Game of Thrones

[absta101]

The shots at the end with the white walker were really well done as well as the opening sequence. Otherwise, the episode wasn't anything special.

[xRECKONERx]

I thought last night's episode flowed really well, which is unusual for the show. More often than not, these "the noose tightens" filler episodes feel disjointed and can sometimes come with a case of whiplash, but I thought last night's avoided that for the most part.

We had a pretty lengthy sequence with Dany taking Mereen (and by the way, I loved the Grey Worm/Missandei scene), which was self-contained. I also thought that they did a good job in lieu of a big battle to just show one instance of the slaves revolting. Interesting way to avoid blowing millions of dollars on a needless battle sequence.

Once we arrive in Westeros, everything just flows really well. Littlefinger plays a game with Sansa (As an side, it's REALLY cool to see the seeds being planted of Sansa learning to play the game from a master player) and tells her how he poisoned Joffrey. "Oh, I did it for my new friends, so we could GROW STRONG..." and then we cut to Olenna/Margaery having almost the same conversation. D&D did not want to leave any ambiguity for the show watchers -- Olenna, Littlefinger, and Dontos worked together to kill Joffrey. "Oh, but it could've been Tyrion, grandma", "NO IT COULDN'T MARGAERY JESUS CHRIST TRUST ME"... aaand cut to Jaime/Bronn talking about Tyrion, which then leads to Jaime and Tyrion talking in his cell, which leads to Jaime/Cersei discussing Tyrion and having their confrontation, which leads to Jaime/Brienne having their shopping spree, which leads to PODRICK FUCKIN PAYNE going off with Brienne. Whew, that's a lot of stuff in King's Landing, but everything felt driven by the same kind of narrative thread so it didn't feel as whiplashy.

Also holy shit, can I just say I

hate

the WHO WILL GO ON THIS EPIC QUEST trope where instead of doing something rational, the volunteer goes, "Okay, I could raise my hand or shout out that I'm in... nah, I know, I'll STAND UP SLOWLY AND DRAMATICALLY AND SILENTLY TO SHOW MY SUPPORT!" That whole scene at the Wall was gross. Kit Harrington has gotten better but he is still kind of boring to watch, and he's not exactly surrounded by compelling characters or actors. Please god, let *BOOK 3 SPOILER*

Stannis the Mannis arrive sooner rather than later to inject some flavor into that whole situation up there

.

Up north, we get MOAR RAPE! Hooray! And that whole Bran/Jojen/Meera thing is just... well, it's better than aimlessly wandering doing nothing for two seasons. But it's a weird choice to have them get captured, especially since if Jon & the Night's Watch are heading up there, it seems rather inevitable that they'd be heading for a Jon/Bran reunion. Because if they did all of this weird shit to get Bran captured by the mutineers AND coincidentally time it with Jon's foray to Craster's only to go, "Haha, man we almost had you fooled, huh?" it's going to feel pretty cheap and shitty.

And that whole last scene... it's confirmed by HBO that the guy in the very last shot is actually

The Night's King

. So uh. Yeah.

[Aegor]

Interesting comments Reck. I mostly agree with you.

The Wall scenes did not bother me as much as they did you, but Bran' scenes bothered me much more than they did you. Would it not be better to just use Bran sparingly instead of forcing him into every episode, or even every other episode, by means of a plot that I am pretty confident will not deepen any character? Instead of having him wander or get caught up with the Keep, just do not have him as often. Problem solved.

[Ythan]

This is a TV show not a book.

[xRECKONERx]

Interesting comments Reck. I mostly agree with you.

The Wall scenes did not bother me as much as they did you, but Bran' scenes bothered me much more than they did you. Would it not be better to just use Bran sparingly instead of forcing him into every episode, or even every other episode, by means of a plot that I am pretty confident will not deepen any character? Instead of having him wander or get caught up with the Keep, just do not have him as often. Problem solved.

We've been gradually used to Bran's aging because they keep him so fresh/in the front of our minds. We don't notice him as much.

If they just had him drop out and disappear for long stretches of episodes then the aging would be more jarring; not to mention, unlike in books, this is a TV show where you can't jerk the audience around. There has to be consistency. Someone not showing up for an episode or two is fine; someone not showing up for like an entire season is not.

[Faraday]

How did they take Ghost alive? :b seems...unlikely. Surprised he hasn't gotten out, by now.

Good enough episode, the time devoted to each scene meant it felt jarring. Some of the NW stuff - particularly the rebel nights watch is uninteresting.

[Rhinox]

Idk I think the bran stuff even in the book is probably important even if its kinda boring at times. I was never really bored with his book scenes like others were though. I think probably they just need to keep showing him to remind viewers about him and the fact that he's probably going to be important sooner or later, even if it means inventing some plot for him to do. *UPCOMING PLOT*

otherwise we'd probably be done with him this season. Next important event for bran is meeting up with coldhands and heading north right? That's probably early next season stuff at the earliest.

Besides, we've already had one stark kid disappear from the plot.

