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Ser Desmond Wine's Bane

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Everything posted by Ser Desmond Wine's Bane

  1. Positives Mole's Town attack - quite liked, the mercy shown to Gilly was a tad cliche but was saved by the rain of blood through the floorboard Moat Cailin - The scene was all about Theon/Reek and and Allen hit another home run. Vale Coroner's Court - menacing and fantastic - felt it was really well done. Ramsay/Roose - I did actually have some chills. The fight - I did actually have many chills. Fell short of awesome level as it just felt a tad rushed. Negatives Sansa/Petyr - This is actually borderline neutral. I mark it as a -ve on first watch due to the lack of context it has as the scene stood. After building up Baelish as the Master of Puppets it just seemed somewhat OOC at this time. More context later may improve this scene's status. Dark Sansa - I do like the proactive Sansa, but I really dislike the light-switch-flick of her personality. Really shoddily handled IMO. It's not about the medium. They have demonstrated they CAN do nuanced character arcs (Jaime). This just smacks of being a brutal transformation. Were they aiming for surprise? "Lets surprise them by paying homage to Everdeen!" Was it a realisation they had undersold Sansa in the past and were over compensating? I don't know but am disappointed. Pre-trial - just felt rushed. It just seemed to lack the menace of the books. The fore-knowledge of the poisoned blade was the glimmer of hope. It became about how long Oberyn could survive while the poison took hold. Sure they may reveal poison later on, but that just smacks of a cheap "And then they all woke up and it was all a dream" moment. Too much beetles and too little pre-trial tension is disappointing. Neutral Castle Black - Scene itself was good, but it suffers a bit because of the way the whole Wall story has been constructed, resulting in it feeling a bit out of place Missandei/Grey Worm - .D'awww cute.... and worthless. Great that they are going to these lengths to show the depth of secondary characters. Perhaps one day they will do the same for Stannis, the personality of the dragons (far more critical to Dany's story) or anyone named Tyrell who also has a 'Y' chromosome. The Dismissal - I want to love this scene but something just seems 'off' about it and I just can't put my finger on what that is. It may become clearer with a rewatch. It might be Dany's movements? I just don't know at the moment. The Dog and the Wolf - ending of the scene showed the descent of Arya, sure, but the scene itself just felt disjointed. Good dialogue though. Beetles - I just couldn't care until the bell started tolling, thankfully. Summary - a solid episode let down by the choppy editing. This season has benefited by longer sequences on each story but this episode just felt like it fell back into the habit of shorter less explanatory set pieces and was just a little less satisfying than it could have been. Perhaps the Black Sansa reveal was a bit more, ummmm, 'stark' because it came after the week break meaning it didn't 'flow' as well. Perhaps the apparent brevity of the Trail was exacerbated coming after the week break too. I'd like to give it an 8, but 7/10 it is.
  2. Astounding. Fortunately people are perfectly allowed to have their own opinions. I don't think the show is anywhere near as bad as many make out, but welcome to the block list anyway for the the admitted intent to personally attack people.
  3. People will vote how they will. There are no rules that I have seen. Some people give 10s just to cancel out someone else's vote. Some people gave 10s to an episode a few weeks ago for no other reason than 'there was a cat in it'. Some people gave this episode 10s because there was some actress in it who was 'hot'. It can easily be argued, should such judgments be made, that the number of ridiculous 10s far far outweigh the number of ridiculous 1-5s.
  4. There is one vitally important sequence to do first.
  5. Brilliant Tyrion/Oberyn Positive: Jaime/Tyrion - Brilliantly done by both The dog and the wolf - 'Nothing' line wasn't as bad as I feared but not fantastic. 'Mercy' set up I was happy with. Rorge/Biter set up was weak and almost enough to move scene down a rank Wall - timely reminder for people that may have been deluded into thinking of Jon as a 'badass', that he is in fact not. Bronn/Tyrion - very well done scene Mel/Sel - surprised I felt this as a positive, but it gave a great insight into their characters. No if only they could do the same for the protagonist there for once as well. The dog and the wolf 2 - Really liked it and sets up well for Arya being unable to act later. Brienne/Pod/Hot Pie - Nice scene that tied things up well. Probably the weakest GC has ever been in the show though. Could have done with a bit more fear from Hot Pie when he heard the name 'Stark' perhaps. Snow Winterfell - Started out as brilliant but I don't know - it seemed to lose a bit by the end. Still definitely in the +ve territory. Only Cat - great scene. Would have preferred they didn't change that line but it wasn't a deal breaker. Negative: Dany/Daario - in two minds though. It might actually be perfect. It was at this point I lost all interest in Book Dany so it could be argued the show is being faithful Neutral: Cersei/Gregor - OKish but questions about why he needs 'training' after 3 years of killing peasants and farmers' children. Mountain V3.0 ok but Conan was still the best Jorah/Dany - scene saved from -ve territory by Jorah's truth bombs and Glenn's delivery, but only just. Tempo and delivery of Dany's lines just seemed awkward to me somehow.. Summary: I think it is the best of the season so far. In truth perhaps an 8.5 but I will give it a 9 on first viewing.
