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

I think the dialogue was about them being able to find and/or enter the cave, not cross the fire. I assumed the senior civil servant white walkers are just able to cross fire but the minions are not.

I quite liked "hold the door" but the mention of Lost upthread has soured it a little for me. It did have a bit of that about it.

I enjoyed the mummer's play actually - nice that it can still ease off the blood n zombies every now and then for that kind of textural world building detail. Plus Kevin Eldon. Didn't recognise Richard E Grant at all till he had de-wigged.

I think Hold the Door worked well, felt like something GRRM had planned since the beginning.

The white walkers can deal with fire, the zombies can't. I don't think the fire was the magic, the white walkers destroyed the magic with the pounding of the ground and the shaking and all that. That part of it was definitely weird.

Also, the show has kinda fallen down on the companions to Bran (except Hodor). Jojen and Meera Reed are introduced in book 2, and have much more depth in the books. Bran keeps on having visions, and dreams, and discussions with other people about things like the Children, which helps a lot when they show up. I also think another child pops up in book 3, in a completely different story, and they cut that out on the show. So that whole thing has kinda been underdeveloped. It's pretty weird and complex and dreamlike, though, so it's not that easy to portray.

the mummers play was good yeah. not sure what the point of it was, other than showing that maybe the Starks (particularly Ned) weren't all as respected as we might have thought?

the whole 'Bran being scratched' thing - why did the tree man jeopardise him by taking him there in the first place? seems a bit weird.

Think 'Hold the Door' was a bit ruined for me by a fan theory which i shouldn't have read that said that Hodor was a warg and warged into Ned's sister's horse one too many times. I'm still a bit confused as to who was warging into who and from where at the end. I thought it was Bran in the past warging into Hodor in the present via his past self? Or was it Past-Hodor hearing the same voice as Bran and taking it on himself to warg into his future self so he could hold the door? Why doesn't Present-Hodor just hold the door anyway without any warging? I dunno...

so is there a difference between walkers and zombies now? what about those goblin things that chased Bran in the last episode of s5?

And who are these tree women? I don't remember them ever being introduced properly, they just seemed to rock-up? The whole a-ha moment with them creating the Walker-King felt very rushed and ill-explained because of that. I take it they're nature spirits or something, but why would they lose control of the Walkers if the were the case? Another climate-change analogy?

The whole 'White King can see you and find you now' is very LOTR Wring Wraiths. I don't know why they decided to hang around a bit to do more pointless warging considering the very real and imminent danger.

are you doing something else while you are watching the show?

Mummers play was to show Arya not being able to let go of Stark past and become nobody or w/e

Tree man didn't take him there. Bran touched the tree without guidance or permission and ended up at the same place but in the present.

Hodor is normally a cowherd and wouldn't have hodor'd without being warged into.

Pretty sure Bran was warged into Hodor both in the past and the present creating the link that destroyed his mind.

Always been a difference between walkers and zombies. Zombies don't get the cool ice swords and undead ice horses and don't get to wear death metal costumes. Goblin things you mention were zombies iirc

Children of the forest weren't introduced very well, if at all.

I'm guessing tree man knew that Bran needed to be there at that exact moment in time for history to be fulfilled and Hodor to Hodor. The fact that he encourages Bran to warg into Hodor while in the past supports this.

paying attention so you don't have to

The walkers are ancient beings, there aren't that many of them. The zombies are dead people raised again by the walkers, there are more and more of them. The children of the forrest are the first inhabitants of Westeros, before the humans came over from Essos thousands of years ago, though most people believe them to be legendary like the walkers.

I get the confusion, though. If it wasn't for the books giving out a guideline for people like the guy doing 'Ask the Maester' I think there would be a whole lot more confusion.

don't get to wear death metal costumes.

More like black metal costumes if I'm allowed to be a metal pedant.

the mummers play seemed to presuppose a lot of political knowledge from the commoner audience, everybody in braavos must read the newspapers closely

A show has no plot

I thought the play mostly showed how the commoners rely on rumor and prejudice. It's all blamed on Tyrion, who wasn't even in Kings Landing when it happened, he only became Hand of the King afterwards. Stark is portrayed as a stupid bumpkin with a weird accent, probably anti-Northern prejudice. Robert is fat and farting. The heroes are the blond and beautiful.

I also liked how they were terrified of Tyrion marrying Sansa. A completely pointless thing in the grander scheme of the plot, but for everyone outside, the thought of a middle aged dwarf marrying a beautiful young maiden is absolutely horrifying, and must be proof to hist lustful evilness.

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

http://i.imgur.com/9uJ4CZu.jpg

I can't believe Hodor's origin story turns out to be the punchline to a racist joke I heard in middle school.

hey guys I was confused during that flashback Arya was watching. Did they totally recast Ned and Joffrey and Tyrion? Contract issues? Sansa's boobs were a body double's right? Show is going down the dumper.

