Game of Thrones

[jad1]

My apologies for any confusion. Although I've read the books, I am speculating only in terms of the television show. The characters and story lines on the show have been so combined, altered, shortened, changed, ignored etc. etc., that I hardly think of them as the same story anymore. 

That's cool.  Both the books and show are great.  I enjoy discussing them both.

[nfreeman]

jad1 -- great stuff, but pls use the "hide spoilers" feature.  Thanks.

[K-9]

Hoe-dee-doe, hoe-dee-doe, hoe-dee-doe.

[JohnRobertEichel]

Hoe-dee-doe, hoe-dee-doe, hoe-dee-doe.

 

Very solid episode. Glad to see the Bran storyline take off.

[inkman]

Hoe-dee-doe, hoe-dee-doe, hoe-dee-doe.

Such an awesome scene.

[K-9]

Very solid episode. Glad to see the Bran storyline take off.

Such an awesome scene.

Agree entirely, another fast-paced dynamic episode. 

 

Seems we get fewer and fewer light moments in the GoT universe, but the flirtatious look that Tormund Giantsbane gave to Brienne and her reaction to it last night was pretty funny. 

[inkman]

Agree entirely, another fast-paced dynamic episode.

 

Seems we get fewer and fewer light moments in the GoT universe, but the flirtatious look that Tormund Giantsbane gave to Brienne and her reaction to it last night was pretty funny.

Yes like he wants to conquer her giant body

[nfreeman]

Not sure if this has been mentioned in the show, but in the books, Tormund's claim to Casanova-style fame among the wildlings is that he once had sex with a bear.

[Huckleberry]

Not sure if this has been mentioned in the show, but in the books, Tormund's claim to Casanova-style fame among the wildlings is that he once had sex with a bear.

 

Loved the look on his face when they rode out.  

But been pretty much a boring season, was expecting some actual stuff to happen.    I'm pretty suck of Arya saying "this girl has no name" 2 years in a row. 

Might as well have just cut her out of the show last season.    Hope to see some actual, pillaging, murdering , ravaging next week. 

Atleast season 4 of Vikings stilled my hunger for now :D

[sabills]

Not sure if this has been mentioned in the show, but in the books, Tormund's claim to Casanova-style fame among the wildlings is that he once had sex with a bear.

 

There's a theory out there that the "bear" he bedded was actually Jorah Mormont's aunt:

 

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?/topic/80928-tormund-husband-to-bears/

[jad1]

The most disappointing scene in the show was the kings moot. The Dorne-ification of the Ironborn has begun.

[sabills]

The most disappointing scene in the show was the kings moot. The Dorne-ification of the Ironborn has begun.

 

Ironborn storyline from the books never did much for me anyways. I'm ok with a shakeup. Agree, though, kingsmoot was blech.

[K-9]

The most disappointing scene in the show was the kings moot. The Dorne-ification of the Ironborn has begun.

I hear that. But in the interest of moving the story along in a limited media form, I can understand. I'm hoping we will get to see some Ironborn raids as they go inland up the various rivers. 

[nfreeman]

The most disappointing scene in the show was the kings moot. The Dorne-ification of the Ironborn has begun.

Euron wasn't terribly compelling, innit?

 

And where is Ian McShane already?

 

Still, the last scene with Hodor was great.

[jad1]

The problem I had with the kings moot wasn't that it didn't follow the books, it was more that it wasn't consistent with how the show previously presented the characters.

 

In the Yara scene with Balon earlier in the season, Yara sounds decidedly anti-war. In the kings moot, she's much more hawkish, promising to build a naval fleet. So is she an advocate for peace or war?

 

When the show introduced Euron, he was sinister and menacing, claiming to be the Drowned God. At the kings moot, he was presented more as a drunk uncle at Thanksgiving.

 

And if Euron has been sailing the world, bringing death to all he meets (per his drowned god reference) where's his crew? Is he sailing alone? Is his ship a rowboat?

 

And was his ship among the ones stolen by Yara and Theon? How believable is it that Dany, with all her titles, would marry a guy who loses his ship minutes after being crowned. The guy appears to lack the skills to win the Mother of Dragons.

