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Rant & Rave Season 8 [Spoilers]: When you are cool like a cucumber, as evil as the mother of madness, but never as perfect as the pet!


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35 minutes ago, SeanF said:

Aunt/nephew, Uncle/niece marriages were not the norm historically, among royalty, but nor were they that unusual.

I'm going by the books themselves as this isn't common knowledge at all, at least in the US. Didn't know this myself until ASOIAF and I'm college-educated. Granted, I don't care for royal histories. Heard recently that an alarming percentage of people in GB think Churchill was a cartoon character, so consider the audience. All the same, the reason royals marry in their own family to whatever degree is money/power grabs, or Game of Thrones thinking and mind-sets. 

In the show, it'll be an issue or they wouldn't superimpose this over their first love scene. They highlight it further by making Rhaegar look exactly like Viserys. 

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14 hours ago, Lollygag said:

I'm going by the books themselves as this isn't common knowledge at all, at least in the US. Didn't know this myself until ASOIAF and I'm college-educated. Granted, I don't care for royal histories. Heard recently that an alarming percentage of people in GB think Churchill was a cartoon character, so consider the audience. All the same, the reason royals marry in their own family to whatever degree is money/power grabs, or Game of Thrones thinking and mind-sets. 

In the show, it'll be an issue or they wouldn't superimpose this over their first love scene. They highlight it further by making Rhaegar look exactly like Viserys. 

Well we'll just have to see. IMO it wont be an issue for Jon/Dany on the show and definitely not in the books. They will obviously have many issues but I don't see that being one of them.  Because if that comes up then Dany will have to be like 'my parents and grandparents were siblings'. and I just don't think HBO wants to get into all that with only 5 episodes left.

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15 hours ago, Lollygag said:

Heard recently that an alarming percentage of people in GB think Churchill was a cartoon character, so consider the audience.

Churchill was a cartoon character.  He was also the greatest damn cartoon character of all time!

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So, I have much too many threads and posts to catch up on, so..........I'm not sure I will.

I just thought I'd drop off my thought for the day, for starters.  Maybe even my guess for the Iron Throne

Gendry, First of His Name, Smelter of Stone, King of Rowing and Running.  Long May He Reign.

He just needs a last name. 

What WAS with the melting down of obsidian?? 

 

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1 minute ago, Lady Fevre Dream said:

So, I have much too many threads and posts to catch up on, so..........I'm not sure I will.

I just thought I'd drop off my thought for the day, for starters.  Maybe even my guess for the Iron Throne

Gendry, First of His Name, Smelter of Stone, King of Rowing and Running.  Long May He Reign.

He just needs a last name. 

What WAS with the melting down of obsidian?? 

 

It was so pretty and bright purple, just a shame that it's chemically impossible to melt.

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6 minutes ago, Suzanna Stormborn said:

It was so pretty and bright purple, just a shame that it's chemically impossible to melt.

Isn t it some kind of glass? you can t melt glass?

I am seriously asking because glass is made from melted sand or other grains right?

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19 minutes ago, Suzanna Stormborn said:

It was so pretty and bright purple, just a shame that it's chemically impossible to melt.

I know I've never heard of such a thing as melting down obsidian.  I would think if there was a way (or a reason to try) we might have heard about it? 

 

10 minutes ago, divica said:

Isn t it some kind of glass? you can t melt glass?

I am seriously asking because glass is made from melted sand or other grains right?

See, I actually thought about that as well, the idea of making glass, but that is made from silica right?  I'm not that versed in it and haven't cared to look such up, yet, LOL

Here's my thing, though.  For arrowheads especially, even if it is a possibility, it is stupid to melt and pour.  Most arrowheads they wouldn't get back anyway.  They'd lie stuck in the wights for awhile. 

IF they wanted to say they have a way to melt obsidian, or mix it with metal, they should have told us.  Look how many right here are even wondering about it.  Every civilization that ever used stone and obsidian, didn't smelt, they nipped the stone into shape and came away with terrifically sharp weapons.  They just are susceptible to breakage.  Maybe Sam learned something in his books, how to mix with metal or melt or something, but TELL US THAT, LOL  Plus, we'd need to know it would still work if mixed.  And, IF it could melt, I can't imagine what temperature that would require, not to mention fuel. 

So, I'm guessing.............Gendry is a smith, they needed something for him to do, and viola........obsidian easily melts, LOL 

 

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8 minutes ago, divica said:

Isn t it some kind of glass? you can t melt glass?