Nah, it just looks different than you remember because every actor and actress has gone through puberty since then.

they obviously can't guarantee getting sean bean or joffrey to come back for it, but duh, that was tyrion. dwarves are allowed to have a different haircut too!

xpost

oh yeah guess i was fooled by the fake nose!

And how could it be anyone but roly poly lovable Northern rogue and star of the Full Monty Richard E Grant as King Robert?

it was nice they evened up the nudity by that split-second shot of possibly a ballsack

1 ballsack, 10,000 breasts

the golden ratio

6 seasons and a ballsack

I can't keep track of any of the characters in this show. Was the guy farting on the stage the Night King?

I quite liked "hold the door" but the mention of Lost upthread has soured it a little for me. It did have a bit of that about it.

It at least established that everything we've seen so far has either happened because or in spite of what Bran does in the past. So if he can change bits of the past he can't change the events of the show (ie magically saving Ned or whatever). Which would be a massive shark-jumping moment.

10,000 breasts when all you need is a sack

Did Littlefinger really expect Sansa to accept his claims of ignorance and his apology?

Littlefinger isn't that dumb but I genuinely don't think he's prepared for Sansa's ongoing transition from passive princess/Key to the North to Joan of Arc.

I can't keep track of any of the characters in this show. Was the guy farting on the stage the Night King?

The Yellow King IIRC.

UGH they don't explain ANYTHING!

I gotta say I did love Brienne telling Littlefinger, "Lady Sansa asked you a question," and his realization that she would straight up kill him if given the order.

why doesn't someone just kill him? like he's supposed to be some genius arch-manipulator, but really he just acts like a dick and everyone hates him. it seems amazing he has lasted so long in this world.

he looks suspiciously like a human version of the Night King. it's too confusing, also read fan theory somewhere that they are the same person

here for Brienne x Tormund

also Brienne's description of Jon as "a bit brooding". should've seen him before he died.

I guess Littlefinger is useful to people so they don't kill him.

Littlefinger betrayed Ned Stark to Cersei and Joffrey, then brought Tywin to the battle of Blackwater in the nick of time. He orchestrated a lot of the chaos and ensured his side would win, in the bargain ending up a grand lord. Then he took off with Sansa and brought her to her aunt, whom he married, and started consolidating his power in the most easily defendable part of the continent. Then he sold Sansa to Ramsey which... Yeah, I don't get that part either...

sansa shdve killed him tho

he looks suspiciously like a human version of the Night King. it's too confusing, also read fan theory somewhere that they are the same person

― sarahell, Tuesday, May 24, 2016 11:13 AM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There's a nutty fan theory for everything. We know what the previously human Night King looks like because of this most recent episode.

According to awoiaf, Littlefingers first benefactor was the Tullys, where he was fostered, whom he repaid by sleeping with Lysa Tully and embarrassing Catelyn when he challenged her betrohed, Brandon Stark, to a duel. Then Jon Arryn became his new benefactor, and he kept on sleeping with his wife Lysa, and in the end they poisoned him. This is probably where he was quite lucky to not be caught and killed.

R.I.P. my joke post

can we speculate freely on this thread now? in any case i was reading the wiki for the children and this part was interesting:

For roughly 2,000 years the two races fought a desperate war for dominance. The children used their magic to shatter the Arm of Dorne, the land-bridge through which the First Men came, in a futile attempt to end the invasion and later flooded the Neck - where legend has it that the children called upon their gods from the Children's Tower to send the hammer of the waters to smash the Neck, as they smashed the Arm of Dorne, but it was not enough to stop the advance of the First Men. The histories say that some of the First Men, the crannogmen, grew close to the children of the forest in the days when the greenseers tried to bring the hammer of the waters down upon the Neck.[5]

Eventually the First Men and the children fought one another to a standstill. The two races agreed to peaceful coexistence and signed the Pact on the Isle of Faces, granting the open lands to humanity and the forests to the children.

The Pact lasted for 4,000 years before the enigmatic Others invaded from the uttermost north, bringing death and destruction to both races, during an extended period of winter known as the Long Night. The children of the forest joined with the First Men, lead by the last hero, to fight against the Others in the Battle for the Dawn. Eventually the Others were driven back into the Lands of Always Winter.

You know, it's so in line with fan theories that actually exist that I didn't even blink.

xp

Not your fault though I skimmed over the "it's too confusing" giveaway.

Then he sold Sansa to Ramsey which... Yeah, I don't get that part either...

I figured that was his way to break the Boltons from the Lannisters. And Cersei sent him to take Winterfell so it worked i guess.