 

Also, Euron freely admits to being a king slayer and a kin slayer, two major taboos in Westeros, but he's given a pass because nobody likes Balon? If Tyrion had only used that defense at his trial, Oberyn wouldn't have suffered that horrible headache.

 

Finally, Euron commands the Iron born to build him 1000 ships. With what? The Iron islands are bare of trees and vegetation. Ramsey calls them s###-stained rocks in his Theon letter to Balon. The Greyjoy words are "We do not sow," due to the fact that there is so litle to sow in their homeland. They just lost the forested Deepwood Motte (per Yara's converstion with Balon). Where's Euron going to get the wood to build that mamy ships in such a short period of time?

 

When the writing on the show is good, things snap together in a satisfying way. We understand why Ned's death and the red wedding happened. We get why Jaime saves Brienne. Hardhome and Hodor's death offer insight to the larger story.

 

And then, we get Dorne, which completely lacks the craft and care of the other storylines. It looks like Euron and the Iron Born might be in that same boat.

[nfreeman]

I didn't have a problem with Dorne.  Ellaria sand was pretty consistent in lobbying the prince for war to avenge Elia Martel and her kids.  And her daughters were pretty... compelling too.

[TrueBlueGED]

The problem I had with the kings moot wasn't that it didn't follow the books, it was more that it wasn't consistent with how the show previously presented the characters.

 

In the Yara scene with Balon earlier in the season, Yara sounds decidedly anti-war. In the kings moot, she's much more hawkish, promising to build a naval fleet. So is she an advocate for peace or war?

 

When the show introduced Euron, he was sinister and menacing, claiming to be the Drowned God. At the kings moot, he was presented more as a drunk uncle at Thanksgiving.

 

And if Euron has been sailing the world, bringing death to all he meets (per his drowned god reference) where's his crew? Is he sailing alone? Is his ship a rowboat?

 

And was his ship among the ones stolen by Yara and Theon? How believable is it that Dany, with all her titles, would marry a guy who loses his ship minutes after being crowned. The guy appears to lack the skills to win the Mother of Dragons.

 

Also, Euron freely admits to being a king slayer and a kin slayer, two major taboos in Westeros, but he's given a pass because nobody likes Balon? If Tyrion had only used that defense at his trial, Oberyn wouldn't have suffered that horrible headache.

 

Finally, Euron commands the Iron born to build him 1000 ships. With what? The Iron islands are bare of trees and vegetation. Ramsey calls them s###-stained rocks in his Theon letter to Balon. The Greyjoy words are "We do not sow," due to the fact that there is so litle to sow in their homeland. They just lost the forested Deepwood Motte (per Yara's converstion with Balon). Where's Euron going to get the wood to build that mamy ships in such a short period of time?

 

When the writing on the show is good, things snap together in a satisfying way. We understand why Ned's death and the red wedding happened. We get why Jaime saves Brienne. Hardhome and Hodor's death offer insight to the larger story.

 

And then, we get Dorne, which completely lacks the craft and care of the other storylines. It looks like Euron and the Iron Born might be in that same boat.

 

I thought the Kingsmoot was kind of meh because it just seemed so small and calm. I was expecting this big and raucous event. I also agree that the depiction of Euron was a weird departure from his introduction. Yara, however, I never thought was portrayed as some kind of pacifist. I think her arguments with Balon were about just throwing raiders at the shores expecting it to work--she wasn't against war itself, she was against non-strategic war, for lack of a better word.

[jad1]

I didn't have a problem with Dorne. Ellaria sand was pretty consistent in lobbying the prince for war to avenge Elia Martel and her kids. And her daughters were pretty... compelling too.

I can see that, although I would argue that Elia and the sand snakes are all the same character.

 

It was a bit shakey at the end of last season when Elia killed Myrcella while Jaime had custody of Trystane. But the premier of season 6 showed that Elia and her group could care less about Trystane. So that works.

 

I guess that we have to buy that the Dornish will let a group of bastards either rule or choose the next leader of Dorne; a group of bastards who are the equivalent of king and kin slayers.

