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

on second watch it seemed more apparent that it was also there to suggest that Arya still has some humanity remaining

― El Tomboto, Tuesday, July 18, 2017

on first watch, even. in this sense, the sheeran casting works really well bc man, you just cannot wait to see this guy get gutted... and yet.

I feel like CONFEDERATE needs to be on its own thread where we can talk shit and attract trolls without ruining this one. Thanks.

Otm

xxp- On first watch we were just expecting her to kill them tbf.

Maybe they'll show up as dessicated corpses next season

HBO's Weiss/Benioff GoT follow-up CONFEDERATE - Will this be just for trolls?

Wait I thought this was the last season, is it not?

this season is abbreviated and there will be one more abbreviated season next year

Ugh thats pointless. (yeah I know its all about making the dime)

They've still got to decide which dragon gets to bring gendry back

That Sheehan scene just seemed to be showing that the average Westerosi are just trying to go along to get along being pulled by the whims of these rich lunatics running things.

― earlnash, Wednesday, July 19, 2017 2:56 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

on second watch it seemed more apparent that it was also there to suggest that Arya still has some humanity remaining

― El Tomboto, Wednesday, July 19, 2017 3:05 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes to these, but since the whole ep1 was basically showing us where everyone is on the map--including showing us a bunch of actual maps--it served as an excuse for Arya to say "I'm headin' on down to King's Landing." Made for a better scene than telling the girl she spared at the poisoning something like "Tell them what you seen here, and now I'm off to King's Landing!"

notes on tonight's ep

1. The Ironborn have no maesters, right? So no ravens. I would presume that at least some sailors in Yara & Theon's mutineer fleet were secret loyalists to Euron and thus he would be privy to the necessary information about their location and direction in order to commit a surprise intercept in the night, but how does that information get to him? Do the Iron Islands practice a different form of avian communication, possibly with trained pelicans or terns? Seriously though, dipshits, your brother wants you dead, keep a fucking eye out.

2. I appreciated (i.e. oh, you mother fuckers) the Nymeria fake-out. I'm okay with either Arya's interpretation (that wasn't actually Nymeria) or the "Arya is so different now that Nymeria recognized her but couldn't vote for her" version. Based on the way the Hot Pie scene played out I suspect the latter was the point, and this is a set up for when (if) Arya gets to Winterfell and realizes how distant she is from her own people.

3. I predict some people might think it's dumb or confusing that Dany starts questioning Varys and Tyrion re: loyalty only after getting all the way to Dragonstone. To me it seems obvious she wouldn't need to worry about their possible mendacity in Essos, where they have no roots, but once in Westeros, and on the eve of meeting with other Westerosi, their true allegiances should be questioned, and extra special oaths requested, etc.

4. The cut away from Sam performing, uh, "surgery" to those randoms breaking into a delicious chicken pot pie was good and disgusting.

There are a lot of nerds, and I am one of them.

I also half expected Snow to just kill littlefinger right there in the crypt. Oh well.

I am kind of wondering who Grey Worm is going to get to kill before he eats it. It better be someone that matters.

Euron is clearly going to end up being strangled by Theon after tonight.

- fire kills wights... what breathes fire?
- a duck!

rip sand snakes, you sucked

Lol rogermexico

We regret to inform you that the duck is racist

Also should just go ahead and pour one out for the non-Drogon dragon that's going to end up a pointless victim of Chekhov's Ballista

tonight's ep made me realize I no longer care about basically anyone on this show except for samwell tarly

oh and Varys

the only good way forward for the last season is if Dany goes mad like her father, that would rule

I still care about the tyrion, and the starks and their affiliated scum, including the hound.

One last thought before bed: if Sam's idea works, then the Boltons, had they survived, could have turned their inclination for flaying to good ends. Such are dark ages, where generations of expertise go up in smoke at the drop of a crown.

Sea battle was muddled and badly presented

If it had been the greatest ship-to-ship combat sequence since Master and Commander I still wouldn't have been especially concerned about the outcome for anyone involved

Tyrion is boring now

One last thought before bed: if Sam's idea works, then the Boltons, had they survived, could have turned their inclination for flaying to good ends. Such are dark ages, where generations of expertise go up in smoke at the drop of a crown.

i loled

Varys is James Comey is my new favorite game of thrones thing.

The Ironborn have no maesters, right? So no ravens.

pretty sure the Greyjoys use(d) ravens when they were back on the Iron Islands.

According the post-episode chat with the makers, the line Arya spoke to the wolf was a reference to a comment she made to Ned back in Season 1 about how being a lady wasn't her. That the point was Nymeria isn't going to go back to being a pet because she is independent like Arya.

