Okay, so until the season finishes, I think it might be fun to just make Tuesday’s Off Topic about Game of Thrones.
I actually really liked last night’s episode.
There was a lot less of…
— Tyrion drinking and making shit jokes about drinking.
— Arya Stark being hit over the head with a stick for like five scenes in a row.
— The High Sparrow being all condescending and basically saying the same shit over and over.
There was a lot more…
— Actual proper drama that pushed the story forward.
— Daenerys Targaryen doing wild shit and saying dope shit like “You will not serve, you will die”.
So overall, a proper return to form for the show I thought.
Comments
48 responses to “Off Topic: Game Of Thrones”
Yes
LOL
For the love of that is good and holy please mix these up.
By ‘moving the story forward’ do we mean that Littlefinger finally enacts Phase 2 of whatever it he’s been scheming since orchestrating Jon Arryn’s poisoning?
I feel better each week for staying away from the show all these years and just reading the books. I’m still choosing to view the show as an alternate reality, re-reading bits and pieces as the show spotlights different characters and events.
It was great to get some forward momentum in the threads that previously didn’t see much, and I’m glad more of the threads have unified so we can check in with multiple characters at a time for a bit.
Nothing was really shocking though, which tells me next episode will be a bloodbath.
question: in a series that’s earned a reputation for killing off main / popular characters & has therefore gained a lot of its drama & tension from knowing that any character could die at almost any moment, does anyone else think the resurrection of Snow is a bit of a cop-out?
it doesn’t matter if characters die anymore. they can just be brought back by a bit of ‘its magic’ handwaving & having a follower of the fire god nearby.
i know this was covered in series 2 with Berric whatshisname, but it’s like death in this series has no real weight anymore. & unless theres some so far undisclosed consequences, its cheap.
like… series 1 had the ‘only death can pay for life’ thing with Drogo & Danny, but there’s no such exchange with Snow, or at least one we’ve been made aware of. & i know Berric said each time he comes back he loses a bit of himself, but that seems a slow process. Snow’s got at least another 10 resurrections in him before there’s any severe consequences.
I dunno.
Edit: yeah. i know this might be a bit off topic for the off topic, but IDGAF :p
There is a major character that should have been resurrected (books), but we have yet to see (and may never apparently).
yeah, i know about that one. i’m putting that down to a compressed adaptation more than anything else.
edit: also, unless the series & books turn out to be quite different, the non-appearance of that character in the series doesn’t bode well for the importance of that character in the books.
Ian McShane has already spilled beans that he resurrects someone this season. Copped a shit tonne of flak as a result.
got the impression from that interview that he’s responsible for a character’s return, though not necessarily their resurrection.
“I can give you one hint: My character is an ex-warrior who’s become a peacenik, so I have this group of peaceful—sort of like a cult—a peaceful tribe. I bring back a much-loved character everybody thinks is dead.”
yeah, i’m pretty sure most people have guessed who he’s referring to. & the death of that character was never seen or confirmed, so if its who i think, a) hell yes, thats one of my favourite characters & b) i dont think they died, so there’s nothing magical involved 🙂
Yes, many feel they know, and I hope it is, because you got to love having every chicken in the room eaten.
Every series is allowed one ‘Goku’. Foreshadowing made it more forgivable.
i’d be more forgiving of it if, for example, resurrecting Snow cost Millesandre her own life or something like that. that way resurrections would at least be finite.
May still do? You know thrones. Everything takes its sweet time
You could argue that Shireen was the life that she sacrificed for Snow. Only she didn’t know it was for hime at the time.
@zombiejesus mentioned this below & i hadn’t thought if it that way & i really like that idea.
Eh, I don’t think resurrections are so widespread that it cheapens death. In fact I’d say that Beric (who we haven’t seen in forever) and Jon are the only two we’ll see since there’s no LSH. In fact when the next major character dies, it’ll probably subvert expectations and have more impact when he isn’t resurrected.
i’m not implying that its widespread or anything, but its always an option, isnt it? it could happen.
like i said, i dunno. i just feel like as long as Millesandre is nearby, Snow is basically immortal & the threat is lessened.
still, i’m interested to see where they go with this.
Could we possible say that
Gregor Cleganewas also resurrected? Albeit using different methods.I suppose we could, I guess I didn’t count him because it was more along the lines of keeping him alive or reanimating his body rather then bringing the person back. That character has somewhat limited function.
Oooooh yeah good point! Reanimated Vs Resurrected. Nailed it.
Thats two characters who have been brought back… not a whole lot of hand waving bringing people to life willy nilly as you say, haha. Where was Robb’s hand wave? Ned’s? The Red Viper?
The fire god brought Jon back for a purpose. He is one of the few gods who we know actually shows power. If milesandres faith is well placed then he is the warrior of the light.
And if fan theories are spot on, a targaryen/stark to fight off the white walkers.Death still carries plenty of weight. A lot of my favourite characters have been iced without warning; before Jon, Beric was the only character known to have been brought back.
oh i’m not saying its being done ‘willy-nilly.’ & i’d be rather annoyed if it was too common.
but yeah. maybe the mechanics of the process needs to be explained a bit more. i feel like that if a character can be brought back, there needs to be some consequences for it.
