while i do think grrm is about using a shaggy dog story, i dont think dany would be it. you could argue stannis is it, but you could also argue that he served purpose of getting meli to the wall, etc.
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while i do think grrm is about using a shaggy dog story, i dont think dany would be it. you could argue stannis is it, but you could also argue that he served purpose of getting meli to the wall, etc.
I know this is the show thread, but now that the show is spoiling the books, do we still want this thread to be book knowledge free?
i think we should add some book stuff, but it depends on what the show only people have to say.
there is still some book stuff that shouldn't be mentioned. but i think that there is value to the books for the show only people now. for example, show!euron is fucking garbage even though he's totally awesome in the books and potentially the main Act III antagonist.
No books that arnt officially released please
Euron in the books is boss, but do you really think the show Euron is that bad? I think the casting is great. The Kings moot was a bit of a let down though. That was one of my favorite chapters in the whole series-- the Moot consisting of just Yara and Euron was weak, all the intrigue was lost, and they left out the dragon horn. I know this is tiptoeing into hyperbole, but without the horn, Euron winning the moot is close to being a plot hole.
ldo.
Show!Euron: "I don't mock the Drowned God; I am the Drowned God. From Oldtown to Qarth, when men see my sail, they pray."
Book!Euron: "Godless? Why, Aeron, I am the godliest man ever to raise sail! You serve one god, Damphair, but I have served ten thousand. From Ib to Asshai, when men see my sails, they pray."
This encapsulates why I don't like Show!Euron. Book!Euron is deeply mysterious. He's been to foreign lands, he knows foreign things, and he engages in foreign rituals. He's a religious fanatic who claims a divine destiny, and nobody can say otherwise since he appears to be truly inspired by his foreign experiences.
Show!Euron says silly things like he's a god. He makes cock jokes and says "let's go murder them." Show!Euron is an arrogant prick whose strength against his opposition is probably that he's just more ruthless than they are. Book!Euron is inspired. Conquest is his godly destiny, and for all we know, he's magical.
The show is trying to keep the religious fanaticism, mystery, and power of Euron, but I think turning him from a "godly" man to a "god" himself sullies his character. It makes him look too big for his britches instead of a divinely inspired enigma. Maybe it's just me, but I really loved the "godly" stuff the Iron Islanders cared so much about in the books. It gave them so much more depth and mystery. I was upset to see that "no godless man can sit the Seastone Chair" turned into "yadda yadda Salt Throne."
Show!Euron looks like just another meanface drabdress Iron Islander. I wanted to see this guy:
http://orig11.deviantart.net/b1ff/f/...ic-d6m4qod.jpg
Instead we got this guy:
http://starecat.com/content/wp-conte...of-thrones.jpg
On a related note, I read an interesting analysis of each act's villains and heroes. The short is that Act 1 is Tywin vs Tyrion, Act 2 is Jon vs Ramsay, and Act 3 is Euron vs Dany. Also can be thought of as father vs son, bastard vs bastard, kraken vs dragon. Each act is a type of struggle: Act 1 is the destructive power of war and political power (culminating is the Red Wedding). Act 2 is the destructive power of humanity at its root (Ramsay embodies human evil, Jon is for the most part human good, and they are likely to face off, not unlike Tyrion and Tywin did). Act 3 is the destructive power of religion and magic. I like the kraken vs dragon metaphor. Both Dany and Euron will probably have "divine right" on their side, as well as the most amount of magic.
Yeah man, you make solid points. I'm just trying to bolster my fanboydom as to have it last me through the end of the show. If this show flounders, and I have to come to terms with that fact-- I don't even..
The casting was good. My issue is artistic direction. It's the same with Daario.
Remember this from the last ep:
Daario: "You weren't made to sit on a chair in a palace."
Dany: "What was I made for?"
Daario: "You're a conquerer..."
Book!Daario would have responded with something offensive and arrogant. Perhaps with "My cock." Book!Daario is a ridiculous, conceited, silly man, which makes Dany's adoration of him all the more meaningful since it shows her own lack of judgment. But instead the show turned him into the most bland love interest that the average girl in the audience can get behind.
