Count Balerion

yesterday we had a go at the teaser:

interesting about family name. the later habsburgs were technically lorraine iirc, because of maria theresa. but i think they hyphenated it.

what's this i hear about airing in january?

yeah no interest in rewatching, i fear.

oh yeah, here's dragon video.

anyone seen this. demanding dragon chap linked to it in video. watching looper/stammer video. "probably catherine kennedy took one look at the last season and was like [raspberry, thumbs down], and fired them." "keep those guys away from the new project. so far away. legally they cannot go there." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5L9L9ap3Yk

will no one weep for kraznys?

or if there is it's TPTF. these performances these faces.

he's not wrong!

these performances, these faces.

also here's an interesting essay on why season 8 was bound to fail:

yes, there's a quote in FIRE CANNOT KILL A DRAGON where he says LF would never give sansa to the boltons.

chapter 31 of FCKWAD isn't as horrible; mostly boring. but FWIW: FIRE CANNOT KILL A DRAGON, CHAPTER 31. MANY PARTINGS AND SURE, WE'LL COMPARE OURSELVES TO TOLKIEN B/C CLEARLY WE'RE ON HIS LEVEL -- BEING MODEST THAT IS, PART 1 jaime and brienne. [the morality of their one-night stand is so hollywood. and the virign-shaming, bleeah.] gwendoline christie: "though personally? i always wanted her to get together w/ dany." [NO COMMENT!] [and 40 mins. later he's back to cersei] NCW: "he's so bound by this code of honour of family first, and he and cersei have a close bond on every level. ... it makes sense even though you don't want it to." GC: "i believe the reason jaime left is that he wasn't very good. (laughs)" jaime's cruel off-script line is "i don't love you. no one loves you." pilou asbek on being told he's going to die: "no i'm not. i'm not gonna act it." jaime and cersei were crushed by the red keep, where they were later found by tyrion. [doesn't mention the contradiction: it was only a small pile of rocks when tyrion found them.] "we will die together as we were born together." it was very sentimental and touching and sweet and "i love you".

tywin isn't as smart as he thinks. the red wedding was a really bad idea. the north will never submit to the lannisters, freys, or boltons willingly now, and it's too large to be held by fear and force. sure, they're going along for now; but for how long. that's by the way. D&D gave up logic long ago, i fear.

it's D&D. don't expect it to make sense! sense and D&D don't mix.

FIRE CANNOT KILL A DRAGON, CHAPTER 30. A LOT OF SOPHISTRY TRYING TO "DEFEND" EVIL DANY AND JUST SHUT THE BLAZES UP ALREADY, PART 8 my comments are in square brackets. EC: "i very much wanted her final moment to be childlike in her innocence ... in the penultimate episode, i felt like i slammed into the wall of how manic or crazy she could be. where else is there for you to go other than right back to the beginning?" [reminder: when she came up w/ that interpretation, she didn't know dany had fire-bombed the civilians -- b/c she *hadn't*. she's thinking of the *original script* version here.] EC: having dany die was like mourning her father AND her brain haemorrhages all over again, as well as "grieving what danerys could have been, and grieving the love that i had for the show". drogon' burning the IT "was not explained". but given dany's connexion to drogon, "it's fair to assume the creature understood ... that it had somehow led to her doom" through her obsession. [according to script the IT was an accidental victim] EC thinks he carries around until she decomposes. jason mamoa thinks she's had a rubbish life and "goes off on everyone. it's just sad." EC asks where the blazes else she can go? "it's not like she's suddenly going to go, 'OK, i'm gonna put a kettle on and put some cookies in the oven and we'll just sit down and have a lovely time and pop a few kids out.'" she's a targ "and your childhood and upbringing affects your choices in life so greatly." [there are no choices made heretofore that suggest she'll do genocide.] she did it all for her family. "she was *that* close to fulfilling that seal of approval, that thing we all secretly want." [surely she DID fulfil it?] but having said all the things i've just said ... i stand by daenerys. i stand by her! i can't not." and thankfully i finished this God-help-us chapter. a couple more to go.

GRRM was definitely influenced by IVANHOE, or i'll eat my hat. if you're in the mood for another GOT hate-video: WightCast#6 Covering Another Game Of Thrones Video - What Game Of Thrones Kinda Forgot - YouTube

yes weird. maybe to save on CGI? though they were wasteful in other ways. it is odd that starks, despite getting a "good" ending, all end up apart. well whether jon gets a good ending is doubtful. he did get several mnutes of no dialogue at the end, which i *guess* is good?

yeah, bad enough asking GOT actors about it. actors in HOTD have nada to do w/ it. i expected season 8 to be bad in the sense of being sloppy and illogical. i did NOT expect dany's character to be completely ruined.

i guess the idea is he's indirectly responsible for ygritte's dying?

i love emilia clarke. i guess the Ds intend tyrion to be "good" and the fact that it makes more sense if he's bad (or grey at least) doesn't occur to them. jon gets to be true king for one paragraph. yay?

