How did your unsullied friends, family react to this episode? (Book Spoilers)

[GeorgeIAF]

Watched the episode with 3 unsullied and they went batshit crazy when they saw their favourite character, Stannis, burning his daughter. I tried many times to change their conception that he's the White Knight and so all, i felt vindicated after what he did, and how they went berserk :))

[Woman of War]

Dp again

[Facebookless Man]

That's interesting, because only one person I have turned on to the show didn't care for it (didn't get past the 2nd episode). Many people I know have found it on their own.

People were incredibly upset over Shireen, but I haven't had one single person question why it happened or to be confused whatsoever. When I mentioned the "controversy" to one of them, they said "They must not pay much attention to the show - they said it was going to happen back in Season 3." And this is a casual viewer that has just watched the series weekly.

The reaction to Drogon was amazing, people saying they have been waiting for this to happen and stuff to finally hit the fan. It was a payoff years in the making.

The only real criticism I have found is here from folks who simply don't seem to like the show but persist in watching it. Or that don't understand that all of the things they felt were "missing" weren't missing to actual viewers, people are not so stupid as to need to be hammered for hours of television with what was plainly obvious either by imagery or dialogue.

It was established in season 3 that Bolton men are elite ninja bombers, Stannis will cave in at the first sign of adversity, burning your sole heir alive is q minor annoyqnce, and fire vaporises anything it touches in a matter of minutes and in the middle of a snowstorm?

I guess if Dany just walks into KL, shoves Tommen aside and sits on the IT and everyone starts dancing and singing it's good story telling because they said it was going to happen since season 1.

[Woman of War]

An Unsullied I know now heavily roots for Tyrion and Missandei.

Of course I could not tell her that Missandei is a little girl in the books.

"And where was Greyworm when Missandei needed him?"

She thinks a Sand Snake will poison Tommen and Myrcella will be queen - clever, gold will be their shrouds....

"Mother's Mercy...... Poor Tommen! Will Sansa be pregnant? The poor girl will only realize that when it is too late to do something about it without getting herself killed. She will need a midwife or wise woman more than any other savior. She would have needed the woman Dany burned back then" (my friend is a mother of teens and a teacher who has had to deal with teenage pregnancies)

"The talk under the tent in the pit was best but why hadn't Dany asked Tyrion's opinion about the Harpies before the event?"

She was totally excited about Drogon but wondered how Dany could sit on those pesky spikes. But where is she going? Not to Westeros alone ???

She thinks Stannis is just like some Taliban who sends his own kid with a bomb belt and then pulls the trigger. She will absolutely root against any character who kills a child (I share her opinion and I wonder if her sympathy for Cersei will be tested at some point)

"The High Sparrow is Lenin who will turn into Stalin murdering everyone" "He is not the Christian Inquisition because the Inquisition never started out benevolent, the Church has always been against the common people and their villager wisdom"

"He is for sure not Trotsky who enjoyed the ladies"

"No naked people this time? Did Jeb Bush and the NSA intervene because the show was un-American?"

[Tyrion's Third Wife]

My very quiet unsullied Dany fan husband finally showed a reaction - when Dany was about to bite it in the pit, he said "About time for a dragon to show up..."

Drogon appears. "See?"

He doesn't understand why Jon Snow didn't tell everyone about the White Walkers. (I guess he figures why else would the rest of the NW still be mad. They must not know...)

[Lord Freypie]

An unsullied friend told me he was expecting Stannis to propose his own sacrifice instead of burning his daughter, and the only explanation of his change of mind must be Melissandre has charmed him. Doesn't consider at all Stannis army problems were important enough as they had horses to eat. Judge Melissandre as some Ramsay level cruel vilain, not believing in her stated goal/good faith.

Out of that he was wondering why Arya tried to hide things to the "Jaqen", "as FM are here to deliver justice they would have accepted to see her kill the knight instead or in addition to the merchant".

Guess it wasn't really explained in the show FM don't kill persons they know and aren't some vigilantes.

He is also convinced that Bronn's antidote was just temporary, and that the SS and him devised some plan offscreen, he thinks either he's going to betray Jaime and kill Myrcella or to try to free the sand snakes.

Finally he expects Olly and/or Thorne are going to try to kill Jon / organize a wildling massacre, since 3 episodes or so, while I think I'm the only bookreader he knows. Guess the Checkov was a bit too obvious.

He found the pit scene great without questioning why the attack happened at all (guess as SoH are just aggressive vilains in the show, it looked logical) but also expects "at least one" of Dany or Tyrion or Missandei to have catched greyscale or it would be pointless showing Jorah touch people.

[VladimirDulud]

Tears. Honestly. My unsullied is a big girl's blouse, but still, tears. At Shireen's farewell party and then at Drogon and Dany's reunion get together. Oh, it was epic.

