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Just when you thought you had read the last of the recaps…comes your final Thursday video recap round-up for season 5! Time for some reflections on the finale and season 5 as a whole. We start with our favorite critic/hairdresser:
We will miss Jonathan Bianco’s salon in the hiatus but here is one more video before we part.
What do Cenk, Ben, Jon but mostly Cenk think about the finale? Should D&D be wary of the Uygur manuever?
HappyCool breaks down the finale with Sandrine and Kenny
Ozzy Man wraps the season up with his last recap.
More videos:
Part 1 of Grantland podcast’s
“Watch the Throne” video
History of Westeros with arguably the most comprehensive recap videos out there: Sullied book to show and Show-only discussion. If you follow them, they have also posted a reaction video this week.
An *UNSULLIED* review by schmoes Kristian Harloff and Mark Ellis.
Think Hero – Partially Sullied? Don’t quote me.
Which of our crop of video critics has been the most solid this season? Who has the best handle on season 5 as a whole? Thanks always for commenting and shaping the first season of these here at WotW. See you Season 6!
I know I will be crucified for saying this but as a sullied, the westeros folks summed it up best IMHO. “Missing the Point” and not “Sticking the Landing” comes to mind.
So does anybody knows why Varamyr and Yara didn`t show up this season? There was even a news about Varamyrs casting and Gemma`s agency comfired her return.
Hopefully they’re saving a crazy Greyjoy plot for next season. Better to trial and error with the suck that is Dorne and perfect it with Greyjoy plot and 100x better characters.
Geralt of Rivia,
Weiss said that the Hardhome scene was supposed to be even bigger initially.. So maybe Varamyr was supposed to be in at some point in the production, only to finally be cut?
I could see how Varamyr and his beasts fighting the wights would make the scene “bigger”.
goodkinghenry,
I haven’t read the books, but based on the show, im not big on the greyjoy story.. don’t know why…
I can do without them.. more time for Jon when comes back 😉 hahaha
I personally enjoyed the What the Flick videos a great deal. Good insightful criticism without getting bogged down by the bagagge of comparing constantly to the books.
Best recap is the turks and best of them is Ben. Unfortunately now he knows so much more of the show than he used to so the only name he still makes up is little finger, “the mayor of baltimore”. Funniest line was in season 4 and jojen was sick and he thought jojen was the name of the illness lol.
What the Flick were on form with their finale review. But yes, they need to rewatch older seasons to get a grip on, well, many things. Grantland was also good. Don’t care too much about Sullied reviews, unfortunately. Too much checklisting the books.
Used to like What the Flick best but this year I like Andy Greenwald and the folks in Grantland better. Some smart fun talk and interpretation there.
Deesensfan,
Euron is pretty interesting but I snoozed over Victarion’s chapters.
What do Cenk and the gang have to say?
I consistently enjoyed What the Flick reviews this season. Only wish they would regularly have a panel of 4. I also started watching AfterBuzz, and liked them. A fresh, unsullied perspective, closest to many general show watchers, I feel. I used to only read James Hibberd and Andy Greenwald regularly, but gave up on Greenwald a couple of episodes back.
Deesensfan,
The best Greyjoy characters are yet to come. Balon and Yara are so season 2.
What no video from Westeros.org?
Ohh!!!”The horror! The horror!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzmpxuDqt9A
Only 1hr and 24 minutes long!
goodkinghenry,
Rafael,
Good enough to make me less sad about No more Jon?
LOL
Westeros are a great resource for the books but almost useless when it comes to the show unless you’re interested in fidelity studies and book fundamentalism. They’re too close to GRRM on one hand and treat every alteration as either an example of baffling stupidity or disrespect towards the source material. It’s the kind of criticism that would have called Wace and Chretien de Troyes hacks (‘do they think they know better!?’) for adding the Round Table and Lancelot to the Arthurian canon simply because they weren’t present in the original tales years (or centuries) beforehand. And I know people are tired of this but I find Linda to be … let’s say uncouth.
Regarding Qyburn’s comment about Ser Robert’s muteness, I am just sure that he said FrankenGregor wouldn’t talk until all of “His Grace’s” enemies were slain, not “Her Grace’s.” And so he’s talking about Tommen’s enemies rather than Cersei’s, at least ostensibly.
