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S05.E08: Hardhome


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A tidbit about Karsi, the Wildling woman from an interview with the episode's director at MTV.com:

 

Of course, one of the elements that stood out the most story-wise was Karsi, a Wildling warrior woman (played by “Pitch Perfect 2″ star Birgitte Hjort Sørensen) who managed to show up in the battle’s first act, steal viewers’ hearts with her headstrong determination and courage, then break said hearts when she was eaten by a gaggle of dead children. According to Sapochnik, this unforgettable scene almost never came to pass — because Karsi was initially a man.
 

“She was a guy originally, and then somewhere in the process we thought it might be cool if she were a mother, and show her sending off her own kids to make that moment with the corpse children really resonate emotionally,” Sapochnik explained. “As the sequence was refined, she emerged as this clear representative of all the Wildlings, which was organic, and it made us care. Then we started casting and saw Birgitte’s work and she got the part.”

 

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(edited)

The NY Times also did a Q&A with Brigitte where she talks about how they filmed the battle scenes, amazing stuff. She was great as Katrine on Borgen so I love that her career is taking off with Pitch Perfect 2 and this high profile Game of Thrones appearance. 

 

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/06/01/game-of-thrones-white-walkers-battle-interview-birgitte-hjort-sorensen/?ref=arts

 

I have been thinking that the Mountain kills Kevan so Cersei can get back her power over Tommen. I don't see any other point of having the doctor work on keeping the Mountain alive.

Edited by SimoneS
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"My concern is that the Faith does not adhere to the same standards of proof as the crown" - Qyburn

 

I wouldn't think that would be possible.

 

Yikes!

 

My first thought was, "Just ask Tyrion".

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I'm not trying to sound stupid, but couldn't a man putting his children in a boat to sail away and then getting set upon by dead children have the same emotional resonance? Fathers love their kids too.

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(edited)

I'm not trying to sound stupid, but couldn't a man putting his children in a boat to sail away and then getting set upon by dead children have the same emotional resonance? Fathers love their kids too.

There were too many wildling men on screen so having a female perspective made it resonate even more just because it stood out.  Of course a man could be shown doing exact same things, however there was a good chance his story would have been lost in the horde of wildling men.

Edited by DarkRaichu
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Like others, I wanted to know who the actress was because I'd seen her before. Could not have imagined that I saw her in Pitch Perfect 2! Too bad her role was so brief, but she is probably busy becoming a STAR. Amazing screen presence.

 

Could not watch most of the battle, and the end was extremely creepy. Will have to watch again. I am enjoying the Dany and Tyrion show!

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Tyrian needs to develop some sort of dragon stone bomb that a dragon can carry and drop on all of the undead. Help us Tyrian, you're our only hope.

I don't know about a stone bomb, but some kind of wildfire bomb would sure come in handy.

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I'm not trying to sound stupid, but couldn't a man putting his children in a boat to sail away and then getting set upon by dead children have the same emotional resonance? Fathers love their kids too.

Sure, but it was just an excellent choice to use a woman and cast her accordingly.  With the power struggle of Cersei and Marg, we must remember that even royal women on Westerous mostly only hold power through their husbands or sons.  Sansa can rise to Wardeness of the North because she is widely believed to be the last remaining Stark, but we have every reason to believe that if she can survive to see the Boltons removed from Winterfell and she can find Rickon - she will only rule until he comes of age to become the new Lord of Winterfell.  Dorne will crown a queen, but it's been awhile since we've been reminded of that as well - I'm crossing my fingers that they will still employ that plot this season.

 

Anyway, wildling women are supposed to be wilder and fiercer than knee benders.  So, this wildling woman being one of the Elders and speaking for a large group of people was nice.  Add in that she was mostly a great warrior also made it seem that in ways, the wildlings might be better than the 7 kingdoms.  I have to admit when I first saw her, I thought she was going to be Jon's new love interest.  I'm SO disappointed she died.  I wanted to see a woman at the Wall who if they tried to rape her, she'd gut them.

