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

Not really clear on what the fire "tells" him as a result of the sacrifice...

"Show us the way"

So either they're trying to get the god of fire to say "thataway" in a literal sense, or otherwise somehow except it to show them how to win?

"OK thanks for the child sacrifice. yeesh... anyway, so what you do is take 500 men to flank up north. Then, fire some arrows over the southern ridge, cause... (etc)"

Or does it just give a vague magic 8 ball answer to their vague question? Would it just show an image of Stannis sitting in Winterfell giving the thumbs up?

i don't think it was meant to show them anything. it's a sacrifice sacrafice, that's meant to assure him victory or kill his enemies through a really bad flu or a falling satellite or something like that.

are you not entertained

brutal but gr8 episode imo

then again I've been in the tank for most of this season aside from episode 6 bc I do not pick the nits

xps upthread yes you need to be in direct physical contact with active greyscale (stannis can touch shireen's face bc her infection is gone, only disfigurement remains

I guess I'm just going by the previous "visions in the fire" stuff. Figured it worked the same here.

Xposts

the idea is that it would both provoke a precise vision and also influence the outcome. like think of it as the equivalent to juicing in sports

while also reading the opposing team's playbook and getting live advice from a genius ex-coach

respect stannis for going for the gold

at this point I know nothing - they're entirely off-book w his plotline so the following is CATEGORICALLY NOT a spoiler - but calling it now shit is gonna end real bad for stannis

that ep was p fn dire all around

i hope stannis is successful that wld really be the darkest possible turn the show cld take

never ending story otm
this one kinda sucked.
incidentally, the whole badassery of the unsullied has been pretty much completely undone by general plot pushing. These guys suck as bodyguards

they were never billed as being individually brilliant to a man the whole idea is that they're excellent as giant groups in infantry combat, they have said that from jump

some like grey worm are pretty solid in single combat but many are not bc they're used to being part of a unit, and folks seem to be getting very literalist about their whole style idgi

point being, an ambush is not really where soldiers who function best as a large collective siege weapon is going to shine and that is basically the whole idea! like it was in the alley

*are going

This one got me

u crazy for this one, stannis

i mean, it's as classic as classic gets, but iirc things didn't work out great for agamemnon

i hate dorne

this episode was laughably bad. what has actually happened this season? p much nothing and even the massive ep last week was just the white walkers doing something.

the dragon riding looked awful and was just cheesy generally. and yeah, dorne is just a farce, did they really have to do all that just so the prince of dorne goes to westeros?

most storylines are just going around in circles, like just as arya is about to do something she ends up in one eyed-jack's, daenarys is still just dealing with the same shit of how to rule, over and over again. stannis is stuck where he is so onion knight has to go back to castle black to ask for another episode's worth of an alliance with the knight's watch. presumably that'll happen so they get to actually have something happen in the finale.

worst season so far by a long way.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2015/06/08/game-of-thrones-season-5-episode-9-review-the-dance-of-dragons/

this review is absolutely hilarious - from the amazing opening punchline all the way through.

Lol at that review "You guys ruined Stannis for me!"

Maybe Stannis can go on a quest with some misfit and we'll forgive the child murder like with the King Slayer

...who returned to King's Landing only to rape his sister-lover in front of the cold corpse of his nephew-son...

So do we really think Jorah gave Daenerys a House In Valyria?

Lol at that review "You guys ruined Stannis for me!"

it's the way they keep going back to it over and over. it reads like an onion opinion piece entitled "I will never accept the sacrifice of Stannis's daughter".

I’m getting angrier as I write. It’s a thoroughly cruel and stupid decision on the part of Weiss and Benioff. The worst they’ve made in the entire show’s run. If I were more prone to rage-quitting, I might rage quit now and be done with this nonsense. As it stands, well, I still enjoy the show quite a lot. I still like what they’ve done, changes and all, even if I hate this change.