Also holy shit, can I just say I

hate

the WHO WILL GO ON THIS EPIC QUEST trope where instead of doing something rational, the volunteer goes, "Okay, I could raise my hand or shout out that I'm in... nah, I know, I'll STAND UP SLOWLY AND DRAMATICALLY AND SILENTLY TO SHOW MY SUPPORT!" That whole scene at the Wall was gross. Kit Harrington has gotten better but he is still kind of boring to watch, and he's not exactly surrounded by compelling characters or actors. Please god, let *BOOK 3 SPOILER*

Stannis the Mannis arrive sooner rather than later to inject some flavor into that whole situation up there

.

Well it was corny but the whole point is to set up *UPCOMING PLOT*

Jon eventually becoming Lord Commander. They're just showing how much respect and influence Jon is gaining.

Also, wasn't the Locke? character (the new recruit at the wall that befriends Jon) the same guy

that was with the Boltons, and cut off Jaime's hand? That is off book as well, isn't it? I guess he will probably try to kill Jon during the attack on crasters. They kinda alluded to something like that happening with the short clip with the Boltons in the "previously on..." segment.

[Lost Butterfly]

Yeah, locke is the bolton guy. <_< That's not a spoiler! :b

[xRECKONERx]

I thought, at this point in the plot, Bran would've already met up with Coldhands? Like I'm pretty sure people who work on the show said they're not doing Coldhands.

I understand

why

they did the "AND MY AXE!" bit but it was seriously overdramatic. Play that scene differently... have Acting Commander Fucktwit taunt Jon and say he can have his little suicide mission but he can't force anyone to go, have it be ripe with "You can't pull this off" undertones, then have the next shot be his disappointed smug face as Jon and a small band ride out from Castle Black. The way it was done was so cliche.

Also yeah, Ghost is basically just a convenient plot device that the writers forget about until they need a convenient plot device.

[Aegor]

Not only was that scene clichéd, it was pointless. It revealed nothing about anyone. I guess it was supposed to set up

the future issue of who is to be elected Commander of the NW by showing that the men trust and respect Jon's command

, but they had already established that with the training scene.

[bv310]

I thought, at this point in the plot, Bran would've already met up with Coldhands? Like I'm pretty sure people who work on the show said they're not doing Coldhands.

I think it makes sense since there's none of the speculation over who Coldhands is when he's blatantly on screen. Too bad though.

[quadz08]

My thoughts -

1) I was not enthused about Jaime/Cersei interactions, especially after the events of last week's episode. They're cold and bitchy to each other, and Jaime doesn't do what she asks, but that's kind of... it? It doesn't seem like that's how Cersei would respond to that event. Dunno. Seems disjointed.
2) I had no problem with the Night's Watch scenes. I think it rather serves to remind you who Jon's friends are (and also the thing with "Locke"), in addition to setting up that other stuff that has been spoiled.
3) The Bran / Craster's Keep storyline is super weird. They wrote it in such a way that it makes sense that it's happening, but I don't see how they get out

without meeting up with Jon, which seems to me to be an irrevocable change in the storyline.

4)

White Walkers stuff is totally off-the-wall. Not sure what to make of it, tbh.

5) Daenarys being all JUSTICE NOT MERCY is interesting, and adds a spin to her character I don't remember getting from the books. Not that she was all "mercy allatime," obviously, but for her to turn down Barristan's explicit advice for a wanton (if fair) cruelty is quite startling.

[Iecerint]

I was most OK with this week's Jaime/Cersei interactions relative to similar scenes earlier in the season. I think what the viewer is supposed to glean from all of their interactions this season is that their relationship is completely destructive to Jaime. Or that's the intent.

I loved the Missandei/Greyworm, Tommen/Margaery, Sansa/Baelish, and Olenna/Margaery scenes.

[xRECKONERx]

also SER POUNCE

[quadz08]

SER POUNCE

[absta101]

It seems like everyone here already knows what's going to happen...

[Aegor]

5) Daenarys being all JUSTICE NOT MERCY is interesting, and adds a spin to her character I don't remember getting from the books. Not that she was all "mercy allatime," obviously, but for her to turn down Barristan's explicit advice for a wanton (if fair) cruelty is quite startling.

IDK, I thought a constant specter over Daenerys' arc in the books is the madness that has plagued the Targaryen dynasty.

[absta101]

wow, just wow.

[xRECKONERx]

What, absta?

[Tierce]

It seems like everyone here already knows what's going to happen...

And the big surprise is...? Most of us are book readers. We try not to give spoilers, but yes, we do know what is likely to happen, unless the show runners decide to change things, and that knowledge influences the things we discuss. What's so noteworthy about that knowledge?


Ser Pounce was apparently a monster to work with. They got used to well-behaved child actors and then decided to add animals and it was a cardinal sin of film making. I'm pretty sure Cogman got several gray hairs due to that cat alone. Well done, kitty.

[xRECKONERx]

why was cogman working with the cat

[ActionDan]

The Mereen scene was actually good unlike just about every other Daenery's scene because Darios what's his face was absolutely 0% present.

Thought the episode was good story advancement overall even if no super big action scenes happened (seriously the one death I think was a master of mereen dying? that was it right? Also his guards magically disappeared I think)

[Tierce]

why was cogman working with the cat

Writer and producer; he was apparently on set, though I imagine he wasn't the cat's handler.

[xRECKONERx]

Oh, just figured that Michelle MacLaren would've been more likely to work directly with the animals than the writer.

[Tierce]

Possibly. Cogman is the one who commented on how bad the cat was to deal with on twitter, though, thus my post.