I am seriously asking because glass is made from melted sand or other grains right?

Yes, obsidian is volcanic glass, a natural form of glass that results from lava extrusion, and its chemical compound is mostly silica, while the structure lacks crystalisation. That's why it's brittle. And nope, you can't melt obsidian.

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2 minutes ago, sweetsunray said:

Yes, obsidian is volcanic glass, a natural form of glass that results from lava extrusion, and its chemical compound is mostly silica, while the structure lacks crystalisation. That's why it's brittle. And nope, you can't melt obsidian.

Usually when things are brittle isn t it because they aren t flexible? Like porcelain.

Anyway, nice knowing you can t melt it. However I have no idea why… By my logic it should be possible with suficient heat or an adequate technique…

 

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4 minutes ago, divica said:

Usually when things are brittle isn t it because they aren t flexible? Like porcelain.

Anyway, nice knowing you can t melt it. However I have no idea why… By my logic it should be possible with suficient heat or an adequate technique…

 

Crystalline structures are flexible. Metals (which you can melt) are entirely built of crystalline structures.

You could in theory heat obsidian (which isn't crystalline) at high enough a temperature that it would burn. It won't melt though.

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Greetings fellow rant and ravers,

It has been 585 days since my last confession.  I needed to cleanse the palate before stepping back into this fray.  I lurked the thread over the past few days preparing myself for the inevitable travesty of the return of what used to be a favorite show.  Whereas over the last couple seasons my wife has thought I was a bit too harsh on the show, this week's episode changed her mind.  About halfway through she turned to me and said, "This really isn't working.  Is it?"

By the end of the episode she was ranting even more than me about the complete lack of writing capabilities within this high-budget trash heap.  It's sad as the early seasons, while not perfect by any means, at least had coherent dialog that made sense.  That's slowly eroded over the last few seasons until we're at a point where the highlight of the whole thing is the moments where everybody shuts the hell up and they focus on the CGI animals.

Speaking of which, let's get out the manipulators and dig into this dumpster fire, shall we?

Let me start with the absolute best moment of the show: The dragon flight.  Oh sure, plot wise it makes less than zero sense.  And while I'm sure the Ds think they're really laying some groundwork by showing us Jon's a Targaryen because he can ride dragons and only Targaryens can ride dragons, everybody watching the show already damn well knows that.  This isn't clever, this is stupid.  And would have made a TON more sense after the BIG.  SHOCKING.  REVEAL.  That's been sitting in the open for two years.

But I digress.  The dragons, both during the flight, and during their interactions on either end of the flight highlight one of the biggest problems with this entire show by being THE BEST ACTORS IN THE EPISODE.  The human actors can't make sense of the direction they are receiving so they either come across as wooden, robotic, or psychotic because they can act so well they take the direction and run with it even when it makes absolutely zero sense and has nothing to do with whatever the hell their character should be doing.  The dragons smiled (as reptiles often do when interacting with people they like), they give Jon the stare-down (again, common thing with reptiles of all sizes) and actually seem to be enjoying themselves, unlike literally anyone else at any point in the show.  Even Bronn at the whore house wasn't allowed to enjoy himself, which is par for the course.

So props to the animators for actually making your dragons the most likable characters of the episode.  Or maybe they just stood out because they didn't have to deliver that horribly written dialog.

DISCLAIMER: I'm a reptile fan and meant what I said up above about reptiles.  The reptiles I've had actually can smile a bit, though it's far more subtle than what the dragons showed.  And the predatory reptiles DEFINITELY do the stare down all the time.  Even my little six inch long geckos give me the death stare from time to time, which is adorable.)

Now that we've covered the highlight, lets get into the low places and play about in the muck, shall we?  There's a lot to unpack, and I'm not sure how long my patience will hold, but here we go.

First off, that dialog.  It's the type of dialog a ten year old writes before they've gotten command of the language enough to just let the words flow the way they would in a real conversation.  It's horrendous, and not at all the way people talk.  But at least they managed to cram in as many cocks, cunts and balls and any ten year old could possibly want.  I imagine the Ds high-fiving each other and screaming "YEAH!" every time they managed to shoe-horn in another curse whether it was appropriate or not.  

The worst part of that is that I don't mind filthy language.  But there needs to be some substance around it.  A coherent plot?  A believable character or two?  A scene that doesn't make me question my sanity?  A person reacting naturally to the things happening around them?