I wanted this idiot:
http://images4.fanpop.com/image/poll...64549_full.jpg
Instead we got this idiot:
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/...20141117212332
Again, solid points.
I probably have a positive bias to show Daario, only because I like the actor from his role in Treme. That being said, after reading the books, I definitely think they should have stuck with the original casting if that was an option. His ability to smirk the smirk of pure confidence while showing the world those crooked teeth was the embodiment of the character.
yup. original casting certainly got the smarmy douchebag correct
The only thing anybody needs to know about Game of Thrones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G94G0Gxh1cU
http://www.instantrapairhorn.com/
What is HYPE may never die, but rises HYPEr and stronger.
What did it mean when Margaery gave the flower drawing to her grandmother? Their house symbol is a rose so is it her way of saying that she's still planning for the house despite telling her grandmother to leave?
ya
plus a thorn i think.
arya theory that's about 75% a friend's and 25% mine: waif returns to jaqen saying it's done. jaqen says "a girl still lives" and sends waif back out to finish the job. in the meantime, arya realizes she's gonna die by bleeding out. she returns to the hobaw and tells jaqen to give her the death juice and promise her that he will kill cersei (and maybe the mountain and ilin payne). maybe she says to take her face and use that to show cersei whose responsible for her death in the last minutes. jaqen then gives her the death juice which is transformed into the cure juice. the many faced god sees her sacrifice, her gifts, her whatever, and spares her, he has more use for her. then jaqen tells her a death is owed and she must go find and kill waif.
this fits a bigger theory i have that jaqen's plan for arya has this entire time been for her to kill cersei. he doesn't want her to be fullblown fm. there are inklings in the dialogue that the fm is a sort of moral institution that kills based on judgment instead of just money (like providing mercy for slaves by the first fm in valyria killing masters). fm hasn't been contracted to kill cersei, but they want cersei dead nonetheless and they know arya is the way to do it. this has all been training to get to that goal imo.
i remember years ago before i read the books i had some heated arguments with several 2p2ers about hound being alive. they told me i was blind and he was obviously dead. the symbolism and character arc said otherwise.
i stopped talking about his return after i read the books becuase the gravedigger theory was way too solid and it confirmed that hound was alive. then ian mcshane straight up spoiled it months ago
the only upsetting aspect of his return is NOT ENOUGH AIRHORN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psS2IMFkxKo
The part with Arya was a bit much. She wouldn't let anyone get close to her and wouldn't be fooled by what appeared to be a sweet old lady. If she did get stabbed in the gut like that and then submerged in water for that long then it is hard to imagine how she could survive.
One of the problems with this season is that people don't die and stay dead. The part with Jon Snow was tolerable but Sunday's scenes with Hound and Arya were kind of annoying.
scratch my arya theory. there's a much better one on reddit now. it explains your problem with how arya got caught too.
in case it's faux pas posting a reddit theory:
Spoiler:it's jaqen wearing arya's face
Wow, that spoiler is confusing. I need to wrap my head around that Arya theory.
On another note, I liked the appearance of Ian McShane from Deadwood.
top reasons:
Spoiler:jaqen has all that coinage; not arya. jaqen would stare out at the statue of braavos as if he's saying goodbye; not arya. jaqen would throw the coins righthanded; not arya; maisie has trained to be lefthanded too. arya/jaqen was loud and obvious and clumsy. jaqen/arya was walking like a highborn, dressed as a an obvious westerosi. jaqen still owes arya his own life; remember how she named him.
Oh wow, you're right in that it does explain why it was too easy for Arya to get caught.
I thought he could only change to the face of a dead person.
Anyway, can we talk about how amazing the girl who plays lady of bear island is? holy shit, that's a great character!
they showed arya's face on a dead fm already i think. the rules are fuzzy. it's probably that if you're in with the hobaw, fm can use your face.
because the audience thinks it's arya.
jaqen be going to find the real arya anyways.
dead pool for remaining eps: 75% on each of them dying: ramsay, yara, waif, tormund.
wun wun could die if the writers are the stupidest people on the face of the planet. all good writing saves him to fight in the biggest final battle of the show.
others, like rickon, tommen, olenna, im not sure if will die.
tormund totes dead becuase he's gotten a lot of play and the wildings are finally following jon. tormund done his duty. tormund and brienne is just comic relief, not gonna happen.
mel defo not dying because she has gotten no play. dnd only kill when it pulls at audience heartstrings.
polly easier to do an alive pool.
mine is: Arya, Tyrion, Varys, Baelish... erm... that's it. Everyone I don't know the name of dies. Oh and Sansa. Sansa can't die, she needs a payoff.
