BlackberryJam

Oh and Linda is disgusting. I do judge George for the friends he keeps.

Doran, Ellaria, Snakes all could have stolen Myrcella's necklace. But that doesn't mean any of them sent it to Cersei. My thought was Ellaria stole it, planning to send it to Cersei with Myrcella's hair or finger or something. So when Jaime says the necklace was received she's all, "WTF I didn't send it yet!"

Can we blame Bran for everything? I'm sure those idiot Sand Snakes are Bran's fault.

Oh, I think the prophecy is GRRM's retcon because he needed a reason for Cersei to be so fucking horrible. Personally? Don't care about it. Don't care about Cersei's reasoning from it. I think her Tyrion hatred is just fine with out it. I think her reasons to hate Robert are loud and clear. I think her descent into madness after years of repressed anger and frustration is a good enough story on it's own without some stupid prophecy to prop it up.

Weiss clearly says in the Inside bit that when GRRM told them that Shireen gets sacrificed, they thought it was horrible. Of course they aren't going to give you the full details of how it happens in the books. They are always very kind to George on that front and have never once said "Yeah, well, this part of the story sucks, so we cut it." My thought is that the seige of Winterfell is going poorly, Stannis sends for Shireen and flambes her once she arrives. It's the show that has woobified Stannis for dramatic purposes. I have no problem believing dickwad asshole book Stannis would burn his daughter. They say nothing about the viewers "just not getting it." Weiss gets a little philosophical in an EW interview about Shireen, but, yeah, says absolutely nothing like that.

Just want to throw in that we have seen Dany sacrifice a child, or a potential child. She saw it as a child though, when she sacrifice RhaegoFetus to bring back Drogo and it failed miserably. So Dany now choosing Drogon over her guard is ...trying something new? Not sure how to interpret it. But yeah, Dany and Stannis are parallel here.

D&D know endgame. D&D know the fates of all the major characters. Sansa is a major character. D&D have decided the Vale story is expendable. Therefore it is a reasonable assumption that the Vale story is not particularly vital to endgame. And it bored the crap out of me. Every scene with Sansa, and she will be in nine of the ten episodes this season,has been talked apart, parsed, made into gifs, argued ad nauseum. So well...yeah it has been scintillating. One scene with Sansa made the message boards explode. The newly released chapter was well-received because people are begging for anything from Winds, but after a read, and a re-read, it was pretty much panned. It's very Harlequin romance novel, Barbara Cartland with an edge. It's certainly not George's worst chapter and there are some that are just too painful for words, but it wasn't fascinating text.

I think you are misquoting and mischaracterizing. My recollection is that D&D wanted to do THIS STORY which is not the same as the scene. And the story is very much about redemption and choices for Theon and it seems to me Theon is going to be a pretty important part of endgame, whether it's through killing someone, finding someone, sacrificing himself, whatever. Theon's actions matter. Theon gets to where he can break from Ramsay via the Jeyne Poole story. Sansa mincing around the Vale and eating lemoncakes (and whatever happens with Harry the Ass, Baelish creeping on her, etc) gets her to a certain place, but it's boring as fuck and none of those other people matter. Putting Sansa in the Jeyne Poole role gets Sansa to that same place in a much more dramatic fashion and gets Theon where he needs to be as well. And let's not forget, Sophie Turner kind of loves this story. It's what actors like, horrible, traumatic and dramatic scenes. It's what they want to do. If given the choice between giggling with a nonentity like Myranda Royce or needling Ramsay only to be devastated, she's choosing the latter. And the writers chose the latter as well. It's more dramatic and intriguing for the viewers and the goal of good writing is to make the reader/viewer feel. The Sansa scenes were a complete success on that front.

Why would you think you're not supposed to take that from the scene? It seemed like they have been smacking us over the head with Dany's love of fire and love of dragons. Things I was not supposed to take from the scene are my random thoughts like: 1. I bet Drogon's breath is foul. I'm shocked Dany didn't hurl from it. 2. Hizdahr. We hardly knew ye, and I bet your wang is way smaller than Jorah's anyway. 3. Why is Dany wearing such hideous brown boots with that white dress? Such a mistake. 4. I'm shocked Emilia's jankass wig didn't burst into flames. Those are things we are not supposed to think. But the stuff about Dany's latent pyro, her choices as queen, all of that is really there in the plot.