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There was actually a pretty big piece of info dropped in Sam's meeting with Stannis, when he said he found stories of the Children of the Forest hunting with dragonglass in the distant past. The CotF aka Bran's new cave friends. Bran, Jon and Dany are gonna unite to save the world, that's my endgame prediction.

Can Dany tell her dragons to make dragonglass? With their fiery breath on stone?

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So, we now have 2 weapons to fight the walkers:  Dragonglass and Valerian Steel.... 

Can anybody make a deal with the Stone Men to mine some ore and leave it for Drogon / Smaug style processing???

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(edited)

I watched with CC on. When Tormund yelled "Wun Wun, get to the boats!" I thought the CCers made a boo-boo, and Tormund was really yelling "Run, run, get to the boats!" in baby voice. Maybe that's how Wun Wun got his name. See Wun Wun run. Run, Wun Wun, run!

 

It was really cool how the White Walker who entered the burning hut caused the flames around him to extinguish, he was so cold. Nice visual way to illustrate the freeze surrounding him. So it seems maybe the wights can be burned, but not the White Walkers.

Edited by Andromeda
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i only know the bare outlines of what goes on, so are the giants pals with the wildings? and who are the Thenns? (i didn't like them either.:)

The distinct groups that make up what are called "Free Folk" have hated / distrusted each other for generations as well. Thenns are cannibals. Mance Rayder built a tenuous coalition to get south of the Wall. The giants likely ignored everybody equally until co-operating with Mance. 

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I know they said dragon glass is rare, but where does it come from? Is it actually dragon related (which would explain its rarity due to thelack of dragons)?

Now even more rare due to some people carelessly left a bag full in the middle of now enemy territory..

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I'm not trying to sound stupid, but couldn't a man putting his children in a boat to sail away and then getting set upon by dead children have the same emotional resonance? Fathers love their kids too.

I actually like that she had clout with the Wildings. Her word meant something to them - that, I think, is progress.

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It is kind of distracting how much taller Sansa/Sophie Turner is compared to most of the guys she has to deal with.

 

Hopefully, Sansa will one day be kissed by a man she cares for, and he might even be as tall or taller than her.  Both LF and Ramsay had to struggle a little to get to her mouth.

 

The Wildling lady actor was of of the main characters on Borgen and she's great. Too bad she promised her kids she'd be back. Well, I guess she did come back but not the happy family reunion kind of coming back.

 

It reminded me of the scene with the father putting his daughters on a rescue boat on the Titanic, and telling them there would be another boat for the daddies.  You just knew they were doomed in both instances.

 

I heard it as "I hate men."

 

Nope, she said, "I fucking hate Thenns", and I'm glad.  I'm tired of the stereotype that strong women are man-haters.  I'm very sorry she was killed - she reminded me of Lagertha from Vikings.

 

* Ramsey: I think he will be killed by Stannis in his attack. He is a moron. And he will suffer that fate. Can't wait to see it.

 

I'm telling myself that the inevitable meeting of Stannis and Ramsay will end in Melisandre burning him.  That has to be his destiny.  My only request is that he be flayed part way before she starts the fire.  He's a monster.

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It is kind of distracting how much taller Sansa/Sophie Turner is compared to most of the guys she has to deal with.

Hopefully, Sansa will one day be kissed by a man she cares for, and he might even be as tall or taller than her.  Both LF and Ramsay had to struggle a little to get to her mouth.

 

Lol.  I also noticed that Sophie literally towered over Theon-which admittedly for the state of their characters kinda worked.  But I think among the main male cast the only guy taller than her might be NCW. 

 

I'm telling myself that the inevitable meeting of Stannis and Ramsay will end in Melisandre burning him.  That has to be his destiny.  My only request is that he be flayed part way before she starts the fire.  He's a monster.

 

Let's all light candles to the Many Faced God to make it so.

