Hello all, and welcome to another episode’s collection of fan and critic videos for your viewing pleasure. Your comments were read, so from this week on videos you asked for will get cycled in and out. Who lost their minds over the return of Jon Snow? Was anyone other than me distraught over the tragic death of dear Walda Frey? Watch on!
Some commentary from Ozzy Man who never disappoints – heeere comes Jonno!
Cenk has been partying it up in DC for the White House Correspondents dinner/week so the What the Flick panel consists of John and Rotten Tomatoes’ Matt Atchity this week
HOWEVER
Imagine my delight when WTF?!? put out a Cenk-only (cell phone footage) reaction video to the episode, which I hope they continue to do since he’s constantly out of town. I’m sure he made a prediction last season on Jon Snow so this should be fun.
What would one of these posts be without a HappyCool video?
Rachel Bloom is on Gay of Thrones this week gabbing about the episode. If you like your reviews sassy and fabulous then Jonathan is for you.
I don’t think I’ve put in Nerdist before but I’m a fan of their other content, so let me know what you think! I don’t recognize the hosts and I think they’re trying to do a bit so feedback encouraged if it is lame
DJ, Maude and Steve are recapping Game of Thrones this season over at SourcefedNerd. Steve and DJ are big fans if I recall correctly. I don’t know if we have any SF fans here who remember this but Steve’s Jon Snow cosplay is hysterical
Some more links for your health:
How did I forget our friends over at History of Westeros last week? Bad Bex. Here’s their show video but book fans have a treat too if you check out their channel
Alt Shift X by popular demand
AfterBuzz – Every single year I forget them but they’re always requested, so thanks for the reminder!
That’s enough videos for now.
I didn’t have a chance to make it into the comments last week for this post but I did read what y’all said and I’m going to try and switch it up each week up if I can manage. Thanks for your feedback and who do you think nailed it with their analysis this week?
Willis?
Wylis
https://twitter.com/JHenwick/status/727791403980492800
Jessica Henwick (Nymeria Sand) 🙂
Solid reviews from Ozzy, Jonathan, and Cenk.
One of my favorites each week (along with Ozzy and What the Flick) is Smoke Screen:
https://youtu.be/mY9FT1NLLd0
Because Geek has a a very interesting sansa storyline prediction for season 6:
Ozzy is one funny reviewer. I’ll have to go back and check out more of his stuff, because he had me cracking up.
Overall, though, I’ve found the “professional” critical reaction to 602 extremely disappointing. So many of them gave this episode poor marks, and it leaves me wondering if I saw a different episode than they did.
Jon’s resurrection was “predictable,” ergo it was boring. Really?!? Just because something happens the way you expect it to in a story, doesn’t make it bad. Especially when it’s something that has been as heavily foreshadowed as Jon’s return. You know what, if Melisandre had failed and then a pink unicorn walked in that room and tapped Jonno on the head with his horn and Jon woke up, I’d be surprised and shocked. But would that be good storytelling? Fuck no.
There’s also been a bunch of complaining about being lied to and manipulated. To that I say grow the hell up! Get over your sense of entitlement. They’re telling a story for an audience of millions, and if they spill that secret to even a few people who don’t NEED to know, pretty soon it leaks and it isn’t a secret anymore. If you’re honestly angry that Kit and others lied about this, get some thicker skin.
And the final bit of unfair criticism I’ve seen is about Ramsay and his evil doings. Look, that scene was brutal to watch. It turned my stomach, and I wouldn’t fault anyone else for having to step away for awhile after it. But let’s not pretend this isn’t in character with the Ramsay we’ve known since Season 3. If he had let Walda go home to the Riverlands, there would be tons of folks saying “Weird, that’s so out of character for Ramsay to show any mercy…”
I guess once you win every Emmy there is, you can expect more scrutiny, but a lot of this stuff has seemed like childish nitpicking. One man’s opinion.
HousePotterz,
Completely agree!!
HousePotterz,
Also. I loved that Ramsey scene.
Was it horrible to watch? Yes. Did I feel sorry for Walda and the baby? Of course I do.
