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[BOOK SPOILERS] Rant and Rave Without Repercussion


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-The Unsullied AND the Second Sons--greatest fighters in the world--get slaughtered by the Sons of the Harpy. Barristan Selmy is killed in an alley by masked slavers. Are they going to do the big slaver battle or no? I'm okay if they don't, that thing took forever. They seem to be going straight to the fighting pits. Man they are really in a hurry to get somewhere-by skipping most of the books.

Okay, okay, I have to address this. Complain about how Barry was treated all you want. But the Unsullied getting dispatched like bitches was the best part of the episode. It's entirely logical considering what they are: physically weak, lightly armored spearmen that are trained in outdated tactics and have had all individual initiative beaten out of them. Of course they're going to be bad combatants, despite what the incredibly stupid slavers say. Especially when facing 2-3 times their numbers, even if their enemies are just basically pissed off civilians with knives. It also works as foreshadowing of how shitty they are since the show doesn't have Bittersteel curb-stomping them with a group of Westerosi exiles.

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My initial thoughts.

I will have A LOT more to say about the Sand Snakes stuff, probably on Tuesday. But basically, no just because a string of dialogue is right from the source material doesn’t mean the character is well adapted (Obara is the most fleshed out Sand Snakes, for fuck’s sake), and what kind of morons just swallow in-universe racism uncritically? I ask you...

That "Dorne" moment in the opening credits was just so freaking odd. I guess we should be happy that they even spelled it right. I half expected it to be "Gorne" or "Dorng" or something.

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Barristan is dead. It's been confirmed. DEAD. Go to ew.com

How did you find out?

It proves you should probably not read the books. Ive read the books. So I thought this season I was going to have more to do, and I was really looking forward to that. And then I got my dates from my agent and I thought, That doesnt tally. Because there was no way if they were sticking to the books that I should be in for that number of weeks. It seemed to me they must be writing me out. So I had a word with the line producer and said, Can you corroborate that theyre writing me out? Then the [showrunners] rang me and told me, Your time is up in this series. So perhaps I took them by surprise that I knew.

What would you say to book-reading fans that are upset that Ser Barristan is no longer with us?

Im disappointed. But I think you have to acceptas I have acceptedthat the demands of TV are different than the demand of book writing. With TV theres a pressure to create a number of high points. One of the big things about this seriesits true in the books and even more true in the seriesis the surprise element, the shocks. Theyve got to keep that up because people expect that. You cant predict anything but what you can predict is that there will be surprises.

So lame

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I was more thrown by the death of Mance, truth be told. But Tormund will fill in I guess. Barristan had a loyalty to Dany that Jorah or Tyrion will never recreate. And that's bummer, from an advisor standpoint, show or book.


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Quick thoughts



1. I can't lie, I'm not a Selmy fan in the books or on the show. So Adios . ..



2. I didn't like the Sand Snakes, they were too campy as folks have complained.



3. Didn't make sense for them to find a captain, bury him upt to his neck in sand and then have his head stunk repeatedly by scorpions, he would be in a coma already and what happened to his crew? How did they find this out and get him out there? Makes no sense . . .



4. I don't need to see Carice Van Houton naked anymore, we get it, she's naked, put some clothes on and act lady.



5. I love how Cersei is using her brain not her body as Mel and Madge are, to make moves.



6. Where those the Faith Militant or the Nazi party? Hard to tell . . . also, killing gay men in the brothels and arresting Loras for being gay? Can we say preachy a bit there Dave and Dan?



The good was good, the bad was bad . .. .

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@Julia Martell



How was what I said racist? They gave Tyene daggers and said she was a good fighter, so I called her a ninja for fighting skills...not race. In the books, she relied on poison and was pious, but the show couldn't make that dangerous so they changed her, a change I also disliked. I don't know what you're talking about.


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Barristan got jobbed. Fuck this. Not only did the unsullied get owned by a bunch of soft as hell slave owners, Barristan, the greatest living knight, went down like a punk. I have been fine with show changes in the past, even S4 didn't bother me TOO much, but this season has been painful. None of the character motivations make sense, there is no subtlety at all. All in all this looks to be the worst season of the show so far. Which is a shame. DwD and AFfC were slow, but at least they weren't nonsensical. GAH!!!!!!

Contesting this. Barristan went down realistically. The idea that he could have got out of that unscathed is the next thing to magical thinking, and the book encourages the idea that Barristan is still one of the most skilled fighters in the world, which, at his age, he could not possibly be. The show did it better IMO, showing that he's still incredibly strong (I counted, he cut down 14 Harpy's Sons), but didn't have a chance of coming out of that unscathed once they surrounded him.

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That "Dorne" moment in the opening credits was just so freaking odd. I guess we should be happy that they even spelled it right. I half expected it to be "Gorne" or "Dorng" or something.

I'm going to have to watch that again and pay more attention - I didn't even notice how it was depicted.

It is a risk introducing a whole new place this late in a story, as it is always going to feel like the story is trying too hard to expand beyond what has been set up in the first act. Yes, Dorne was mentioned way back in the early books and seasons, but it might seem like an afterthought or filler to a casual viewer however it is presented.

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@Julia Martell

How was what I said racist? They gave Tyene daggers and said she was a good fighter, so I called her a ninja for fighting skills...not race. In the books, she relied on poison and was pious, but the show couldn't make that dangerous so they changed her, a change I also disliked. I don't know what you're talking about.

I’m sorry if I’m being oversensitive, but the only thing that pisses me off more than the changes they made to Dorne is the use of the term “butthurt”. It may have caused me to overreact.

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Contesting this. Barristan went down realistically. The idea that he could have got out of that unscathed is the next thing to magical thinking, and the book encourages the idea that Barristan is still one of the most skilled fighters in the world, which, at his age, he could not possibly be. The show did it better IMO, showing that he's still incredibly strong (I counted, he cut down 14 Harpy's Sons), but didn't have a chance of coming out of that unscathed once they surrounded him.

Yeah, but compared to the other fights we have seen on the show? Pretty much crap. Barristan is supposed to be the best, or close to it. Bronn can gut a horse, take out three armed guards from a disadvantageous position, and be an all around badass, Barristan, nope, killed by random schmoes. I think what makes it worse is the fact that the Unsullied apparently forgot how to fight, lord that was horrible. And again,the Sons of the Harpy were just TOO good, these are supposed to be former slave owners who never had to work much or fight at all, that was the whole damned point of them. The scene doesn't ring true because of that.

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