For as much as I enjoyed some of the conversations over the years between Tyrion and Varys, even as they descended into a comedy duo from real matters, their conversation here was ridiculously stupid.  And the way they delivered their lines was like they're both sick of it.  Whether that was directed or the actors literally were just thinking, "this may be the dumbest thing I've ever had to say" as they delivered the lines, we'll probably know as soon as the non-disclosure period is up.

Jorah has been relegated to a mumbling side-show hanging off Dany's coat like a tired child at the mall, or perhaps a kitten on a drape?  I dunno, I think watching this show is making me lose my descriptors.  Forgive me.  The stupids is contagious.  Maybe if I said cunt and cock more often it'd work better?

Oh, and you know the two Ds were twittering away like a couple school girls when they had the Hound be the only character in the show to say "bitch" instead of "cunt."  Because he's a dog.  Get it?  Get it?  Nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more.  No!  I should not associate such brilliance with this stupidity.  But I just KNOW they thought that was clever.  It's exactly the type of thing those ten year old boys obsessed with cursing would think is amazingly brilliant.

Jon finding out who he actually is causing a slight panic attack, only for the dumbest possible reason, was another potential emotional highlight that landed like a wet fart.  (Oh god, I'm turning into them!?)  Actual writers may have been able to use that as a counterweight to pull the episode up out of the dungeon of dumb, but nope, we're instead gonna use it as an anchor to pull us further down.

Lady Mormont, despite the stupidity of her position at her age without a regent or some sort of overseer making the actual decisions, was a highlight last season for me for the simple reason that she actually seemed like she knew how to act.  I see they've beaten that out of her and now she mostly has either blank expression or rage face like Arya when she goes full Wolverine.

Sansa?  The jealousy thing isn't working for her.  She's supposed to be this strong woman, but literally everything about her character screams weak-willed and petty.  You'd think after everything she'd been through, her brother hooking up with someone with massively superior firepower to help protect them wouldn't turn her into a fit-throwing child, but, well, I guess you'd think wrong.

Euron...I just can't.  This one is too cliche and stupid.

Theon coming to the rescue, then immediately get punched in the face for it made me want to see him stand up, punch her back, then tie her back up and leave her.  I get that she's supposed to be a hard bitch (guess I'm a dog too), but that was ridiculously stupid considering Euron could come back at any moment.  Maybe save your love taps for later, idiot.

Jamie seeing Bran was the best human acting moment of the show.  Jamie smiling at being back in Winterfell, then seeing Bran and actually looking like you would expect him to look when he sees the kid he tossed from the tower all grown up and sitting there staring back at him.  Well done, NCW.  Surprised they let that one slip through editing and actually make the episode.

And in the end, we're left wondering if anything happened.  On closer examination, no.  A couple cheap laughs, a bunch of reunions that landed horrible due to stilted dialog, and Bronn interrupted with his whores so he can get sent on a mission to kill the treasonous brothers, one of which made the colossal mistake of wanting Cersie to help fight the possible destruction of their entire race rather than sit on her throne and pout.

The truly maddening thing about all of this is how the people around me are babbling about how amazing it was, how stupendous it is, and how this is currently the greatest television show of our lifetime.  Bland, lifeless or psychotic characters.  And not psychotic in a true way, but in a "they are literally a completely different person scene to scene because they have no driving motivation that stays with them scene to scene."  Plot points that jump around like a jumping bean in the rear window of a car on a hot summer day.  And a constant stream of actors and the Ds telling us the end is going to be a HUGE surprise that no one will expect, which is telling us up front that whatever happens it's probably just going to pop up out of nowhere with absolutely zero backstory, or it'll be exactly what we've been expecting from the Lannister (except for Jamie) worshiping show creators.

My call at this point: everyone we know is dead, including the Night King, and someone we've never heard of until thirty seconds before closing credits sits the Iron Throne, or Cersie.  And they've beaten us down so much at this point my only reaction to either outcome will be to laugh, shrug, and move on.

RE: Obsidian discussion,

An interesting thread about this very subject exists on Stack Exchange with this answer in particular being relevant:

Quote

Obsidian is mostly silicon dioxide (about 70%), with a good bit of aluminium oxide and then about 10-20% various other oxides.

Melting point for silicon dioxide is 1,710 °C, and for aluminium oxide 2,072 °C. You're going to need a lot of heat for this.

