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

if Arya can shape shift and size shift enough to approximate the build of Walder Frey, you'd think she wouldn't require actual masks. p sure the first time we saw Jaqen pull his trickery there was no mask involved.

― nomar, Monday, August 21, 2017 12:55 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark

maybe magical properties associated with having a mask instead of being pure mission impossible style silicon masks?

If they could freeze water at will then Hardhome would have ended differently wouldn't it?

― As an ilxor, I am uncompromising (El Tomboto), Monday, August 21, 2017 9:24 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark

That was saltwater which has a much lower freezing temperature iirc

blindness can come and go at the wave of a man's hand, but a girl has to carry around faces in her bag?

FWIW, it's not as if GRRM ever figured out what to do with the world he built once he built it. He's no doubt overthinking all the stuff the show is just handwaving away.

"Hmm, the wingspan of this dragon is such and such, figure a modest headwind, given the cold season, but also that it is a dragon and therefore pretty strong, traveling x and y distance, so it should take this magical creature ... hmm, no, the math does not add up. Ok, back to people. Jon is about 5'8", so his stride is about such and such feet, therefore it should take him this long to walk ... no, but he's tired, his stride won't nearly be as robust! Man, this is killing me! The fans will absolutely HATE it if I don't get these details right."

part of the pleasure of some of these plot twists is imagining how these guys will explain it. i predicted that Benioff would say something about how "it's a whole new ball game" or "the night king just evened the score" now that he has an ice dragon, but he went with "The Night King now has his own weapon of mass destruction."

President Keyes pretty much otm. I think what really annoys me is the sense that none of this will happen in the books, because it clearly can't be fit into two volumes. They could have sped up a lot of stuff earlier, though, it's kinda remarkable how little did really happen in seasons 5 and 6. I dislike how much they fucked up the storyline of Jaime going to the Riverlands, but it's doubly annoying because they didn't have the time, because they sent him to Dorne instead.

And yeah, GRRM is clearly overthinking it. He has talked about how difficult it was to figure out when all the different characters who travelled to Meereen would arrive, and pretty much nobody liked all the chapters of different characters traveling to Meereen. And, I mean, the show did kinda fuck that up as well, but it was pretty understandable.

part of the pleasure of some of these plot twists is imagining how these guys will explain it.

would you like to go on a walk or something? we could get outside for a while

When ilxors can predict what's going to happen next, I think that's a sign that show is kind of stupid now.

*that your show

Or that we've been watching it for seven years

I am also on ilx but better than people on ilx! Small world!

The eighth and ninth guy in that seven-man crew really fought hard against those wights.

if I were the night king and his dudes I woulda just chucked javelins at them while they were sleeping

Things the NK realizes later while in the shower...

he was waiting for dragons duh

surely he has more than one javelin

He just had a toothpick until he got the scientists and engineers involved

Well he literally had 2

quibbling with the details of this show is honestly great because every scene has something stupid about it. what else can you do?

hope qyburn never finds out about the javelin - "a big crossbow bolt but you throw it!" - it would crush him.

I think this gets at what's wrong w the show now

https://www.gq.com/story/game-of-thrones-season-7-episode-5-recap

And this sums up my feelings about why I keep watching

Game of Thrones was always the thing that was better than you'd think it would be and now it's about as good as you'd think it would be

— Emily Yoshida (@emilyyoshida) August 21, 2017

xp or the javelina - "a small hog but you don't eat it!" - it would blow his mind

But the granular details that might sounds boring on paper—geography, travel, diplomacy, and training—are actually a big part of what made Game of Thrones interesting in the first place, and I've begun to miss them. There’s a reason that every episode opens with a sweeping pan over a map that includes key locations like King’s Landing and Dragonstone.

i didn't realize frederik b wrote for GQ

i think GRRM made a pact with benioff and weiss that the TV show would get the big stupid hollywood happy ending and he would get to do the smart thoughtful "makes u go hmm" ending for the books. if he ever gets to publishing another page that is

Why didn't Sansa send Arya to Kings Landing in her stead?

emilia clarke is SO SO BAD
it's not like the dialogue or plotting helps but she's just not a good actress or even an okay actress
the dragons are my children my babies six years of raising them and when one of them unceremoniously dies she makes a face like someones wearing the same coat at the met gala
and then with no lead up she's suddenly super hot for jon snow
really want to hurry up and get to the part where bran writes the coca cola jingle

Final shot predictable from the start but also cool.
Benjen was total eye-roll.
I liked how the whole zombie pile-on begun with a bored Hound. And I also enjoyed the dragon guts going everywhere.
Given everything's happening at lightning speed now how come they haven't mined and forged more dragonglass swords?
Night King seemed to step through that fire ok. Do the wights just have to kill humans by normal means and only a White Walker can zombify you?

