FemmyV

Without her father's wealth and support, she never would have had the training and equipment to win in the lists. Without her family status, she never would have been allowed anywhere near the lists, or Renley..

Sure, because these producers would never allow for an action that wasn't perfectly telescoped to viewers beforehand. Truly, though, I hope you are correct. In my own, off screen world, Jon woke up and realized how badly he and Dany were both used to dispatch the NK, and then Cersei, and finally he was used to dispatch Dany (Tyrion could have done the deed himself if he hadn't chosen to so publicly quit his office) and decided to ride off with Ghost and Tormond and let 7K take care of their own messes. We were promised a bittersweet ending, but unless you're a big Sansa, Bronn, Bran and Tyrion booster, I don't see any sweet. In the end, nothing got better for the "little people." If anything the small council became even less representative. Iirc, Pycelle, Varys, Baelish all came from nothing, for the most part. On the new council, only Davos and Bronn ever had to make their own way in the world. What I see is a dystopian sci-fi scenario that's been presented into a fantasy setting. That's not subversion, that's bait and switch. Fantasy exists because it IS fantasy. It's still great TV, but at this point I feel like the kid in The Princess Bride: Jesus, grandpa, why'd you read me this story?

Still gotta have a place to send undesirables. OR, it was lip service for Grey Worm's sake, with the council figuring he'd never come back to Westeros and follow up. The point about Bran's story was straight out of SXSW tech seminars and other tech era marketing/branding — the notion that we're all suckers who prefer a good story to good products (only it's sold with a nicer sound to it). The lack of Gendry at the trial/council is just another piece of evidence of how badly D and D fucked this up. He wasn't a character to them, just a device. The producers have constantly used Arya, as a fan favorite, in these last seasons as a way to attempt to manipulate viewers into seeing other characters the way they want us to — but ain't so because that's not the way they're writing them. Sansa is the smartest person she knows. Dany is dangerdangerdanger. So now we're supposed to think Yara or anyone else who might defend Dany should just keep their mouths shut. Re: Yara, that's just another example of how the story was rushed. Who gives a shit if there are tons of action-hero-blow-shit-up fans who will be restless and complain about scenes where no one is getting killed and OMG people are sitting around talking? Grey Worm commanded an army that could wipe out pretty much all of Westeros, so yeah, he gets a say. We don't know how much of the Vale army survived, and wend down to KL, do we? In one of the S07 BTS vids, D and D said that telling Jon about his true parents shook his whole world, more or less. That's another thing that we weren't shown because the season was so fucking rushed. The worst thing in that is Jon's utter failure to step up in the moments when the Lannister soldiers surrendered, and take charge of what was going on, "My Queen ... King's Landing is yours!" If Dany had then proceeded to burn everything, it would have at least given some real justification. Please let it be fanfiction where Tormund, like Edmure, isn't 96% used for comic relief. Considering Dany pretty much wiped out the entire population of KL, that means there's hardly anyone there for the labor pool, to do the physical work of any rebuilding. So they have to find a way to get big strong men there, to do the labor for them. Brothels is the lure. It's also, as we know from Littlefinger and Varys, a great way to have blackmail material on your enemies and reluctant friends. Yep. I don't see much difference between Bran and Aerys and Henry VI, who Aerys was modeled after, IIRC. And yet, Sam has a wife and a child. I will fanwank some sort of sex partner/companion for Jon, if not a kid. He didn't want one when he thought he was a bastard, because he didn't want to risk foisting that legacy on a kid, I can't see him wanting to foist the Targaryen legacy, either. GRRM is a literary fraud, AFAIC, and will be until he gets off his ass and finishes this. And it was his fraud in allowing HBO to begin filming before the books were completed. I'll also lay some of it on the books' publishers/editors as well, for not hounding him for completion. I felt like Royce's joke was directed at the viewers. Haha! You thought we were going to break that wheel, didn't you? I find some comfort in telling myself that Jon going off with the wildlings, and establishing a more democratic society up North, with no need to escape their climate or other local boogeyman, will eventually lead to a North that is far more advanced than the rest of Westeros, which is going to continue to be constrained by kings and lords who need to get constant rim service. Yep. I don't have a problem with where everyone wound up in the end: I'm okay with Bran as king. I'm okay with Sansa as Lady of the North. I'm okay with Tyrion as Hand. I'm okay with Jon going North, and Dany being dead. We have been prepped for this end since Season 2, I feel. What I'm not okay with, is how we got this end. Everything was rushed. The writers constantly relied on visual cues and other short cuts: shots of Bran in his wheelchair looking like Bran on a throne; Dany, all in black, with dragon wings and her hairdo styled to make her look even more like a dragon; "The Bells" sending her to a psychotic break. That's not storytelling! That's a music video version of storytelling.