This episode was almost as successful as the firebombing of the Sept of Baylor last season for getting rid of bunch of extraneous characters en masse.

Also very excited about the prospect of Medieval anti-aircraft missiles

100% sure Littlefinger knows Jon's real parentage and is going to tell Sansa while he's away.

That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Bran & co. had to go to a great deal of trouble to learn that information, why would they bother with all that if a conniver like Baelish has just had it in his back pocket? Makes the entire three-eyed raven quest into an unnecessary shaggy dog story.

I have no idea why Baelish is still hanging around, no one likes you fam

an unnecessary shaggy dog story in got? say it ain't so.

I like the spectacle, but watching them all lay intricate plans without ever thinking about the fact that Euron Greyjoy has a fleet and is mad at them, then a while later seeing their plans destroyed by a mad Euron Greyjoy, it's just so stupid.

How do you know they never thought about it?

Like at a war council they're going to talk about resolving beef between Iron Island factions?

i mean, in their defense they stole the iron fleet so probably had no idea euron somehow magicked up the greatest armada westeros has ever seen. if you're going to take issue maybe it ought to be with that. the show is a colander at this point, i don't understand the motivation to poke yet more holes in minor plot points. if something like that actually bothers you, which is certainly fair, then you've kept watching for at least a season too long.

I think it's funny how poorly the pacing of the show was planned, like so much time in seasons 2 through 5 was spent crawling to one big event episode or another and now it's big ol' payoffs (and deck-clearing deaths) left right and center. the perils of respecting yr author god or w/ever

x-post: I did stop in season four, actually, but then picked it back up to see how it resolves since GRRM can't figure out how to finish it. And yeah, you're right, the problem is with Euron all of a sudden having the fleet. But that still makes it really stupid.

I'm still enjoying it or whatever, but things definitely feel a bit more boring, like we know most of the beats they're about to hit and everything feels a bit rushed and fan-service-y. And even though all these plot points have been predicted for years, the way they're being spelled out and moving so fast just feels kinda shallow. Jon saying "I just learned that guess what Dragonstone is on top of? Dragonglass!" Shocking.

I thought he did a decent job trying to make that line reading sound less dumb that it looks on paper.

Drag-Gon Stone is on top of a mountain of draggin-glass

I'm still enjoying it or whatever, but things definitely feel a bit more boring, like we know most of the beats they're about to hit and everything feels a bit rushed and fan-service-y. And even though all these plot points have been predicted for years, the way they're being spelled out and moving so fast just feels kinda shallow.

Yeah, it's basically been a different show since they unkilled Jon Snow.

also Euron is Lord Nelson and Yara is Villeneuve, he clearly approached perpendicular to their fleet's line and from a position of concealment, he doesn't necessarily have a bigger fleet than them although he did have some decent time to replenish his during the time it took the kids to sail all the way to Slaver's Bay, load up half the horses in Essos and then sail back.

It's just so rushed. How many minutes of the show passed between iron islands and dorne will be a huge force and whoops not quite. They just left like 5 minutes for bisexuals and castrati laffs.

Yeah, it's basically been a different show since they unkilled Jon Snow.

Resurrection is like the ur-jump the shark. Jon Snow=JS=J ...S ...=Jesus!

Anyway, this and Broad City, I have no idea how much of the last season I saw, or where I left off. Debated diving back in, but sounds like it's the same ol' erratic.

I did enjoy that this was a good old fashioned ass-whoopin'. It played better than Bolton decimating Stannis' army.

http://www.vulture.com/2017/07/game-of-thrones-season-7-stormborn-questions.html

Who is the most powerful person in Westeros?
Duh — Samwell Tarly with a library card.

They leaned hard on the "Samwell is GRRM" thing last night

I saw it pointed out on twitter that Euron's magic fleet is even more annoying since the show spent five seasons of Daenerys trying to find a fleet to get back...

They gave up on any kind of rules guiding Westeros, all sense of geography is out of the window, and nobody knows anything about military strength anymore. Which is ok, but the exhausting things is that they still have all these scenes of planning and strategizing which clearly don't mean a thing anymore, and is just a complete waste of time.

jesus

trouble is, what made this show great at its best was that the big moments and reversals were rooted in well-drawn characters behaving in character in a specific context
- jaime lannister resignedly pushing a kid out a window
- joffrey baratheon choosing cruelty over honor and reputation
- tyrion lannister using cleverness and charm to extricate himself from certain doom
- robb stark neddily trusting in custom while walder frey did what was best for walder frey
- oberyn martell overplaying his hand for style points at the crucial moment
- etc etc

i know i said this last season but it still feels true: without GRRM's words to work off of, this feels like just a TV show, and the more fan service we get the less interesting it becomes