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(edited)

When Darth Walker Maul was standing there like "where's your army now, punks?" I soooooo wished Melisandre had been there. She would have had that entire embankment on fire in seconds and basked in the glory of her god. I need this to happen, she's the only character capable of out-smugging the self-satisfied White Walker generals. What the meatsacks need is some flame throwers full of Wildfyre, or whatever it was that Tyrion used to roast Stannis' fleet. 

 

I guess the bad part of hunting the helpless is that you get rusty over the centuries. The WW Jon killed was having way too much fun shattering the humans's weapons and watching their despairing faces before doing them under. When he hit Valyrian steel and stood there gaping I laughed so hard. At least Jon could say he got thrown off a landing to explain his lapse in concentration. I am disappointed that Jon did not think to have the dragonglass supplied to the wildlings at the gate. Two birds with one stone, buy more time for evac, and prove the rumors are true.

 

I was terrified the entire time that giant was going to die and resurrect. Can Giants become Wights? Because that would be freaking awful.

 

I don't get why the wildings were so reluctant. They are isolated, exposed, short on food, have broken morale, and an army of White Walkers on their asses. They should have known better than anyone that this is exactly the type of thing that would happen. Why were they all still grouped together anyway, instead of dispersing to make themselves smaller targets and increase chances of survival? If it's either get your throat slit politely on boats or reanimate to rip your children's throats out with your own teeth, I'd get on the damn boat and take my chances. 

 

While I want Cersei to be miserable, I want it to be at the hands of people she's actually hurt. Not some preening assholes hopped up on religious fervor. This is what happens when you can't be arsed to make actual allies, lady. Now she's left her milksop son wide open to be manipulated by Kevan and whoever else wants to puppet-rule Westeros. 

 

I was waiting for Sam to point out that they'd probably slaughtered just as many innocent Wildling camps. Wreaking havoc on innocents to cow the real enemy into submission is a common war tactic, Olly, you'll probably end up using it yourself one day. Why do I feel like he's going to try and shank Jon the minute he comes back?

 

Ian Glen is one of those weird instances where a guy gets hotter the more dirt they heap on him. Not enjoying his character as much since Emilia Clarke's interview saying he was always commenting on her tits during nude scenes. Go die of greyscale, Jorah, I no like you no more. Also, you're turning into a total stalker and no lady likes that.

 

I think Daenerys takes the phrase "the hard choices are often the right ones" way too seriously. It's like she's always trying to figure out what will make her feel horrible, and going with that. No, you do not execute the man who almost single-handedly delivered Mereen to you, dumb dumb. And there were a variety of options between murdering Tyrion and taking him into your confidence. Most of them would have been unpleasant with Tyrion, so I'm ok with that, but the fact none of them appear to have crossed her mind does not speak well of her ability to rule Westeros. I love how he almost rolled his eyes when she said "I have very large dragons." Girl, Littlefinger would have those things poisoned and dying a hideous death within the week if necessary. Unless she's planning to free range them on hapless villagers for the duration.

 

Thanks Reek, for reminding me you're still shit. "Just" farmers boys? I doubt it felt that way to their father when you cut them down. Still a Greyjoy at the core.

 

I thought the other servant of the many-faced god was jealous of Arya, but maybe she's just worried for her. She gulped pretty hard when A Man sneered that if Arya failed her death would still please the god.

Edited by rozen
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Ian Glen is one of those weird instances where a guy gets hotter the more dirt they heap on him. Not enjoying his character as much since Emilia Clarke's interview saying he was always commenting on her tits during nude scenes. Go die of greyscale, Jorah, I no like you no more. Also, you're turning into a total stalker and no lady likes that.

 

Really? Totally gross. This is why it is better not to know too much about the actors.

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WOOOW! Just when this show was starting to suck, they brought me back. The White Walkers ROCK and I'm now very curious about their back story, their plans and motivations, and how all the show's human characters will (or won't) band together to stop them. Also love how much info everyone provided on the thread about the actress who played the wildling lady! She really stood out to me, I found her incredibly charismatic, strong and sexy. I only wish we could've seen more of her.

