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

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

ew at the writers deciding that all the adult women still alive need to be paired up with a dude, even when it makes no sense for them to be. who tf asked for a Theon/Sansa budding romance?

i didn't get romantic vibes from that interaction tbh

Awww, loved Rio Bravo, though Pod is no Ricky Nelson, oh well

xpost they laid it on kind of thick with the lingering exchanges and the pause just before Theon explains why he returned to Winterfell.

lingering looks* exchanged*

i guess, i thought it was more a look of fellowship/friendship, but then again, theon is definitely going to die defending bran, so it doesn't matter much.

there def is that "pairing off" happening, but it seemed more like it was about being "family" as opposed to romance-y ... otoh, considering the prevalence of characters romancing family members ... it's kinda the white ppl equivalent of Grey Worm/Missandei

you could probably easily do a twenty minute supercut of just the first two eps of this season of people doing the thousand yard stare
zs, get on that

or you could make gifs of the racist northerners when encountering black ppl

How does the Endless Night hold up on other continents? Are the cities of Essos more or less safe from all of this?

I got zero romantic vibes off of the Theon/Sansa reunion, just a lot of emotion

Theon's arc went from wanting to be a Stark to completely fucking them over, including his initial failure to help Sansa, so the pause and looks were more about his lingering guilt and the fact he's pretty much gone full circle and wants to stand with them

xp - no one is safe. the night king doesn't see color.

xpost ok fine, i could be misreading the scene I guess - the consequence of having watched way too many CW shows in my life. I still don't like this general "pairing off" vibe though, I was really enjoying Ice Queen Sansa.

anyway, am only rooting for Tormund at this point - far and away the best part of both these new episodes.

next episode titled "Theon Sansa Rises". an hour of Theon and Sansa in love but unable to act on it. lots more getting tight by the fire. hound plays slap the bag. sansa spends the last winterfell's wealth on a young, beautiful dothraki athlete.