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Does refering to the NBA game sound like an excuse? Eh, I don’t really care. At the moment, I am really looking forward to the finale, and hopefully the viewers in general are just as hooked. Several things have been set up to explode in the last episode this season, and I’m curious to see even the quieter moments dealing with the fallout of the Epic 9 that was Battle of the Bastards. We are likely getting an Epic 10 this year as well, if you ask me.
In the past seasons, the finale always saw at least some uptick in the number of live viewers. Let’s see what happens next week.
In b4 Geek Furious!
Ditto!
Some said 8 million but we said no way with the b-ball on.
Some people really are stupid about ratings.
Waiting for Geek Furious.
USA only, the rest of the world exists too you know.
Geek Furious rant in 3…2…1…
Did hoped for 8 million. But I guess NBA, in the USA, is much bigger then I imagined.
I know nothing of basketball so I’m not suprised I was wrong.
Unfortunately, it didn’t do so hot with men under the IQ of 16 who haven’t figured out that 99% of all basketball games are pointless to watch until the final 24 seconds and they are ruining potential relationships over 24 seconds every few days (which Nielsen also notes is the average “sexual lastability ” of these men as well… so perhaps they are doing everyone a favor not procreating).
Also, Battle of the Bastards had a lower than expected viewership by kids under the age of 12 who were unable to sneak into the “big room” to watch because “daddy’s being a dipshit about this whole b-ball thing.”
Another lower-than-expected turnout was by infants. Apparently all the loud noises and hectic editing borrowed from GLADIATOR had what Nielsen calls the “I want my boh-boh” effect, which in turn also seemed to diminish the total minutes of viewership by parents and baby-sitters just trying to make out with their college boyfriend.
Babysitter’s college boyfriend viewership, however, was up.
Finally, NONE OF THIS MATTERS! THIS IS A PREMIUM CABLE CHANNEL! RATINGS MEAN SHIT!
Thank you. I will be here once more next week.
I’m one of those people that watched the NBA finals first and then switched over to Bastard Bowl afterwards.
I wonder the size of Wun Wun’s pecker….
Now the week is almost complete.
GeekFurious,
Serious question but do you think for long how elaborate the ”rant” will be?
I don’t give it any thought until I write it.
24 seconds, huh…
GeekFurious,
Thanks!
GeekFurious,
I love it! Spot on about only needing to watch the last 24 seconds, hahahaha
8 million for the finale? Come on, it would be cool! WERE ALMOST THERE>
Since this counts in the US only, live viewership at 9pm eastern, everyone who lives there should cancel all plans to watch live lol
Given the episode’s massive success, it could break the record for the finale. Didn’t really expect a record breaking audience for this one since so many people were disappointed by “No One”, but “Battle of the Bastards” is probably the most popular episode in the show’s history, it’s still a 10 on IMDB with over 60’000 votes. The finale might really be huge.
A man will be sad if the record isn’t broken (yes I know it’s meaningless).
Top 10 most viewed episodes:
1. 510. Mother’s Mercy – 8.11 million
2. 501. The Wars to Come – 8.00 million
3. 601. The Red Woman – 7.94 million
4. 605. The Door – 7.89 million
5. 604. Book of the Stranger – 7.82 million
6. 607. The Broken Man – 7.80 million
7. 609. Battle of the Bastards – 7.66 million
8. 608. No One – 7.60 million
9. 602. Home – 7.29 million
10. 603. Oathbreaker – 7.28 million
So yeah, this season….
Dutch Maester,
It’s still weird to me that last year’s premiere had higher ratings than any of this year’s episodes. I’m really not sure why.
After “Mother’s Mercy”, I was sure the season 6 premiere would smash the record, what with all the Jon stuff. After his resurrection in “Home”, I thought the record would be smashed for “Oathbreaker”.
Come on “Winds”, don’t let me down.
No its not just LIVE – it counts all that watched until 3:00am.
I want to know how many other obsessed people watch it live at 2am UK time besides me.