Which would have been wonderful, if seasons 3-7 could have actually concentrated on the Starks, instead of Cersei and Tyrion. But because the Starks were all teenagers or young adults, their portrayers didn't have the advanced acting chops needed to carry a show. Also, if Sansa wasn't such a selfish c***. *sigh*

Fan service, courtesy of a throwaway line from Season 6.

This. And if anyone pushed it into being, it was Bran, of all people. Bran, who dictated how, when, and why Jon was to be informed he'd been banging his auntie. Additionally, he got an assist from Sansa, whose hostility set the mood for the rest of the Northerners to follow.

Yet, the preview for next week looks very much like Dany's going to get her Nuremburg moment. I wonder where her adoring masses will come from? Certainly not KL?

Except when he wanted Sam to tell Jon about Rheagar and Lyanna.

Subscribers, then, and prestige/ego.

Sometimes I do wonder if HBO / D and D didn't lean on him to delay publication, thinking it would be better for their ratings/subscriber base. Oh, and by the way: Tyrion killed Jaime, by setting him free. Think about that.

I really dreaded watching this episode, cause I got spoilered. The pleasant surprise was Dany didn't really go all out apeshit and really, when I think about it ... Kings Landing got the roasting it's had coming for a long time. Am I really supposed to feel sorry for these so-called innocents? These are the people who cheered when Ned was executed. These are the people who ripped the limbs off of one of Joffrey's guards (instead of Joff). These are the people who threw shit at Cersei, accepted what the Sparrows were doing, and then did nothing to rebel when Cersei blew up the Sept? And now they hide under her protection? Fuck 'em. Burn them all. But Dany must be mad and evil to tear that cesspool down. So much for the fantasy aspect. And yes, I'm going to be pissed as all fucking hell if the message, when all is said and done, comes down to: women are more accepted and successful when they manipulate people and events to get their way (Sansa, and Cersei until she took the throne for herself), and best leaving the open attacks to menfolk. That is, except for Arya and Brienne. So Jamie treated Brienne to a pity fuck, and went back to die in Cersei's arms? Weak. They both got better deaths than they deserved, in that case. Loved Arya and the Hound's parting. "Sandor," indeed.

First three seasons, Max. And will maybe skip on to S7E4.

In addition to which, where is there any free will at all if Bran knows everything?

Thank you! Robert: started a war because he was jilted. Got to be king. Good guy Ned Stark, moral backbone of the show, served him and remained his bestie, agreed to marry his daughter to Robert's spawn. Some long-past Targaryen burned Harenhall to pieces. Got to rule. Cersei - blows up the Sept, cuckholds the king, passes off her incestuous crop and the residents of KL who were willing to tear the Guard apart by their limbs accept her. But Dany's mad and unfit? Fuck that. I'm down with the idea of destroying the throne and monarchy, altogether, but if they have to destroy Dany's character to do it, that's some bullshit. I'd put money on Bran as a hedge, if nothing else. That wheelchair looks more like a throne, every episode.

Sansa is being written as a total c***, and D and D will say how boss she is and get away with it because she doesn't have the power - at least for now - to force actions as any kind of follow through on her antipathy for Dany.

1st impressions: If Dany ends up losing her shit and dies bitterly, I'm going to be very, very pissed off. Damn, Sansa was finally becoming tolerable. Now she's reverting back to her Season 1 selfish itch, with less charm. And D and D are using Arya to prop this crap up, what sucks even more. Poor Missandei. So sorry Dany's magic word didn't work for her. Poor Grey Worm. Poor Dany, to have to watch Jorah, Rheagol, and Missandei all die in her service. Poor Gendry. Arya used him. She should have slept with Pod. I wonder if Euron picked up on Tyrion's baby talk. Poor Brienne. Love of a good woman couldn't keep Jaime from heading South. Poor Jaime. Poor Jon, stuck between a rock and a hard place. And Tormond spilling the beans about his death! What do the surviving Northerners think that was all about? Poor Tyrion, he's the only sane person in the show right now.

