talvikorppi

Sam and Gilly – let’s get a meta thing out of the way first. Baby Sam seems to have grown! Other than that… I really like show-Gilly, she’s more of a real character and feistier than the book-Gilly, braving the sea and the storm, excited about seeing Oldtown. It of course helps that it really is her own baby, not Mance’s, baby-swapped by Jon. The sea/see thing was a bit clunky (and I pity all the translators who had to do the subtitles for that bit of English homonym wordplay!) but the point, I guess, is to remind us that Gilly can now read. I wonder if that becomes important at some point. The important thing is that Sam admits that he doesn’t really care about the NW or even Jon anymore, he cares about Gilly and the baby. Ah, Maester Aemon, how right you were. “Love is the death of duty.” Tower of Joy – I could almost hear the howls of protest from some book readers on this one. Six against two, parley cut short, no Trident – King’s Landing – Dragonstone – Storm’s End. Just the pertinent point. Why weren’t you guarding your king Aerys or your prince Rhaegar? And where’s my sister? I’m not a connoiseur of fight sequences so it seemed all right to me, and the important point was that Bran saw that his father did not defeat Ser Arthur Dayne (BTW, how did Bran immediately know it was AD?), instead, Howland Reed stabbed him in the back = v. dishonourable. (Are all the Stark kids learning that being all honourable isn’t actually the best thing? About time!) Bran wants to see more, calls out… and young Ned hears! He stops and looks around… But the Three-eyed Raven takes Bran back to the cave, and Bran is angry. He wants to see what’s in the tower (don’t we all ), and the seed is sown for Bran to disobey the Three-eyed Raven and maybe wreak some havoc with his hubris. “You think I wanted to sit here for a thousand years?” Huh? Didn’t the show hint in S4 that the Three-eyed Raven is Brynden Rivers, aka Bloodraven? Anyway, he says flat out that Bran isn’t going to stay in the cave forever. I wonder what those shots of the Child of the Forest mean. Oh, and poor Bran has to learn EVERYTHING. Gods I loved Max von Sydow’s voice there! Dany – I found this sequence a bit meh. So Dany’s in Vaes Dothrak, introduced into the Dosh Khaleen. The main crone (widow of a great khal, Khal Savo) isn’t impressed by Dany’s threats. Khalar Vezhven (a gathering of khalasars) will decide Dany’s fate. I have to say that this season has made the Dothraki culture seem more real to me, so props to that. Meereen – Varys with his gentle and sinister blackmail/bribes was excellent. We get to see how the spider operates. And: “Men can be fickle but little birds I always trust.” The scene with Tyrion, Grey Worm and Missandei was awkward, as it was meant to be. However, I got the feeling that Peter Dinklage has to be given his quota of good one-liners, so it felt a bit clunky. It gets interesting when Varys comes with the news: Astapor, Yunkai and Volantis support the Harpies. Missandei gets all bloodthisty (WTF?), and did everybody see the frame of Tyrion with GW and his dagger in the foreground. Twice. Uh-oh, is there trouble brewing there?

Late to the party, as ever. The episodes only become available legally through the HBO online franchise here 24hrs later, which is 4am Tuesday morning here, so I watch later on Tuesday (and avoid most of the internet on Mondays! ). Here are my first impressions after watching the episode twice, before reading any reviews, recaps or comments… Overall, I really liked the episode, though some of Meereen and Dany was a bit meh. There was a real sense of the game having changed, new players taking over from the old, the beginning of the end… Very excited about what happens next! Castle Black – Oooh, the way it started, with the breathing! Chills! And then Davos rushing to help (almost comfort) Jon, give him his cloak… Apparently dying and coming back isn’t a very pleasant experience. Especially when you realise you were murdered by your own men. Mel is eager to know what’s on the other side and Jon tells her the same Beric told her. Nothing. But now Mel thinks Jon is the Prince that was Promised. Interesting. (Was TPTWP ever mentioned in the show before?) Jon seems to have lost confidence, but Davos gives him one of his pep talks (I still don’t like Davos swearing, he’s a gentleman) and later helps Jon outside to meet his men. Ah, Tormund (and his member), he knows Jon’s no god because he saw Jon’s pecker. Jon winces when Tormund hugs him. Do Jon’s wounds still hurt? Jon and Edd… Ah, the feels… Later, Jon’s alone, holding his stabbed jerkin, apparently he’s been doing a lot of thinking. Edd comes and tells him it's time. Jon tosses the jerkin aside and grabs his sword, to do his NW duty and execute the traitors. Any last words? Narrow-minded Bowen Marsh stays true to his narrow-mindedness, Othell Yarwyck wants Jon to write to his mum, Alliser Thorne (who first addresses Jon correctly as Lord Commander) stands by his decision. “I fought, I lost. Now I rest. But you, Lord Snow, you’ll be fighting their [wildlings’] wars forever.” AT straightens up, facing death valiantly. Aw, there was honour and discipline in him. And Owen Teale is so magnificent! Olly… Jon almost can’t look at Olly. No words from Olly, just a look of defiance, hate, fear… (Young Brenick was so great in his role as Olly!) And Jon? Sadness? Disappointment? Pity? Determination? The whole scene was so tense, with Mel, Tormund, Davos watching… watching… Jon takes a moment before finally cutting the rope (and his allegiance to the Night’s Watch…) It wasn’t easy, but Jon’s determined. Poor Edd, when he’s left holding Jon’s NW cloak, and Castle Black, and realises what’s just happened. “My watch is ended.” (Hooray!!) I just hope it’s for the real war. I don’t know how much Jon knows of what’s been going on in Winterfell. He wouldn’t know of Sansa’s escape or Roose’s death, or Karstarks allying with Ramsay, I think. So I hope Winterfell wasn’t his motivation to break his oaths, but rather to fight the real war against the White Walkers, and he knows the few dozen men of the NW are useless in that war, he needs to unite the North and the rest of the Seven Kingdoms – an almost impossible task. I loved the end. "My watch is ended." Beautiful music. I sat quiet for several minutes. Wow.

The problem I have is that we have to resort to extra-show stuff like the letter depicted in my link. The show should've made all that clear as it ran.

Actually, we don't know if it was in the Dothraki Sea. I tend to think it was somewhere nearer Meereen (where there would've been shepherds/peasants). Dany got intercepted by Dothraki raiding beyond the Dothraki Sea. They found a Khaleesi, and Khal Moro - the traditionalist and stickler for rules and honour etc. that he is, sees it as his duty to escort Dany to Vaes Dothrak. Yes, Jorah finding that ring so easily is a bit cheesy but it didn't ruin the story for me. I tend to suspend my disbelief quite a lot when reading or watching fiction. I mean, I buy dragons, being able to track Dany is small fry compared to that. The cheesy ring was a confirmation that Dany was there, leading to Jorah's deduction that she'd be taken to Vaes Dothrak. I mean, if the ring wasn't there, Jorah would've seen some Dothraki horde evidence but no way of connecting it with Dany, right?

OK, we can now move to Essos, and let's start with Braavos. What I really, really liked about Blind Beth's (Arya's) scene was how the ambient sound was turned up. She's hearing things. Street sounds and snatches of conversation from passers-by. "... did you hear what happened to that kingsguard..." The Waif comes to train her, and I'm pretty meh about it. Maybe it's an Essosi curse, every character on that continent gets their story slowed down and made boring. Because Meereen... Tyrion's and Varys's banter wasn't up to their usual standard. We got a walking montage of the problems. Lame baby-eating joke, which demonstrated that Tyrion needs Varys and his skills. Some English graffiti spelling out one of the problems. A red priest demonstrating another problem. Oh, and a Harpy looking at them from the shadows. And finally the 93 ships captured by Daario last season (which enraged book-readers) burned, so "We won't be sailing to Westeros anytime soon." AAAARGH! Just get Yara (taking over Victarion's role) and the Iron Fleet there, soon, please! Jorah and Daario roadtrip. I quite liked it. Daario needling Jorah about unrequited love and how he wishes to be a romantic like Jorah when he gets old like Jorah. Ouch. He's such a dick. A loveable one but still a dick. Jorah, in contrast, is a man with a mission. Now, let me explain how Jorah found Dany's ring. First they followed the general direction that the dragon flew. They might've even got reports from peasants to guide them. They find dragon leavings, so they know they're on the right track. They find trampled ground, a circle left by a Dothraki horde (Jorah knows a lot about the Dothraki). Jorah goes to investigate the centre of the circle left by the Dothraki horde, quite a small area. Maybe the sun glinted off the ring. Jorah knows she was there, and knowing Dothraki customs, makes an informed guess where they might've gone next. Some silly people on the interwebby insist that the horses would've messed the circle when the Dothraki left. Assuming that the Dothraki somehow stopped riding around in a circle and just cut straight across to get from A to B. Those people have obviously never ridden a horse. It's far more instinctive and easier to ride along the circumference and "drop off" at any point you want to go, not stall and turn your horse suddenly to make the shortest A to B. Dany with the Dothraki... I liked the Dothraki scenes. First the warriors bantering and Dany not letting on that she speaks fairly fluent Dothraki because she's learned some politics. The scene in Khal Moro's awning, loved it. The jealous wives. "Take off her head" "It is known". The chillaxed bloodriders... and the FIVE best things in life, lol. I was screaming with laughter, it's the Monty Python Spanish Inquisition thing all over again! (Later, on interwebby, I discovered many thought it was MP's Life of Brian "What have the Romans ever done for us?" or Terry Pratchett Cohan the Barbarian - but both of those spring from the original Spanish Inquisition skit.) Some people don't like it that the Dothraki were "reduced" to frat boy humour and Monty Python references, but I loved it. They're not just monosyllabilc savages, they have personalities and senses of humour. But Khal Moro is a traditionalist. Howevermuch he might've desired one of the five best things in life, it is his duty to escort Dany back to Vaes Dothrak to join the Dosh Khaleen. He's a bit of a knight. OK, so Dany got out of trouble ridiculously easily one more time. I mean, Jon Snow has to DIE to get ANYTHING, not even half of what Dany has, how fair is that! haha! Really looking forward to next week's episode!

To continue my geographical recap/musings on S6EP1, we now come to Dorne. Dorne, Dorne, Dorne... Not my favourite in the books either but... OK, I'll start with the positive. I really like the visual aesthetic of Dorne on the show. The costumes, the architecture (the amazing Alcazar with its amazing azulejos they got to film in), the lighting in Belfast studios. It all really takes you to this southern part of Westeros, kind of moorish Spanish. Such a shame that the writing and acting has been so bad. Some of this, I lay the blame at GRRM's door. (f)Aegon and possible Dornish alliance seems like an afterthought, a vehicle to provide a war in the south for the Lannister/Tyrell alliance. The show has brutally cut corners. No (f)Aegon (or Quentyn), so Ellaria's coup t'etat makes show sense, sparks a war in the south against the Lannisters. We might even be getting some Ironborn warring in the Reach now that the Ironborn and Euron are back. The Dornish might even be possible allies to Dany if she ever gets her arse over to Westeros. So, yeah, I see some logic to it. D&D had to keep Dorne because it's important in the end game. But cutting (the ultimately pointless) (f)Aegon cut a lot of the Dornish storylines and intrigue elements and we were given a holding pattern (with Jaime&Bronn bro roadtrip thrown in). We're left with a seemingly ineffectual but maybe deeper playing ruler and his awesome bodyguard. Oh. Were left with with moronic, vengeful Ellaria and the Sand Snakes. One thing that really jarred with me on first/second watch was how easily Tyene killed Areo Hotah. This little girl stuck her little knife in the back of this big, tall, muscular guy... and he just drops? Wait, what? While Ellaria stabs weak, ailing Doran in the heart, and he lives on to deliver several more lines. Since then, people on the internet have rationalised that Tyene stabbed Areo Hotah's spine and paralysed him, fair enough. I liked how they showed the impassivity of the Dornish guards. They were with Ellaria and her coup. Ah, and the rest of the Dornish coup. OK, I totally got that Trystane was staying on the ship, the one he and Myrcella's body and Jaime and Bronn sailed to KL on, because Jaime wasn't blaming him (or Prince Doran) for Myrcella's death (and the picture of the letter Jaime wrote to Doran, shown on the HBO Making of GoT site confirms this http://www.makinggameofthrones.com/production-diary/objects-from-dorne ) and Jaime knows Trystane isn't safe, Cersei would have him killed on the spot, and he is actually trying to have some sort of a peaceful resolution... untill he tells Cersei what he thinks she wants to hear. Anyway, Ob and Nym appearing on the boat in KL. I was a bit wait, what? How did they get there to deliver their cheesy lines and kill dumb Trystane? OK, so may be they jumped on the next boat, and Trystane's boat's guards wouldn't have stopped them, they're the prince's cousins, Prince Doran's nieces. OK. Still, not a very elegant piece of screen-writing. (I mean, couldn't they have show a 2-3 second shot of another ship trailing Trystane's/Jaime's?) Apparently two Sand Snakes are now in KL but I can't see them taking up any positions in the King's Small Council, Ellaria has staged a coup in Dorne and wants to go to war against that Lannisters... I just don't know where this mess is going. They seem like natural allies to Dany but they can't spend their power now, before Dany gets to Westeros - and she won't this season.

To go on geogrphically on S6EP1, next we come to King's Landing. OK, a caveat here. I try to keep the show and books separate but I find it really hard when it comes to my favourite, complex book character Jaime. In the books he's already ditched Cersei... And in the show we get Jaime still in thrall to her. Maybe seasons 4 and 5 he was just in a holding pattern, waiting for the stories to catch up. We saw some deteriation of J&C relationship, but then strange reconciliations and... it's all just a mess. Well, break-ups can be messy, but the show isn't yet really doing a break-up. If they don't do it this season, I'll... make futile internet threats or something! I like that the show has made Cersei a bit more three-dimensional than the cartoon villain she is in the books (and Lena Heady is excellent in her portrayal as D&D have written her) but... It kind of leaves poor Jaime holding the can of the "bad" Lannister. Because show Tyrion is also a "good guy". In the books, my reading is that they're all grey but Cersei is the blackest, Tyrion is quite grey and Jaime is actually the lightest grey, an idealist and a romatic at heart, despite everything, and especially after he met Brienne and lost his hand. So, how to take the Jaime & Cersei scene in this episode? Trying to forget book stuff and just focus on show stuff. It still jarred that Cersei would admit any fault in herself. OK, I can understand we were wanted to show a moment of vulnerability, and where Jaime's response came from. He still loves Cersei, he's just brought her daughter's dead body home, he wants to comfort Cersei and say whatever he thinks she wants to hear. Vengeance etc... Saying things before really thinking them through. A recent EW interview with NCW confirmes this. But Jaime will soon learn the mess the Lannister hegemony is in (mostly thanks to Cersei), and he might take his own path. Oh, and Cersei morbidly imagining their mother's and Myrcella's bodies rotting... Does anybody else think this is foreshadowing for Cersei giving Myrcella to Qyburn? There was that leaked set photo, seemingly from Qyburn's lab, where Cersei looked triumphant and Jaime very unhappy and disturbed, and NCW has said in an interview that Jaime gets disturbed by what Cersei does. Where's Bronn? He probably went off to a brothel of something. He's a sellsword, not someone you'd take with you to meet the queen mother. Though, to make sense of other things that happened in last season's last episode and this season's first episode... Bronn was there with Jaime to tell him about that poison and the antidote, so Jaime would know it was Ellaria/Sand Snakes who poiseoned Myrcella. It wasn't crystal clear in the show that Jaime does not blame Trystane in any way for Myrcella's death, he mostly suspects Ellaria and the Sand Snakes, and keeps Trystane on the ship and intends to send him back for his (Trystane's) safety because he fears Cersei would summarily kill him. The message Prince Doran got about Myrcella's death actually came from Jaime. A dipomatic message urging caution and peace, Jaime being thinking and diplomatic (a bit like he was in the Riverlands in AFFC). http://www.makinggameofthrones.com/production-diary/objects-from-dorne None of this made the show, they're just explaining afterwards. (My personal nit-pick is: who wrote it for Jaime? Ellaria made a point late in season 5 to say that Jaime writes like a six-year-old with his left hand and we got a glimpse of large, clumsy, sprawing writing with the lines going up and down, a mess. The prop letter we're shown has very neat handwriting, so Jaime couldn't have written it himself, physically. And I don't think Bronn knows how to read and write.) Sorry, a long post again, and I haven't even got to Dorne! :-D

To continue my impressions on S6 EP1 geographically. The North - Sansa, Reek/Theon and then Brienne & Pod. The strongest part after the Wall stuff, and for me personally, I loved it because it brought together many favourite characters. Reek is really reclaiming some of his Theon-ness and maybe a better Theon than the one that was Reekified. Their desperate huddle/hug before the hounds come, I thought it was really poignant. And then Reek/Theon's futile attempt to sacrifice himself to protect Sansa... Only it doesn't go too well... Until Brienne and everybody's favourite squire Pod burst on the scene, just in time! WOOHOO! Brienne has obviously taught Pod some horse-riding and sword-fighting skills but he didn't seem all that skilled. Rather clumsy, in fact. He managed to kill that Bolton man on horseback but then got his sword stuck and went down with him. Brienne wasn't having an easy time of it either, she was unhorsed and lost her sword for a while (I wonder what Jaime would say about that). All Brienne's fights seem to be brutal but she never gives up and gets the job done. And Reek/Theon had a Theon moment, picking up the sword and saving Pod's life. For that, I'll always be grateful to Theon. (Someone on the internets pointed out a continuity error. The Bolton soldied Theon stabbed in the back falls forward on his stomach... and has his shield covering his back...) Brienne then swears an oath of fealty to Sansa (who struggles with the words but is prompted by Pod, he's a clever lad), a call-back to her oath to Lady Catlyn Stark. I went oh-oh, because this really sets up conflicting vows & loyalities for Brienne, if and when she meets up with Jaime (the man she loves, snif, sob). Oh, and the disappearing hounds? I watched the episode twice and never noticed it, it was only when I got on the interwebs that I realised it's a thing. Call me inattentive. :-D The rest of the North storyline, i.e. the Boltons. Aww, Ramsay's having a human emotion moment. My girlfriend didn't fear me like everybody else because she smelled of dogs and shared my liking for blood sports. "She's good meat. Feed her to the dogs." It's what Myranda would've wanted, really. Daddy Bolton isn't too pleased about his son's actions, "playing his games" and losing Sansa. Thank the gods, Lady Walda is probably carrying a son. OK, Roose just signed his own and Fat Walda's death warrant. Roose is so cool and calculating but he has a blind spot when it comes to Ramsay. Without getting too deep into the books but Roose is the more dangerous one and more than likely to take out Ramsay, the show seems to have reveresed this. For one, show Ramsay is a lot more skilled and intelligent than the cartoonish, stupid psychopath in the books. I'll wait and see.

All in all, I quite liked the episode. The show's the show and the books are the books and I love both, and I'm not expecting the show to be a faithful illustration of the books. Different mediums call for different approaches, etc. etc. Plus the show is now moving past GRRM's published work, D&D are working from an outline from GRRM and writing their own story to reach the same general end point. I'm fine with that. I watched the episode straight through once, then immediately rewatched it with pausing a rewinding at a couple of points (mainly to catch some dialogue - English isn't my native language and I watch it with subtitles turned off because I find them distracting). Only then I hit the internet to see what other people thought. I was surprised that many commenters moaned that nothing much happened in the episode! There were major things like one of the great houses of Westeros assassinated into extinction and the Mel reveal, but also lots and lots of more subtle things. I'll go through this geographically. The Wall - by far the strongest part. I love, love, love Davos (which means he'll die). And Dolorous Edd, and the few other friends Jon had left. They're not actually protecting Jon's body (they have no idea Jon has to and will come back, lol!), they're protecting themselves, and maybe thinking of avenging their friend's death. Jon's body just ends up in the same room. But we wievers are glad it's there! Alliser Thorne did a good job of explaining his actions and the reasons for them, and taking the NW in hand. I can understand his reasoning, and also that he has a code of honour and he thinks he's doing the right thing. We know he isn't, but the nightswatchmen don't (Though I find it a bit odd that Hardhome survivors haven't spread the word.) My, Olly's grown a lot overnight :-D And looked sooo smug, that little shit.:-D. Also, anybody else notice the focus on that dark-haired nightswatchman who seemed kind of grumbling but accepted Alliser Thorne's leadership. I wonder if that's a sign that Ser Alliser's hold on the NW isn't all that strong? Even Othell Yarwyck seemed less than enthusiastic, he hung his head in shame when Alliser called his name as one of the killers. The Jon Snow bloodblot test - I didn't see dragons or tableaux of people there, but clearly there's something there. The showrunners and director went out of their way to show us Davos looking at the blood stains and taking a moment. The Alliser/Davos parley, one knigh (or ker-nigget) to another. On first watch "And some mutton" was just some levity, but on second watch, that was Davos testing Ser Alliser. Davos is a smart cookie. He got the direwolf with them, send Edd for the wildlings, and even contemplates using the Red Woman... Mel visits Jon Snow's dead body. "I saw him fighting at Winterfell in the flames." It's all come horribly crashing down for Mel. The Shireen sacrifice didn't work, Stannis is dead, and now Jon. That final scene was so beautiful, Carice's and the body double's acting was so great, the cinematography was beautiful. To me, it seemed that Mel's faith is at such a low ebb that taking off that choker is the equivalent of a devout Christian nun/monk/bishop taking off her cross. Just crawling into bed, perhance to die, give up. Obviously something makes her to not completely give up, we've seen a trailer and set photos of her in her young guise. OK, this post is getting so long, I'll continue in another.

I couldn't sign in because of a "cookie" issue and only got through after I fiddled with Firefox cookie/history/whatever and cleared everything from this site. Since then, it's been working OK. I've been able to log in with my old username and even my seemingly lost posts (post count) came back. A forum change is always a bit of a drag, especially for a place such as this with so many thousands of people. I was taken aback by the new graphics and didn't like them but now I barely notice.

I have the same problem when viewing as a guest (using Firefox on my laptop). However, I found that I get to the page I want by clicking the "back" button on Firefox. A bit counterintuitive but it works. I also have AdBlockPlus installed, I don't know if that makes any difference.

I'm giving it an 8 out of 10. It's a great TV show, excellent production values and a great story... even if it's now diverging so widely from the "source material" (the books). I just treat the show and the books as completely different things from now on. I liked the Jaime/Bronn stuff. Heh, that "clunk" sound when Jaime blocked the sword with his golden prosthetic hand was major ROFL. Also, earlier, Bronn's "Your niece?" Is Jorah Mormont going to row all the way to Meereen?? (Well, Gendry is still rowing, so anything's possible...) The show shows Cersei more scheming on big things Tywin style... In the books, she's in her own paranoid bubble and makes disastrous decisions for personal reasons. I'm not too happy about how the faith militant came about and how they're portrayed. In the books it was High Sparrow how asked/tricked Cersei into reinstating them, not Cersei offering to do it to get at Marge. Oh well, the show and books are now so wide apart that I'll just have to lump it. But Cersei must be heading for her trial because Qyburn keeps reanimating the Mountain. I'm a bit WTF about Littlefinger scooting off and leaving Sansa in charge of his plot - whatever that might be - but we'll see, suppose. I don't see a possibility for a GNC as Lord Manderly has been cut. Jon Snow and Melisandre... I found myself screaming NO! JON! NOOOO! at the screen and he heard me and refused Mel's offer to create another shadow, just like he did in the books. Whew! Ellaria and the Sand snakes were cool (or should I say hot?) Dany... Mostly boring but so it has been in the last couple of books. But the end. Grey Worm and Ser Barristan both wounded and apparently dying? Oh NO! All in all, good, even excellent TV but as a bookie I'm a bit lost.

I gave it an 8, liked it better than the two first episodes. Things seem to be getting somewhere now, and with the show diverging from the books so much now, it'll be interesting to see where the storylines go. Still, I'm having trouble understanding LF's motivations. Maybe everything will become clear later. :worried:

Only got to watch it today (was away in no-electricity-land for a few days) and I give it 7 out of 10. Loved the Wall scenes and Tyrion&Varys scenes, otherwise it was just setting up the thing for the rest of the season. I'm getting a bit bored with Dany but hopefully her storyline will pick up. Dissappointed with the glimpse of Brienne & Pod. And where the hell is the Sansa storyline going?!? :o I'll have to rewatch last season's episodes to make some sense of it. Anyway, I'm confused, I've been re-reading the books and forgetting how the show diverges and have to get into "show-mode" now. :D