[Spoilers] Criticize without repercussion

[MotherofStrife]

Oh, how I despise Jaime. And Arya's storyline. And pointless filler with Tyrion... And almost everything at this point.

[LulaMae Barnes]

Just now, Kingly said:

One thing which annoys me somewhat is the inclusion and subsequent obliteration of side characters from ASOIAF. 

Like Lem for example. Not a major character by any means. So why include him if you're just going to destroy the character? Unsullied wouldn't know or care who he was from the books. So why not make a completely new character to fill that role instead of needlessly shoe-horning him in and changing his character.

 

Is this improving the story? Is it supposed to make book readers happy to see their beloved characters brought to the screen? Then why change the characters and eliminate what readers may like about them in the first place? It doesn't make any sense!!!

 

At this stage it's as if they're actively trying to piss people off...

I think they don't actively try to portray book characters like Lem Lemoncloak - they just sometimes need names for awful characters they made up themselves and when they look for names they just use one from the books - so they can say: "look, annoying book snobs, it's from the books? why do you keep nagging? we're doing all we can".

e.g. there are several "Olyvars" in the ASOIAFverse (Frey, Martell, Yronwood) and D&D stole the name for that male prostitute. And there is a Wylis (Manderly) - but they used that name for Hodor (instead of Walder because there cannot be two Walders, right?!?). So now they needed a good name for a bandit.....and there you go.

[CJDTrismegistus]

The last couple of seasons have been completely mind boggling! It's almost like I watched the first few seasons and liked the show immensely and then went to bed and woke up to a different show!

The Internet was rife with Arya's the Waif, the Waif's Jaqen, Lady Crane's Arya, pig's bladder blood bags, Syrio's shadow behind the Waif is Rhaegar, etc, etc! Why?!? Because the script is shit, the story progression is shit and the way it's been presented is shit. People are trying to make sense of a story that's no longer making sense.

Fuck man! What have they done to this wonderful story!

[tmug]

3 minutes ago, Stark Loyal said:

Agreed.

What an utter disappointment.  A waste of time watching this filler episode.  I still don't get why the Tully's just gave up.  Because Edmure said so?  To get his son back?  What a pile of crap.

Edmure ultimately got played by Jaime. Jaime got Edmure to give in to his bitterness towards his uncle. His punishment was going to be exactly what Edmure got from the Freys, that definitely sounded like part of the deal with Jaime.

Jaime wanted to rub it in to the Blackfish personally, but alas he dies off screen valiantly again winning over Jaime. Go BF

[khal drogon]

17 minutes ago, ummester said:

The thing with Jamie was interesting - I agree that the show dialogue didn't quite hit the mark but I think I understood what they were going for.

Basically, Jamie was saying we all fight for what we believe in, which has no meaning beyond what it means to ourselves (there is no right an wrong in it), and my belief is stronger than yours so I'll fight harder. The dialogue was just a bit clunky. I almost respected Jamie for it but the words got in the way

Yeah but he was too casual saying it and that bothered me. For him burning cities to ground is "things we do for love". Now I find it hard to believe he will kill Cersei when she goes Aerys on KL.

[Mikeygigs]

1 hour ago, bfin said:

3. Did I mention how truly embarrassing Arya has been from the very beginning of the series. How GRRM wrote her to be this special and all the pervy fan boys jumped on board and loved this character is beyond me. Hell, now I expect her to kill The Mountain as her first act back in Westeros and then she might as well head north and kill the NK. Fuck it, she's that good obviously 

I think this is a sorta unfair criticism of GRRM's portrayal. The books never really mean to portray her as a 'bad-ass.' Instead, we're given a look at someone who has had to learn how to be comfortable with violence, and its all kinda tragic and sad.

In the show, yeah, her violent acts are glorified and the script spends considerable time enforcing that she is a 'bad-ass.' Of course, that portrayal, I think, misses the point completely.

[Tijgy]

4 hours ago, LazyBazooka said:

Preview for next week's episode - looks like we know where all the season's budget went.

 

4 hours ago, Florina Laufeyson said:

yeah. Im really only salty about the Blackfish tbh. Arya's arc being resolved in the most mundane way possible is also disappointing. Other than that, im ok with the ep. Except the pointless Tyrion and Bronn BS, could you not? I mean come on. Ive never been so glad to see Dany omg

Save us from the Tyrion&Miss&Worm conversations. Our hero

4 hours ago, SerMixalot said:

Looks like Varys will be back to kill Kevan and Pycelle at least

What was the point of him in Meereen? Really

3 hours ago, Le Cygne said:

They just wasted the Blackfish. It was like Summer throwing himself into wights.

Ugh. Another character dies thanks to their biased view. Why did Tyrion not get Quentyn'd?x 

3 hours ago, Kingly said:

In the 'Inside the Episode', Benioff is talking about Tommen being smart by taking away Cersei's chances through eliminating trial by combat. So apparently Cersei losing and being found guilty of incest is in Tommens interests... Keeping up with their own logic and established universe isn't one of their strong points lol

I do not really understand why TomTom wants to betray his mother? Like why?

