[SPOILERS] 5x07 Episode Discussion (airs 24th May 2015)

Nill. The impact controversy tends to have on ratings (at least immediately) is positive. If 506 hadn't ended the way that it had, the ratings would probably have been a little lower.

I never understood the obsession with ratings to be honest. As King Tommen says, it doesn't affect HBO as a business and is no indication the show is 'dying' to the viewer-base anyways. I remember people doing this with The Walking Dead too and it's just laughable. I mean seriously, these are the biggest hits on primetime television and ratings don't mean anything at all - it's the media and fan hype that carry these shows and it's still huge for GoT across the board. They are making a killing off of this show even with it being the top pirated show of all times. All that shows is just how popular it really is.

We all rated this episode the highest (9 and 10 overall) so who cares what anyone else thinks anyways.

I suppose if there's a trend over an entire season that could be a risk and I do understand it affects budgeting for future seasons. I'm glad, as you said, next season is already a done deal in that regards! 

This was a tough season to do IMO because of the source material being split and rejoined. It was tough to read and received criticism for that split so it stands to reason they are struggling a bit with it for the show especially with little new source material to go on. I also have to suspect some viewers are dropping it as it moves away from the books by necessity since we don't have a book in our hands yet. I've heard many say they won't watch past where the books end so if they're serious, there will be some viewer dropping by end of this season. I just don't believe most of them will stick to it and will come crawling back by next season.

Anyone have a good gif of Dany and Tyrion meeting?

Thanks!

Same day ratings don't mean crap anymore, though.  And HBO hasn't released their overall numbers, so we don't know how many people are truly watching.  We do know that the piracy numbers are higher than ever, though.  And of course, the US isn't the only country that matters to GoT.

So even if the US same-day numbers are down, that doesn't mean HBO has lost any money on the show.

If Littlefinger can teleport so can Kevin, I say.

Finally got some time to watch the episode. I really liked it.

I'm going to miss Aemon but I understand he had to go. Have to admire Peter Vaughan nailing the role while over 90 years old himself. I feared he might die before his character, luckily it didn't come to that. The scene with Gilly's baby was very touching and "Egg, I dreamed I was old" just brought me to tears. (Not least because that scene reminded me of my grandfather who was very close to me. I wonder when I finally stop seeing him in every lovable old man on screen or anywhere else.)

Theon going straight to Ramsey was very disappointing and frustrating, guess that was the purpose. Glad to see that Sansa has not yet given up. I hope someday she finds some good use to that little tool she got.

Kings landing was very good this time, I liked pretty much all the scenes though I’m not that impressed with Tommen. Jonathan Pryce is great, in the books I didn’t even pay much attention to the high sparrow. I still don’t like how they potray the faith militant in general though. I wish they would be concerned about the urgent social problems in the city instead of persecuting homosexuals and pushing down beer barrels. I also completely agreed with Olenna when she pointed out there are much worse crimes going unpunished. Anyway lots of good performances in KL. Along with Pryce, I think Headey and Dormer did very well.

Even the sand snakes were better than before. The scene wasn’t great and I rolled my eyes to Tyene when she began to undress. However it was fun to see the other sand snakes reacting just like me. I wonder if Tyene really thought she’d make an ally from a sellsword by saving his life (and showing some skin) or did she just like Bronn too much to let him die? Anyway it didn’t bother me much, it was good to see the sand snakes being something else than just angry. And I really want someone to create a Bronn-musical.

Everything in Essos was enjoyable too, especially the auction scene. I didn’t quite get why only Tyrion was chained before the pit fight (and where on earth did he get that file) but that’s a minor nitpick. The funny thing is that I first thought that little square was supposed to be the great pit of Daznak  Then I did some googling.

Just came here to post this Stannis pic