But I loved seeing Ramsey taking over. I loved how he intimidated the maester, how he came up with a good lie about Roose’s death, he will try to act like his father, he will fail but unlike Roose, he will throw everything he has, when he starts feeling the noose tightening around him.
Also loved how he didn’t smile or take joy when he killed Walda and the baby, not to mention how shacked he was after killing his father, probaly the only person he ever cared for, for him there was no pleasure in this. He did what Roose thought him and what he himself did. Take advantage of the situation to ”climb the ladder”.
Also loved how he said ”I am Lord Bolton”…
Excuse this off-topic but I’m a Iwan fanboy. I just love him in the role and think he doesn’t get enough ”love” around here.
I recommend Blind Wave on youtube. They do a good reaction, recap and review video.
Leo,
Same.
They are very good.
After the Thrones was terrific soooooo much better than last weeks dud. I loved the Thoros/Melisandre ‘please’ being the part that mattered. Didn’t come across my mind
Comicbookgirl19 on the other hand is just painful. I just couldn’t get through it. Terrible, complaining, and starting with her review of season 5 a book purist who just doesn’t remember the books very accurately. Missing when I looked forward to watching her videos.
HousePotterz,
I never understood the argument of Ramsey as a caricature. People act like the show made him the type of psycho that he never was in the books. Wrong. Book Ramsey is even more repulsive.
I’m just not as into What the Flick?! with just John & Matt. I feel like Ben & Cenk add a lot of energy to the videos (thank the gods for the Cenk solo video). I’m also just not interested in reviews where everyone has read the books, so if they absolutely couldn’t get Ben or Cenk, at least try to grab Ana or Kim…
Oh, and let me throw in one more vote for Blind Wave. They’re great.
BigMac,
Agreed.
Thank god for Cenk’s solo video.
I also find it funny, that some of those who complain that the show is starting to now to be afraid of killing their main characters where the ones who once been yearning that a certain lady with a scratched face to return
These days my first (and sometimes only) go-to review is What The Flick. Which I enjoyed as usual, but I was seriously missing Cenk. So it’s great to have a separate one by him. Hope he joins the team back soon. I also enjoyed After The Buzz much more this week, since Autumn Chiklis was back! I need to check out a few of the written recaps.
HousePotterz,
I totally agree with all of this. I went on a bit of an extended jag about these topics in the comment section of the Written Recap article, but you summed it up far more concisely. Well said!
If nothing else, seeing the euphoric fan reaction to “Home” contrasted with the rather pedantic and sour reaction of certain critics (though, to be clear, it’s far from all of them – many did love it) to the so-called-twist-that-wasn’t-actually-a-twist served as a wake-up call. It told me that I need to cut back on the latter rather than trying to read everything in the name of knowing the full scope of the conversation surrounding the show (which is impossible now).
These people don’t seem to realize that the entire reason Jon’s death was “predictable” and ergo, allegedly underwhelming has everything to do with extratextual factors separate from the creative process of the show itself. Those factors are pretty damn important. Just to list a few …
1) Book readers have had five years to think about this particular cliffhanger and divine every possible resolution to it. The necessary foreshadowing and context were abundantly provided by the both the show and the source material.
2) Show watchers have had ten months to do exactly the same thing (often with ‘help’ from the book readers). Perhaps the show wouldn’t have ended Season 5 on Jon’s death under ideal circumstances (they were trying to give Martin one last chance to finish his book), but that decision clearly didn’t hurt them with most viewers. If anything, it helped drum up excitement for the inevitable.
3) These critics haven’t been watching GoT in a vacuum. They’ve had to contend with several “Is this character dead or not” situations since the end of Season 5, most of which bear superficially similarities to Jon Snow but are so fundamentally different in both intent and execution to the point that they’re really nothing alike (*cough* The Walking Dead *cough*). Game of Thrones is, in many ways, paying for the sins of these other shows, even though their creative processes are completely independent of one another.
4) The writers of the show had a long-term plan that was in place for years, and they wisely didn’t deviate from it because many people figured that plan out ahead of time. They didn’t discard years of groundwork just so they could throw a curveball and be “unpredictable” or ‘subverting the tropes of fantasy’. Unpredictability and trope-breaking don’t inherently make for good storytelling. That’s not why Game of Thrones and ASOIAF are so beloved.
