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[No Spoilers] The Ros Appreciation thread


Raion Laion

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I would have never even complained about Ros if I knew what was coming with Talisa and Shae...well, yeah, I probably would have, but she is nowhere near as bad of a character, and I actually think Esme Bianco is a better actress than those two. At least Ros didn't have a character to "assassinate." I know these aren't really compliments and I won't pretend like I suddenly like her now that she's dead or that I wish she was still on the show (I don't), but there are now way worse problems on the show than Ros. There have been for awhile. I was kind of shocked that she died because I thought D&D were in love with her and were going to keep her on the show forever, but at the same time not so much, considering that they've explicitly said Dontos is coming back.

I'm not sure how I feel about the way she was killed. I think it's odd that the actress finds it "beautiful." I thought it was horrific, not beautiful. However, I don't think the writers were being sexist in this scene (except MAYBE for the way she was posed - I don't know, I'm still debating how I feel about that), but simply trying to kill a lot of birds with one stone. And they did. I'm not justifying the way they write or "approving" the way they're doing everything, but I think they saw it like this: #1 - show the audience that LF isn't someone you fuck with and that he doesn't make idle threats. He mentioned the bad investment thing to her last season. #2 - once again emphasize the brutality of Joffrey and also follow up on that conversation him and Marge had about killing something. #3 - make the audience question whether or not Marg knows about this/how she'll feel about/does this mean she can't really manipulate him? #4 - one less actor to pay #5 - there's not enough room in the show anymore for Jon Snow and Dany, let alone Ros. And probably the least significant but possibly the fact that she's been one of the most despised and criticized characters of book fans since season 1. I don't think it's very significant though or else she would have been dead ages ago. Still, she was kind of a lazy plot device.

I think they were in a way even trying to avoid coming off as promoting sexualized violence by not showing how she died and leaving her clothed. It hasn't been received very well, but I don't think their intentions were bad (and I'm definitely not some huge D&D fan). Just imagine the kind of a rage that would be going on if they showed Joff torture and/or rape then kill her!

I wish Esme Bianco could have gotten a different part. I think she really has that "look" for the ASOIAF world. Too bad all she could get was this crummy role even though she's a better actress than quite a few others on the show.

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Gosh darn it, I liked Ros! She was that 'hooker with a heart of gold' that hoped for something greater. In spite of myself, I felt kind of optimistic when she hooked up with Varys. ( :dunce: How silly was I?!) Seeing her ultimate fate made my stomach turn. Joffrey must be punished, that sadistic, psycho twerp! Littlefinger too, just for being "Littlefinger".

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I liked Ros, but I thought the death was fitting. I knew once she said something to Varys her days were numbered, Varys has feelings, I think, and therefore has limits. Littlefinger is a sociopath, a clever monster masquerading as a person. Doesn't surprise me that he did this.

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I actually liked Ros and thought they'd made a decent stab at a non-canon character. The manner of her death I have some issue with, but not for the reasons brought up elsewhere. It seems that the current writers didn't know what to do with her, so they just got rid of the character in the most throwaway manner possible, and it seems a bit of a cop-out despite it being logically consistent with the series, because the framing of her death was botched. If not off-scene, IMO, it would have been better. It failed in me to generate any reaction whatsoever, besides thinking, "The people who came up with her will be annoyed at that one", so to my mind they could have done a better job.

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I don't know if it'll happen immediately since Joffrey was alone in the room, but I think Ros' murder will ultimately get to Margaery and Olenna - probably through Littlefinger himself, since he orcestrated the situation in the first place.

In a way, that could be the point of Ros' death; not to demonstrate that Joffrey's a psycho and all-around horrible person because we knew that already (though it does work as a reminder after his mild behavior this season), but to re-instate Littlefinger as a credible schemer. He's been a clown and a joke going on almost two seasons now, so having him be behind this isn't a bad idea.

edit: I'm not really seeing how they could have actually showed us Ros' murder and have it not be absolutely horrible since we know all we need to know about her death from that one shot - she died painfully, slowly, and she was tied up so she had nochance whatsoever of escape. If her death had involved a drawn-out Joffrey torture scene it would have been gross and cheap in all the wrong ways.

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I feel they miscast Shae. Terrible acting. I don't care if it's her english, her accent, whatever. It would have been nice if Esme Bianco could have been Shae, even if her hair and ethnicity may not have matched with book Shae. Kissed by fire, mmmm.