Unpopular opinion: I do not find A Man handsome or attractive, I find him rather annoying. Ditto for Jorah.

It's so nice to have Dany and Tyrion finally together. Is it just me or were they flirting a little? It also made me realize I really only care about their storyline and Jon Snow's. The show has way too many boring, extraneous storylines and they need to start trimming the fat soon. I truly don't give a crap about the Reek or the Boltons and I'm sorry a formerly interesting character like Sansa has been pulled into their massive orbit of suckage.

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(edited)

Jorah used to be my favorite. But walking around urban areas with the plague and not telling anyone is super not cool. I actually can't get invested in anything else going on with him because I'm so distracted and horrified by it. 

 

Brienne can kill a White Walker! Yay! I hated that the previouslies spoiled Jon's big moment. The second we got that random flashback to Papa Mormont giving him the sword and talking about Valyrian steel, I was like, "Guess Jon's gonna be killing a White Walker today." At least all that endless product placement in the first two seasons about the Valyrian fucking steel was leading to something, but I wish it hadn't been spoiled like that.

 

I love Tormund, but whacking that guy to death was the most extreme instance of gay panic I've ever seen, and I had a raised eyebrow about it. It's fine if he had to kill him, but I would have preferred a different insult to instigate it, maybe?

 

This was all very exciting and everything, but I'm most nervous about some of the absent plots from this week. Speaking of Brienne, I don't know what's going to happen. She wants to save Sansa. But I think Stannis has Sansa's best interests at heart, too. But Brienne hates Stannis. While he's definitely culpable in Renly's death, I really like him (his pedantic grammarian moment a couple of weeks ago made me sing) and I think Melisandre is the real problem. But Brienne has no way of knowing that! I'm MOST worried about my precious sweetpea Shireen. If Stannis sacrifices her, who will spread literacy throughout the land?

 

I'm also worried about Marge and Loras. I love them. I'm hoping (please please please) that they will confess and the high sparrow will not be too harsh with them. Because at the end of the day, while homosexuality is not accepted, what Loras did was out of love. While lying is bad, a sister trying to save her brother is about love. However, what Cersei has done is all objectively terrible and coming from terrible motivations. I hope high sparrow will just make the Tyrells poor or whatever but relatively okay, but that Cersei will get the worst punishment ever.

 

In plotlines I don't care about, yay for no Dorne. I like the prince and I like Bronn's singing, but everything else about that plotline is lackluster. Which is sad, because the awesomeness that was Oberyn made me think it must be the greatest place. Sexy Jaqen is the only thing keeping me from falling asleep in the Arya plot. I'm wondering if the ship gambler plot is going to intersect with Meryn Trant and Papa Tyrell, whom we last saw heading off to Braavos. Meryn is on her hit list for killing Syrio. I think this is a test where Jaqen wants to see if she has given up enough of herself to stay on task and NOT kill Meryn if she sees him? We know she hasn't because she didn't throw Needle away. I really need this plot to be going somewhere, and that's all I can think of.

 

 

As for Cersei, all I could think of during her "confess" scenes was this:

Yes! During the scene, I said out loud, "Fetch me... the comfy chair!"

Edited by JillPole
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P.S. Am I the only one who finds Jon Snow's prettiness distracting, and not entirely in a good way? I feel like hair and makeup should rough his look up a tiny bit more. His hair is just SO luscious and glossy I find myself wondering where he managed to find L'Oreal products on the Wall?

I also realize this is a dumb thing to complain about, lol.

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I waited 5 Seasons to have GOT really pay off on the 1st scene of the Pilot. 

 

GOT has wandered far and wide - but it has always been about the zombies.

 

I was so glad Dolorous Edd survived.  On rewatch I noticed he was collecting the dragon glass.  At first I was mad that he left the bag behind the bag on his way out of the hut.  But really - who wants to have to get that close to one of those White Walkers to score a kill.  Ed had the right idea - RUN.

