Hangover of the Morning

I think Jaime talked about Edmure's son growing up at Casterly Rock not Edmure though I could be wrong. Why was the celebration at the Twins and not at Riverrun? I would think Walder would be itching to move to the Tully seat though he might be too old to travel.

Lyanna + Jon Arryn, Jaime Lannister, Jeor Mormont, Jorah Mormont ??? Jokes aside, I agree with your sentiment. It feels as if the "game of thrones" part of the story is largely over and large part of the final two series will be focused on the magical and fantastical aspect of the story. Most of the main characters feel like they have or almost have reached their destination (or we can guess what it will be) and that there are very few surprises left.

That bothers me too. The smallfolk loathe Cersei and will even more after she put an end to the peasant uprising, destroyed the sept and murdered the High Sparrow and the crowd's favourite Margaery and Tommen. Dany will once again be seen as the liberator and as a champion of the common people. Cersei has also no means to oppose her as she at best controls the Crownland's and the Westerland's, armies although even the latter one is debatable considering Jaime's reaction to Cersei's crowning. Dany's conquest will be seen as very righteous because she will be removing a corrupt oppressive regime and reinstating peace, which I believe is exactly the opposite of what will happen in the books. There Dany's likely to come after Aegon, at time of relative peace and at time when the Faith and the common folk will be united behind their king. Dany will seek to destroy all that with her army of savages and will finally get a reality check once she sees how unwelcome she is in her homeland.

8: my second favourite episode this season with The Door taking the crown so far thanks to "hold the door" and lack of Dany's motivational speeches.

Loved it. I was on the edge of the seat the whole time even though there was hardly any fighting. I needed a bit of a time to breathe and I'm glad that no one died this time. Loved Gilly and Sam the most, especially the stealing of Heartsbane. Randyl Tarly is more terrifying than all the White Walker's combined. Great acting on all parts. Braavosi play was excellent as was the showdown in front of the Sept. The High Sparrow's a dick but has my respect for outplaying everyone. Walder Frey's back and in a good form, it seems. He's almost as good at scolding his disappointing progeny as is Randyl. Dany was a bit meh and bit of a waste of time but it wasn't too terrible. Kinda wonder what the Dothraki that couldn't hear what she was saying were cheering to. I think Cersei will burn down King's Landing once she looses Jaime and all her children. The flashbacks definitely foreshadowed it. I don't like that Jaime and Cersei are still together but their kiss was quite hot. Hyped for Blackfish and Jaime.

R + L = J v 159 link directs to a wrong topic R + L = J v 158 link directs to a wrong topic Most of the links in the Compendium of theories don't work and give 404 error I googled one of my old topics from Oct 2015 (Theoretical exercise: Can George still "back off" from R+L=J if he had a change of heart?) and the resulting link leads to: "Old Nan vs Maester Aemon" There's likely many more links to old threads that don't work.

I for once have to go against the flow. I gave it 4/10. Maybe I am being a bit harsh and will reconsider after re-watch but the whole episode was kinda dull despite it being action packed. The Hardhome scene, particularly the negotiations, felt like something I have seen over a dozen times in every movie that involves a siege or former enemies uniting under a bigger threat. All the dialogues and sequence of events was just way too predictable and felt like nothing new. Sansa/Theon were great, Cersei/Qyburn and Arya were good but just felt like a setup and Tyrion/Danny was good but I think I expected more. Overall, the episode just didn't suck me in as usual and none of the scenes (aside from perhaps Jon battling the WW) or dialogues were particularly memorable. I tend to rate around 8-10 so this is an unusually low score for me.

I like your explanations and I agree that the actually choreography of the scene was done incredibly well. I think it's just simply the fact that I like the supernatural stuff the leas interesting in the show as well as in the books. The whole negotiation scene was a carbon copy of stuff we are used to seeing in fantasy/historic movies. The dialogues weren't bad just tad bit predictable and so was most of the stuff that happened afterwards. The Blackwater battle or the Battle at Castle Black head be on the edge of the seat because I was very emotionally invested in the characters and because there were so many powerful quite moments. This time I knew Jon was coming back so the only people in danger were Tormund and Edd. I predicted that the Thenn will save Jon or that the she-wilding will die. The only reason why she got so much screen time was so that her death would make us feel bad, which I though is a fairly cheap and predictable trick. We and the characters have known for years that the WW can raise the death so seeing it happen didn't particularly awe struck me. The whole scene was incredibly well done and probably the best battle sequence on the show so far but I didn't feel emotionally invested and the predictable dialogues and scenes broke the immersion for me.

I am usually very forgiving when it comes to the show. I have been enjoying this season quite a lot but Hardhome has to be my least favourite episode this year and one of my least favourite overall. The non-willdling stuff was surprisingly boring and not that much interesting. I think I expected more from the Tyrion/Danny as well as from Cersei's imprisonment. The Sansa/Theon stuff was quite emotional and I think I enjoyed that scene the most. Hardhome felt like a mini version of a typical fantasy movie. It was laden by one cliche trope after the other. The whole sequence was just too predictable and generic and I could guess what everyone was going to say or do seconds before it happened. There was some good tension in the end and great acting from Jon but otherwise, it was pretty underwhelming. Why didn't they just flee from the start? What was the point of fighting back? And, why at the end didn't they row as fast as they could? The fighting was cool but I honestly don't care that much about bloodshed.

i second that. :thumbsup:

There is. Varys and his littler birds are not omnipresent.

Good catch. I think you are right. He definitely had a good long look at Ygritte when he was hiding under the table (or what was it) during the wildlings attack.

:agree: I am personally glad that they are toning down thing for the show: not sure if I could handle watching Ramsay's victim being torn apart by the hounds. I just don't understand why apparently any rape/violence described by GRRM serves plot or character development purpose while if depicted on the show it is gratuitous and only serves to fulfil HBO boob quota.

I am not saying the scene in Craster's Keep was an easy thing to watch. Not at all. I skipped it on my rewatch of the episode because it is simply too disturbing. But it felt completely in-style with George's writing. He tends to go over the top with the description of violence and it's hard to find a chapter, in which someone is not raped, threatened with rape or someone is not boasting about how they raped somebody. It's just that reading about it is slightly easier than watching it. It's been awhile since I read ASoS so I don't remember the details but Sam's description of what was happening at Craster's after the mutiny was a pretty disturbing read. The mutineers were mostly rapers and murderers who were forced to join the Watch. I think it portrayed "nicely" how they are basically dead men walking living in the moment: they have no structure, no organisation and no purpose. If they go back to Westeros they're dead, if they leave Craster's and head north they're dead. We see the stage between the "kids thrown into a candy shop" to the "Craster's larder is not infinite and this is the rest of our fucking lives". I don't see a problem with them keeping Ghost. Direwolf is a rarity, a source of entertainment, and they (or especially Karl) might have though that they could tame him eventually (Jon did why can't they?). A trained direwolf could hunt for them, protect them, intimidate others etc. They probably just fed him scraps or some junk that nobody else would eat anyways.

That made my day. Still can't get over how old show!Tommen is.