For reference, steel melts at 1510 C. (2750 F)

Those two temps above:

1710 C = 3110 F

2072 C = 3761 F

So yes, obsidian can melt, but the temperature is RIDICULOUSLY high and the viscosity of the resultant fluid would be almost impossible to control.  It'd essentially be magma.  And for anybody that hasn't been around magma, it's like really super thick mud that's hot enough to burn through pretty much anything it comes in contact with or even gets within a few inches of short of some non-natural materials that have been specially designed to withstand the heat.

I have my doubts a society like we've seen in Westeros would have the tools to work with molten obsidian, even if they had a forge capable of creating the correct amount of heat.  The correct amount of heat would probably destroy any structure the forge was contained in at the time.  

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So, it sounds like Gendry's best chance at that Smelting of Stone foolishness might have been.........the utilization of dragon fire?  If there going to make this shit up, they could at least TRY.   It seems Drogon and Rhaegal were too busy sulking about the weather to help Gendry out, too bad, so sad, LOL 

Thanks to everyone for their help and thoughts on all of that.  So, without further ado, back to my pick for the throne.  Look at all three of his feats.

Gendry, Smelter of Stone, King of Rowing and Runninng!!  Long may he reign. 

 

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7 minutes ago, Lady Fevre Dream said:

So, it sounds like Gendry's best chance at that Smelting of Stone foolishness might have been.........the utilization of dragon fire?  If there going to make this shit up, they could at least TRY.   It seems Drogon and Rhaegal were too busy sulking about the weather to help Gendry out, too bad, so sad, LOL 

Thanks to everyone for their help and thoughts on all of that.  So, without further ado, back to my pick for the throne.  Look at all three of his feats.

Gendry, Smelter of Stone, King of Rowing and Runninng!!  Long may he reign. 

 

Run, Gendry, run don't hold back the hammer, I got a little lady on the other side ...

(Originally Run, Dusty, Run by The Long Ryders)

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31 minutes ago, Dragons Are Real said:

Greetings fellow rant and ravers,

It has been 585 days since my last confession.  I needed to cleanse the palate before stepping back into this fray.  I lurked the thread over the past few days preparing myself for the inevitable travesty of the return of what used to be a favorite show.  Whereas over the last couple seasons my wife has thought I was a bit too harsh on the show, this week's episode changed her mind.  About halfway through she turned to me and said, "This really isn't working.  Is it?"

By the end of the episode she was ranting even more than me about the complete lack of writing capabilities within this high-budget trash heap.  It's sad as the early seasons, while not perfect by any means, at least had coherent dialog that made sense.  That's slowly eroded over the last few seasons until we're at a point where the highlight of the whole thing is the moments where everybody shuts the hell up and they focus on the CGI animals.

Speaking of which, let's get out the manipulators and dig into this dumpster fire, shall we?

Let me start with the absolute best moment of the show: The dragon flight.  Oh sure, plot wise it makes less than zero sense.  And while I'm sure the Ds think they're really laying some groundwork by showing us Jon's a Targaryen because he can ride dragons and only Targaryens can ride dragons, everybody watching the show already damn well knows that.  This isn't clever, this is stupid.  And would have made a TON more sense after the BIG.  SHOCKING.  REVEAL.  That's been sitting in the open for two years.

But I digress.  The dragons, both during the flight, and during their interactions on either end of the flight highlight one of the biggest problems with this entire show by being THE BEST ACTORS IN THE EPISODE.  The human actors can't make sense of the direction they are receiving so they either come across as wooden, robotic, or psychotic because they can act so well they take the direction and run with it even when it makes absolutely zero sense and has nothing to do with whatever the hell their character should be doing.  The dragons smiled (as reptiles often do when interacting with people they like), they give Jon the stare-down (again, common thing with reptiles of all sizes) and actually seem to be enjoying themselves, unlike literally anyone else at any point in the show.  Even Bronn at the whore house wasn't allowed to enjoy himself, which is par for the course.

So props to the animators for actually making your dragons the most likable characters of the episode.  Or maybe they just stood out because they didn't have to deliver that horribly written dialog.

DISCLAIMER: I'm a reptile fan and meant what I said up above about reptiles.  The reptiles I've had actually can smile a bit, though it's far more subtle than what the dragons showed.  And the predatory reptiles DEFINITELY do the stare down all the time.  Even my little six inch long geckos give me the death stare from time to time, which is adorable.)

