Game of Thrones

[zoraster]

I thought that Dany's scene was excellent, probably the best of the episode

[Tierce]

If the second version of The Bear and the Maiden Fair played over Locke, that was a bad rip and affected several copies. There are newer versions which have been fixed.

That said, while I preferred the in-universe version of the song, I liked the mood whiplash when the credits rolled in. "Yep, that's all you get, guess which Houses are celebrating tonight! 8D"

[Seacore]

Thanks Tierce. Although I got off my mental-ass and checked it out myself, I've got a good version now.

And I agree, the credit version song is jarring in an effective way. I can't wait to watch this episode with my wife.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

I really, really don't understand why they decided to replace Vargo Hoat with the six-fingered man from the Princess Bride. You don't even have to have the Bloody Mummers -- you can just have the leader of Bolton's men be Vargo Hoat, lisp and all.

Oh well.

[xRECKONERx]

I've decided I'm going to edit together scenes from the last episode with the Seinfeld slap bass and laugh track in the background. Did I just watch Game of Thrones, or an hour long sitcom set in a fantasy world?

Tyrion is too short to pick up the chair so it scrapes across the floor! Ahahahaha!

Boy, that Jaime and Brienne sure are an

odd couple

!

Oooooh Dany is putting the boys in their place. You go girl!

Now let's spend way too much screen time on Tyrion in a brothel, then Tyrion setting up his squire with a three-way, then the squire returning and being

soo good at the sex

that he got laid for free! Bron and Tyrion even want to take notes, hahahahahahaha!

And to send you all off for the evening, here's an ending credits song that you'd usually hear at the end of Weeds.

Ugh. Spare me...I hope this was just a one-off thing and not a case of the show becoming more popular which leads to them having to play things for laughs/more broad. I already feel like they try to shove Tyrion into every episode even when he has nothing to do, now let's not start making this too bad.

[zoraster]

I loved the awkward scene with in the small council, Dany putting the boys in their place (highlighting that she's a queen, not just a child... though their objections actually were well placed to be part of a negotiation). Jaime and Brienne was fine I thought? I didn't get the sense that that was sitcom-esque at ALL.

The only thing that was silly to me was the brothel scene, but this isn't exactly a new addition to the series... though I agree I'm not sure what it added other than to give the Meerenese knot joke and some sex. I thought that it could have been brought together if after Pod leaves after regaling Bron and Tyrion with his stories, Bron turned to Tyrion and said, "so how much did you pay them to let let him leave with the money?" or something to show that it was really just part of Tyrion's plan to make Pod more confident.

The credits song was jarring, but I liked it. Bear and the Maiden Fair is a ribald tavern song that's sung at various points. Others celebrate drunkenly while some suffer horribly.

[Iecerint]

Another great episode.

Very excited for Olenna to do something wily next week.

[Faraday]

Oooooh Dany is putting the boys in their place. You go girl!

Eh? What was wrong with that. She's 100% right that them questioning her in public undermines her. Her scenes last night were really good. + the barristan/jorah dynamic works really well on screen. She was authoritive and didn't have to shout to achieve it. It's her best scene in a while.

I mean I agree with the uh, Tyrion/Pod scene being really bad but Jaime/Brienne have had this kind of thing before - and Jaime saying he'd make them kill him if he was a woman was a nice way to end their discussion.

[ChannelDelibird]

Hot DAMN that was good. Saw someone somewhere say that the jarring nature of the song choice was intended to prolong the "WTF"ness of the final scene and I'm on board with that.

Spoiler:

The only thing that I wasn't completely sold on was the extended Pod stuff (although the Meereenese Knot joke went a long way to making up for that).

[Iecerint]

I didn't even make the connection with the Pod stuff. "Are they extorting him...?" etc. I didn't understand that there was no subtext until I read about it afterward.

This is the first time Dany has really seemed like a very strong leader to me.

[Faraday]

I thought this was the book thread as well.

EDIT I fail to see any reason that I can't talk about the books in this thread given that everyone else has been doing so.

That's why we created the book thread - i.e. it was unfair

Also agree with iecerint that it's dany's best scene in a while. Missandei is cool, too.

[Tierce]

The Pod thing confused me, because I thought he had somehow got involved in some spying/blackmail scheme. It took me far too long to get it. That's my main gripe about the episode.

I like that no good deed goes unpunished. Jaime was genuinely trying to help Brienne (his enemy! who he tried to kill on the last episode! who he mocks all the way!) and got his... rightful... payment for it. Sure, he got cocky and was dangling his family in front of Locke, but sheesh. For once, we saw him be a decent human being and see what it got him.

