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

absolutely trolling with how boring that was

"we only have six episodes left, so one of them should definitely be a bottle episode in Winterfell that's only dialogue, and nothing that moves the plot forward at all"

five! four now lol

oh lol I misread that

Looking forward to all the stupid characters becoming surprised when the bodies of the crypt massacre the people hiding there...

UNLESS the theory about him heading direct to King's Landing pans out. I am looking forward to it playing out that way. Hopefully.

this show has gotten insanely corny

I hope they don't rush into the battling next week, we viewers need at least one more hour of preparation

Bran warned us against this episode in the previous one!

Tormund's origin story was the single funniest moment they've done on the whole show

Haha yes. Giants milk!

I never expected this episode to do anything other than end just before the battle, though I agree it is frustrating and kind of amazing how brazenly opposed to moving the plot on they are. I feel like entire seasons have tended to be like this until the final episode.

If the Night King is in fact heading for Kings Landing that would be another good way for them to delay anything happening.

For what it was I found this episode pretty funny and better than last week at least. As for corny, again I guess this show has been really corny for a long time?

Is anyone ever going to ask Bran wtf is wrong with him or have they all just decided to vaguely believe his detached musings?

Yes I wondered that - when Tyrion sits him down and says "hey I really want to hear your story", I realised it seems like no one else even GAF?

I figured that people have explained Bran's situation to others off-camera

The reaction to Tormund's story was great! Everyone just kind of giving this "what the hell" stare

Tormund's story felt like something more from the early seasons and books than what we've been getting for a while (my wife confirmed for me it's from the books).

they've definitely veered more in the direction of more realistic political machinations and away from weird lore and stories

give us more suckling at a giant's teat, writers!

Also if the Night King does head for Kings Landing then next week's battle could be Dany's forces turning on Jon's.

That would be a stretch? Next week's battle is pretty clearly vs. NK army whether or not he and dragon are there for it.

found myself chanting "game of hands!" at the screen during the series of scenes where she's questioning whether she can trust Tyrion

xp They seemed to be cagey in the preview about showing any of the army of the dead but agree he probably leaves some/most of them there to fight even if he splits off.

That’s a fair point, and the final shot seemed to only show White Walkers, not wights. Maybe the WWs are there to mix it up while the rampaging horde heads south—or maybe the WWs are confident that they’ll find enough dead people beneath winterfell already

the possibility of the night king raising the dead from the crypts below winterfell occurred to me earlier but not during this episode

kind of a huge security concern when they're shoving everyone who's not a fighter into the crypts. wonder what his range is for resurrecting the dead

20 hex radius if memory serves

i thought any white walker could raise the dead, not just the night king. in that episode where the magnificent seven went beyond the wall, they killed the white walker and the reanimated wights all collapsed to nothing, the implication being if you kill the white walker, the wights he raised return to death.

Agreed the lack of wights shown in the last ep + the trailer for the next one was... suspect? I don't want to go nuts with ~theories~ though.

the white walkers only have a 5 hex radius area of influence iirc

+3 at night

Heroes have a saving roll if carrying dragonglass.

Would have been perfectly happy to end the series without an Arya sex scene.

that was fucking terrible

lame

at some point they're going to have to show Gendry taking initiative in *something* because you've still got to draw the guy a map to get him to do anything

that was fucking terrible

the episode was largely fan service, but the unashamed trashy fan I am, I loved the ep and felt aptly served. in fact, knowing how many deaths are likely coming at Winterfell, part of me would be perfectly happy if everyone just hung out in Winterfell drinking and joking and singing together for a little longer. The scenes meant to inspire emotion did it for me.

I'm intrigued by the smart NK theory, but even as trash of a fan as I am, I'd be wondering why the Night King would have any knowledge of King's Landing's importance at all, or where the seats of power are in the south. How many years has it been since any walkers went beyond the wall? Did they find a shitty map at least hearth?

i think the incident at last hearth (and his decision to attack the wall at eastwatch) indicates that the night king has at least some idea of where the seats of power are in westeros

it was nice of bran, whose location is always known to the NK, to chill out in Winterfell for several days before telling anyone that

although, tbf, i'm sure that earlier in the week someone walked by and said "still sitting alone with the tree, bran?" and bran whispered "he sees me. as i can see all." and assumed that everyone else understood what he meant

Good point on why NK would even know of King's Landing... Maybe because they are that ancient they at least know the major locations that still exist?

BTW, generous of the (lazy) make up department to have downgraded the Hound's scar all the way down to "zit" at this point.

king's landing is only about 300 years old, and the nk would've been human thousands of years ago--i think he has some sort of greensight or magic similar to bran

watching cable news

the episode was largely fan service, but the unashamed trashy fan I am, I loved the ep and felt aptly served. in fact, knowing how many deaths are likely coming at Winterfell, part of me would be perfectly happy if everyone just hung out in Winterfell drinking and joking and singing together for a little longer. The scenes meant to inspire emotion did it for me.

― Unctious, Monday, April 22, 2019 10:58 AM (thirty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm...I think it's weird ppl act like was there a time when this show wasn't corny in a lot of ways? trashy in many ways? ridiculous in hundreds of ways?

I think we see everything through the lens of "prestige" TV I actually love GoT as this incredible monumental effort in trash TV, so much money and time and effort spent into something that's at its heart pulpy fantasy but also compulsively watchable and compelling

This episode reminded me of a lot of classic western and war movie tropes that I'm a sucker for...the boys holed down in a saloon before the big gun fight or drinking in their tents before the big battle...after all this time I liked the smaller scale, personal episode, you'll get plenty of CG pyrotechnics don't worry about it

otm...I think it's weird ppl act like was there a time when this show wasn't corny in a lot of ways? trashy in many ways? ridiculous in hundreds of ways?

but...there was! i know because every year i rewatch all the previous game of thrones episodes in the leadup to the new season, and every year i witness the transformation of the show into normcore

as my partner said during one of the scenes in last night's episode, "if the show was like this in the first season i wouldn't have kept watching"

but fuck, i'm all in now, so

Yeah I think once they ran out of books, things got progressively weaker. Still enjoying the show, though.

i witness the transformation of the show into normcore]

i don't know what normcore is in this sense, i only think of that as like 28 yr old ppl who wear big glasses and dress like dirtbag versions Mr and Mrs Walsh from 90210

hahaha

that's probably about right. i don't use it in its proper sense. i guess for me it's whoever wants to see that scene with jon snow and daenerys flying around on dragons for 25 minutes

This episode reminded me of a lot of classic western and war movie tropes that I'm a sucker for...the boys holed down in a saloon before the big gun fight or drinking in their tents before the big battle

yeah! ... shut up and take it like a fan!

also I cheered for the Arya sex scene ... like, hey, that would kinda be what I would do if I was likely to die in battle the next day?

yeah, and podrick's singing echoed one of the greatest of those types of scenes, from Rio Bravo: https://youtu.be/1uuAjwvtxEM

a lot of people got major return of the king vibes from pod's song too, and i don't blame them: https://youtu.be/GWoUrBWsP58

xp