to appease the Northerners, as Theon is believed to have murdered Bran and Rickon Stark.

Jon is told of Stannis' defeat under much different circumstances in the book: instead of Melisandre arriving and confirming the defeat of Stannis' army by the Boltons, he receives a letter supposedly written by Ramsay Bolton, popularly referred to by fans as the "Bastard letter" or "Pink letter", which claims Stannis and his supporters are dead. George R.R. Martin has indirectly implied the letter is false, as he stated Stannis will encounter the Boltons in the forthcoming sixth book, and in August 2015 that he was "Alive, beyond a doubt" in the published books when asked by a reader. The letter prompts Jon to announce he will break his Night's Watch vows and march on Winterfell, and results in his assassination.

Near the end of Cersei's walk of shame, when she gets close to the gates of the Red Keep, a few bars of "The Rains of Castamere" can be heard in the score. This may foreshadow Cersei's revenge on the Sparrows.

In the books, the steward Wick Whittlestick is the first to stab Jon. Bowen Marsh is the second, sobbing as he stabs Jon. Jon collapses after being stabbed for third time, and does not recognize the other attackers. Olly is not among them because his character does not exist in the books.

In the books, Sam does not ask Jon to send him to Oldtown. Jon commands him to travel there with Gilly, Maester Aemon and Mance Rayder's baby, because he fears Melisandre will sacrifice Aemon or the baby for their royal blood. Sam objects, but Jon insists.

In the books, the khalasar Daenerys encounters is of 50 warriors, while in the show there are much more.

In the books, Cersei denies that she ever cheated on Robert. She claims that she has slept with Lancel and the Kettleblack brothers after Robert's death, but denies the more serious charges: that she cheated on Robert while he was alive; her incestuous affair with Jaime; that her children were born of incest and adultery; Robert's murder; the murder of the previous High Septon (who was killed by Osney Kettleblack at Cersei's command); her plot to have Margaery convicted with false charges of treason and adultery.

In the books, Myrcella is still alive. She was injured by the rogue Dornish knight Ser Gerold "Darkstar" Dayne, losing an ear and receiving a large facial scar.

In the books, Cersei's body hair is cut entirely, even her pubic hair.

In the books, Daenerys does not leave a ring behind as a breadcrumb.

In the books, Daario and Jorah Mormont do not go to seek Daenerys. Daenerys' bloodriders Aggo and Rakharo and most of Daenerys' original khalasar go to look for her. At that point, Daario is held captive by the Yunkai, while Jorah is imprisoned at Yezzan's camp.

In the books, Brienne has not encountered Stannis since she attended the parley between Stannis and Renly in the second book. She and Podrick are not in the vicinity of Stannis' host when he advances on Winterfell.

In the novels, Meryn Trant is still alive and never left King's Landing. Arya's murder of Meryn is a composite of two other murders she commits in the novels: the first murder Arya commits in Braavos is of Dareon, a Night's Watch deserter, and is later punished for it by the Faceless Men with blindness; later she murders Rafford "Raff the Sweetling", a Lannister soldier from King's Landing, who is on her death list for murdering her friend Lommy, while the show changed Lommy's murderer to Polliver whom Arya had already killed. Meryn's pedophile tendencies in the show are also drawn from Raff.

In the books, Theon does not kill anyone during the escape attempt.

In the books, Stannis has not yet hired any mercenaries. At Jon's advice, he enlisted about 2,500 men of the Northern mountain clans, and after he successfully liberated Deepwood Motte, destroying nearly all Asha (Yara's name in the books) Greyjoy's troops - many survivors from northern houses joined him, increasing his host to more than 5,000 soldiers. During the march to Winterfell there are reports of missing men (about eighty), but not so much to weaken his host significantly.

In the books, Varys never appears in Meereen. Around the time Daenerys' disappears, Varys makes a brief appearance in King's Landing. This is his only scene in the fourth and fifth novels "A Feast for Crows" and "A Dance with Dragons".

In the books, Melisandre, Selyse and Shireen are in Castle Black. Davos is in the White Harbor, where Stannis sent him to recruit Lord Manderly.

In the books, Myrcella has not returned yet to King's Landing. Doran Martell intends to send her with Nym and Tyene, but without Trystane. According to the second of Arianne Martell's sample chapters of "The Winds of Winter", Myrcella, Nym and Tyene are on the way to King's Landing, while Trystane remained in Sunspear.

In the books, Jeyne does not attempt to escape on her own. When Theon and the spearwives come to rescue her, she objects, thinking it is one of Ramsay's vicious games. They barely manage to make her cooperate.

Nell Tiger Free said that Myrcella's death was originally much more graphic. She was given blood-colored mashed bananas to couch up, which she assumed were meant to be her brains. In the end, the makers decided that her character deserved a more subdued death.

In the novel, Daenerys spends several days in the Dothraki Sea before she is discovered by the khalasar, during which time she is severely ill and has several hallucinations. Drogon eventually kills a horse for food which Daenerys also consumes. When the khalasar finds her, she is with Drogon.

The novels reveal that another character, the unnamed mistress of Tytos Lannister, the father of Tywin and Kevan and grandfather of Cersei, Jaime, Tyrion, and Lancel, was also forced to make a walk of penance. The novels explain that Tytos, after the death of his wife Jeyne, was dominated by the low-born woman, who helped herself to his late wife's clothing and jewelry and commanded his household servants. After Tytos' death, Tywin forced the woman to undergo a walk of penance nude through the streets of Lannisport for two weeks and exiled her.

Cersei's walk of shame sequence was voted by fans as "One of the most satisfying moments of the series". On The Huffington Post website on 5/11/2014, Cersei was officially called "The Most Hated Character on 'Game on Thrones'." The character is mostly hated due to her lifetime of cruelty to others. In Game of Thrones: The Winds of Winter (2016), Cersei commits mass murder, killing Queen Margaery Tyrell, Loras Tyrell, Kevan Lannister, Lancel Lannister, the High Sparrow and many others.

Cersei's Walk of Atonement is her comeuppance for framing Margery Tyrell for adultery and treason.

User reviews


  • comment
    • Author: Gugrel
    "Okay first of all I just want to say that I absolutely love(d) Game of Thrones, but I will not watch Game of Thrones ever again after this episode."

    Talk about a juxtaposition.

    If you're prepared to never watch a show again which you supposedly loved after watching this season's finale then you were never truly a fan to begin with.

