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

stannis speech made me think he's gonna die soon.

sand snakes scene and the fight scene were some mst3k type stuff. though i cant really complain too much, as i like it when the show embraces its own silliness.

but this season is a slog so far.

redditors lean toward hot takes tho, especially where stuff for teh nerds is involved

I'm sure that you guys just were rubbed the wrong way by the scene which is totally fine, of course, but for me it feels symptomatic (in a tangential way) of some people still not being quite able to take this show seriously and suspend disbelief w/o being shaken out of it by various things. perhaps it stems from the urge to memeify everything

(xp)

in the micro sense it could've been a bit better but the dornish (those related to oberyn anyhow) have been set up (even to non-book viewers) as kinda self serious and intense, it seems in keeping with what I would expect of them.

in closing, I think things are accelerating now! jorah's presence is a wrinkle in tyrion's journey and not a detour. jaime in dorne is about to run into a lot of trouble. the faith militant are going buckwild in a single episode. the sons of the harpy attack was brutal and I don't think anyone expected them to move that fast or that boldly

agreed upthread, the dorne scenes have thus far been either uninteresting or unintentionally hilarious (re: sand snakes). the rest of the show does feel now to be moving toward something, which is a great improvement over the last few eps

I was a little annoyed with the ending faight scene as well in that, in my opinion, it would take at least that many experienced/trained fighters to overwhelm an elite group of unsullied, Grey Worm AND Selmy (even old man Selmy), and I'd prefer it require at least twice the amount of losers in masks with daggers. Even with them trapped in an alleyway. Sons of the Harpy were too formidable... feel like you'd need a much bigger swarm of them. Unsullied didn't even lock into any cool formations. Booooo.

it's a narrow passageway! in a city the unsullied are still learning the ins and outs of vs. an enemy with the element of surprise and the inspiration of fundamentalist rage

I'm sure that you guys just were rubbed the wrong way by the scene which is totally fine, of course, but for me it feels symptomatic (in a tangential way) of some people still not being quite able to take this show seriously and suspend disbelief w/o being shaken out of it by various things. perhaps it stems from the urge to memeify everything

― slothroprhymes, Monday, May 4, 2015 8:25 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm taken out of it when in one scene the acting is fantastic (Stannis, Tyrion) and then in the next devolves into NCIS corniness (sand snakes). Hopefully their scenes improve! I'll remain hopeful.

Passageway wasn't that narrow, whatever.

It's just all those guys were so hyped throughout the series that I wanted them to be just a little more resilient vs. a gang of masked noobs with daggers.

obv. a Black Hawk Down scenario

yeah the unsullied/harpy flight was definitely lame given that it was supposed to be elite troops vs citizens. and worm and barry were just thrown away, no real narrative importance or dramatic impact. it was just, hey guess what these guys died.

i'm guessing the narrative importance is that Jorah is on his way back and Dani is down a couple of allies

Even down to inconsistencies like how awhile back one unsullied dude got his nipple sliced off without wincing but Grey Worm howled in pain when he was stabbed.

Sure that's a TOTALLY petty point but when you never see these guys in action (including Selmy) and they're constantly hyped you expect those character attributes to get validated clearly THEN you watch them get overwhelmed by the Harpy dudes and it's tragic etc. etc.

Please remember I know these are relatively minor gripes.

BTW I'm pretty sure Grey Worm at least lives on, given clues via the original season trailer and the "next on GoT" trailer.

Just speculation though, in case that sounded too spoilery.

I found it jarring how formidable the harpies were too. Like, unless it's revealed that they brought in ringer mercenaries from outside the city to wear their masks and kill dany's ppl, it's lame storytelling.

the harpies outnumbered them but they still all died.

It would have made more sense for the story if they resorted to more terrorism-style traps like a barrage of arrows/fire/oil or something. Why would a bunch of civilians with masks and daggers throw themselves at trained fighters in armor? Because masks and daggers is their "thing"? They acted like expendable henchmen instead of motivated terrorists with a cause.

OK I'm done nit picking now, promise.

