GAME OF THRONES

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Oh they are completely boring. But the film making should be first rate. so

[Jay 37,249]

What's the final season, 6 episodes?  I wouldn't be surprised if the final battle against the walkers takes place in episode 6, and episode 7 is all about who rules afterward.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

That would be my expectation.

[Nick1Ø66 4,687]

I want and expect a big, epic battle with the White Walkers, I'd just prefer they do it earlier so the whole season isn't just about fighting them.

 

My expectations are low, however, given where they've taken the show.

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

The big epic battles can be fun to watch but they are definitely not the reason I still watch this show.  The highlights of this show have always been long, interesting scenes of drama.  The scenes that are allowed to play out over more than just a couple of minutes.  Conversations that have interesting power and character dynamics.

[Nick1Ø66 4,687]

Yes!  . 

 

Though they've fallen short on that aspect since they've gotten away from the books, and especially in the last season.

 

Any show with a budget can do epic CGI battles. It's the characters that have made this show so compelling.

 

 

 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

No show I've ever seen has this level of technical perfection in its special effects and action set-pieces. Cinematic, truly cinematic.

[Nick1Ø66 4,687]

That much is certain.

[Jay 37,249]

I enjoyed Jaime and Olenna's conversation this past season

[mstrox 6,637]

When the most recent season decided to A) slow down and B) ignore the plot machinations and focus on character, it succeeded.  The Jaime/Olenna scene is a perfect example.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Just now, Jay said:

I enjoyed Jaime and Olenna's conversation this past season

 

Yes!  A scene that would've been fascinating even if we knew nothing of the characters, but made richer with backstory and what we know Olenna's death could mean for the future.  Classic Thrones.

[Nick1Ø66 4,687]

Yeah that was one of the best moments of Season 7.  As always, Diana Rigg just nails it. I'll miss her on this show. 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

It was dead obvious though. Good TV writing, but TV writing still.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

What was obvious?

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Jaime killing Olenna in a way that has a strong but accidental context with Joffrey's, Cersei killing the last Sand girl in the same way her daughter was murdered.

 

Without Martin's prose and plot complexity to give it weight....i dunno.

[Bilbo 3,709]

Martin’s prose definitely adds weight. Lots of dull useless weight. 

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Nick1Ø66 4,687]

10 hours ago, BloodBoal said:

Martin's prose is very prosaic.

 

18 hours ago, Bilbo said:

Martin’s prose definitely adds weight.

 

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In the Bottom there were pot shops along the alleys where huge tubs of stew had been simmering for years, and you could trade half your bird for a heel of yesterday’s bread and a “bowl o’ brown,” and they’d even stick the other half in the fire and crisp it up for you, as long as you plucked the feathers yourself.

 

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The beer was brown, the bread black, the stew a creamy white. She served it in a trencher hollowed out of a stale loaf. It was thick with leeks, carrots, barley, and turnips white and yellow, along with clams and chunks of cod and crabmeat, swimming in a stock of heavy cream and butter. It was the sort of stew that warmed a man right down to his bones, just the thing for a wet, cold night. Davos spooned it up gratefully.

 

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The wedding feast began with a thin leek soup, followed by a salad of green beans, onions, and beets, river pike poached in almond milk, mounds of mashed turnips that were cold before they reached the table, jellied calves’ brains, and a leche of stringy beef. It was poor fare to set before a king, and the calves’ brains turned Catelyn’s stomach. Yet Robb ate it uncomplaining, and her brother was too caught up with his bride to pay much attention.

 

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They started with a creamy chestnut soup, crusty hot bread, and greens dressed with apples and pine nuts. Then came lamprey pie, honeyed ham, buttered carrots, white beans and bacon, and roast swan stuffed with mushrooms and oysters. Tyrion was exceedingly courteous; he offered his sister the choice portions of every dish, and made certain he ate only what she did. Not that he truly thought she’d poison him, but it never hurt to be careful.