    Game of Thrones, since the very beginning, has killed off main characters without second thought: Ned, Catelyn, Robb and Talisa (and their unborn child), Joffrey, Oberyn, Ygritte, Tywin - you get the picture. People die in Game of Thrones. Nobody is safe.

    I get it, it's upsetting seeing the characters you care about butchered on screen - the Red Wedding had me in ruins - but come on, you should never expect any characters to be safe on this show! Surely everyone knows that by now?

    I will admit that I personally felt totally shocked by the episode. And I was entirely confused: killing Jon Snow? What? But we just built up his character for ages and he just barely survived at Hardhome so why kill him off now?

    And then I thought about it, read some reviews and theories, and calmed down again.

    Believe it or not, D&D (the dudes in charge) do actually know what they're doing. They set the scene up at Castle Black very particularly: Melisandre arrives looking sullen and in need of enlightenment, clearly prepared to grasp at anything, and then Jon dies. It's no coincidence - as some have already pointed out - that the two characters happen to be in the same place at the same time. Melisandre no longer has Stannis to channel the Lord of Light through, so I am confident she will seize this opportunity to reanimate Jon Snow.

    All in all, though, this season is - in my opinion - the weakest of the five so far. Season four was absolutely stellar, so season five naturally had quite a lot to live up to, and therefore unfortunately I don't believe it matched the quality of the preceding season. I feel that they tried to fit too much into too few episodes - we never saw anymore of Margaery or Loras, the Dorne storyline was dragged out, and the battle at Winterfell was skipped entirely. However, this season was by no means a poor season, just a season with a rougher start than the others, and perhaps too many story lines to juggle at once.

    Whether you loved this episode or hated it, loved this season or hated it, you have to admit that there is a lot to look forward to next season: Tyrion and Varys ruling Meereen (temporarily); Daenerys and the Dothraki; Cersei, Loras and Margaery's trials; Littlefinger's plans now that Stannis' army is gone; Brienne's plans; Sansa's fate; Arya's future serving the Many-Faced-God; the White Walkers army; the Wildlings and the Night's Watch; and Melisandre's future in relation to Jon Snow.

    Unfortunately, though, we have to wait quite some time before we can see where these story lines end up. And likely by the time April 2016 comes around, those who are frustrated and devastated just now will have forgotten their pain and be lured back into Westeros once again.

    Until then, Valar Morghulis.
  • comment
    • Author: VariesWent
    (No book spoilers, but heavy episode spoilers)

    Before you down vote this because you think it's a "the book is not like the show" complaint just know this : I don't mind the show diverging from the books, in fact I'm happy about it. Book 4 and 5 aren't really fit for television and I don't want the show to spoil book 6 and 7.

    My problem isn't with the changes, but in how they were executed. This episode went so fast it's almost as if Sonic the Hedgehog had written it. Stannis' storyline that has been built up during 4 seasons is brought to an end in about 7 minutes with hasty writing and skipped scenes. Making one of the most interesting character feel like a second thought is bad pacing. Like "look I know he loses and all but we've got to put 200 pages in the rest of the show so let's get it over with". If you ran out of time then just postpone the battle of Winterfell until the next season, like GRRM did.

    Daenerys' storyline gets more time than Stannis even though that one could've been shortened, we get it, her dragon is injured and wants to sleep around like a tired cat. No need to rub it in. Same for her council back in Meereen. And yeah, she finds a Dothraki tribe again, but did we really need to see them circling around her for 3 more minutes ? Wasn't this episode full enough as it is ?

    Cersei's storyline was really well done and is the saving grace of this episode. It's that kind of writing that should have prevailed.

    Arya's part was also pretty good.

    But the worst of all... Jon Snow. My god, when I saw his scene and realized there were only 5 minutes left, I really thought there was no way they were going to put his death in. But they did. Just look at when main characters died in other episodes, look at the crescendo of Ned Stark's death, or how incredible the Red Wedding was. Then why, oh why, did one of the most beloved character in the show only get 4 minutes of screen time for his death ?

    Hardhome is an example of how changes from the books to the show can be good, that scene lasted 25 minutes, giving plenty of time to build tension, it's good writing. It felt satisfying and realistic, butchering a character in 2 minutes for the sake of it is not.

    I just can't like this episode, they should have delayed some events to the next season or made 2 episodes, but they wanted to fit everything in only one and as a result, it felt rushed and poorly done.

    So I give this episode a 6/10, and I'd give it a way lower score if it wasn't part of a show I liked so much and the Cersei part.
  • comment
    • Author: Dobpota
    If Elation was the word for Episode 9, its despair the word for Episode 10. Having already read the books prior, I was ready for what was to come. In spite of that, this episode was like a punch in my stomach. While many will talk about what happened at wall, I would look at the events at Dorne & Kings Landing. For the first time in 5 seasons, we had a episode that emotionally affected the Lannisters. They have been the hated characters of Game of Thrones - but am sure Episode 10 gave a different perspective to their characters. Lannisters - always pays their debt & the 2 events at Dorne & Kings Landing could have huge repercussions in next coming season.

    At the wall...its anyone's guess. Problem with guess work is it doesn't always work in Game of Thrones. All in all, a gripping season finale. Shame we have to wait for another 10 months to start all over...
  • comment
    • Author: Ustamya
    Well I think Game of Thrones can now be considered the most miserable show I have ever seen. Yes, I love this show. It's incredibly well-written and is consistently the most shocking series every year, but I feel like the show doesn't have to be this much of a bummer every week. But I guess I asked for it. Because last week was a bit of a letdown in terms of the amount of surprising things that happened, this week picked up for it.

    We began in the North where Stannis and his men are losing people by the second but they decide to march on anyway. Even after Melisandre surprising leaves, Stannis gave Winterfell one last shot. For all he has done in this show good or bad, I think he was just a man trying to fulfill his destiny. For awhile I thought he was the most fit for the throne, and even to an extent up until his death. But seeing Brienne finally get her revenge for Remly was good enough. Now that Stannis is dead, and his wife killed herself, are there any Baratheon's left? Especially considering Tommen is really a Lannister. No matter, I was somewhat disappointed that they didn't actually show Stannis' death and cut away to Ramsay killing more people. Moving onto Winterfell, we finally saw Theon AKA Reek redeem himself and save Sansa. By the way, how can they possibly survive that fall? Onto another Stark, Arya had quite the night. Her bada** turn felt a little too quick but was nonetheless exciting to finally see her get revenge on somebody from her list, much different than letting the Hound die for himself last year.