 

Again, this is an execption to societal norms that show has established (Even an evil, crazy bastard like Ramsey invents a story about his fathers death, at the risk of being revealed as a kin slayer).

 

So, with some exceptions, the Dorne plot works.

[drnkirishone]

Dorne does not view bastards the same way the rest of the kindoms do

[jad1]

Dorne does not view bastards the same way the rest of the kindoms do

This is difficult. The show has established that the crown appoints wardens and lords. It also approves the naming of bastards to be true born. Roose Bolton was appointed Warden of the North by Joffrey. Tommen approved Ramsey Snow's promotion to Ramsey Bolton.

 

And this is where it gets tricky. In the books, there are rival houses to the Martells in Dorne. The crown could recognize one of those houses as the warden of Dorne and give Sunspear to them, easily undermining Elia's plot.

 

The tricky part is that the show hasn't mentioned any other houses in Dorne. I don't the show has even mentioned Sunspear as a location (it's just Dorne). So far as viewers know, the only two groups in all of Dorne are Dornan and the Sandsnakes.

 

The equivalent of this would be if the Starks lived in the North (not Winterfell) and had no bannermen.

 

In the interest of time, it's understandable why the Dorne and Iron Born plotlines were pared down. I guess my criticism is that the way in which thet were pared down undermines the excellent work the show has done in establishing the culture and mores of Westeros.

[qwksndmonster]

Finally watched episode 5. The Hodor stuff was neat. I think they were tryna do some sort of parallel between the COTF and Bran. Bran effed over Hodor's entire life to save himself and Mira, and the COTF effed over the entire world to save themselves from the men.

 

That didn't really mean a whole lot to me because the cotf lady was like IT'S YOUR FAULT BRAN YOU JERK. Like, the COTF are supposed to be wise, why are they still in denile about creating the white walkers being a net negative in the long run? This could've been an interesting point if we had any context for what they and bloodraven are doing.

 

Speaking of which, why is Bloodraven even in the show? We didn't learn anything about the man he was, and we didn't learn much of anything about Bran's journey from him. They got a legendary actor, gave him some vague lines, and killed him.

 

Summer's death was also really lame, and got much less screen time than random COTF doing the grenade into a group of zombies scene that I've seen in at least 3 movies before.

 

All the Sansa stuff was cool. Except Petyr was super lame. That's all he has to say? Wow.

 

Melisandre apparently has no input.

 

Tormund Brienne continues to be adorable.

 

Arya's storyline is still about her getting hit in the face. Yawn.

 

The Kingsmoot was bad. Yara is a joke. The scene was more about Theon than her. I liked the spin they gave show euron, that he was paying the iron price for the throne. That's the kinda that iron born would eat up. But as soon as Theon and Yara made him look like a moron by taking his ships, someone would've killed him with a rock. Also, like 7 ironborn were at the kingsmoot? Yikes.

 

All of Euron's dialogue in his introduction scene would've made a lot more sense in the kingsmoot.

 

Hodor :(

 

I still think Hodor is the name of the great other.

 

My biggest problem with every single episode this season: WHERE IS THE COLOR? TV shows should be fun to look at. Even dark dank cells can be shot in a compelling way. But every week we get ~40 minutes of people talking in dark rooms with no contrast. Ugh.

[Huckleberry]

My biggest problem is nothing is happening, everyone is playing politics how freeking boring.

 

At least Arya is finally getting interesting.

[wjag]

I find there are just too many story lines to follow.  I get confused on some of these lines, especially if they skip a week or two.

[jad1]

My biggest problem is nothing is happening, everyone is playing politics how freeking boring.

 

At least Arya is finally getting interesting.

The title "Game of Thrones," is a direct reference to the poltics of power. So there is a political story being told.

 

There is also a fantasy and science fiction story being told. The show seems to be leaning more towards fantasy, while the books are leaning more towards science fiction.

[Huckleberry]

The title "Game of Thrones," is a direct reference to the poltics of power. So there is a political story being told.

 

There is also a fantasy and science fiction story being told. The show seems to be leaning more towards fantasy, while the books are leaning more towards science fiction.

 

Going to be lovely to see those dragons serve their new master next season: John snow :p