5) Game of Thrones is such a global phenomenon that every bit of filming news related to Kit Harington’s comings and goings out of Belfast was exhaustively covered. The outlets these people work for knew it was clickbait gold. I found it a bit rich that Joanna Robinson, a critic for Vanity Fair who I otherwise quite like, spent ten months obsessively covering #Hairwatch in both written and podcast form, then suddenly turned around and wrote a piece lamenting that Jon’s return was predictable and disappointing. Did she have that thing saved in her drafts folder for months? Give me a frickin’ break.
Point being, these people are complicit in their own disappointment. As for the issue of critics bemoaning the show’s brutality and Ramsay’s cruelty in particular, I’ve reached my limit with that as well. I won’t rehash my entire argument here, except to say that those thinkpieces are tired and uninformative at their best, and sanctimonious tripe at their worst. I won’t be reading them anymore.
While I don’t agree with all of the points made in the following two articles, I think they quite accurately diagnose the true underlying issue that the online journalists are grappling with when it comes to Jon’s resurrection.
http://www.tv.com/shows/game-of-thrones/community/post/game-of-thrones-jon-snow-alive-146220629253/
http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2016/05/02/hot-take-last-nights-game-of-thrones-ending-was-good
And then, of course, there’s this tweet from Bryan Cogman, which is just pure gold.
https://twitter.com/b_cogman/status/727692990794227713
Jared,
Look at the replies!!
The Dragon is bothering even Cogman LOL.
Danny,
Exactly. That and saying the show not the books that made the Jon Snow return predictable. Why cbg19 video platform this year is basically unwatchable.
ThinkHeroPro
GoT Academy
theStreamtv: Game of Thrones After Show
GameSpot
HitFix
HitFix (with Alan Sepinwall)
IGN
Echoes in a Well,
I liked the first episode of ‘After the Thrones’ as well (I’m a long-time reader/listener of Greenwald and Ryan’s work). That being said, I totally agree that the second episode was a marked improvement. I think that they’re just working out a few of the glitches inherent in translating their podcast into a TV show, but they’re quick learners. I have high hopes for the rest of the season.
I haven’t watched any of ComicBookGirl19’s videos in a while, for precisely the reasons you outline. I was considering checking them out again this year now that we’re past the novels, but now I won’t bother. Thank you for sparing me that ordeal.
Honestly, there are few things that more darkly hilarious and/or infuriating than a book purist who doesn’t even remember the details about what happened in the books correctly. If someone’s going to take the show to task for not following certain book storylines or not servicing certain characters, then that person had damn well better know what those storylines are and what those characters do before they start taking the show to task. If they can’t even be bothered to get all of their ducks in a row before they start ranting that the show has betrayed this perfect vision – a vision that they can’t even keep straight in their own mind – then whatever outrage they can gin up becomes comical pretty quickly.
Someone put together the Daddy of all reaction compilation videos!
Game Of Thrones: Home “Jon Snow Is Alive” Reaction Compilation
HappyCool was lots of fun.
Mihnea,
He’s been doing that for a while. When Bryan was doing his Twitter countdown of his Top 10 favorite Game of Thrones episodes prior to Season 6, the Dragon kept showing up in his replies asking (excuse me, demanding) clarification on certain well-documented “issues” that we here at WOTW have been made privy to. For the Wiki, of course. He never got his answers. I wouldn’t be surprised if Cogman has him on mute.
In fact, I was listening to Entertainment Weekly’s Game of Thrones podcast discussion of “The Red Woman” the other day, and there was a segment for listener emails. The first one they read was from “one of the admins at the Game of Thrones wiki”, at which point I uttered, out loud, “Oh no.” The subject? Thorne letting the wildlings through the Wall and the removal of the Pink Letter as a factor in Jon’s assassination (a subject on which many have attempted to reason with him, to no avail). Fortunately, the hosts of the podcast moved past the question pretty quickly. I doubt he got the satisfying explanation that he’s been so fervently seeking, and which is so very important to all of us in the GoT fandom.
Point being, he’s everywhere.
JonFookinSnow,
Er…the Starks are largely the architects of their own misery. What revenge can they seek.