And I loved so very much of this season, but Seasons 3 and 4 were so epic that I’m also not sure this season surpassed them.
I love Gay of Thrones recaps. They are entirely for fun, while others take themselves way too seriously. Case in point below.
Valaquen,
Agreed. Why would one bother to watch Elio and Lindaaaaaa’s review anyway? All they ever do is trash D & D, and even occasionally the actors.
Same shit, different week with their imagined superiority. I cannot even look at her without the urge to vomit.
In the making of Hardhome video, D&D and the director explained that they reined in Hardhome to keep the action inside the Wall, which is how they made it smaller since the walled part of Hardhome was only a fifth to a tenth of the area at Hardhome. So I think he was really talking about the area of filming and the epic feel of the scene instead of including more material.
Darkstar,
ugh, they annoy me and I don’t even know who they are, never seen what they write or say
but based on what my peeps here have said!
they should stop watching the show
Don Diego Decordova,
1 hour and 24 minutes too long.
Commenting with a Lindaaaaaa link in my post, smh.
I just google imaged them. Ugh, gross. They look smelly.
Well, based on what they said in their last video, your wish has been granted. Elio and Linda won’t be watching the show unless the books are finished first, so they are officially done.
RBloodworth,
That makes no sense, seeing as this season has already (supposedly) spoiled a lot that will happen in the remaining two books.
Ginevra,
Well I probably stand corrected.
Can Someone do an mtv celebrity death match already. R&D vs Elio and Linda should be fabulous. Imagine Someone’s head getting smashed with the world of ice and fire?
It didn’t occur to me earlier, but it’s strange that Varys seems so pleased at the prospect of Tyrion being king regent of Meereen, what with his song and dance earlier in the season about how people would never follow people like Tyrion and himself. TV Varys seems way more interested in helping Tyrion find his way into power than Daenerys.
Hmmm… just had a thought. I wonder if Varamyr and his beasts fighting is that “insane VFX scene” that supposedly had been set for season 4, then cut and set for season 5, cut again and now apparently on the schedule for season 6. It certainly would fit as a very difficult scene to do effects-wise, and it would plausibly fit in any of those seasons.
And people thought Shireen being sacrificed to the Lord of Light served no purpose! Praise R’hllor!! Our prayers have been answered!
RBloodworth,
That’s great news. Though i’ll miss Linda’s hilarious meltdowns on twitter, it was like going through Cersei’s twitter feed.
Deesensfan,
The uncles are nothing like Theon’s dad, and Asha ( Yara) was awesome in the books, she is so underused in the show.
Andy,
I agree, but, can understand the decision given that their “reviews” aren’t actually critiques of the show itself, but merely a series of endless comparisons to the source material pointing out how D&D consistently fail in capturing the divinely inspired genius that is GRRM’s magnum opus (Linda’s biggest gripe about this season is that D&D should have been able to get AT LEAST 2 seasons out of the material from Feast and Dance. Because we ALL need more Penny and Pretty Pig in our lives…). If they have no book with which to compare the show, they wouldn’t be able to do a review. It’s really sad how useless they actually are.
IF they put Varamyr in the show, I reckon he belongs more ton Brans’ arc than Jons’.
Every time they annoy me I just look at this and somehow their self importance just seems so irrelevant and a bit sad..
http://7kingdoms.ru/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/elio-linda.jpg
WinterRy71,
bahahahaha
did the same LOL too funny
RBloodworth,
Good! Peace the fuck out!
Arya Havin’ a Larf,
Omg what is that?!?!?! HAHAHA
Linda is the nun who forces D & D to make the walk of atonement and says ‘Shame’, while Elio just rings the bell, right?
Book readers have all the right to criticize D & D adaptation choices and occasionally their comments are an insightful read for me, but I don’t like fundamentalists. Or Faith Militants of any kind. So, goodbye, Linda & Elio, I have only heard you once – and it was enough.
I have a feeling that it could possibly be Nymeria and her wolfpack. But that might just be wishful thinking.
“Buzzed on Books” – which is a new channel to me – has some rational reviews for the Sullied. The lady does compare book and show material but if she doesn’t like it she just says she doesn’t like it and doesn’t go full metal jacket.
