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

i was hoping after Dany said, "Bend the knee!" we'd have a smash cut to Jon walking out of the cave towards Davos saying, "I told you it wouldn't work!" and a frustrated Davos tossing away a box of chalk.

bad vibes from the look sansa gave arya while she was sparring and (minor spoiler) i think sophie turner said sansa was going to do something bad this season, and wouldn't that be just the perfect twist?

― 龜, Monday, 7 August 2017 15:03 (six hours ago) Permalink

think it more likely (if Sansa really is gonna do something bad this season) that it'll turn out that Jon's decision to bend the knee was just the latest in a now extensive line of boy-Stark political cock-ups and he really does alienate all the northmen who rally instead behind Sansa w. Littlefinger whispering poison in her ear. presumably pissing Arya off something rotten into the bargain. things going way too well for the Starks rn

*assuming he bends the knee next week, obvs

sansa puts a hit out on jon snow and arya turns on sansa eh?

it was mildly fucked up learning that the cave drawings are meant to resemble the geometric patterns that we've seen the white walkers arrange dismembered bodies in, i.e. the white walkers learned about those shapes from the people of the forest, who created them

― El Tomboto, Monday, August 7, 2017 9:52 PM (forty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this gives me bad flashbacks to the spiral painting shit from Battlestar Galactica which then turned Starbuck into an omniscient god pilot, so i hope it doesn't go too far with explaining the history. I just want the White Walkers to be ice lords who can animate the dead. I don't want the Simillarion I want Lord of the Rings.

Littlefinger was actually the one behind the attempted stabbing of Bran, wasn't he? ... I bet that detail gets discovered soon.

my sense w/Sansa's look was that it had something to do w/her realizing how much Arya had changed, maybe coupled with how much Bran had changed. the look Littlefinger gave Arya from upstairs wasn't one of his "I've got this under control" stares which immediately precedes him stepping backwards and disappearing into the shadows.

wagons were just filled with food and grain and shit. It's important because people need to eat. The gold made it to Kings Landing though, they made sure to mention that, although a lot of people seemed to have missed it.

― dan selzer, Monday, August 7, 2017 9:56 PM (forty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I had thought I'd heard tehy were collecting sizable amounts of food fro the area. Just rewatched the battle scene and there seems to be a lotofit. Whole harvest or large part thereof for the area?
Occurred to me that it would be something better captured than destroyed.
Not sure if situation anything like what is happening in the North where they have been talking about collecting food together so that people will actually be able to eat in months to come.
But would surprise if it was easily replaceable.

With the Bran/Littlefinger interaction of this episode, dude's now very aware he's on borrowed time. Think Sansa's abandonment issues kicked in seeing Brianne with Arya, like hey, my personal knight is now my sister's, who is taking care of me?

it was mildly fucked up learning that the cave drawings are meant to resemble the geometric patterns that we've seen the white walkers arrange dismembered bodies in, i.e. the white walkers learned about those shapes from the people of the forest, who created them

― El Tomboto, Monday, August 7, 2017 9:52 PM (forty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://media.giphy.com/media/3o6vXQQsHzEDslap9K/giphy.gif

Destroying the food was weird since she had just complained they were taking all of it so she couldn't feed her troops. Why not destroy all the soldiers then capture the food wagons?

because dragon fire isn't exactly a precision weapon?

I totally didn't get the 'chaos is a ladder' thing but apparently that's a Littlefinger saying? When did he say that? I tend to switch off when he goes all smug tbf

She had to turn specifically to make a strafing run on the wagons, so they weren't just collateral damage to the phalanxes.

Basically, between the unnecessary charge and burning the food she could use, dragon lady appears to be a poor military strategist.

xp - it was a speech he gave. The gist of the interaction though, is that Bran can see things that Littlefinger has done, that he's gotten away with so far. Caught on camera shit.

i don't think it's poor military strategy to starve her enemies?

How would she have known what was in the wagons?

It's either gold or supplies, one of which everyone can use and one she had just complained about being taken from her?

could be corpses

detecting a subtle parallel to Brexit/Trump in Dany's rejection of the "expert" advice of Tyrion and co. and just deciding to just torch the shit out of everything with her dragon

wanna hear my cool theory about the cave paintings thing? jon snow totally painted them about 10 minutes before Daenerys walked in so that he could use them as part of his plea for her help. they looked brand new and if my tv had smellovision i bet it would smell like paint in there. jon snow is low-key the smartest guy on the show

But she didn't reject their expert advice. Their advice was to not torch the city. So she found a smart compromise and killed a ton of soldiers out in the country.