Now that we've covered the highlight, lets get into the low places and play about in the muck, shall we?  There's a lot to unpack, and I'm not sure how long my patience will hold, but here we go.

First off, that dialog.  It's the type of dialog a ten year old writes before they've gotten command of the language enough to just let the words flow the way they would in a real conversation.  It's horrendous, and not at all the way people talk.  But at least they managed to cram in as many cocks, cunts and balls and any ten year old could possibly want.  I imagine the Ds high-fiving each other and screaming "YEAH!" every time they managed to shoe-horn in another curse whether it was appropriate or not.  

The worst part of that is that I don't mind filthy language.  But there needs to be some substance around it.  A coherent plot?  A believable character or two?  A scene that doesn't make me question my sanity?  A person reacting naturally to the things happening around them?

For as much as I enjoyed some of the conversations over the years between Tyrion and Varys, even as they descended into a comedy duo from real matters, their conversation here was ridiculously stupid.  And the way they delivered their lines was like they're both sick of it.  Whether that was directed or the actors literally were just thinking, "this may be the dumbest thing I've ever had to say" as they delivered the lines, we'll probably know as soon as the non-disclosure period is up.

Jorah has been relegated to a mumbling side-show hanging off Dany's coat like a tired child at the mall, or perhaps a kitten on a drape?  I dunno, I think watching this show is making me lose my descriptors.  Forgive me.  The stupids is contagious.  Maybe if I said cunt and cock more often it'd work better?

Oh, and you know the two Ds were twittering away like a couple school girls when they had the Hound be the only character in the show to say "bitch" instead of "cunt."  Because he's a dog.  Get it?  Get it?  Nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more.  No!  I should not associate such brilliance with this stupidity.  But I just KNOW they thought that was clever.  It's exactly the type of thing those ten year old boys obsessed with cursing would think is amazingly brilliant.

Jon finding out who he actually is causing a slight panic attack, only for the dumbest possible reason, was another potential emotional highlight that landed like a wet fart.  (Oh god, I'm turning into them!?)  Actual writers may have been able to use that as a counterweight to pull the episode up out of the dungeon of dumb, but nope, we're instead gonna use it as an anchor to pull us further down.

Lady Mormont, despite the stupidity of her position at her age without a regent or some sort of overseer making the actual decisions, was a highlight last season for me for the simple reason that she actually seemed like she knew how to act.  I see they've beaten that out of her and now she mostly has either blank expression or rage face like Arya when she goes full Wolverine.

Sansa?  The jealousy thing isn't working for her.  She's supposed to be this strong woman, but literally everything about her character screams weak-willed and petty.  You'd think after everything she'd been through, her brother hooking up with someone with massively superior firepower to help protect them wouldn't turn her into a fit-throwing child, but, well, I guess you'd think wrong.

Euron...I just can't.  This one is too cliche and stupid.

Theon coming to the rescue, then immediately get punched in the face for it made me want to see him stand up, punch her back, then tie her back up and leave her.  I get that she's supposed to be a hard bitch (guess I'm a dog too), but that was ridiculously stupid considering Euron could come back at any moment.  Maybe save your love taps for later, idiot.

Jamie seeing Bran was the best human acting moment of the show.  Jamie smiling at being back in Winterfell, then seeing Bran and actually looking like you would expect him to look when he sees the kid he tossed from the tower all grown up and sitting there staring back at him.  Well done, NCW.  Surprised they let that one slip through editing and actually make the episode.

And in the end, we're left wondering if anything happened.  On closer examination, no.  A couple cheap laughs, a bunch of reunions that landed horrible due to stilted dialog, and Bronn interrupted with his whores so he can get sent on a mission to kill the treasonous brothers, one of which made the colossal mistake of wanting Cersie to help fight the possible destruction of their entire race rather than sit on her throne and pout.

The truly maddening thing about all of this is how the people around me are babbling about how amazing it was, how stupendous it is, and how this is currently the greatest television show of our lifetime.  Bland, lifeless or psychotic characters.  And not psychotic in a true way, but in a "they are literally a completely different person scene to scene because they have no driving motivation that stays with them scene to scene."  Plot points that jump around like a jumping bean in the rear window of a car on a hot summer day.  And a constant stream of actors and the Ds telling us the end is going to be a HUGE surprise that no one will expect, which is telling us up front that whatever happens it's probably just going to pop up out of nowhere with absolutely zero backstory, or it'll be exactly what we've been expecting from the Lannister (except for Jamie) worshiping show creators.

