Game of Thrones [2]

There have been a few moments this season that have made me raise an eyebrow. And these are nothing to do with the books:

- The prison scene with the sandsnake getting her tits out. They were very nice tits however the whole scene seemed to serve no purpose other than to show some tits.

- Jorah seems to have infected Dany with greyscale.

- Lady at hardhome committing suicide against child skeletons and leaving her own kids without a mum.

- Bronn versus snakes choreography.

- Stannis split personality issues.

Sure there are plenty in previous seasons but these are off the top of my head things that I have really thought 'WTF?'

Lancebloke wrote:- The prison scene with the sandsnake getting her tits out.  They were very nice tits however the whole scene seemed to serve no purpose other than to show some tits.

Actually, the entier Dorne story line seemed to serve little other purpose.

Lancebloke wrote:- Jorah seems to have infected Dany with greyscale.

He was also very careful to touch Tyrion as much as possible.

Lancebloke wrote:- Lady at hardhome committing suicide against child skeletons and leaving her own kids without a mum.

Didn't you know maternal feelings is a weakness that could be exploited for emmotional impact?

Lancebloke wrote:- Bronn versus snakes choreography.

Lancebloke wrote:- Stannis split personality issues.

Yeah, making a character act one way and tehn the completely opposite is not writing conflicted characters. It's not writing characters at all.

A good list.

What I absolutely hate about fight scenes in movies and tv shows is the forced one-on-one combat in big fight scenes. This is when there's a big group against either one or a few defenders. The attackers take on the defenders one at a time, instead of them all ganging up at once and overwhelming the defenders. This was very prevalent in the final scene of episode 9 with the Sons of the Harpy surrounding Dany and her entourage in the pit.



Seriously, here you have about 60+ vs. less than 20. And yet they all go in one at a time for an individual skirmish. It makes no sense. If these people aren't afraid to die then they should all pile on and overwhelm them.

They did the same thing in LOTR and it drives me nuts. Aragorn fighting the Uruk Hai at Amon Hen is the first one that always comes to mind.



Oh, yeah, we've got 100 vs 1, but we'll take turns fighting him. Wouldn't want to overwhelm the hero. Seriously, compare that fight to fight between Lurtz and Aragorn, which is actually pretty good choreography.

Group choreographed fights are boring, and I'm sick to death of this "let's surround him in a circle or half circle and give him a fair chance." It's unrealistic, and writers/fight choreographers need to find a better way to stage fights.

Actually that Aragorn fight didn't look too obviously 1 on 1. One guy rushed him, then there were a couple on him, then he backed his way up the stairs which only allows 1 or 2 to get at him at a time. There's other worse examples out there...like perhaps the Sons of the Harpy scene.

I've got no clue what was going on there, but that was well done and a lot of fun to watch. I'll have to see the whole movie.

I think it was a secret weapon that Samuel L Jackson was making people turn into psychokillahs.

Now, that's a fight scene.

"Run away! Run away! Run away!"

Now, why is that so reminiscent of Yara at the Dreafort?

https://youtu.be/MGdXs9YU7w0?t=1m55s

Agreed about the church scene in Kingsman. One of the highlights of that film. Amazing to watch, especially on the big screen.

I thought the action in LOTR was generally pretty good. I tend to think Amon Hen is actually the best overall, though certainly not the most ambitious.

Orwell wrote:I just have my limits. Detest the way the women are treated. And all the Theon stuff was sickeningly gratuitist. And now Sansa! Admittedly, I should have objected long before now - but that was the last straw for me. I suspect GRRM will be outed as a paedophile or worse before long. Just saying...

What a ridiculous thing to say! I know this is from quite a while ago, but I had to say something. I mean really now!

Anyway, I've finally gotten up to episode 8. Unfortunately, the version of the show that I'm watching is of poor visual quality, and i can't really make out details that are obvious to those watching with better image clarity. The avalanche type-thing, whatever it was, when the wights were attacking was mostly just so much blurry fuzz on the screen, for example. I really liked the new dead wildling woman. She was nice to have around, while she was around, which, in a season with the likes of Ramsay, Sansa and other unlikeable idiots is a remarkably enjoyable reprieve.

I'm curious as to what your thoughts were on the episode Eldo? Or are they posted in the other discussion thread? I don't really know what the difference is supposed to be between the two of them, as their content seems to be interchangeable.

