Season 5 of Game of Thrones made for some fairly grim viewing. Meandering storylines, weird character development, a handful of scenes that just felt flat out wrong.
Season 6 has been much better in my humble opinion.
Ramsey Bolton scenes notwithstanding, season 6 has been hitting the right notes fairly consistently, to the point where the show currently feels like it’s actually making progress towards some sort of ULTIMATE CONCLUSION. At this point it all feels quite exciting. I still feel as though the move away from the books forces the show to move a little too much towards ‘TV tropes’ style writing, almost as if the surprise that comes with being based on the books is lost. Savvy readers can now recognise and predict twists a little more astutely; at least that’s what it feels like.
But still, some huge improvements here. I’m actually really loving Season 6 so far.
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23 responses to “Off Topic: Last Night’s Game Of Thrones”
HOLD THE DOOR!!!
Edit: oh wait that was last week, watched both episodes last night… Still sad though.
BENHANDS
COLBEN
COLJEN
JENHANDS
COLBENJENHANDS
GOOD: Arya’s story finally moving on. Sam’s actions. The fact the episode opened right where it should have based on last episode’s closing moments. The ‘return’ nobody expected but always really did.
BAD: No Greyjoys. Margaery’s stuff was confusing, a bit too clever for the likes of me. A triple-cross or something?
UGH: Why would Frey himself call it the red wedding? The weird not-flashbacks to Mad King/other moments already depicted in the series.
Only four to go, right?
The weird not flashbacks are going to be the tough decisions Bran’s going to have to make, surely. The sequence has to happen that way for man to overcome.Not near a device that can play the episode, but what was the sequence? I remember the green pyromancer stuff, Ned losing a hed, and that’s about itA lot of them were repeated two or three times. They were (excluding duplicates):
– wildfire storage beneath the Red Keep with some members of the Alchemist’s Guild
– the Mad King (“burn them all”)
– the Night King raising the dead / looking at John Snow as he left Hardhome
– zombie Karsi
– Bran falling out of the Burned Tower
– panoramic shot of the Fist of the First Men
– Catelyn Stark getting her throat cut
– Drogon in the air
– Drogon’s shadow over King’s Landing
– the Night king holding Craster’s last son
– Craster’s last son lying in the middle of a circle of 9 ice menhirs
– the Night King turning Craster’s last son into a white walker
– Eddard Stark being beheaded
– Danerys at sunrise after Khal Drogo’s funeral pyre
– mass raven migration in the woods North of the Wall
– Alchemists handling wildfire
– the wildfire storage beneath the Red Keep exploding
– Jamie killing the Mad King
– young Eddard’s raid on the Tower of Joy (“where’s my sister”)
– misc. bloodied hand (I’ve got no idea what this was)
– Roose Bolton stabbing John Snow
– three-eyed (actual) raven in flight
– creation of the Night King by the Children of the Forest
– white walker trying to kill Jon Snow at Hardhome
– Jamie on the Iron Throne after killing the Mad King
– the walls falling at Hardhome
– the door being broken open at Hardhome
– Bran surrounded by zombies prior to being touched by the Night King
– zombies jumping off the cliff at Hardhome
– white walker on horseback with some zombies at the Fist of the First Men
– the Night King looking down at Hardhome
– Bran being touched by the Night King
The best theory I heard was that it was a mix of flashbacks and flash forwards. Aerys stating “burn them all” being what it was historically. However, the images of the wildfire filled basement going up may actually be in the future, caused by Cersei when she inevitably snaps.
I saw an interesting fan theory about the Mad King flashback.
Bran warg-brained the sentiment ‘burn them all’ into the Mad King’s mind while thinking about the White Walkers, but Aerys couldn’t make sense of it and ended up becoming obsessed with burning everyone instead.Crikey.
Now that we’ve seen “hold the door” the “burn them all” theory makes a ton of sense. I mean, Aerys was mad, but the way Jamie described his psychotic break at the peak of the battle really seems to fit.The Benjen reveal was expected but great. GRRM has said previously Benjen is NOT Coldhands but the show seems to have said “well, you’ve had 20 years to explain where Benjen went, let’s just get on with it already”, which seems to be their approach with a lot of stories now.
