HBO adaptation of Game of Thrones - will this be just for nerds? (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

I think they've always done that but they're doing it even more now.

so i guess daenerys' arc is supposed to mirror the millenia-long evolution of political rule? from leaders of warlike clans to philosopher queens, joining tribes together into something resembling a coalition, the formation of an advisory counsel...uh, i don't know where i'm going with this, but my point is that by the end of the show i fully expect to see daenerys defeated in an open election supervised by UN observers

or on trial for warcrimes

Dragons of mass destruction.

indicted by the highgarden war crimes tribunal

Maisie Williams was walking even more effeminately than she has in the past, hasn't she?

I also thought Arya's scenes were pointlessly extended in this episode. She goes in a house! Didn't need to take that long.

I can't remember if the house was connected to the land, if the only access was by the boat, or if the boat was the quickest route they took. But the point of the extension is that a wait weeds out the insincere applicants. Fairly classic trope. My question was 'if she was denied initial entry, what about the alleyway scene convinced Jaqen to accept her into the fold? That she was facing down three bullies?

he just wanted to eat some pigeon.

"You passed the test!"

"Really? That's great!"

"Yeah! I rejected you at the door so I could see how you'd handle that. You waiting for a long time. Like maybe a whole day. I was impressed with your persistence"

"Well, I mentioned I crossed the sea and had nowhere else to go. But then I got bored and pissed off so I threw the coin in the water and left."

"You proved that you are... slightly more patient than a few other people. You show great promise, child."

"I didn't do anything. I mean, you were the one that scared off the muggers."

"Check this out- recognize this coin?"

"You probably have a whole chest full of those things. Can I go eat this filthy pigeon carcass now?"

One jokey theory I've heard is that Arya wasn't allowed in initially because she knocked on the black door - if she had knocked on the white door, she would have been.

I was expecting Spy vs. Spy to answer.

It was like a video game scene. Unlock the door by chanting names, killing pigeon, throwing in water.

coin

The framing of Arya midway between black & white doors was my favorite shot of that episode. And agreed about the day (?) she waited being a "Why was THAT the difference?" stumper.

think it speaks to the general blahness of this ep that no one's bothering to post about it. the farther they go off the map, the more generic the scenes seem to get :(

Sparrows turn out to be corruptible Christians. Ho hum. I don't think Cersei is making wise decisions, and I'm guessing her days are numbered.

If Sansa had refused to go to Winterfell I assume Baelish would still have dragged her there.

(minor book spoiler that everyone has heard) I think they are dramatizing Tyrion realizing his first wife was genuine. Instead of just being told it from his brother.

think it speaks to the general blahness of this ep that no one's bothering to post about it.

May also speak of people having watched them all a couple of weeks ago.

i watched them all a couple of weeks ago and so have been waiting to see if others agree this season is shit so far

four whole episodes and nothing happens, shame on them. vince gilligan needs to run a class for the "one reveal a season" writers on most other shows.

ep was definitely boring. also, the sansa subplot doesn't make any sense. also looks like next week's ep will be very danaerys/dorne heavy which is a bummer.

wait wut why would dorne-heavy be a bad thing?

The whole "nothing happens" complaints are confirmation bias. You're remembering all of the "big things" that happened throughout past seasons and disregarding all of the slow setting-up-dominos-for-shit-storm that has always been a part of the show.

I kinda agree. Quite a lot of different things are happening everywhere just no dominant event.

Actively dreading whatever is to happen between Sansa and Ramsay tbh

How long has it been since the events at the beginning of the first season and now? when sansa returned to winterfell and someone was like "the north remembers you" i thought "well yeah, that was like 2 weeks ago right"

4 years

Xxxxp - i just dont have a lot of interest in the dorne subplot so far, given how it wasn't on the radar until last season when homeboy got his head squished. and i guess i dont really care what happens to marcella.

admittedly i feel like i go through similar cycles of "this show is boring and weird why am i watching it" every season. at some pt back in season 2 i just gave up and didn't catch up until the next one was almost halfway through. anyway that bit about confirmation bias is probably on pt

they shouldn't have to tee it up for half a season each year. i don't expect it to come in all guns blazing from minute one, but this is several seasons in now, they shouldn't have this ambling pace. feels like they are essentially just wasting time until emptying their half-pocket of events with a big battle in the last ep or two.

also the seeds they're sewing are quite poor - arya locked in a nothing happens loop, dragon queen discovering it is hard to rule hmm maybe i should release those dragons i imprisoned for a while tho i guess i am stuck here for a while one way or another, jon snow meeting stannis for a few episodes, another duo in dorne.

they really have divided it up into more strands. i have faith it'll improve but it does seem wasteful and unnecessary, like the end of a season is just a narrative reset button and now we all have to take our medicine.

if sansa is filling the role of a character from the books who marries ramsay snow, it will be very unpleasant indeed, but a. theyve been very quick to make changes in the show and b. there are some scenes in that storyline that if adapted exactly might honestly go too far even for HBO. they'll probably do some version of them though, and the presence of ramsay's fellow psychopath friend with benefits in the show is also prob gonna make things really goddamn disturbing

