HBO adaptation of Game of Thrones - will this be just for nerds? (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

couldn't stop laughing at the little nod the kid gave Jon Snow after he iced Ygritte

perfectly timed here imo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4oQzTGTc_g

YES

did the attacks in the book come at night or is that mostly a way to save cgi moneys?

iirc everything equiv to the books from last episode took place at night, yes. martin's probably at his worst when writing battles/action (a lot of this kinda stuff in the books is just downright confusing to read, for me at least) so i probably tuned out a fair bit of it.

blackwater bay stuff took place during the day though and they shifted that to night in the show explicitly to save cash.

climbing up the wall seems like a bad plan, especially at the exact point where all the crows are, especially after declaring ur gonna do it by lighting a big fire

― lag∞n, Monday, June 9, 2014 5:09 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also not coordinating w the giants attempting to open the gate

― lag∞n, Monday, June 9, 2014 5:10 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

not so sure abt this mance guys leadership ability

― lag∞n, Monday, June 9, 2014 5:11 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah I was thinking this too. Wouldn't a whole army helping open that gate have sped things up? And yeah going up the wall, which probably would take hours, is kind of pointless when the dudes at the top could just shove your forehead and send you all the way to the bottom. Or say you actually DID hoist yourself up over the edge... you're gonna fight people now?

Apparently in the books the raid via the south was a separate battle with the intention that they'd just open the gate for the wildling army from the inside. TV adaptation has them climbing a gigantic wall in the one place they're defending it.

May be too big.

http://37.media.tumblr.com/4a1b19a87353344d8c2ed940a2762ebb/tumblr_n6vveaVZrP1sys9eso7_1280.jpg

Open in new tab to see full size.

First episode of this season I've enjoyed. Too often it seems like a series of vaguely connected scenes with no forward trajectory. Odd, then, that it took a big dumb battle scene for me to actually feel like I'm invested in any of it.

Yeah I was thinking this too. Wouldn't a whole army helping open that gate have sped things up? And yeah going up the wall, which probably would take hours, is kind of pointless when the dudes at the top could just shove your forehead and send you all the way to the bottom. Or say you actually DID hoist yourself up over the edge... you're gonna fight people now?

from a tactical perspective, forcing the watch to spread their forces (defending against the climbers plus those assaulting the gates etc.) makes sense. plus as they said in the show this was a test of the castle's defenses so the wall assault could have fit with that idea.

realistically it was just a vehicle for that anchor thing to smash up the ice

Totally fun episode. But still seems like 100,000 wildings with mammoths and giants and cannibal freaks should have been able to at least off Sam Tarly and the elevator operator kid.

i kept thinking about how fucked they'd be at the top if only someone thought to disable the elevator

ya - taking the steps would be annoying for sure.

And how does that elevator work? Does the kid have to turn a crank to raise it?

did the attacks in the book come at night or is that mostly a way to save cgi moneys?

I seem to recall the battle taking place over several days and nights in the book, but I could be misremembering.

Brio says "But still seems like 100,000 wildings with mammoths and giants and cannibal freaks should have been able to at least off Sam Tarly and the elevator operator kid."

Only a very small portion attacked that night. Looked like 150 at most.

i'm so confident in this prediction that i'm going to go ahead and call it a spoiler: jon snow has a highly contagious disease and that's why he's going on a solo/suicide mission to confront the wildlings. he's just going to approach the camp and then logroll around on people until everyone's dead

jon snow is a highly contagious disease

Only a very small portion attacked that night. Looked like 150 at most.

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, June 10, 2014 11:19 AM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah that was just the small band of wildlings that were already on the other side of the wall

early in the episode, right after the little fireside exchange between ygritte and lolhueg cannibal, who do we see sneaking along the ridge above them? Gilly?

i liked that Tormund's go-to story is about fucking a bear.

ha yeah and everyone thinks its super cool

And how does that elevator work? Does the kid have to turn a crank to raise it?

yeah this bugged me too

magic

Yeah that was Gilly. What's her face saved her from the nearby town raid and set her on her way to Castle Black I'm guessing.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/television/2014/04/game_of_thrones_deaths_mourn_dead_characters_at_their_virtual_graveyard.html

ugh can't believe people's love for this episode. so many minutes of all the reasons i don't give a shit about this show. less fights more ingenious plots please.

i mean it doesn't surprise me: people love action sequences, and this is what keeps superhero franchises afloat. but i find it so dull.

esp as so little even changed at the end of all that hack 'n slash. ygritte dead, some recurring characters exed, but basically still: big army vs tiny army, TUNE IN NEXT WEEK.