It seems to me that Jaime's men left the Roseroad and were heading in the direction of the Gold Road. Tarly remarks that he doesn't want to split the troops on either side of Blackwater Rush, which would be irrelevant on the King's Road in that it crosses the Blackwater at King's Landing. So it's more likely that they're heading up the Mander on the way to the Gold Road.

The Dothraki ships must have landed somewhere between King's Landing and Shipbreaker Bay, and it would be hard to imagine that they landed anywhere near the Red Keep, so let's say they landed near the Straits of Tarth. The Dothraki are on horseback and not especially slowed by the rough terrain, so they can cut through the southern Kingswood or over the Red Mountains, away from the major roads. But if they try to bring the gold and other wagons back to their ships over the mountains and forests they'd risk Fitzcarraldo-ing themselves.

i think in milo's strategic plan, they would have taken the wagons to Casterly Rock, as opposed to the ships.

Dragon-napalm soldiers and Lannister knights/cavalry
Dothraki slice and dice the wagon guards and drivers and mop up the rest of the above
Now that your enemies in the local area are dead or running away, sit down for a minute and figure out the next step. In the event that you can't take the wagons in their entirety with you, let everyone feast then load up what they can on the Dothraki horses and bail.

Find out the detailed logistics on next week's Game of Wheat

Presumably she had some plan for the desired goods when she was complaining about being deprived of them in the previous scene.

Counter-insurgency side quest: redistribute the stolen goods that you can't take with you to the local peasantry and build up goodwill for when you'll be ruling over them.

Bran totally knows Littlefinger was the one who owns that dagger, right? For whatever reason he's holding that to his chest but maybe with the "chaos is a ladder" comment that was enough to make Petyr shit his pants anyway (lol that was awesome).

For some reason I thought Tarly Sr was Uncle Kevan as well!? All these old white men are confusing me.

tbf, handing out sacks of grain to the farmers who were stripped of it is a much less exciting shot than dragons blowing up a wagon train

One theory goes that the dagger belonged to King Robert, was stolen by Joffrey, and the little blond bastard hired the assassin.

The lack of grain redistribution will be one of the main complaints of the maoist uprising against Daenerys in the second half of season 8.

I like the idea of the Dothraki horde going farm to farm in the Reach giving people their wheat back.

Oh Ok for some reason I thought LF had some hand in that Bransassination attempt, but yeah it was Joffrey wasnt it. Or maybe both of them.

Christ I only just read the books a couple months back you'd think I'd recall this.

One theory goes that the dagger belonged to King Robert, was stolen by Joffrey, and the little blond bastard hired the assassin.

Uh no. It was established already that it was Littlefinger, who did it so that Ned would go to Kings Landing and he would have more quality time with his wife, for starters.

this was like Season 2 shit, it was Tyrion's dagger that he lost gambling, and LF got it as the bookmaker/moneylender, and he had the assassin use it on purpose to implicate the Lannisters in the attack so there would be war

The gold is inside KL but the Iron Bank doesn't have a branch there so they still have to get it to Braavos, right? I too demand a pay-off for all that "once we actually get repaid" hamming

(Also I am dubious about this iron bank-based economy)

sarahell otm you guys arent even watching the same show lol

Tombot is right, Joffrey hiring the assassin is the most prominent theory in the books - Tyrion believes this is the case but has no direct confirmation. In the show, they haven't confirmed anyone as the culprit. Possible that it was Littlefinger, but definitely not established.

Controversial opinion: LF is working for the Walkers

and Bronn is working for the weekend.

xp - that's definitely a set up for something -- either an exciting robbery, or the Iron Bank being repaid and investing in Cersei's hiring of mercenaries, which is even more likely now that the majority of her army has just been decapitated and burnt to death.

What native military forces are left? All the midlands armies have been decimated in the previous fighting. The Tyrell forces either joined the Lannisters or were killed by them. The Northern armies are Jon's. There's Dorne ... which, might just sit this one out (lord I hope so), and ... the Knights of the Vale!

Tyrion believes this is the case but has no direct confirmation. In the show, they haven't confirmed anyone as the culprit.

Pretty sure there was a LF/Varys chat that confirmed this.

Also how the fuck would Joffrey at age 12 be able to hire an assassin? He had no money or assets.

he ran a lemonade stand

if by lemonade stand, you mean, he was a Dom and pissed on people for money, then maybe ... but LF controlled the sex trade in Kings Landing so ...

I'm pretty sure the crown prince could hire an assassin.

i'm looking through the wikis and not seeing anything that confirms that Littlefinger was the culprit.

regardless, he did not.