Markus Stark,
Markus, I really think it has to do with the streaming services we have now. Many people are using that instead
Dutch Maester,
Amazing!
Markus Stark,
I will be sad too.
Edit:
Breakdown of the IMDB votes.
Im sorry, but those 1s are laughable. LOL
58939 – 93.9% – 10
1880 – 3.0% – 9
583 – 0.9% – 8
279 – 0.4% – 7
132 – 0.2% – 6
88 – 0.1% – 5
51 – 0.1% – 4
44 – 0.1% – 3
44 – 0.1% – 2
738 – 1.2% – 1
Dee Stark,
This. As a HBO GO user I can confirm it is amazing!
There are only a few things that would take precedent over GOT, none of which are a NBA Finals bball game. Football would, but only initially and only for my team, as I’d make time for the show on demand immediately following. Luckily, I don’t ever have to make that choice.
I will say that the game ended up being better than I thought it would be. Definitely can see how it’s a tough decision for some, especially those who are fans of Cleveland/Golden State. Live sports hold more weight over watching a TV show live. Even one as beloved as GOT. It’s just the way it is. Live sports updates/spoilers are much more widespread and devastating than live TV, even for GOT. Getting a sport score spoiled (for your team anyway) is much worse than getting the show spoiled. If the score is spoiled, there’s no point really watching the game, whereas, I’d still watch the episode.
Case-in-point, the loony tunes on here that actively and impatiently search for show spoilers. Saddest part is it isn’t even for a leaked episode with A/V…only for a freaking instagram post, haha.
Proof that making an effort plotting a season is not worth the time. Season 7 will just be Jon Snow swinging a sword at fire-breathing dragons for 6 hours.
TPTWP,
Agreed. If the episode would air during a football game I cared about, soccer for you americans, I would watch the game as well.
You say that as if it were a bad thing…
The BoB numbers were seriously hurt by the game. I think they may have even been half a million higher were it not for the game, which would have broken the first-airing record for Game of Thrones.
I am confident we’ll break the first-airing record next week of 8.11 million. I was probably the most conservative of estimators in the pre-season ratings post (http://watchersonthewall.com/pre-season-ratings-post-further-growth-for-game-of-thrones/) for the premiere since I wasn’t convinced we’d beat the Season 5 premiere, and we didn’t for the first-airing numbers. However, BoB has completely crushed the likability ratings on IMDb with 10/10 still, two days later, and a phenomenal 62,778 rating the episode, which is over 16,000 more people than have ever rated any other GoT episode. Only two episodes have even come close to 10, and that’s Rains and Hardhome, both at 9.9. For that reason, I do believe GoT can beat the Season 5 finale ratings, assuming there isn’t another epic sports event in the same timeslot.
This probabaly isnt the thread to ask this but…..if there is no trial by combat anymore and Cersi is found guilty, won’t that prove that Tommenn is not really king? That would allow the Faith to take full control. Comments?
Ginevra,
Okay so these are live first airing numbers?
Dee Stark,
Book purists or people that have never seen the show and are jealous of its success. A friend of mine used to rate every Breaking Bad episode with a 1 because he had watched ONLY the pilot, didn’t like it and couldn’t understand the show’s success. *sigh*
No sand snakes again!
Loving this season!
Finale should be near 8.11 again like last year’s finale.
I would accept seeing the snakes again in the finale…if they show up in King’s landing just before Cersei nukes it.
Thanks, Dutchy! These are always great to see, especially this season.
Rhaenys Stark,
people need to get a life
I bet they create multiple accounts to vote more than once HAHAHA
Im sorry but no matter how much you hated this episode, a 1 makes no sense , unless you also hate battles, blood, death, music, cinematography. Why watch GOT? better yet, why watch tv hahaha
I was not surprised. Even incredible television series have waning interest at some point. There may be one or two series that counter this effect, but they are unbelievably rare. Not everyone expected Jon to come back, especially since producers kept swearing he wouldn’t. And so I think the premiere numbers are understandable. They aren’t bad. They just were relatively on par with the previous season, which for a Season 6 is fucking awesome. The fact that eight of the top ten first-airing ratings come from Season 6 might be unprecedented.