Sansa is gonna die, in a horrible way. She's here to suffer, and you never suffer more than when you start to believe and have hope.
you shut your dirty mouth!
I think she'll probably witness John die first.
Tormund, no!
He's the wildlings at this point. We're not going to explore their politics, so without Tormund, they just become a name talked about.
Plus, he's gonna make a woman outta the Tarth girl.
I'm tryna interpret the D&D style. They rarely kill a character without giving that character play, and they often kill a character when he/she gets more play than normal. Except for the handful of "wrap things up deaths" (like Osha), they use the Oberyn strategy: get people fistpumping only to snatch it away at the last minute.
I see Tormund as fulfilling his duty. The wildlings follow Jon now. People like Tormund more now. Somebody has to die on the side of the good guys.
I don't think LF sits the Iron Throne in the show, but I think there's a really high chance that when it show wraps it's foreshadowed that he will. I think there's almost zero chance that he gets his comeuppance. Unless it's in a way where Sansa essentially becomes the new LF. Like her meeting with him was the first time she actually took a step towards being his peer. Her laying out that she thinks he's scum, but then letting him live makes her seem like a weak little girl, and her letter writing probably continues this role, but this could be a sick student-surpasses-the-master arc. Any other downfall of LF has to involve good triumphing over evil, and that'll be stupid lame.
i have a sneaking theory that littlefinger believes way more than he lets on, and that his attempts at gaining power are so that he can consolidate the fight against the walkers. if you think about it, somebody as truly shrewd as him may not just blow off the reports of what's going on in the north.
i dont think this theory is correct, but i wouldn't call it dumb if it happened.
really mild book stuff, not spoilery, but has to do with differences between the show and books:
Spoiler:I could buy that in the book world-- and the totality of it would be that LF is really the extremely pragmatic good guy while Varys is his foil, being the ostensibly good shadowy character, but ultimately he's driven by the trauma of his youth which has his goals being revenge against those who he sees as being the same as those who have wronged him.
But I think the show has failed to give us the same depth with Varys, and there's just not enough time to pull this one off on screen.
Sup, dudes?
http://i.imgur.com/zJCX2Tg.jpg
easily bottom five all time got eps. the writing in this show can be so depressingly bad. which says a lot since adapting this book series to an ~80 episode hbo show IS ABSOLUTELY THE EASIEST JOB ANYBODY COULD EVER HAVE
dnd choose the silliest devices
- make fun of hardcore fans by foreshadowing huge book events then just dont do them and instead piss in the river.
- plot so badly that there are no reasonable options other than a super secret twist, but little did those pleb viewers know that the real super secret twist is the atrocious writing.
- tell everything. never show. always tell. tell tell tell. jaime tells about his cersei love, never shows. brienne tells about her honor, never shows. the bwb can only say how important sandor must be, fuck subtext!
- blackfish: i cant leave the castle and help my niece, im needed here. oh wait, they're trying to kill me for being here? k i'm needed to die instead of help my niece.
- at some point, deaths are "gratuitious" (but cocks and tits never are!). let's kill three chars back to back to back and not show them! david, we're so fucking smart! that's right d.b. we're fucking brilliant!
Yeah, this episode wasn't very good. I know Arya is bad ass and she drank the special drink or whatever but seeing her run around like that after being stabbed repeatedly in the gut the week before was crazy.
the only thing going well is the hound being back and a badass, but im sure the dnd intent is to make it seem like cleganebowl is coming and hound gonna fuck some shit up but they'll give him aids or something and he'll die in a ditch somewhere.
Wun Wun had better not die this coming ep. A 25 foot tall man would massacre the entire Bolton force solo.
