GAME OF THRONES

[Jay 37,271]

Nice video BB!

[Arpy 4,145]

Awesome! Thanks @BloodBoal Much more tension and power with that music!

[Glóin the Dark 1,218]

14 hours ago, Jay said:

I know, that's what I'm asking too!  I don't have an answer, I was suggesting we put our heads together and discuss possibilities.

 

The "worst" plausible suggestion I can think of is that Tyrion knew Cersei was lying but kept this knowledge from Daenerys, judging that it was best (for everyone) that Daenerys should get out of King's Landing and turn her attention solely to the north, without being distracted by concerns about Cersei.

 

I haven't been able to conceive of any plausible scenario in which Tyrion was, in any way, secretly siding with or plotting with Cersei, or anything else that would require a secret off-screen discussion between them. It would be more plausible to concede that Tyrion is simply less smart than much of the audience! (Though I still don't agree that this would be a necessary consequence of his failure to disbelieve her absolutely.)

 

I think that the most straightforward reading of the scene will turn out to be the correct one. As for the scene on the ship, I don't see any reason to read any more into Tyrion's look of concern other than reservations about potential complications arising from the development in Daenerys's relationship with Jon...

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Bilbo 3,709]

25 minutes ago, BloodBoal said:

Game Of Thrones Finale Deleted Scene Would Have Answered A Big Question

 

Would have made a huge difference. 

[Jay 37,271]

The article seems to assume they shot Bran actually telling Sansa about Littlefinger, but I bet all the scene would have been the knock on the door, the "I need your help" line, and that's it.  That really should have been kept in, because it can still be ambiguous at the time ("Oh, is Sansa going to have Bran look into Arya's dirty deeds"), but when he says what he says at the trial, it enforces that all 3 Stark siblings are working together well.  Oh well.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

8 minutes ago, Jay said:

The article seems to assume they shot Bran actually telling Sansa about Littlefinger, but I bet all the scene would have been the knock on the door, the "I need your help" line, and that's it.  That really should have been kept in, because it can still be ambiguous at the time ("Oh, is Sansa going to have Bran look into Arya's dirty deeds"), but when he says what he says at the trial, it enforces that all 3 Stark siblings are working together well.  Oh well.

It's that problem of reverse-engineering again.  They wanted to have a "shocking twist" scene so badly they withheld information from the audience that would have enriched the characters and the story, IMO.

 

I don't mean just that one scene that was cut.  I just don't personally think the twist was worth it personally.

[Nick1Ø66 4,687]

It's weird...sometimes I see huge parts of the internet making assumptions about something and I just don't see it...like, where are they getting that from?
 

I never, for a second, thought that Arya and Sansa were playing some season long game to trap Littlefinger. For one, there would be no point in it. They don't have to "prove" anything...they both know he's a manipulative snake. They could have dispatched him at anytime (which they should have). Secondly, there were those scenes with just the two of them having a go at each other...who were they trying to fool then? The audience? (well, yes as it turns out).

 

It seems obvious to me that Sansa simply didn't come fully to terms with how Littlefinger needed to be dealt with until that last conversation with him.  How anyone could think that this is the result of some play she and her sister were cooking up is baffling to me.

 

That said, the whole storyline was cheap and disappointing, because the tension between the sisters was written not to fool any character, but the audience, which is the ultimate cheap stunt and a hallmark in lazy writing.

 

To say nothing of how easily Littlefinger was entrapped. This guy has a plan B, C, D, E through Z.  He would have seen this coming and had something, on someone, that would have given him more options than begging for his life. 

 

This episode was certainly a step up from the last, and was again exciting, compelling TV. But GOT is more like junk food now. Fun while it lasts but really without any substance. Every scene is simply designed to move forward whatever plot contrivance and situation the writers have decided the characters need to be in, without regard to how those characters would actually act in that situation.  Again, it's about the most purely watchable thing on TV, but I miss the show that it used to be.