For Sansa to be Stoneheart, they would have to turn her from soft and pink to hard and blood-soaked, and then send her from zero to one hundred in six seconds. Sansa is no sports car. Last we saw her, she was cowering behind a tree.
There is no feminine, mothering influence but hers, potentially. If she turns into a murderous revenge-seeker, then who will play that mothering role that I think is essential, especially since Cat’s death? Who will lovingly gather back together the threads of her family?
Sansa doesn’t show signs of psychopathy, and could not even wade into a cold river. I don’t see her becoming a killer and getting blood all over her dress.
I think her character represents home, hearth and family.
Seriously. I was going to say something in response to your comment, but it said everything I’ve been saying and thinking in response to the critics. There are various criticisms that are okay and valid to have (the way the scene was done, whatever) but I won’t engage in any talk about how the fact that resurrection happened at all was predictable and bad storytelling for the show and the books. Eff no.
It really is different compared to fans’ reactions, isn’t it? An Unsullied friend who watches the show with her husband told me that she was ecstatic that Jon came back because it showed that some good things can happen in this world. She was on the verge of quitting after last season because of the way she perceived a lot of the nihilism in the show and this season, with Brienne and Sansa and Jon’s resurrection gave her hope.
HousePotterz,
Yes. There was something different in Ramsay this time, though. For the first time he seemed unsure of himself.
He kind of looked over at his father’s body as if thinking “What have I done?!” He was shakily wiping blood off his dagger. It’s different from the casual way he’s tortured and killed others.
He was unusually subdued when he set the dogs on Walda – as if the implications frightened him. As the guy from the HappyCool video suggested, Roose actually protected Ramsay from the consequences of his behaviour. For the first time, Ramsay’s on his own and is very uncertain of his new authority. Even when he says he’s Lord Bolton, he doesn’t exactly sound convinced.
I think he realizes that people won’t accept him, not for long anyway.
Jared,
I agree with all your thoughts. I usually enjoy reading the reviews and recaps, but this week has been an absolute bummer.
Thank you for sharing the BirthMovieDeath piece, that was exactly what I’ve been thinking since Sunday.
It’s another one of those cultural phenomena (doesn’t there seem to be one every month these days?) like Crossfit or Donald Trump being a viable political candidate. The masses and their illogical belief that SHOCK VALUE is the measure of a good story…I just don’t get it.
Perfect example: Was I shocked when Glenn Rhee “died” on The Walking Dead? Absolutely, because it was sudden, unforeshadowed, and it made no sense to kill a beloved character on a whim. But then when they walked it back, it was even worse. It was clear that the plot had been written solely for SHOCK VALUE and that no consideration was given to the story. I can say that with certainty because Glenn’s survival was so implausible as to undermine rules established by the show since its very beginning, and the whole ordeal didn’t have any consequences for Glenn’s character at all. Two episodes later it was as if it had never happened!
Devin at BMD has it right. Jon’s resurrection isn’t the twist. The twist is what he does and who he is after he returns.
HousePotterz,
If it counts, I was also wondering what episode did they watch, I enjoyed it very very much
For the love of God, enough with the gay of thrones. Give props to post show recaps while you’re at it
HousePotterz,
I don’t know you-but reading this great analysis/response to the Ep2 critics- I know I like you!
Well said!
What’s worse, reaction videos or the selfie stick
Thanks for adding DemThrones! Feels!
Oh man, don’t even mention it. In the (bad) old days while I still frequented westeros.org, I had to deal with legions of posters who were outraged, outraged I tell you!, that the show turned Renly into a gay or made Stannis have sex with Melisandre, etc… I mean, these flummoxed purists in all their careful reading and re-reading of The Holy Texts managed to miss this?
And then there’s horrendous misinterpretations of book characters based on flimsiest of “evidence”. So, Tywin would never skin a stag himself (yes, that was a true and somewhat widespread complaint) as he always uses other people to do his dirty work for him, or his show portrayal is a grandfatherly sacrilege to his book counterpart because he dared to show a different side in his (wonderful, might I add) scenes with Arya… The list goes on and on, and what’s doubly infuriating in my mind is that all of this is just, sorry for sounding harsh, made up bullshit that has nothing to do with books. And, even if it did, so what?