Bex,
Yes well my apologies, but we will not have the the pompous farcical musings of Elio and the always utterly unpleasant vitriol of Fraulein Linda, you see they have sworn off video reviewing next season.
Ohh well looks like we’ll need a new village idiot to throw rotten cabbages at!
Geralt of Rivia,
In another recent thread people said they thought Varamyr had been replaced by Karsi as her part was originally written for a man, but when the writers got the idea to include the reacting-to-child-wights bit they thought a mother would be more interesting.
FreyJoy my go-to gal/guy for GoT lyrics, have you done an end of series song? I thought I saw you mention George Michael somewhere recently and since then have been singing “You’ve gotta have death, death, death” (instead of faith) to myself 🙂
A great article by Allyssa Rosenberg …
Despite all the noise, criticism and the faux outrage that Season 5 generated, it was still an outstanding artistic achievement:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2015/06/17/what-season-5-of-game-of-thrones-taught-us-about-westeros-and-ourselves/
If only…! I have been dying to see some Arya warg action and had completely given up. Now that the blindness arc is really happening, my hope has been renewed! Wolf dreams, please!
Love the What the Flick reviews, I will miss them in the off season. I was surprised that they weren’t a bit more critical of the episode given their dislike if Arya’s storyline (and how it’s been indefinitely prolonged in the finale) and how they’re more critical of the “regular TV” way of storytelling, which Myrcella’s very manipulative last scene with Jaime was a prime example of. But if anything I would prefer them loving the episode more than me than if they disliked it, so they were fun again as always.
Seconded! I can’t believe GRRM introduced this if it wasn’t important in the future.
Why does Lindaaa dislike Lena so much? Because she “rewrote” Cersei? Because Lena’s interpretation of the character doesn’t match 100% with her vision
Dame of Mercia,
Love buzzed on books
really level headed book reader who cites the differences, yet just watches the show for fun
Lulu’s Mum,
Busy day at he office with late night working for this guy over here so it’s still in the works. To Compensate I will make it 2 songs 🙂
WotW should do a pros and cons thread of why one would think Jon Snow is dead-dead or will be back.
=]
As someone who has read all the books and religiously watched the show every episode for 5 seasons, I never knew there was such vitriol between the reader and non reader camps.
In the little message board I usually frequent the only real conflict that ever occurs between the two groups is when a reader tries to go into the non reader tread and spoil them (or a non reader who makes a correct deduction is accused of being a reader).
Some of the stuff almost brings me back to the jr. high/high school era (many many moons ago) when a person who likes to read a lot was sometimes made fun of and called names.
Arthur,
I toats agree! we should have a Jon snow thread that runs through the offseason, that people can discuss pros and cons and likelihood of different scenarios panning out… this would allow everyones discussions to be consolidated because right now they are all over the place and I have seen some great theories (going both ways) over different comment threads.
Dolorous Methuselah,
These sorts of divisions exist in every fanbase, unfortunately. There are ‘classic’ and ‘prequel’ Star Wars fan battles, and there are fans of the original *Alien* who consider *Aliens*, one of the most vaunted and successful sequels of all time, to be an insult to the first film (everything D&D have been accused of, James Cameron has been hearing since 1986.) And then of course there are LOTR fans…
Valaquen,
True. I wandered into one of those Star Wars sites a time or two in years gone by and beat a hasty exit. People who liked the prequels did NOT approve of much criticism of them.
Lord of the Rings I didn’t find as bad. There was a pretty great site for discussions of it. But there were one or two people who did not condone ANY criticism of the movies at all.
I guess there are just some who don’t like to hear criticism of things they really like. Be they books, movies or T.V. shows.
I’ve always fond the most entertaining threads/discussions were where there was a healthy disagreement and both sides go at it over the merits spiritedly. But when it gets to personal barbs at those who are on the other side I find it less interesting.
Charlie at emergency awesome is one of my favorites, he’s punctual, does short videos and, despite being super sullied, maintains a very positive attitude about the show.
Arthur,
Love that idea.
