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

i thought the king's landing stuff was pretty deftly handled. cersei's plan isn't without merits, i imagine she may survive the war up north and live to fight another day. and this sets the stage for an actual high stakes Clegane-off.

littlefinger's end was satisfying, though a bit telegraphed. w/seven episodes left they also wouldn't have had time to deal with the repercussions of sansa or arya killing the other, plus LF's whole plan was predicated on them not really having a serious talk with Bran about how he's into weirdness now.

was worried for a min once we saw tormund and beric making a run for it but we never saw them die, which means they survived.

what's interesting with littlefinger is that he's stayed relatively still, in winterfell, for so long, which seems like a death sentence for a conniver like him

Bran's powers finally showing some usefulness but still creepy: massive lols at him explaining Jon's lineage over visuals of Targaryen incest.

I doubt I'll go out of my way to watch next season. Other than a handful of scenes I was underwhelmed by this.

Weird take lol why make it this far & not find out what happens... the show could be considerably worse than it has been & id still check it

Agree that the arya /Sansa plot line was kind of a wonky one to last a whole season

I'm sure when they arrive at Winterfell and find Jon is the real heir to the throne Dany will just accept it with complete equanimity. especially now that they've boned.

I'm sure when they arrive at Winterfell and find Jon is the real heir to the throne Dany will just accept it with complete equanimity. especially now that they've boned.

I feel like blowing up eastwatch at the end was unnecessary. Could have just saved that for next season's cold open and let us wonder for a while what sort of fire an undead dragon breathes.

So assuming they considered the same thing, the choice to show the wall coming down, jammed at the end of an already lengthy episode, must be because the next season needs to start with the walkers well into or past the Gift already?

Or the next season is going to start at the moment this one ended, with Beric and Tormund jogging towards Castle Black like a couple of terrified st bernards, or something.

We should start the poll now for which ep the Night King bites it in next year - I think it might actually be 6.

sam's indulgent "oh really? that's nice, dear" expression to Bran was so fkn gold I want to frame it

― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 28 August 2017 05:31

I liked that too. He could have a 70s British sitcom.

The Hound speaking to The Mountain scene was really awkwardly done. Wasn't totally convinced he'd just go up and speak to him like that.

I don't think Tyrion would have said "just kill me", what a silly risk.

I sometimes thought Littlefinger would be the surprise final boss battle. I'd be surprised if the books have the same fate for him. I get why people are satisfied but I'm hoping for a better send off.
I don't think Sansa would have went against Arya so easily as some were speculating. There'd need to be much more reasons.

Kind of interested to hear how Jaime feels about leaving his child and even fighting against that side?

I was quite confused about the ice dragon's fire and that it didn't strengthen the Wall. Would have been funny if it just made the Wall bigger and better.
Will fire hurt it? Will Dragon Glass kill it?

The shot at the end was pretty cool.

Episode was better than I expected. I'll more than likely watch the next season.

I'm pretty sick of seeing tv shows weekly, I don't find the wait fun at all. If Cook's Black Company, Okorafor's Who Fears Death and Jemisin's Fifth Season (earlier in development, so less certain) all come out as tv shows I'll need to at least try them unless the trailers look abysmal. But I hope by then I'll have the patience to wait for a whole season to be available.

well that was just wonderful

(i mean, phenomenally preposterous, but had a bit more of an emotional heft to it counteracting the silliness, unlike last week where we're just knee-deep in how dopey the "trap a wight" plot is until the very end)

i've accepted that it's prob wise to stop worrying and love the pulp, enjoy the performances/dialogue when they soar (as they often do) and savor the remaining poignant emotional beats

I could watch Cersei make this face forever

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--30vXEddM--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/qbyrmjic8qkhksasnsui.png

Also loved Bran's little expo dump and Sam being like "Oh, you had a vision of all that?" and Bran being like "LOL raven you dork."

I guess Bran told them about what happened to Jon Arryn?

felt that the show got all its pieces where they needed to be for next season, but the process of getting there was p dreadful - the dialogue was really the pits. you could totally see tv writer pedigree showing through

wight dragon taking down the wall seemed odd in that you just have to imagine the counterfactual, what if no wight dragon - what was the night king's plan then? build trebuchets and catapult the army over the wall?

Just pile up enough wights like in World War Z

Im bummed about Littlefinger's death, as he was so good at playing dum dum lords off of each other for personal gain. Too bAd the show is going more in this "rightful king" "rightful lady" direction out of landfill fantasy.

night king had sent qyburn several messages on linked in xpost

decisions and actions being almost entirely in service of keeping things moving towards a tidy conclusion in a timely fashion was really the hallmark of the season, which is a p hilarious contrast with grrm's style. probably to the detriment of both the show and the books. can't wait to pick up winds of winter and get like 5 pages in before i think jfc are we still doing this shit.

Yeah the whole about capturing a wight was probably a GRRM tidbit that would have made sense as a desperation move in the context of no one, including Dani, being willing to take Jon's story seriously. But the show had to crunch the timeline down and make it ridiculous.

the one good twist would have been cersei actually ordering the mountain to kill jaime

theon getting kneed in the beans repeatedly to no effect felt like an outtake from like, revenge of the nerds or something. the nerds have built a protective ball sack cup, impervious to well placed knees, much to the surprise of the jocks!