Ros I was okay with but her rise to power was silly. Was glad when they decided to whack her, and I don't blame Esme. She did well with the role given, it's just the story arc and writing were pretty bad for her. I'll miss that beautiful body, in any case.

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Can someone remind how and when Joffrey was displayed as a sexual sadist in the books? I'm not disputing it I just genuinely don't recall it.

Furthest it ever got, so far as I can recall, was Joffrey ordering his Kingsguard to tear off Sansa's dress so he could get a look at her breasts while they were beating her. I think they realized they have a character people really love to hate in Joffrey and just decided to take his detestable qualities from the book and add a bunch of new ones, as well. Including bearing the weight of Cersei's sins for such things as ordering Tyrion assassinated and killing Robert's bastards.

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Furthest it ever got, so far as I can recall, was Joffrey ordering his Kingsguard to tear off Sansa's dress so he could get a look at her breasts while they were beating her. I think they realized they have a character people really love to hate in Joffrey and just decided to take his detestable qualities from the book and add a bunch of new ones, as well. Including bearing the weight of Cersei's sins for such things as ordering Tyrion assassinated and killing Robert's bastards.

Oh yes I forgot about that, thankyou!
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I think they were in a way even trying to avoid coming off as promoting sexualized violence by not showing how she died and leaving her clothed. It hasn't been received very well, but I don't think their intentions were bad (and I'm definitely not some huge D&D fan). Just imagine the kind of a rage that would be going on if they showed Joff torture and/or rape then kill her!

That's how I saw it as well. There was an artistic effort to make the scene dramatic visually, because that's what you do in dramas, but it seems rather clear to me that the image they were painting was one of dramatic horror. That's completely different from trying to glamourize sexual violence to make it somehow attractive or excusable, or to diminish the tragedy. It was horrible.

I wish Esme Bianco could have gotten a different part. I think she really has that "look" for the ASOIAF world. Too bad all she could get was this crummy role even though she's a better actress than quite a few others on the show.

Agreed.

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I have always liked the character of Ros, not only because of Esmé Bianco but as well because a strong commoner selfmade woman was really missing in the story, someone who is not from nobility, who is not part of the game. A woman who had nothing to begin with and who has to get a position in life only by her own efforts and not by being born a princess who might get into distress. A character with a different perspective and competent. So I liked the idea that Ros can read, she probably had not been taught by a septa but learned through her own initiative. And all her emotional intelligence came from listening and learning and not from some septa preaching good manners.

Yes, a character like that should have been in the books, she was a wonderful TV addition and it is a shame she is gone though she had to go at some point of the story, only I thought it would be a little later.

Esmé bianco is a good and subtle actress, apart from being a very beautiful woman.

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Ros' existence was completely contrary to the letter of the source material. However, she -- and especially her demise -- is very much consistent with the spirit of the source material.

So many fans whining about Ros showing up everywhere, mocking her curious ubiquity, "oh here's the redheaded whore who shows up in every episode for three seconds again" and so on. People thought she was pointless, wanted her to go away.

So the producers "give us what we want" in such a way that we're unsettled and don't want it anymore.

Very GRRM. I have no doubt he approves. "Oh, so you hate this character do you? :smug: Want to see them suffer? :smug: :smug:"

Me, I took Ros for granted. On some level I enjoyed playing "Where's Waldo" while watching Game Of Thrones, wondering when and where and how Ros would once again manage to show up this week. Without really realizing it. So here I am, not only surprised that Ros has been killed off, but surprised at how much I already miss her.

But it does, at least, serve as a jarring reminder that Joffrey AND Littlefinger -- neither of whom have shown it as much this season -- are monstrous villains who you should be rooting against.

Pouring One Out for Ros the Quantum Leaping Whore. I'll try to remember to keep an eye out for Ms. Bianco in other projects in the future (the same promise I've made to myself with so many other actors this show has introduced me to), she did a good job which I'm only now beginning to appreciate.

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I really liked her. I liked the view she gave us into the non-noble side of KL and like others have said, for the most part she was a good person. Like others have noted as a book reader I did like that she was someone whose story was a total surprise. I never thought she'd meet with a good end but I didn't expect it to be this soon - though I did think last week that having a meeting with Varys in his office seemed a little obvious - either way, yes her death was very sad and shocking (as was the intent of D&D). That said I was worried they were doing too much to soften Joffrey by showing him be sort of ok with Margaery, so it is safe to say that concern is dispelled.

