The Children

I liked season 1 of GOT. I enjoyed season 2. I barely made it through season 3 and almost quit watching the show. Glad I stuck around though because season 4 is up there with the best in television. This chilling finale had everything and more to keep you on the edge of your seat with your heart pounding. Can't wait to begin watching season 5

One of the best episodes in history of television perfection at the peak . The end song in this episode even after all these years has kept me addicted to this fu king show . No show even breaking bad has made tge experience so intense for me .

Came to 'Game of Thrones' fairly late in the game and due to being so busy the binge-watching was gradual. Have found myself truly loving the show, very quickly becoming one of my favourites. It totally lives up to the hype and not only does it do the brilliant source material justice (a rarity in television) it is on its own merits one of the finest, most addictive and consistently compelling shows in recent years and quality-wise it puts a lot of films in recent years to shame.

"The Children" is for me alongside "The Lion and the Rose" and "The Laws of Gods and Men", one of the best episodes of a consistently great to brilliant Season 4 (yes, even "Oathkeeper" which is not liked by some book fans). It is also one of the best 'Games of Thrones' season finales, whereas a couple of the season finales have been cases of the penultimate episodes making more of an impression (Season 3 being especially notable in this regard) and one of the show's most thrilling, in drama and action, episodes.

Action-wise, "The Children" rouses and excites in its intensity and its insane physical action dexterity, The Hound fight especially. "The Children" not just an action-packed episode. It is very much emotionally charged all the way through, with a lot of intimate character development, plot advancements, introduction of new ideas that one cannot wait to be developed and unexpected twists.

Constantly, the acting cannot be faulted. It is not an exception with "The Children". Peter Dinklage, Kit Harrington and Charles Dance are standouts.

Visually, "The Children" looks amazing, as one would expect for 'Game of Thrones'. The scenery is throughout spectacular, the sets are hugely atmospheric and beautiful on the eyes with a real meticulous eye for detail and the costumes suit the characters to a tee. The make-up is beautifully done. The visual effects are some of the best of any television programme and are not overused or abused, the scale, the detail and how they actually have character and soul are better than those in a lot of the big-budget blockbusters. As well the cinematography and editing, which are cinematic quality as well.

One cannot talk about "The Children" without mentioning the thematically, orchestrally and atmospherically multi-layered music scoring and the unforgettable main theme. Again, worthy of a high-budget fantasy/action/drama film.

It is hard not to be bowled over by the quality of the writing, outstanding isn't a strong enough adjective to describe how good the writing is once again. It always has a natural flow, is layered and thought-provoking and demonstrates a wide range of emotions such as suspenseful tension, poignant pathos and witty humour. The story is paced beautifully, structured with such nuance and attention to coherence, a high emotional level and is done with intelligence, passion and sensitivity.

All in all, barnstorming season finale. 10/10 Bethany Cox

I don't like to compare shows that are entirely different, but G.O.T is like Breaking Bad was for me. The first season was great, but each of the following seasons (or novels) progressively gets better and better as the story goes on. This episode (and really the entire series) has perfect pacing in the way they present and tell their story.

There were a few characters that were in quite dangerous predicaments last time we saw them. From what I saw last week and previous weeks, I didn't think a particular character was going to make a huge play this early, which was a nice surprise. I love how this show has such attention to detail with minor characters and (seemingly) minor side stories, very early on in the series. The show plants a seed here and then one there, I think nothing will come of it or maybe forget the person, place, old myth, past stories, history etc…. , then boom, old stories and people appear, taking things in an unseen new direction. I kind of saw one or two things (generally) happening this episode, but two of the characters heavily featured in this episode really caught me off guard in the way they reacted to situations they were in. One character has been on a journey for quite a while, after seeing this episode I really feel he might find something another main character acquired in past seasons, very useful to him/her (and perhaps others) in the future. Like many G.O.T episodes, you will laugh, get angry, think wtf is going on, perhaps yell in joy at your TV, possibly at how bad a$$ a particular character is becoming; I believe I did most of these tonight.

This episode was longer than normal, (66 minutes) but it felt like twenty minutes to me while I was watching it. This really set up Season 5 perfectly with tying some things up, making drastic changes to others and but shouldn't torture you with too many cliff hangers. This was a perfect finale, to the best season yet, but with how things went and appear to be going now, I can't see how season 5 won't be even better.

Game of Thrones closes out this season with a stellar episode, but like any good finale leaves some massive plots unresolved and teases us with whole new mysteries.