Uh hey you dropped your shadow-baby: decadently spoilery Game of Thrones thrad

[Antero]

My roommate is catching up on GOT.  He just stumbled out of his room, all "Jesus christ!"  I'm like, what up?  He says, "He fucking burned the kids?"  I laughed a bit.  GRRM is a cold, crafty son of a bitch.

[dieblucasdie]

I was actually kinda bummed at the way that was handled; they really telegraphed it. I don't know anyone who thought they were actually dead. And I was hoping they'd hold out longer before showing them in the crypt.

[FreddyKnuckles]

Yeah I was like, oh, those are probably the farmers kids.

[jebreject]

I was actually kinda bummed at the way that was handled; they really telegraphed it. I don't know anyone who thought they were actually dead. And I was hoping they'd hold out longer before showing them in the crypt.

Agreed! There was definitely a moment where I felt, well, if any show were to kill off two children--one of which being a POV character--it's this one, but I was never convinced that it was them. Still made my stomach hurt, though.

[jess]

Yeah, I didn't think it was really them for a minute. But I think the show is often kind of heavy handed like that—I also thought it was kind of obvious Cersei didn't have Shae. The only time I've been really surprised so far was Ned's death, which was brilliantly shocking.

[dieblucasdie]

Yeah, it's too bad, because in the book it really is a holy-shit moment, and you don't find out they're really alive until the very last chapter.

They kinda effed-up the timeline, too. Catelyn releasing Jaime makes a LOT more sense when she does after she thinks Bran and Rickon are dead, and she's at a point where she'll do anything to see her daughters again. And she's in such a crazy spot that there's genuine tension when she asks for Brienne's sword--you really don't know if she's going to kill Jaime or free Jaime.  It's really weird that they changed that, since it would require zero extra effort. Instead they specifically took time out to show that Theon had killed all the ravens. lolwut

[jebreject]

Tyrion! Nooooooooo!

This is the first time I've been tempted to spoil myself on any major plot points. I can't deal with Tyrion possibly being dead!

[jebreject]

I mean, I'm going to guess he's not, but that slow-mo shot of him falling and closing his eyes

Oh yeah also, great fucking episode. Excellent work by Peter Dinklage as always, and holy shit if Lena Headey hasn't been killing it as Cersai these last few eps.

The only thing that felt a little rushed to me was the stuff with The Hound. I couldn't see him going from faithful knight and guard to giving the Scarface-quits-his-job speech so quickly. Sure I get that he can't handle fire, but surely he's been in many battles and without doubt he's had to face down fire before. I wish we would have gotten a better sense of his growing disdain for the royalty and his job, making this whole bit seem far more believable.

Sniveling little Joffrey can't even fight with his men. It scares me how much I long to see someone cut his throat.

Also, I've now done a complete 180 on Sansa, having gone from finding her totally insufferable to really looking forward to her each week.

[jebreject]

Aaaaaaand, I'm apparently the only person on the entire internet that's worried about Tyrion,  so I guess I must have been seeing something that wasn't there.

[elpollodiablo]

That was pretty great!

[peacocks]

saw the first ep of this show last night and thought, meh. I have heard it takes a few episodes to get into it but I don't really care enough to.

[Antero]

That was pretty great!

Yeah, totally!

[jebreject]

saw the first ep of this show last night and thought, meh. I have heard it takes a few episodes to get into it but I don't really care enough to.

I would say that you are probably making a mistake

[peacocks]

there were so many sex scenes and only one could be argued to be consensual. I'm just one of those people who isn't that into rape as entertainment. maybe I'll watch a few more eps and see if it gets better but from that first one I don't know.

[YojimboMonkey]

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck


I guess we can't say we haven't seen a full-on battle scene in this show anymore. I'll have to go back and check but did any of the action take place anywhere other than King's Landing? A full episode devoted to the Battle of the Blackwater? Fucking awesome.

xpost w/ peacocks, it might not be the show for you.

[jebreject]

I would think that most Game of Thrones fans, or at least everyone here, aren't fans of rape as entertainment either, nor am I entirely sure it's a fair criticism of a show. Being uncomfortable having that stuff on the screen certainly makes sense as a reason why you might not want to watch the show, though. That's totally fair.

xpost

[peacocks]

That comment was meant to be silly because I know you guys aren't into rape, and that the majority of humans arent either. But it rattled my cage in such a way that I am not looking forward to getting used to it. Plus I'm not that into full on battle scenes.

[jebreject]

Well luckily for you then there aren't any until the end of season two

[dieblucasdie]

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/05/20/game-of-thrones-blackwater/

Is a good interview with Weiss and Benioff about making the episode (NB, I haven't seen it yet).

Benioff: We went down on bended knee [to HBO]: “Just this once. Please.”

I do think some of the rapey or otherwise-exploitative scenes have been problematic in the show, way moreso than in the books. I saw someone point out that it's pretty effed up, for instance, that we saw that scene with Joffrey and the prostitutes, only to never see that woman again. A scene like that can serve a legitimate purpose, but not if there's no follow-up and the entire point is "Joffrey bad." The Sansa scenes have more than done that work already.

Though of course, the worst sex scene is still "Play with her ass." I don't think they're ever going to top that one.

[elpollodiablo]

Honestly I wouldn't fault anyone who said they were turned off by the sexual violence. It's over the top, sensational and unnecessary, but if you look beyond it there's a lot more going on. And anyway it's fantastically plotted and sweeps you up.

I loved this episode, but it reinforced again for me the disparity in scale between the novels and the show. Even the huge battle scenes felt claustrophobic, because the CG set pieces were interwoven with the same tight, cramped crowd shots we've been getting from the beginning. One of GRR's great narrative successes is creating and populating worlds on a huge, grand scale. GoT feels crowded, certainly, but I miss the grandeur and largeness of the novels. Can't have everything, obviously! But it'd be sweet if the budget were like $200 million a season.

[jebreject]

Most of that would have had to have gone to this last episode.

[Antero]

Also, I've now done a complete 180 on Sansa, having gone from finding her totally insufferable to really looking forward to her each week.

This is exactly what happens in the books, probably because at the beginning she actually is totally insufferable.

[peacocks]

sorry I got all up in your GoT thread to diss it. a friend sort of talked me into watching a few more episodes because it apparently takes til episode 4 or 5 for everything to click. Who knows when I'll get around to watching them though.

[dieblucasdie]

Ha, right after "Blackwater" aired, the actor who plays Loras tweeted, "The smallfolk say it was King Renly's ghost, but wiser men know better." A+

[Ashley]

sorry I got all up in your GoT thread to diss it. a friend sort of talked me into watching a few more episodes because it apparently takes til episode 4 or 5 for everything to click. Who knows when I'll get around to watching them though.

It definitely took me like 7 episodes.  I mainly powered through because when I was at my friend's house his roommate ran downstairs extremely excited all "OH MY GOD DRAGONS" and then they both had a period of dragon excitement and it seemed fun.