    But as you may have predicted, Jaqen H'ghar knew what Arya was up to and seemingly made her pay for her failures. This was yet another incredible scene and one that didn't have too much closure. I don't think she's dead but the Arya we know and love is sure to have changed forever. We then got a brief scene with Jaime leaving Dorne. His moment with Myrcella was very sweet as he finally embraced who he actually is to his own daughter. That is until the poison from Ellaria Sand kicked in and killed her. I expect to see an all out war next season between the two families (once again, nothing's ever happy for people in this show). Back in Meereen, we had perhaps the only pleasant scene all night as Tyrion and the gang decide what to do without their queen. I quite enjoyed the scene and really like where it's heading. Especially now knowing Varys is back in the equation. Dany on the other-hand looks to be heading down a similar path as season 1 as she was presumably captured by the Dothraki. But I think she is much better prepared than she was all those years back. All this to digest and the two biggest scenes I haven't even talked about yet.

    Back in King's Landing, it was time for Cersei Lannister to pay due for her crimes, but did any of us expect this much embarrassment? Her atonement included being stripped of everything she has protected for years. She quite literally bared everything that Cersei stood for. I wonder if this will be similar to when Jaime lost the hate back a few seasons and we start to root for the character? No matter, I know one thing, it was darn impossible not to feel for her while she walked blocks nude and endured as much physical pain as mental pain. As we had back to the Wall, Jon Snow has already said goodbye to Sam as he heads for the Citadel, and now he finds out that Stannis has died and Melisandre has returned to presumably re-up her mission with Snow, another royal blood. Little did I know that the Olly kid would betray and turn him over to the rest of the watch to murder him. By far the most heartbreaking death I have watched on this show. Jon Snow is one of the only genuinely good guys in the show. It seemed like there was insane amount of potential with his character (considering the R+L=J theory). But as Game of Thrones too often does, his death came far too soon. It's by far the biggest Game of Thrones episode to date. So much happened and so much was set up. In many ways, this was the episode that last week could have been. I just hope that one day this show lets the good guys win. Most deaths make sense, I'm just not seeing the point of Snow's death. The North Remembers.

    +Wrapped a ton of stories up

    +Non-stop paced

    +Revenge & redemption for some

    +Funny and pleasant Meereen scene

    +Fitting end to an otherwise down year

    +Cersei pays

    +Sweet Jaime scene...

    -...Only to end miserably

    -Can the good guys ever win? We will miss you Snow

    9.5/10
  • comment
    • Author: black coffe
    This episode, ending a season full of disappointment and poor characterization, was the final nail in a coffin for me. Inside of that coffin lay some of the greatest books ever written, some of the greatest characters I've ever been introduced to, and any hopes that the remaining seasons of this show will be worth watching.

    David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have proved, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that they are not interested in telling the story of the ASoIaF books the way they were meant to be told, but are instead interested in creating a story that shocks and saddens audiences, while continuing to prove, time and time again, the the good guys will never win, nor is there even any hope that they will.

    This episode left viewers with multiple cliffhangers and almost no stories resolved, or even in a position to be resolved. Mother's Mercy was the last chance for season 5 to actually tell a coherent story, and I think it failed miserably. The season finale rendered so many plot lines in the story completely irrelevant. Sansa, Stannis, Dorne as a whole, Littlefinger. All of these story lines saw no real resolution. Only shocks, twists, and untimely deaths.

    Sansa was basically ditched in Winterfell, and all season, viewers were left wondering how she would prevail, and grow stronger as a character. Instead, all we saw was Sansa in the same position she has been in since season 1, playing the role of the victim, scared and alone in a place where she has no friends. Oh, and don't forget the scene where her virginity is taken from her in a completely unnecessary rape scene whose only purpose was to shock and anger audiences.

    Stannis, one of, if not the greatest tactician and military commander in the Game of Thrones world, was defeated and presumably killed in the most unspectacular fashion imaginable, by a lone soldier that vowed multiple times in the series to kill him. How convenient and disappointing. Brienne, after gazing longingly at Winterfell for 8 episodes, finally just happens to run into the one person in the entire world that she wants to kill to avenge her old love. I thought maybe, just maybe, there would be a perfect scene in which Brienne finally fulfills the oath she swore to Catelyn Stark. She would rescue Sansa, and even Theon, face off against Roose or Ramsay Bolton, destroy them and their plot armor that has let them become seemingly unkillable villains, and we would finally see one story line resolve itself happily.

    I can say almost certainly that I will not be huddled around my television when season 6 premieres, and I suspect many others feel the same as I do. D&D should be ashamed of the travesty that they've created and allowed to be aired on television.
  • comment
    • Author: Eng.Men
    Definitively, the worst season finale of the show to date. every single scene fell out of place barring the last, with the climactic battle of winterfell happening early on, followed predominantly by long winded discussions and shock value bullshit that completely contradicts the books, that unless I'm very much mistaken, the series is supposed to at least partially adhere to... more pointless deaths that don't happen in the books, more plot derailment, and a completely botched final scene, that- in the books was a far more subtle, vague and chilling chapter the changes made are nonsensical and moronic in terms of writing (in the books, Jon Snow's fate came at the hand of a few lower down the chain, not his effective replacement) and Myrcella's death is a bundle of utter pointlessness that just rendered an already middling plot line to be near enough POINTLESS. After four sterling seasons, it appears the show has completely lost its wits.

    the number of things left totally up in the air, such as the fates of Stannis and Sansa are extremely cheap cliffhangers, and leave the episode feeling more like one that should have been at the middle of the season.

    The worst season of game of thrones to date, signs out with its absolute worst episode.
  • comment
    • Author: Granigrinn
    Where do one start. Game of thrones has provided us with 4 great seasons of adaptations of the books. However, all good things must come to an end. The show writers have clearly showed their incompetence now. I think it's safe to say, that all the book readers and non-book readers agree that some changes are needed, to make a series of the books. However, as Benioff and Weiss has showed us, you can't do too many changes. And that's exactly what they did with season 5. Yes, the show is now ahead of the books in some story lines, but no, that's not an excuse.

