Rant and Rave Without Repercussion End of The World Edition [Spoilers]

[darmody]

8 hours ago, Ygrain said:

Well... given the stupidity of the last episode, I might vote team Cersei.

But Cerseei has her own stupidity. She should have been literally eaten alive by the citizenry of King's Landing before she was crowned. 

[darmody]

5 hours ago, Prince of the North said:

Well, if this turns out to be true (and it sure looks like it will) all I have to say is..."Called it!!!"  The ballista/scorpion weapons being used against dragons has actually been foreshadowed for a while now.  Of course, it'll be made to seem easy while, in reality, it'd be quite difficult to do

It already has been made to look easy. Bronn had more trouble with the battle raging on the ground around him than bringing down the dragon, which only required two shots. We've been shown zombies can cause damage with their little hands and little swords. 

[darmody]

3 hours ago, Nami said:

So, the leaks say

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Bran will be chosen to rule.

 

What in the world is going on?

Let's pick a king who probably can't reproduce! (Unless Qyburn is on the case.)

[Adam_Up_Bxtch]

2 hours ago, Clueless Northman said:

You realize that Saruman had already been defeated by the end of The Two Towers? There is a king back in Gondor, the good guys have actually already won. Scouring of the Shire is just mopping up loose ends, and if the Hobbits hadn't managed to do it, Aragorn's army would eventually have done it, without breaking a sweat. The Scouring of the Shire is just a minor issue about a backwater province, not the fate of mankind, not even the fate of the biggest kingdom around. Drunken foolish braindead Cersei staying in power in King's Landing would basically be like Saruman ruling in Minas Tirith after Sauron has been defeated.

It's the basic idea opposed to the scale. Am I supporting the idea and do I like that they threw away the WWs after one episode to go against Cersei? Hell no I hate it, but it's the idea that GRRM likes and that D&D are doing and what GRRM is probably gonna end up doing. Although he'll probably handle it much better. Whether it will be good in the books? Who knows because in the show it has been handle terribly so no matter how logical GRRM makes it, it will probably be dissatisfying.

[Gendelsdottir]

On 5/1/2019 at 10:45 PM, divica said:

that survey is from hbo or some fans?

I can't say, since I quit the survey before finishing and sending it. The link https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdOOEPCJUPb0cdR1S9rvL8xmYm2OJyw04ffXu-lTPXZs1Qlw/viewform  has been updated to, "We are now analyzing the data for the podcast recording. Stay tuned for next week's survey!"

Maybe someone who finished it could comment.

[The Dragon Demands]

TyyyyA thought occurred to me....

I was reading a show-apologist news post that was quoting off TV-only dialogue as if it was great wisdom from Benioff and Weiss...

...and what struck me is that they quoted off "Try smiling with your lips closed".

I honestly couldn't remember it, so I looked it up:  Theon says it to the daughter of the ship's captain (of the Myraham) he has sex with in Season 2.  I looked it up in the books as well - it's a TV only line (in the books he only thinks she has a stupid smile in his inner monologue).  

This might be coincidence, but it set off a lot of red flags for me.

.....I'm going to articulate this in future videos, and I don't want to start an argument about it on these forums so I will limit myself to things Benioff himself has openly admitted:

The conclusion of all of my background research on Benioff (well, one conclusion, future videos) is that he is NOT some sort of drunken wreck - showing up to every interview and convention panel loudly announcing he's been drinking.  

It's all an act.  A performance.

And I mean, he admits it.  That video clip I posted of him bluntly describing how he got the job:  admitting that he was unqualified, but chuckling that he just puffed out his chest confidently to bluff Martin into thinking he knows how "TV production" works.  There is a video of this.  

And really...that's his life.  He isn't really trained in screenwriting, cinematography, he's bad a at long-form story structure (by his own admission!).....but he just "acts really confident" to fake his way into people thinking he knows what he's talking about.  I am stunned this managed to fool so many sheep for so long.  

So you see, the "David Benioff" that we see in interview videos is a fictional character, a stage persona that he plays.  And his behavior comes off as outlandish and insulting...because he's bad at it.  He's trying too hard.

And I sort of think (based on his comments in the DVD commentary for 25th Hour) that he's trying to imitate his father...a Wall Street banker type.  He rants about how he both loathes them and wants to be them.  That..."bro club", "alpha male", "locker room culture" thing.

The idea being that a braggart Wall Street type tries to display their confidence through..."toxic masculinity".  I know that word gets thrown around a lot....but the idea of intentionally acting...slovenly, rude, to display your dominance/confidence.  Misogyny is part of that I guess.

But...well, again, his statements:  there's this scene in 25th Hour where there's this Wall Street power dealer who he describes in the commentary as "this is me as I want to be".  And he's...eating rice with his bare fingers.  When a fork is readily at hand, as another charater points out.  It's just so over-the-rop ridiculous:  Benioff IS NOT a swaggering, confident, "alpha male" dudebro....he desperately tries to be one, using his STILTED imitation of that whole...act.  Performance.

My point is when you get down to it, all Benioff ever fixates on are the surface-level things you'd see in some crappy self-help book about acting confident in a job interview.  Just ALL THE TIME, to bluff his way through situations.  Glib, superficial...."charm" in the sense of that toxic masculinity thing:  he's trying to act like a slovenly braggart so people will think, "wow, look how confident he is! He must know what he's doing!" - but he never was a slovenly braggart, inherently.  He's not very good at the act either.

So just little things like that eat away at my mind: going back and seeing EVEN IN SEASON TWO, little bits where Benioff was...reshaping the story in his own image.

Little things about body posture like...embarrassing someone else by saying "Smile with your lips closed, you poser".....

...whether Benioff smiles or not does not go one way or the other to convincing me that, objectively, he either has a screenwriting degree or he doesn't.  

It's all just...superficial body posture tips with him.  

(Benioff himself always smiles with his lips closed, pursed...I used to think he was smirking....but, and he has explained this...it's actually because he has such awfully crooked teeth, and is deeply self-conscious about it)

The worst part for me, the outrage, is how he isn't actually that good at the whole "confident body posture" routine.  For years, since the earliest videos I can find of him, like 2008...

he nervously plays with his fingers during interviews.  He has stage fright (he has admitted this in other videos, fine).  He does it so much that once pointed out, you can never un-see it again.  It's a nervous tick and he does it more as he gets more nervous (because he doesn't really know what he's doing).  

You might not have seen this that much because...HBO has the sense to crop their behind the scenes videos into only headshots.  To hide this.  

But...well, just last week, rewatch the interview he gave on Jimmy Kimmel.  And just...pay attention to his hands.  He does it so much that if he was your child out in public, you would chastise him for fidgeting.

This is a guy who thinks he's "clever" for shutting someone else down by saying "Try smile with your lips closed"....to which I would coldly respond "Keep nervously playing with your fingers, it announces to me how terrified you really are".  

....I know that was a weird Rant, but I JUST looked that up, and realized the line about smiling wasn't from the books at all.  

 

[The Dragon Demands]

The Kimmel interview from last week:

Watch his hands.  HIs face is all fake smiles ("Littlefinger's eyes don't smile when his mouth does" - Sansa), and he's saying all of these boastful, "Confident!" things....while nervously playing with his fingers.  Constantly.

Once you see it, you can never unsee it.  He does it pervasively, always has in interviews - nervous that he'll face actual criticism.

[Rast-afari]

As much as I liked seeing Ghost in the episode his attacking with the Dothraki made no sense. He's incapable of "killing" a wight.