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Whatever the merits of introducing her as a character, her end was a wonderfully dramatic shock of the type the series has lacked for book readers. We've had lots of "damn, that was awesome", and "damn, that was even better than I imagined it", but no "holy crap, I never saw that coming" jaw-droppers in that "I can't believe they just cut of Ned's head" sense.

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Can someone remind how and when Joffrey was displayed as a sexual sadist in the books? I'm not disputing it I just genuinely don't recall it.

Joffrey was about 3 years younger in the books so I'm with you in that I don't recall a sexual aspect to his sadism, the only thing that comes close that I can think of is the beating/stripping of Sansa, but other than that most of his sadism lacked a sexual element, i.e. he was just happy to hurt people where as on the show it was definitely a more sexualized setting. That is not to say that if Joffrey had reached 15-16 in the books he wouldn't have been a sexual sadist but I think he's just starting to really get to the whole "I like girls" part of adolecence when he dies.

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She was a commoner who wanted to rise above her birth. The fact that she met her end in an episode titled "The Climb" was quite poetic.

It seems the high born have The Game and the low born have The Climb. Each is deadly, and I think the show did a great job of showing how disposable - and I use that term precisely - the Climbers are. No wars will start for them, no song will be sung.

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I thought it was cleverly done that they, from what I remember, had Ros hit by the crossbow bolts in the same places as Arya places her arrows earlier in the show!?

:agree:

I loved the addition of Ros by the show. Really great character. It's funny that naysayers often hold up Ros as an example of the show's misogyny, but I really think she proves the opposite. A smart woman with a kind heart, she uses her wit to protect herself and others (even Sansa indirectly). It's so sad to see her go like that but that's Game Of Thrones and I applaud its treatment of her character.

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:agree:

I loved the addition of Ros by the show. Really great character. It's funny that naysayers often hold up Ros as an example of the show's misogyny, but I really think she proves the opposite. A smart woman with a kind heart, she uses her wit to protect herself and others (even Sansa indirectly).

Seriously?? You'd think that having one of the whores actually being a living, breathing, speaking human being with her own hopes would be better than just having them as faceless window-dressing. And what happened to Ros just emphasized how horribly they can be treated.

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I did come to like Ros quite a lot more during season 2. It was at that point were she actually started to have plot relevant scenes (helping to frame the blood purge in episode 1, being caught by Cersei) and Talisa and Shae where wreaking havoc at that point which made her a lot more likeable. I kind of wish they'd kept her on a while longer rather than reintroduce Dontos, who I fear many viewers will have trouble remembering.

And of course hats of to Esme Bianco for making the most of her material. I think of all the actors she had the hardest deal, with no source material to guide her, less than stellar writing where she was nothing but sex appeal for the whole first season. Yet somehow Esme actually managed to bring some charm and charisma to the role. Tyrion's plot line would have been so much better if she'd been cast as Shae.

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as a reader her death was the first time I have really been shocked by the TV show. I think it was a good way to keep people on their feet, specially with the way some things have been different from the book. maybe characters who live in the book but don't do anything will now be fair game?

This. Bookreaders are mostly in a state of waiting--waiting to see how the show will depict this or that scene or reveal of information, or new character. (O/T: Has Penny been cast?) So depicting something as shocking to us as, well, everything, is to the Unsullied keeps us from getting jaded and always whining about how it wasn't how I picture it, dammit!!

I don't think Ros' existence was useless. I think of arc, back in Winterfell getting banged in the GoT position (won't someone please publish the GoT Kama Sutra with only one page?), then taking off for King's Landing literally on a turnip truck, full of whory dreams. She's every barefoot beauty from Fleaspeck, North Dakota who goes to Hollywood to "make it." She rises, completely cognizant of her change in rank--that "Sister, please" look she gives Shae when Shae is all, "I don't know what profession you mean" is priceless--and then is ground under by the wheels of a machine too vast, strong and evil for her to understand. I even liked her in the sexposition 'cause I'm not made of stone, and, y'know, dat azz.

My real problem with whores is freaking Sahe--hate her look, hate her voice, hate her character, and superhate how the show made her interesting at the start, when Tyrion kept failing at the guessing game, feeding her the usual how-you-became-a-ho stuff he's heard 100 times, and she was like, "Noperdoodles! Wrong again." And then ... nothing. Is she some highborn creature? Does she have an advanced degree? Is she proprietor of Westeros' most exotic and entertaining flea circus in her spare time? Bah, nm.

RIP, Ros. I hope you left me all your hair-care products in your will.

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