 

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They gorged themselves on horseflesh roasted with honey and peppers, drank themselves blind on fermented mare’s milk and Illyrio’s fine wines, and spat jests at each other across the fires, their voices harsh and alien in Dany’s ears. Food was brought to her, steaming joints of meat and thick black sausages and Dothraki blood pies, and later fruits and sweetgrass stews and delicate pastries from the kitchens of Pentos, but she waved it all away. Her stomach was a roil, and she knew she could keep none of it down.

 

 

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All the while the courses came and went. A thick soup of barley and venison. Salads of sweetgrass and spinach and plums, sprinkled with crushed nuts. Snails in honey and garlic. Sansa had never eaten snails before; Joffrey showed her how to get the snail out of the shell, and fed her the first sweet morsel himself. Then came trout fresh from the river, baked in clay; her prince helped her crack open the hard casing to expose the flaky white flesh within. And when the meat course was brought out, he served her himself, slicing a queen’s portion from the joint, smiling as he laid it on her plate. She could see from the way he moved that his right arm was still troubling him, yet he uttered not a word of complaint. Later came sweetbreads and pigeon pie and baked apples fragrant with cinnamon and lemon cakes frosted in sugar, but by then Sansa was so stuffed that she could not manage more than two little lemon cakes, as much as she loved them. 

 

Quote

Part of her wanted to be a swan. The other part wanted to eat one. She had broken her fast on some acorn paste and a handful of bugs. Bugs weren’t so bad when you got used to them. Worms were worse, but still not as bad as the pain in your belly after days without food. Finding bugs was easy, all you had to do was kick over a rock. Arya had eaten a bug once when she was little, just to make Sansa screech, so she hadn’t been afraid to eat another. Weasel wasn’t either, but Hot Pie retched up the beetle he tried to swallow, and Lommy and Gendry wouldn’t even try. Yesterday Gendry had caught a frog and shared it with Lommy, and, a few days before, Hot Pie had found blackberries and stripped the bush bare, but mostly they had been living on water and acorns. Kurz had told them how to use rocks and make a kind of acorn paste. It tasted awful.

 

 

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After the broth came a salad of apples, nuts, and raisins. At any other time, it might have made a tasty dish, but tonight all the food was flavored with fear. Crabclaw pies followed the salad. Then came mutton roasted with leeks and carrots, served in trenchers of hollowed bread. Lollys ate too fast, got sick, and retched all over herself and her sister. Lord Gyles coughed, drank, coughed, drank, and passed out. The last course was goat cheese served with baked apples. The scent of cinnamon filled the hall.

 

Quote

That night, Three-Finger Hobb cooked the boys a special meal to mark the occasion. When Jon arrived at the common hall, the Lord Steward himself led him to the bench near the fire. The older men clapped him on the arm in passing. The eight soon-to-be brothers feasted on rack of lamb baked in a crust of garlic and herbs, garnished with sprigs of mint, and surrounded by mashed yellow turnips swimming in butter. “From the Lord Commander’s own table,” Bowen Marsh told them. There were salads of spinach and chickpeas and turnip greens, and afterward bowls of iced blueberries and sweet cream.

 

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They began with a broth of crab and monkfish, and cold egg lime soup as well. Then came quails in honey, a saddle of lamb, goose livers drowned in wine, buttered parsnips, and suckling pig. The sight of it all made Tyrion feel queasy, but he forced himself to try a spoon of soup for the sake of politeness, and once he had tasted it he was lost. The cooks might be old and fat, but they knew their business. He had never eaten so well, even at court.

 

Quote

The dwarf studied the dish before him. The smell of garlic and butter had his mouth watering. Some part of him wanted those mushrooms, even knowing what they were. He was not brave enough to take cold steel to his own belly, but a bite of mushroom would not be so hard. That frightened him more than he could say. “You mistake me,” he heard himself say.