Eh. Show's not really hurting for more of people scheming and threatening one another, it's OK to pay off all the set-up of moving armies and impending doom with a big battle set piece episode like once every other season.

This was well done and kind of impressive spectacle for TV. Dug it.

especially since this show's been pretty light on massive battles and the wildling army is as big as they come. I think what was lacking was the buildup to it. It was more like, now here's an episode about the Wall. But I've found this season pretty choppy overall in terms of narrative flow.

Glad to see I’m not alone Sean, most boring episode by far of the season.

And how does that elevator work? Does the kid have to turn a crank to raise it?

someone in this max-led recap/discussion says you can see the boy getting a horse to pull it at some point in the episode.

Yeah, this has been a very 'talky' season and the penultimate episode is always the big gory bouquet anyway. I agree that long action-based episodes can get a bit boring, but this had some great bits. I especially liked the doomy, arch hypothesising from all parties as they await the attack and their certain deaths.

I'm sure I saw the kid push the crank to raise the elevator? What are you all on about?

yeah I saw him push something too but maybe it was the handbrake or something. idk. We need to see the blueprints.

(I'm not quite interested enough in the question to rewatch in order to spot whether there's a crank-horse. (almost though))

Enjoyed the episode more than I thought I would. I've been regularly slightly bored this season, especially with anything Northern - the wall, those kids tramping around with the dream trees etc. Joyless, sluggish. But this was fun.

I thought last seasons was the slow burning, slightly boring one (until the wedding episode anyway) and this season's been more fun, mostly.

It was like a big wheel with a rudder that he pushed round.

Something really has to happen with those dreamtree kids. I don't even remember how Bran met them or who they are - they just seemed to show up and have all this mystic knowledge and I think that's a big reason I don't give a hoot about them.

They are the kids of the lord of Moat Calin, the grotty castle we saw Theon retake from the Iron Islanders recently. They know the Starks from way back.

that is not entirely correct. in the books the reeds are of greywater watch, sw of moat cailin.

Oops my mistake. Been a while since I read the books.

especially since this show's been pretty light on massive battles and the wildling army is as big as they come.

― lauded at conferences of deluded psychopaths (Sparkle Motion), Wednesday, June 11, 2014 1:03 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tbf this episode was pretty light on massive battles too, how many people were actually involved in it 60?

My main problem with this episode was the ending. So the entire episode was devoted to a test of the defences? And now Mance Rayder is just going to take a break and allow the crows to set up all the defensive stuff again, get some sleep, etc? The lack of resolution and any kind of consequence was awful, and it seems as if they just structured the story like this to try and get another Blackwater.

http://giant.gfycat.com/IdleDamagedKiskadee.gif

haha that kid was so proud of himself after he shot Ygritte, best scene of the evening after the Scythe

xpost - I don't know why all the thousands of wildlings have decided to take a break?

On the elevator- the kid pushes a crank that sets things in motion and it goes by itself at that point. Just... don't think about it too hard ok? Gears and stuff.

Maybe the wildlings are reassembling due to some key giants taken down + wild gigantic mammoth running away (key for gate removal) + scythe induced PTSD. I still agree that the TV rewrite having the wildlings attacking via wall is entirely for the theatrics and nobody would actually try that for any reason.

But either the wildlings only had two giants and a mammoth, in which case it makes no sense to throw all of that at the wall and only a fraction of the wildlings, or they have many more giants and mammoths, in which case they should use them now before the crows get more barrels of oil up to the top. It's all just weird.

They sacrificed logic for theatrics, and thereby created an episode that becomes less and less satisfying.

Wildlings are totally useless if they don't get to bed before 10:30 sharp.

seriously, you have no idea.

I just like to imagine that there was some reason only a handful got to the wall at the point that they did and were hoping it would be an easier siege than it was.