  6. Why do people keep saying this was a spoiler? Sam is told what happens to the baby boys before he flees Craster's.
  7. Yep - it had some really good scenes but it was painfully obvious when reading that the entire quest was padding. It desperately needed heavy editing.
  8. Anyone who follows the show really should remember a certain wedding that took place last season. If they don't then they aren't followers of the show. I am not overly concerned about the change. I would have prefered the original given that it showed the biggest weakness Baelish has. On that front 'Only Cat' is a crack of light just shining through on his motivations. 'Your sister' doesn't provide the same insight. If 'the audience is too stupid' is a thing, then there is no reason they couldn't have said 'Your sister' then 'Only Cat' as she fell.
  9. NCW and GC were both stunning last season and have just rolled it along into this season like they didn't have a break.
  10. And if that is done then the same must obviously be also done for those who give an automatic 10. I think Ran's way is a better method of handling the situation, except that given the additional traffic, perhaps expanding the top and bottom cuts are in order?
  11. Australians felt the same about Eric Bana. He was fortunate enough to land the international roles to break out of his comedy stereotype. You just have to look at what the actor is doing now rather than what they did in the past.
  12. I agree. I didn't feel there was a very good 'flow' during the first half of the episode: from the light and almost comedic Saan/Davos scene into the rousing monologue by Yara, some underwhelming fighting then a very WTF flight.... I liked how intense the Reek/Ramsay scene was, but it was spoiled at the start by the confusion over flight of the Iron Born.
  13. Positive Braavos.Iron Bank - quite well done I thought. Re-established the importance of Stannis and Davos after being cast adrift for so long. Good hint about how savvy the IBB is too 'Yara' on ship - great but the drama of the scene was lost a bit following the comedy of Saan. Reek/Ramsay - fantastic but again tainted by the disjointed flow of drama from the preceding scene Hizdahr - Nailed it (oops, was that too soon?) Small Council Meeting - One of the better SCMs they have portrayed. No musical chairs alone was a big plus. The Trial - Possibly the greatest scene they have yet produced. Negative Attack on the Dreadfort - Pointless, disappointing, rushed, underdeveloped, underwhelming, terrible (Alfie's acting notwithstanding) Neutral Salad Sandwich - Saan was what saved this scene from being a negative. Meereen - Dragon business: OK - the Drogon appearance alone should be a +ve, but the resolution was more taken up by the titles. The titles were longer than the attack on the Dreadfort. Varys/Oberyn - OK but just seemed to be missing an X factor. Enough to get people to ask a lot of questions were it not overwhelmed by later scenes. I'd love to give it a 9 but I think it isn't quite there. I'll put an 8 on it but that actually means '8.5'. I suspect I will edit this upwards later though.
  14. Oh I agree. Much easier to raid the Dreadfort from Moat Cailin. The whole story was very weak, but they did establish that sailing from Pyke to near the Dreadfort was do-able, which it is.
  15. 'Yara' says at the end of S3 she was going to sail around the entire continent 'all the way up the Narrow Sea' to get to the Dreadfort. It was the reason so many were 'adamant' that Melisandre would be giving her 'there is only one hell' line to Yara instead of the far more obvious Shireen.
  16. Tyrion's trail was set for 'a fortnight' from when Pod visited him. I think it safe to assume that Pod's visit was very soon after he was imprisoned (a couple of days). The fact Dany knew within two weeks of his death actually suggests word travels VERY quickly.
  17. Yeah, Jon was outclassed. Karl was too easily able to close the gap and negate Jon's range.
  18. Because Brienne and Pod are in the books. The difference is that Show Pod is older than Book Pod so it comes off as much more awkward.