I've been staying the hell away from spoilers for months and ya know, just from what the TV is showing me, it makes a whole lot more sense if it's Cersei who's put on trial. Reasons: 1. I don't think Maggie's prophecy about Little Bro made it into the script. 2. Arya had her big kill, so it's doubtful she'll get two. 3. Tyrion doesn't seem to be jealous of Jon and Dany, so that motive doesn't look like a thing. 4. I'm very curious to see where his reunion with Sansa goes. If they end up in bed, no way does he betray her, having finally found the acceptance he craves. If they go to bed and it goes well, I say the trial is Cersei's.

She should have slept with Pod

Yep. Over in Freefolk, people are calling out the Mary Sue kids as incels.

Early on: he repeatedly calls her "Boy." 3:53 "my tongue lied, my eyes shouted the truth." So, Arya went beyond Syrio and lied with her eyes. Pretty cool.

Pretty sure GRRM said Nymeria will make another appearance, but that may be book only.

Four watches later: The crypt survivors shot is a little humorous in a 'clean up in aisle 4' kind of way. Bran's wheelchair kind of looks like a throne, doesn't it? The look between Arya and Bran at the end says so much, with so few words: everything we went through, to get to this moment.

You don't know that. D and D have a habit of not showing pertinent discussions that will affect what we see on the screen. Example: we didn't see whatever discussion Bran, Sansa and Arya may have had before killing Littlefinger, and yet, somehow, they all magically arrived at the same resolution. Bran has had plenty of time, off-screen, to share his vision with Arya on this one. And considering that he gave her "exactly the right weapon," it makes sense they did. I expect to see not a little exposition in EP04.

At the time Arya made herself known with the scream, NK was pulling for his sword, leaving his frontal space open. By getting his attention in that way, at that moment, he had to fully expose himself to her, to get his hands on her. Had she quietly jumped onto his back, not only would she have had more work to get to his vulnerable spot, but it would also have given his lieutenants a good reason to fire their spears at her. Instead, they were left to see he had her handled very well on his own.

Current fancy: Jaime + Tyrion together. I get to hope this because so many other so-called spoilers have leaked out, that turned out to be 100% incorrect. On re-watch, look for the breeze that made one of the white walkers look around for its unseen source. Somehow, either jumping out of the Weirwood tree, or into one, Arya made that breeze happen. Even though I knew our heroes were going to live and go on to KL, that still set me up to feel everyone was doomed, anyway. Excellent film-making. And Miguel Sapotchnik is never going to want for work. IIRC, PWWP has really been negligible, overall. Yes, Melisandre and her prophecy, but it was never really emphasized, beyond Stannis's big season or two. And it's been a point, how badly Mel was getting things wrong, over and over again. So why couldn't she have been wrong all along? If it was just one more thing D and D decided was a distraction from clear-cut storytelling, in a visual medium, I'm okay with it. I didn't laugh, but, I thought it was poignant and telling that Jon recognized he had to Big Picture thinking at that moment; everyone was fighting their hearts out, and Sam needed to put on his big boy shorts or get out of there. I want to think that going through that battle together just makes/made their personal dilemma look tiny in comparison. As far as we know, Jon still doesn't want to be Kof7K, and whatever Northerners survived through the Long Night have Dany, all the sacrificed Dothraki and Unsullied to thank for keeping them alive until NK was killed, and if they don't recognize that, fuck 'em. In the flashback to Maggie the Frog, did Maggie tell Cersei about her death in the show? I don't recall that. Was it maybe the fight between Syrio vs Meryn Trant? Oberyn vs the Mountain? Blackwater was a different fight, altogether. Sansa knew what her fate would be, one way or the other, there. Live and get raped, or die and die at the hands of living people. Blackwater also didn't have waves where she'd hear all manner of battle scenes going on, and then, complete silence, leaving her to assume the absolute worst. See above re: stealthing ability and the breeze she caused. If Arya hadn't screamed and made herself known exactly when she did, NK might not have turned around while he was vulnerable, and if he hadn't done that, he might not have exposed his weak spot to her. This, so much. The Scouring was important because it was the war the Hobbits had to fight on their own, without intervention by Wizards and Elves. If Drogon and Rheagol are still alive when all is said and done, or if they are the greatest factor in the final war, that will be a surprise to me. I have got to put my faith in GRRM's wife's threat re: if he kills off Arya. Between her and Jon, I think Jon is the more likely to wind up with his eyes permanently closed. He, too, is a wraith, after all. eta: And, as pointed out below, Arya ought to be one of the God of Death's favorite people about now. The NK was robbing him. By killing him, Arya rested many, many names the GoD was counting on.