[Jay 37,271]

13 minutes ago, Nick1066 said:

It seems obvious to me that Sansa simply didn't come fully to terms with how Littlefinger needed to be dealt with until that last conversation with him.  How anyone could think that this is the result of some play she and her sister were cooking up is baffling to me.

 

INDEED!

 

Quote

That said, the whole storyline was cheap and disappointing, because the tension between the sisters was written not to fool any character, but the audience, which is the ultimate cheap stunt and a hallmark in lazy writing.

 

YES!

 

Quote

To say nothing of how easily Littlefinger was entrapped. This guy has a plan B, C, D, E through Z.  He would have seen this coming and had something, on someone, that would have given him more options than begging for his life. 

 

Yea, that's true. This is what I think happened: the writers realized they had no idea what to do with Littlefinger anymore and decided to kill him off.  They decided the best place to kill him off was in the season finale.  They decided they wanted to make his death as shocking to the audience as possible.  To do this they decided to spend lots of time in episodes prior making the audience think he had a new plan and would undo some of the good things happening at Winterfell to characters we like.  And they just failed at making that compelling.

 

Quote

This episode was certainly a step up from the last, and was again exciting, compelling TV. But GOT is more like junk food now. Fun while it lasts but really without any substance. Every scene is simply designed to move forward whatever plot contrivance and situation the writers have decided the characters need to be in, without regard to how those characters would actually act in that situation.  Again, it's about the most purely watchable thing on TV, but I miss the show that it used to be.

 

Yea pretty much how I feel.  I was talking with coworkers about that yesterday; Basically, the show used to be about glorious fantasy spectacle AND clever writing and character development.  Now it's pretty much just all about the spectacle.  Which is fine, I enjoy the spectacle, and get my real golden age TV writing fulfillment from Better Call Saul, Fargo, and the like.  It's just  shame that the show COULD have been something more than a great spectacle, and it doesn't seem with 6 episodes left, that it will be.

[Nick1Ø66 4,687]

On 8/28/2017 at 8:13 PM, BloodBoal said:

 

I do wonder why they left people at the Wall, when it was clear they had no fighting chance, and all they did was run away anyway? "OK, we're going to stay here and wait for the army of the dead, and when it'll be here, we'll just run!". From a narrative point of view, I suppose it's to have characters we know at the Wall during the attack, but even then, we barely saw Tormund and Beric anyway...

 

Well, in this case you could say the wall was a kind of warning system. Obviously Jon assumed the White Walkers would find a way over, through, or aroud the wall...otherwise, what would be the point of raising the alarm all over Westeros?  Even if they conceded that they couldn't hold the wall, they'd at least want people up there who could report that it had been breached.

 

[Jay 37,271]

Yea I don't think its weird that Eastwatch was still manned.  You could argue it was lazy writing that just when Bran happens to be warged into a crow to check on it, Tormund and Berric happen to go on top and look out, all at the same time the Night King happens to arrive to breach it.

[Nick1Ø66 4,687]

The reason Tormund and Berric were there was so that the audience would have characters they knew present when the ice dragon attacked. That's it.  

 

And it occurs to me that if Westeros really took what was beyond the wall seriously, whether wildings, wights or white walkers, they would have had some kind of beacon system going to warn the kingdoms.

 

Of course, a beacon lighting scene would have presented a scoring challenge Djawadi probably isn't equal to.

[Glóin the Dark 1,218]

6 minutes ago, Nick1066 said:

...a beacon lighting scene would have presented a scoring challenge...

 

And more work for BloodBoal...

 

On 8/28/2017 at 8:13 PM, BloodBoal said:

I do wonder why they left people at the Wall, when it was clear they had no fighting chance...

 

Well, clear with hindsight.

