Game of Thrones

[Jonny12]

Spoiler

thought Tommen's conversion was undersold, Lord Tarly was much less of a bastard than he should've been in what was a complete time-killer just to get Heartsbane in Sam's hands, the ending was essentially just the ending to Episode 4 but with words - her getting her dragons back was hardly noteworthy although necessary I suppose. I thought Benjen laying waste to about 7 wights was a bit naff too.

Spoiler

Heavily disagree on Randyl Tarly. To me that was bloody spot on, perfect. His mother was fantastic, his sister had the Tarly nervousness and his father legitimate scared the shite out of me. Fantastic casting all round and I loved every minute of it, you could taste the suspense in the room.

Slightly disagree on the Tommen thing. They marched an army to the sept with a huge crowd, had Jaime ride all the way up after a speech from Mance. Tension builds with the conversation with the sparrow where the viewer thinks that there will be a bloodbath but Tommen's conversion is unveiled and the main cast all exchance "fuck sake" looks to each other coupled with a fantasticly delivered line from Dianna Rigg. I'd be curious to hear what you would of done differently to sell it more.

Benjen stuff was a bit "meh" I agree, it was shot really weird with the fighting scenes seeming to be a touch too slow. Although the reveal I loved. Also agree on the Dany stuff, wasn't a very important scene. But it's just a necessary scene to set up what comes next without them just hard-cutting to her in Volantis or Meereen after 2 episodes.

It was just very serviceably done episode, not bad in any way but not exemplary either.

 

[JimJams]

It's the kind of episode where you'd rather have missed it so you could do a double when the next one arrives so you don't sit there thinking "I WAITED A WEEK FOR THAT?!?!?!?!" and the build up episode moves quickly into the curent one and you're not phased by the fact that you watched a setup because you're more than likely about to see it pay off straight away. Self entitled bastards that we are.

But you can't bloody miss it because if something major happens some c*** will always spoil it for you.

 

[KKIRK32]

The calm before the storm.

 

[joethegill]

On second viewing it's actually better, if you ignore the ending where they pretty much just had some leftover CGI budget. Most of the 'reveals' were not that hard to second guess unfortunately, but it was good to see Walder Frey back - the show has needed a miserable old git in it for a while in my opinion! Enjoyed the Tarly stuff, thought they got the casting spot on there so I hope that isn't the last we'll see of them.

Tommen still annoys me though, just kill him off please.

 

[Dr Mantis Toboggan]

i love maps so this is great

 

[joethegill]

Nothing overly surprising in the latest episode, although

Spoiler

I really enjoyed Lyanna Mormont and Septon Meribold - Ian Mcshane was fantastic, shame it's only a one-off. Arya clearly won't actually die, but I'm not sure how she'll get out of it right now. Enjoyed Yara basically telling Theon to man up. Good to have Sandor back too, the show has missed him.

 

[hodge]

Nothing overly surprising in the latest episode, although

Spoiler

I really enjoyed Lyanna Mormont and Septon Meribold - Ian Mcshane was fantastic, shame it's only a one-off. Arya clearly won't actually die, but I'm not sure how she'll get out of it right now. Enjoyed Yara basically telling Theon to man up. Good to have Sandor back too, the show has missed him.

Spoiler

I read something speculating that Arya was laying a trap this episode.

The money, word gets out a young girl, alone is seeking a ship to Westeros.

Standing in an open spot easy to find and unarmed despite having needle,

the speculation being Lady Crane has shown her a couple of stage tricks for a) protecting herself from a knife and b) producing the blood, so maybe a pig/cow heart strapped to her.

The blood drops trailing lead the waif to her where she thinks she will find Arya close to death and unarmed, but instead perfectly healthy and armed in a location of her choosing.

 

[joethegill]

Spoiler

I read something speculating that Arya was laying a trap this episode.

The money, word gets out a young girl, alone is seeking a ship to Westeros.

Standing in an open spot easy to find and unarmed despite having needle,

the speculation being Lady Crane has shown her a couple of stage tricks for a) protecting herself from a knife and b) producing the blood, so maybe a pig/cow heart strapped to her.

The blood drops trailing lead the waif to her where she thinks she will find Arya close to death and unarmed, but instead perfectly healthy and armed in a location of her choosing.

Spoiler

I quite like that theory, however the waif definitely stabbed her hard enough to get through any potential obstacle (whatever that may be) so I'm not sure. I wonder if Jaqan might punish the waif for basically trying to kill her because she didn't like her, and somehow kill the waif off instead. This is Game of Thrones, literally anything could happen! She will make it back to Westeros though, somehow.

