Misplaced

The series just finished here in the UK on Amazon Prime and wow, what a mess. Dear Writers and Producers of The Sleep Stand 2020: 1. Please re-cut all episodes and re-release in chronological order ... in medias res worked for Vergil but ya know, it didn't work here. Why do I care about any of these people? Where is their struggle and/or character development if you START the series in Boulder? 2. Please add back all the film on the cutting-room floor where Ray isn't a needy, weepy, completely insignificant character. 3. The Dread Pirate Nick, really? Please return meaning to his character, like, you know, when he frantically tries to find the bomb and sacrifices himself for everyone else or when he grows into Tom's protector and best friend. 4. "One will fall by the way" is among the most powerful lines in the book (and the earlier series) and you decided to ... change it. Stu tasting gun oil when Harold dies is one of most powerful moments in the book (and the earlier series) and you decided to ... cut it. Larry's twins are one (two?) of the most powerful images of life continuing after The Stand and you decided to ... well, you just elimated that entire storyline which was ALSO Larry's path to becoming a 'nice guy'. His relationship with Joe did not fill that void. 5. Why does Amber Heard ... exist. And what's with that outtake from that middling film Ouija Board to explain Nadine breaking bad. 6. Trashcan Man, dear god. Who made that decision? Why on earth is he roaming around dressed in a spare costume from a bad BDSM p0rn film? LIke, I don't NEED to see this guy's dirty knickers to know he's nuts. What even is he. AND you blew his plotline! Flagg didn't order him to get the nuke, he did it out of love! Arrrgghhhh 7. Why oh why oh why did you pretend that every action in The Stand is without purpose??? Stu falls by the way so that he can bear witness to the destruction of Vegas. Tom is sent to Vegas so that he can save Stu. Nick dies so that he can appear to Tom and give him the antibiotics Stu needs to live, but of course you decided to eliminate those scenes altogether making Nick's death even MORE pointless ('yeah Tom saved my life. Oh and Kojak too. Now I'm gonna do some Texas line-dancing, on the leg that I broke a couple months back.'). Again, producers, you mucked this one up: the group was sent to *bring everyone in Vegas together in the same place* so Flagg (and they) would all die in the explosion. Glen's death at Flagg's hands gives Larry and Ralph/Ray the strength they need to Fear No Evil. Flagg orders all of Vegas to attend the spectacle and then TCM pops up with his brand new nuclear friend and the Hand Of God etc etc etc. But in this version, everyone is in the Party Palace all night every night, so ...yeah, makes no sense. Ugh. It's one of my favorite books because it's absolutely terrifying but this mess is like cold underdone scrambled eggs. No emotion in it.

Honestly, I couldn't stop thinking about the Porgs from The Last Jedi. (No, you cannot unsee that.)

Oh and PS - I got the giggles when Tyrion found Jaime’s hand: I kept expecting Jaime to leap up a la Monty Python with “I’m not dead yet! I’m not dead yet!” which is wholly unfair to Peter D’s acting ability.

Again probably in a minority, but I thought it was a good ending. I’m not ready to say I loved it because it is the END of GoT which kinda bums me out .... but I liked it a lot. There were “fitting” ends: Arya exploring the West — as she said she would do, to Lady Crane back in Season 6, so as expected. Jon “up North”, where he grew into himself over the first five seasons, ranging beyond the Wall into the True North. And Ghost! Yay! It’s as if Jon found his family again, after he was rudely torn from his Northishness after finding out he is a Targaryean. Sansa as QITN and the North as independent doesn’t surprise me in the least. I’ve said elsewhere that I think GRRM is on the Scottish Independence train, so an independent North seems totally natural to me and I would guess that is indeed GRRM’s ending. Red-headed Queen and all (though I believe Mary Queen of Scots was actually a blonde). I was pleasantly surprised that Tyrion suggested Bran the Broken become King, although the Five-Good-Emperors scenario in hindsight seems very GRRM — now the Seven-oops-Six Kingdoms are the Roman Empire. None of the Five Good Emperors had male children and each was adopted by the former Good Emperor; the system lasted nearly 100 years so not all bad .... and worth noting the whole system went to hell when Marcus Aurelius named his son as his successor. So, wheel broken, I guess? One scene that particularly struck me = Jon going to see Tyrion in his cell. There was SO much in that scene reflecting the Jon-and-Mance-Ryder-cell-scene in 5.01. Death by fire predicted for both Tyrion and Mance for taking a stance; Jon having to make a decision in each case that puts his own safety at risk, and making that decision regardless. Jon as Azor Ahai, stabbing the woman he loved through the heart? Lots more to think about, including that incredible score. But those are my first thoughts, and I freely admit I got a *little* weepy, even.

Dothraki horse, I think - no saddle. Don't the Dothraki ride without saddles or have I misremembered that?

