TV: Game of Thrones

[Requiem]

I don't disagree with Whitetiger that they seem to be stretching the episodes out, but I do disagree that's a bad thing. I'm thoroughly enjoying this season and I'm satisfied with how things are going and the speed with which they're going.

Too bad we haven't seen Sansa 'n Company bump into Jon yet. I'm looking forward to that.

Also FUCK THE WRITERS for teasing us with the fucking tower. Cool to see Ned was (still) a big fat liar, but I get the feeling that's just a smokescreen.

 

[Easy]

The "my watch is ended" part really got me, cause, shit, that's a good point. He's technically free to go as he pleases. Only question is: what's he doing now? To which I'm speculating the answer is: leading a bunch of wildings to Winterfell and kicking ass. Time for that hot bastard-on-bastard* action.

*YMMV

I was a teensy bit disappointed to see them cutting out the (probable) hunt for Rickon in Skagos, though this has potential as well. I was significantly disappointed to see Arthur Dayne turned into a gimmicky two-sword fighter, instead of getting to find out what makes him so legendary with Dawn. They choreographed it surprisingly well, though. Way better than all that bullshit with the Sand Snakes was done. You could almost believe that dual-wielding longswords is legit, based on that scene.

Also FUCK THE WRITERS for teasing us with the fucking tower. Cool to see Ned was (still) a big fat liar, but I get the feeling that's just a smokescreen.

To be fair, it's Howland Reed's honor he's protecting, if any.

 

[Requiem]

That's very true. He's not lying for bad reasons and he did get to live since Reed did what he did, so I can't say it's bad Ned lied. I'm just really having fun with Bran going into the past dreamwalker style. It's awesome.

 

[Easy]

It's gonna take a lot more cool scenes like that until it finally makes up for that long ass, boring ass buildup, imo, but here's hoping it finally meets or exceeds that point pretty soon.

 

[Requiem]

I think the scenes with Bran are meant to give us all of the backstory we think we know, but haven't gotten to see for ourselves yet, so I'm optimist for the future of that plotline.

 

[Easy]

Well, we'll have to see. I dunno if you've read the books (yet?) or not,* but so far the show's still (just barely) playing catch-up with those scenes. Though I think it's news that Hodor was sane once. Either way, the fan theories so far are based on significantly more information, from the books, than the TV series has displayed so far, and some of them are honestly really goddamn solid enough that I'd be pretty surprised if they ended up not being correct. It's always risky to speculate before all of the plot info is out, but still.

*Would totally recommend. Martin's prose is phenomenal (in the first three, at least, before he arguably started seeming to get a bit rushed in the latter ones), and on all counts equal to or better than the show in terms of plot and character development. As much as this season of the show has rebuilt some of my hopes up after the train wreck that was last season, I'm a guy who watched two full seasons of the show before ever picking up A Game of Thrones, and I'm way more hyped for the upcoming book than I am for all the rest of the upcoming episodes.

 

[Requiem]

Nah, I haven't read the books, but that's mainly because I stubbornly stick to one series before jumping to another. I'm going through Stephen King's Dark Tower series and I was supposed to have the rest of the series by now, but instead I've only got half of the books.

I think once I'm done with that, I'll move on to SoI&F. The books are almost always going to be better than the cinematic work, which is why I generally don't get angry at movies or shows that aren't perfectly done to the source work. I get to experience the same thing for the first time but twice, so I give the show slack when it isn't doing its best.

I think it was smart to leave Bran out last season and it's clear why they did it, but it would have been nice if they just put a scene or two throughout the last season showing him doing something. I get that time has passed, but there's just a weird break from him getting to the Three Eyed Raven and then to this season with him seeing the past. It's not a big deal, but there's just that little bit of screen time that should have been there which wasn't.

 

[Tag_Ross]

I never really hated Olly as much as everyone else, his motivation was pretty clear from the beginning.

I say that because, OH. MY. GOD. HIS FACE AT THE END, I'M STILL SMILING AT THAT STUPID FACE.

 

[Requiem]

I never hated Olly either. He had perfectly good reasons for feeling how he did. The Wildlings also have perfectly good reasons for what they did. They all had good motivations. Ygritte getting killed sucked of course and Jon getting stabbed through the heart is shit-tier, so Olly getting executed is fair. I just could never bring myself to hate the kid. That's what made the whole situation with him so unfortunate because he was right to feel the way he did and right to get executed.

