Game Of Thrones: The Dance Of Dragons Review

Game Of Thrones was a TV show that for the first seven seasons was actually pretty good with the les about the eighth and final season the better. Yet people myself including seem to not talk about season five all that much and well I thought that i'd kill two birds with one stone here as I also haven't reviewed anything from Game Of Thrones in quite a while and so then join me as I review the episode that sees a beloved character die in a horrific way with the episode in question being called simply just "The Dance Of Dragons" enjoy.

The plot of this episode is Stannis finds a way to gain advantage in the war to come while Arya meets up with someone from her past. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad as it was one of the more better plots from the latter half of this shows existence with alot of that coming down to the fact that it not only sticks to the plot of the book like glue but also from the fact that it does try to shocking and actively leave you guessing as to what's going to happen next and it's that kind of storytelling that does bring you back week after week as you just have to watch the next episode of a show to find out what's goin to your favorite characters and while the ninth episode of this show is usually when things go belly up for our heroes here because of the fact that the plot of the episode is relatively small in scale when compared to other episode nine plots this episodes plot does also oddly enough feel alot more personal then alot of the other episodes as we're getting to spend alot of time with these characters that we already know and love and get to spend alot of time just trying to see how they think and feel about certain events that are going on in there plots with the plot of this episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this episode is Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Ser Jaime Lannister. Also starring in this episode is Emilia Clarke as Queen Daenerys Targaryen , Kit Harington as Lord Commander Jon Snow , Stephen Dillane as King Stannis Baratheon , Liam Cunningham as Ser Davos Seaworth , Carice van Houten as Lady Melisandre , Indira Varma as Ellaria Sand , Maisie Williams as Arya Stark , Jerome Flynn as Ser Bronn , John Bradley as Samwell Tarly , Kristofer Hivju as Tormund , Tom Wlaschiha as Jaqen H'ghar , Michiel Huisman as Daario Naharis , Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei , Iain Glen as Ser Jorah Mormont , Owen Teale as Ser Alliser Thorne , Tara Fitzgerald as Queen Selyse Baratheon , Mark Gatiss as Tycho Nestoris , Alexander Siddig as Prince Doran Martell , DeObia Oparei as Areo Hotah , Joel Fry as Hizdahr Zo Loraq , Ian Beattie as Ser Meryn Trant , Roger Ashton-Griffiths as Lord Mace Tyrell , Ben Crompton as Eddison Tollett , Keisha Castle-Hughes as Obara Sand , Rosabell Laurenti Sellers as Tyene Sand , Jessica Henwick as Nymeria Sand , Nell Tiger Free as Princess Myrcella Baratheon , Toby Sebastian as Prince Trystane Martell , Kerry Ingram as Princess Shireen Baratheon and Brenock O'Connor as Olly.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. Which is something that's really not all that new for this show as this show has always had some really good acting in it even in all of it's bad episodes which is something that does go to show you just how good all of this shows actors really are as they constantly brought there A game to each and every episode of each and every season of this show with this episodes being of no exception to that rule as even actors who are fairly new to the show like for example Mark Gatiss who is a really good actor in his right more then holds his own when it comes to acting against people who have been in this show from the very beginning with it being really hard to find one single great performer in this episode but if push comes to shove then the best actor in this episode is Stephen Dillane as King Stannis Baratheon as he really has to make his character not only seem justified but also make you understand where his actions really are coming this is despite them being really heinous and that's something that really only a top notch actor can really go and do with the acting that's in this very episode really being helped by the fact that this episodes script is just so good that all this episodes actors really have to do is just say the lines as they lines as they are written and a good performance really will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode. 

Doing the CGI for this episode is Rhythm & Hues Studios , Mackevision , Rodeo FX , Atomic Fiction , Image Engine Design , Clearcut FX , Screen Scene , Cadence Effects and Pixomondo. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good and was more the up to the already high standard of visual effects that the show already had with the episode making great use of set extensions and adding in crowds of people so much so that you really wouldn't notice which members of a crowd was CGI and which were real people as there both done so well with all of this episodes visual effects looking so good as they all look like that they were on set filming with all of the other actors and while yes granted alot of this episode CGI is looking a bit more dated especially when compared to only the more recent season of Game Of Thrones but also it's prequel show House Of The Dragon as well that's something that was always going to happen as the world of visual effects moves so quickly but that doesn't mean that the effects in this episode are now bad by comparison as there really not heck if anything alot of this episodes effects look like they done just yesterday as that's how good alot of them do still look where as effects in even the more recent Marvel live action shows do look dated already when there being compared to effects from this episode as that's just how well the effects in this episode do still hold up.

