Holymoly

1 minute ago, LadyNoOne said:

Hi, I meant it was an issue for Jon and Dany's romantic relationship, at least.  Frankly, I think Dany will take it as more of a threat than Jon ever would. 

Clearly, the succession has moved on as you point out. 

GoT is certainly incest by degrees.

1 hour ago, LadyNoOne said:

I think that Jon (or someone else) is going to converse with Dany about this, but beyond Bran's visions, what hard evidence would anyone have?  Even a transcribed diary is dubious evidence at best.
 

It's kind of irrelevant. The world has moved on. The throne was taken from the Targaryens by force. It wasn't just a case of there being no living issue to continue the line. Similarly if Daenerys were to ascend to the throne then it would be hers as it is not currently "belonging" to the Targaryen line. She would be starting anew rather than reverting to her brother's lineage.

2 hours ago, Rhollo said:

1/10

This was the worst episode in the series history.

A boring, B-movie level, melodramatic soap-opera, that can't even be saved anymore by actors that are way to good for this.

Can't even make fun of this anymore, I am done with watching.

Stop sitting on the fence....tell us what you really think ;-)

The demise of the Boltons diminishes the series I feel, and the overarching rise of "girl power" is a tad demeaning to women in its exclusive positive discrimination. That said the battle scenes did a good job in deglorifying warfare although the sudden appearance of mounds of corpses did make it a little cartoon like at the end.

Can't help but feel that the writers are out of ideas by this stage and are running headlong to the denoument. There will be no more plot twists or turns, instead it's just down to the bookies to put a bet on who will be left standing by the end of the final epidsode of the final series.

Well, the chickens came home to Roose didn't they?

2 minutes ago, desire said:

This show has turned into a game of pin the tail on the donkey after drinking a bottle of gin

You or the donkey?

13 hours ago, Sand11751 said:

And none of the Dothraki ever heard of that silver-haired chick Khal Drogo married? Yet they take her word she was a khalessi?

Plus, one look at her eyebrows would have told them the carpet doesn't match the curtains.

2 hours ago, three-eyed monkey said:

I'm not speaking for anyone else on the matter. I gave the show a rating of 3, not because I'm butthurt about the books, but because in my opinion the writing is very poor in the show.

Let's be honest GRRM's writing isn't exactly of the highest quality either. The first book was damn good and could have been left at that. The ideas are good but the entire story creaks beneath the weight of the number of characters being described. I've been reading the books for the last few years purely in order to get to the end. The TV series is enjoyable spectacle but is no great art form let's not kid ourselves.

I think the producers are just trying to out-GRR the books with Ser Barristan's and Greyworm's deaths. All I can hope for now is Denerys and Missandei consoling each other with a mega-bewb sapphic session.

Am I correct in thinking that this series is where they begin to diverge from the books for dramatic licence (seeing that the later books have become terribly dull.......and err non existent)? As such, presumably some of the things people are bleating on about being deleted may make an appearance in some other form later on?

To all those people complaining that the series is veering too far away from the books and thus doing a disservice to the writings of GRRM I would say two things:

1. The books are really no great literary masterpieces. The original premise was good and the first book excellent although still no paragon of great writing. GRRM and his writing over the years has become more and more a caricature of themselves and he is actually not that far off becoming a bit of a dirty old man if I'm honest. As such I don't have a huge issue with the TV series veering away from the literal original. This leads me on to...

2. The TV series is going to catch up with the books way before GRRM gets around to finishing them at his present rate of writing and the scriptwriters must have an option to finish off the story, presumably based upon GRRMs literary plans (if he has them). Therefore I can understand if the TV series is going to do its own thing in placing the characters ready for the denouement. I'd also like to add that in my opinion the books have been going steadily downhill ever since the first, as if GRRM doesn't actually know how to end the story. Maybe his best bet is to work with the scriptwriters to bring it to a conclusion then finish off the books based on the TV show.

My problem is that in many cases the variations from the books quite often relate to issues that I found fundamental to the written story. Rarely do they improve the narrative for me. More and more I am coming to judge the TV series as just that, a TV series. An adaptation, based on a book rather than a literal translation of the book. As that I would still give it a solid 8/10 for the story so far.

What the actual fuck? Brienne killing Sandor and Varys running off with Tyrion?!?

Is this the screenwriters getting ready to overtake GRRM with the story?

6

Battle fatigue after 30 minutes

8 from me.

-1 for the whole Grey Worm / Missandei protracted nonsense

+1 for the bewbs however

A bit odd that Arya reached the Vale. In the book I seem to remember after she left Sandor to die she drifted around a bit until she caught a boat to Braavos? Surely they can't have her meeting up with her sister? Equally the guard on the Bloody Gate must at least mention that he had seen Arya Stark unless Littlefinger sees that the information goes no further. Some significant departures from the books in this series. Maybe it's the scriptwriters preparing for taking over the narrative when GRRM gives up. I can quite see him turning his attention to writing for the TV rather than the books now to finishe the story.

