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total1402

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  1. But its been on the cards since season 1. More to the point. Dany says no pretty much straight away, which is very different; all the others are not unrequited love.
  2. So annoyed Dany and Jorah didn't kiss this episode. Looks like its either going to be at the end of this series for shock value (honestly, we'll need something to cheer us up, this series will have a miserable ending with Ygritte, Sansa marriage n RW). Or at the start of next series so it can be a complete arc with him being exiled towards the end. Also, did anyone else pick up on Dany saying that "we all know what happens to thing that don't bend". Do you think D&D added that line as an indirect reference to Stannis; who will break before he bends because he is iron? Its quite a popular euphanism about the character. Best line though goes to Locke. "Well this is disgraceful fucking performance!" :D Honestly, Brienne and Jamie have had by far the most consistently great arc this series.
  3. The Unsullied are very clearly directly inspired from the Spartans. The story of the 3000 Unsullied holding off against unstoppable odds immediatly puts to mind the 300 at Thermopolyae. Its Martins quite blunt way of saying "yes, they're Spartans and they're that good.". Theres also the fact that their weapons and tactics are hoplite phalanxs and their intensive training and brutal regime clearly mirrors the Spartan training. The only difference is that these are slaves and not freemen like the Spartans. So its perfectly acceptable that the Unsullied should conjur up images of the Spartans from 300 with their discipline, weapons and tactics; plus general ascetic. Which in keeping with the books as Martin is pretty clear that Unsullied=Castrated Slave Spartans. I don't know whether you mean because Essos is too Oriental for hoplites to show up, but you should remember this is a fantasy land where not every culture is exactly like its real world inspiration. Also, Ghiscari culture does draw a lot from Greco-Roman culture anyway; such as the fighting pits mirroring the colliseum. You'll also notice the nobles wearing toga like garments.
  4. Some really good scenes in this episode, but I feel we could have traded some of the Kings Landing scenes for some of Jon. I want to hear Ygritte say "You know nothin Jon Snow" again god dammit! They all revolve around people doing things about Sansa. The initial scene with Olenna was meant to have the marriage proposal but those scenes did drag it out. It was cute to see Sansa react to the proposal by Marg; but I can't help but feel like shes a supporting character not one of the main ones. Top three scenes are- Dracarys- Goes without saying, near perfect and actually better than the books. Having Emelia Clark lay into Kraznez for being an idiot and playing on the language thing is far more satisfying than it has a right to be (my Dad actually burst out laughing when he got incinerated). This is probably the most badass Emelia Clarke has ever sounded and very convincingly so; which at times she didn't quite manage I felt. Add to that the symbolism of the speech and the whip being trod underfoot with the music and you have a simply epic conclusion to an episode. I do have misgivings about what they cut to get to this moment by episode 4; but the execution was stunning for that scene. Two minor deviations from the book. Dany is made a lot less bloodthirsty with an ambiguous don't kill any child than the more specific 12+ die. True we do see unarmed slavers killed but its much less dark than in the books. Another was that Jorah is not a part of this plan and is just as surprised; even that Dany could speak Valyrian. In the book she took him and her bloodriders into her confidence beforehand. When Jorah looks at her having done this feat and she walks away without acknowledging him it very much implies that she has outgrown him; leaving him looking somewhat insecure. It certainly mirrors their later issues well although I don't understand why Dany would not have told him or her bloodriders beforehand. Beric + Hound - The guy who plays the hound actually did a good job here; normally hes a gruff near-mute giant. You really got the sense of venom at him hating his brother and he holds his ground against the brotherhood; trading insults and demanding they cut his throat. Beric also carries himself well and its quite funny when he says that he will challenge him in personal combat. It manages to balance exposition with character as well as filling in the blanks for people who forgot who the brotherhood were; so I really like it for that. Crasters Keep- Yeah, the shit really hit the fan and all the tension exploded. Jeor being stabbed in the back was terrible and now it looks like its all on Sam. It really leaves you feeling a sense of dread for how the Nights Watch can hold the wall; not that their odds were high to begin with.