Yes! That’s what is most commonly reported.
Dee Stark,
Like with most polls you can really just throw out the top 5% and bottom 5% to get a more accurate reading on the consensus.
If you do that with the numbers posted above you’d be left with about 98% giving a 10 and 2% giving a 9.
Ginevra,
Okay. Someone responded to me above saying that this number counts all watches till 3AM and I was sure I had read before that this number is for first LIVE airing of the episode from 9 to 10PM eastern time.
rhymeswithweak,
Very true.
rhymeswithweak,
They’ll be back in Dorne for sure. But since
I don’t think we can complain about the amount of Dorne/SS this season.
Correct.
8m this wk.
Although I do enjoy reading these rating articles, the rub for me not that the ratings are meaningless due to it being on a premium channel (because obviously we aren’t discussing whether it’s going to be cancelled due to ratings) —
it’s really just that these ratings don’t at all seem reflect actual viewership in comparison to other shows and events. You can’t compare the numbers to other TV shows, because the majority of people aren’t watching The Walking Dead or some crap on CBS using a streaming app on their PC or TV. On top of that, people aren’t downloading copies of those shows and watching them on their computer or casting them to their TV.
When you calculate all of those differences, it’s one of (if not the) the most popular shows out there. That doesn’t even take into consideration that it’s an internationally viewed phenomenon.
I know this about Sunday night in particular – sure, there were many people watching the championship game, and in fact, that game reportedly had epic ratings (for NBA), so I didn’t expect it to be able to break the record for viewership ratings. However, I saw more chatter about this episode on social media, between facebook, twitter, and journalists cranking out stories left and right while it was airing and just after it aired, than I have seen in the many weeks prior. So these numbers do little to convince me that the same amount of people were watching this episode Sunday night than the weeks before.
They count all views of the 9PM episode (including DVR). If you watch the replay episode instead, then it doesn’t count in the overnight. for the “Live” viewing.
Its all watches of the 9:00pm showing only – until 3:00am though i think is the way that figure it.
Who cares about the ratings at this point. All I know is that the ratings are high enough for the show to do an amazing episode like this one. That’s all that really matters.
The fact that it went up against the NBA Finals which had 25 Million viewers and up against people on vacation….
14 episodes left in GoT. I don’t think there is going to be much filler left from now on. Just an amazing spring to the finish.
Wow they dont pub LIVE+SD – thats odd – this is basically LIVE only – well to 3:00am too.
edit:
yea greek typed what i just typed.
GeekFurious,
So why would a basketball game affect it, if I record the 9PM showing and watch it after the game at midnight. ??
Ser Joshua,
The NBA Finals get 25 Million and then no much else after that. This is typical of live sports. People aren’t using their DVR for this.
Game of Thrones gets 8 Million for the first viewing. Theb they will get DVR watchers. Then they get some more for future viewings on TV. They get some for HBO Now. They get some for On demand. And that 8 Million will turn into 18 Million within a few weeks. And then they will get some more with digital downloads and blu-ray. A drama like this is a completely different animal when it comes to ratings. Comparing the two just doesn’t work.
WHAT?! WHERE DID YOU HEAR THIS?! WHO TOLD YOU THIS????? AHHHH!!!!
NOBODY UNDERSTANDS!
Oh, it was me.
Cause not everyone records -some will watch later showing then or even next day which both dont count in this #.
Because your viewing habit isn’t necessarily representative of everyone’s viewing habit. Some watch it after 3am. Some save it etc. In the grand scheme, it doesn’t matter. GOT collects most of its viewership via delayed viewing. The overnight numbers are only significant to HBO as a bragging tool. “Hey, we have a quarter of the subscriber base of basic cable and yet we get network TV ratings for this show! Hah! Suckers!”