Really interested to see where they go with Arya’s story, as last night I got the impression that she no longer has a thirst for vengeance, which means she no longer wants to be once of the Faceless men – ironically, letting go of that need is what will make her capable of becoming one of them. I really wonder what she has planned.
The return of Blackfish and Edmure and the convenient progression of the Riverlands story is great, especially since it will hopefully result in the Tullys being able to support Jon and Sansa at Winterfell. Of course Brienne and Jamie conveniently being in the Riverlands while they drop a casual mention of the Brotherhood Without Banners has revived hopes of a Lady Stoneheart appearance, too.
Dany is now finally back to where she started after losing ground every season since the end of season 1. Starting to believe she might actually see Westeros one day!
I liked Bran’s vision, I assume we’ll see what’s in the tower of Joy as well as more of young Jamie slaying the Mad King. So far Jamie has told Brienne, and only Brienne, what happened that day. It’ll be interesting to watch it play out as it happened from young Ned’s point of view.
I would love for Lady Stoneheart to be introduced but I still have a bit of a feeling she has been cut from the show.Well we’ve all been assuming LSH was cut from the show since the end of season 4 when it would have made sense for there to be a reveal, but then they sent Jamie off to Dorne for a completely pointless season that introduced the pointless Sand Snakes and killed off Myrcella.
It almost seems to have happened by accident but Brienne is heading to the Riverlands (with Sansa instead of under orders from LSH) and so is Jamie. The Brotherhood has been reported to have been attacking and upsetting Frey supply lines and encampments which was specifically an LSH objective once she replaced Beric. Granted their principal loyalty may be been to Ned in the start but at the end of the day they’re still mercenaries. They have no reason to attack the Freys unless they’re being ordered/paid to.
I’m kind of annoyed by the lack of a dragon controlling horn from the greyjoy’s. Instead he wants to win her over with a fleet? As someone who read the books and didn’t pay attention for the past few seasons the feel like two separate stories/alternate realities now.
Daenerys has always annoyed me a bit as a character. She feels far too naive and self involved, yet somehow she just magically liberates cities and has everyone worshipping her. It honestly feels like she hasn’t even actually done all that much. I mean she’s made stuff happen, but it more seems to just happen around her.
Then, when people start noticing she’s really not all that great, EPIC SCENE WITH *insert fire/dragons here* AND HOLY SHIT LOOK SHE’S AMAZING. Just wave a 17 name long title and wave some dragons/fire stunts around every now and then. That’s all you need to do.
The ending of last night was really the biggest eyeroll they’ve got from me yet. Seriously. Enough Daenerys. She’s uninteresting, and downright boring compared to the multitude of brilliant characters they’ve got literally everywhere else in the show.
Thanks for summing up my feelings.
Her greatest skill is how she can remember all her titles and the best order to say them.
I hope the White Walkers destroy her and her army the moment they arrive in Westeros.
It’s like you read my mind. What sorcery is this?
Who was it that wrote the article the other week on season 6 of Game of Thrones sucking more or less???
Bloody Jon Jonson.
Bit disappointed with how things panned out with Arya. The House of Black and White just turned out to be a murder shop with no higher moral code.
I was hoping Arya would be all, yeah/nah fucken, not gonna kill your seven kingdoms Judy Dench ay? And they’d be like, The girl has chosen wisely…
But isn’t that what they are regardless? Despite their moral code, who are they realistically to decide the fates of others? If they claim to hold the higher moral ground on peoples destinies, what makes them any better than the Sparrows in that sense?
I dunno man, I reckon she will kill the Waif and there will be to more to Jaquen and his intentions.
I have a theory that this is just another test of both the initiates in the house of Black and White. Basically its been jarring that Arya is told to ahve no sense of self yet this other bitch is holding a grudge and nothing comes of it. Perhaps the Waif if sent after Arya as a test of them both. Arya will win, and people will be shocked that it was all part of the plan. Meh.Another thing I noted was the actually how Arya explained Cersei’s feeling to the actress. She was actually describing her feeling of revenge over her fathers death. Looking back at it, it makes her parting excuse all the more relevant “I have to go, my father’s expecting me…” *Time for the Revenge*