I didn't like the episode as much as others apparently did. I've been waiting for Tyrion and Danaerys to meet for so long, ever since the idea first came up in the books when I read them a while back, and now that it has finally happened I'm only disappointed and annoyed. Their chemistry was not impressive to my mind, and the content of their conversation was largely pointless and boring. "Oh hey I am the Imp, I kill Lannisters." "That's nice, advise me!" "Should we kill or not kill the guy who has grayscale and is going to die anyway??? My goodness the intrigue!

Perhaps if I was watching with higher quality and if my viewing companions weren't both asleep at the time I would have liked it more than I did.

Unfortunately, the version of the show that I'm watching is of poor visual quality, and i can't really make out details that are obvious to those watching with better image clarity. The avalanche type-thing, whatever it was, when the wights were attacking was mostly just so much blurry fuzz on the screen

Did you buy a bootleg copy in a laundromat?

Forest Shepherd wrote:I'm curious as to what your thoughts were on the episode Eldo? Or are they posted in the other discussion thread? I don't really know what the difference is supposed to be between the two of them, as their content seems to be interchangeable.

Using the other thread was mostly my thing, as I knew I was approaching this current season with quite a negative mindset which I didn't feel any need to push on anyone else. And I knew, most, people who were enjoying the show without the context of the books would keep out of that thread, and as such they could enjoy the series without my negativity at least. Eldo joined in every now and then, and Figg, despite not having read the books, which was nice. I guess general opinion has drifted enough in the negative direction as the season has progressed that the difference now is quite minimal, which is.. interesting to observe.    

Forest Shepherd wrote:I didn't like the episode as much as others apparently did. I've been waiting for Tyrion and Danaerys to meet for so long, ever since the idea first came up in the books when I read them a while back, and now that it has finally happened I'm only disappointed and annoyed. Their chemistry was not impressive to my mind, and the content of their conversation was largely pointless and boring. "Oh hey I am the Imp, I kill Lannisters." "That's nice, advise me!" "Should we kill or not kill the guy who has grayscale and is going to die anyway??? My goodness the intrigue!

Well, it was narratively unearned. And they bent through logical hoops to rush there, So, of course it fell flat. But as long as it creatively made sense, because they wanted it to happen.. (That is exactly the scene that quote was about, by the way. )

Forest Shepherd wrote:I'm curious as to what your thoughts were on the episode Eldo? Or are they posted in the other discussion thread? I don't really know what the difference is supposed to be between the two of them, as their content seems to be interchangeable.

Initially we just had the other thread (the ASOIAF one), but last year we started to get a lot more discussion of the show and there was some controversy over spoilers and the (over)use of spoiler tags so I tried creating a new show-only thread so that we could limit future book discussion to the other one and not have to tag it there.  But since then people's concern about spoilers has largely tied down, probably due to the increasingly significant diversions making it harder to use the books to predict anything and vice versa.  Since this thread is about to reach the length limit and the show is about to reach the same point that the books are at I've been wondering what to do, and might just create a new combined ASOIAF/GOT thread instead.  But what I'll probably do is just leave the two separate but remove some of the spoiler warnings.

Anyway, I made a few comments about episode eight several pages back in this thread, but I ended up not watching that episode until like half an hour before episode nine, so my comments on the two were kind of mixed together (and predominately about nine).  It's sometimes hard to remember exactly what occurs in each episode since the show is so serialized, but IIRC episode eight was pretty decent.  I'm glad that they didn't devote an entire episode to the Hardhome battle like they did with the Wall last season, but at the same time, the rest of the Hardhome plot felt rushed, largely because of how fast they were able to travel to and from it.  The battle itself was fairly well done but I still don't like the goofy skeletons as much as the wights they had in earlier seasons (and still have a few of I guess).  The death of the new wildling woman for being a  mother was pretty ridiculous, as other people have commented.  I guess the Night's King was kinda badass but generally I thought his staredown with Jon Snow was more unintentionally funny than anything else.  The white walkers are scarier when they're minimally explained and mysterious, not getting names (or titles) and indulging in melodramatic arm-waving and staredowns with mere mortals.  Also, do we really need yet another race of supernatural monsters who are afraid of water?  That final scene reminded me a lot of the Hobbits on Buckleberry Ferry staring back at the Ringwraith on the peer in the movie version of FOTR (it's book equivalent was much less "dramatic").