Salacious Crumb,
Ohh okay
Thank you 🙂
I thought it was people watch live only. ALL THIS TIME hahaha.
GeekFurious,
Thanks!!
Basically, people are watching.
Even people that want to hate on it need to watch so that they are in the loop.
GRRM looks to have made a good choice in having HBO do a series instead of having another company do feature films.
We watched the game first too. Knowing you can have your cake and eat it too, you do.
Do these numbers include HBO Now or Go?
Ser Broccoli McBroccoliface,
No. As far as I know.
Dee Stark,
Hey even I loved the episode!
GeekFurious,
How do they know who watches it? Stupid question but do comcast, dish etc report these numbers to HBO? What about people who record it? Can they track those as well?
GeekFurious,
Umm…..will Ralloo grant him fire powers? Being a fire god and all…
Otherwise, I don’t see how Jon can swing a sword at dragons for a whole season. 😛
They use sampling based on the “Nielsen Family” of users who have recording devices on their person and/or in their home. Now, I know what you are going to say “THAT’S RIDICULOUS! THEY DON’T COUNT EVERY PERSON? AHHHH!” But it’s the same way they do polling. It’s math.
As for whether the cable providers count viewers and report them… not officially. But secretly? Sure. But those are not counted by Nielsen. And they are not reported to the public because then the public would realize their cable boxes are spying on them.
As far as I know, Live ratings do not count them. But when HBO reports their overall numbers at some point in July, they will report every single viewing. Which is why that number will likely be over 20 million per episode.
GeekFurious,
Cool. Thanks for the info
Dee Stark,
Exactly! Makes no sense.
Ser Broccoli McBroccoliface,
No, which is part of the problem of the inaccuracy of the numbers, even when only considering the 8PM/9PM watches on first airing. Lots more people watch on their computer or streaming app on their TV on first airing than people watching a TV show on any other basic channel. So the first airing numbers are very skewed against HBO in that regard.
I have HBO on satellite, but sometimes I’ll watch the episode streaming on HBOGO on my TV as it airs live at 8PM. The feed looks better on HBO Go than the satellite feed.
It’s also hurt by the fact that many people have viewing parties at their homes where friends and family all come over to watch, and there are bars that have huge viewing party events on Sunday nights. It’s event television, which you don’t get with other popular TV shows right now.
Miss Stark,
Staying till 2.00 a.m. Monday morning it’s nothing. I stayed awake all night just to read what was happening on the open chat.
PS. Thanks to those who reported.
Yes but its also comparing to other GOT eps which had the same drawbacks so kinda is apples/apples.
Impressive considering it was higher then last week and it was Fathers Day and game 7 of the Finals.
Those are Camelot fans that are still bitter five years later. 😛 And perhaps a few select individuals that participate on this site. 😉
Miss Stark,
I do haha! I have to get up at 2 then back up at 5:30 for work. Dedication!
Predictions for the finale? I say 8.5 million
When will we have the total viewership numbers? Not only first airing. I think there will be a HUGE increase and probably it will break the record.
A little rumor said no new books until the TV series has ended. So that no opposition will be contrasted until afterwards. No clue if true or not.
some one,
She’s not on trial for her twincest, it’s for the cousincest with lancel, I believe
Benjen & Tonic,
It’s not forbidden in Westeros to marry your cousin. Ned’s parents were cousins, Tywin married his cousin and Lysa wanted Sansa to marry Sweetrobin.
She’s on trial for fornication (sleeping with men who aren’t her husband), treason (the murder of King Robert). She only admitted to the fornication charge and did the walk of shame.
I’m going 8.12, which would set the series record beating Mother’s Mercy 8.11.
Flayed Potatoes,
Ahhh I see, thanks for clearing that up 🙂
GeekFurious,
Ser Broccoli McBroccoliface,
Ser Joshua,
This rant. Love it. Basketball is pointless until the last few moments. Sunday night’s game was fucking exciting in those last few moments, which is all I tuned in for.