And besides, I’m a critic first and foremost and a fan second in this role. As a fan, I will swallow this bitter pill and move forward. As a critic I can do little more than shake my head at the utter horror not just of this scene, but of the showrunners’ decision. What a joke.

time to move on. or is it...

Perhaps his death will be one of the few happy things we get this season, which has become so utterly bleak thanks to the stupid, stupid decision of the show’s writers to have Stannis kill his own daughter.

Granted, Stannis killed his own brother, but he had no real fondness or love for his siblings. The only place his cold exterior ever chipped and melted was in the presence of his daughter, and he let the Red Priestess kill her. But I digress.

later

I kind of like this change, minus a few quibbles with the whole lack of basic security measures thing. It’s certainly a better change than Shireen being murdered by her father at the stake

What did you think of the episode? Am I overreacting to Shireen’s death?

i mean i get that it was a horrible scene but the fact was this episode was too shit for it to have the impact it deserved.

jesus fucking christ Game of Thrones this might have been .... too much.

charge it to the game

ya this ep was unflaggingly brutal maybe they r just gonna punish us the rest of the way, we are bad we like dragons and deserve to suffer

not sure where the rest of the season is headed, also thought this was a bummer ep, but wasn't surprised by the daughter sacrifice. i actually thought that scene was well done, given that it seems they could have gone deeper into the image. people getting sad over stannis is pretty funny, remember how he chopped davos' fingers off? and sired a demon that murdered his own bro? cmon dudes

yeh stannis was introduced as a madman in thrall to some kind of bloodthirsty god, i suppose the fact his god is real and has effects has made that seem like less of a negative thing but it's still been there

stannis is good stannis is very old testament

im glad the giant made it even tho he seemed sad

yeah stannis is actually a pretty interesting character since he seems to have an authentically medieval mindset.

felt like the whole thing could have been set up better than it was, however. the cheap reversal stuff (I love my daughter! burn her!) is one of the bigger flaws in the writing for me.

sir davos not gonna be happy abt this!

i wonder if the sacrifice will bring forth some more powerful magic force

He kinda knew which somewhat limits the fuss he can kick up. xp

not sure where the rest of the season is headed, also thought this was a bummer ep, but wasn't surprised by the daughter sacrifice. i actually thought that scene was well done, given that it seems they could have gone deeper into the image. people getting sad over stannis is pretty funny, remember how he chopped davos' fingers off? and sired a demon that murdered his own bro? cmon dudes

― head clowning instructor (art), Monday, June 8, 2015 10:15 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

To be fair there's a bit of a discrepancy between this and those other things. Renly thing was brutal but both are adults fighting for power. Shireen is just so perfectly innocent and lovable and they went out of their way to establish the father daughter connection. Stannis kept her from being banished because he loved her. We were relatively JUST introduced to this side of Stannis, perhaps the only evidence of him making a decision due to love. And that's the real issue I have, is that it feels like that should have been established much earlier so we have a good chunk of time in between where we see desperation and reliance on religion break down the practical minded Stannis to the point where he's reduced to this. I think they may have tried to do exactly that but rushed it a bit?

Hard to stay practical when you've seen the smoke monster from Lost come out of a woman's vagina.

In certain ways the tension between his practical sense and new found religiosity could have encompassed all that but they've never really showed him agonising over it, just witty sardonic barbs.

u guys better get to work they rewrites arent just gonna rewrite themselves

As someone who hasn't seen this ep yet but is familiar with Stannis from the books and the show, this seems like a necessary correction to remind viewers of exactly who Stannis is and the inexorable, insatiable drive for power that has consumed him since the kingdom went up for grabs.

isn't stannis burning ppl the first time we see him?

he was angry and needed a shave

he does love to burn ppl

he's basically Roose Bolton redux and always has been

stannis has principles, or at least he thinks he does, this is very important to him

i liked his speech to his daughter abt fulfilling ones destiny even if u dont like it, hes all messed up inside

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CG9Cur9UQAE0_Bf.jpg