 

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The food was plain, but very good; there were loaves of crusty bread still warm from the ovens, crocks of fresh-churned butter, honey from the septry’s hives, and a thick stew of crabs, mussels, and at least three different kinds of fish. Septon Meribald and Ser Hyle drank the mead the brothers made, and pronounced it excellent, whilst she and Podrick contented themselves with more sweet cider.

 

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The first dish was a creamy soup of mushrooms and buttered snails, served in gilded bowls. Tyrion had scarcely touched the breakfast, and the wine had already gone. 

He called for more wine. By the time he got it, the second course was being served, a pastry coffyn filled with pork, pine nuts, and eggs. Sansa ate no more than a bite of hers, as the heralds were summoning the first of the seven singers.

 

Tyrion listened with half a ear, as he sampled sweetcorn fritters and hot oatbread baked with bits of date, apple, and orange, and gnawed on the rib of a wild boar.

 

Their feats were accompanied by crabs boiled in fiery eastern spices, trenchers filled with chunks of chopped mutton stewed in almond milk with carrots, raisins, and onions, and fish tarts fresh from the ovens, served so hot they burned the fingers.

 

Tyrion suffered through it with a double helping of honey-ginger partridge and several cups of wine. A haunting ballad of two dying lovers amidst the Doom of Valyria might have pleased the hall more if Collio had not sung it in High Valyrian, which most of the guests could not speak. But “Bessa the Barmaid” won them back with its ribald lyrics. Peacocks were served in their plumage, roasted whole and stuffed with dates

 

Four master pyromancers conjured up beasts of living flame to tear at each other with fiery claws whilst the serving men ladeled out bowls of blandissory, a mixture of beef broth and boiled wine sweetened with honey and dotted with blanched almonds and chunks of capon. Then came some strolling pipers and clever dogs and sword swallowers, with buttered pease, chopped nuts, and slivers of swan poached in a sauce of saffron and peaches.

 

A juggler kept a half-dozen swords and axes whirling through the air as skewers of blood sausage were brought sizzling to the tables

 

Tyrion was toying with a leche of brawn, spiced with cinnamon, cloves, sugar, and almond milk, when King Joffrey lurched suddenly to his feet.

 

 

[Glóin the Dark 1,218]

It will be ridiculous if the White Walkers are done away with early in the season! This is the "Song of Ice and Fire", after all, and the part played by the White Walkers is fundamental to it. They were even introduced in the cold open to Episode 1, despite not appearing in any other scene of that season.

 

I'm feel pretty confident that, while the conflict with the White Walkers will only be resolved near the end (probably the final episode, but maybe the penultimate one), the main point of the story will not be how the war is won, but rather about a restructuring of the power system in Westeros caused by that conflict.

[Nick1Ø66 4,687]

1 minute ago, Glóin the Dark said:

It will be ridiculous if the White Walkers are done away with early in the season! This is the "Song of Ice and Fire", after all, and the part played by the White Walkers is fundamental to it. They were even introduced in the cold open to Episode 1

 

I see what you did there.

[KK 3,307]

The GoT writers seem to no longer know how to write well crafted character scenes as they did in the earlier seasons (probably with the help of Martin's original text). They're going to milk their big budget production values for all they've got. 

[crocodile 7,973]

Season 8 will premiere in 2019, according to Sophie Turner.

 

Karol

[Jay 37,249]

I'm not surprised.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Jay 37,249]

That... sounds awesome!

[crocodile 7,973]

Got the Blu-ray set today. Will watch this later.

 

Karol

[Caliburn 72]

Ramin was live on Facebook yesterday with a small ensemble playing Game of Thrones music. For those who do not have Facebook, someone uploaded it to Youtube:

 

 

If you have time and money to go to the Game of Thrones live experience, I can certainly recommend it!

[Jay 37,249]

Sophie Turner describes reading the series finale with the cast

[Glóin the Dark 1,218]

Cinematographer Fabian Wagner says that he and Miguel Sapochnik are working on Episodes 3 and 5 of the final season.