[ummester]

Just now, khal drogon said:

Yeah but he was too casual saying it and that bothered me. For him burning cities to ground is "things we do for love". Now I find it hard to believe he will kill Cersei when she goes Aerys on KL.

For sure - the dialogue was clunky as fuck. Things we do for love is entirely the wrong phrase to use but they just wanted a callback to an earlier episode.

I think Jamie will have a falling out with Cersie before the story is finished - I think he will kill her. Does show Jamie (I guess I should call him Larry in this thread) even know that Cersie was unfaithful with Lancel yet? I think Larry still believes that Cersie loves him back, whereas book Jamie has already learned otherwise.

It's clunky - just saying I can understand what they are trying to do with Larry. His turn against Cersie will be quick, unlike the gradual thing it is in the books.

[Darkstream]

24 minutes ago, LulaMae Barnes said:

I thought DORNE was the worst - basically as bad as it can get....but I was mistaken.

They "dorne'd" Pyke & the Greyjoys, they "dorne'd" the North and the lords living there, they "dorne'd" Riverrun & its siege and now they even managed to "dorne" the Braavos story line....

And don't even get me started on Meereen & KellyC - because the hell I know what is supposed to be happening there (besides gossip hour with Tyrion and his foster children).

I gave up on Jaime - he will never be the book character ever again, which is a shame.

  "dorne'd"  Love it, that wil be replacing "britta'd" (from Community) as my euphemism for "fucked up".  

[tmug]

2 minutes ago, CJDTrismegistus said:

The last couple of seasons have been completely mind boggling! It's almost like I watched the first few seasons and liked the show immensely and then went to bed and woke up to a different show!

The Internet was rife with Arya's the Waif, the Waif's Jaqen, Lady Crane's Arya, pig's bladder blood bags, Syrio's shadow behind the Waif is Rhaegar, etc, etc! Why?!? Because the script is shit, the story progression is shit and the way it's been presented is shit. People are trying to make sense of a story that's no longer making sense.

Fuck man! What have they done to this wonderful story!

After seeing how it actually played out, i would have rather seen the Fight Club theory or the Jaquen=Arya theory. Some sort of cleverness would have felt right due to the magical/mysterious nature of the FM. 

I was hoping scenes similar to Dany's House of the Undying 

[Tijgy]

And they also completely forgot the fact OB is a part of Ice. It resembles Jaime's honor, his vow to get the Starks daughter to their mother. It is not supposed to be just Jaime and Brienne to pass this around without not one thought to the Starks. 

[Stark_Contrast]

Hey, could it be that D&D now hate Dinklage and let that guide the writing like they did with McElhinney and Dillane, but in this case decided to go with slow torture instead of quick assassination? (No doubt for economical/popularity reasons.) All Tyrion's dialogues have been complete crap since the infamous 408 Orson speech. 

[Neds Secret]

1 hour ago, of man and wolf said:

My main gripe is that essentially, Edmure gave up his home and in a way got his uncle killed for a woman he's never seen since his wedding night and a baby that he has never seen that will grow up to be a Frey.

A baby that might not even exist, that if it does is the death of him anyway, stupid dumb fool! Catelyn and BF were always right about Edmure!

[Drz]

I absolutely hated this episode.

Why make BWB members evil, could have been random thugs.

Why did we have this Arya plot? It led to nowhere, she didn't change Bravoos politically, she didn't develope any skills nor did she become a Noone.

Why bring back Blackfish just to kill him, why have the Tully people surrender so willingly?

Why did we have to endure that long scene with Tyrion, Greyworm and Missandei.

Whyyyyyyyyy.

[Darkstream]

29 minutes ago, Kingly said:

One thing which annoys me somewhat is the inclusion and subsequent obliteration of side characters from ASOIAF. 

Like Lem for example. Not a major character by any means. So why include him if you're just going to destroy the character? Unsullied wouldn't know or care who he was from the books. So why not make a completely new character to fill that role instead of needlessly shoe-horning him in and changing his character.

 

Is this improving the story? Is it supposed to make book readers happy to see their beloved characters brought to the screen? Then why change the characters and eliminate what readers may like about them in the first place? It doesn't make any sense!!!

 

At this stage it's as if they're actively trying to piss people off...

^So much this.

I am one hundred percent sure that d$d take every opportunity possible to give a big fuck you to ASOIAF fans and GRRM. Imho they are extremely petty and vindictive hacks that are jealous that GRRM is a far, far, far superior writer than they are.

[The Bear]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought the Waif was acting like the T-1000. When Arya started running at the beginning of the scene I was legitimately relieved to see the Waif run after her because I seriously thought that they might do the Jason/Michael Meyers thing and have the Waif walk after her.
There was no way that that stabbing missed all her major organs, and it must have if she's up and running and didn't bleed out. What a happy coincidence that Lady Crane happened to have the skill needed to help Arya! I never thought there would be any twist. I was convinced she'd been stabbed and would be fine and was utterly unsurprised to see that play out.