No one is out there going, "You know what we need? MORE RAPE!" This is much more a case of, "We have this important story for Theon and Ramsay and Sansa is going to end up X, but her story in the Vale and the Vale lords isn't that relevant to endgame. Let's combine those two stories so that the brutality of Ramsay really hits the viewer and we can bring Theon to where he needs to be for endgame as well and it does nothing to alter Sansa's trajectory. This is going to be such a gutpunch to the viewers and really make them feel and rage and hurt and that's important for our television show and the series, like Ned's beheading, and the Red Wedding. So let's do it." GRRM wants every single one of his useless characters to be in the series. Why wouldn't he? He's the author. He created those characters. He loves them. They are his children. I write and when I have my work edited and the editor suggests a removal or a big change, my instinct is "My words! My precious words! How can you change them? NO no NooOOOoooO" in full on Darth Vader voice at the end. But my work is better for those changes and edits.

Book Stannis is a cold fish asshole who is down with burning people. Look, I like him. He's funny. He is the only one who answered the Night's Watch call. But he is fine with BURNING HUMAN BEINGS. Alive. Torching them. Watching them scream. At least the show humanized him some from the rigid dickwad he is in the books. Now yes, he's a badass rigid dickwad, but still a dickwad. Who is fine with burning human beings. Like he wouldn't have torched his enemies if he'd won at the Blackwater. Stannis was never some warm fuzzy grumpy bear who would be the bestest king ever. He burned people. Alive. And watched. All of the contenders for the throne kind of suck. But that's the point. You are making a choice between the least shitty ruler. Stannis was just a cut above Joffrey but only because Joffrey hadn't come into his full power and had Tywin around. Stannis is funnier though and he has Davos, who is wonderful. Not that he didn't cut off Davos' fingers and throw him in jail though. Because that's how Stannis is.

Seriously, the Sansa rape rage went far far past the Craster rage. Like over the deep end past, like death threats to D&D past. Websites saying they would no longer cover the show past. And the books are 400x (actual stat from a reader who counted) more rapey than the show, but the rape of Sansa hit so many buttons with so many people. It was like Craster rage on multiple steroids. Why? It's a good question and one we should all ask ourselves.

Sorry but no. The trope subverted is the parent unwilling to sacrifice their child. And GRRM loves tropes and only subverts when convenient

So...Weiss knowing how to manipulate an audience into caring more about the death of a particular character is just him being a good writer? Right? Because the goal of a writer is to make the audience feel what you want them to feel. The audience was supposed to feel horrible about this. So they did a good job. As to him asking the larger moral question about why the death of one character we know matters more the 5,000 we never met, well, good fucking question. Isn't that the question about the rape of Sansa v. the rape of Craster's wives? "It's not as awful because we didn't know them." I'm with Weiss on this one. I think it's a good question and one that should cause some introspection, whichever way it comes out for each of us.

It's Shireen, not Shirleen. Not sure if you're having an autocorrect issue there. But yes, he killed his daughter. So if you think he doesn't believe in the LoL, why did he do it? Have we seen or read anything that makes us think he likes the smell of burning flesh? That he just burns people for kicks? The kinds of things Ramsay would do? What do you think his motivation was? Because I don't get it. Fuck. I can't believe I'm defending an asshole like Stannis, but damn. He is no Ramsay. He is no Roose. He is no Joffrey. He is no Melisandre.

Seriously? Stannis made a terrible decision, which he did not do with glee, to kill a child in order to win a war. What a shitty and terrible choice to make, but really? REALLY? Ramsay kills and tortures because HE LIKES IT. Roose talks about rape the way he discusses the weather. Melisandre has always been a batshit crazy religious fanatic. And Stannis, kills a child to win a war (which is how he sees it right or wrong) is in the same sentence with those other three? I never particularly liked Stannis except for his hilarious schoolmarm ways, but fuck. REALLY? How often in television and movies do we hear how the hero's decision to save one person, child, cat, dog, whatever, reverberates into a massive war that kills hundreds of thousands? If this works, if this is the absolutely only way to save the North, all of the small folk, all of the children and the precious pretty princess Sansa, is anyone going to argue that Stannis is on Ramsay level? If I'm Stannis and I'm at the top of a cliff and I can either kill Shireen or save the rest of Westeros, children included, Shireen is going. Sorry honey. I cannot cope with the guilt of letting thousands die, not that I'd be good with killing my own child, but yeah, that's the choice I'd make. It wouldn't make me Ramsay Fucking Bolton.