On the topic of the “disappointing” and “obvious” resurrection of Jon Snow, I’m sorry, but that’s bullshit as well. Two main points here:
(a) The alleged “obviousness” is overwhelmingly based on, as you call it, extratextual stuff. It’s not the show’s fault that, unlike previous seasons — in the build-up to Baelor and Rains of Castamere — book readers (and that includes quite a few journalists) couldn’t help themselves and blurted all over the internet that Jon Snow is probably coming back. Let’s be honest here: it would be akin to everyone and their mothers spoiling online that Starks are getting slaughtered at the Red Wedding and then complaining when they, surprise!, get predictably slaughtered at the Red Wedding. The show might have avoided a bit of this reaction had they covered both Jon’s death and his resurrection in the same season, but I can hardly fault them for trying to give Martin as much leeway as possible to finish TWoW and not spoil the book before they have to.
(b) Further on the topic of obviousness of Jon’s return: if one disregards extratextual evidence — as that is hardly the show’s fault — his return is really not *that* obvious. I mean, sure, there is foreshadowing which is how a good narrative is supposed to work. Shocks out of nowhere with no rhyme or reason are cheap. A good story needs to have its audience go: “Yeah, now that I think about that, it makes sense.” So the show laid the necessary groundwork with Beric and having Melisandre meet Thoros in person. But that’s it! A couple of scenes 3 seasons ago. I can bet you good money that a lot of show-only watchers who weren’t exposed to Hairwatch and similar stuff honestly believed Kit isn’t coming back. There were probably some who connected the dots and started to suspect something on their own, but there were most assuredly A LOT of those who had no clue what was in store. I know this is anectodal evidence, but I personally know two people who after having read ADwD thought Jon was dead for good. And in the book it’s way more obvious Jon is coming back. Really guys, it’s not nearly as obvious as we who live and breathe this stuff are making it out to be.
In short, I fully agree with you guys who think that these journalists and critics are really really rich. These people go out of their way to get spoiled, keep the flames of utter spoilage constantly fed with almost daily articles, and then have the decency to complain about “Oh the obvious! The obvious! The horror of inadequate storytelling! Whatever shall I do?”
Pathetic.
You forgot about Emergency Awesome!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z0h1SqxxO4&w=560&h=315%5D
Anon,
I absolutely agree on your comments regarding his murder of Roose. That definitely appeared to be an emotional moment for him, and it makes sense that it would be. His father is, outside of Myranda, the only person he has had any attachment to. But Ramsay was schooled in the ways of ruthless pragmatism, the rules of which dictated that he deal with the threat of a new brother immediately. And so Roose dies his fantastically ironic death!
I disagree, though, that it appeared he had any troubles with killing Walda and Roose Jr. He may not have been smiling gleefully as he oft does during his worst crimes, but I didn’t interpret that as any hesitation or fear of consequences on his part. And when he said, “I am Lord Bolton,” he sounded very convinced to me!
Christina,
I don’t care for that channel. He makes easy mistakes in his videos (ex. Dorne) and it always strikes me that he pulls most of his stuff from wikis and fan sites.
HousePotterz,
I think you’re saying that any hesitation now is due to a kind of connection with his father that he didn’t have with the others?
I interpreted “I am Lord Bolton” as an answer to Walda’s question “Where is your father?”. In other words, not so much that “I am Lord Bolton”, but more, “My father is dead, and you are going to die too.”
Whether Ramsay really believes in himself as he pretends to, remains to be seen. I don’t think he can slither out from under that ‘bastard’ stone so easily, despite what the documents say. He can no longer benefit from his High-Born father’s status. Plus, Sansa is gone.
…guess we’ll see.
🙂
That’s fair enough. I also (like Christina?) like the Emergency Awesome recaps. But it’s normal that we won’t all agree on them.
To be honest I’d have a hard time explaining why one video appeals to me and another doesn’t. It’s just a kind of a gut feeling I get where some seem more genuine in their reactions and some seem more forced, especially when it comes to reactions to big reveals like the ones from this episode.
I very much appreciate your taking the time to provide these links. Even though there are some recaps I follow that are not on the list and some on the list that I don’t care for, this list thread is one of the things I really look forward to every week. I find it incredibly helpful and convenient to have the links listed like this. Thank You.