 

As Jon was almost killed for being too honest about who killed Mance (Tyrion you are needed here as well) - all I could think of was what Littlefinger said about the Starks in S1.  Basically that the they were as dumb as a bag of rocks.

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(edited)

 

P.S. Am I the only one who finds Jon Snow's prettiness distracting, and not entirely in a good way? I feel like hair and makeup should rough his look up a tiny bit more. His hair is just SO luscious and glossy I find myself wondering where he managed to find L'Oreal products on the Wall?

I also realize this is a dumb thing to complain about, lol.

 

I like that the writers always lampshade it. Tormund: "He's prettier than both my daughters!" Karsi(when she was alive) loooked pretty damn good for a Wildling too.

 

As some people have noted, everybody and their problems in the other storylines do seem really trivial now in comparison to a zombie apocalypse.

Edited by VCRTracking
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Well at one point Tormund's hair had the most unbelievable feathering so I'm thinking that there is an Olde Wildling Salon equipped with numerous hair care products and blow dryers.

If Tommen was locked in his room in a petulant teenage fit, the Queen AND the Queen Mother were locked in dungeons and Kevan hadn't gotten back from Casterly Rock yet, how was King's Landing not completely overrun by chaos? You can't tell me that the Sparrows can keep the entire city at bay, nor do I believe Pycelle could his own self.

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I want Cersei's dungeon cell door to open slowly and 'Black Jack' Randall from Outlander is suddenly tossed in naked. They could cut the scene right there as far as I'm concerned.

 

Only if they castrate Black Jack, first.  I am so damned tired of watching that man rape and get away with it.  I would enjoy watching Cersei knock him around.  He deserves being stuck with her for the rest of his life.

 

Whoever mentioned Jorah being hot, he's been hot from the beginning. So very different from the creepy boyfriend of Mary in Downton Abbey. 

 

I think he is a man who improves with age.  I just saw Darkness from 2002, and he was pretty nerdy.  I wouldn't have described him as hot back then.

 

Other subtle hints that point to Karsi possibly being Tormand's baby momma:

 

* Before making her decision, she asked Tormand if he vouched for Jon Snow.

 

* After Tormand's testimony that Jon could fight and was a leader, Karsi said that she would never trust a man in black but if Tormand said this was the way, she would join them.

 

* Tormand said that Jon Snow was prettier than both his daughters and later we see Karsi putting two redheaded girls in a boat.

 

I loved that after a certain point in their second conversation, Dany sat back in her chair and relaxed a little bit with Tyrion. I know it's a minor thing, but she usually keeps her posture ramrod straight when she's with being Queen Dany.

 

I will add this: she said, "I fucking hate Thenns", and Tormund said, "Thenns, I fucking hate Thenns", in season four, episode one.

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Really? Totally gross. This is why it is better not to know too much about the actors.

I read that interview with Emilia Clarke and she was laughing about her coming out the burning fire and he made a joke to her which she laughed it. I assumed it was all in jest. "shrugs"

Still like him.

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The entire time I was scared to death the giant would get turned and good lawd would the Crows and the Wildlings be fucked! I am getting my undead lore mixed up. So apparently you don't have to be bitten or scratched by the Wights or anything to turn. You have to be killed and then risen by a White Walker? Is that how it goes? 

 

That woman wildling leader was amazing but I knew as soon as she put her children in that boat and told them she would see them soon she was a goner.

 

I am not finding an inch of sympathy or compassion for Cersei. I want to drink her tears. Hell, I want to compose a song to them "Tears of a Cersei" and have Bronn sing it. She really raised some extreme sons. One was an absolute hateful psychopath and the other a complete jellyfish. 

 

I am just gonna come out and say it - Tormund is hot. So is Ser Jorah who is an older elegant gentleman. 