I thought it was very Edgar Allan Poe-ish myself (apologies for the length but's sooo appropriate): [Stanza III] Hear the loud alarum bells -- Brazen bells ! What tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells ! In the startled ear of night How they scream out their affright ! Too much horrified to speak, They can only shriek, shriek, Out of tune, In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire, In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire, Leaping higher, higher, higher, With a desperate desire, And a resolute endeavor Now -- now to sit or never, By the side of the pale-faced moon. Oh, the bells, bells, bells ! What a tale their terror tells Of Despair ! How they clang, and clash, and roar ! What a horror they outpour On the bosom of the palpitating air ! Yet the ear, it fully knows, By the twanging, And the clanging, How the danger ebbs and flows ; Yet, the ear distinctly tells, In the jangling, And the wrangling, How the danger sinks and swells, By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells -- Of the bells -- Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells -- In the clamour and the clangour of the bells !

And another thought: Varys was executed on the clifftop at Dragonstone, the same place where Melisandre said to him last season - "Oh I will return, dear Spider, one last time. I have to die in this strange country - just like you." Fabulous stuff.

Well. I'm thinking back on "justice and compassion" - we saw that with Hizdar Lo Boring or whatever his name was in Meereen (when he asked to take his father down from the cross and bury him), and we saw it with Jorah (he lied, she banished him, etc etc). But I'm not sure we've seen it elsewhere? Genuine question. One thing I found really compelling was the comparison of the execution scene in Season 6.09 when she returns to Meereen and meets with the representatives of the Masters -- she has them executed (and only 2!) with Greyworm's knife -- with the later executions (Tarleys, Varys) by dragonfire. Oh! And the execution of Mossador in Season 5, also via blade. I don't know, it's like once she starts playing with dragonfire, she starts to creep into Crazytown. At least that's how it appears to me.

I have a slightly different take on that scene - as I think she's already snapped at that point and has travelled down the garden path. I think the choice she gives between love and fear is a choice she's giving TO JON. Love me, or fear me. I'll have to confirm that on second watch, but that's how I read it now anyway.

I may be in the minority but I loved it. LOVED it. Some of the many, many things I loved: When Tyrion comes to Dany to 'fess up about Varys, towards the end of that scene, she's looking out the window and we hear faintly the "Dracarys" music (the cello riff). THAT is the point where I was like, huh, she's at Dragonstone and she's burned people and wait who else burned people oh! Dragonstone! Stannis and Melisandre and wait Cersei too and why did I ever think she wasn't going to go full-on Mad Queen? She burns people! D'oh. Tyrion hugging Jaime: mirror image of Arya hugging Jon in the Godswood at Winterfell. Same pose, other shoulder, same subject (family). Arya saying farewell to the Hound: echoes Bran saying farewell to Theon. CleganeBowl! Also I cheered when Qyburn got his. Yeah ok so I do wish the Cersei-Jaime death scene had been a little less treacly. So Dany is the Big Bad ... song of ice and fire. Whoop. Also, utterly gorgeous music (as always). More to come after my second watch.

I'm convinced it isn't real. Notice that every time Tyrion uses the "You have something to live for!" argument, Cersei turns around and does Whatever Thing is opposite to what Tyrion is saying. i.e. She doesn't have something to live for. Instead

(Random episode observation: someone posted this in the Media thread - I checked the ep on my DVR and yes indeedy it is there!) ETA: For The Cup

Oh and while I'm at it: total throwback to Arya and Gendry in Season 3, when Gendry tells Arya that he's staying with the Brotherhood. Gendry says "I never had a family." Arya's (great) response, "*I* can be your family." Gendry: "But you wouldn't be my family. You would be my lady." I re-watched that season 3 episode before Season 8 premiered and totally called this dialogue as marriage foreshadowing. Which of course happens when Gendry asks Arya to be his lady! And she says "I'm not a lady." Genius. Maisie Williams, just genius. Great great scene.

As I recall, it was Arya who said in the Godswood “We are the last of the Starks.” Which makes sense - Bran is Memory and not likely to have little memories, I can’t really see Sansa agreeing to marry and bear children given what she’s been through and we saw Arya reject that possibility with Gendry. So I don’t think the title is sexist. I went into this episode with no expectations but I have to say, I felt a steadily increasing sense of dread and tension throughout .... I wonder if that’s because after 23 years, I’ll finally know who sits on the Iron Throne? Finally a thought on the North. I’ve always thought the KL-North divide is an intentional recreation of the rUk-Scotland independence movement, in part maybe because Martin is close friends with Diana Gabaldon (of Outlander game) and if you even mildly peruse those books you’ll see she is very much in favor of an independent Scotland. So for me, the Sansa-Dany divide is a Westminster-Holyrood divide, as in, ain’t no way that relationship is gonna be friendly. I think Martin wants an independent North and that is what Sansa is all about.

Ooops never mind, forgot / blocked out of my mind that whole Wight Hunt storyline. Although the narrative implications are making my head ache if