Dany was very very good in this episode. She is imposing her power without WHERE ARE MUH DRAGONS, and kept her cool throughout the meeting before reinforcing the advisors/queen situation. It was well handled, and I like Missandei.

It's hard to pick out a favorite scene in this episode. Dany, the small council, Arya's little smile at Hot Pie, Jaime and Brienne... very few things that bothered me. Can't wait for next week.

[Venmar]

I like that no good deed goes unpunished. Jaime was genuinely trying to help Brienne (his enemy! who he tried to kill on the last episode! who he mocks all the way!) and got his... rightful... payment for it. Sure, he got cocky and was dangling his family in front of Locke, but sheesh. For once, we saw him be a decent human being and see what it got him.

Jaime wasn't punished for trying to help Brienne, he was punished for trying to trick Locke to into releasing him and handing him over to the Lannisters.

[Seacore]

Yeah, but that all sprang from helping Brienne.

He could have just sat there quietly, but instead he spoke out to save Brienne. In doing so, he used some fancy words, reminding his captor that he was a spoilt rich boy. Jaime being Jaime... it all went downhill from there.

I, as I clearly stated above, didn't have the same hate for the Pod scene that everybody else has. I don't think they needed the extended "what's whore's behind curtain number three" aspect of it, but his return with the gold made me laugh.

The Dany/Jorah/Barristan scene was excellent. Jorah and Barristan disagree about everything, and the one time that's not the case, they disagree with her. And she handled that perfectly.

[Tierce]

Yeah, but that all sprang from helping Brienne.

He could have just sat there quietly, but instead he spoke out to save Brienne. In doing so, he used some fancy words, reminding his captor that he was a spoilt rich boy. Jaime being Jaime... it all went downhill from there.

Yes, this is my point. If he had shut up and let them have Brienne, yes, he might have been handed back to the Starks/Bolton commanders, but would happened in this episode would never have occurred. He gets some really visible character depth and then GRRM hits us right in the feels. Again.

[redFF]

Yeah that was a good scene. I still hate the fact that they had jaime kill cleos frey last season, but I guess they are trying to make his 'redemption' as obvious as possible to tv viewers.

[Tierce]

Tyrion is too short to pick up the chair so it scrapes across the floor! Ahahahaha!

Tyrion

deliberately

did that to be as obnoxious as possible. Yes, he is a dwarf, but D&D would never make Peter Dinklage play his height

for laughs

. This show doesn't do that, and it's one of the things I really appreciate about it.

Tyrion was showcasing how his father had made the situation as awkward as possible for everyone, and had no compunctions about making

others

uneasy in turn while he took the time to get himself comfortable. As we saw before, their relationship isn't exactly a loving one, and Tyrion is done with trying to appease his lord father. There was a lot of personality and emotion put into that scene, and the looks between the three Lannisters were worth a thousand words.

Look at the difference between that scene and the Jaime scene at the end, where Jaime seems to start every other sentence with "my father", half a continent away, while Tyrion is clearly done with the way he has been treated so far. That difference in how the Lannisters deal with each other is one of my favorite things in GoT/ASoIaF, and I think it was handled very nicely in this episode.

[Seacore]

I need to watch this show with Tierce, I think we appreciate it the same way.

[Iecerint]

I agree with Tierce, too.

[xRECKONERx]

Sure. But it was still played for laughs, and I hate the idea of the majority of things in this episode being played for laughs. I love Peter Dinklage, and I love Tyrion's character, but I can't stand how "popular" he's gotten, so they feel the need to jam him into every episode, even when it's not particularly relevant or needed.

[Iecerint]

Tyrion's scenes with Podrick felt that way to me, but not his scene with Tywin.

[zoraster]

i agree with iec.

[ChannelDelibird]

I liked the song choice at the end of the episode but I did laugh quite a lot at this.

Spoiler:

[hasdgfas]

Sure. But it was still played for laughs, and I hate the idea of the majority of things in this episode being played for laughs. I love Peter Dinklage, and I love Tyrion's character, but I can't stand how "popular" he's gotten, so they feel the need to jam him into every episode, even when it's not particularly relevant or needed.

I didn't get the idea at all that the majority of things were played for laughs. The small council scene especially was incredibly in character for everyone involved.

[Nexus]

Jaime Lannister? More like

Maime

Lannister, amiright?

Excellent episode.