If there's one thing that this episode is quite famous for it's the fact that this is episode that does see a kid character get burned alive. With the character in question being Princess Shireen Baratheon while her father and mother just stand by and watch it happen and heck in the case of her father he made it happen in the first place and to give this episode some form of credit they don't actually show the kid being killed of as even for this show that would have been a bit to much to show but the very fact that they went there and even have the mother try to stop it from happening was what makes it a tragic scene and even more when you take into account that the episode does show Stannis wrestle with the choice of is this something that needs to be done or not which then makes us the audience see things from his point of view not only from leader a general and King but also from the point of view of a father as well as he's been told that she ha to die for things to improve or him in this war and yet even tho he knows that killing of his only daughter is a bad thing to do the reasoning behind it does make it more understandable and even the fact that Shireen herself even has a scene in this episode with her father where she openly states that she'll do anything to help him win this war something that a good daughter would say and in this case do as well with her death being all the more tragic by the fact that the makers of this show spend the best part of this season building up her friendship with Davos with her teaching him how to read and showing them becoming genuinely good friends with her being a really likable character because of that fact.

There are is one thing that I really didn't like about this episode and that's the fact that even tho this is big ninth episode of the season which is usually where they have something big and important to the plot happen. Here in this episode tho nothing really all that big and important to the plot of this season does happen as even the death of Princess Shireen is something could have happened in either the previous episode or in the following episode as it's just that big enough to be something that happens in this episode and heck really the only thing that's big scale wise that happens in this episode is the brawl that breaks out in the Dragon Fighting Pit and that's really it and even then it's not really something that's built up all that well all throughout the episode as those scenes only come into play near the end of the episode which makes you wonder why the makers of this show couldn't come up with a bigger episode nine as heck even the previous episode had the Massacre At Hardhome which is something that really would have been great to see in this episode and it's something that really does make this episode come across more as being a filler episode like the makers of this episode knew that they messed up by making the massacre at hardhome take place an episode earlier it very easily could have taken up the whole of this episode just by itself with alot of the episodes other scenes including the scenes with Dany and friends being better served as being in the final episode of the season as they feel like the end of the characters arc for this particular series and therefor would have been better of served being in the last episode of this series rather in this basically nothing episode.

While Arya herself is a good character she's not really used all that well in this episode as all that she does is see someone from her death list and follow them around for a bit and that's really it. Which to be fair is pretty par the course for the character at this point in time but at the same time tho it would have been nice to see her get some sort of revenge on Ser Meryn Trant for him killing her water dance teacher in series one of this show and yet she doesn't do anything which does seem out of character for her as she is someone who would strike first and ask questions later and yet here she's spending a good few minuets just watching this person that she already knows that she hates and wants to kill all for no reason which is something that really does make her inclusion in this episode feel pointless as while yes granted her plot in the book does go pretty much the exact same here the difference is tho it that in a TV show you only have so many hours of television to fill where as with a big you can spend as long as you like showing Arya spy on Ser Meryn Trant and it would still work as it would feel true to the book version of the character however the TV show version of the character wouldn't act like that and therefor it would have made more sense or her to get revenge on him in this episode and then have the following episode either not feature Arya at all as there would be no point to feature the character in that episode or deal with the blow out from this episode either one is something that would have worked and would have felt true to who the character is in this show.

Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly fifty two minuets and twenty three seconds. Which is the bogstandard running tome for this show to have and to this episodes credit it really does have the right amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running and while in once respect it really doesn't use it running time all that wisely as it has several other episodes n which the characters and the world can then be fully fleshed out but it does it's running time really wisely in another respect in that it does take it time it's telling it's plot and by doing that it means that us the audience can get a better idea of just what it is that the characters are thinking at any given moment in the episode and there for it is something that does allow us to form a connection with these characters all other again something that the makers of the episode really didn't have to do for something that is basically a filler episode in the grand scheme of things but it's something that does make the episode stand out a little bit as it now means that would have been seen as being really rash choice by Stannis now seem like something that he really doesn't want to do but feels like that he has to do because of the fact that the makers of this episode included a scene with him talking to his daughter and it's a scene that does make her death all the more tragic as she's basically telling her father that it's OK if he kills her in this episode but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is an action show that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty i in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film not that bad. However at the same time tho this episodes action wasn't really all that good either as thanks to the episodes editing it was quite hard to tell what was going on alot of the time but when the edition does make it far easier to make it out what's happening this episodes action is really fun to see as seeing all of Team Dany trapped in a circle with countless people closing in on them is always going to be something that's quite tense to see and to the episodes credit it does build up that tension really well by openly showing that there's nowhere for these characters to run to in the dragon fighting pits which is something that does make there fate all but sealed until Drogon comes in and saves them by burning everything that he can do to the ground all the while taking arrows to his side and back and while he does only rescue Dany even that is something that does make sense as she is his mother and there for of course he would rescue her and while this episode might have been a little bit better off with more then one action scene in it it would be hard to fit in another action scene into this episode and there for only having the one action scene take place in this episode was the right call to make on part of the makers of this show in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall while this was still a really weak episode of this season it was still a really good episode in it's own right it's just one that doesn't really advance the plot of this season and as a result of that is the fact that this episode does come across as being more like a filler episode instead of being a must watch episode of the show in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now the i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a gran old score of exactly a 7 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and ad well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Game Of Thrones fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great the official Game Of Thrones fandom wiki page really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them being better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on the official Game Of Thrones fandom wiki page are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.

Game Of Thrones "Hardhome" Review

 

Now then Game Of Thrones the last time I reviewed an episode of Game Of Thrones was all the way back in July 2020 (with the exact date being either July 1st 2020 or July 2nd 2020 depending on where your seeing this review) as such I thought that it was about time that I review another episode of Games Of Thrones. I fully admit it was hard for me to pick an episode to review since there are alot of good and memorable episodes out there and join me as I review the Game Of Thrones episode that is called simply "Hardhome" enjoy.

The plot of this episode is episode Dany gets advice from an unlikely source , Arya makes progress in her training with the many faced god and Jon tries to rescue some Wildlings. If i'm being honest it was pretty hard for me to write a plot summery for this episode simply because not that happens plot wise and this episode is rather rightfully more focused on advancing storylines from earlier in this season (this episode is from season 5 / five by the way) which honestly made it hard for me to write a summery of the plot for this episode but I will admit that this episode did a good job of advancing the shows other storylines in a way that felt natural with one of the plot lines being advanced in this episode being so good that I might talk about later on in this very review but we'll see.

Starring in this episode is Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister , Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister and Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen. Also starring in this episode are Kit Harington as Jon Snow , Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark , Maisie Williams as Arya Star , John Bradley as Samwell Tarly , Hannah Murray as Gilly , Kristofer Hivju as Tormund Giants bane , Alfie Allen as Reek , Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei , Tom Wlaschiha as Jaqen H'ghar , Michael McElhatton as Roose Bolton , Iwan Rheon as Ramsay Bolton , Anton Lesser as Qyburn , Faye Marsay as The Waif , Birgitte Hjort Sørensen as Karsi , Hannah Waddingham as Septa Unella , Brenock O'Connor as Olly , Richard Brake as The Night King , Ian Whyte as Wun Wun and Ross O'Hennessy as The Lord Of Bones.

In terms of what I thought about the acting in this episode in all honesty the acting in this episode was one of the many highlights of the episode. Simply because all of the actors in this episode manage to convey so much emotion without actually saying what there character is feeling and for a good scene to highlight is the Sansa and Reek / Theon since in that scene we see that Reek / Theon try and hide the pain that he experienced with Ramsay was torturing him and we see him open up to Sansa for few minuets thus showing us that Theon is still in there and that Theon feels a little bit of joy just by knowing that his old self is still in there and all of this is done with out a single word from either Alfie Allen or Sophie Turner telling us how either character feels and is a great example of how good the acting and the writing in this episode truly is in my honest and very humble opinion. 

Doing the CGI for this episode and I assume the rest of the series is El Ranchito , Lola Visual Effects , Rodeo FX , Atomic Fiction , Clearcut FX , Image Engine Design , Screen Scene , Cadence Effects and Nviz. What really did shock me about this episode is the fact that the episode makes great use of practical effects and while there is some CGI in this episode there's not that much CGI in this episode which is honestly a shame since the CGI effects in this episode look really good and in my opinion alot of why I think that the CGI in this episode looks really good is not because the CGI in Game Of Thrones is generally really good but because the CGI effects and the practical effects are blended together so perfectly in this episode that you can't really tell what was a CGI effect and what was a practical effect.

I will fully admit right now that the one speech that made me want to review this episode is the one that Daenerys Targaryen gives to Tyrion Lannister. That entire scene is so well written and given what we now know happens to Daenerys Targaryen I can't help but wonder if the bit where she mentions wanting to break the wheel was either a very clever bit of foreshadowing or if it has a double meaning since how Daenerys Targaryen acts when she says that she wants to break the wheel is very creepy and even the music gets a little bit creepy as well and as such i can't help but wonder if it's during season five (the season that this episode is from for those that don't know) is where Daenerys Targaryen started to go insane but that's just what I think tho.

In all honesty his is one of the best episodes of Game Of Thrones in my opinion since everything in this episode is just so freaking good. One of the only things that I didn't like about this episode is that Arya doesn't get a whole lot screen time in this episode I think Arya only gets one maybe two scenes in this episode which is a shame because her scenes are in my opinion at least pretty good but at the same time I can see why Ara wasn't included that much in this episode since this episode had so many storylines to juggle and so having one more storyline take focus in this episode would have been a bit much and the episode would have crumbled under it's own weight in my opinion. 

Now I said that I might mention the Cersei Lannister  storyline at the start of this review and I truly meant it. I honestly loved the scenes with Cersei Lannister in this episode and I loved how her storyline was advanced since we see her go even more crazy in this episode almost to the point where watching her is quite scary and I just love that and I love that even tho she doesn't out right say that she's planning to kill everyone in the sept you can tell that that's what she's thinking (yes I do know that she says that her face will be the last face that the people of sept will see but she doesn't say how there all going to die) and this honestly makes her more cold and calculated because due to the fact that she's had the time to think this through or at least that's I think anyway.

Now I can't recall the exact running time for this episode but I now that this episode has a running time of at least fifty seven minuets. Which I feel is another of this episode faults since this episode was so good that I wanted it to last longer and I wanted to see more of the characters that we got to see and catch up with in this episode but due to the episode being at fifty seven minuets long and the fact that the episode honestly had enough story for at least an hour and a half it meant that scenes felt rushed and because of the fact that some scenes felt rushed suffers because of that one simple thing in my honest and humble opinion.

Now then boys and girls since there was alot of action in this episode I have to talk about the action that was in the actual episode itself. In my opinion the action in this episode was honestly really good even tho we only got one action scene it was still a really cool action as well as an action that mixed both practical effects and CGI effects really well in my opinion the only action scene we got in this episode was the massacre At Hardhome / Battle For Hardhome which is honestly the only action scene that we needed in this episode plus this action gave birth to that awesome sight of The Night King raising his arms and thus brining back dead back to life but now to serve in his army which in my opinion just seeing that image of The Night King raising dead is such a cool image in my very honest and humble opinion.

Overall like I said earlier on in this review this is perhaps one of the best episodes in Game Of Thrones TV history in my opinion. However that doesn't mean that this episode is perfect because no episode of Game Of Thrones or any Tv show for that matter is perfect since i've discussed alot of this episode episodes flaws (this episode is also pretty forgetful) in this review just like i've discussed the good things that are in this episode in this very review as well and as such this episode gets a 9 out of 10 from me.

As for where I got the images that I used in this review in this review well I got all of the images that I used in this review from either Google Images or the official Game Of Thrones fandom wiki page with the website that I preferred to use for the mages that I used in this review being the official Game Of Thrones fandom wiki page simply because not only is there alot more images from this episode up on there but the images on the official Games Of Thrones fandom wiki page are for the most part very high definition which for me at least is always a good thing since it makes the review look alot nicer and alot more pleasing on the eye in my opinion.