The non-book reader reviews are far more fun to watch for me. Too many of the book readers just complain about changes. Which is why I liked AfterBuzz and What the Flick the most (even though they usually have a book reader or 2 in the mix, it was generally much more show-only discussion).
Solo recaps don’t do much for me; they generally just tell me what I already had just watched, and there’s no one else there for an actual discussion.
I really enjoyed What the Flick’s review this week. Ben had seemed a bit shaken by what happened to Shireen in the last episode, but he was fully reengaged this week. He was also back to needling Jon and Cenk, which is always funny. Cenk, meanwhile, was in peak form – his abundant enthusiasm for Varys warms my heart. In a finale that obviously contained a lot of bleakness and death, Varys showing up in Meereen to reunite with Tyrion was a resounding “hell yes!” moment that we could enjoy without reservation. I expect good things out of that pair next year (even if they’re still stuck in Meereen).
It’s worth noting that for the second straight year, Ben reiterated his hope that the WTF crew will find a way to revisit and review Seasons 1 and 2 before the show returns next year. I hope that they’ll be able to work out a way to do it. It would certainly help make the off-season a little bit brighter.
Watch the Thrones was great as well, as it’s been for most of the season. I had been concerned that “For the Watch” would prove to be a step too far into the darkness for Andy Greenwald, especially because he had keyed in on the foreshadowing in recent weeks and appeared to draw a line. Thus, I was really heartened to see him not only be so confident and optimistic that Jon will return, but to make such a thorough and impassioned case for that eventual outcome. He remains my favorite critic on the Game of Thrones beat, and Chris Ryan, Mallory Rubin, and Jason Concepcion have all added smart and well-considered perspectives to the discussion as well.
I haven’t listened to this week’s AfterBuzz TV review yet, but through nine episodes, I would consider that panel to be by far the best new discovery of the season. Being able to listen a mostly Unsullied collection of smart, genuine fans who can discuss the show without cynicism been an absolute godsend. I’ll definitely be sure to bookmark their channel for next year.
I was harsh on Ozzy Man last week, but I’ll give him due credit this week – I enjoyed his review of the finale. I haven’t agreed with all of his criticisms of the show this year, but I definitely find his opinions a lot more reasonable and insightful when they don’t feel like they’re being delivered as rants. The sharpness of his trademark humor remains intact, and the way he summed up his thoughts on the season reassures me that the frustrations he’s voiced this year come from the perspective of fan who still loves the show rather than a disillusioned book wanker who feels like it’s going off the rails. That’s a fair and honest perspective, and one I’ll continue to listen to. Until next year, cheers!
As with most of these “fan debates,” the internet serves as a megaphone for the most disgruntled and angry “fans.” The large majority of fans never get anywhere near these kinds of debates or even know they exist, and that’s true for all the other fandoms as well, not just GoT. But with the internet, 10% of the people can produce 90% of the discussion, and everything gets distorted in favor of the loudest voices. Showing my age, but I remember the good old days of BBSs and debating whether Picard and crew should really count as part of Star Trek or whether Pink Floyd without Roger Waters is really Pink Floyd… good times, good times.
FreyJoy,
Oh no don’t do it on my behalf, only if you’re really feeling it. You can’t force creativity, you just have to go with the flow 😀 Might try one myself, although I think sticking to terrible song name puns might be more my style 😉 Besides now we’ve got to wait until the next series there’s plenty of time to fill. Be positive people it’s only 9 1/2 months not 10. I’d like a countdown clock that only shows seconds. Sure the numbers are huge but they seem to go down so quickly it appears we’re getting there faster, even though the logical part of me knows it’s an illusion (and the excitable part then has to tell the logical part to stop being boring) 🙂
Lulu’s Mum,
No worries, i was already planning to do two. I simply had to do someting with Dorne, but also could not leave the High Sparrow unsung.
Guys i know this doesn’t belong here but i have a theory,what if the reason they are casting Euron is because he is the one to let the WWs out by destroying the Wall. Remember the horn that he has in the books to control the dragons ? What if that horn is actually the horn of Joramun(sorry if i misspelled his name)? I know Mance was supposed to have it in the books but what if he lied and the real one was still there somewhere and Euron found it ?
