I really don't give a shit about sticking to source material, but this week's episode was a disappointment. Easily the worst episode of the season. I'm just really not into a big huge battle that takes up a whole god damn episode unless they can do it perfect. Seemed like they could have condensed that down into a 20 minute segment and let us see the others.

Honestly, right now, the Two Rivers storyline is the most boring of them all. I just really don't give a shit about any of it and then they go and do a whole episode about it.

The emotions that should have been there just were not. Honestly I think a lot of it had to do with forcing it all into 8 episode seasons, just not enough time.

My really good friend, WOT is by far his favorite book series ever and he's read the series like 8 times or something like that loved this last episode. He told me it made him cry multiple times. I just didn't feel like we needed an entire episode dedicated to that whole battle. They could have skipped several of those scenes and gave us scenes from the Aiel wastelands group and the Tanchico group. That would have made it a much better episode.

Seasons 1 and 2 also had disappointing episode 7s, followed by terrible finales.

Season 3 has been great. I hope they don't flub the finale again.

His post is full of hyperbole. Season 3 has been pretty good, but compared to the dumpster fire that was season 1, and just meh season 2, it feels great for people desperate for it to be great.

HOTD is a better written, acted, and much better visually.

Completely agree. I had surgery last week which gave me time to binge the season up until now and while I wholeheartedly agree that season 3 >> season 2 >> season 1, it still feels like a CW level show at best. FWIW, it’s a good CW show like The 100, but a CW show just the same. I think it’s the fact that it’s mostly populated with largely forgettable young actors.

You literally called it great in your post above mine. Ok, here I'll tone it down.

Season 3 of WOT isn't better than season 1 of HOTD, but it's just as good. It is much better than season 2 of HOTD.

Through 7 episodes the average episode rating on IMDB is 8.6. No episode has been below an 8.2 rating. 4/7 of the episodes are 8.6 or higher. If the finale sticks the landing, then it will finish with a top 30 highest ranked season ever on IMDB.

So it isn't just me that thinks the show is outstanding. This season has been incredible.

I'm not sure I'd consider IMDB scores a great metric on their own, especially for a show like WOT. When a show drives away all of the casual viewers and all that remains are the devoted fans, you see a lot of inflated scores. Over time, those scores fall to where they should be as more people watch.

Same thing happened with Suits. I remember back in its initial run, the last couple seasons kept getting episodes with these high 8s and 9s and anyone even moderately objective knew those scores were undeserved. Then when it experienced its streaming renaissance, and more eyes were on the show, those scores dropped to the 7s and 8s they should've been to begin with.

I am pretty confident the same thing is going to happen here. I mean, I'm not shitting on the show, it has certainly improved in quality, but you can't straight faced tell me you think this season is a top 30 season in all of TV history. That's just absurd.

By far the best finale we've had in this series.

Some notable cockups IMHO, but it wasn't a total flop like the finales for the first two seasons.

The Rand reveal to the Aiel was honestly nearly perfect.

They also cleared runway for other things I've been hoping to see, while ending some other storylines I was looking forward to.

Hopefully we get another big jump in show quality for season 4.

Last seasons finale was the best episode of the series up to then. I really liked last seasons finale. I think it's a book reader vs non book reader thing though. I watch a breakdown of each episode with an avid bookreader and he didn't like last seasons finale at all.

This season finale was really damn good, though.