Game of Thrones & House of the Dragon

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jbeall
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#201 Post by jbeall » Mon Jun 27, 2016 1:04 pm

movielocke wrote:I really loved this episode right until the final shot. It was pretty much perfect until then. But that final shot had me screaming. Why is Varys standing behind Dany? He's half a world away a few minutes earlier. Otherwise the shot was magnificent. The episode was stunning. The long kings landing bit had the best score in the entire series and is probably the best directed sequence in the entire series. The whole thing was mind blowingly great until Varys revealed he could teleport. I have never been all that bothered by any of the dumb travel things in the show before. I laughed at people who complained pedanticly about them. But this one infuriated me, karma is a bitch, I suppose.
Perhaps it's because Varys is a merman?

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Luke M
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#202 Post by Luke M » Mon Jun 27, 2016 1:22 pm

I thought this season was one of the best if not the best season. They pretty much gave the audience everything they wanted to see. By comparison, last season made us suffer through Stannis who only became worse and worse until he unsatisfactorily met his end. Ramsey, unlike Joffrey, was a compelling villain and arguably the greatest performance of the season. Sophie Turner's Sansa performance was wonderful. There was a lot to like this season.

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domino harvey
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#203 Post by domino harvey » Mon Jun 27, 2016 1:38 pm

I'm legit surprised to hear anyone say this of all seasons was padded, as it was pretty clear from the get-go that they were speeding through matters now that there was a solid endgame in place. I agree that Ramsay wasn't all that interesting once he turned (further) into a cartoon, but there was so much that worked (and the season truly righted itself and never erred too far from the path after those less than ideal first couple episodes).

Also, loving the new tinfoil theories cropping up in the wake of the astrolabe and magnifying goggles from the opening credits popping up in the Citadel, suggesting that perhaps the up-to-date opening credits of every episode are the product of the Maesters tracking the movements on the 3-D map we see every week. This is leading to some serious speculation that Sam = GRRM surrogate in the story (which terrifies me as it makes me think of the disastrous direction Stephen King's the Dark Tower took-- now there was a book series you wish the author hadn't finished!), but I don't think anyone means literally!

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mfunk9786
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#204 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Jun 27, 2016 2:28 pm

The actor who plays Sam looks eerily like me (in real life, less so on the show), so I can't say there isn't a little bit of a rooting interest.

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mfunk9786
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#205 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Jun 27, 2016 2:45 pm

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YnEoS
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#206 Post by YnEoS » Mon Jun 27, 2016 3:40 pm

The only sense in which I could see this season as dragging is that it was forced to untie all the knots they made in Season 5 to give the characters something to do while they grew up. Personally I got tired of a lot of these storylines last season, but was glad to see Season 6 so determinately resolving them one by one, it felt like almost every episode had a pretty major event. Some of the plot resolutions were even worthwhile enough a payoff to warrant sitting through Season 5.

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Roscoe
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#207 Post by Roscoe » Mon Jun 27, 2016 4:04 pm

It just felt like the doings at King's Landing involving the Sparrow and Marjorie and all that took a lot longer than was really necessary, we kept getting little tastes of scenes showing us that the Sparrow and his minions were taking over, and it wasn't done in a particularly interesting manner, and the Mountain spent much of the season looming threateningly while Cersei seethed malevolently and I just wanted it wrapped the fuck up already.

Likewise with Ramsay Bolton. His character just got boring about midway through when he killed off the wildling woman who'd accompanied Rickon -- it was just one scene of bloodthirstiness followed by callousness too many, every scene involved him killing somebody off and then being a dick about it. They did take him out of the series for a few episodes, at least. And the little tease with Arya getting so horribly wounded just felt cheap. For the first time I sat there thinking they were just fucking with me.

And what's up with those White Walkers? They've been walking around for six years now, are they ever going to get their shit together and do something? What are they waiting for? I can't be the only one who heard Benjen tell Bran that the walkers can't get past the Wall because of spells woven into the foundations of the ice -- I'm guessing they're going to find a way around that.