    Benioff and Weiss have decided that shock value (although few of the events were even shocking) is more important than good writing. So lets start with Jon Snow being stabbed. In the breakdown of the episode they talk about how they didn't want a ''bad guy'' like Alliser Thorne to kill Jon. So they decide that Ollie should ''surprise'' us all and stab him. Although it has been clear for almost the entire season, that Ollie would do something stupid when Jon returned with the Free Folk. It was simply predictable and boring.

    The battle for Winterfell was almost a major disappointment. I don't mind that Stannis lost the battle. We still don't know the results in the books, but I assume he loses in the books as well, or this would have been an EXTREMELY stupid way to go for the show. However. Stannis is supposed to significantly outnumber the Bolton force, and he's perhaps the greatest general in Westeros. Take that, and combine it with the build up they've done for the entire season, and you'll get one hell of an ending to the season. Or not. Because what the f*ck, happened? In the show half of the army desert before the battle. OK, but that if he had such a large force to begin with, he shouldn't have been so outnumbered as he was. Not to mention how he just walked into a trap, and then not even preparing a strategy. They didn't even show the battle. So what was the point of the build up then? And then, at the end you have Brienne killing Stannis, with some stupid logic. I mean, you butchered the character of Brienne and Stannis in one episode. Do you really mean that Brienne was THAT stupid? ''Rightful king''. What!? Everyone. And I mean EVERYONE in Westeros knew Stannis was the rightful king by law. It doesn't mean they supported him, but they weren't stupid. Brienne obviously was.

    The Sand Snakes continue to be awkward and bad. ''You want a good girl but need a bad pussy''. Are you shooting a porn? Like seriously, WHAT THE F*CK!? How did anyone come up with lines like those? And yet again, you kill off a character who haven't died in the books (and probably won't do anytime soon either).

    Theon rescuing Sansa from Miranda, only to jump of the wall in what seems like a suicide. What a surprise! Now we're left with a useless cliffhanger.

    These are just some of the things I've found bad with the episode, I could have gone on for much more, but that wouldn't leave place for why I didn't rate the episode 1 star. For even though the episode were at times incredibly stupid, some parts were brilliant. Cerseis walk of shame, and the incident with Arya was both well done storyline-wise, and actually done in the show. Making an otherwise stupid episode at least watchable, and also earning it 6 stars fr
  • comment
    • Author: Akisame
    While it maintains a good quality in many areas game of thrones excels at (dialogue, artistic direction, etc) in most other areas the episode falls flat in relation to the previous episodes. Some of the major character deaths are done poorly and purely for shock value and some of the content is just blatantly annoying.

    Everybody knows what Game of Thrones does the best so I'll move quickly onto my major criticisms of this episode.

    1. Most of the deaths were done just for the sake of death. Although Theon and Sansa's suicide was touching in itself it was utterly pointless due to Brienne not 'seeing' the candle - much like something out a soap opera. This would've been much better if she saw the candle and had to make a decision between killing Stannis and saving Sansa, which moves onto the next criticisms.

    2. When Brienne killed Stannis her motivation, although clear, wasn't very strong at all. Her devotion to Renly was without sufficient explanation in the first place but the fact she believes he is the rightful ruler by blood only serves to make her seem stupid and ignorant.

    3. The logistics behind the Bolton garrison at Winterfell is ridiculous. It had already been stated that Stannis's army massively outnumbered the Boltons and even with ≈50% reduction from desertion Stannis' army size and performance in relation to the Bolton's seemed lacklustre and the Sudden appearance of the cavalry was ridiculous - it would have taken a much longer time to get the cavalry out of the walls so unless GRRM has given the Boltons the power to teleport it is quite ridiculous. The whole battle seem was disappointing, possibly due to time constraints (as the episode was full of content.)

    4. Stupid writing from D&D resurfaces as they make Meryn Trant, who was not only a murderer and a pedophile (which was already pretty over-the-top), he's now also a child beater! The only way they could have exaggerated this more was if they made him grow red horns as he was beating the children. However - I must say that the rest of the scene and the content involving Arya was much more interesting than previously.

    5. The sand snake dialogue - "You want a good girl but you need the bad pussy." Do I really need to explain my dissatisfaction at this?

    Overall, although this made for a disappointing finale when compared to the rest of the finales it was still the second best episode in the Season, behind 'Hardhome,' and despite its flaws it's still good TV. Hopefully the decrease in overall season quality does not continue.
  • comment
    • Author: lolike
    one of the things that used to bug the hell out of me in the early G.O.T seasons was the budgetary requirement that battles couldn't really be shown . so we had all the talking, preparing, build up and then ...aftermath .Tyrion wakes up after very conveniently getting knocked out .Robb lets his wolves loose on the lanister army then... no battle .We get the same thing now for an entire season All stannis has been doing is talking ,preparing ,plotting and planning to take winter fell from the boltons and it leads to a build up to sweet bugger all. A bitter disappointment ,I thought they had the budget to match their imagination these days but no ,still pulling the same old "walking dead" style tricks.
  • comment
    • Author: Mavivasa
    *I have not read the books* *Game of Thrones was one of my favorite TV-series*

    Season 5 of Game of Thrones has felt off canon the whole season, and it's no wonder as that is what it is by fact. The epicness Martin built the former 4 seasons - and which was delivered - has now ended after the TV series took its own train to wreck. Especially in the finale.

    The brutal awe we loved has turned into overused clichés and drama writing which is now aimed for a totally new audience, the audience who loves the TV and the cinema we GoT fans hated in the first place. The slowly built awesomeness has now turned into a spoon-feeding massacre which you see a mile away, the easiest way is now chosen every single time.

    Characters are killed without any reason story-wise. The personalities we saw the last 4 seasons have been changed, they have been turned into completely different people, not in the name of character development or new ideas, not for their own benefit, but solely in the name of the TV-series and its progression. Everything is done in the name of the pacing. This makes the whole season rushed, it rapes half the characters and makes the writing so predictable and lackcluster-ish that one can only wonder if the series changed from GoT to LotR, but no, this is worse. Game of Thrones has ended and D&D has started. Time to empty those hard drives and go buy the books. I will not watch season 6 and neither will any Game of Thrones fan who doesn't wish to hate the series.
  • comment
    • Author: Nahn
    I was so angry at the previous episode's butchering of the story that I watched this one heavily prejudiced. A fair I think conclusion is that this season finale had some great moments (unsurprisingly those that were closest to book canon) and some others that could, even within the context of the vastly ruined show story lines, work quite powerfully except for one little thing: when they are not adapting material, Benioff and Weiss are proving increasingly incapable of avoiding black holes in the plot that even a toddler could spot. Exhibit 1: Shireen's sacrifice has melted the snows, allowing Stannis' leftover army to reach Winterfell. A couple of hours later. On foot. If that isn't a ridiculous trade-off I don't know what is.

