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

Oh! And one other thing I noticed. Jon Snow has only one spoken line in this episode: "The Night King is coooming." Cue Ned Stark!

Soooo this was sort of my thing on putting everyone down in the crypts in the first place ("they're safe! the crypts are safe, don't worry!")...I think all the dead-raising Jon Et Al have seen are the newly-dead. Every warning the NW receives beyond the wall is "burn the bodies before dark", the dead in Wall battles are burned before dark, Hardhome dead were raised just after dying, etc etc etc. So I'm genuinely wondering if Team Alive supposed the Dead Raising Rule = the Night King can only raise "fresh" dead. It's like Amazon Fresh, but different. Speculative question now that I'm considering further:

Having just watched it again, a few random thoughts: 1. Sam - aside from being reduced to a blubbering wreck, he did actually kill alotta wights. He knifed one right before he was jumped / Edd saved him / Edd died, he killed a bunch on the walls and when Jon ran past him towards the end, he was weeping while slaying left and right with his dragonglass. So I'm giving him a little leeway. 2. Sansa in the crypts: I *completely* missed, first time round, the bit where the Alive of Winterfell are bashing on the door to the crypts screaming "Open the door! Open the door!" while the AoTD is tearing them apart. Amazing scene. Throwback to "Hold the door" of course and watch the emotions across Sansa's face. 3. Sansa and Tyrion in the crypt - I am pretty sure Tyrion whipped out his own dragonglass knife before kissing Sansa's hand - and then it looked like they were going to lead people out of the crypts by trying to kill the crawling dead with their knives. Also I thought that was Maester Lewin lurching around (as someone said upthread), ewww. 4. I think the first wight to attack Dany/Jorah after the wights were shaken off Drogon (he was one of the shaken-off-wights) was The Bald Dude wilding from Hardhome? 5. Melisandre walking out into the snow at the end - the music there is a variation on "Forgive Me", Season 5, which is the theme behind Stannis betraying Shireen / Shireen walking to the pyre. Both are walking between two sides of an army, one alive and one dead. Oh I do love this episode.

I'm pretty sure that last long stretch of music leading to Dead!NK was Variations On a Theme: Light of the Seven, from Season 6 (Sept of Baelor goes boom). It was extraordinary. I love the musical parallel to the destruction of generations of families and history ... particularly because the Sept of Baelor destruction music is lyrical and delicate but the actions are completely horrific and born out of Cersei's narcissism, but the Death of the NK music is not at all delicate and somewhat jarring, whereas the actions are born out of self-sacrifice for the larger good. Eh, I hope that makes sense!

My speculation is that A Man

Hmmmm I have always seen Jon Snow as the same kind of (superlative) leader as Hazel in Richard Adams’ *Watership Down*. Yeah I know bunnies but bear (or indeed bunny) with me here. Hazel is the leader not because he’s the smartest (that’s Blackberry) or because he sees into the future (that’s Fiver) or because he’s the biggest (Bigwig) or even the bravest (arguably Captain Holly) but because he knows how to speak to the strengths in each person and drive the collective forward, because he forces his tribe to act as one by acting himself. He doesn’t have to carry out the Great Actions to be Chief Rabbit - he inspires loyalty in part by being willing to risk his own neck, and that is ultimately why he is Chief Rabbit. Yeah ok I just re-read WD but that logic makes sense to me. In short, Jon gets sh7t done one way or another.

Wowsers what an episode. The whole entire 100% all-around Arya mini-arc was just incredible — I was on the edge of my seat — and I fully admit I completely missed “blue eyes” in her Fireside Chat with Mel. But jebebus for Arya’s whole storyline, including the callbacks to last ep’s meeting with the Hound on the battlements (“I fought for you”) and the Hound charging in and Arya being terrified (see 01.09) and the knife drop from her left hand to her right? That is a direct callback to some episode where someone killed someone else and I can’t remember what or who. Ahhhhh I thought it was all Arya perfection. Oh Lyanna...I was like “Nooooooooooo!” I do wonder if the point is to kill off all the Houses? We’ve now lost Mormont, Tarley (but for Sam who I think is destined to be a Maester so Little Sam takes over?), Tyrell, Lannister (but for Cersei’s pregnancy , Frey, Tully? is Edmure still alive? and Umber? Edd, nooooooo. I knew it would be either Edd or Tormund and it looked to me like a great hairy red beard was wagging away on the rooftops at the end. Pod????

Wow, the writers are not holding Dany's punches. I agree with posters upthread that we're being led to look at her sideways. Like, are you a tyrant or what? One recurring theme I noticed = Dany being weirdly surprised at the deep&abiding loyalty among the Starks and their supporters. The way Sansa accepted Brienne's testimony without hesitation and backed Jaime on Brienne's word. The way Theon deliberately turned to Sansa and said he had come to fight for her, after Dany asked him why he wasn't in the Iron Islands. Jaime and Theon weren't exactly friends to the Starks in the past ... and Dany's own questioning of Tyrion's ability stands in real counterpoint to the Starks' acceptance of Jaime and Theon, imo. There's something here about different types of loyalty but I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe it's that Brienne and Theon and the NW and Sam etc etc are loyal to the Starks even when the Starks are basically powerless, and this concept is new to Dany? I'm not sure. Arya has a double-ended Darth-Maul dragonglasssabre! Anyway fantabulous episode. Next week is going to be pure carnage.

Yup it sorta looked like a bayonet, but the only reason you'd need a bayonet is if you had a rifle. No sense in putting a bayonet knife on a .... sword. I wondered if it wasn't some crazy kind of flechette "gun" that could fire dragonglass flechettes. On the other hand I also wondered if it wasn't some kind of Darth Maul double-ended lightsabre thingy, so she could screw a dragonglass knife onto the end of her Valerian steel knife. TL;DR - dunno but it's probably gonna be cool.

Oh, sigh, the interwebs are such an imperfect form of communication, especially when it comes to Sansa (apparently). No question on my part that Sansa was impolitic. She's "working to rule" i.e. doing the absolute minimum required by her contract (as it were), "Winterfell is yours, your Grace" etc etc. IMO the writers are trying to show how difficult the choice is in GoT between "my family" and "what is the right thing for the situation / the honorable thing" -- this of course is the question Ned faced in the first season and the question JonGon is facing when he learns who he really is. My comment that Dany's line was chilling was just that - I thought it was chilling. The delivery, the pause, the scary implication that Sansa could be the next Tarley. This is not to say that Sansa IS being respectful or that Dany doesn't have every right to tell Jon it's a concern. I just felt there was an immediate fiery threat in her statement that gave me a l'il ole shiver. Dragon Diplomacy, as it were. Which will make the public revelation that Jon = Aegon even more a shocker to Dany, if that revelation ever happens. Can she respect him? He's the "true" heir. If she can't respect him ... what happens then?