  5. Bit torn on this one. But then again it does mainly concern characters I've less interest in and we're still setting things up. - Sansa and Olenna: I quite liked that scene and I actually thought Olenna was pretty true to the character. However I felt it was bizarre that Sansa mentioned being shown her fathers head and not "he had his Kingsguard strip and beat me in the middle of court whilst he pointed a crossbow at my head"; that kind of seems a lot more direct and to the point. - Theon, I think the actor and the setting really captures just how terrible a fate is in store for Theon. The whole ruse about whose got him is a little bad since I ve read the books and it seems a touch bizarre since they're asking him questions they shouldn't care about. Unless their goal is sadism in which case I find the absence of a certain character telling. I would have preferred to have Ramsey introduced then rather than maintain that ruse. Also, its pretty clear that Yaras man is just a dupe to get Theon hunted down by Ramsey and recaptured. But yeah, the Bolton men dressing as Ironborn feels really forced since its pretty obvious who burnt Winterfell given that we saw the Ironborn leaving. - Jamie and Brienne - Pretty funny and I was really surprised how much Renly is brought up in all the different scenes for the characters this episode in general. Their fight maybe went on a little longer than it should though and the two swords thing was more than a little "ehh". -Arya- I loved Gendry being such a lad and bitching about Arya not using Jaqens deaths. Thank you so much. The Brotherhood certainly seemed colourful as did Thoros. I didn't like how the Hound recognised Arya and not the other way around like in the books. In that she runs up and screams "you killed Mica!" at which the Hound is shocked to see her. This establishes her hatred and desire to see the Hound dead from the beginning. Plus his shock is quite funny in the book. In the show hes sort of like "oh its you." and that just isn't good. -Cersei/Margery/Joffrey- These were quite good scenes showing the really tense relationship between them as Joffery is woefully ignorant of the need to win Margery over and his mothers warning clearly foreshadows things. Ironically we also almost see Margery try to see how things work in private and they even seem to enjoy talking about the crossbow; even if it only demonstrates further his psychopathic tendencies. So Margery is finding this out for herself. Joffery also emphasises that intelligent women do what they are told as a quip at Cersei and represents her insecurities over position which are important this series and her behavior in AFFC as well. In fact I quite like that they're setting up the Cersei vs Margery thing early on. Cat- This didn't really bother me the way it has for some. The bit where she talks about Jon seems pretty plausable for the character to have done. Her saying that this is the source of all their woes is a touch odd language to use. I don't see how legitimising Jon would have prevented Ned being dead or Winterfell falling. Overall this was a very slow episode which was mainly about finishing off introducing all of the other characters and continuing to set the stage. This is something which is irritating because for a TV series you mainly just want to be able to roll through successive seasons without these slow starts where we introduce all the new characters across a dozen seperate mini-stories. Again, by introducing the Hound to Arya and getting Brienne/Jamie captured they're actually a good chunk through several character arcs. I do hope things pick up from here though.
  6. I thought it was probably the best opening episode to any of the series so far. There were a slew of really good scenes and they managed to have a pretty good finale bit. Things I loved in order - Tyrion and Tywin My god. That was a good scene in the books but the guy who plays Tywin just nails it. He is such a bastard to Tyrion and the venemous hatred so bad that he literally just obliterated any sympathy accumulated from his time with Arya. You really feel sorry for Tyrion after he fought so hard i nthe previous season and Tywin is deliberately unfair to him. By far the best moment of the episode. -Daenerys with the Unsullied Bit biased on this one, but he Kraznez is such a slimeball and they really convey the horror of how the Unsullied are trained alongside the soulless discipline that they have. Missendei also seemed pretty good. -Davos He does such a good job and you really feel the shadow having descended over Dragonstone and his desire to break this. The bit where Mel taunts him over his son dying is very good and I liked the banter between him and Sallador. Plus where hes on the rock, chooses to say he serves Stannis even though he knows its unlikely to be one of his and the man smiles. - Daenerys n Barristan Barristan is so sincere and honest here coming over to Dany. Plus the warlocks assasination really took you aback. Not only that but we got Jorah clearly worried about Selmy knowing about him having been a spy in the first season. - Jon Snow and Mance Giant scene was excellent. Looked like massive dwarves. :D The bit where Jon comes up with the story about Craster and the nights watch standing by it was really good thinking and quite impressive. Things I didn't like - Skipping the Battle of the Fist. -Sam doesn't kill a White walker though I suspect this might come in a later scene. - Blaming Sam for not doing a task he was never assigned and when he was ordered somewhere different entirely. This was really shoddy adaptation and jarring. - Felt the bleeding heart stuff with Margery was a bit too heavy. Not a major thing but a bit much. -Bronn confronting the Kingsguard and clutching his dagger felt like a shoddy repetition of his previous taunting of the Kingsguard and with Sandor. - I could not understand what Tormund and some of the Wildlings were saying. Sometimes they sounded outright incomprehensible or like they were mumbling. Even Mance a few times. The rest was as you would expect with some good to average moments or setting things up or reminding us of other things.
  7. Its established in ADWD that the Unsullied haven't been affected by the plague. They lost only a dozen in the Battle of Yunkai whilst we never learn how many were lost in the attack on Mereen. Given that losing near half their numbers would warrent some mention in the text I can only assume those are not all the Unsullied and some are in the city. The description of all the forces for instance entirely omits the 3 Free Companies that Dany had trained from her freedmen. So not everyone has been accounted for anyway.
  8. A hundred ships is not enough to transport Danys army by sea. That was established in ADWD. Even if they capture all the slaver ships and use the gift of the thirteen along with Vics 70 ships thats not even up to a hundred. Dany is still is not in a position to leave.
  9. I thought in the Vic preview chapter he had already blown the horn on the way into Mereen? First he wiped his blood on it, got two people to blow the horn once and then finally blew it himself; under the direction of Moqorro. Or maybe it was three seperate slaves. But I am pretty sure it said he had already had it blown before the attack even began. Plus I don't think the dragons are remotely big enough to destroy a city of half a million people. They're even smaller than Drogon who has a wingspan of only twenty feet. Baelerion, who destroyed Harrenhal, which was only a big fortress not a city, was huge enough to swallow a mammoth whole. Not really seeing them destroying the city. Far more likely will be that the big victory will be undermined by the fact that 300 ships from Volantis with 30,000 troops will land and perhaps the Harpy will rise up inside the city. I was quite worried by how the beasts were on the walls. What if Shakaz has played Dany and co false or their loyalty isn't secure? They could shut them out of the city and our heroes would risk being trapped between the walls and the volantese.
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