    Now, again, it's not that it's different than the book. It's that the book version makes sense. Why did Melisandre sacrifice Shireen and not someone else of royal blood (they're still there in the show)? Why didn't she do the same spell that got rid of Renly? In the book, well, she isn't there. That makes sense. How do you explain that everything she had so far done in the show had worked and now she failed so miserably? Why is Ramsay Snow treated like some sort of Marvel Supervillain? Most importantly, how were the Boltons preparing for a siege and yet apparently kept a laughably large army inside the keep? Which the often praised for military prowess in previous episodes Stannis knew nothing about? These aren't small details; for a show of this budget, fame, production, I'm not letting you get away with such a horrible mess of a plot. Especially not when you could have avoided everything by sticking to the book. This sloppiness ruins even the, I will begrudgingly admit, fine moments of the Winterfell sequence, like Selyse's suicide. Because for every good moment, you get a "suddenly Sansa can pick a lock" or a "totally unjustified by the script conversion of Reek".

    But there was more than the Winterfell battle, thankfully. The Dorne story sees another divergence (though it was already so different it doesn't count much). At least this time the Dorne scenes advanced the plot a bit. But something needs to be done about the Sand Snakes. They cast a few beautiful and likely talented actresses and they are feeding them the most ridiculous lines - there was only one in this episode and I was rolling my eyes. The Arya storyline was quite good - the latter part was great (and faithful). The preceding murder of Meryn Trant was also a good piece of television except... did they really need to go to such lengths to demonstrate what a bad guy Meryn Trant is? This is the last place to go look for black and white morality. Arya wants revenge. You don't have to show us how justified it is. On the contrary, it would, I think, be much more powerful if we saw Meryn Trant being a nice guy and Arya still murdered him. The Meereen parts were a little meh. Nothing too spectacular, it's always good to see Varys even if his presence there seems a little convenient. Daenerys gets captures by a Khal, someone might have thought that since she was standing atop a high clifftop a few minutes before she would have seen a giant horde of Dothraki, but you'll say I'm overreacting.

    Cersei's walk of shame was a very powerful scene - though I dare say it was hard to fail at it, Lena Headey is a fine actress. I did see a subliminal self-criticism on the part of the show with the constant monotone of "shame".

    And then we have Jon Snow's murder (?). Finely handled as well, I won't complain (no Melisandre warning here of course, but doesn't matter). I suspect all those obvious hints with Ollie in previous episodes might have removed the surprise element for those who didn't know, but maybe not.

    All in all, I didn't really like season 5. Up until episode 8 it was certainly good but hardly compared to the previous years except for a few scenes (e.g. in Hardhome). Episode 9 was in my opinion a catastrophic, resounding failure on all levels of plot development. The finale uses a few of the book's climaxes to good effect but I am not sure a story so far removed and so poorly conceived at many of its original branches can stand.
  • comment
    • Author: Risa
    This series has always been known to dish out profoundly gut-wrenching scenes, and this finale was just another example. If Season 5 hasn't been a bloodbath for you yet, there's more blood spillt in this episode than probably in the last nine combined. Jam-packed full of story lines, this is one the fans will never forget - for many reasons.

    Starting from the beginning, this looked to be an epic tale through death and destruction. The Baratheon line is quickly being eradicated with the death of Shireen last week, and now both her parents. Selyse' suicide comes as slightly a surprise, but we could not blame her for that remorse she showed after witnessing the burning of her daughter. Of King Stannis though, his death is unclear as of yet. Brienne, unfortunately missed Sansa's sign at the window, but it seems in the end, got her revenge for the one King she could be loyal to, Renly Baratheon.

    The only slight criticism I have for the finale is the rushed feeling of Stannis's death and Sansa' escape, which is no denying exciting for both Sansa and Theon. Myranda was the next to die as she took a tumble from the battlements. It's just a shame it wasn't Ramsey. Otherwise, this cliffhanger (literally) seems quite adequate, but will be agonising for those of us begging for Season 6.

    In Braavos, we got mixed emotions. Firstly, we got to see Arya in full "badass" mode, turning Meryn Trant into a sniveling boy, before killing him permanently. But, we knew Arya's success must come at a price and she is forcefully blinded by Jaqen H'ghar in the midst of his trickery as a Faceless Man. Funny that she lost her sight, and the first weakness that she went for of Ser Meryn was his eyes.

    Dorne went from diplomatic calm-ville to a surprising twist, which was all orchestrated by the deceptive Ellaria Sand. Owing to her failure earlier on in the season, she played the long game and allowed Myrcella to die in the end, just like many of the Dornish people with some exotic poison no doubt. Heaven knows, I thought the scene between Jaime and his daughter was quite beautiful until all hell broke loose. But that's Game of Thrones for you.

    Talk about filling the time, we also had Tyrion, Daario and Jorah discussing what to do next following Daenerys' flight. I think it's a great decision to leave Tyrion in charge of Meereen and I'm intrigued to see how he does it. Equally, Daenerys' cliffhanger was tantalising as she's regrettably reunited with the khalasar under a new Khal. I wonder if they recognise her as the late Drogo's wife?

    The best performance of the night, and probably the best scene of the episode was Cersei's atonement. Despite having a body double for the long shots, Lena Headey's performance is utterly stupendous as the walk of shame came about. Some might point out the unnecessary length of the scene, but I believe it showed the true nature of Cersei's character - one who has sinned pretty much all her life and now she is reduced to tears. There's no doubt she's want revenge, but for a few moments, the viewers won't be able to help feeling sorry for that torture. Also, Gregor Clegane has had a transformation at last, thanks to the ever loyal Qyburn.

    Finally, we come to the Wall as developments happen in quick succession and mutiny unfolds. Sam decides to go to Oldtown with Gilly and the baby, a storyline that we will probably be following closely in Season 6 and Davos heard the terrible news from Stannis' field. But most significant of all, and probably something that will be discussed and scrutinised for the next ten months, was Jon's saddening death as his Night's Watchmen stab him to his death, not to mention Olly's betrayal. His only hope now is a miracle (which may not be surprising in GoT), but until an alternative appears, we can be sure that he's well and truly dead.