I have no idea where they are going with the sansa snow thing honestly. I have a gut feeling sansa is going to surprise us though.

i'm hoping that there will be an episode where ALL of the main characters are in the same room at the same time. and then it's like 45 minutes straight of Good, the Bad, and the Ugly-style staring at each other and sweating.

maybe in minute 26 of the showdown, someone's like "who are you again? there are so many of us"

fuckin ramin djawadi is utterly incapable of contributing the ennio to that scenario unfort

regarding the pace, every season has started slow. 2 is probably the slowest, like too slow for large chunks of it, and it is prob the weakest season even with its dynamite finish.

the plotlines from the remaining book chunks do increase in terms of how fast and compelling they are, and given the obviously growing impatience of the benioff/weiss brain trust i think that they will do an even better job with them.

i thought this episode was v good tbh! but it was one of the collection-of-scenes installments, for sure, and while i don't mind those if the scenes are good (and i thought these were), i can understand how they are less appealing to some.

in particular, i think once jaime/bronn arrive in dorne that stuff is gonna be gangbusters, although i havent seen episode 4 so i dont know what dorne stuff will be in it other than the preview scenes of the sand snakes getting pumped up by ellaria sand.

The end of season 4 was more or less a point of regathering; the war is kind of over, several of the great houses are in disarray. It's natural that thibgs will take a while to build momentum again.

If you think the show is currently plodding along aimlessly, you should try reading A Feast For Crows. They're zipping plots by in comparison.

i said seeds they're "sewing" upthread, sorry everyone.

I likef this ep, the North stuff in particular. Can't tell if I either like Roose Bolton as a character or just the actor but I usually enjoy his scenes, especially the one with Littlefinger.

I like that they're implying Roose is smart enough to potentially not let Littlefinger get away with his usual schemes. Looking forward to seeing them interact more.

His behavior was Tywin-esque this episode. Too he's a package deal with one-note Ramsay.

*too bad

roose is def as smart as littlefinger but a bit more shortsighted. mostly in the sense that if littlefinger had fathered a child who grew to be ramsay, littlefinger would've made him have an accident long before ramsay became the serial killer he is now.

He's probably less dispassionate than Littlefinger. Obviously has a real deep seated grudge against the Starks.

Only watched the first two eps and I'm in agreeance with Local Garda - nothing is going on and it just seems wasteful. And as said, it's understandable they have to set up the pieces before they knock em down, but everything seems so aimless to me, especially since I haven't read the books and the last season was a year ago.

A lot of the wit and repartee, the action and the plot feels pedestrian and drawn out now. I also have to admit that I'm confused about a lot of the characters' motivations. Much as I was a bit frustrated by Bran's "We've got to keep walking this direction with this rag-tag bunch of nobodies for ill-explained reasons" plotline, it now feels like that's the case for almost everybody. There'll be a long boring piece of exposition about why someone's decided to trek to Dorne, and then five dull scenes of them walking/riding up and/or down the map discussing back-story.

I thought there were supposed to be white walkers and giants about to smash down the wall any moment, but apparently they're tired now or something? Anyhow, the ticking clock seems to have gone from this season so far. It's 4.30 on a Friday afternoon and the GoT characters are looking at their watches waiting for the weekend to start.

And no I'm not asking for a Michael Bay movie either, I just don't get a sense of progress so far. It's just more of the same, with a predictable dual battle happening simultaneously in Dorne and at the Wall.

i also have trouble distinguishing between the guy who plays roose bolton and the guy who plays stannis baratheon. i think for a while i thought they were supposed to be the same person, which confused me very much.

I agree that the overarching tension we're supposed to be constantly feeling in regards to the impending "winter" and how it represents the march of the white walkers is a bit lost in favor of focus on the character's very personal goals and missions at the moment.

xp

i also have trouble distinguishing between the guy who plays roose bolton and the guy who plays stannis baratheon

besides the physical similarities, their scenes are also shot with a similar color palette and lighting, in contrast to most of the other locales/houses, which get their own unique styles.

Pretty sure John Snow/Starks "winter is coming" was the first time someone has uttered that phrase in two seasons. Maybe it's actually coming now.

apparently an alfie allen interview has confirmed that the ramsay scene i am most terrified of in the books is indeed going to be in the show

oh sweet christ...

1) people come to the house of black and white in order to die (by drinking the water in the fountain)

2) it took arya stark a full day of getting rained on and twiddlin' her thumbs and getting picked on by teenz in order to enter the house of black and white.

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either the people coming to the house in order to die are willing to go through a lot of hassle in order to die quickly and peacefully, or arya was using the wrong door or something

So what will they do with the body? Anatomy lesson and/or disguise material?

xxp, there was a comment forever ago about the actress who plays sansa having to deal with a brutal rape scene while her parents were on set, i guess that's inevitable

was that not the attempt that was broken up when the hound came in and killed everybody?