How many dragons did she actually bring? Did she leave one at home?

The writers did redeem themselves slightly as last week I was complaining that they set off without even bringing a bin bag, but they did at least bring a small sack.

also tormund <3

i didn't realize frederik b wrote for GQ

― Karl Malone, Monday, August 21, 2017 3:42 PM (twenty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Frederik has never been this concise

Anyway the point that it's shifted from process oriented narrative to plot point check marks is otm

they needed to drop something of Benjen following them earlier. like a solitary character keeping pace with them, someone whose face we didn't see. And there needed to be a moment of explanation at the end, not just hi and bye.

also missed an opportunity w/the third dragon, who was brought north too. Should have swooped in and Jon should have flown the damn thing back to the wall. Daenerys could be worried about her missing dragon and Jon Snow, and imagine the big fucker flying back piloted by him! better than, "oh look a horseman...."

good moment to prove some Targareyen bonafides.

what would a "process oriented narrative" look like at this point in the story? ... give me something better to compare it against.

it won't happen but it would be a neat twist if the show wrapped up and the new GRRM books ... take place after the events of the show.

i didn't realize frederik b wrote for GQ

― Karl Malone, 21. august 2017 22:42 (thirty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not yet, but in time.

I did lol at the inclusion of 'geography'. I regretted having written geography was exciting almost immediately, but hey, I'm not alone!

important question! does the anti-white walker magic built into the Wall extend into the airspace? Couldn't the night king and his elite white walker commandos fly their zombie dragon over the wall and start zombifying the Westerosi?

and then with no lead up she's suddenly super hot for jon snow

There's supposed to be something in pheromones that tells us when a person is too similar to us, genetically, right?

Maybe it works differently for her family.

i think i've read that when people don't know they're related it can manifest as physical attraction.

Important CHAINS update: On rewatch there was a jetty by the lake with some chains on it.

https://image.ibb.co/iUfjNQ/got_chains_source.jpg

and then with no lead up she's suddenly super hot for jon snow

dude, there's been several episodes of lead up! Plus the whole common-as-fuck thing where a friend says, "hey, he's totally your type and he's way into you." and at first you're like, "no, he's totally wrong for me." and then a bit later, with the seed planted, you think, "hmmm....maybe he isn't that wrong after all."

Couldn't the night king and his elite white walker commandos fly their zombie dragon over the wall and start zombifying the Westerosi?

spoiler, but that's the next episode

season 8 is the night king working to set up a representative democracy

Less common when it's your nephew tbf

season 8: the night king invents literal twitter, and sends a constant stream of ravens to everyone remaining in Westeros complaining about everyone who criticizes his rule.

Less common when it's your nephew tbf

― Number None, Monday, August 21, 2017 2:39 PM (fifty-three seconds ago)

Targaryens have no taboo about incest so ...?

No it's only cool if it's your brother/sister

Anything else is weird

How many dragons did she actually bring? Did she leave one at home?

When Viserion gets hit and starts to dive, you briefly see Rhaegal in the background making an Irish goodbye

kinda apt that the dragon named after her anti-heroic piece of shit brother gets turnt

Things the NK realizes later while in the shower...

Esprit de corpse

dude, there's been several episodes of lead up!

anyway my more important point was that dany is a shit mother

Let's look at the other mothers on this show:

Catelyn Stark: dead, number of dead children: 2 of 5
Cercei Lannister: alive, number of dead children: 3 of 3
Lady Olenna: dead, number of dead children: 2 of 2 (maybe she had more, but they were already dead), number of dead grandchildren: 2 of 2 (maybe she had more, but they were already dead)
Lysa Arynn: dead, number of dead children: 0 of 1
Lady Tarly: alive, number of dead children: 1 of 3
Gilly: alive, number of dead children: 0 of 1

Dany's not looking so bad in comparison