    An episode that leaves a desolation in its wake, not to mention many teary eyes from the viewers as we say goodbye to a number of characters in one go. Those who are obsessed with the show will probably have no hope of surviving the gap between finale and premiere of the next season, but we'll certainly try. Following a stunning performance, that left me speechless for a while, I can honestly I'm very satisfied with how the season came about. Congratulations to D&D for their adaption - it's a winner!

    9.6/10
  • comment
    • Author: Dugor
    OK, we agree that we all love unexpected twist and turns, and the unpredictable shows are always the best.

    We loved so many surprises in this show and that's part of what made GoT so good.

    I haven't read the books, but I've heard they want to stray away from them to keep it more interesting. No argue there.

    But this time, what we see in this episode is a meaningless death (I'm not spoiling anything, of course you expect someone to die in the last episode of a season, don't you?).

    There is simply no real reason to do that, clearly this is not how the story is meant to go on, and it makes so much of what has already happened basically pointless.

    It washes away a lot of what we've seen, and I won't be surprised if more people will do what I will: give up the series and start reading the books.

    I don't know whose idea this was (Martin's or the producers'), but IMO it is purely a run for sensational, and an attempt to attract publicity through shock.

    I believe that this episode was a total failure.
  • comment
    • Author: Thiama
    Unlike so many prone to sing praises of GOT this season, I completely disagree. Many times during this season I questioned why I was bothering to watch this show. My sense was that it was mainly because of it's better past and hoping for some return to former glory or some kind of redemption for sucking away so much of my time and energy. The writing this season many times left me feeling that the writers really didn't want to do the show anymore. Story lines grew weak and characters grew flat. There were a few places that it lived up to expectations based on past success but for the most part this season and most of all this finale were sub par.

    I have not read the books. And while I didn't care for some of the directions that story lines took, all of that could have been overcome by better writing. Granted based on past success there was a lot to live up to, but this season the writers did a very poor job. If I decide to watch next season at all, it will be after it is over so I don't waste time wondering what will happen. Based on this season it would be constant disappointment.
  • comment
    • Author: Mr_KiLLaURa
    I have read many comments about GAME OF THRONES season 5 finale: from excellent to outstanding to downright predictable and boring. I tend to stick with the first. I, like many other viewers of this show, have become addicted to the story in the seven kingdoms.

    There's some serious advancement in the multiple storyline: Jon Snow dies stabbed to death by his own Night's Watch brothers, Arya becomes a pupil of the Many Faced God only to be left apparently blind, Stannis Baratheon finally realizes that all those prophecies Melisandre raved about are untrue and that his daughter's sacrifice turned out to be the finest example in futility. Tyrion Lannister forges an alliance with Daenerys Targaryen, who is left by her dragon in the middle of nowhere while escaping a coup in the city of Meereen. We see Daenrys being surrounded by hordes of Dothraki riders with the intention of kidnapping her. Meanwhile in Winterfell, Theon "Reek" Greyjoy and Sansa Stark make a desperate escape from Ramsay Bolton as he arrives from his winning battle with Stannis. Last but not least, we have Cersei Lannister's walk of "atonement", where the regent Queen mother of King's Landing is force to purge her sins in front of the city's population, naked and escorted by the brutal Septa Unella who whips a bell as she chants, "shame".

    It's the only scene I've heard friends say, "poor Cersei", or "this is too much for her". Apparently these friends have forgotten that it was Cersei who started all this mess by ordering her lover/brother Jamie Lannister to push young Brandon Stark off the window of a high tower. Until the army of the dead make it south of the wall, Cersei remains the main antagonist in the story, the main "bad guy" in GAME OF THRONES, even more so than the Boltons, or the treacherous Night's Watch brothers, or the fanatical Sons of the Harpy.

    I do feel however that some loose ends have to start veering in a more concrete way to their conclusions.

    1. Sansa Stark - So far she's played the "damsel in distress" prototype. Season 6 has to make her transition into a tough as nails bitch. After the killing of almost her entire family, she needs to take the reigns and start plotting revenge on those who've wronged her family.

    2. Daenerys Targaryen - I understand that she needs to get to King's Landing in order to regain what' "rightfully hers" yet (as of episode 9, Season 5) she seems to be pretty comfortable in Meereen. What is she waiting for?

    3. Jon Snow - He is obviously NOT dead. You can't have so much build up on one character only to kill him off just like that. Why did Ned Stark never told him who his mother was? Why did the White Walker stared at him in the battle of Hardhome? Why did Melisandre tried to seduced him? Why did Maester Aemon told him to "Kill the boy"? Jon Snow's storyline will continue for sure!

    4. Cersei Lannister - She's defied almost everyone in her path, friend and foe alike, and it's been established that's she's been a raging bitch since she was a little girl (as seen on the first episode of season 5). It's a wonder no one has tried to poison her or kill her, yet her walk of atonement in season's 5 finale has been her embrace with pure, unadulterated humiliation. She will eventually slay those involved in her most disgraceful hour before someone finally slays her.

    5. Tyrion Lannister - My favorite character, will have to prove that his alliance with Daenerys must pay off with peace for the Seven Kingdoms, as Lord Varys has expressed.

    Forget the naysayers: "Mother's Mercy" was a great finale for season 5. I hope season 6 is even more exciting!
  • comment
    • Author: LiTTLe_NiGGa_in_THE_СribE
    This is not a good episode for royalties, almost everyone holding seat of power have terrible fate waiting for them. As expected repercussions of burning his child, Stannis finds himself with less aid than he had. In a rather anticlimactic fashion, he is steamrolled by the Boltons. This is as one sided as they come, Stannis' survival is highly questionable and if he does miraculously escape culling, his case for the throne is practically over.

    Arya has her wish granted, mostly by her own hand. She seems to channel assassin from Kill Bill and eventually crosses one name off her list. All with a hefty price though. Maisie Williams takes the character to unknown territory, she always has knack for deceptively malicious intent, but claiming her own kill will change the character, for better or worse.

    The other princesses are also lost. Her sister Sansa finds herself in troublesome situation and also serendipitously a help in unexpected form. After seasons of abuse, Theon finally has his moment of salvation. The two take the leap of faith together, and this is the most hope given for young ladies in the episode.