there was plenty of fantasy on the telly in the '70s and '80s. granted it was often sort of marketed to kids. FIRE CANNOT KILL A DRAGON, CHAPTER 30. A LOT OF SOPHISTRY TRYING TO "DEFEND" EVIL DANY AND JUST SHUT THE BLAZES UP ALREADY, PART 7 my comments are in square brackets. "tyrion was often an ineffective advisor, and he'd made a slew of strategic errors over the years." [you don't say.] but in scene w/ tyrion he acted as informal hand to "the true king of westeros, and for once his advice was effective, correct, and devastating." "duty is the death of love". [dany is so cartoonishly evil at this point that why is it even an issue] [also the "evil men" speech is Worst. Retcon. Ever.] jon didn't plan on killing dany. but when he asks about all the other ppl and she says "they don't get to choose", he realises he has to off her. KH: dany's the second woman he waas in love w/ who died in his arms. "this destroys him." in books but not show, old bear says "the things we love destroy us." this means it's deep. EC: "he just doesn't like women, does he? he keeps f***ing killing them." could he have had a converssation w/ me or asked my opinion? "it's like being in the middle of a phone call w/ your boyfriend and they just hang up and never call you again." KH: "we spent a week shooting it." EC: "we reshot it more than any other scene, trying to get it perfect." [DD penchant for micromanaging, which is weirdly combined w/ sloppiness]

my sense is that she does doubt herself a fair bit of the time. she's also willing to listen to advisors but doesn't seem to have any good ones. barristan being perhaps the best but he's over his head too. but yah, tragedy requires greater skill than anyone in the writing room had.

i sometimes find myself wondering what "kinda forgot" even means. she knew there was something, but couldn't quite put her fnger on it ... it was ... oh! right! the enemy. whoops. FIRE CANNOT KILL A DRAGON, CHAPTER 30. A LOT OF SOPHISTRY TRYING TO "DEFEND" EVIL DANY AND JUST SHUT THE BLAZES UP ALREADY, PART 6 my comments are in square brackets. ms. emmanuel was very sad, but thinks you can understand it b/c dany's lost everyone that meant anything to her. dinklage: we all love dany. "and she's doing these things for the greater good." [burning a city after it had surrendered?] "when freeing everyone for the greater good, you're going to hurt innocents along the way." [that would apply if there were collateral damage, not to deliberately and lovingly mowing down civilians, including women and children.] hill: this shows war is futile. cogman: "she's a tragic figure in a very shakespearean/greek sense. [where the bleep was that?] dany's hitler speech wasn't too different from previous ones. "but before her rhetoric had been hypothetical and, perhaps, exaggeration?" [do you not know?] now fire and blood threat is real. KH: "jon was watching the speech. he doesn't know valyrian. david and dan said, 'just pretend you know it.' just the way she's speaking and whaat she's doing was telling him everything he needs to know." [this is not very coherent.]

FIRE CANNOT KILL A DRAGON, CHAPTER 30. A LOT OF SOPHISTRY TRYING TO "DEFEND" EVIL DANY AND JUST SHUT THE BLAZES UP ALREADY, PART 5 my comments are in square brackets. missandei's death. ms. emmanuel thought it was cool. anderson thinks one or the other was going to go, either GW or missandei. "cruel inevitability." ms. emmanuel would have preferred a 1-on-1 scene w/ dany in season 8. mr. nutter (director) thinks b/c she's not royalty and is just a pawn, how it worked is good. losing missandei infuriated dany, who readied her attack. she turned to jon for love. EC: "there was just this last thread shewas holding onto, this boy." she hoped she'd finally found someone who accepted her for who she was. "and he *f***ing doesn't*." which led to the crud in "the bells". city bells rang surrender [davos from season 2: "i've never known the bells to mean surrender." preston pointed this out.] dany firebombs city punishing all for cersei's sins. ms. emmanuel: "you kind of went over the top there. i meant cersei, not, like, *everyone*." "committing mass murder to punish a defiant enemy has a history in the targaryen family." [no, it doesn't. not on this scale.] aegon the conqueror burnt down harrenhall and roasted everyone inside. [burning a castle is hardly comparable to burning a city!!] weiss: dany gave up so much "and she's looking at the red keep w/ the lannister logo [logo????] on it where her family's star of the seven [waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait ... i know you're maybe on the spot; but this is basic lore you're getting wrong], her family's birthright was taken from her by the people who have done this to her." [NOT by the ppl of KL] david benioff [God help us]: "and in spite of all these injustices, she tried her best to make peace w/ cersei -- and got betrayed for it." [this is just another argument *against* evil dany] weiss: dany sacrificed her ppl and tried to be good and jaime defected. benioff: ppl who would have tempered worst impulses like jorah [??; he wanted her to get a slave army] and missandei or tyrion either weren;t there or she doesn't trust them. [she was right not to trust tyrion. dany was doing good on her own initiative] weiss: "dozens and dozens of factors going back to her birth to what she's seeing in her eyes right now a mile away and how that made her feel, all of them stepping on the scale tilting her into a terrible decision." [this makes no sense]