Also, and IMO a bigger impact on these ratings, is the fact that HBO NOW crashed during the live showing. It wasn’t until around 10pm that BotB was available on the supposedly ‘crash proof’ streaming service.
http://deadline.com/2016/06/game-of-thrones-battle-of-the-bastards-hbo-now-crashes-1201775470/
It seems like everyone used to hate on HBO GO because during season 5 it crashed a few times. But this season HBO GO has been stellar. Glad I still have my parent’s log in information 😉
Finale will be packed. Something is happening at The Twins. Bran will do something important. Jon must have some kind of closure to his season 6 arc, and Sansa will have to talk to Littlefinger. I’m pretty sure we’re also getting some kind of follow up to Euron at the Iron Islands. We’ll proberbly see Danaerys head for Westeros. Cerceis trial is coming up and will be a huge scene. Brienne, Pod, Hound and Brotherhood is still in the riverlands and will have a check-in, Arya too maybe. That is a lot in one episode, and don’t forget the Fletcher-character (maybe Manderly) and the other lord who is proberly the young Lord Cerwyn. Oh, and Davos will go crazy on Mel.
Bran and Meera, Brotherhood without Banner and Brienne with Pod. Do you think any of them will make it to Winterfell because that’s where they’re heading. At least should.
I watched the NBA Finals live and GOT on demand. I don’t know how much of that is taken into account but I’d wager plenty did it the same way.
Why do you bring up HBO Now – that doesnt even count in this #.
Just watched it…….holy shit, it was amazing. The Battle was insane! Meereen was awesome as well. That tracking shot of Jon going through the battle was amazing. Everything in this was amazing. Best episode of the series, one of the best, next to Hardhome.
Dee Stark,
Indeed. If that episode was a “1”, where would they rank.. say.. the Star Wars Christmas Special?
Trolls gotta troll.
I like basketball enough to at least follow the playoffs pretty closely every year, and there was noooooo damn way in any of the seven hells that I was going to prioritize Game 7 over Episode 9.
I realize I’m hardly the first person to complain that cable numbers don’t tell the whole story, but I bet if you could take all of the streamers, and all of the illegal downloaders, and all of the late-shift working DVR peeps, and include all the re-watches over the first week or so, then Battle of the Bastards would crush approximately 56 or 57 other episodes; maybe all 58.
What a good episode that was. What a good season. What a good show. I’m already getting depressed thinking about what 10pm Sunday night means.
Flayed Potatoes,
She’s also on trial for incest, not approved of by the gods. She even admitted to the incestuous relationship to the high sparrow but she named a relative other than Jaime. Maybe the ‘Ollie” with the wicked tattoo on his head.
How do they measure HBO Now numbers. Site crashed for an hour.
I think there’s evidence that more people are streaming now than last year, and that will only increase as chord cutting becomes normal. It’s going to affect all the numbers for every show.
In the last couple years, someone was intentionally destroying the ratings – every year, at least 500 1 stars were added to each episodes and the same was happenning with Breaking Bad and also with a couple best episodes of The Sopranos (Pine Barrens, Whitecaps etc.). Most of the earlier seasons’ episode ratings fell below 8. At least IMDB cleared these ratings this year.
What about Sam, Varys, Dorne?
Great stuff
Following on from a slightly puzzline episode
And I saw a headline about the NBA being quite big
So we haven’t seen to much of a dent
After this week am hoping for a big bounce for the Finale
some one,
I think this is the Faith’s plan – have thought so since mid season…
Which can means Margaery is f’ckd, probably. Or maybe by sucking up to the faith enough she can get an annulment (marraige under false pretenses?).