    On Jaime's side, he eventually obtains a bit of solace with her daughter. He does not have much spotlight this season, his time is spent mostly on brooding and bantering. It's a breath of fresh air when he's embraced by his flesh and blood. This lasts three seconds as this princess doesn't even make it to the wedding. Poison of the viper runs deep in the family.

    The aftermath of arena skirmish unites eclectic party in Meereen. This is the epitome of fantasy group with warriors and strategists assembled. Daenerys has gathered colorful subordinates as Tyrion takes on the duty of taming another wild city which seems to have given him some sense of purpose. However, Daenerys herself is in foreign territory, although a lot of strangers clamoring around her is not particularly new for her.

    The episode, and season, ends with tragic public prosecution of Cersei and Jon Snow. Cersei takes a literal walk of shame as she is humbled in public. It's admittedly hard to witness as her rigid defense is gradually crumbling, but this might just fuel more hatred for next season. Meanwhile, Jon Snow is unfortunately as cold as his name implies.

    This season has been nice in all the darkest ways. See you next time.
  • comment
    • Author: Ginaun
    Well, this episode is in my opinion among the best ones, and absolutely the second best season ending (winds of winter is probably extremely hard, if not impossible to top)that we have had!

    This episode is very intense all the way through, and is extremely underrated! I see a lot of bad reviews for this episode and i cant seem to understand what the problem with this episode is! Its very intense, very entertaining, and has a insane ending, Which made it very hard to wait just three days (i got finished with got three days before season 6)!
  • comment
    • Author: Wohald
    POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR ALL READERS AHEAD !

    I read all the comments on this episode, and I won't repeat what others have said about how great this episode is. But I get really annoyed when I see people giving nasty reviews because they do not understand that there is a reason, and a purpose, behind every death that occurred in this series. And by the way, rest easy, Jon Snow is not "dead". But there is no greatness without suffering, no success without sacrifice, and no happiness without sadness. We all loved Game of Thrones because of its unpredictability, its plot twists, its lack of cheesy clichés. And this is what GOT delivered in all seasons. And some say Season 5 started out slowly. But so did the other seasons, and no one mentioned a thing. Or were you expecting the storm after Twin's death ? And I will stop here, because I know that there are people who say Lord of the Rings it's nonsense, so whatever, I'm not going to waste my time convincing people that don't want to understand the notion of "greater goal".
  • comment
    • Author: generation of new
    I admit that I've been entertained steadily as I've been drawn through these 5 seasons of GoT. Ned Stark got my interest immediately, but then I had to transfer to Robb Stark. And then to Jon Snow. Now who's left? It seems that each time I become interested in a strong and hopeful character, they are killed off. Karsi the wildling was so promising and strong, but she too was brief. Even gentle Shireen and Myrcella Baratheon have been killed off. Of course this makes me hesitant to care for any more characters, which reveals that the great GRR Martin has broken a sacred trust with his readers and viewers. You can't toy with a reader's bonding to characters and then wretch it away for your own pleasure; that's something more typical of Ramsay Bolton than a great writer. No, if the readers hesitate to care for the strong characters, then no great story will succeed. The power of the author is not ultimate. The ultimate power goes to the readers who can cast the entire lot of ugly and monstrous characters asunder by simply refusing to read or watch another word. I'm almost there. Judging from the declining ratings and numbers of viewers, I am not the only one of this opinion. I shall wait until all the reviews are in for all episodes of Season 6 before I invest another minute in the depressing and cynical tale that GoT has become.
  • comment
    • Author: Mr_Mix
    Many others have made many points with which I wholeheartedly agree. The more I think about the episode the more I hate it. The problem lies with D&D. Game of Thrones has gone from being a show that would refuse to give the "main characters" free passes to giving them out to the "bad guys." D&D have forsaken good storytelling in favor of moments to shock the audience. I have no faith in the next season of this show, the delusions of the creators can be summed up with their own quotes following the episodes. The fact that they are totally oblivious to the hatred the fan base feels towards Olly shows they are absolutely clueless. Dorne and The North were the two story lines they altered the most and it seems to be fair to say that both these were by far the worst parts of the show. Sad to see something so great fall apart due to the hubris of it's creators, maybe in 20 years someone can revive the series and give it the treatment it deserves.
  • comment
    • Author: Modar
    This was so far the best season finale of Game of Thrones. Usually, GOT's finale settles after every decimating 9th episode but this episode showed many twists and turns paving its way for what's lot more to come in season 6.

    This finale is very intense throughout its 1 hour run, and its ending will want you to kill yourself! You will be left bedazed, exasperated and you might start crying. And believe me, its worth it!

    It's not only the ending that would scourge you. The episode shows what happens to Sansa Stark, Daenerys Targaryen and Cersei Lannister. Stannis approaches Winterfell and what happens then is not so surprising!

    Watch this intriguing finale of Season 5 if you haven't. Put aside all your work and witness another jaw dropping episode that will be debatable for months to come!
  • comment
    • Author: Linn
    It just isn't fair. After an episode of so much justice, so much satisfaction then this. "This is for the watch?" Are you kidding me? I'm not sure who the real traitor is. Jon Snow deserved so much better than this. To have two Starks, and yes Jon Snow was a stark die being known as traitors is as unjust as it gets no matter what dictionary you pull to find meaning. A part of me knew it was possible but who would have thought that it actually happen? I can't even discuss all the positives of this episode, and cliff hangers of all the characters including Arya, Jamie, Daenerys, Sansa, Theon, Cersei, without looking and saying wow Jon Snow is dead, let those words sink in; this was by far the biggest injustice to a character. Ned Stark was tough to swallow but I accepted it because it open the doors to a better story, Robb Stark deserved his death, never break an oath even if you are "The King of the North." I ranked this episode so high because even with his death you can't help but give respect to George R.R. Martin for once again reminding us that no one is safe when you play The Game of Thrones.
  • comment
    • Author: Nawenadet
    If this show followed the Hollywood trend of 'good guys always win' and 'main characters never die' then it would end up being just an average TV series with nice scenery. But those unexpected moments are why I and many others love this show. Because it's analogous to life, where anyone can die in the midst of a war, where the kings and heroes don't always die in glorious ways, where the most unexpected events can occur, where the people who shouldn't rule, rule for decades and those who show great potential, die in banal ways. It would be so nice to see Jon Snow alive and living up to his potential, it would be so nice to see Stannis take over Winterfell and save Sansa, it would be so nice to see Daenerys come back to Meereen all well and good. But would it?