  19. Positive The Eerie Eirie - Didn't mind the Jon Arryn resolution. Lysa isn't going to have many more opportunities for that info dump. It was also refreshing to have someone besides Baelish give an info dump on the Baelish machinations. Lysa and Robin suitably deranged. Cersei/Tywin - Really liked the scene but have a few reservations (Power balance between Tywin and Cersei, Lannisters suddenly bankrupt - would have been more believable to say 'The war has stopped all gold for over a year') The Dog and the Wolf - Definite plus. Beric and Thoros is justified in show canon and is no doubt a foreshadowing of their reappearance. Lysa/Sansa - Yep. Crazy level just hit '11'. Cersei/Oberyn - solid scene and a satisfying amount of backstory/info Crasters - I quite liked this sequence but it falls short of being 'excellent'. I was a little underwhelmed by the fighting and the whole 'Bran sees Jon but decides to leave'. The second point worked at Queenscrown but didn't work here. Otherwise it generally resolved the filler material quite well - apart from the Locke storyline. The way that was truncated was, in the words of the great man "A shameful fucking performance." Only just scrapes a '+ve' Negative Meereen - The whole thing was just 'off'. Jorah not pressing for a departure? The "How can I rule 7 Kingdoms if I can't rule Slaver's Bay" line was different from the trailer wasn't it? "If I can't rule 1 city" The line was delivered after a quick cut to behind her so I can't help thinking it was a post-production edit. Her whole plan has been to 'Conquer Slavers Bay'? When was that ever demonstrated? She left governors in charge at Astapor? When was that explained? There was just so much WTF with this scene. Also, as others have mentioned, the ships Daario has taken suggests that Victarion's story may be cut. I will reserve judgement but am disappointed. Jojen's visions - I quite liked it and found it interesting. Neutral Cersei/Marg - On the face of it a good scene, but the exchange flies in the face of book Cersei's character so much I was unable to be immersed in the scene. Did they recast Headey into a new role? Bloody Gate - Problematic geography but allowed for an info dump on the Vale. Pod/Brienne - 'OK' but just 'OK' All up it wasn't fantastic but not too bad either. I think when I do a S4 rewatch this Ep might earn an 8 but I just can't really give it that at the moment. Its almost there but not quite. So 7 it is. Ep1: 8- Ep2: 8+ Ep3: 7 Ep4: 7+ Ep5: 7+
  20. People will vote how they will. Some people gave it a 10 because it had a cat in it.
  21. That thread is for people to say whatever they want without fear of having to justify themselves. This thread doesn't have the 'without repercussions' so people are perfectly within their rights to ask for an explanation.
  22. Yep. Mine are Ep01 - 8+ Ep02 - 8- Ep03 - 7 Ep04 - 7+
  23. Yeah that and the 'Gift to the gods' chant to be honest. Quite offputting. I did in general like the rest and showing why Karl is the dominant person there.
  24. Plus Side Grey Worm infiltrating the slaves Bronn/Jaime - I thought this was quite good. Said a lot about where both of them were at Kingslayer Bros Inc - ditto for above Marg/Olenna - a really well paced scene and loved how the framing pulls in closer and closer until the reveal is made. Only drawback was the Baelish voiceover at the start, but excellent otherwise. Jon/Locke - Loved this scene on most fronts - especially Grenn stepping up, and Jon-Locke interaction. A tad put off by Slynt suddenly knowing more about the NW protocols than the Acting Lord Commander Jaime/Brienne - fantastic sequence and loved the swaying of Pod as he struggled to stay in the saddle Sam/Jon + Volunteers - Solid scenes but still have some doubts about how it will all be resolved. Revelation of Bran to Jon important loose end tied up IMO Crasters - slightly on the plus side, but a few things just seem 'off' about it. I'll have to do a rewatch Minus Side 'Kill the Masters' in English, after all the work they have done on creating languages, this just really stood out Targaryen banner - would have had more impact if they had introduced it sometime in the last 3 years WW - Wasn't overly impressed as it was depicted for some reason... needs a re-watch but I just see problems with overemphasising the WW menace now instead of as a 'vague, mysterious yet present' danger. Making them too menacing now risks people not rooting for the right side at the Battle of Castle Black. It might work out but I am not impressed at the moment. Neutral Missandei/Grey Worm - OK I guess, a pity they haven't spent this much time on Dany's character the last couple of seasons. 'Injustice' line - hopefully that and the final scene gets played out as the decent to megalomania, but I doubt it. I might have had in the plus side had they changed her outfit out of the Madonna Blue into Targ Red/Black. Baelish/Sansa - I'd like to have this as a plus, giving Sansa some lines for once etc, but I am just cold about the Littlefinger portrayal. I loved his movements, but that voice.... Twincest - I'd love to put this as a plus. As a scene on its own it deserves it. As a scene following E01 and E02 it deserves it. It is glaringly obvious they just shouldn't have had 'that' scene last week at all. Margommen - not bad, borderline in the plus column. Id like to give an 8 but it doesn't quite make it, so 7 (almost a 7.5 but just short)
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