HBO's adaptation of Game of Thrones - Thread 2. There are a lot of nerds.

the problem the show faces right here:

Are people out there really stoked for another dose of Bran and his loser mates?

magic powers present since the start have still not been explained/outlined

there was a ton of explicit two person dialogue exposition and a desperate need to make sure we hit every storyline for about four minutes... basically the two sins they've been good at avoiding until now

want at least two seasons of tmns and splintelaria biding their time in the sewers of kings landing

robberies mysteriously foiled, angry pizza maesters etc

after defeating mutant mountain, a stray canister of wildfire leads to a final showdown with super cersei. go snakey go snakey go

maybe the police from monty python + holy grail will show up and arrest dorne

This episode was basically the same as every season opener for the last couple of seasons, basically just the show going "remember this dude? Also these two are pretty important also, and don't forget about what's happening over here! There's also this happening even though nobody cares about this storyline, but maybe we'll make it work this season, etc."

I guess it's ok to complain about it, but it seems like most people would be completely lost if they didn't do it.

New Dothraki guy reminds me of Hari Kunzru

remind me, what happened to the dothraki when daenerys first met the unsullied? did they just ride away somewhere? do some of them still think that daenerys is the unburned mother of dragons etc etc etc etc etc etc? or was that a different band of dothraki that's unconnected to the new crew?

i can't fucking BELIEVE the dothraki are involved again, btw

i went from hating the whole S1 dothraki storyline to being sort of ok with it, but when they disappeared i assumed that we would never see them again and i was totally fine with that

"magic powers present since the start have still not been explained/outlined"

That's a feature, not a bug.

For sure. But when you start bringing characters back from the dead (like the Mountain), it'd be nice to know how or why they can't do that for everyone. See also: Red Witch's vagina shadow demon assassin, creation of wildfire, going full-wart (and why), etc. It would be helpful, this far along, to know why some people can do stuff and some people can't, and why those that can usually don't, and so on. And that's just stuff in the abstract. More specifically missing among many characters: motive. Or at least motive beyond merely generic "power." What does the Red Witch want and why? The asshole in charge of the Night's Watch now, what does he want?

Man, I just remembered all the other shit going on that we haven't even got a reminder of. Sam studying to be a book ninja, Littlefinger farting around in Cloudymountainland. Wyldling Stallions off somewhere (or were they all killed?). Vast army of unkillable Ice Zombies just ... chilling somewhere.

i think there are a bunch of dothraki clans or tribes or whatever that luv 2 fight each other

Also, the show's CGI crowd budget seems to have waned precipitously. Every scene is like huge establishing shot followed by 5 people hanging in the corner of a room/small set. Maybe they're saving their cash for dragons and zombies?

i want to see a comparison of the direwolves throughout the series

You mean the quality of CGI?

How many are left alive? A couple?

The asshole in charge of the Night's Watch now, what does he want?

most burning question of all imo

i think there are a bunch of dothraki clans or tribes or whatever that luv 2 fight each other

so like they married her off to a chieftain of one particular clan w/ the idea that would somehow gain the targaryans an army of dothrakis? feel like maybe they didn't think this one through.

i thought the night watch head's motivations were the most obvious -- he's the old guard who resented jon snow and resents his decisions and he wants to be in charge and rid the guard of its progressive elements.

All I really want at this point is

a) awesome extended dialogue like Littlefinger & Varys that one time, Cersei & Oberyn that one time, excerpts from Brienne's old diary etc.
b) an entire episode from the white walkers pov, mostly working on dragonglass immunity spells and playing jenga with human remains
c) kill off a third of the remaining characters by season end

The whole myth-arc of John Snow is the most tedious bullshit.

xpost i know lol. I had no idea anyone was having trouble with that dude's motives

was trystane killed before doran tho we see it the other way around?

Oh, I mean, I get it re: Night Watch guy. But I thought the whole point of the Night's Watch was to protect everyone south of the wall from bad things. So this dude Jon Snow comes to lead the Night Watch with a special vantage into what exactly they need protecting from - the White Walkers and not the Wildlings - aaaand they kill him. Like "OK, now that we've killed the guy who knows just what we're up against, let's get back to the business of protecting everyone from this mysterious threat."

It's part and parcel I suppose with so many characters refusing to see the long view. Re: White Walkers, dragons, magic, etc.

The flip side of this is characters playing such a long game I have no idea what it is (Red Witch, Littlefinger, even Aria - is she still training for revenge? I can't even remember if everyone she wanted to kill is still alive or not). At least Mother of Dragons has a clear goal, even if it's slow going.

Not sure Arya knows who's died by other hands recently so think her list is something like:

Joffrey
Cersei
Walder Frey
Tywin
Melisandre
Those Bannerless Brodudes
Ilyn Payne (not coming back presumably)
Artist Formerley Known As The Mountain
The Boltons (if she's done the math)

You mean the quality of CGI?

How many are left alive? A couple?

They seem to vary in size too

Trystane/Sand Snake dialogue was abrupt to me because even if I had ruthless murderer cousins, if they came in and I said "I told you I'm not hungry" and they joked "We're not here to feed you, we're here to kill you" I'd instinctively say "lol oh hey cousins, I'm glad you're here cause I'm really upset my girlfriend suddenly died. Did you hear about that?"

Him immediately taking them seriously implies he already knew they were involved in her death. So if that's to be implied then I would have had him at least say "How did you get here? Are you serious? So it WAS you, then!"

