i did not read the books so will certainly defer to the likely possibility that she's more engaging there. i find Clarke to be the weakest actor on the show and the symbolism of the great white emancipator to be one of the greatest missteps in the mythology.
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 16:16 (eight years ago) link
Dany's storyline keeps veering between reality of foreign occupation and Neocon fantasies of killing badguy leaders and people falling to knees in awe.
― Blowout Coombes (President Keyes), Friday, 20 May 2016 16:18 (eight years ago) link
the symbolism of the great white emancipator to be one of the greatest missteps in the mythology.
it's totally problematic, yes, and is kinda shown that way. That's what makes it interesting to me, moreso than some of the more standard medieval fantasy storylines, and especially ... Dorne.
― sarahell, Friday, 20 May 2016 16:33 (eight years ago) link
a deposed noblewoman in a foreign country going quasi-native and turning herself into a liberation/cult figure is a cool-ass idea but none of the people writing this shit are smart enough to make it interesting!!
― goole, Friday, 20 May 2016 16:35 (eight years ago) link
Didn't Heart of Darkness do that already?
― Jenny Ondioleeene (Leee), Friday, 20 May 2016 17:47 (eight years ago) link
sarahell otm
I like the idea of Dany and I do like looking at her but there's also this sense that she's the least intelligent person with any sort of power in Westeros and having her "win" this thing would sort of go against everything the series has set up so far.
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Friday, 20 May 2016 18:07 (eight years ago) link
was thinking a bit about how the show presents different philosophies of rule and power. almost as if cersei (matriarchal, aggressive, protective of family, self-interested, power as its own legitimacy) and ned (patriarchal, concerned with order and law, hierarchical) represent those two extremes, with other characters with power (Tywin, Dany, Jon) falling along that continuum. Maybe Jon's big flaw is that he's too much like Ned, too trusting of impersonal systems of power at the expense of random, emotional or personal elements (and maybe he's over that now). Dany is parallel to Jon and also seems to be on a narrative that seeks to balance these impulses. Power as Law/Order/Tradition vs Power as something more chaotic but also more substantial, power as Will--one without the other always fails.
― ryan, Friday, 20 May 2016 18:24 (eight years ago) link
she's the least intelligent person with any sort of power in Westeros
she's a teenager! And I would hardly call her the least intelligent, she actually is capable of learning from experience.
― sarahell, Friday, 20 May 2016 18:31 (eight years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/q3i0htD.jpg
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 18:32 (eight years ago) link
^ there's dozens of these to be found
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 18:33 (eight years ago) link
that one bizarrely leaves out cersei!!
― ryan, Friday, 20 May 2016 18:34 (eight years ago) link
as if a 3x3 grid wasn't nerdy enough ...
― sarahell, Friday, 20 May 2016 18:35 (eight years ago) link
wtf are these new alignments
― Mordy, Friday, 20 May 2016 18:40 (eight years ago) link
There is a frustrating (if unavoidable) contradiction at work in this show right now. It's awesome that developments have sped up. But if the end-goal remains what many have more or less predicted, then that sort of undercuts any drama and just leaves escapist entertainment. Which is fine, but weakens portent, because the faster it goes, the more fun/entertaining it becomes, yet the less room they have to maneuver around and tie up all the loose ends and mythology, if they're even going to bother. And some of those loose ends have become (imo) kind of tedious (like the sparrow's countless sit and talks, or Ramsey being evil). Some of the fan/viewer favorite compelling characters, like Dany and Jon, have become dead ends, because they *can't* die (again) and the pot of gold at the end of their story-rainbow is just waiting for them. And some of the show's best schemers, like Littlefinger and Tyrion, have been reduced to (un)canny operators with no clear role. I suppose the show could just upend any of these things, since it's already going away from the books,, but that would just in a way lessen the stakes even more and make things more chaotic.
Anyway, I'm enjoying this season, but all the early fealty to GRRM's machinations and twists and family trees and history and stuff has backed things into several different corners. Which could make a fun endless show, but ill-serves an episodic narrative that seems to be heading right where you think it's heading. Did like the question broached by a viewer in the Ask the Maester live chat: is Dany actually a bad guy? That would be kind of an interesting twist/idea, but don't know if they will/would/can go that route.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 20 May 2016 18:41 (eight years ago) link
mordy otm
― goole, Friday, 20 May 2016 18:45 (eight years ago) link
She's from a lineage if mad rulers!
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Friday, 20 May 2016 18:47 (eight years ago) link
SPOILER-ish
also, to continue with my scheme, it would make sense if the end game included some kind of union of Jon (Law) and Dany (Will).
― ryan, Friday, 20 May 2016 18:52 (eight years ago) link
Is that a spoiler? I thought the only thing we knew about her was that she was a targaryen with claims to the throne?
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Friday, 20 May 2016 19:07 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, not a spoiler.
― Evan, Friday, 20 May 2016 19:09 (eight years ago) link
oh i was thinking more about the role of Jon's lineage in the endgame--though it's not so much a spoiler these days.
― ryan, Friday, 20 May 2016 20:52 (eight years ago) link
It only is if it turns out to be true!
― Evan, Friday, 20 May 2016 20:56 (eight years ago) link
If it isn't it'll be a much bigger shock than if it is.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 20 May 2016 21:45 (eight years ago) link
Some of the fan/viewer favorite compelling characters, like Dany and Jon, have become dead ends, because they *can't* die (again) and the pot of gold at the end of their story-rainbow is just waiting for them.