Dany’s got a fleet, an army, a cavalry and an her personal air force called the dragon squadron! What does the other’s have? the old wheel, ready to be broken! Love how the women of the younger ones going to rule and free the world! You have Dany, Yara, and widow Bolton, which I believe will all join forces 🙂 ! Tally Ho and the way we go, HI, HO, HI, HO it’s off to war we go! And boy Yara’s uncle is in for a shock when he offers his navy and his marriage proposal! He’ll lose is head over it or get his big toy roasted! LOL can’t wait for the next episode and the last season! Tally Ho and the way we go, HI, HO, HI, HO it’s off to war we go!
Lord Parramandas,
That’s silly
Any predictions for the finale and some of the arcs for next season?
What the hell will happen to Sam? With only 13 hours left I’m guessing he will spend a couple episodes in Oldtown, learn some valuable info on the others and head back to the wall? And at some point his dad will come looking for his sword?
Euron will meet up with Yara and Dany in Meereen or in Westeros?
Jack Bauer 24,
It will implode! LOL
Bodog,
Sam will sink that sword in it’s proper place as he did to that white walker. His dad we’ll go the same way as did Little T’s daddy O did while on the pooper, and boy did he poop his brains out, or was that his heart?!
As a statistician, I don’t find that method very sound. There is certainly room for error, like each number should be +/-10% or so in every single category, not just the highest and lowest. Internet polls fucking suck at being good representations of the population as a whole, so even with a huge margin of error, we know as much as Ygritte thinks Jon Snow knows. The IMDb ratings probably represent only the most passionate of fans, but that is true of all IMDb ratings that we compare them to. And, with no better (randomly sampled) numbers to use, I love looking at them.
First airing means first airing, like you’re saying. Of course, I’m not the expert, but I’m sure they wouldn’t say “first airing” if they meant it lasted until 3 AM EST. And I’m almost positive that this doesn’t count HBONow or HBOGo – I believe they clarified that before. I wouldn’t think it would even count DVRing when you watch live, but I could be wrong. I think you have to be watching one of the HBO television channels in the US between 8 and 9 PM EST to be counted in these numbers at all.
There is a different measure for first night viewing that does include HBONow, HBOGo, and second airings. That may be what the person is talking about.
Not correct. Since several others are saying this, let me offer better evidence:
http://watchersonthewall.com/game-thrones-season-6-premiere-hits-new-ratings-high/
If the numbers we were discussing included the encores, we’d be saying 10.7 million for the Red Woman instead of the 7.94 million that we’re saying here.
You would be incorrect. They count EVERY complete viewing of the 9pm run. Meaning DVR viewings and re-viewings are counted until 3AM.
You are confused. And that’s partly the fault of the article. HBO runs multiple viewings of the episode on their main and other HBO channels. Those DO NOT count. However, the 9pm viewing is counted as live as are all subsequent viewings of the 9pm airing on DVR. I’m not guessing. I know this for a fact.
The “encore” views are not counted in the overnight. Only the 9pm live and DVR recordings up to 3AM.
Source?
http://watchersonthewall.com/game-thrones-overnight-ratings-sort/
Note how this is HBO saying that they won’t report first-airing numbers any longer (although obviously we’re still getting them) because they don’t include things like DVR.
Let me also add… and this is mostly why I belittle these ratings when people talk about them with respect to HBO… the ratings measure viewership so networks can collect AD REVENUE. HBO doesn’t give a flying fuckstick about ad revenue, so these ratings are horseshit to them except for PR purposes.
Now, with respect to the DVR numbers counting with live, as I understand it, for your DVR viewings of the 9pm recording to count toward the overnight numbers, you have to start the replay and not fast forward AT ALL. This exists because people would fast forward through commercials and obviously the ratings count for people who watch them. And while HBO doesn’t have commercials, I’m pretty sure the same rule applies anyway. If you fast forward, the Nielsen viewer invalidates the viewing.
HBO wants Nielsen to count EVERY viewing, even encore ones on DVR, and even ones where people fast forward past the intro etc. Nielsen discounts those views. You can believe whatever you want, but the info I have provided here is correct. 9pm viewings and DVR viewings of that run count up to 3AM.
