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Zman1863

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Everything posted by Zman1863

  1. 7 for me. I don't care about the lack of Stoneheart. There is no law that it had to close out a season. It's one of the book's sillier developments in my mind anyway. For me the problem was the Tyrion scenes. The lack of the Jaime reveal about Tysha changes a whole host of things going forward for both Jaime and Tyrion. They didn't trust the viewers enough to process something from season one (even though they've been throwing material that harks back that far all season long). My guess is that they know Jaime and Tyrion never meet again from what GRRM has told them and don't think the internal conflicts for both of them are relevant enough in portraying their separate arcs. But the lack of it- its the cause of Tyrion's murderous rampage- also took away from the power of the double murder of Shae and Tywin. Absolutely terrible job considering how strong the source material is.
  2. Yeah I agree with this. The LS moment is built to be an overall ending. Stannis arriving at the wall not so much. This is especially true for the show since D&D virtually told the viewers that Stannis would be heading for the wall in Season 4. I agree with the Stannis fans that D&D don't like him very much and construct him as an important but secondary character. However, I think the majority of the readership agrees with this assessment of the character.
  3. There's a lot to be done in the finale. But I think they can get it done provided they allocate more time than they have to most of the episodes this season. They also need to be disciplined with relatively minor arcs. Dany and crew, Cersei, Tommen, and Marg can't be allowed to occupy undue amounts of time. I'm also pretty apprehensive about how much of a time pit Arya, the Hound and Brienne and Pod will be. It would seem that it will require at least a few scenes to get an intersection plus Arya leaving the Hound plus getting on a ship in one episode. I'm skeptical that Arya will be seabound by the end of the episode because of this Brienne development. However, the last song on the soundtrack seems far too upbeat for any other story arc except for Arya sailing off for a new start, unless the song is not to appear in the show at all.
  4. Sure it will.... only oh noes I accidentally spoiled some unsullied viewers with the reveal and they were just disappointed that Stannis would be the savior. It's true they haven't served Stannis optimally but I'm not sure they could have done much better given how little he has to do for a whole book .
  5. To be fair its quick in the book as far as Stannis goes. Jon walks out there, talks with a couple people and then the news comes in secondhand that an attack, partially made up of NW is coming in and then at the very end it becomes clear that it's mostly made up of Stannis.
  6. I think the problems with the pacing of this episode and how it was left on a cliffhanger are partially due to the Craster detour. They could have done a bit more to set up with the time they had. But then, I'm sure the hordes of unsullied would have been complaining even more that nothing was happening. Perhaps they should have had Ygritte's band attack midseason instead of the Craster detour. Give Bran a couple more visions and maybe he finds Ghost and sends him home.
  7. Looking at how this is probably going to go now, I think it could be a good thing that Jon's election, and Stannis's offer to Jon will come at the beginning of Season 5. That's fairly consequential material. It also means that Jon's tenure as LC will have that much less time to have fill up to bridge to how his Season 5 arc will end. It might come out feeling more tightly plotted than it otherwise might be.
  8. There's no way they can fit Jon's election into the next episode with everything else that has to happen, especially if were getting an off book Jaime/Cersei sex scene as the preview seemed to hint.
  9. I gave it a 9. It was close to a ten. I haven't had many qualms with deaths for the show that don't happen in the books, but Grenn and Pyp hurt, even if they were both well done. I also understand that GRRM pretty much writes them out of ADWD when Jon goes all "A Commander can't hang with his boys". My reading of that was to put them out of danger for whatever mayhem breaks out in Castle Black in the wake of Jon's assassination. But maybe they won't figure into the story very much in the future even if they are alive. My other criticism is maybe a pacing complaint. The buildup might have lagged a bit in the beginning. I loved the middle section with the initiation of the attacks. But then it seemed to lag despite the action going on. I think they might have tightened it. I'm not sure it would have been enough time to have a Jon/Mance scene and Stannis's arrival, but maybe. Overall it was quite entertaining. They do very well when they can focus an episode, as occurred in Blackwater.