 

(I hope this doesn't mean that David Nutter is directing three of the episodes...)

[crocodile 7,973]

While the set is somewhat light on extras, I absolutely love the extended art department featurettes. This is one of the aspects of the show that never disappoints.

 

Rewatched the entire season as well in two days. It's entertaining for the most part but feels considerably weaker than all the previous ones. Too weightless and too clean. I prefer a slower build-up. Feels more natural in the kind of carefully built world like this.

 

Karol

[Marian Schedenig 8,153]

On 02/12/2017 at 8:27 PM, Glóin the Dark said:

This is the "Song of Ice and Fire", after all

 

 

Actually, no. It's "Game of Thrones".

[Glóin the Dark 1,218]

4 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Actually, no. It's "Game of Thrones".

 

I'm not quite sure whether you meant that as a frivolous quip or a genuine counter-argument...

[Marian Schedenig 8,153]

A bit of both, I guess. They completely ignored the book series title for the entire series, so I don't exactly see them bound to making ice and fire their ultimate elements.

[Glóin the Dark 1,218]

I don't see that as being very significant - after all, the phrase "song of ice and fire" rarely appears in the text either (once, followed by a couple of callbacks shortly after, I think). Judging by what actually happens in the show, it's clear that they haven't chosen to downplay the role of the magical aspects of the story (dragons and White Walkers in particular); on the contrary, the story of the White Walkers has been accelerated.

[Marian Schedenig 8,153]

Well I'm not saying they're not going to do it that way if they want to. I just wanted to put your comment into perspective. I don't think the title of the book series has any real bearing on how they're structuring the final season, not now that they've already deviated from what we know of the books (and possibly even more from what we've yet to read).

[Glóin the Dark 1,218]

40 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

I just wanted to put your comment into perspective. I don't think the title of the book series has any real bearing on how they're structuring the final season...

 

Ah. In that case, it seems that my meaning was unclear. I didn't mean to advance the argument "This is the title of the book series, therefore this is how the show will go" (I would have written the title properly if referring to it directly). The fact that the book series is entitled A Song of Ice and Fire is merely an extra bit of evidence backing up what is already clear from the text; i.e., that the aspects of the story built around the resurgence of these magical forces are central to the plot rather than secondary. And, while Benioff and Weiss are indeed free to deviate from Martin's plans as they see fit, it's just as clear - even more clear, in fact - that these magical aspects are central to the TV show's version of the story. The notion (a fairly common assumption on Game of Thrones messageboards) that Season 8 will see the war against the White Walkers concluded in the first few episodes, only to be followed by another war for the Iron Throne, strikes me as bizarre (when viewed in the context of the entire series).

[A24 4,322]

First three episodes into the last season it dawned on me: This is my Star Wars now!

 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley have far more chemistry together than those 2 though.

[A24 4,322]

I loved that scene but I realize that I'm at JWFan, home of everything Star Wars.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Just keep watching, you'll understand what I mean

 

[A24 4,322]

Don't tell me there's going to be a romance between those two!

 

 

 

[Wojo 2,453]

4 minutes ago, Alexcremers said:

Don't tell me there's going to be a romance between those two!

 

Lol. 

[Jay 37,249]

2 hours ago, Alexcremers said:

First three episodes into the last season it dawned on me: This is my Star Wars now!

 

It's not the last season, there's a season 8 coming in 2019.

[Glóin the Dark 1,218]

I think he meant "last season so far"...

[Bilbo 3,709]

Yeah I would have thought that was obvious. 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Jason loves to be slightly pedantic.

[Wojo 2,453]

So when Jay says he went on vacation last summer, I hope he doesn't expect to DIE before next summer. 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Would you be interested in becoming Moderator after Jason dies, mstrox?

[Glóin the Dark 1,218]

- I know what you did last summer.

 

- It wasn't the the last summer. There's another one coming up in June...