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

http://www.trademarkia.com/logo-images/hallmark-licensing/when-you-care-enough-to-send-the-very-best-86559697.jpg

I don't understand why Gendry hasn't been in this fwiw - I'd be much more invested in his story than I am with half the characters here.

they haven't really done anything with him in the books either.

i could see gendry as a character who we only see at the end of the saga as the dust has settled and someone else has taken the throne, with him as the sole living baratheon heir who's been convinced by a small band of believers that the throne is rightfully his and is starting to make his danys-like maneuvers to assemble an army to take the throne back. some circle of westeros life kinda shit.

^I like this

I didn't get why the Dothraki bowed so easily to Daenerys. Don't they dislike magic? Doesn't having powers like this basically make her a witch to them?

(I guess witches are supposed to burn, so maybe not)

good ep though.

Maybe it's just lowered expectations, but so far I'm enjoying this season a lot more than I enjoyed last season. Stuff is actually happening, even if not all of it makes sense.

would be a good thread title

sums up my feelings about it, p much

https://scontent-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13227037_10154201737534712_936022238931243333_n.jpg?oh=6abaf6308e57b297ba9cbd9f97cb1e4b&oe=57D60D72

i am SO OVER memes but that's good'un. i lol'd.

i could see gendry as a character who we only see at the end of the saga as the dust has settled and someone else has taken the throne, with him as the sole living baratheon heir who's been convinced by a small band of believers that the throne is rightfully his and is starting to make his danys-like maneuvers to assemble an army to take the throne back. some circle of westeros life kinda shit.

Game of the Wire

you want it to be one king but its another king

lol

with the hilarious opening shot of two members of the new kingsguard buying a staplegun from an earnest tradesman

xpost It's easy to dislike magic, it's another thing to watch this pale little woman go all firestarter, kill every Khal and walk out nekkid engulfed in flames, I guess.

I think I read that in the books or in interviews Martin made a point of stressing that the dragon-people are not fireproof, and that her birthing the baby dragons was a one off miracle. Which sounds kind of dumb compared to, yeah, fireproof. It seems all the people of this world have their distinct powers. Starks can warg,. Dragon-people are fireproof (except her brother). Boltons flay. Iron born are grouchy. Dothraki like horses. Lannister are rich and incestuous.

Liked how this episode has continued the recent tradition of contemporary-sounding zingers and comedic timing.

i would've paid five dollars american directly to GRRM by paypal if she had walked out proudly from the burning tent and caught a spear to the midsection. the dany storyline is the worst of the bunch and lately that's saying something.

What are the odds that next Dani finds a way to cure the Stone Men and add them to her army

I'm looking forward to where her storyline goes next only because of the hypothetical sense that having a Dothraki army suddenly implies a big shake up and momentum again, finally. Hopefully.

Some of the specifics have been botched pretty badly but I have always been a fan of Dany in general, and it makes me a bit sad when people aren't.

I'm not sure the Stone Men are portrayed as anything but mindless zombies, so that seems unlikely.

xp out of curiosity, what do you like about her and her whole shaggy dog storyline? the character has had zero development for about five years.

I know it's been going round in circles for a bit now, but when her story is on point (such as in most of season/book 3) it's the most exhilarating and mythic section of the series. I have no idea why you would say she hasn't developed, although the majority of that development happened in the first three seasons, granted.

Dany's storyline promises big developments, so you watch it in anticipation of her gaining more momentum. When she's stuck in one place for too long it's extra excruciating.

i feel like her "development" stopped right around the time she walked out of the funeral pyre and she has been the arisen imperial one true queen full of haughty impervious attitude ever since.

eh iirc there was a period when the dragons were still pups and she didn't quite believe her own hype and she'd say "I am the mother of DRAGONS" like she was trying to convince herself and more powerful people thought it was cute.

Her transition in the books is a wee bit more nuanced and gradual, so maybe I'm projecting that onto the TV version, I dunno. And I agree that her story's been stalled for the last two seasons, and I don't think Clarke is a particularly good actor. Despite all that im still very fond of the characters and am rooting for her.

Where her character development might not be evolving much anymore, hopefully her storyline does the heavy lifting by finally moving her forward (on the map) again.

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.

Dany's storyline keeps veering between reality of foreign occupation and Neocon fantasies of killing badguy leaders and people falling to knees in awe.

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.

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!!

Didn't Heart of Darkness do that already?

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.

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.

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.

http://i.imgur.com/q3i0htD.jpg

^ there's dozens of these to be found

that one bizarrely leaves out cersei!!

as if a 3x3 grid wasn't nerdy enough ...

wtf are these new alignments

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.

mordy otm

She's from a lineage if mad rulers!

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).

Is that a spoiler? I thought the only thing we knew about her was that she was a targaryen with claims to the throne?

Yeah, not a spoiler.

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.

It only is if it turns out to be true!

If it isn't it'll be a much bigger shock than if it is.