I get what you're saying about Tyrion and Dany's meeting. I thought it was more or less okay, but Emilia Clarke's terrible range makes it hard to invest too much in her character's emotions. My biggest gripe about the whole scene was Dany's inexplicable commitment to democracy (which has come up earlier in this season and/or S4).

I wonder what this is refering too.

so I watched eps 8 and 9. Loved every minute of them. Superb!!! so many feels, so many great scenes. cant make my mind up which I prefer but I think its Dany, Tyrion and Jorah. But the Hardhome battle had me on the end of my seat.  But yeah Drogon cant remember the last time I enjoyed anything on tv as much.

last episode is going to be epic.

Spoiler:

I'm actually pretty excited to see how things play out tonight. Been following the leaks this week (hadn't for any of the previous ones this season) and it sounds fucking insane.

I must admit this season has got better and better each episode. from a slow and boring start to this amazing end. The only meh scenes are in Dorne, but the rest of it is fabulous. This last episode is called mothers mercy, it could be a whole host of things. I was surprised by Shireens mother at the end, her winning least likely mother to care award in past seasons. The look on Stannis face, almost as emotionless as the dead king. So much shit could happen its unreal. I wonder if the spooky maester has something planned with his Frankenmountain? what if Jaime doesn't get back in time?, what happens to Tyrion and co? will Arya slip the needle into Ser nasty? wowzer!

We probably won't get answers to any of those questions!

It adds something for the series to be going into uncharted territory.

I wonder if Sansa will turn into lady Stoneheart?

lol

In and of itself, "for the watch" was done pretty well (except for the inclusion of Olly).  But the rushed and truncated plotline made robbed it of any real meaning beyond the emotional impact, though again, I'll acknowledge that they know how to deliver gut punches effectively.

The Brienne/Stannis scene was hilariously awful.  Ignoring the nascent "Stannis is alive" theories (he's got no red priestess on hand to even potentially revive him, unlike Jon Snow), it's a terrible conclusion of Brienne's arc.  She spends three and a half seasons desiring revenge against Stannis and gets it by ... delivering a coup de grace when he was helpless and already bleeding out?  Real fucking meaningful.

Arya's scenes were pretty effective this epsiode, probably the best part.

The pacing for the Dornish arc has been so wack.  Maybe they thought Myrcella being hurt in the beginning of the season would be predictable so they drew it out to turn it into a shock moment?  Idk.  Glad it's over.

The walk of atonement was done well and was appropriately disturbing.  It's supposed to be hard to watch.  I don't really like the handling of the Faith as a whole, but I think I've talked about that before.  Still hoping for a Cleganebowl.

Oh yeah, why the hell would Sam want to leave at this juncture?  There's no way he could think, post-Hardhome, that he has enough time to train as a maester before the white walkers come.  Just pure idiocy by characters as a result of mucking with the book's structure.  But I suppose they didn't want Sam to die at the Wall too.

For once, an actor interview was accurate and Sansa and Theon's ending kidna was "like the most ambiguous thing ever", as Sophie Turner put it.  Too bad about everything that led up to that moment.

Pretty entertaining rollercoaster type episode but too much dumb shit outweighs the entertaining elements for me.  Glad for those who still enjoy it though.

L-O-fucking-L.  I've said it before, but the media are a thousand times worse at spoilers than book readers ever were.  The URL for this EW story...

Spoiler:

But more importantly, Kit Harrington doesn't seem to believe the resurrection theories.

EDIT: okay the retardation here was too much for me not to highlight one more example:

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/06/jon-snow-dead-game-of-thrones-azor-ahai-melisandre-warg

Page title: "Is Jon Snow Really Dead on Game of Thrones?"

First sentence: "There are big time spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 5, Episode 10, “Mother’s Mercy.” I’ve never been more serious about a spoiler warning. If you haven’t seen the finale yet, proceed with caution."

Have I mentioned before that entertainment journalism disgusts me?

So what happened to Jon Snow is canon?!?!! I'm absolutely fine with the show. Please tell me the books aren't like this season, because if they are I'm not ever going to pick them up...