My call at this point: everyone we know is dead, including the Night King, and someone we've never heard of until thirty seconds before closing credits sits the Iron Throne, or Cersie.  And they've beaten us down so much at this point my only reaction to either outcome will be to laugh, shrug, and move on.

RE: Obsidian discussion,

An interesting thread about this very subject exists on Stack Exchange with this answer in particular being relevant:

For reference, steel melts at 1510 C. (2750 F)

Those two temps above:

1710 C = 3110 F

2072 C = 3761 F

So yes, obsidian can melt, but the temperature is RIDICULOUSLY high and the viscosity of the resultant fluid would be almost impossible to control.  It'd essentially be magma.  And for anybody that hasn't been around magma, it's like really super thick mud that's hot enough to burn through pretty much anything it comes in contact with or even gets within a few inches of short of some non-natural materials that have been specially designed to withstand the heat.

I have my doubts a society like we've seen in Westeros would have the tools to work with molten obsidian, even if they had a forge capable of creating the correct amount of heat.  The correct amount of heat would probably destroy any structure the forge was contained in at the time.  

You get me :)

Glad to have you in this thread and please rant and rave more!

The writing is the worst of the worst of any popular TV show I can remember. Sex and the city movies were better written than this.

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35 minutes ago, Dragons Are Real said:

Jamie seeing Bran was the best human acting moment of the show.  Jamie smiling at being back in Winterfell, then seeing Bran and actually looking like you would expect him to look when he sees the kid he tossed from the tower all grown up and sitting there staring back at him.  Well done, NCW.  Surprised they let that one slip through editing and actually make the episode.

Damn fine rant! :cheers:

I only managed to bring myself to watch it last night, and I can say there was no disappointment, since I didn’t expect it to be good or even to make sense.

I agree w/ everything you said, and especially w/ the Jaime/Bran scene being the only good one. It even felt real, like, these are real characters! Or Jaime is, at least. Which, of course, only made me even sadder w/ how Jaime was handled throughout... And NCW is perfect for the part, and it would have been absolutely brilliant to see him playing book Jaime. :crying:

 

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2 minutes ago, Suzanna Stormborn said:

Sex and the city movies were better written than this.

I'm all for shitting on the show, but that's a bridge too far my good lady.

Anyway, on the obsidian thing, of course you can melt it.  You can melt anything.  The trick is reworking it.  And considering there's a well-developed special way to manipulate Valyrian steel, it's not out of the realm of possibility someone could figure out a way to craft the substance into some type of special blade like that axe for Clegane (or whatever the fuck Arya was asking for).  I don't even think that'd rank in the top 20 of magical things in Martin's world.  Of course, it'll be a lot better in the books, but I don't think it should be dismissed that Gendry may figure out a way to do just that (or make Valyrian steel blades).

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2 minutes ago, kissdbyfire said:

Damn fine rant! :cheers:

I only managed to bring myself to watch it last night, and I can say there was no disappointment, since I didn’t expect it to be good or even to make sense.

I agree w/ everything you said, and especially w/ the Jaime/Bran scene being the only good one. It even felt real, like, these are real characters! Or Jaime is, at least. Which, of course, only made me even sadder w/ how Jaime was handled throughout... And NCW is perfect for the part, and it would have been absolutely brilliant to see him playing book Jaime. :crying:

 

Jon and sam's scene was also real. It might not be the scene we wanted, but given sam's talk with danny it made sense. Even how jon reacted when he sees that sam was sad thinking it was something related with gilly… It just lacked epicness...

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2 minutes ago, DMC said:

I'm all for shitting on the show, but that's a bridge too far my good lady.

Anyway, on the obsidian thing, of course you can melt it.  You can melt anything.  The trick is reworking it.  And considering there's a well-developed special way to manipulate Valyrian steel, it's not out of the realm of possibility someone could figure out a way to craft the substance into some type of special blade like that axe for Clegane (or whatever the fuck Arya was asking for).  I don't even think that'd rank in the top 20 of magical things in Martin's world.  Of course, it'll be a lot better in the books, but I don't think it should be dismissed that Gendry may figure out a way to do just that (or make Valyrian steel blades).

lol--I stand by it. Just writing SatC is better. I think I'd rather watch a GOT episode if I had to choose between the 2, but I literally cant think of anything with worse writing than this show.