Just more picky daily grievances about Dorne related scenes from Evan

i thought the night watch head's motivations were the most obvious -- he's the old guard who resented jon snow and resents his decisions and he wants to be in charge and rid the guard of its progressive elements.

― Mordy, Wednesday, April 27, 2016 4:11 PM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I hear you on this but the knights watch status quo was pretty fucking dire before jon showed up.

What does the Red Witch want and why?

She's a religious zealot on a mission of evangelism and prophecy fulfillment, and her religion has a good deal of in-world evidence to support its authenticity.

But I thought the whole point of the Night's Watch was to protect everyone south of the wall from bad things. So this dude Jon Snow comes to lead the Night Watch with a special vantage into what exactly they need protecting from - the White Walkers and not the Wildlings - aaaand they kill him.

The whole point of it is that very few people are taking the White Walker threat seriously. The majority of those South of the wall see Wildings as the main danger beyond it. To give a real world analogy, to the Westerosi hoi polloi the White Walkers are climate change and the Wildlings are ISIS.

so like they married her off to a chieftain of one particular clan w/ the idea that would somehow gain the targaryans an army of dothrakis? feel like maybe they didn't think this one through.

Well yes, as there are many armies of Dothraki controlled by many warlords.

What does the Red Witch want and why?

She's a religious zealot on a mission of evangelism and prophecy fulfillment, and her religion has a good deal of in-world evidence to support its authenticity.

I also think the last scene and her dazed ass 'wtf' look on her face when she got to castle black was to illustrate that her stannis prophecy was so so wrong and she has to figure out what to do now..

Well yes, as there are many armies of Dothraki controlled by many warlords.

right so presumably marrying only one of those warlords would not recruit all those armies

I think the choice is not Isis vs climate change but Isis vs more powerful and unkillable zombie Isis.

At a certain point they have to move beyond this fiddling while rome burns mode right? because for a bunch of Master strategist and self-preservationists, everyone behaves very stupidly and recklessly. And shortsightedly.

xp - he was the most powerful warlord with the largest army at the time.

everyone behaves very stupidly and recklessly. And shortsightedly

The whole point of this show seems to be about pointing out that people in charge always do this.

I think it's going to take something like the white walkers taking Winterfell before the people in King's Landing start to actually think about what they can do about them.

I think the choice is not Isis vs climate change but Isis vs more powerful and unkillable zombie Isis.

Nah it's climate change.

everyone behaves very stupidly and recklessly. And shortsightedly

The whole point of this show seems to be about pointing out that people in charge always do this.

who, martin?

xpost yeah, the thing is Jon and his buddies are the ones who have seen the White Walkers in action, while most of the Night's Watchmen have only battled Wildlings. So they choose to believe Jon was making shit up.

yeah the fact that most people believe the white walkers and all non-wildling awful monsters from the land beyond the wall are just stories told to scare children is restated over and over and over again

While most of the Night's Watchmen have only battled Wildlings

They had some interesting adventures at Castle Black too! Giants, mammoths, wights...

weren't the giants fighting for the Wildlings?

Yes, but early in the show people talked about giants as if they weren't real, only from the tales.

I might conclude then, if legendary beasts appeared fighting alongside the Wildlings, that the guy who wants to let the Wildlings through the wall was a bit of a problem.

a giant white walker seems like a huge problem to deal with, also. unless they are immune?

Getting back to this Climate Change analogy. CC is something that many/most predict will do bad things, but those bad things are as yet subtle, or abstract. But an unstoppable army of the undead? Dragons, which may be scarce but certainly existed and wreaked havoc within a generation or so? You'd think they'd be good rallying points.

Also, per predictions: with all these prophecies and religious nuts and people with magic, you'd think at least someone would be touting the/a looming apocalypse, which is what charismatic religious leaders basically live for. Even the people with magic powers seem weirdly blind and short-sighted.

"With my witchcraft and spells, I will seat you on the iron throne!"

"Yes, but what about the dragons and ice zombies?"

"What? That's stupid, they don't exist. What are you, a child? Now, back to the matter at hand! The throne! The throne that seemingly does nobody any good, let alone those closest to it! That should be your goal, not defending the realm from a looming magic apocalypse."

I'm pretty sure that Melisandre takes the white walkers seriously, or at least knows they exist. She's the one who said something like "the real war has not even started" when they got that crow message from the night watch a bunch of seasons ago.

She does not appear to have any kind of plan though.

the nitpicking is intense

seems like getting a guy onto the Iron Throne who was in debt to her gods was pretty much the plan. Then her gods would have a lot of soldiers.

it seems rather obvious to me that not many people know about the white walkers, which was the big 'oh no' of Jon Snow dying (for me at least), who is going to relay that information now? xpost also yeah Melisandre seems to see a solution in Jon Snow which is why the resurrection idea makes sense to many.

to be honest one of my favorite parts of the show is how people are failing to take the white walker threat seriously, it's almost an in-joke from the very first scene of the series, with this stammering night's watch dude muttering about having fled white walkers and ned going on about duty or whatever right before he cuts his head off.

yeah, it makes all the king's landing stuff, especially now with the dude from Brazil/Martin Luther, so efficiently frustrating!

How many years have passed in the story? Several, right? Get with it, TV dummies! These people are so conniving, and so Machiavellian, and so stupid. Want this to end all the ice zombies, and dragons, and witches and armies amassed, ready to decimate one another, and then ... some other army from a different part of the (I assume) globe rolls up and just conquers them all.