Well, I must have a cold dead heart because Shireen was no where near as moving as the woman being stabbed in the gut repeatedly by a Harpy. And that was no where near as disturbing as watching Hannibal that makes dead bodies works of beautiful art. I also don't think Stannis is the worst thing evah! Honestly, this is who he has always been, just taking a step further along the same path. I supposed because so many of us are now Unsullied, this seems so horrible, but well, Ned's beheading was pretty shocking, the Red Wedding, etc etc. This was objectively no more horrible than those things, we were just unprepared. (Not gonna lie. Saw the leaks and was totally prepared, but not even shocked because this has been foreshadowed pretty hard. For shock value, Red Wedding totally topped it.) As to the battle of Winterfell, seems to me Stannis loses, but survives. That would be why in the books he contacts Mel to sacrifice Shireen, who he does not show affection for in the books. As to people who are done with the show, I fully understand that sometimes, you just can't take it. At the same time, it can't be much of a surprise considering the horrific acts in the pilot. But yeah, for some, enough is enough. I kind of enjoyed Hizzie and Daario's measuring contest only to have Jorah whip his out and beat them both. Totally skeeved by Meryn and wanted to shove a sock in Mace's cakehole. I can almost see what they are trying to do with Dorne, but I think it's really been shortchanged by the pacing and lack of time. I can see why Doran would want Trystane near the Throne, so he can kill Tommen, crown Myrcella and become King himself. It's a risky play, but so many things are risky.

Sansa grabbed a small auger, which is a carpentry tool for boring (heh) holes. Kind of like a badass corkscrew.

I thought they were casting Randall Tarly partially so Heartsbane (another Valyrian steel sword) could come into play. Sure, there is plenty of other story there, but a Tarly at the Wall with a white walker killing sword? I'm down with it.

My original post was to what real crimes she had committed. Why she is dislikable is a totally different story. Mostly I dislike her because I think LH's acting is shit and she always looks bored. Cannot stand LH, although she was great in the floor liking scene. Every single other scene I have seen her in sucks. Stannis, let's see. Stannis came to the NW's with a bad ass army to rescue them. That gets him points. He's going to die a hero's death. Oh and he had a touching scene with his daughter which wasn't loaded with lies, innuendo and a gross feeling that he was going to kiss her. Yep. Stannis totally wins over Cersei on the parenting front. Did he burn people? Yep. Create a murdering smoke baby? Totally. But he is not astoundingly smug and boring like Cersei. The Sand Snakes are horrific and I am totally down with Arya dying, and dying soon. If I have to watch her sweep another floor, I'd be willing to off her myself. So, I get that you'd like Cersei to be a better character. Unfortunately, she isn't. I personally think GRRM hates her as a character and that's why she comes off so poorly.

Can we accuse Jon of having gonad freeze when he looked at the wights and imagined Ygritte? Hmmm?

Watchers has up some location news. Two new places in Spain.

I read something somewhere about the possibility of Sansa being pregnant and raising a child she doesn't want paralleling Cat having to raise Jon. It's an idea and makes the thought of a baby Bolton a little more exciting. Brienne and Pod help Sansa escape and are hunting for Rickon and Bran and Sansa progresses in her pregnancy. She eventually gives birth under a weirwood tree in the snow and Bran communicates with her through the tree?

I'm not big on the cult of Jon Snow, so I'd be down with him dying. I don't think he will die, mind you, but I wouldn't care if he did. There are characters who are going to make it through from the pilot through the finale, although they might die in the finale. I think Jon is one who makes it all the way. If I were a betting person, and I'll be honest, I am, I'd say this: Tyrion survives. Sansa survives. Bran is a tree. Rickon survives. My season 6&7 death predictions: Dany dies in the finale. Cersei goes out in the burning of KL, which she instigates. Arya dies after killing someone important on her list. Theon sacrifices himself for Sansa. Jorah sacrifices himself for Dany. Jaime sacrifices himself for the realm (Brienne). Tommen is so so dead. Myrcella dies too. Have I hit all the living characters from the pilot? Just to clarify more, I think Tommen, Jorah and Arya all die in S6. Myrcella early in S7. Cersei mid S7, Jaime and Theon in the episode before the last. Dany is the big dramatic finale death.

From what I hear? Cersei is vastly unpopular, but Jaime is funny and he saved Brienne, who is much loved. If we are counting up the positive character moments in screen, we have all Jaime's funny lines with Brienne, saving Brienne from rape, jumping into a bearpit for Brienne, giving Oathkeeper to Brienne, standing up to Tywin to save Tyrion, his scenes in the cells with Tyrion and setting Tyrion free. Positive character moment with Cersei ... I'm still thinking. Tyrion was the amusing one their scenes together. She is never funny or witty. She never just does something kind for another character. Mostly she's annoyed, she's cranky, she's raging, she's arguing, she's plotting, she's manipulating. Sure, we can feel pity for her in some scenes, particularly the scene with Robert when he smacks her, but positive, likable character moments? Not really.