HBO's adaptation of Game of Thrones - Thread 2. There are a lot of nerds.

i may have been guilty of taking the sean bean conversation too far, but what can i do, he's in nearly every show and movie ever made.

I like the bickering acting troupe already, more than some long-standing story threads. Sam and Gilly meeting the parents, in particular, was really thin, basic stuff. The whole thing was so obvious and needlessly drawn out, and it only existed to put the sword in Samwell's hands. I was also straining to recall who exactly Blackfish was and his significance in which plot, and when and where etc etc. Kind of got lost in the mix of multiple characters and story threads for me, but whatever.
And I hope aaaaall of the endless house of black and white mumbo jumbo isn't going to end in a simple character reset for Arya.

I can't remember if Arya can just be like "well, that didn't work out, see you lads later, thanks for all the beatings," or if the many-facers have to kill her now.

they said they want to kill her, right? like that was a whole scene.

it is definitely really stupid in a way typical of this show if all the training was just a way to keep her character busy for a while.

I think i've figured out who wrote the 'bastard' letter on the show -- sansa gave jon some replica clothes to show that she could make forgeries.

Do you think the waif underwent the blindness lesson? I expect Arya could put out the candle and zatoichi her. does the waif know of arya's sword training in winterfell?

it is definitely really stupid in a way typical of this show if all the training was just a way to keep her character busy for a while.

― japanese mage (LocalGarda)

Yeah she should at least come out of it with some kind of badass superpower.

I think I've unconsciously lowered my expectations for GoT and as a result am really quite enjoying it right now.

I mean, "villain" is probably the wrong term here. The first season speech seemed "okay, that's a plan by this person vying for the throne" and now it's "uuh...smashing all their stone houses seems particularly shitty for someone so theoretically up with the people"

I think this has been poorly done, but there is a theme with Dany needing good advisers to temper her over the top messianic steez. They show us Dario egging her on (after Jorah has left) and I can't see her liking what Tyrion has done in her absence.

There's another thing going on where, while nearly every character is heading toward battle, some of the smarter ones (Tyrion, Margery, High Sparrow) has been able to use negotiations and truces to get what they want. Since this war with the Walkers is presumably due to humans breaking ancient treaties, negotiation skills may be important in the endgame. I'm hoping the last three hours are like the movie Lincolm.

I believe Arya comes out of it with some faceless assassin skills for sure.

The thing with Arya is that if she runs away she can never be safe again. Unless she kills the faceless big pimpin' douche herself once and for all she's going to get murked. That seems to be the punchline to her presumably winning over the waif in an upcoming episode. She has left the faceless crew for another faceless crew, finding herself in their art, but unless we think she'll be able to take down every faceless killer ever she's basically lost. No country for a girl.

How will the dothraki fare in Mereen though? That's another main question. Can they even act "civilized"? Dany is one way with them and another way with everyone else, hence the befuddled Dario during the stone houses speech.

xp

Or maybe the real test was realising that trying to become nobody is kinda dumb and smug stick girl is on her way to congratulate her and give her an official facelessperson badge and drink spiking kit.

lol, let's hope so. I don't like the odds of Arya vs Big Pimp.

I'm sure it'll be fine. Game of Thrones characters are famous for their ability to let bygones be bygones.

Also, the good guys always win.

dunno that faceless big pimpin' douche is too fussed about what arya does, he should be more concerned about how much pleasure his other supposedly faceless girl gets from causing arya to suffer imo. also how neat and tidy and stylish she keeps her hair

Yep, she's definitely jealous enough tho get what's coming for her. Really hope FBPD agrees though.

*to

I take it that the Mountain will lose the trial by combat since Cersei is so sure of herself. To whom though? Or could the Sparrow be evil enough to pick Tommen as his champion? That would be tough.

What's this trial by combat for?

For Cersei's «crimes».

Even if it isn't through tommen, I'm thinking her plan will backfire more than anything. The Mountain won't just be defeated by someone stronger - Cersei will be defeated because she underestimates her enemy. And yes, Margery has her eyes on the throne, she'll eventually out-manouver the sparrow.

the hound will fight for the sparrow just like in the fables

For Cersei's «crimes».

― human and working on getting beer (longneck)

Thought the walk of shame absolved her of that? Or was that only part one of the punishment?

Just parts. Are there fables about dogs and sparrow? Please let me know about them.

I mean it would make sense on one level since the hound hated his brother but there has been no lead up to it? Even Benjen was «brought back» even before he was brought back, no?

they mentioned the Hound a few times this season

okay, it's the hound then.

HOWEVER, I think I would prefer it if it was not. If they had somehow managed to just plain outsmart Cersei by putting her in a situation where brute force couldn't possibly win the day. The Hound will win because he is alive and knows his brother intimately, I guess, but bringing him back is also a bit too neat. It's fan theory stuff instead of real life deal-with-it logic.

someone just throws holy water on him and it does 9999 damage and dissolves him imo

I'm really hoping the mention of Brotherhood w/o Banners this week does not mean we're going to have a LS storyline coming up

Too many dead people running around = too many sharks jumped, no matter how much of it may or may not be in the novels.

seems weird to dread potential LS "storyline" when no one even knows what that might be (since in the books she has shown up but hasn't done much other than be stonehearted)

It's more about this season potentially featuring a resurrected Jon, a ressurected Mountain, a resurrected Benjen, a Hound back from the dead AND a Lady S - on top of time travelling and a zombie horde.