 

[Craig]

Spoiler

I quite like that theory, however the waif definitely stabbed her hard enough to get through any potential obstacle (whatever that may be) so I'm not sure. I wonder if Jaqan might punish the waif for basically trying to kill her because she didn't like her, and somehow kill the waif off instead. This is Game of Thrones, literally anything could happen! She will make it back to Westeros though, somehow.

Spoiler

She had Jaqen's permission.

 

[JimJams]

Decent episode. Went well enough for all those involved. Except Arya, she'll be gutted with the way things worked out.

 

[Dr Mantis Toboggan]

arya's story has been a bit shit tbh. disappears to essos and signs up for the guild of emotionless murderers, despite her whole shtick being revenge-murders, which is sort of entirely against the faceless men's MO. realises this then, what? fucks off back to westeros? it's like they didn't know what to do with her so spun her off into a spinoff show, like angel to buffy. but it's not a spinoff show it's just a shit diversion with no linkage to either of the core stories (daenerys and westerosi politics).

 

[joethegill]

Spoiler

She had Jaqen's permission.

Spoiler

I'm still thinking it was a test from Jaqen though. Faceless men aren't supposed to have desires, so the fact the waif was quite obviously thirsty to kill Arya pretty much since they met will not have gone unseen. A theory I've just read suggested that it wasn't Arya that was stabbed, but actually Jaqen with Arya's face. Jaqen clearly likes Arya, has done from when they first met, so I think it unlikely that he would be so quick to agree to having her killed off.

 

[JimJams]

Yeah that's a good idea, we'll go with that, makes sense. Would Jaqen die though? Cos then it's kind of a dick move.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

Spoiler

Maybe Arya kills the Waif, takes her face, then reports back to the House of Black and White and poisons everyone.

 

[hodge]

Spoiler

She had Jaqen's permission.

But to do so without making her suffer, if she were to do that she'd have just slit her throat.

 

[Craig]

Aye, coz having your throat slit isn't too bad I reckon.

 

[Jamie_SFC]

Ayra had some serious plot armour there. Shame because her story is boring as fuck.

 

[hodge]

Aye, coz having your throat slit isn't too bad I reckon.

If killed properly doing it she wouldn't have suffered which Jaqen said to do.

 

[Dr Mantis Toboggan]

i mean it's all kinda conjecture ain't it we can't interview too many people about how painful their death by throat-slitting was

 

[Cheese & Biscuits]

Still all a bit 'meh'.

Glad the big fucker is back. Best character in the show.

 

[Jockney]

The Hound stuff was handled terribly. Not sure if George or B&W, but the show is starting to wobble in its themes, or the way they're presented at least.

 

[Oaf]

Highlight of the episode:

Jaime: A Lannister alway pays-

Bronn: Don't say it. Don't fuckin' say it.

Welcome back, Bronn.

(The Hound, too. But mostly Bronn)

 

[hodge]

Loved the backhand as well

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

The Hound stuff was handled terribly. Not sure if George or B&W, but the show is starting to wobble in its themes, or the way they're presented at least.

The trouble with the show is that you can't hide anyone's identity. In the book Barristan Selmy was revealed to be Barristan Selmy after ages of wandering around with Dany, but in the series you can't get away with something like that because you know it's him as soon as you see him. It's the same with The Hound and the Gravedigger.

 

[Jockney]

The identity issue is superficial, a non-issue. What is concerning is that a nuanced exploration of one of the broader themes of the series (authority derived from violence) is becoming secondary to pandering character moments. The hound picking up his axe to go and kill more people (the right people this time, though, apparently) is an uninteresting arc and is a depressing and nihilistic interpretation of the universe, but even worse is that the episode makes it seem almost triumphant.

 

[JimJams]

I never thought of it as an 'arc but'.



What's an arc but?

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

The identity issue is superficial, a non-issue. What is concerning is that a nuanced exploration of one of the broader themes of the series (authority derived from violence) is becoming secondary to pandering character moments. The hound picking up his axe to go and kill more people (the right people this time, though, apparently) is an uninteresting arc and is a depressing and nihilistic interpretation of the universe, but even worse is that the episode makes it seem almost triumphant.

I don't see it as nihilistic, it's a fair reflection of this universe and ours in that you can't be good without first being strong, or else having someone strong to protect you. The Hound is that someone. I interpret this as him finding his new purpose in life. This world is full of killers that the weak can't counter for themselves, but another killer (like him) could.

 

[TomPNE94]

Why do people over-analyse tv shows so much? Just literally watch it and enjoy it

 

[Jockney]

Why do people over-analyse tv shows so much? Just literally watch it and enjoy it

Because I'm a humourless, pretentious jumped-up little c***. Now fuck off.

 

[Dr Mantis Toboggan]

yeah it ain't like tv is a form of art, and it's not like we should strive for good art is it