And my source is experience.
http://theweek.com/articles/631406/game-thrones-sansa-problem
I’m saying between 8.3 and 8.45 million, just under you but still a record number.
If the first-night viewings had broken a record, I think we’d have already heard, unfortunately. Still, I’m fairly certain that the global and seven-day numbers will. Do we get global numbers? I know there are seven-day numbers. I’m not sure we have enough to compare them to, though.
If you worked for Nielsen, that would be enough. But as it is and as it doesn’t make sense, I prefer to believe the sources I’ve read.
http://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/tv-and-culture/dvr-viewings-tv-ratings1.htm
So they are not included in the live but are in the Live Plus.
How big and reliable is this magazine? Even the “After the Thrones” peeps were debating a bit over Sansa, and it made me a little ill that she “won the week,” especially when the one guy kept saying “clearly” over and over. I wouldn’t go so far as to say this was a writing problem. I’ve always had a love-hate with Sansa, very similar to Arya’s view of her. But I do have to wonder how the writers can adore her so and have her treat Jon like that.
Deadline reports on contract renegotiations. The cast has signed them for Season 8
http://deadline.com/2016/06/game-of-thrones-cast-season-8-big-raises-salary-hbo-1201776806/
Wow, this is a wonderfully written article, and I’m not even finished yet! I wonder if it is because I agree so strongly.
We either have DimSansa or MachiavellianSansa. I don’t tolerate stupid people very well. And I hate manipulators. Either way, I’m not loving the Sansa we see in this episode.
Ginevra,
Ugh, she spells “Ramsay” wrong, though, so it cannot be a very prestigious magazine, right? But man, I love, love, love the writing if not the editing.
ETA: Oh, fuck. She thinks Sansa’s been preggers a year. Not so brilliant.
Big big raises for core actors as they re-up through S8. http://deadline.com/2016/06/game-of-thrones-cast-season-8-big-raises-salary-hbo-1201776806/
I was wondering what would get higher viewings, a friend pointed out that you can DVR TV shows but not live games because it isn’t the same; good point. I think if the NBA Finals werent on (and a game 7 at that) Those numbers woulda been much higher.
Well over 2.5 million per episode for five of a cast of hundreds. Wow.
ETA: Or maybe not. These numbers seem to be for both 7 and 8. I figured Jaime and Cersei had to make it to 7 with Jaime still in the Riverlands.
Ginevra,
not that much but still a decent read eh?
Ravyn,
Get that money, Kit!
Ginevra,
The article has some good points, I agree.
Yeah, if she fixes the “Ramsays” and 86s the pregnant talk, it would be damn near perfect. Inflammatory as all get-out, as we say in the South for some ridiculous reason, but awesome.
I apologize if my love for the article offends Sansa fans. I love so many of you even when I don’t love Sansa.
I don’t think this season has been a full year of time passage, or even close to it. I’d say more like 3-4 months, maybe 5 at the most. For most of the seasons, I tend to assume approximately one month per episode (though some story lines may be ahead or behind this “average clock” at any point), but season 4 and season 6 seem like they need to be significantly shorter, or things just don’t make much sense.
I don’t necessarily think that Sansa is pregnant, but I wouldn’t dismiss the possibility solely on the basis of the time line. If it has only been 3-4 months, she could probably keep it hidden fairly easily with her cloak.
My estimate is that it takes about a month to go from Winterfell to Castle Black on foot. The Stannis/Jon camp site is apparently quite close to Winterfell. It seems to be less than a day away based on the parlay with Ramsay outside Winterfell, return to camp, then battle the next day, but everything else has given me the impression it was more like a week away, or at least a few days.
So I would say a month for Brienne and Sansa to reach Castle Black. Jon’s murder was actually near the end of that month, because Davos and Mel had started a similar journey just before Stannis’s defeat, and they arrived before Jon was stabbed. Jon’s time line was just about a month ahead of Sansa’s at the end of S5.