The unsullied entered through a perpendicular passageway and were then capped in the middle by the harpy. Couldn't they have backed out of the same passage they entered from and taken the fight out in the open?

seems like brothels are the worst place to go in westeros these days.

the faith militant are legit scary.

they are only a background presence in the books -- i like them getting more attention in the show

idk why I watch this anymore tbh but I do appreciate them foregrounding religion more. for a show/series extrapolated from medieval history the prior lack of an explicit political role for religious institutions was a headscratcher. Ditto the economy although that's a little more understandable (no one wants to see a bunch of talking heads blathering about interest rates and trade agreements)

no one wants to see a bunch of talking heads blathering about interest rates and trade agreements

if they were disembodied and set on spikes, sure, why not?

lots has been made of the lannister's economic powers, and social classes, masters vs slaves, and etc. maybe finance is in the background, but economy is truly present in GoT.

previous rulers on the show (robert, tywin) have made numerous offhand references to needing to keep religion in its place, robert couldn't care less and tywin was a secularist. it makes sense that with the war winding down and its refugees seeking solace in something/anything and blaming everyone but the gods for their probs, that religion would take a firmer hold.

it gives the show a chance to have some allegorical relevance that it has not necessarily had in the past, as does the mission-accomplishedesque occupation of meereen by daenerys

xp absolutely, by the third episode of the first season budget meetings are happening!

makes me think of my favorite tyrion line about money when tywin names him master of coin: "a lifetime of enormous wealth doesn't mean i've had success managing it!

Characters that’ve disappeared:

Anguy
Balon Greyjoy
Benjen Stark
Beric Dondarrion
Brandon Stark
Brotherhood Without Banners
Brynden Tully
Edmure Tully
Gendry
Hodor
Ilyn Payne
Meera Reed
Osha
Rickon Stark
Thoros
Yara Greyjoy

Balon died last season, did he not?

balon greyjoy is still alive afaik, i would also be really surprised if we never saw the other greyjoys again

xp absolutely, by the third episode of the first season budget meetings are happening!

makes me think of my favorite tyrion line about money when tywin names him master of coin: "a lifetime of enormous wealth doesn't mean i've had success managing it!

― slothroprhymes, lundi 4 mai 2015 13:01 (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

#occupykingslanding afaic

Brynden Tully whereabouts is the least excusable loose end imo

Tyrion singing through the gag was hilarious. His best moment of the series so far.

I don't have the faintest clue how many Harpy people there are. I mean, did they just kill the majority of them?

I wonder how many days it takes each cast member to shoot all of their scenes in a season. Like a week? Each actor probably has about 20 minutes of screen time total each year.

Jaime and Bronn's task seems more impossible than it did before, I thought they were going to go openly and talk. It's a bit too crazy.

I'm really anxious about Varys. How is the poor guy coping with this?

I hope they cut to him knocking on a bathroom stall door back at the brothel "you almost done, buddy? you alright?"

a guy with varys's weight could well have digestive issues its tru

I meant that he thought Tyrion was still pissing in one.

I don't get how Cersei is summoning Littlefinger, and thus obviously knows where he is and what he is doing, and is therefore somehow cool with him having spirited Sansa away?

nah i don't think she knows the extent of his plans. would also not put it past baelish to ignore her summons if he thought it was necessary

Jamie finally twigs that having a solid metal hand can be of some use in combat.

Intense episode, especially all of the swift, out-of-nowhere bad guy attacks. Though I would have expected Ser Lloras and his men to put up more of a fight.

Cersei stepping up and playing the game - using Tommon's ineffectual leadership to undermine Margery was a pretty good power play, though empowering a puritanical army to stamp out sinners is a preeetty risky strategy for her.

The Jon Snow/Melisandre scene was just weird. "I'm going to show you something", "not one of your visions", "nope" *whips out tits*

The Jon Snow/Melisandre scene was just weird. "I'm going to show you something", "not one of your visions", "nope" *whips out tits*

ha ha my wife fell asleep for a split second during this scene and woke up thoroughly confused.

it's game of thrones, and boobs were exposed. seems pretty straight forward to me!

economy of westeros is a murder + boobs-based economy

jon snow if anyone needs 2 fuck its u

i mean u killed yr girl in tribal warfare its time to move on

^^^^real talk

Surely it's clear that Cersei doesn't know about Sansa?

ya its a secret