They can care about things (including, possibly, each other), and once they care about things, they can suffer even if they win.
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 20 May 2016 22:28 (eight years ago) link
Yeah having Young Ned climb the Tower of Joy to just find his sister dead + no baby would be hilarious.
― El Tomboto, Friday, 20 May 2016 22:30 (eight years ago) link
I don't think there's any way that both Dany AND Jon survive the dragons v. zombies finale
― El Tomboto, Friday, 20 May 2016 22:31 (eight years ago) link
by the time they get to it, I don't think there's any way that both the cast members will live long enough
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 22:38 (eight years ago) link
dany and john can continue the proud targaryen heritage of incest if the rumors are true
― carthago delenda est (mayor jingleberries), Friday, 20 May 2016 22:43 (eight years ago) link
Targaryens incest[TM] is between siblings, and Dany would be Jon's aunt.
― Jenny Ondioleeene (Leee), Friday, 20 May 2016 22:53 (eight years ago) link
I get so bored I find myself wondering inane things. Where are the wildlings getting food? When they invade castle black and hugely outnumber the Knights watch then where are they being fed and where does the food come from? They don't have animals and can't grow anything. I know this is a fantasy show by the way.
Diana Rigg as head of the Tyrells is fucking awesome in this. Amazing performance. Grey worm is sure,y the worst performance other than that handsome chunky london accented guy who got beheaded in in dinaerys scenes the last season. Whatever happened to the guy who beheaded him btw? I forget.
― CRANK IT YA FILTHY BISM! (jed_), Saturday, 21 May 2016 03:22 (eight years ago) link
I feel a bit sorry for GRRM because whatever storyline(s) he'd come up with prior, the internet has so furiously worked out All Possible Outcomes that hes kinda fucked no matter what eventuates. He's been backed into a corner by the success of the show, and I dont blame him for freezing up on completing more books tbh. Caveat: havent read the books, the language frippery frustrated me.But at this point it seems like no matter what he does (or the showrunners for that matter) someone'll go AH HA I KNEW IT.
Fucking nerds.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Saturday, 21 May 2016 05:29 (eight years ago) link
BTW jed OTM about Diana Rigg. She's my favourite thing in the show at this point.
Do you think by the end of this season we'll find out whether or not Ramsay is evil?
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 21 May 2016 13:05 (eight years ago) link
The wildlings live off fish, game and raiding. Roughage from seaweed. Same as other societies north of arable land on our planet, I'd assume.
― El Tomboto, Saturday, 21 May 2016 14:25 (eight years ago) link
I'm sure GRRM has a few hundred pages on Wildling foraging and feasting
― Blowout Coombes (President Keyes), Saturday, 21 May 2016 19:03 (eight years ago) link
I see articles pointing out that Littlefinger said "Come and see" to Robin, the phrase repeAted in Ramsey's letter to Jon
― Blowout Coombes (President Keyes), Saturday, 21 May 2016 19:13 (eight years ago) link
pretty sure the 'come and see' in ramsey's letter is a revelations allusion
― balls, Saturday, 21 May 2016 19:22 (eight years ago) link
"come and see", yeah, an uncommon phrase like that is unlikely to be a coincidence I guess.
― silverfish, Sunday, 22 May 2016 00:37 (eight years ago) link
that was probably sarcastic but i do think that it's uncommon! at least, i've never said it, apart from when i subtly advertise my email subscription series of ocular erotica
― I look forward to hearing from you shortly, (Karl Malone), Sunday, 22 May 2016 00:44 (eight years ago) link
http://time.com/4340907/game-of-thrones-pink-letter-ramsay-bolton-littlefinger/
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Sunday, 22 May 2016 07:50 (eight years ago) link
Pink LetterRed WeddingWhite WalkersGreen DayCastle BlackRed WomanRed KeepProfessor PlumGreyjoy
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 22 May 2016 13:18 (eight years ago) link
acc to this theory how does littlefinger know that sansa escaped ramsey and that he has rickon? inside source in winterfell?
― Mordy, Sunday, 22 May 2016 13:29 (eight years ago) link
This was the case even before the show, though.
― Andrew Farrell, Sunday, 22 May 2016 13:44 (eight years ago) link
OK holy shit that reveal
― El Tomboto, Monday, 23 May 2016 01:23 (eight years ago) link
are they foregrounding the maesters conspiracy, which has been pretty much ignored prior to this?
― balls, Monday, 23 May 2016 01:47 (eight years ago) link
That was uneventful huh folks
― El Tomboto, Monday, 23 May 2016 02:04 (eight years ago) link
Yeah seriously when is the plot gonna move forward sheesh I'm so done with this show
― Star Wars ate shiitake (latebloomer), Monday, 23 May 2016 02:15 (eight years ago) link
Hold the door :,,,,,(
― Star Wars ate shiitake (latebloomer), Monday, 23 May 2016 02:16 (eight years ago) link
https://twitter.com/majtague/status/734566361519804416
― El Tomboto, Monday, 23 May 2016 02:18 (eight years ago) link
That was fucked up. Martin is fucked up. Had everybody out here making hodor jokes knowing full well what it meant.
― tsrobodo, Monday, 23 May 2016 02:30 (eight years ago) link
that was really silly lol
― 龜, Monday, 23 May 2016 02:40 (eight years ago) link