[jet199]

I told my unsullied not to watch this episode but I'm sure she will ignore me and I will get told off for not warning her enough later on in the week. She though I was saying FTW was going to happen this episode (which she has spoiled herself over, her and her boyfriend couldn't work out why Longclaw broke the whitewalker's sword so she went on-line to find out, big mistake) and I couldn't correct her because her super-spoiler-phobic boyfriend was there and started making a huge fuss.

I thought I'd leave this here as it is v.funny and obviously there aren't many humorous threads this episode. I think this may actually be a huge, wide spread problem. Now is a great time to get into the tattoo removal biz.

[Fylimar]

I thought I'd leave this here as it is v.funny and obviously there aren't many humorous threads this episode. I think this may actually be a huge, wide spread problem. Now is a great time to get into the tattoo removal biz.

That was hilarious. Poor lad - maybe he can change Stannis to someone more likeable - like Ramsay :devil:

Since most of my unsullied friends already predicted Shireens death, they would probably not be too surprised about it - sad for sure, but not surprised.

[Follmann]

I thought I'd leave this here as it is v.funny and obviously there aren't many humorous threads this episode. I think this may actually be a huge, wide spread problem. Now is a great time to get into the tattoo removal biz.

:laugh:

Well, maybe he will get to keep his tattoos once the book comes out, who knows. But yeah: avoid GoT tattoos until the series are done, or you may end up with the equivalent to a Hitler tattoo.

[CerseiStark]

It was established in season 3 that Bolton men are elite ninja bombers, Stannis will cave in at the first sign of adversity, burning your sole heir alive is q minor annoyqnce, and fire vaporises anything it touches in a matter of minutes and in the middle of a snowstorm?

I guess if Dany just walks into KL, shoves Tommen aside and sits on the IT and everyone starts dancing and singing it's good story telling because they said it was going to happen since season 1.

This is the "first sign of adversity"????

Where have you been?

Every single sign has hit this guy straight in the face that he is not meant to rule Westeros since the character was introduced. Why did he resort to sorcery in the first place? Because things were going so well? He has become increasingly desperate, murdering people increasingly closer to him, until finally he gets his purchased army into the middle of nowhere, they are all dying, and the Red Witch's prediction that he would have to sacrifice his family came true.

It's like I've slipped into some alternate universe - it's like every scene Stannis has ever been in, people just stuck their fingers in their ears and said "nah nah nah nah" as they watched him going across the screen, inventing their own storyline for him where he was some savoir who just happened to burn people alive.

[Facebookless Man]

I don't think Stannis is a savior, and I don't give a fuck about Stannis. I don't give a fuck about Shireen either. They don't exist.

I want a good story, and this is not it. If your position is "well I don't like that character as a person so I don't care if he suddenly commits suicide because Selyse was mean to him, and poo poo to Stannis lovers" I guess we don't have anything to talk about, or even speak the same language. So, whatever.

[Edd Tollett's One Vote]

My Unsullied still doesn't know Stannis' name (well not consistently, he recalls it from time to time) but even he thought that his characterization was ridiculous. He wasn't so much shocked that Shireen burnt, as he was that 'the guy who had a bunch of scenes expressly showing how much he loved his daughter' suddenly decided to burn her. He asked if there wasn't a line previously that had even said that he wouldn't send her away cause she belong with him, or something like that.

He didn't like the Meryn Trant scene, cause he felt like they dragged on the fact that he was pedophile, but he's generally fairly ambivalent on Arya's story as a whole.

He didn't understand why Jon didn't tell them about the walkers.

He thought the fighting in Mereen was ridiculous - he felt like Jorah would've been dead and the other pit fighter's hesitation made no sense. And the harpies attacking individually seemed silly. He was actually much less excited about the dragon than I had expected. He said he was glad to see the dragon again, but didn't understand what was going to happen to all the other people Dany abandoned.

He doesn't understand what's happened in Dorne. Lol he finds everything there pointless, and finally thought that Tryst's one condition was building up to something, to the point that he asked me what it was after the punch.

He also asked what was going on with the Queen and her gay brother.

Lol - He does usually enjoy the show, though he's definitely a casual once-a-week viewer. But he was definitely not feeling this episode.

[Edd Tollett's One Vote]

DP - whoops!

[ThePrunesThatWasPromised]

This is the "first sign of adversity"????

Where have you been?

Every single sign has hit this guy straight in the face that he is not meant to rule Westeros since the character was introduced. Why did he resort to sorcery in the first place? Because things were going so well? He has become increasingly desperate, murdering people increasingly closer to him, until finally he gets his purchased army into the middle of nowhere, they are all dying, and the Red Witch's prediction that he would have to sacrifice his family came true.

It's like I've slipped into some alternate universe - it's like every scene Stannis has ever been in, people just stuck their fingers in their ears and said "nah nah nah nah" as they watched him going across the screen, inventing their own storyline for him where he was some savoir who just happened to burn people alive.

Sort of exactly like Dany.

