mac123x

My complaint isn't Book material vs Show material. My complaint is repetitiveness. 1. Off-screen Battle of the Camps: Robb broke the first siege of Riverrun. 2. Blackwater: 11th hour cavalry by Tywin / Loras. 3. Battle of the Wall: 13th hour cavalry by Stannis 4. Meereen: Dany, Dragons and Dothraki to the rescue. (I think this one was better executed, since the besieged at Meereen weren't on the verge of collapse)

I'm curious how this will be handled. The casting spoilers said something about a fat Northern lord who gives a stirring speech. Presumably that's Lord Manderly, but I always thought it was a "rally the northern houses before the battle" thing. That didn't happen, so if he gives a stirring speech it's going to look like he's just sucking up to the winner of the battle of the bastards. I'm kind of hoping for a "Words are wind" response from Jon when these Northern lords pledge fealty. "Thank you. Undoubtedly you'd be here bowing to Ramsey if he'd won. You wouldn't aid us when we needed it, but now you're happy to pledge loyalty when it costs you nothing. Well, guess again -- as a show of loyalty, each of you will provide 1000 troops, fully armed and provisioned, to man the abandoned castles on the Wall. You thought you'd be safe now that the battle is won, but, my lords, the real war has only begun, because the Night King is headed south with his army of the dead, and Winter Is Coming."

At least make him a lord. There should be a couple of empty castles lying about now -- I don't know if there are any remaining Karstarks or Umbers, but the Boltons are extinguished, so give him the Dreadfort. Though rename it. "Tormund Giantsbane, Lord of the Happyfort. And his wife, Lady Brienne."

Perusing the Unsullied thread, I see that the wildfire-in-Kings-Landing anvil landed with several of them. Thank you, @ElectricBoogaloo, for the exact words from the Quotes thread: Yara: Euron's offer is also an offer of marriage, you see. You won't get one without the other. Dany: And I imagine your offer is free of any marriage demands. Yara: I never demand, but I'm up for anything really. The non-verbal acting was pretty good. I didn’t see Yara flirting with Dany so much as trying to lighten the mood. Theon was being earnest, Tyrion was being cranky, so she made a joke. And though Emilia Clarke’s face is hard to read sometimes, I thought her reaction was basically, “yeah, that is kinda funny.” Could it have romantic implications? Sure. It could also lead to just a friendly relationship. Now what I’m really hoping for is, since “the dragon has three heads”, Yara gets to ride Rhaegal (at least once) and torch Euron. “Hi, my nuncle! I made a new friend. I don’t think ‘what is dead may never die’ applies in this situation, do you? Dracarys.” [fwoomp]

Tormund had a one-on-one battle with someone important but I couldn't tell who. Small Jon Umber, or Karstark Jr.? The dude he bit.

I was kind of hoping that would be the turning point where Karstark and/or Umber said "he's killing our men? Fuck that" and attacked Ramsey's forces from the side. Would have been a different take on things besides the cavalry riding to the rescue again some more.

I noticed that Tyrion dropped the foreshadowing anvil about the wildfire in Kings Landing pretty heavily. I'm a little surprised that Jaime had told him about it, since S3 Jaime-in-the-bathtub-with-Brienne seemed like he'd never told anyone.

I loved that! V&R do look at least as big as Drogon was back at the Pit of Daznak, so hopefully they're rideable. Dany needs a saddle, stat, because Drogon's neck is getting too big for her to straddle and those spines have got to be irritating.

Once, just once, I'd like to see he protagonists execute they're own cunning plan and get one up on the villains, rather than charging headlong into an obvious trap and have to be rescued by an outside force. Don't get me wrong, I was cheering when I heard a very soft, almost lost in the background, trumpet signaling the arrival of the Vale forces. Loved loved loved the Meereen stuff this week, especially the second scene with all the banter between Dany Tyrion and the squids. That was well written dialog.

I wondered why Tyrion was affecting a bad Scottish accent for the Stark character, despite the Starks being portrayed with Northern England accents not Scots. Of course, when one has to explain the joke, that's the definition of "not funny".

