Zalyn

Rewatched the musical segments again today, and finally am ready to admit that I always lose it when Bobby comes out and stands up from his wheelchair in Wayward Son.

Interesting episode, great thread! (Lots of great quips in here, though "Septa Ratchet" may be my favorite) One thing I noticed that pinged my Bookwalker radar was the throne room scene with Tyrion, Jorah, and Daario. When I saw how they were positioned when Tyrion questioned their fitness to be consorts to Daenerys, I was reminded of "The Dragon has Three Heads" and the speculation on who the three dragon rider-consorts will be. Seems like visually it could have been a tease about it (whether it comes to pass, no clue). I was pleasantly surprised by the filming work done for Cersei'

The problem is that the writers put this whole situation in a bind - Dean can't die, he doesn't want to keep killing, and oh, now the Mark can't be removed without another host or The Darkness eats everything. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they set this up, but this constant upping of the ante for the Winchesters being put into impossible dilemmas is frustrating for me, and I'm an ethicist who usually enjoys working through these things.

For the whole scene with Death until he was dusted, I expected it to be a gambit for Death to assess how much Sam truly cared about Dean for ... something to resolve the issue. Like Dean had to try everything he could to threaten Sam and dissuade him, and if Sam passed the test, Death would pull some mojo that would split the Mark between them (so they could share the burden) or do something similar that would make it bearable. I would have greatly preferred for it to just be the three of them chowing down on Mexican food together until the Darkness Apocalypse hit; it would have been more

I'm not a big fan of them becoming gods, but that seems to be a likely thematic outcome of them botching up not just the world, but Creation entirely. If we'd left it at Season 5, then the world could still exist as it was. But after opening Purgatory, going beyond Alpha monsters to Leviathans, and now killing Death and unleashing the primordial Chaos, the world is entirely broken without some high-level force to patch things up. There is also the literary theme of patricide - you kill the father to replace him in the power structure, whether it's one's biological, figurative, or divine fat

Going with your time reset idea, SueB, I wonder if it would be possible for Sam and Dean to change their destiny. Wasn't Yellow Eyes the big instigator of everything? If they stopped him from feeding Baby!Sam demon blood and killing their mom, would that be sufficient? (I'm just coming off The Flash's finale, so I'm seeing parallels). The worst part of that reset for me as a fan would be that they never get to meet Castiel and Crowley (both of whom I'm convinced love Dean in a bizarre divine/infernal way). So we have a time reset and a complete nuke and pave of the world; those do see

I'm bitter that they killed Death for no significant reason; his scenes are always excellent and he's the best authority on How Creation Works we're going to get. If Dean had explained at some point that he was going to take over as Death, or that this would prevent him from killing anyone, it would make sense. But there was no reason given to us. Boo.

In dark of the S10 finale, my suspicion that the boys are going to end up entirely remaking the world, Neon Genesis Evangelion style, is buzzing again. Each season they dig deeper into the structure of the world's mythos, and now they've gone beyond God's work to the chaos before Creation. I mean, once you've killed Death, where else do you go? (He was potentially around before God, right?) At the point that they're beating back the Darkness, they are literally doing the work that God did in Genesis; what will separate them from being gods themselves? Or maybe they will play kingmakers and

In dark of the S10 finale (get it?), my suspicion that the boys are going to end up entirely remaking the world, Neon Genesis Evangelion style, is buzzing again. Each season they dig deeper into the structure of the world's mythos, and now they've gone beyond God's work to the chaos before Creation. I mean, once you've killed Death, where else do you go? (He was potentially around before God, right?) At the point that they're beating back the Darkness, they are literally doing the work that God did in Genesis; what will separate them from being gods themselves? Or maybe they will play king

This is what drove me bonkers about that scene. If Sansa had actually had some sort of agency or exercised some power of her own - to show that she is this "hardened woman" - then I would have accepted this scene as accomplishing something. I'd buy "seductive/charming Sansa" because that would show that she's taken Littlefinger's advice to heart and used information from Miranda (kind of how Daenerys started to take charge with Drogo). Alternatively, if Sansa just went total Stone-Cold Quiet while she was being raped, and we got a shot of her face, tight with stoicism and burning with resen

Welcome to the show! I'd recommend starting with the first eps as a way to get to know the characters and context better. I do agree, however, that Louis seemed a little OOC this ep. Maybe it's to show that we all have our weak spots where we'll indulge selfishness or feelings of inadequacy rather than do what is objectively better? I was totally expecting to see Jessica lampshade some version of "Oh, it's so nice to see you have a Chinese friend!" since I got asked several times by my parents why I didn't ever bring an Asian friend home. The "Chinese boy adopted by Jewish parents" wa

I feel that he is being as reasonably honest as one can be about such a life. Does the book reflect the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Probably not. But no memoir/autobiography will since it inevitably comes from a person's perspective. And even if the author later knew about someone's motivations for being a certain way, trying to include that could detract from an effective narrative. If any of us were to relate our entire childhood, we would each mess up on something, guaranteed. It's how memory works. Anyone who experiences prolonged domestic abuse and violence is going t

Ah, I just watched E07 so I see where the "weak stomach" things comes from. An easy explanation is that anyone would have trouble after eating as much Sriracha as Eddie did. Another more complex one might have to do with Chinese medicine; when I went to an herbalist/acupuncturist, he took my pulse and diagnosed the relative health/strength of various body systems, like respiratory and digestive (there are three common pulse points that correspond to these systems, I believe). I always was told that I had a weak respiratory system; this was reflected in my allergies and constant sinus infect

He wanted it at lunch in school, yes, but it was for social acceptance, not because it actually tasted good. And I'm pretty sure he wanted to like the gross mac 'n cheese in the book, but the body wasn't willing. :)

Everyone has something they can't/won't stomach; Julia Child hated cilantro (a common thing), for example. As a child, I couldn't handle ginger in chunks or black peppercorns, and I would gag on oatmeal. The mac and cheese story in the book was great to me because it made strange (as anthropologists say) what is seen as "normal" in America - for an outsider who had never had dairy (and is probably intolerant) and who isn't used to the slimy texture and chemically enhanced flavorings of box mac 'n cheese, it's entirely reasonable for it to be too much without hurting his food cred. Some migh