Sansa probably stayed less than a month at Castle Black, long enough to do some sewing, and for Littlefinger to arrive in Mole’s town. LF doesn’t need a teleporter for this, just a fast ship from the Vale to Eastwatch, and a raven promptly alerting him to Sansa’s escape from Winterfell.
I’d estimate 1-3 months to visit Bear Island and Deepwood Motte, and return to the camp site near Winterfell. It could be a bit longer if they recruited the Hornwoods and Mazins in person off-screen, rather than them responding to ravens, but there’s no indication that this happened. My best guess is about two months. One month would be optimistic because they would be traveling in places without good roads, and would need to find ships to and from Bear Island, while three would be stretching it because they were hurrying, not dawdling.
They spent maybe a week or two at the camp preparing for the battle, which would give the Knights of the Vale time to ride there from Moat Cailin if they hurried as soon as Sansa’s raven arrived. Any Vale soldiers on foot would have to be left behind because they wouldn’t make it in time for the battle.
A 3-4 month time line seems to fit reasonably with the other story lines as well. Arya had some training montages early in the season that could cover a few months, but her later episodes all happened within a very short span of time.
The story lines in King’s Landing/Riverlands and Meereen/Vaes Dothrak also seemed more like a few months rather than a year, though I can’t remember any specific time references to tie that to.
I really think its the latter. Ramsay’s “You can’t kill me. I am part of you now” is too ominous to ignore.
No, it doesn’t mean she’s pregnant cause (a) How the eff would Ramsay know if she is carrying his child? (b) Sansa’s follow up of “Your words will disappear, your house will disappear, your name will disappear, all memory of you will disappear”, not exactly words a woman who is expecting a child out of him will say and (c) Baby Ramsay Junior would add nothing to the story, what would be the point?
What makes more sense is that Ramsay sees a bit of himself now in Sansa. She’s going down the ‘cunning and manipulative’ path. Book! Sansa seems to be headed the same way as well.
I agree. It captured my impressions very well: we either have Evil Sansa or Stupid Sansa, and the show may never resolve the contradiction between the two. Instead the writers seem to want the audience to blend the two mutually incompatible interpretations and pick only the best of each.
As I chemist, I have to award bonus points for introducing quantum mechanics to GoT. As a fan, though, I want one consistent explanation of her behavior, not two contradictory ones that leave her looking bad either way.
Ginevra,
You can just put mutinomial support bars on these. It is no different from testing whether two communities have different proportions of the same set of 10 species given different sampling efforts, or whether an athlete has seen different performance in 10 types of outcomes over two different stretches of time with differing numbers of plays.
BranTheBlessed,
It has also been many months since Sansa was last with Ramsay, and probably getting close to a year.
Ginevra,
Treat Jon like what? Sansa was awful to him in the past: but she is treating him well-enough now.
70000+ votes on imdb and still 10! CRAZY!!!!!!! and well deserved.
Dee Stark,
That will go down with time: there always is some regression to “typical” when reactions are extreme.
But it was a well-done episode; one thing that I have noted in the general reviews is that it firmly cemented the season’s story in a lot of peoples’ minds.
It’s not completely clear, but my assumption was that her walk of atonement was for sleeping with Lancel, since that’s all that she would admit to. Then her trial is for the charges she denied, such as playing a part in Robert Baratheons death.
Wimsey,
I doubt it. There is an episode of Breaking Bad which is still rated 10/10.
She yelled at him for not being sensitive enough to ask her opinion on a topic for which she’d never showed interest while she deliberately withheld incredibly valuable information from him even when directly asked.
78,000+, 10/10! We are nearing twice the number of any other episode.
Though that’s true that the numbers go down, we’ve never had more than 46,720 people rate a single GoT episode on IMDb. So 78,326 is unreal. And the number who rate corresponds closely to how high the rating is, with Rains and Hardhome being the only 9.9s and the only episodes with more than twenty-something thousand raters: 43,330 and 46,720, respectively. I think we may be staying at 10.