It was kind of cool to see the Hound team up with the Brotherhood and to see Thoros and Beric again, but where's Stranger?

I have given up on show Jaime. Jaime is one of my favourite book characters and NCW is great but he has regressed rather than grown as a character. In the books you can see from Jaime's POV that he was never intending on putting Edmure's baby in the trebuchet, that he decided that he would bank on his shitty reputation and use it to his advantage to take Riverrun bloodlessly. In the show there's none of that, and without knowing his book motivation it would be easy to believe he meant it. Hell, I'm not completely certain that he didn't mean it on the show.
Don't even get me started on Blackfish refusing to help Sansa and being killed offscreen.

Is next week's episode going to be nothing but the battle, Hardhome style? You'd think they'd do some build-up in the episode before the battle. Kind of unimaginative to have the same one-episode-dedicated-to-one-battle-up-north thing in consecutive seasons in the ninth episode.

I was never really convinced Cleganebowl would be a thing so although I was surprised by 'no more trial by combat' (the reasoning was BS since the whole point is for the gods to decide) it kind of makes sense from a storytelling perspective. Cersei was convinced Ser Robert would save her and the rug was pulled from beneath her yet again. I suppose I could see it happening in the books, but with a better explanation.

I thought they'd determined Loras could confess his sins and be stripped from his lands and title? Why is he suddenly definitely standing trial?

Are either Varys or Qyburn going to die? I wonder what's going to happen when Varys gets back to KL? Are the little birds going to be loyal to him or Qyburn? Considering that they carry out murders it wouldn't be surprising if one of them wound up dead. I'm wondering what Varys' motivation will be to kill Kevan (assuming Qyburn doesn't do it instead). To pave the way for Dany?

Oh, also: Was Cersei on trial for her incest with Jaime? I was under the impression it was just for the incest with Lancel, which he told the High Sparrow about when he joined. Does Tommen actually know what Cersei has been accused of? If it IS for incest with Jaime then they truly are idiots to not have people around Cersei freaking out and trying to save her.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

1 hour ago, GeorgeIAF said:

I was always pissed at people moaning on this thread and nitpicking every scene, even if that scene was good. 

But now they have every right to criticize, the Arya plot in this episode and the last was truly awful, bad writing. We all thought that wasn't Arya because it was too over the top to have her receiving that ammount of damage and be able to kill the Waif. Why they wrote the last episode in that way ? Why they made Arya suffer those injuries and make it so graphic ? I simply can't understand.

 

Well, we've always had the right to criticize, but thanks anyway for the permission.

[ColorsVersatile]

What a terrible episode, I don't even know where to start.

The way Blackfish died, offscreen, shortly after his return and being called a "hero" in the synopsis, was just awful. Totally anti-climatic.
I don't mind stuff happening offscreen, and I don't mind BF dying, but if we don't see his survival and/or his death, it strips the character out of his essence and makes him just un-needed, you know?
So much hype for nothing.

The way Danaerys returned through the balcony was terrible as well.

Tyrion's filler scene with his jokes and wine. When a fan favourite is seriously getting on your nerves, it's not a good sign.

The Hound bickering with the BwB on how many of those guys he gets to kill? One or two? Gutting or hanging them? Ugh! On top of that, these three guys were portrayed as a threat and they are like pussies now? Once again, totally anti-climatic. After such a great episode 7...

Oh, and did we really need to see his d*** when he went to pee?


The only scenes I liked were the Jaime/Brienne and the Waif ones.


The rest was just awful.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

57 minutes ago, LulaMae Barnes said:

Since Sansa seems to be the "bad ass boss bitch in the north" knowing everything better than Jon & Davos - hardly ever listening to her experienced elders, the episode "Battle of the Bastards" should probably be called "Mr.&Mrs.Bolton fight" instead, because she seems to be leading the troops anyway and Jon Snow becomes somewhat dispensable - so he doesn't need to be the convincing one and can be as deadpan as he pleases.

BY THE WAY : the show keeps bleating "Winter is coming!" and "The North remembers!" since Ned was killed - and nothing really happens. No real northern revenge, STILL no winter. Urgh!

 

 

I think in the show when they say, "The North Remembers" what they mean is the "tough" Northern lords remember what it's like to get their asses handed to them and now they're scared little babies too afraid to do anything. The North Remembers They Got Their Asses Kicked By the Lannisters (per DnD)

[Charlie Of House Bucket]

Truly an awful episode all around.  Tyrion, Missandei, & Grey Worm scenes are painful.  And Arya...

I did get one good laugh though.

Blackfish to Brienne:  "You'll be more help to Sansa than I will."  What is this, a competition? Either/or? Surely both of them together would be more help to Sansa? Stupid.