[Damien F 1,742]

The biggest problem I have with the reverse engineering is that the private confrontations between Arya and Sansa made no sense and still make no sense. They were purely for the benefit of the audience in order to make the twist more surprising.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Just now, Damien F said:

The biggest problem I have with the reverse engineering is that the private confrontations between Arya and Sansa made no sense and still make no sense. They were purely for the benefit of the audience in order to make the twist more surprising.

 

It's the kind of dishonest nonsense writing that's made me quit other shows.  The Winterfell thread from this season will only look more ridiculous and contrived as time goes on.

[Nick1Ø66 4,687]

I believe there would have been tension between Arya and Sansa....there always has been. But Arya making veiled threats to kill Sansa and cut off her face may have been a bit much.

 

They might have pulled off the whole thing if the confrontations between the two of them weren't in private. Or in a situation where they (and the audience) knew either Littlefinger or one of his people were listening.

[mstrox 6,637]

I read some speculation that the breakneck pace of this season was to make sure all the pieces were in place for the last season.  I don't buy it, but it's a hope.

 

I honestly don't mind stuff not being shown to surprise the viewer later on, but even for me, the fast travel for people not on dragons stretched credulity a little bit.

[Glóin the Dark 1,218]

1 minute ago, Nick1066 said:

Arya making veiled threats to kill Sansa and cut off her face may have been a bit much.

 

Yeah, the other scenes of argument between them could be accounted for reasonably well; it's the one with the faces that seems inconsistent with the final outcome.

 

Is it possible that Littlefinger pilfered some surveillance equipment from the set of The Wire, and was watching and listening in on Arya and Sansa's conversations from an adjacent room? Except Arya and Sansa had been tipped off about this by Bran?

 

Speaking of which, does anyone agree that Bran should be obliged to get a warrant from a judge before Three-Eyed Ravening in to other people's conversations?

[Jay 37,271]

13 minutes ago, Nick1066 said:

I believe there would have been tension between Arya and Sansa....there always has been. But Arya making veiled threats to kill Sansa and cut off her face may have been a bit much.

 

This!

[Disco Stu 15,495]

21 minutes ago, Glóin the Dark said:

Speaking of which, does anyone agree that Bran should be obliged to get a warrant from a judge before Three-Eyed Ravening in to other people's conversations?

 

He's Little Brother!

 

21 minutes ago, Glóin the Dark said:

Is it possible that Littlefinger pilfered some surveillance equipment from the set of The Wire, and was watching and listening in on Arya and Sansa's conversations from an adjacent room? Except Arya and Sansa had been tipped off about this by Bran?

 

I've seen some rationalizers out there saying, "When Littlefinger is around even the walls might have ears!"  Well, to pull the stunt with the mock trial they would have had to conspire at some point before so why didn't they worry about his ears then?  It's just bad writing!

[Jay 37,271]

Here's what I think.

 

If the start of the Winterfell storyline is "Arya returns to Winterfell, there's tension between her and Sansa, Littlefinger plots to make it worse" and the ending of the storyline is "Sansa has Littlefinger executed for framing the Lannisters for Jon Arryn's muder, murdering Lysa Arryn and having Ned arrested and executed on false charges", then the middle of the storyline maybe shouldn't have been "Tension between the sisters gets so bad that Arya threatens to actually murder Sansa and Sansa is actually afraid she'll do it for a while".

 

Maybe a better middle would have been about Sansa finding a way to bond with Bran, to get him to speak more, to get her to understand how his powers work, for him to uncover all of Littlefinger's crimes.  Maybe also scenes with Sansa talking to the other lords that would be in the room during the trial, to make sure they are on the same page and would agree that he should be executed, and that the Vale would be in safe hands without him.  Maybe also scenes where Sansa learns more about what Arya is and what she can do, but not in the way they did it now where Sansa feels threatened.  

I think that would have been more satisfying than trying to make the trial a shock to the audience instead of just to Baelish.

[Nick1Ø66 4,687]

Well having Sansa's sister threaten to murder and mutilate her (by essentially flaying her), after Joffrey and Ramsey, was just awful, tone deaf writing. 