 

I think everyone's complaints about the obisidian are that it is a metal you would carve, not melt and rework. Especially in bronze-age civilization like Westeros they would be carving these tools, it's just a dumb show addition to have Gendry melting it with his 7-minute Abs.

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46 minutes ago, Dragons Are Real said:

Greetings fellow rant and ravers,

It has been 585 days since my last confession.  I needed to cleanse the palate before stepping back into this fray.  I lurked the thread over the past few days preparing myself for the inevitable travesty of the return of what used to be a favorite show.  Whereas over the last couple seasons my wife has thought I was a bit too harsh on the show, this week's episode changed her mind.  About halfway through she turned to me and said, "This really isn't working.  Is it?"

By the end of the episode she was ranting even more than me about the complete lack of writing capabilities within this high-budget trash heap.  It's sad as the early seasons, while not perfect by any means, at least had coherent dialog that made sense.  That's slowly eroded over the last few seasons until we're at a point where the highlight of the whole thing is the moments where everybody shuts the hell up and they focus on the CGI animals.

Speaking of which, let's get out the manipulators and dig into this dumpster fire, shall we?

Let me start with the absolute best moment of the show: The dragon flight.  Oh sure, plot wise it makes less than zero sense.  And while I'm sure the Ds think they're really laying some groundwork by showing us Jon's a Targaryen because he can ride dragons and only Targaryens can ride dragons, everybody watching the show already damn well knows that.  This isn't clever, this is stupid.  And would have made a TON more sense after the BIG.  SHOCKING.  REVEAL.  That's been sitting in the open for two years.

But I digress.  The dragons, both during the flight, and during their interactions on either end of the flight highlight one of the biggest problems with this entire show by being THE BEST ACTORS IN THE EPISODE.  The human actors can't make sense of the direction they are receiving so they either come across as wooden, robotic, or psychotic because they can act so well they take the direction and run with it even when it makes absolutely zero sense and has nothing to do with whatever the hell their character should be doing.  The dragons smiled (as reptiles often do when interacting with people they like), they give Jon the stare-down (again, common thing with reptiles of all sizes) and actually seem to be enjoying themselves, unlike literally anyone else at any point in the show.  Even Bronn at the whore house wasn't allowed to enjoy himself, which is par for the course.

So props to the animators for actually making your dragons the most likable characters of the episode.  Or maybe they just stood out because they didn't have to deliver that horribly written dialog.

DISCLAIMER: I'm a reptile fan and meant what I said up above about reptiles.  The reptiles I've had actually can smile a bit, though it's far more subtle than what the dragons showed.  And the predatory reptiles DEFINITELY do the stare down all the time.  Even my little six inch long geckos give me the death stare from time to time, which is adorable.)

Now that we've covered the highlight, lets get into the low places and play about in the muck, shall we?  There's a lot to unpack, and I'm not sure how long my patience will hold, but here we go.

First off, that dialog.  It's the type of dialog a ten year old writes before they've gotten command of the language enough to just let the words flow the way they would in a real conversation.  It's horrendous, and not at all the way people talk.  But at least they managed to cram in as many cocks, cunts and balls and any ten year old could possibly want.  I imagine the Ds high-fiving each other and screaming "YEAH!" every time they managed to shoe-horn in another curse whether it was appropriate or not.  

The worst part of that is that I don't mind filthy language.  But there needs to be some substance around it.  A coherent plot?  A believable character or two?  A scene that doesn't make me question my sanity?  A person reacting naturally to the things happening around them?

For as much as I enjoyed some of the conversations over the years between Tyrion and Varys, even as they descended into a comedy duo from real matters, their conversation here was ridiculously stupid.  And the way they delivered their lines was like they're both sick of it.  Whether that was directed or the actors literally were just thinking, "this may be the dumbest thing I've ever had to say" as they delivered the lines, we'll probably know as soon as the non-disclosure period is up.

Jorah has been relegated to a mumbling side-show hanging off Dany's coat like a tired child at the mall, or perhaps a kitten on a drape?  I dunno, I think watching this show is making me lose my descriptors.  Forgive me.  The stupids is contagious.  Maybe if I said cunt and cock more often it'd work better?