  10. Anyone's book allegiances curiously reversed during the Alliser/Tormund fight? I can't like show Tormund. Show Alliser is pretty close to how I'd picture him in those situations.
  11. Cliffhanger! I worried they would keep it until next season, but it looks like the finale is going to have a whole lot of ground to cover.
  12. Grenn and Pyp. I've never cared much about the premature show deaths, but those two hurt more, especially when they could have easily had Alliser stand in for Noye.
  13. Knew I forgot somebody and it's the most overtly linked to the title. It's a lot to be going on with. As long as they don't botch Tyrion and Jon I think I'll be content. But then Arya's ASOS arc has a definitive end, and I'm not sure that's going to work out regardless.
  14. Since episode ten is actually going to cover significant events this year, I'm a little worried that there is going to be too much going on with episode 9 being exclusively focused on the wall. The season finales in this show tend to be too much of a montage. Maybe they've gotten it right this year. It seems clear that the Theon/Ramsay/Roose thread has concluded for the season. Odds on Sansa's thread has also concluded. So that leaves, Tyrion and Jaime, Tyrion and Varys, Tyrion and Shae, Tyrion and Tywin, Jon's election, Arya and the Hound, Brienne and Pod, Cersei and maybe Tommen. Tyrion's climax is obviously the big event, but Jon's election could be a time consuming event. Additionally, Arya's story does not seem to have progressed as far as one might think to this point. How are they going to fit the Hound's "death" and Arya's finding a ship in one episode without seeming abrupt given the bite hasn't noticeably affected the hound as of yet? On their review video Elio and Linda speculated that perhaps Arya would intersect with Brienne but that might make things more problematic- especially if there is to be no Stoneheart reveal this season.
  15. I wasn't a fan of the Arya crazy laughter, nor have I been too impressed with her arc this year. I suppose it is that they are accelerating the hardness. In the book I still liked at this point, but show Arya has been nearly insufferable to me at times this season.
  16. I'm not terribly disappointed by the duel scene. I think it might have been improved if Gregor had some more lines. But I must confess that it isn't my favorite scene from the books since it's a display of abject stupidity that has the consequence only of spurring other characters from his region to more abject stupidity. So I didn't hype it up in my mind as much as many others have doubtless done.
  17. Not sure what to think of this episode. Visually very nice. But there were so many scenes that were just wtf moments. I suppose the fight was adequate, but I think it's conclusion came off as a bit abrupt. The violence of it also struck me as strange, though I guess it wasn't exactly divergent.
  18. I'm not liking how the identities of the Stark girls are being thrown around and everyone is just like "oh ok".
  19. Yeah I would have thought he'd have been asking more questions about how Shae had been scooped up given Bronn's past statement.
  20. I meant reviews. You can go online the day after an episode airs and find plenty of reviews that draw on the up to date source material without going into the stuff that ranges into spoilers.
  21. Yeah I think they haven't been quite as attentive with the map this season. But I guess it saves money not to configure it differently for every episode.
  22. Yeah, it's not going to happen now. We know that Shireen gets to the Wall and specifically Castle Black by the time Jon gets assassinated. Melisandre has plenty of incentive to drop a bomb following that event, whether to revive Jon or otherwise. And no one is going to stand up for Shireen. The NW is in disarray and the wildlings believe she's cursed. The writing's on the wall in the books.
  23. Yes. It makes practical sense with a big army about to assault the gate to seal it up so TV Jon is arguing the right course, but it makes little sense for the post wildling assault phase. If they weren't going to do "only Cat" for sake of not confusing the unsullied, will they have Jon do a complete 180 with the changed threat from unified Wildlings to broken Wildlings plus Others?
  24. I agree that if they had kept the line it wouldn't have been unreasonably confusing. Many would have gotten it right off and many more would have gotten it later or looked it up. This thing called the internet is used by many show viewers and I would think that if they are confused, they are fully capable of doing a few simple searches to find the answer. It's what I do with Mad Men when I see something odd that I can't figure out. They do have a tendency to dumb things down to an extreme extent at times, especially for a show with lots of original source material that can be consulted at any time.
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