It hasn't been a total loss. Seeing Olenna tell Cersei off in no uncertain terms was great fun, and Tyrion trying to get a party going with Grey Worm and the translator was a treat. There were other bits, too -- I'm sorry to lose Jaqen. That purring voice referring to everyone in third person always delighted me. And Davos putting the fear of God into Melisandre was tasty. And of course, "Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame."

I've been a great fan of the series up to this year, don't get me wrong. And I'll be back for more next year.

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jindianajonz
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#208 Post by jindianajonz » Mon Jun 27, 2016 4:16 pm

Roscoe wrote: I can't be the only one who heard Benjen tell Bran that the walkers can't get past the Wall because of spells woven into the foundations of the ice -- I'm guessing they're going to find a way around that.
The Three Eyed Raven's cave was also protected by spells, until Bran got touched by the Night's King in the dream. There's a theory that the Night's King somehow turned Bran into a spell breaker, and if he ever crosses the wall, he will erase it's magic barriers.

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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#209 Post by Werewolf by Night » Mon Jun 27, 2016 5:33 pm

So, I am maybe a little dense, but did last night's episode confirm that Jon Snow is Lyanna Stark AND Rhaegar Targaryen's child? Or just that he's Lyanna's?

EDIT: Found my own answer. The latter, but the former is pretty strongly implied.

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Murdoch
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#210 Post by Murdoch » Tue Jun 28, 2016 2:48 am

Roscoe wrote:For me this season was by very far the weakest season yet. They really only had about five episodes' worth of plot, and it got stretched out for ten solid episodes, and there was a lot of wheel-spinning as they kept telling me the same things over and over and over. The doings at King's Landing got infuriating, and I got sick of the sight of the High Sparrow and Ramsay Bolton, who was thrown over the shark by the production about midway through the season when his callous sadism became tiresome rather than appalling.
Yeah, I gave up on it honestly. It feels like the writers had an idea of how they wanted the season to end and were just kind of treading water, waiting until they could do it. There was a lot of awkward switches from one plotline to the next, sometimes just cutting to an area for a few minutes before cutting away to another. Arya's Terminator-level resistance to mortal wounding and the dull plotting of the Sparrows pushed me over the edge. It was a nice show while it lasted, but I don't think the HBO writers are up to the task of handling the series without Martin to guide them.

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domino harvey
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#211 Post by domino harvey » Tue Jun 28, 2016 1:57 pm

I was so caught up in the Wildfire scene that I didn't even notice this part the first time

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DarkImbecile
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#212 Post by DarkImbecile » Tue Jun 28, 2016 7:19 pm

"The forehead carvings... They do nothing!"

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Kokomo Blues
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#213 Post by Kokomo Blues » Tue Jun 28, 2016 9:48 pm

Murdoch wrote:
Roscoe wrote: Arya's Terminator-level resistance to mortal wounding ...
And yet Danni walking through fire seems to bother nobody who complains of this.

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knives
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#214 Post by knives » Tue Jun 28, 2016 9:57 pm

There's a pretty obvious difference in those two examples that I almost feel like it's not worth dignifying with an explanation. Just to be polite though the show does recognize Danni's fire situation as an abnormal one caused by some sort of magical thing. A point in her fire resistance is that it sets her apart from the rest of humanity. Arya though is a normal person by the standards of the universe and so it is much more understandable to complain when something seems unrealistic relating to her character.

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aox
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#215 Post by aox » Wed Jun 29, 2016 11:03 am

I admit that the season started kind of slow, and some of the dialogue (since we surpassed the books now) in the first few episodes was cringe-worthy missing the GRRM touch, but I was very satisfied with it. Surprised people are so down on it.