Jared,
Again, you’ve said it all. Agree with you and the other posters about the strange response from some quarters. I can’t be bothered rereading them to figure out who it was (maybe the woman you mentioned or perhaps Mo Ryan) who actually compared GoT to Supernatural. I just don’t know what to say.
On a more fun note: I’ve already said in another thread how much Ozzy rocks my world. Gay of Thrones continues to be a delight (I lol’ed heartily at Jon Snow’s corpse giving him a guilty boner). Cenk rules, and omg, how have I missed Dem Thrones?? Those guys are hilarious. Best hashtag on Twitter too.
Why so many video recaps? Seems like the internet has spawned a sub culture full of ‘wannabe movie stars’ (read morons!) who just can’t resist trying to look and act cool sitting in front of a webcam! After a few minutes I’ve had enough and check out the next one.
I’m not saying they’re all bad and I enjoy Ozzyman’s whose recap is hilarious and gives me a good laugh. For a more in-depth recap, Alt Shift X takes some beating.
For me, recaps (both textual and visual) are somewhat academic after seeing an episode a day or two before. One would think it should be pretty easy to recall the events so shortly after an episode has been aired and digest what we have seen and come to our own conclusions. The episode is normally aired again during the week after in any case so we can re-watch it again and perhaps pick up on things we missed on the first viewing.
Just my thoughts on this…
iridium,
I clicked on Dem Thrones and they were great! LOL at how the (rich) Lannisters keep even their sperm in the family.
Then DemThrones said the magic words: Sansa is “dumb as fuck”.
Well, he did temper it with ‘naive’ later on. He is right! I was stunned at her naivete even after what she’d been through. Sansa can’t believe that no one will touch them if they go to Castle Black and Theon takes the black, surely?
Dolorous Methuselah,
You are very welcome!
Videos are fun?
One more vote for Blind Wave.
They’re fun, their reactions are always great and they usually have some good discussions afterwards.
Exactly!! Thank you for putting it so clearly. So much of the shows we watch on TV have “expected” outcomes or character arcs, but still some of them are fantastically good in getting the audience to care regardless. GoT falls into this category.
It’s funny because in the Dragons on the Wall review there was a similar take on the debate about the episode. Eric Goldman was lukewarm about Jon’s rez and Terri Schwartz was super pumped about it. After whining a while, Eric comes to the conclusion that it is not the show’s fault that everybody is disecting every single theory around the cliffhangers and mysteries on GoT. He even acknowledges that they themselves had contributed to this!!!!
I mean, when people spend months or even years speculating about what might happen somebody will come up with the actual answer and embellish it in their minds as to when and how it will happen.
We cannot expect to be surprised every single scene. Having said this, “Home” surprised us in many ways and at different levels: Yes, many of us were convinced Jon was coming back, but the tension of the final scene made some people question if they had it all wrong. Other people expected this to happen way later in the season.
Same thing with the deaths of Roose, Walda and the baby. Some people didn’t see it coming, others expected it later in the season.
Some people knew about the flashbacks at Winterfell because of the casting news, but others had no idea. Those who knew were still surprised to find out Hodor didn’t Hodor his whole life, but was named Wylis and he spoke normally at some point of his life.
Not many people saw Tyrion freeing the Dragons before the episode. And once in the scene, bookreaders had a terrible feeling that he might get the Quentyn storyline, something that sparked a lot of anxiety and later relief…
Some people thought the Greyjoys will not come back. And then, they were there. Even if people were not fans or did not remember this house, there were elements of surprise in there too (Balon had a crazy mean brother? This crazy brother killed Balon instead of the faceless men? Balon dead in the second scene after his reintroduction?).
Four adrenaline shots, and additional surprise, two giants in action and a couple of endearing moments (Sansa learning about Arya and Theon’s goodby). Not bad at all for one episode.
Give them a break!