Oh, and you know the two Ds were twittering away like a couple school girls when they had the Hound be the only character in the show to say "bitch" instead of "cunt."  Because he's a dog.  Get it?  Get it?  Nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more.  No!  I should not associate such brilliance with this stupidity.  But I just KNOW they thought that was clever.  It's exactly the type of thing those ten year old boys obsessed with cursing would think is amazingly brilliant.

Jon finding out who he actually is causing a slight panic attack, only for the dumbest possible reason, was another potential emotional highlight that landed like a wet fart.  (Oh god, I'm turning into them!?)  Actual writers may have been able to use that as a counterweight to pull the episode up out of the dungeon of dumb, but nope, we're instead gonna use it as an anchor to pull us further down.

Lady Mormont, despite the stupidity of her position at her age without a regent or some sort of overseer making the actual decisions, was a highlight last season for me for the simple reason that she actually seemed like she knew how to act.  I see they've beaten that out of her and now she mostly has either blank expression or rage face like Arya when she goes full Wolverine.

Sansa?  The jealousy thing isn't working for her.  She's supposed to be this strong woman, but literally everything about her character screams weak-willed and petty.  You'd think after everything she'd been through, her brother hooking up with someone with massively superior firepower to help protect them wouldn't turn her into a fit-throwing child, but, well, I guess you'd think wrong.

Euron...I just can't.  This one is too cliche and stupid.

Theon coming to the rescue, then immediately get punched in the face for it made me want to see him stand up, punch her back, then tie her back up and leave her.  I get that she's supposed to be a hard bitch (guess I'm a dog too), but that was ridiculously stupid considering Euron could come back at any moment.  Maybe save your love taps for later, idiot.

Jamie seeing Bran was the best human acting moment of the show.  Jamie smiling at being back in Winterfell, then seeing Bran and actually looking like you would expect him to look when he sees the kid he tossed from the tower all grown up and sitting there staring back at him.  Well done, NCW.  Surprised they let that one slip through editing and actually make the episode.

And in the end, we're left wondering if anything happened.  On closer examination, no.  A couple cheap laughs, a bunch of reunions that landed horrible due to stilted dialog, and Bronn interrupted with his whores so he can get sent on a mission to kill the treasonous brothers, one of which made the colossal mistake of wanting Cersie to help fight the possible destruction of their entire race rather than sit on her throne and pout.

The truly maddening thing about all of this is how the people around me are babbling about how amazing it was, how stupendous it is, and how this is currently the greatest television show of our lifetime.  Bland, lifeless or psychotic characters.  And not psychotic in a true way, but in a "they are literally a completely different person scene to scene because they have no driving motivation that stays with them scene to scene."  Plot points that jump around like a jumping bean in the rear window of a car on a hot summer day.  And a constant stream of actors and the Ds telling us the end is going to be a HUGE surprise that no one will expect, which is telling us up front that whatever happens it's probably just going to pop up out of nowhere with absolutely zero backstory, or it'll be exactly what we've been expecting from the Lannister (except for Jamie) worshiping show creators.

My call at this point: everyone we know is dead, including the Night King, and someone we've never heard of until thirty seconds before closing credits sits the Iron Throne, or Cersie.  And they've beaten us down so much at this point my only reaction to either outcome will be to laugh, shrug, and move on.

RE: Obsidian discussion,

An interesting thread about this very subject exists on Stack Exchange with this answer in particular being relevant:

For reference, steel melts at 1510 C. (2750 F)

Those two temps above:

1710 C = 3110 F

2072 C = 3761 F

So yes, obsidian can melt, but the temperature is RIDICULOUSLY high and the viscosity of the resultant fluid would be almost impossible to control.  It'd essentially be magma.  And for anybody that hasn't been around magma, it's like really super thick mud that's hot enough to burn through pretty much anything it comes in contact with or even gets within a few inches of short of some non-natural materials that have been specially designed to withstand the heat.

I have my doubts a society like we've seen in Westeros would have the tools to work with molten obsidian, even if they had a forge capable of creating the correct amount of heat.  The correct amount of heat would probably destroy any structure the forge was contained in at the time.  

That was a great post, thank you for the Obsidian information, and Welcome!! 

A Girl is out of time now, but I look forward to the possibility of posting with you in the future.  :cheers:

ps.  YES!!  Nik is wonderful as Jaime, isn't he?  And, he's not even CGI'd in like the dragons, wink wink.  The lack of dialogue from the Ds always helps, though, doesn't it? 

 

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