Stop being cry babies. This is still GOAT tier television, and you've been hopelessly spoiled by TV shows' increased quality over the last decade and a half if you think otherwise. Can you fucking imagine turning on the TV in 1994 and seeing this? Although the camp of Xena and Hercules was and is endearing, get a fucking grip and realize how fortunate we are to be watching GoT as it is. Might the show disappoint after such a superbly strong start? Sure, maybe-- but whatever, the books will be great, and the show not living up to the books and the first few seasons of the show leaves a ton of room for it to still be top tier entertainment.
i can always appreciate that you'll come down on a different perspective than me. it keeps me on my toes.
xena da warrior princess got nothing on the goatness that is s2 the walking dead.
btw i bet literal immortal half-god hercules would have been more debilitated from a bowel stab-twist than Lady No One of House Stark.
Yeah, there were some really strange ball drops in that sequence for sure. Like, why not have the actress say something like "good thing they missed the important bits, otherwise you'd be dead already."? Why not do a passage of time, say a week or so, between the stabbing and the Waif T1000'ing Arya through the streets of Bravos while they both hardcore parkour?
Also the gut stab was strangely reminiscent of the abortion Dr. Frey performed on Robb's wife. It's like someone thought "oooh I really liked the way that looked, can't wait to use it again!" but felt the end of the series closing in and felt they might not get their chance so they just forced it in here.
So, yeah, I am not turning a blind eye to the short comings, but I'm also not being a hyperbolic drama queen-- The Hound and BWB scene(s) were fantastic, probably the best this season. The barter over the condemned dialogue is absolutely top notch(speaking of, Bronn and Pod comic relief sideshow was a great use of the characters). Sure they teased at some book stuff here that they didn't pay off, but with a dozen or so episodes left in the series, that would have been terrible. What they gave us is a fantastic substitute.
Does the show sometimes not live up to its abstract potential? Sure, but the internet is acting like they're watching The Walking Thrones...
Miguel Saposhnik who directed this episode and the Whitewalker battle last season will also direct the last episode. Shit is going down! I had to re-watch that battle a couple of times. Easily the best depiction of medieval warfare I have ever seen. Last episode is going to be Spoon's red pill nightmare. I predict Littlefinger and Tyrion to be the only two men with a penis left standing, and I'm not even that sure about Tyrion. I am so hyped for the Sansa vs Dani bitch fight for the Throne.
#TeamSansa #bitchishardcore
I'll definitely follow everything Iwan Rheon is involved in. He hit it out of the park as Rhamsey Snow. This looks like a promising start:
oscar, that's what my wife said too, why run in a straight line? Zig zag when running from an archer or a gator.
yeah if it's an arrow and you randomly change direction in a 70 degree angle or something every 4 seconds or something you probably increase your chance of survival a couple hundred times over or something.
ofc that doesn't mean you're not a scared kid.
All prejudices aside, amazing episode. Ya can list the problems with overarching GoT representation of character and plot, but as a standalone and as a product of working-with-what-you-have, this episode was tippy toppy notch
You gotta zig and you gotta zag-- I know, I totally agree, but come on guys, we got an awesome episode, including an extended visit to Mereen that was actually great, and you guys still want to nit it up?
The encirclement and mountains of bodies was so amazing. You guys are probably aware, but that was heavily inspired by an actual battle, the battle of Cannae. However, in the real battle, the numbers were switched, with the Carthaginian's successfully encircling the Roman army which had numerical advantage. Roman legionaries and allied troops, coming to terms with their suddenly shortened lifespan, were found to have dug shallow holes in the dirt, just big enough to stick their head in, and doing so, they proceeded to fill the dirt back in to suffocate themselves.
The first thing I wish they could have improved is the representation of Wun Wun. Give a giant a weapon for Christ's sake. If this was real life, I'm picking Jon's army as favorite just because Wun Wun would be an unstoppable force and would turn to mush any defense.
The second thing I would change is the whole Umber plot. If we want Smalljon to side with Ramsay (like he did), the wolf head needs to be bigger, he needs to swear an oath to Ramsay, and probably the scene in s2 where Greatjon cries "OATHBREAKER?!?!" needs to not happen. As Smalljon was represented in this season, the result should have been an opportune turncloack who had been conspiring against Ramsay all this time.