 

So let me get this straight. Arya found the idea of killing an actress that she knew for 5 minutes so abhorrent that she risked her life and left the Faceless Men over it, but I'm supposed to believe she'd kill her sister. One of her few surviving siblings. In their family home. Right.

 

Seriously....here's Sansa's sister threatening to do the kind of things to her that the worst, most vile characters in the show did. Sorry, you have to EARN that storyline if you're going to go there. And they did it for a cheap trick.  Terrible.

[Damien F 1,742]

The only time the fast travel ever bothered me was the raven from The Wall to Dragonstone and then Dany from Dragonstone to North of the wall. They really should have had Dany go north with Jon together from Dragonstone. 

 

She then could have stayed at the wall while the rest go to capture the dead guy because it would have been too high risk and unnecessary for her to go too, but she would be there for reinforcement if needed, which was eventually the case.

 

Funny though, I rewatched the first episode again out of curiosity. We see Jaime and Cersei in King's Landing. The next time we see them after about 10 mins of screentime they are arriving at Winterfell and mentioned it took a month.

[Jay 37,271]

[KK 3,307]

20 hours ago, BloodBoal said:

For @Arpy: The Breach Of The Deeping Wall (or Minas Morghûlis)!

 

 

P.S.: I moved a few shots around in a part of the video, as I wanted one particular moment of the cue to sync up with one particular shot (because I thought they worked really well together). Can you guys guess which one it is?

 

Wow. That sequence just got a lot more epic!

 

The shot of the Wall with that awesome choral cluster at 1:34 gave me the chills!

[Quintus 5,399]

2 hours ago, Jay said:

 

Or, "enough is enough".

[Nick1Ø66 4,687]

Yeah. I'm OK with the way Jamie left.  I looked at is a "straw that broke the camel's back" kind of thing.  I think Jamie in some way was just waiting for an an excuse to leave, and seeing that dead thing gave it to him.  Seeing Brienne again probably helped as well.

 

[KK 3,307]

Yup. Jaime leaving seemed perfectly reasonable.

[Bilbo 3,709]

It's keeping with character too. He killed the Mad King to save innocent lives. Not fighting the White Walkers is akin to condemning thousands to death. 

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Nick1Ø66 4,687]

It was DUMB WRITING.

 

I could have bought the "over the top act" thing if they were doing it for an audience (not THE audience). But there was never a hint that they were. And all it would have taken was a quick shot of a scullery maid washing dishes outside the window....or anyone who could have possibly been one of Littlefinger's listeners. Then the audience can assume that Sansa and Arya knew someone was listening, and acted accordingly.

 

 

 

[Jay 37,271]

[Quintus 5,399]

While you were watching summer’s biggest TV show, you missed summer’s best TV show

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Jay 37,271]

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Bilbo 3,709]

Referring to the Northern part of the island as "Insane Irish" to diferenciate it from the saner people of the south is a good idea BB!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

That's racist!

[Bilbo 3,709]

You're racist. 

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

17 minutes ago, BloodBoal said:

I would like to precise that when I said "insane Irish", I was not specifically referring to Northern Irelanders, but to all Irish folks, regardless of their geographical location.

 

I don't discriminate.

 

They're crazy!

[Bilbo 3,709]

Ah you just say that because we're better than you. 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I'm much better than you, you stinkin' Irish pig!

[Wojo 2,453]

That's racist! 

[Bilbo 3,709]

7 hours ago, Stefancos said:

I'm much better than you, you stinkin' Irish pig!

 

You have no soul, ginger!

[Jay 37,271]

Here's some fun reading to do between seasons

 

Here's What Happened the Last Time the White Walkers Invaded Westeros

[Jay 37,271]

“Game of Thrones” will shoot multiple series endings to prevent spoilers from Season 8 leaking before they air.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Hopefully on the home video release they'll all be included in a row!  Like Clue!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[BloodBoal 7,538]