It took me a while to figure out what they were going for in that scene. I too appreciate the human moments (like when Brienne told Sansa that Arya wasn’t dressed like a lady and Sansa chuckled a bit) but this one didn’t work. What was supposed to happen: 1. Grey Worm says he doesn’t know any jokes. 2. Tyrion tells a funny joke, but it falls flat because it’s based on Westerosi stereotypes and Missandei and Grey Worm don’t have the context. 3. Missandei tells a bad joke and it falls flat because it’s a bad joke. Grey Worm tells her it's the worst joke he's ever heard. 4. Grey Worm says that his initial “I don’t know any jokes” was a joke. The viewers laugh. What actually happened: 1. Grey Worm says he doesn’t know any jokes. 2. Tyrion told a bad joke. It fell flat with Missandei and Grey Worm because they don’t have the context. It fell flat with the viewers because it didn’t really make sense. (The punchline was that the Stark yelled at the fly to spit out any ale it had drunk, I guess because he wanted to drink it himself, but since the Starks haven’t been portrayed as particularly boozy, it didn’t make a lot of sense. Maybe I’m misinterpreting the punch line. Anyone have a better read on it?) 3. Missandei tells a bad joke and it falls flat because it’s a bad joke. 4. Grey Worm says that his initial “I don’t know any jokes” was a joke. No one laughs because he only has one acting mode: “earnestly uptight”. Also, he came across as almost berating when he told Missandei that her joke was bad.

I read the Aeron chapter. I was particularly grossed out by the thought of someone standing in seawater for days and the description of the results. The part that really bugged me is GRRM is making Euron into a Villain Sue. Antagonists who have everything go right for them are boring.

I finally got around to reading Arianne 2. It was mildly interesting, but after I finished all I could think was "just publish the fucking book already." It seems like these teaser chapters are basically in the same vein as JK Rowling coming out with allegedly interesting bits of info that the fans want to know (Luna Lovegood married X! etc.). But, as stupid as this drivel is from JKR, at least she had the decency to finish her books first. I think I'll let dinner digest for a bit before trying that Aeron chapter; it sounds horrific.

I suppose you could fudge it a little by saying Arya's events in 6.08 occurred (chronologically) days or weeks before the capture of Riverrun, and moving an army from Riverrun to the Twins is a slow process so took them several off-screen weeks to get there for the party. Alternatively, Arya used one of Littlefinger's brothel stargates to go from Braavos to the Inn at the Crossroads instantaneously, and borrowed a horse (and some recipes) from Hotpie.

It wasn't just the Freys who captured Riverrun after Eddie surrendered -- it was a Lannister army too. Edmure is just as likely to be a captive of the Lannisters. Jaime promised him that he'd have a comfortable life with his wife, and his son would be raised to become a knight. The alternative was death for everyone inside the castle. He took a calculated risk that the Kingslayer would actually keep his word. The dialog in the books is more extended (with Jaime basically channeling his father, describing how he'd do to Riverrun what Tywin did to Castamere), but I think the show did an adequate job of showing the options Jaime gave Edmure. 1. She was bleeding when she arrived at Lady Crane's place, and was still wincing during their soup dialog. Maybe Lady Crane gave her enough heroin milk of the poppy to knock her out for an extended period of time, but it only seemed a day, maybe two at most. 3. the preceeding episode had her retrieve her sword and hunker down in a defensible position. She knew full well that the FM would come after her ("a girl has been given a second chance. There is no third.") I suppose it could be justified as "she was ready for an attack, then when it didn't materialize she decided to find a ship home" but the editing didn't convey much passage of time between the end of 6.06 and her first scene in 6.07. 5. There was wet blood on the floor and dripping from the Waif's disembodied face. That had to have happened within hours of Arya killing her.

I fear you are correct. They keep going to that well, since the Battle of Blackwater Bay and the siege of the Wall ended with surprise attacks from outside groups. It's reminding me of that George Lucas quote about the prequels: "It's like poetry; it rhymes. Each stanza rhymes with the previous one. hopefully it'll work." [spoilers = it didn't]. These last minute rescues are getting repetitive. Hopefully they'll avoid that in Meereen, with Dany and the Dragons laying waste to the Harpy fleet, or at least significantly damaging it so that they back off. Then have Yara and Theon arrive for the mop-up, and to capture some ships that Dany will need for getting to Westeros.