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Roscoe
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#216 Post by Roscoe » Wed Jun 29, 2016 2:35 pm

Kokomo Blues wrote:
Murdoch wrote:
Roscoe wrote: Arya's Terminator-level resistance to mortal wounding ...
For what it's worth, I didn't have the issue with Arya's Terminator-level resistance to mortal wounding as such in the section above, it looks like the quote mechanism got off track or something. It was the cliffhanger gimmick that annoyed me -- she's Arya, she's not going to go like that, why did they bother with such a cheap tease. Her survival after that pretty vicious twist of the blade from the Waif just seemed part of the narrative sloppiness of way too much of the season.

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Kokomo Blues
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#217 Post by Kokomo Blues » Wed Jun 29, 2016 4:20 pm

Roscoe wrote:For what it's worth, I didn't have the issue with Arya's Terminator-level resistance to mortal wounding as such in the section above, it looks like the quote mechanism got off track or something. It was the cliffhanger gimmick that annoyed me -- she's Arya, she's not going to go like that, why did they bother with such a cheap tease. Her survival after that pretty vicious twist of the blade from the Waif just seemed part of the narrative sloppiness of way too much of the season.
No argument, the Arya narrative this season was nearly as bad as Doorne in the last season.
She set the trap by hiding Needle and blowing out the candle Zatoichi-like, the following wounding and chase seemed a waste and off-putting.

However, previously she did drink poison that had killed everyone else we saw drink it to restore her sight - maybe she isn't the same, and they went to lengths to show that, although poorly.

As for Terminator-like, that was in the Waif's relentless pursuit.

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domino harvey
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#218 Post by domino harvey » Wed Jun 29, 2016 4:23 pm

This was a great season but no one is defending the Arya plotline. Even Rhaegar wasn't mad enough to go that far! I don't really understand the vitriolic hatred most viewers have of the Sand Snakes though. But, then again, I thought the "bad pussy" line was funny so what do I know

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Trees
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#219 Post by Trees » Wed Jun 29, 2016 4:46 pm

If Jon Snow is Daenerys's nephew, what are the chances they hook up, including romantically? :shock:

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jindianajonz
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#220 Post by jindianajonz » Wed Jun 29, 2016 4:56 pm

Well, the Targaryans regularly married their close relatives, and it would probably be the best political alliance Daenarys could make at this point (build a strong coalition against the current regime and retain the North as part of the Seven Kingdoms) so I'd say very likely.

Daenarys has already said she intends to marry for political gain. The Martells are out of sons (or, in the case of the show, never had them), the Baratheons and Tyrells are out of family members in general, Edmure Tully is already married, and I don't see Daendarys marrying Cersei or Sweetrobin, so really Jon Snow is the only prospective partner that makes sense.

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Trees
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#221 Post by Trees » Wed Jun 29, 2016 4:59 pm

Makes sense. I guess that might leave Sansa on the throne at Winterfell?

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jindianajonz
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#222 Post by jindianajonz » Wed Jun 29, 2016 5:18 pm

Correction: The books have family members still for the Martells (Trystane) and the Tyrells (Wilas and Garlan, the latter of which is alreay married). Of course, the books haven't yet seen disaster befall either of these families, so it's entirely possible for them to get written out later. Either way, Jon Snow is still the most useful marriage, since he can prevent a Norexit while the Martells are already rooting for Daenarys and the Tyrell's will likely side with anybody as long as it's against the Lannisters.

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#223 Post by matrixschmatrix » Wed Jun 29, 2016 5:59 pm

Given the whole deal with ice and fire it seems inevitable that the Targaryens and the Starks will either kill one another or marry one another or both (given the whole Azor Ahai legend.)

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jindianajonz
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#224 Post by jindianajonz » Wed Jun 29, 2016 6:29 pm

matrixschmatrix wrote: it seems inevitable that the Targaryens and the Starks will either kill one another or marry one another or both
You make the series sound like an elaborate screwball comedy!

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domino harvey
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Re: Game of Thrones (Spoilers Within)

#225 Post by domino harvey » Wed Jun 29, 2016 7:28 pm

Directors for Season Seven announced. Time to riot, Sapochnik isn't one of them-- but a guy who's directed almost forty episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is! That GoT / Sunny connection going strong, I see

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