    I think it's more like that sweet cake you'd love to eat, but once you eat it you realize it was a bad idea. Now you feel guilty and disappointed because you didn't foresee the long term implications. If those things did happen, it would end up being just another generic show. The moments that make us go 'I can't believe they just killed Jon Snow' are why we watch and love Game of Thrones!
  • comment
    • Author: Malak
    As season five of Game of Thrones comes to an end we visit most of the major character and see what is happening to them… in most cases it is not something good. In Braavos Arya manages to kill Meryn Trant but her satisfaction is short lived; his death was not sanctioned by the Many-faced God so there will be a heavy price to pay. In Meereen Jorah Mormont and Daario Naharis leave to search for Daenerys leaving Tyrion to run the city. Meanwhile Daenerys is far to the north with her sick dragon; here she finds herself surrounded by a Dothraki hoard.

    Back in Westeros Jaime and Bronn sail from Dorne but relief soon turns to despair for Jaime when his daughter collapses; poisoned by Ellaria Sand. North of Winterfell Stannis learns that half his army have departed and his wife has hanged herself; then Melisandre abandons him leaving him to face the Bolton's army with just a small number of foot soldiers. In Winterfell Sansa and Theon take drastic measures to get away from Ramsey. Further south in King's Landing Cersei confesses to one of the crimes she has confessed to and is forced to undergo a humiliating penance. At Castle Black Sam departs with Gilly before Alliser Thorne confronts Jon Snow in one of the series' most shocking moments to date.

    This was certainly one of the most downbeat series finale's to date; indeed it looks as though many major characters have died… although the fact that we didn't always see the moment of death leaves open the possibility that some will survive. It will be a long wait to find out! Thankfully it wasn't all depressing; it was good to see Sam and Gilly leave Castle Black and the reunion of Tyrion and Varys was equally pleasing. The fact that the story visited each of the protagonists did mean we didn't get to stay with any of them long which was a pity but something that couldn't really be helped as none of the sections seemed superfluous. The cast did a fine job; particular mention much go to Lena Headey; her performance was brilliant and brave as Cersei is humiliated and forced to walk naked through the streets of King's Landing; there was nothing erotic about her nudity and for once it was hard not to feel sympathy for Cersei. Overall I'd say this was a cracking conclusion to a fairly solid season; I look forward to Season Six.
  • comment
    • Author: Groll
    Game of Thrones is a show I've been binging the past few weeks. Needless to say, I'm awestruck. By its beauty in creating this rich fantasy world, by its strict attention to detail, by its clever storytelling, deep characters, and superb acting. Simply everything about this show has kept me locked in. At least, until the fifth season. I was becoming wary of the show's quality up until the episode Hardhome, which featured one of the greatest television scenes I've experienced in recent memory. It was then that my fears of an inferior season were gone. Most seasons up until this point have been slow burns, only elevating to epic heights in its final few episodes, and this season seemed no different. Unfortunately, the finale left a lot to be desired. While it's extraordinary by other TV standards, it's not up to par with previous finales and its flaws are too glaring to ignore.

    The writing in this episode feels choppy. There are so many story lines the show juggles simultaneously, and this is the only episode where I noticed it jumping from one story to the next, to the next, with little to no cohesion or fluidity. It's quite jarring, especially since many story lines come to an end in this episode. Moments that should feel impactful and dire merely come across as lazy and perfunctory. Arya's arc in this season essentially went nowhere, which was disappointing. Daenerys' scene was pointless and overlong, not to mention underwhelming following her epic actions in the previous episode. These scenes served little more than to break up the rest of the episode's momentum, offering no closure to the characters themselves, which is a shame considering how much I love them.

    Mother's Mercy does a few things right. Cersei's arc this season was one that came full circle in the most sensible and righteous way possible. She was finally stripped of power and forced to present her naked self to her people, both figuratively and literally. It was a heartbreaking scene, not because she didn't deserve it, but because of how raw and desperate Cersei has become. She was no longer the manipulative, conniving bitch we've come to know and love (to hate). Rather, she's presented a vulnerable wretch for the entire city to see. It's a powerful scene and one of the season's arcs that actually worked. Stannis also has his comeuppance, and although it makes sense from a practical standpoint, it's unfortunate that his character had to meet such a disgraceful end. He had become one of my favorite characters, and it was sad to see it all go to waste due to his stubbornness and failure to trust in himself. Though, from a character standpoint, these always were his weaker traits and it made sense that they'd result in his downfall.

    Jon Snow is the real talking point of the episode, and after watching the episode, I was speechless. I was seething at the fact that they killed off his character, the last of the Stark sons (not including the children), who has become the most honorable and likable character on the show. But again, from a practical standpoint, it makes perfect sense that his honor ended up getting him killed by his own people. From the point of view of the Night's Watch, Jon was a traitor, putting the lives of their enemies ahead of their own. However, as sensible as it may be, his death still infuriates me. He was a cornerstone of the show and I can't imagine it being the same without him.

    These pivotal scenes worked on their own, but in the context of this episode, their power was dampened. It was scene after scene of tying up loose ends, and after a while it became desensitizing. Still, the production value and performances alone elevate the episode into being a great watch. On the lower end of the GoT spectrum, sure. Shocking and infuriating, absolutely. But well-made television nonetheless.
  • Episode cast overview, first billed only:
    Peter Dinklage Peter Dinklage - Tyrion Lannister
    Nikolaj Coster-Waldau Nikolaj Coster-Waldau - Jaime Lannister
    Lena Headey Lena Headey - Cersei Lannister
    Emilia Clarke Emilia Clarke - Daenerys Targaryen
    Kit Harington Kit Harington - Jon Snow
    Stephen Dillane Stephen Dillane - Stannis Baratheon
    Liam Cunningham Liam Cunningham - Davos Seaworth
    Carice van Houten Carice van Houten - Melisandre (as Carice Van Houten)
    Indira Varma Indira Varma - Ellaria Sand
    Maisie Williams Maisie Williams - Arya Stark
    Sophie Turner Sophie Turner - Sansa Stark
    John Bradley John Bradley - Samwell Tarly
    Hannah Murray Hannah Murray - Gilly
    Nathalie Emmanuel Nathalie Emmanuel - Missandei
    Michiel Huisman Michiel Huisman - Daario Naharis
    All rights reserved © 2017-2024 hd.thomson-multimedia.com