That's why people are putting all this stock in weird theories about NK having all this incredible foresight via being some version of the 3 eyed raven himself or having the same powers. That he made the army wait and not attack Jon with his very capable javelin throwing BECAUSE he knew the dragons would show up and wanted to take one of them down, since he knew that would be his only way through the wall.

xposts

i liked this ep generally. i didn't really believe sansa is so stupid or has any real motivation to hate arya so i was glad it didn't go that way, thought their little scene on the battlements was quite nice. theon stuff is a bit hard to care about, grand go off and find yara, a character nobody cares about that somehow this kill-happy show has kept alive.

littlefinger's bad acting reached hilarious new heights in this episode - the accent now sounds like a comic dublin dad or something - and the faces he makes, real clownish quality.

felt a bit like they skipped entire scenes in a sort of "use your imagination" way, like eg tyrion pours some wine and says "you're pregnant" and we never see any more of that scene, like they were scared to actually write it. similarly they only hinted at how arya/sansa found out about littlefinger's scheming - like the evidence was there but how and when they realised. i accept they can't cram everything in but it was a bit weird.

the euron stuff is a bit weird too. and the cersei plot. if she was always planning to agree to help, then betray the others, how did euron know to say he was leaving the minute he saw the wight? and why turn down the truce initially if your plan all along was to feign an offer of help?

xpost yeah god the big grin on theon's face as he was like "that's right no balls!" was ridic

euron's "I have sailed all the seas and seen things you wouldn't believe and this... this terrifies me" line was lmao bad

That's why people are putting all this stock in weird theories about NK having all this incredible foresight via being some version of the 3 eyed raven himself or having the same powers. That he made the army wait and not attack Jon with his very capable javelin throwing BECAUSE he knew the dragons would show up and wanted to take one of them down, since he knew that would be his only way through the wall.

xposts

― Evan, Monday, August 28, 2017 10:40 AM (six minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah i'm seeing a bunch of 'night king hacked bran' theories and idk i'm not even gonna entertain the thought

Xp to be fair, Euron was lying his ass off in that scene

a lot of talk of/reference to penises/balls in this episode

It's funny to see ilx completely contrast reddit on almost every point. Part of the fun for me seeing reactions on the web.

Namely: https://www.reddit.com/r/gameofthrones/comments/6wgkl4/everything_littlefingers_actor/

hah it was so bad! "let me talk to you in alone... i can explain everything!"

think it's ok to bone your aunt if she is that hot? not sure.

some of the faces reminded me of the comedian limmy's vines

littlefinger's i mean

the euron stuff is a bit weird too. and the cersei plot. if she was always planning to agree to help, then betray the others, how did euron know to say he was leaving the minute he saw the wight? and why turn down the truce initially if your plan all along was to feign an offer of help?

― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Monday, 28 August 2017 15:42

Very good points.

Initially I thought it was an awful cop-out that they didn't show Tyrion convincing Cersei but now that we know she was lying, I don't think it matters that they skipped it.

Yes, Theon's scene was badly done but I think he's an interesting character and I'm interested to see what GRR Martin does with him. Just like my feeling about Littlefinger and probably Bran too.

a lot of talk of/reference to penises/balls in this episode

― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Monday, 28 August 2017 15:50

I actually liked Jaime saying "maybe it is all just cocks".

i'm starting to enjoy the bran stuff - they overegged it a bit to begin with and he just seemed comically weird, and the actor has a sort of simpering annoying voice, but i liked the new authority he's showing.

xpost i enjoy most of the jaime/bran scenes tbh.

Initially I thought it was an awful cop-out that they didn't show Tyrion convincing Cersei but now that we know she was lying, I don't think it matters that they skipped it.

Yeah, although I now wonder if she asked something of Tyrion that we aren't in on, something to get him in good again with the family. His lurking about and watching Jon go into Dany's cabin sort of hinted at that -- it's part longing for a woman he knows he could never have, part "Please don't screw this up by thinking with your dick, Snow" and part . . . something else?

There might be something else but I don't think he'd work with Cersei.

tyrion......................................................................................................................................is a cuck

i thought his lurking was more just "shit they're having sex" in the general human way

Can't see anything he'd have to gain from working with Cersei.

think it's ok to bone your aunt if she is that hot? not sure.

― akm, Monday, 28 August 2017 15:54

WINCEST

― homosexual II, Friday, 20 August 2010 20:59 (seven years ago)

So I found it interesting that Sansa and Arya (and the show v much underlined this in a brief exchange between them) totally broke Ned's northern hardman rule w/r/t littlefinger. 'The one who passes the sentence must be the one who swings the axe' right? But Sansa and arya have lined up in a lord + headsman configuration and like the laws of fictional gravity sort of demand they 'pay' for this in some way.

ya, the reddit reaction to Aidan Gillen's acting had me massively rolling my eyes.

The quote is actually "The man who passes the sentence…" so they get a pass, perhaps?

I was just disappointed that all the soldiers didnt go WAHEY! in unison as Littlefinger lay bleeding on the floor

xp to Jon --
I definitely noticed and thought about that as well -- my less pessimistic idea was that it was a symbolic gesture of solidarity/unity for the Stark girls? that is to say, they I read it as --- the sisters worked together to entrap Littlefinger, and decided together what to do about him. Since only one of them can do the physical killing it only makes sense that it would be Arya. In the sense that they are both the "starks in winterfell" their partnership is not the same as having a hired hand do the killing.

Yeah I thought about that too. The stoic burden of the sole lord reconceived as a team effort

i thought his lurking was more just "shit they're having sex" in the general human way

I read it this way too. Being the Hand, his berth on the ship is the one next door, so I figured he was just turning in and then noticed "oh, that's finally happening"

And that entire room was in on the scheme (of pretending that Arya was the one on trial)? Worst surprise party ever.

"time for the hand to get to work"

xpost

sorry