PS: there was also a 3rd character brought back in the books.
I was disappointed that 3rd character was brought back, as I blamed it for acting stupidly and costing the Starks almost everything.
I haven’t watched the relevant episodes yet, but I’m hoping that the ‘bringing back’ isn’t just ‘life continues as before’. In the books the resurrections have quite severe effects on the characters. They are almost like zombies in certain ways, their ‘life energy’ having been seriously depleted or even extinguished.
I feel like the issue at the moment is that the way the red priests bring people back simply isn’t understood. The lord of light simply chooses who he will and won’t, with people like Thoros and Melisandre being nothing more than a conduit. Neither of them knew they could, Thoros was administering the red god’s equivalent of last rites by giving him the fiery kiss or whatever it is, when Beric suddenly came back from the dead. Since then he’s just been redoing it. Beric explains to Catelyn that it does have an effect on him, that he is missing pieces of himself. Perhaps he just feels empty inside, haunted by the fact he shouldn’t be alive. Jon presumably feels the same.
Azor Ahai incarnate!!
A life was spent to bring Jon Snow back, by the way, near the end of last season. Her sacrifice was made with other intentions but wasn’t repaid until Jon Snow was resurrected.
ahh. i like this. very much.
Except no one (besides Jon Snow and Berric) has a follower of the fire god nearby. Even Melissandre didnt believe that kind of magic could work. Its a myth no one knows about or even believes in.
Also, it depends on how they die. Someone who gets their head cut off or body torn in half isnt coming back.
TLDR the other comments, but I’d say hold off on your disappointment until we know what the cost to Jon was, because there almost certainly is one.
I think overall things have been weaker this season. One has to wonder if Martin is having much of a say in the writing process now that we have essentially departed from the books.
I did like the inclusion on Littlefinger in last nights ep though. I suspect he will be a force to deal with at the end of the books too.
Loved it.
Unexpected turn at the end, I honestly believed that since GRRM has said Dany is NOT fireproof (except for that one time when she hatched her dragons, which was a special one off event) that they wouldn’t make her so in the show.
Jon/Sansa reunion was awesome, so glad they didn’t insert fake drama and have them miss each other.
Also, Brienne + Tormund 4eva.
Oh man, those brienne tormund bits were fantastic haha
Pretty sure Tormund thinks he’ll get a good fuck and fight out of Brienne and well Brienne will get some much needed loving
Just curious, but here’s something I’ve always wondered with Brienne –
Is Brienne trans? I got that notion from the bath scene with Jaime a few seasons ago.No one else seems to share that point of view with me lol
I’m only interested in Arya’s storyline. Was disappointed no 80’s type ninja training montage has appeared.
The world needs more Stan Bush.
I’m getting a bit bored with Ramsay Bolton. He doesn’t have much depth at the moment – almost all of his scenes consist of “Ramsay does something awful to someone”. He’s also staying pretty static strategically. He seems pretty happy to just try to recapture Sansa Stark and have a child with her, cementing him and his family as the wardens of the north.
Hopefully soon they’ll do something more interesting with him; perhaps involving this looming fight with the wildlings and/or the knights of the Vale. With any luck it won’t just be “Ramsay captures someone important and tortures/kills them.”
Yeah, Ramsay and Joffrey are/were pretty 2D characters, basically existing purely for shock value. I’m kind of waiting for Ramsay to betray Roose (edit: I just checked the wiki…lol)
I thought at first after the scene where
Ramsay kills Roose, and after his discussions with Harald Karstarkthat they were going to portray Ramsay as being locked into a path of brutality, whether he wanted to follow that path or not, and that it would end up being self-destructive. I think that would be an interesting direction to take the character. However after the way they played the scenewhere he kills Oshain the most recent episode I’m not so sure.Roose was a more interesting villain. I was a bit disappointed during the stabbing scene where there was a brief moment where you couldn’t tell who’d stabbed whom that it wasn’t the father who walked away with the knife.
Ramsay really isn’t an interesting character. I’m hoping (though not expecting) that he’ll be stomped by the Wildlings and the Veil (and anyone else they happen to pick up along with way), quickly so we can move on to more worthwhile villains.
I havent read the book but the LSH stuff sounds really bad, and if they had done that in the show I would definitely feel they were overdoing it with the resurrections.
It seemed pretty exciting at the time but nothing useful was done with that story arc so it seems pointless/tacked on.
I definitely found it a strange choice of the author. Why kill
Catelynin the first place? Why not just have her witness the Red Weddingand be vengeful because of it.Having not read the books or seen season six (until dvds come out 2017) I’m betting Sam puts Gillyflower on thr Throne in kings landing, she institutes flower gardens and the gillyflower turns out to be a cure for the stone disease.
“Daenerys Targaryen doing wild shit and saying dope shit like “You will not serve, you will die”.”
I get the impression that they really wanted to make the most of Emilia Clarke going back on her “no more nudity” clause.