And so easy to fix! Last week, Arya could have realized at the last moment that the old lady was actually the Waif. She ducks, the Waif cuts her right arm (since Arya is a leftie), then she jumps in the canal. Same exact outcome, same trip to Lady Crane to get patched up, but a much more believable action sequence this week. The only thing lost is one week between last episode and this one where people might speculate "oh noes, is Arya going to die?" which no one (npi) actually thought would happen.

Because we're so darn civilized. Also, my torches and pitchfork are at the repair shop.

From the books at least, we know Littlefinger (or his minions) are good at convincing people to do things even though the results are not in their own best interests. Marrilion confessed to killing Lysa even though it meant his life. Jeyne Poole was convinced to pretend to be Arya. Though I would buy that the Faith wouldn't fall for an obviously-tortured recantation. Loras's trial might be mooted by the heavily foreshadowed wildfire asplosion in the future.

I'm still hanging on to an unexplained cryptic comment from Littlefinger to Olenna back in season 5 -- he said he'd give her the same gift he gave Cercei, a handsome young man. I always assumed that was Olyvar, the male prostitute that Loras was banging. He'll show up at Loras's trial and recant his testimony, thus freeing Loras. No idea what the potion was, but the blond guy was the Waif in disguise. Lady Crane was getting the potion for some reason, then turned around and was surprised to see the blond guy (the fellow mummer who plays Joffrey I think).

Season 3, Jaime and Brienne in the bath: Jaime told Brienne that Mad King Aerys hid caches of wild fire all over the city. In the books, the head Alchemist told Tyrion that they were still finding those caches occasionally. Earlier this season, one of Bran's speed-visions included an explosion of wildfire somewhere inside a building. That was probably a future vision since 1) Aerys died before he could set any of his off and 2) the wildfire explosion Tyrion caused was out in Blackwater Bay.

Some other questions: 1. What was Lady Crane using a stool to grab off the top shelf? It looked like a potion / poison vial or something, and she seemed to have a "this is important" look about her. I guess it isn't relevant since we're leaving Braavos behind never to be seen again hallelujah. 2. Cercei and Qyburn had a cryptic conversation about a rumor being true. I think the speculation on how her trial will end just got confirmed. 3. What was Varys's secret mission? "We need friends in Westeros, and we need ships." The two of those together sound like he's going to the Iron Islands, but narratively that doesn't make sense because Yara and Theon and Euron are already headed (or soon to be headed) to Meereen. I know Varys doesn't know that, but the writers do, and it doesn't seem like they'd send him off on a wild goose chase with so few episodes left. (GRRM would definitely send him on a wild goose chase because he's got 3-17k pages left to write).

I'm pretty sure he isn't. At least not completely destroying that fleet, since they need to leave something for Yara and Theon to do. I will admit I clapped like a little kid when I realized that Drogon landing was what caused the pyramid to shake so much, considering he's the size of a small passenger jet. I did wonder where Dany found a change of clothes. I also wondered when Lancel became a brunette. I guess the High Septon doesn't let him bleach his hair any more? Repurposing Jaime's "with a trebuchet" speech was kind of lame and awful ("I have to get back to Cercei!") but I guess it worked. All those theories about Arya not being Arya, or her faking her death with mummer tricks -- nope! She was just an idiot last episode. I did like that they used her blindness-training as the reason she was able to beat the Waif. And it's nice that she's headed back to Westeros after two seasons of wheel spinning.

[Bold added] So far we've seen that the best weapon against reanimated corpses is fire, the one thing that Sandor Clegane is afraid of. So he'll have to overcome his fear in order to beat Frankengregor, and at the same time get revenge for what Gregor did to him as a child.

So, an homage to The Graduate? I guess IMK never watched through the credits, because that is not a happy ending. The actors both have "I may have just made a horrible mistake" looks on their faces.