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

after the 2nd sand snakes scene i agree with crits of the acting, but the writing is literally no different than any other self serious character on the show, of which there are many

The whole Sand Snakes narrative is terribly acted and written, and a silly gif of awkward larping kind of sums the entire thing up.

New display name, thanks

lol

More Siddig would be a major help. Most of the Dorne chapters are just his musings anyhow, seems like there's a lot to pull from.

Well again, had I not read the books I would have no real understanding of who the hell the sand snakes are and why they just popped up at that moment.

Wasn't it just last week that they had that long scene with the Sand Snakes getting a pep talk about swooping down on Myrcella and killing her in repayment for Oberon's death?

Maybe - I may have been distracted with a lot of 'what the hell did she just say' or 'why is she talking like that' etc. I guess with a show this big one scene per storyline is all you're gonna get. I just thought it was sketchy.

Awkward Larping would be a really cool band name, if it wasn't so geeky

its redundant

Wait why wasn't Areo Hotah surprised to see Jaime Lannister? I'm just realizing he didn't seem phased at all by this.

He's ready for anything.

areo hotah is a superchill norvoshi warrior dude, basically as close as you get to having unsullied levels of cool calm collected w/o being enslaved, mentally broken and castrated

is that the secret to being stress free and confident?

uh no, grey worm does not seem to be having a good time and not just bc of the stab wounds currently healing, missandei showing up for comfort prob only does so much.

even before that he seemed depressed a lot

wld be cool if grey worm turned out to have a hot throbbing peen

SURPRISE

tbf i dont think he's said for that reason even, just generally glum, it probably really sucks in meereen and everywhere else in slaver's bay

*sad

on the plus side, adewale akinnuoye-agbaje is back home at HBO. hope he and his merry band of slavers get a spinoff.

"The dwarf will live until we find a suitable cockmerchant."

otm

looking forward to us following their saga as they reject dozens of unsuitable cockmerchants

i'm sure it won't take long if they're headed for Volantis's famed cockdistrict.

just ask a local cockfarmer

Yeah, love Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. Great to see him in anything. Still wondering when his autobio movie will be out. Maybe if he gets his Black Panther(Marvel) role.

Wow, Theon looked great in those clothes!

Thought either Theon would stop Ramsay, Sansa would slip out a dagger or signal somebody outside. Maybe there's still time?

Please Varys turn up soon and save someone somehow. Or Osha, or Gendry.

I know the characters acknowledge that Bronn and Jaime's trip is an extremely difficult one but it just seems a bit too daft that they're counting on stealthily stealing her. Was this not planned as a more diplomatic meeting that might get rough?

Seemed like way more comedy slipping in this episode.

Some decent music in the episode. I usually don't take much notice of it.

Starting to think Littlefinger and maybe Olenna are orchestrating Cersei's death. Probably keeping in mind her "power is power" threat to him.

I was sure for so long that he loved Sansa but now I'm not so sure, because she doesn't seem that safe from either Ramsay or the wars that will break out.

i have little sense of littlefinger's long term plan here but maybe he just enjoys duplicity for its own sake

This is prob the worst ep of the show so far

The past 3 have been so boring

It did feel pretty creaky a few scenes but I think it's getting pretty good.

cerseis situation is p dicey and fascinating, kings landing politics are always the best part of the show

dunno what littlefinger is up to seems like if cersei has offered him the north upon receipt of sansas head thats a p good incentive for him to do it

cersei fucking over the tyrells good lord what is she thinking!

maybe littlefinger will go to them looking for a better offer

cersei fucking over the tyrells good lord what is she thinking!

Clearly she is not. #disappointeddeaddad

I've been trying to give this season the benefit of the doubt, but it's really not as good is it? Even the better storylines lack the same heft as before, and the Dorne stuff is a joke pretty much. Hopefully they'll bring it round for the home stretch.

May have to tolerate the horrific Sansa plotline as the idea of Winterfell being simultaneously besieged by Stannis Kru, the supposed hardmen of the Vale and Team Yara plus Brienne is just about tantalising enough. If at least half a dozen major characters die in the finale it'll be worth it.

Also team Dany and Tyrion will hopefully be good.

They must have a problem because by this point the books are all ramble and colour and very little plot, so they've had to firm up the bits of plot and change an awul lot to try to construct something with narrative thrust.

i really hate the dorne stuff! sand snakes are really bad and grating (and the fight choreography is not helping) and meanwhile alexander siddig has... nothing to do. chap and ithappens otm. was hoping that theyd be able to rescue post-storm of swords asoiaf but im not sure they are

The general aimlessness of the last two books were somewhat redeemed by some nuanced political scheming and power balancing which they seem to have more or less eschewed here.

Also Crows in particular has some compelling portraits of how the war has affected the small folk, none of which is evident this season. Though they did touch on that a bit in s4.

If I were just tuning in this season I would be pretty confused about why this show is supposed to be any good. It's a tremendous fall-off, not just in terms of plotting—everything outside King's Landing looks so cheap.

It seems like in seasons past they've been able to take two characters on the road together w/ some humor & pathos (Arya/Hound, Brienne/Jaime, Bran/Hodor+, Samwell/Gilly etc) but the Jaime/Bronn stuff has this cardboard lazy Hope-Crosby feel (Like when they lift up their snake masks? "Uh-oh, look what we've gotten ourselves into now!") Even the Tyrion/Jorah scenes seem sort of aimless.

the sprawl of the show kind of sucks. It was at its best in ssn 2/3 when Tyrion was playing against a whole bunch of characters in King's Landing

yeah and I get that there's a need for a certain amount of exposition because of that sprawl but they're halfway through the season already and no real momentum

i was fairly critical of it upthread but i thought the most recent ep had a bit more sense of momentum, at least a battle is on the way.

btw was that stuff with arya meant to imply that "becoming someone else" equals becoming an assassin as per her introduction to these guys? whereas "becoming no one" was some other process?

everything outside King's Landing looks so cheap

Only applies to the Dorne stuff really - the recent shots for the crumbling stoneface ruins were superb. I want to live in whatever countryside Tyrion and Jorah were travelling through.

Jamie and Bronn's plan was up there with Luke's idea of rescuing Han in Return of the Jedi - 'yea, let's just stroll right up there in broad daylight and see what happens - o snap, we've been caught :/'

Apparently they are way 'off book' with this series, and it looks as if generating their own new plot ideas isn't their strongest suite. In fact, the writing in this was pretty cynical and lazy, imo.

i'm finding the arya stuff utterly interminable, which she is too so hey maybe it's a very very clever way of attuning the viewer to her experience.

Nah the Arya bits are cool, really atmospheric.

i do also have the problem that on my laptop screen it just looks like a bunch of vaguely defined figures moving around in pitch darkness

this was definitely the weakest episode of the season and one of the weaker installments overall, although i really liked the tyrion, cersei and arya scenes. also ADEBISI LIVES

that said i've really enjoyed this season, mostly bc i've stopped caring overmuch about where it all ends up, being overly concerned with "sticking the landing" or w/e is one of the biggest problems w/ how we (royal we) watch serialized television imo