Benjen isn't "resurrected", it's more like emergency surgery. Story-wise he is simply reintroduced. Hound would also be reintroduced since he didn't die on screen. Mountain is a big frankenstein monster too, which to me is a little different than getting another life.

series ends with Sean Bean coming back from the dead

i missed this moutain / sparrow fight you're talking about. where was this referenced?

Cersei was talking to Jaime about her upcoming trial-by-combat, and she was all "nah it's fine, I've got the Mountain".

They have a tendency to kill one big character off every season and I'm not feeling good for the Kingslayer right now.

Kingslayer or Cersei or both, I guess. And Tommen is supposed to die before Cersei so the Lannisters are heading out.

Kingslayer killed by Oathkeeper
calling it

pushing dragonglass into a man's chest either makes him into the world's first white walker or just saves his life depending upon what?

how alive he is when you do it and which direction you wave your hands

which direction you wave your coldhands, that is

really really wonder if ls is gonna pop up; i'd assumed not since she was plausibly superfluous to the central plots and they'd passed up the opportunity to do that big reveal which i assumed for sure was either gonna be the last scene of either last episode of one season or first episode of the next. jaime going off to deal w/ the blackfish is somewhat surprising as that's a plot i would've thought was easily swept over (and thought already was), in the book it serves a few purposes but it's mainly so that jaime isn't there while cersei has packed the high council w/ yes men and proves to be historically/hilariously incompetent at ruling. iirc there's a steady stream of jaime finding out decisions she has made and reacting 'wtf - that can't be right' until next thing he knows she's not only rearmed the church and conspired to get the queen arrested but also managed to get herself arrested in the bargain (plus numerous other preventable dire mistakes, like telling the banks to deal w/ it even though a large part of the lannister's strength has come from 'a lannister always pays his debts'). after her walk of atonement she writes him a letter asking him to fight for her in trial by combat w/ all this melodramatic stuff about their love and they'll die tragically together to live among the stars or whatever etc and jaime just reads it, shakes his head, and throws the letter in the fire. maybe something big w/ the blackfish is going to happen or maybe they just needed to work the freys back in and remind the audience who they were but my guess is maybe they just need jaime back out on the road again, at the same time brienne is back out on the road again, which to me suggests we just might get stoneheart after all. at this point the show is so deviated from the books or kind of hamfistedly working in various plots and characters that it's rare any of the developments can spoil me, it's rare they confirm something that probably will happen in the books (that ramsey's letter to jon claiming he'd beaten stannis baratheon's army wasn't a bluff is one). the show is almost a half remembered telling of the books w/ some speculation and fan theory and fan fic filling in the gaps more and more. there's better fan theories out there (i've only read a few but some were really smart - the maester's conspiracy seems to me to be in some way what the whole series is about, and that there was a conspiracy against aerys, he wasn't just paranoid was another one i didn't pick up on but is clearly there in the text - but this is still fun, and there's always at least one great episode per season.

I think when we least expect it sometime near the end of the show Arya is going to kill Cersei. I'm calling it now.

like we don't even know if benjen is coldhands. on the show yes clearly but that could just be the showrunners merging characters and plots. euron greyjoy has already absorbed victarion greyjoy's plot apparently and i'm guessing (hoping as it's such a great moment in the book) that he'll absorb a big of quentyn martell's as well.

i keep telling myself that shaggy dog and summer are still alive and the show just didn't want to spend the money on large cgi dogs

i'm glad the freys and the blackfish and benjen are all back. the latter two seem like a couple of good middle aged tough good guys and they show's needed more of them to offset the fresh faced good guys.

though i thought the scene at the twins was sloppy as far as reminding us who everyone was, like don't insult the audience guys..."sons remember at the "red wedding" how YOU stabbed robb stark's wife and YOU cut catelyn's throat", i understand we need to remember who these assholes are but there are ways to write that sort of thing and ways not to. as much as i do like the show i think the writers aren't always particularly good at conveying information in clever non-obvious ways.

though to be fair it all does sound like something walder frey would say, he's no petyr baelish

lol i could see him referencing it like everyday, stuff like 'yknow this is the table i was sitting at at the red wedding. remember? when you stabbed robb stark's wife and you cut catelyn's throat?' and 'haven't needed to take a shit this bad since the red wedding. remember? when you stabbed robb stark's wife and you cut catelyn's throat?'

like don't insult the audience guys..."sons remember at the "red wedding" how YOU stabbed robb stark's wife and YOU cut catelyn's throat", i understand we need to remember who these assholes are but there are ways to write that sort of thing and ways not to. as much as i do like the show i think the writers aren't always particularly good at conveying information in clever non-obvious ways.

― nomar, Tuesday, May 31, 2016 12:37 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah but there's loads of evidence IN THIS THREAD ALONE that people need things very much spoon-fed to them in order to remember/keep track of characters that have not been in the forefront for quite some time.