Yup. Original Star Trek (Kirk and Spock) fans thought that TNG was a travesty. Then a few years later when DS9 got started, a significant portion of Trekkies despised the new series because it was darker, with more interpersonal conflict, and worst of all — it was stationary. How can you boldly go where no man has gone before when you’re parked in one place?
When re-imagined Battlestar Galactica hit the screens and earned its place as one of the best SF series out there, that didn’t stop the original fans from hating what they called GINO — Galactica in Name Only — and sending death threats to cast members who dared to propose “don’t like, don’t watch”.
Simeon,
Good points. That can make it interesting at times but yeah, people tend to go overboard sometimes and attack the messenger because they disagree with their opinion. I try not to let the fact that I might not agree with all of a recapper’s opinions color my view of the quality of their recap. And honestly, I can and do enjoy takes which disagree with mine.
Of those above I haven’t watched them all yet. I thought the What the Flick one was excellent. Both knowledgable and relatable recappers and they look like they are having fun. And I really like Ozzy Man’s recaps too. He reminds me of John Oliver and I like his irreverent take on things.
I have seen ones in the past where the recappers did not seem to know much about the show (or the books) at all and seemed more like actors or young anchorman types that were just trying to get in on the “in” thing. I don’t even remember the names of those as the content just didn’t impress me.
Mr Fixit,
LOL. You’re an old.
Not *that* old, I hope? 😉 I was a barely a teen when DS9 started!
Deesensfan,
I can understand how an Unsullied wouldn’t have heard of Elio and Linda. Their website is a tremendous resource for the text, and so they gathered second-hand fame through that outlet. And, as Arya Havin’ a Larf mentions, second-hand fame can often lead to very sad, self-important individuals, indeed.
I know, right? Just like the P&P fanbase. There are the Matthew Macfadyen fans, the Colin Firth fans, the Sir Laurence Olivier fans, the Matthew Rhys fans, and on and on it turns. Even though I adore Colin Firth, David Rintoul is the best P&P version. Many have underestimated the value of those stretch pants. But maybe I’m just susceptible to a first-version prejudice, where one is more likely to be partial to his or her first version (whether text or movie, whether different versions of the same movie, whether Star Wars prequels or originals, …).
What? No P&P fans? You don’t know what you’re missing. Lena Headey and Charles Dance (and Matt Smith) have signed on for the next version, out in 2016. P&P, the White Walker Years….
I like post show recaps. They’ve had 3 shows a week all season, and the book reader one is the best. Gets me through work all week. I guess now I’ll catch up with the other ones.
Also love Ozzy Man. He’s a riot!
Monty,
I’m with you there. I don’t know why, but I never paid attention to WTF before, until this season’s video roundups started, and I was eager for more commentary. But I must say that the best group of guys are John, Czenk and Ben. When one of them was not present, the chemistry fell apart for me, specially when Laura was there.
As I’ve said in another thread, unlike others, I really enjoyed the whole season, but I got really tired of the leaks, the critics and some of the zealot fan wars (doesn’t matter if they were book purists or show defenders), so mid through the season I seriously started cutting down on the reviews, both printed and video, specially when they spent lots of time telling us what they would have done better than D&D… pfff! Who cares.. After the fact everybody thinks he/she are Stanley Kubrik!.
I ended up viewing/reading only reviews that devoted time to finding underlying themes or discussing future implications of what happened in the show, and viewing some reaction videos for the final 3 chapters.
But thanks guys for the effort of putting these roundups. Hope these come back next season, along with Oz’s unsullied reviews, the recaps, the curtain calls, and the Axel’s Twitter stories…
Mr Fixit,
Just messing with you. If us olds don’t stick together, people who haven’t even had their first prostate exam will introduce the ritual of Carrousel and it’s curtains for all of us.
Hey, you made it even worse! 😉 Are you saying it’s time I underwent prostate examination? Jesus, and here I was thinking I should maybe go for my first gastroscopy… now this too!?
Ginevra,
No. I am a Matthew McFadden fan all the way down to my toes when it comes to Mr. Darcy!! He killed it over Colin Firth, who I love equally in many other films and he did really good as Darcy in the BBC adaptation. I also prefer Kiera over whatshername. 😛 Maybe it is just that I prefer the motion picture versions over the made for television series. 😉