Quite simply the best episode ever, and I've been pretty critical of the last two series. Helped significantly by the decision by Sky in the UK to include only a single ad break. Acting of the highest order from the real actors of the cast. Dinklage, Dance, Coster -Waldau, Dillane and Cunningham

I feel that the breadth of narrative being attempted in this series means the shows are reduced to series of vignettes with no sense of flow to the story. For instance the original relationship between Tyrion and Bronn had some substance whereas now they are reduced to charicatures. Based on the literary output of George Martin the producers could have taken the decision to spread the books out over more series as, at this rate, they are clearly going to catch up with the books prior to the conclusion of the written original.

Haha, I love how emotionally defensive everyone is about the slightest criticisms! Dissenting opinion won't be tolerated, even though it's entirely subjective! Apparently you can only post if you like it. Didn't realise that.

Always the same with the fans on the forums. I too am disappointed with the overall result given the budget and magnificent cast. Since Sean Bean no character has been allowed the time on screen to develop a persona. I suppose that's the inevitable outcome when 10 hour long episodes only equate to around 45 minutes each. To be honest, taking into account GRRM's appalling lack of motivation to finish writing the books the producers would have been better advised to make three series per book. That way they could have made a better fist of including everything from the books as well as keeping pace with the source material.

5/10. Highly summarised, rushed, lack of depth and edited for the MTV generation. Even the nudity was gratuitous and entirely unnecessary for the scene and I'm all for a bit of naked flesh. The production and CGI is improved although some of the backdrops are still laughable. Add all this to the fact that GRRM is probably never going to finish the series as he really doesn't have a clue where he's going with it anymore and I'm thoroughly disillusioned. Seriously, who begins a book by saying I'm going to make this into "x" volumes but doesn't have a clue what he's working towards in the final book. Good story, poor storyteller. The first book should have been an end to it as it's all been a bit downhill since then and the tv series is just cashing in and giving employment to the entirety of the British acting profession.

6/10, felt rushed and dumbed down compared to the books!

5/10 for me for the same reasons

Gave it an 8. The series as a whole gets an 8 as well. Overall there were no real howlers although I do feel the structure of a TV series suffered by trying too hard to remain absolutely faithful to the book. In retrospect I feel more may have been achieved by "basing" it on the book rather than adhering almost word for word to the written word. The reason I say this is as the books evolve, more and more the story is driven along from the point of view of the younger cast members and it will be a heavy load for them to shoulder as time goes on.

For me however the first book is the best of the series (so far) and as a stand alone exercise the TV series did a good job with a limited budget. The stand out performances were obviously Bean and Dinklage although I'm confident Charles Dance will more than ably take his share of the plaudits in the next series.

Unfortunately the relatively low budget finally shows itself with the large scale of the battles being effectively glossed over. My worry moving forward however is that subsequent series will depend ever more heavilly on the younger actors. Whether or not GRRM will address this in future books and introduce some more mature central characters who knows. At the moment however I forsee series 5/6 should we ever get there ending up like some version of Sesame Street with Araya, Bran, Tommen et al heading up the cast.

This episode was stolen by Tyrion and Bronn obviously. Hopefully they won't beome entirely stereotyped as we move into the next series.

Much backstory and character explanation going on in this episode. Theon and Tywin well done. Littlefinger less so. I don't have a problem with the gratuitous teen erotica however I do have a problem with Littlefinger being as frank and honest with a couple of cheap whores. Totally out of character, and not particularly well acted either. Props this week to Eddard, Tywin and Sam. They kept the episode going and provided the structure for the whole thing to hang together.

Hopefully the entire canon will be serialised in time, so long as GRRM actually finishes it. Only then will much of this episode fall in to place for many.

I'm not completely pleased with the series relationship between Rob & Theon. My understanding from the books was that they were friends and that Rob trusted Theon (else wise, why would he send him where he did later). My take was that Theon was treated fairly and equally with the "trueborn" Stark children.

I've been re-reading the first book after a few years and must say that I am surprised how I am picking up a different take on Theon second time around. First time reading through the books I think you miss much of the nuances the author included as you weren't neccessarily aware of the future importance of seemingly innocuous comments/occurences. When I read through the first time Theon's story was very surprising for me as it devloped. However second time of reading, and the wildling scene in particular, you get the suggestion of a certain cavalier, flippant attitude towards the Stark children that wouldn't be expected if they were blood relations. In the book Robb is incredibly angry with Theon for taking the shot. The TV series is using a slightly blunter instrument to make the point however I believe that it is a point present in the book.

Best episode yet without a doubt.

The best scenes were actually those that didn't appear in the book because they actually added to and explained much of the subtext so well. The scenes between Littlefinger and Varys, and Robert and Cersei were suberb. Not so sure the relationship between Renly and Tyrel was quite so blatant or neccessary in the books though.

Far better than the first episode although I suppose they had to rush through that one in order to arrive at the Bran incident for the cliffhanger. I still feel the flow of the story would be enhanced by scheduling it as 5 x 2 hour episodes rather than 10 x 1 hour shows but overall the adaptation has improved with the second program. Tyrion rapidly assuming the mantle of star of the show that he has in the books and Cersei really well observed by Lena Headley.