I get that they needed to do a big dramatic battle thingie (and have been building up to it for a season and a half), but I was actually a bit disappointed that the entire episode focused just on the Wall. Wouldn't have minded a couple scenes cutting back to other storylines, doubly so given the massive hanging ending from the previous episode. Yeah, drama. Whatever.
Overall, I liked the battle (the giant shooting that guy literally off the damn wall was pretty cool). Marred a bit by the typical dramatic flourishes which always seem to intrude into such things (but are apparently a necessary staple of the media). Stuff like when Alliser comes down with a group of men to help defend the fort, and he stops to give a dramatic speech to rally the men, giving the wildlings just enough time to finish clambering over the walls and into the fort itself. Had they just charged to say the section of wall where the last few guys were giving their lives trying to hold off the attack, they would have been engaging them on the damn wall where the defenders would have the advantage, rather than in the courtyard, where they did not. Dunno. The timing of the action in that scene just kinda bothered me. I get that a wild and chaotic fight in a courtyard is much more exciting visually than fighting in narrow battlements, and I wouldn't have had a problem with it if they'd had them arrive too late to fight them on said battlements. But he literally stopped to give a speech exactly long enough to ensure that the fight occurred in the courtyard. Could have achieved the same dramatic effect (maybe even better) by having him give the speech as they're dropping down the elevator and looking down at the walls being overrun and wildlings flooding into the courtyard and realizing that they were in for the fight of their lives. But hey, I'm not in the film/tv industry, so what do I know?
That also kind of highlighted something that bothered me. Again, it's the tactical versus dramatic issue. Given the massive Wall really wasn't in much threat at all, they could literally have defended the top of the Wall with like 10 guys. So why on earth did they have nearly everyone where they weren't going to be in any immediate danger, whilst leaving a skeleton force to defend the most vulnerable part of the fort. It's not like they didn't know there were bands of wildlings in the immediate area, and even that the entire battle plan rested on the fire from beyond the wall signaling a combined assault on both sides. Again, I get the whole "gotta have drama" bit, but you'd think guys who dedicate their entire lives to defending one fortification would actually have some basic tactical skill at doing exactly that. Kinda obvious that the weak point of their defenses is the southern side of the castle, right? I guess I just read too much into this stuff, but it just bothers me when writers basically fall back on "they didn't think of that" as an excuse to create negative outcomes. Doubly so when it's not really necessary. They are outnumbered. Badly. Just show this in a realistic manner. You don't need to compound it with really dumb decisions.
Edited, Jun 9th 2014 7:44pm by gbaji
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King Nobby wrote:
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