 

I was wondering about a Giant Wight... in between thoughts about how exactly you get half Giants... I think of the White Walkers as necromancers who use the Wights as their disposable meat army. I think the Wights can stay functional even as skeletons at least judging by how those skeletons killed Brans tour guide.

 

Although the argument can be made that the Wildlings just got metaphorically raped...on a massive scale.

 

I think they got conscripted or shanghai-ed to join the great White Walker army.

 

So anybody killed by the Whitewalkers and their wights can be resurrected as a wight themselves.  But do they continue to physically decompose?  Like the sight of that awful boy with the exposed ribs?

 

Also, has there ever been any mention of the Whitewalker's motivation?  Or do we just assume it's the desire for total domination, like every other character of GoT.

 

Maybe the Whitewalkers want to bring about the next great dynasty of Westerosi where all men are equal under the White Walkers. There would be no infighting under the great Whitewalkers. Despite their murdering ways they seem quite unified in their goals.

 

Lannister, Targaryen, Baratheon, Stark, Tyrell.

They're all just spokes on a wheel.

This one's on top, then that one's on top.

And on and on it spins, crushing those on the ground.

 

They're not going to stop the wheel.

They're going to break the wheel.

 

I wonder if Dany is going to put herself out of work by installing democracy or is she planning on breaking down the nobility structure ? eg dismantling all the great houses.

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I thought FOR SURE what Arya would see on her walkabout would be Meryn Trant escorting Mace Tyrell.

 

I think it might end up that Arya is placed in a position where she has to choose between getting revence on Meryn Trant or completing her face-gaming mission, and that will prove whether or not she's ready to become no one.

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I've been thinking for a couple of seasons now the whitewalkers and their army of the dead were going to overrun Westeros, and Dany would have to come in with her three dragons to save everybody.

 

I've been thinking that since the pilot, but now I'm not so sure.  Dany wants to break the wheel, and so do the White Walkers.   It seems they have a lot in common.  Maybe they'll team up and lay waste to Westeros and start fresh.   With the fire and ice, they can turn Westeros into a vacation hotspot - ice bars and saunas, skiing, hiking, hot springs, beach resorts..."Tired of reviewing loan applications at the Iron Bank of Braavos? Sail to Westeros for the luxury vacation you deserve..." 

 

Melisandre will get in on it, too.  "The night is dark and full of terrors!"  She can do psychic readings and spiritual healing at the spa.

 

Maybe they all need to get in on it.  Dany and her dragons, Bran in his tree, Tyrion with the wildfire, Sam with the dragon glass, Mel and her fire, Dorne with whatever they used to beat the Dragons back in the day...maybe the point is they all have to band together like the Wildlings for anything to work to beat back the White Walkers. 

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"I wonder if Dany is going to put herself out of work by installing democracy or is she planning on breaking down the nobility structure ? eg dismantling all the great houses."

Probably the later, which is a historical help to establishing democracy though eliminating all those nobel military forces and the castles that make rooting out nobles hard, although the kings doing it did not intend the reduction of the power of the nobles as a way to make the common man more powerful. I say that because there has been no mention of anything like the Enlightenment movement (sort of strange name for modern democratic ideas that are anti church power as well) without the Enlightenment the common folk are going to want a queen not democracy.

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Whoever mentioned Jorah being hot, he's been hot from the beginning. So very different from the creepy boyfriend of Mary in Downton Abbey. 

 

I saw him 9 years ago in London as John Proctor in "The Crucible" and I've been willing to following him wherever he goes ever since. Something about him in a pair of boots...

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Probably the later, which is a historical help to establishing democracy though eliminating all those nobel military forces and the castles that make rooting out nobles hard, although the kings doing it did not intend the reduction of the power of the nobles as a way to make the common man more powerful. I say that because there has been no mention of anything like the Enlightenment movement (sort of strange name for modern democratic ideas that are anti church power as well) without the Enlightenment the common folk are going to want a queen not democracy.

 

Maybe they'll transition to a constitutional monarchy?

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