The third thing I would change is, well, I guess I'm just not enthralled by the fact that the heroes seem to be so warm-blooded and emotional while the villains are fistbump bros with cold-blooded calculations. I guess I'm not sure what I would do about that, but it's starting to be silly.
Happy as shit that no major protagonists died.
Omg, that scene with greyworm and the masters.
Does anyone like Sansa now?
I've always liked Sansa. She's been on a long arc. I'm not sure if the show will give that though, but it's in the literature regardless.
Plus I like tall lady-like gingers.
It's not often I think someone getting eaten by his own dogs is too merciful and quick. I bet he would have been more creative with Jon and Sansa.
rip wun wun
Y
The best part of the battle of the bastards was the tactics behind it.
I mean the best part was the actual battle, but the best part was the tactics too.
If Sansa tells Jon she has the Knights of the Vale, Jon waits for them. If Jon shows up with a superior force, Ramsey stays in Winterfell. The Starks can't wait out a siege as the Freys or Lannisters will reinforce them in time, plus those walking dead are still coming.
Sansa holds back on her superior army so that Jon waltzes into battle knowing that Mr Bolton would provoke him into a loss, as well as knowing that Ramsey would meet an inferior Jon Snow army on the field to signal to the North who was in control.
Ramsey masterfully uses the lil Stark boy to get JS to charge wildly into battle. Then he kinda fucks up by raining arrows on an inferior force and takes increased losses, but it's still in character, then he waits for the Snows to fully commit to the battle before encircling them.
Only then does Sansa show up to blow off the remaining forces and essentially check-mate Ramsey.
She coulda just taken Winterfell first, then sent out her cavalry to win the fight, but who cares?
The best part was that Sansa didn't really care if Jon died. She used him perfectly while playing Ramsey perfectly.
I don't think that's what Sansa was going for, but it is what LF was going for. Sansa didn't tell Jon about the Vale army possibly showing up because D&D wanted to surprised the audience as much as they could. They kept it from being Deus ex by having Sansa send the letter in a scene that casuals forget.
They also had LF uncharacteristically being apologetic to Sansa showing that LF's little finger is winning out over his conniving mind w.r.t Sansa, and she used that to her advantage.
Sansa is queenofdanorf
What a season!
don't hate me but i love jonsan. i think it's because they're so awkward yet in theory great. and wholly good people.
plus i adore sansa. my tv crush. i love damaged, regal women. and jon is my go-gay guy. and ethan hawke. except i dont have a go-gay guy becuase i dont want to actually go gay, just if i did, it'd be jon snow and ethan hawke. theyre prettier than most dudes.
Omg, what an episode. It was episodes like this that made me watch this show in the first place...and now they're fucking back.
I can't even begin to spoil all the damn awesome spoilers that happened. Just dayum
Questions!
Where is Ghost?
AND
Winter is here and all, so are we going to have some "Russian Cold >>>> German army" type stuff...or is this gonna be a "HAHAHA, MY DRAGONS BURN AWAY YOUR STUPID COLD"??
I didn't feel satisfied with the finale. It was in too much of a rush to tie up lots of stories. The whole kings landing section was just too rushed and so many died it just felt like they wanted to get rid of a bunch of story lines as quickly and conveniently as possible.
Could have done with maybe a 2 hour episode instead.
And where is Arya getting the faces from? Does she have a stash of then in her knickers?
Arya only had the one face since she left Braavos. GETYERFACTSSTRAIGHT
The first and last episode are probably the most unthankful to write. There are so many checkmarks you have to cross. When they first revealed the wildfire under the scept I thought: well that's one way to write yourself out of a corner... but what would be the alternative? Cercei gets exiled and we carry that whole clusterfuck over to the next season?
I loved it because it showed cersei more like she was in season one...coniving and reckless.
But I feel that this season didn't lay the foundation for her blowing it all up. She had a few "I choose violence" moments, but those seemed more like defiance than actually a scheming part of a plan. Maybe that's because if she looked like she was scheming it wouldn't work? Idk. A scene showing the audience that she was holding all the cards earlier would satisfy me.