[CerseiStark]

I don't think Stannis is a savior, and I don't give a fuck about Stannis. I don't give a fuck about Shireen either. They don't exist.

I want a good story, and this is not it. If your position is "well I don't like that character as a person so I don't care if he suddenly commits suicide because Selyse was mean to him, and poo poo to Stannis lovers" I guess we don't have anything to talk about, or even speak the same language. So, whatever.

ROFL.

I said nothing of the sort.

But if it makes you feel better to think so, that's fine.

My favorite character is Cersei, who does terrible things - I certainly have no problem with liking a character who's actions I don't think are right.

If you think it's a good story or not, this was the story they have been telling since the character was introduced. I'm sorry it so blindsided so many of you - but if you go back and watch Stannis' scenes, you'll see this foreshadowed starting in Season 2.

[Led]

Well, so far only spoken to my father about it (out of people who have seen it but not read the books)... his response was something like "Eh, it just shows what happens when you become a religious extremist".

This is the "first sign of adversity"????

Where have you been?

Every single sign has hit this guy straight in the face that he is not meant to rule Westeros since the character was introduced. Why did he resort to sorcery in the first place? Because things were going so well? He has become increasingly desperate, murdering people increasingly closer to him, until finally he gets his purchased army into the middle of nowhere, they are all dying, and the Red Witch's prediction that he would have to sacrifice his family came true.

It's like I've slipped into some alternate universe - it's like every scene Stannis has ever been in, people just stuck their fingers in their ears and said "nah nah nah nah" as they watched him going across the screen, inventing their own storyline for him where he was some savoir who just happened to burn people alive.

Yeah, I never understood why people seem to think this came out of the blue and was "completely out of character"...

Over the entire series, he has become more and more engrossed in the religion where he is basically the Hero-King Messiah Stannis, where he is the only one who can save the world, pretty much because Mel says just what he wants to hear.

He did not burn Shireen just for fun. He truly believes that it was the only way to win this battle, so he can become HKM Stannis and save everyone.

The real tragedy will be if he finds out he was wrong, that he is just Stannis and everything (Renly, Shireen, hundreds of innocents and thousands of soldiers) was for nothing. If he can reach Mel then, she won't live for long.

Sort of exactly like Dany.

They do have quite a few things in common... the main difference is that Dany has friends and advisers that help her get through these while actually helping her figuring out her own morality and ideals, while Stannis has the Red Witch who confirms his greatest wish (that it's all about him, he's the HKM) while applauding his rigid morality and willingness to go all "ends justify the means" on both enemy and ally.

I do like Stannis, though I see him more as a tragic character than anything else :dunno:

[Jon Flow]

My watching group was overall meh on this episode.

On the wall:

Everyone was convinced that Thorne wasn't going to let Jon in. I thought that it was odd. Jon and the Wildlings presumably walked from Eastwatch to Castle Black. If so; why did they walk along the North side?

On Oysers:

I saw a lot of people who thought that making Trant a pedophile was gilding the rose.

On the Stannis Family BBQ:

People were justifiably confused that the attack was Ramsay, probably because they didn't have any context of him being covert. Bookreaders remember how he double crossed Cassel. The Shireen scene and stuff leading up had my unsullied friends repeating, first softly... "no...no...no" and climaxing to "....NO! Stannis you sick f*%k!"

On the Pit scene:

I've mentioned in other posts how I thought the choreography this season has been uneven, to put it kindly. Most of the Unsullied I watch with had disagreed with me until now. That pit fight and subsequent battle started well but got downright Xena-ish quickly. Team Dany shuffling back and forth was akward. The Unsullied (the real unsullied) looked like incompetent morons. Hopefully next season, Greyworm will wake up... realize how crappy his 'elite fighting force' has become... put Missande aside (PLEASE GOD) and re-train the remaining Unsullied into a force that can survive an encounter with non armored foes that are armed with daggers.

So... the women literally whooped and cheered when Dany mounted Drogon. My Unsullied male friend was non-plussed. He was into Drogon arriving and killing the tSoH but he mentioned that Dany's flight at the end looked like it was composited in-camera.

Next Time On...

If we get the FTW moment next week I suspect I will need to talk the girl's in our viewing party out of suicide.

[Jon Flow]

DP

[Balerion's Whiskers]

My Unsullied (who used to like Stannis) asked if he dies horribly in the books. Unfortunately, I couldn't give him any insight, although I did say he was in a world of hurt at the moment.

I'd warned him about the burning, but he didn't think it would actually happen. I try to warn him that things like this that are foreshadowed so he picks up on the hints....I let him get the full shock of things like the Red Wedding, Shae's betrayal and Ned's beheading.

He did say that a dragon should show up to rescue Dany...but he had no idea that she would fly off...he said..."is she GONE???" "Where did she go???!!!"

He was bummed that this last episode was boobless too. What's with a boobless brothel????