 

[Whitetiger]

I was really fucking hyped for Tower of Joy, and it was still pretty sick. I still wish they hadn't cut out one of the Kingsguard and randomly gave Ser Arthur Dayne 2 longswords. As if 3v7 wasn't long enough odds, they made it 2v7 and made one of the Kingsguard fight 4v1. It just felt like they were trying to establish just how fantastic he was in the most exaggerated ways they could. Having a really weird looking sword made of meteorite and using a shield or parrying dagger in the other hand just wouldn't have been badass enough I guess.

Then once they showed that he could win a 4v1 it seems silly that he took so long to kill Ned while unwounded and still fully armed. Ned was competent but if he couldn't beat the guy with 3 others helping him, it's doubtful that he could even hold his own 1v1.

I can get pretty nitpicky, but this was a scene from the first book and seemed like it could be perfectly adapted to the show with no real changes. I guess they wanted to save some money on the 3rd kingsguard or something, I was just a bit disappointed.

But like Easy said, at least it wasn't like the Sandsnakes fight. I was worried that the Tower of Joy would be filmed in the same area as the rest of Dorne and would therefore have the same director / fight choreographers. Glad to see that it was still a really awesome fight scene despite my small issues with it.

 

[Tag_Ross]

So, did they refuse R+L=J in arya's story?

 

[Easy]

How so?

 

[Tag_Ross]

She was asked how many brothers she had, she said four and was slapped got for lying, then she corrected herself to three, and a half brother, and wasn't slapped for lying. I thought, "maybe it has to do with the way she sees her family." But Arya loved Jon more than her other brothers, there's no way she doesn't see him as anything less than a brother.

so why would she get slapped for lying about having four brothers, despite the way she perceives Jon, but not for "lying" about having a half brother.

 

[Requiem]

Because Jon is, as far as the world knows, literally a half Stark. Also anyone who knows the truth about what happened in there first hand is dead, so perhaps the Many Faced God is taking that into account.

There's also the fact that they have to keep the narrative intact until they decide to confirm or deny it. No one cares what a girl thinks of her brother/half brother. They just care what's literally true.

 

[Easy]

The answer is that Arya believes Jon is her half-brother. The point of the exercise isn't to teach Arya what the truth is, it's to teach her how to lie effectively. While Arya may love Jon just as if he were in fact a full brother to her, she believes the statement that she has four brothers to be inaccurate, and the truth to be that she has three brothers and a half-brother.

 

[Steal Thy Kill]

The Faceless Men are not omniscient. They just happen to be damn good at telling when people are lying. Arya claimed Jon was her brother, but that was a lie, as he is her half-brother as far as she knows. That is the lie the Faceless Men discovered. That is the lie she was smacked for. If anything, that part was to remind us that Rickon existed. Which is pretty damn necessary in both the show and the books.

Also, I kinda like how Arthur Dayne was killed. The supposed epitome of a true knight was killed by a stab in the back. It's pretty damn fitting for what this whole series is about.

 

[Whitetiger]

I wonder what the implications are of Bloodraven and Bran being able to communicate with people in the past. I always thought that was a pretty weird fucking element to add to the books and I still don't know how I feel about the time travel stuff. The fact that they can be heard across space and time is pretty fucking significant. It means anytime someone thought they were hearing the gods or just thought they were hearing voices, they could have been hearing Bloodraven whispering in their ear. I don't know how much of an impact that really had on the story but it's there.

 

[Tag_Ross]

Arya claimed Jon was her brother, but that was a lie, as he is her half-brother as far as she knows.

Maybe because I actually have half brothers I see that relationship differently, I see my half brothers only as brothers, I only remember that they're not fully related to me when something reminds me to point it out. I don't ever feel like I'm lying when I say I have four brothers and correcting myself to say I have two brothers, and two half brothers that are not related, I just have four brothers.

 

[Easy]

It's not terribly surprising that Arya would be raised to see it differently than you, though, on account of growing up in a feudal society where the line of succession is a primary concern.

 

[Steal Thy Kill]

Oh god so many things racing through my mind

Good to have you back Darth Sansa. Tormund/Brienne fucking confirmed. Cersei and Jaime are doing a great Frank/Clair Underwood impression. Daario just loves to rub it in Jorah's face. Here I was thinking Dany would need Drogon to bail her out but nope. Khal Drogo's ghost is proud. And previews for next episode reveal that KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINGSMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT.