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(Book and Show Spoilers) Promo and Recap


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LOLLLLLLLLL I don't blame you, the after action on the internet can offer many days worth of entertainment. Sorry you can't be around when it starts, but it will be ongoing for quite some time, I bet.

I think the board will break, so I'll probably manage to sit my 8h at work and get back home after everything gets back to normal :)

Tumblr is just gonna be miserable 24/7 this week, though :)

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So I have an exam tuesday morning and will be spending monday night with last minute revision rather than watching the show...

Sucks :thumbsdown:

Good luck! And on Tuesday evening it's after exams, you get to see new ep and it's only 5 more days until the next one :)

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(I agree that McCann wasn't especially good early on, though the Hound himself was barely there to begin with, which just goes back to the writing); they had all of two scenes (plus that one deleted scene), and no real story foundation. That's a writing issue, 100%

I have to disagree. Lack of story foundation or lack of number of scenes together does not excuse poor acting. Watch Charles Dance and Diana Rigg tearing into each other in that not terribly well written and kind of random scene in Season 3 where they're facing off over Loras and Cersei for an exemplar. They'd had no scenes together before and none since (except group scenes), but the scene--questionable writing aside--pops. Now, you might say it's not fair to compare Sophie Turner to them, but I'd say they're an excellent example for how poor writing is no excuse for actors letting their scenes fall flat as Sophie Turner's scenes with Rory McCann did.

(McCann not coincidentally started to improve when they actually started to give the Hound meaningful dialogue).

Dialogue had nothing to do with it: that "chickens" bit was unworthy of Tarantino, let alone Shakespeare. The difference was swapping out Sophie Turner with an actress who could draw a decent performance out of him.

I think Sophie is consistently one of the show's stronger performers

Disagree. She has her moments, but she can also fall dreadfully flat, especially without a decent screen partner to act against. I often get frustrated with her, because there's just nothing there.

particularly as her character has struggled with weak writing so much of the time

Not really an excuse, as I said. All the characters in the show get weak writing here and there. Sophie Turner's hardly special in that regard. The better actors are able to sell weak writing. The best actors can make that weak writing sound like the most eloquent words ever put to paper. Sophie Turner doesn't fall into either category.

The idea that the only difference is her scene partners is silly.

Sophie Turner has benefited from strong scene partners who force her to raise her acting game. The actress admitted as much in a recent interview, saying she didn't like her performance in Season 1 but that being around certain actors helped her acting improve. I think she has improved since Season 1, although I'd characterize that improvement as less "from good to great" and more "from mediocre to mostly serviceable."

Even in this season, where the writing for the character has improved from the season 3 nadir (where half the time you could see Turner trying to add nuance to a character being written as a one-dimensional dumb joke)

I'd disagree with both these statements. The writing for the character didn't hit a nadir in Season 3, and there was very little in Sophie Turner's performance to suggest a concerted attempt to add nuance. She may have been trying to do so, as indicated by interviews where she insisted that Sansa's scared, dumb child act was just a facade, but that didn't come across in her performance. Intent =/= execution.

she's pretty much singlehandedly holding up the character's scenes with Littlefinger

Again disagree, although Aiden Gillen's acting does him no favours, either. There's very little that's impressive about the acting at the Eyrie, and I'm concerned about the lack of strong screen partners now that Sansa is in the same position as Dany and Jon in terms of holding up her own storyline. I guess we'll see, but I'm not particularly reassured.

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Someone on another board mentioned that during tonight's Theon scenes, he'll be watching/listening for some mention of Victarian and/or Euron, as an indicator of whether we can expect to see Theon's uncles next season. Good point. Of course, if we don't hear mention of them, its not absolute proof that we won't see them next season, but if we do hear them mentioned, then, they're in!


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^The show tends to mention upcoming characters/locations before hand to plant the seed. Stannis was talked about a bit in the first season so it didn't seem like he came out of nowhere. When they mentioned Doran and the Sand Snakes this season I knew they'd be in the show. I'll be watching closely for Vic/Euron references, that'll be a guarantee that they are in. The audience needs a reminder that Theon has uncles that might be relevant, it would be sloppy if they just came out of nowhere to affect the plot. If we don't hear about them, I'll be skeptical about their future in the show.



As for tonight's episode, my body is ready.


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Someone on another board mentioned that during tonight's Theon scenes, he'll be watching/listening for some mention of Victarian and/or Euron, as an indicator of whether we can expect to see Theon's uncles next season. Good point. Of course, if we don't hear mention of them, its not absolute proof that we won't see them next season, but if we do hear them mentioned, then, they're in!

That would be cool, yeah... but somehow I doubt we'll get a Vic/Euron mention... Nevertheless, I'm sure they won't be cut! (wishful thinking?)

I actually wish we'd see / had seen a stamping Tommen scene this season :( Just for the Unsullied who believe he will be a good king and no puppet to show them e.g. how he legalizes Ramsay aso...

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I don't really see how either of the actors could be why the interactions between Sansa and the Hound were "such a mess" in season 2 (I agree that McCann wasn't especially good early on, though the Hound himself was barely there to begin with, which just goes back to the writing); they had all of two scenes (plus that one deleted scene), and no real story foundation. That's a writing issue, 100% (McCann not coincidentally started to improve when they actually started to give the Hound meaningful dialogue).

I think Sophie is consistently one of the show's stronger performers, particularly as her character has struggled with weak writing so much of the time. The idea that the only difference is her scene partners is silly. Even in this season, where the writing for the character has improved from the season 3 nadir (where half the time you could see Turner trying to add nuance to a character being written as a one-dimensional dumb joke), she's pretty much singlehandedly holding up the character's scenes with Littlefinger, due to Aiden Gillen's cartoonishly broad performance (and none of the other great actors on the show have been able to draw anything better out of Gillen in the last few seasons, whether Conleth Hill, Lena Headey, or Charles Dance).

:agree: The reason why the season 2 SanSan interactions were poor was that they barely existed, which goes back to the primary reason - D&D can't write good interactions between the two to save their life, judging by the deleted season 2 scene (now, that was a mess, and no actor could save it, since the writing for Sandor makes no sense at all*), unless they're 100% replicating the dialogue from the books. Which also has a lot to do with not being that good in writing Sansa in general, and really struggling to write Sandor as well.

And anyway, Sophie was great in her Blackwater scene with Sandor, which should be enough to disprove this hypothesis, especially since it was one of the total of two scenes in the show (not counting the deleted scene) in which they exchange dialogue that consists of more than two lines.

* Kind of like the character of Shae, one of the characters Sansa has had most interactions on the show, for whatever reason. Sibel Kekilli's performance is hardly great, although she's been fantastic when acting in German, but I'm not that critical of her since the writing for her character has been ridiculous so much of the time. (I'm rewatching season 3 now and just saw Dark Wings, Dark Words yesterday... gods, the writing for KL scenes is just cringeworthy. Shae tells Sansa she should come to her if Littlefinger bothers her with sexual advances [which everyone is aware of, apparently], and she'll make him stop? WTF, really?)

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Someone on another board mentioned that during tonight's Theon scenes, he'll be watching/listening for some mention of Victarian and/or Euron, as an indicator of whether we can expect to see Theon's uncles next season. Good point. Of course, if we don't hear mention of them, its not absolute proof that we won't see them next season, but if we do hear them mentioned, then, they're in!

Actually that's what I'm most looking forward during the Reek storyline tonight.

We know Ralf Kenning will be there as the face and voice of the Iron Born holding the Moat and it is stongly possible that he says something like "Your uncle Victarion ordered us to hold the Moat, I take my orders from him not you." to Theon.

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Actually that's what I'm most looking forward during the Reek storyline tonight.

We know Ralf Kenning will be there as the face and voice of the Iron Born holding the Moat and it is stongly possible that he says something like "Your uncle Victarion ordered us to hold the Moat, I take my orders from him not you." to Theon.

From what I've been told the actor will only appear in episode 10 (unless they changed around his scenes).

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Weird, cause the Moat scene is definitly this episode.



Unless Kenning is one of Yara's crewmember, then I feel like yeah, we will only see him in 10.



Nevertheless, the IB will need a face and a voice during the Moat scene.


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Weird, cause the Moat scene is definitly this episode.

Unless Kenning is one of Yara's crewmember, then I feel like yeah, we will only see him in 10.

Nevertheless, the IB will need a face and a voice during the Moat scene.

He also tweeted a picture of himself around the time they were filming, and wrote something like "Getting ready for a hunt." With this info I have a feeling that Ramsay (after capturing Moat Cailin) will let the IB "go", only to hunt them down.

Could it be we're only getting Theon entering MC in this episode? Then again they might have moved what was originally supposed to take place in episode 10 to episode 8.

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Oh, in that case he'll most likely appear for both episodes. I just fear adding a hunt to the last episode might eat too much time... but after all, 66 minutes, eh ! ^^


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That was imbd that listed him for 10 and it is extremely unreliable so I think he is only in this episode. as for a hunt do not really see that happing, that would be stupid.

Well, I didn't get my info from IMDb.

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It does not say anything about 10. And that comment could mean anything.

Yeah, I was wrong. It was from something else he was filming, so he'll most likely get flayed then. My source said episode 10, so that's what I'm going with.

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