HousePotterz,
To be fair it was predicatable to book readers only
People who had merely watched the show would have thought, well he’s been stabbed and that’s it. Only a few would have thought about resurrection going back to Mels meeting with Beric and Thoros
It’s only because of Book readers theories relating to the book material that put so much weight behind the resurrection theory
Jared,
https://twitter.com/Terri_Schwartz/status/727236512551555073
I saw this twitter post and thought of your recent complaints about the reviewers. Two episodes in and already planning a think piece for the end of the season? I think people have to realize that eventually things have to start going better for the protagonists at some point. Season five definitely felt like the zenith for many characters. At some point they need to be built up again.
Mr Fixit,
Jared,
Oh you guys reminded me of some old days ..
Like u said there were many gems like renly not being gay and stannis not having sex with Mel..
The most recent I remember is that there was this podcast named Fat PiNk Mast where one of the book reader accused the show runners whitewashing dany by having masters crucifying children ..and that was the last episode I listened to them.
I had a convo with my mostly-unsullied family last night. My dad is convinced that Jon will be “the slave of The Red Queen” (he means Melisandre) because “that’s what happened to the other guy in the cave”? I as like… I don’t remember that part but ok dad. 😀
My bro was like “I thought this might happen but I wish it hadn’t.” He thought that Jon’s arc was perfect with him staying dead! But, he doesn’t suspect anything about Jon’s parentage as far as I know… so I bet he’ll be pleasantly surprised by ToJ.
Also my dad thinks Littlefinger is a good character now (genuinely helping Sansa) while Dany and Arya are bordering on evil and Jaime is devil incarnate and can’t ever come back. I don’t understand but he’s a Trump supporter so maybe our moral compasses just don’t align…
We are all SO ready for Sansa to F*ck shit up. Unggh.
Loved Cenk: Dany is Jon’s sister… no not his sister… his uncle? Whatever.
XD
To illustrate your point further …
The scene in Episode 1, where Tyene Sand stabbed Aero Hotah in the back and dropped him, while Ellaria Sand stabbed Doran Martell in front of his guards. Then that scene where the Obara and Nymeria Sand suddenly showed up on Trystane Martell’s ship and murdered him. Those were surprising and shocking scenes.
Yet those scenes were widely derided as poor storytelling, and appropriately so. While many of the things could be handwaved away, it was still jarring to see a small girl stab a large man and have the large man suddenly collapse. There was the question of how the Sand Snakes ended up on Trystane’s ship when the last time we saw them they were standing on a dock watching the ship sail away. An additional line of dialogue here or there, and an extension of the scenes would’ve helped made things more clear, but they would’ve reduced the impact of the “shock” that the directors wanted to convey. Because the directors wanted the scenes to be shocking, the storytelling suffered.
FreeParking,
Yeah, that tweet is … not good. And I like Terri Schwartz. She’s one of the best.
George R.R. Martin wallowing in the bloated middle of his story is part of the reason why AFFC and ADWD weren’t as universally well-received as his first three books. The show experienced some of that during Season 5 as well (some of it of its own making, but mostly it was due to the nature of Martin’s story). Season 5, as you say, contained some of the absolute darkest moments for some of the most beloved characters, and the show weathered substantial criticism for daring to commit such misery to screen without enough light to balance it out. Of course, both the show and the books crafted moments of true beauty as well. With the exception of Hardhome, those scenes didn’t get nearly the recognition they deserved.
Both GOT and ASOIAF need to move towards the end. There will be more heartbreak, both for the characters and for us, before they get there. But hopefully there will be some joy as well. Just as unpredictability doesn’t inherently make for good storytelling, something like “fan service” need not be a dirty word. Especially when it’s something that people have been anticipating for years.
When I saw those anticipated Ramsay/Roose/Walda/baby scenes, all I could think of was “rest in peace Domeric”. 😉
What, the one who played Merry?!?!
Seriously, didn’t a certain character in the books predict this outcome?
Yer funny, W. Nah, I was just responding to the book summary/snippet that Danny provided regarding the wholesome Bolton past….including Domeric. Ever since last season, we’ve been expecting/speculating those scenes. I was secretly hoping they would throw a bone to us fickle nerds by naming the baby first. 🙂
Huge Props to you guys for getting Dem Thrones up there. Love those guys
Ah! Well, I guess it is up to us nerds to name him! How about Chewtoy? Or we could go with a product placement analog like MilkBone.