It didn’t come out of nowhere. This is the mummer’s dragon that Dany saw in her House of Undying visions in book 2. And there’s lots of foreshadowing of the Golden Company and its Blackfyre creators.
I agree it feels odd because of the sprawl. Pacing-wise, it does feel like it’s coming in late, but I’m pretty firmly convinced books 4 + 5 are act 2 and that he needs another three books to finish the story properly (which isn’t going to happen).
It depends on how big Winds of Winter is, right? I mean, Storm of Swords was huge, and I don’t mean in number of pages, I mean in terms of the breadth of events it covered. When I re-read it I marveled at just how much happens in that book. If he can have that kind of sprawling book in Winds of Winter, then he can cover a lot of events.
Sure, but there are quite a few more narrative threads to juggle at this point than there were in book 3. That sprawl again. The Dornish weren’t a faction in book 3, neither really were the Greyjoys beyond Theon, nor the Golden Company.
We’ll see, I just think it’ll feel rushed if he finishes in two more books.
True, but a lot of threads have been closed too. Or maybe not. From the top of my head:
Ok, you’re right, that’s too many threads. Still, at the very least there’s multiple threads colliding in Mereen finally, and there’s multiple threads colliding at Winterfell. Maybe Bran and Sam will brought back into existing threads as well.
Reading these makes me realize how much the series has overtaken the books.
It’s impossible the books will be finished. Im also not looking forward to all the meandering left in the Dothraki camp (for example) until Dany can get back to Mertens.
Wasn’t Jaime captured by Brienne on behalf of the BoB at the end of Book 5? And the little crannogman Howland Reed was waiting offstage, waiting for his cue to drop a bunch of exposition.
We can only hope some of the PoVs die off or come together. But look at all the sample chapters released or read in public for the battle of Meereen in book 6. The Battle of Blackwater Bay was covered much more quickly in book 2. So now we’re getting multiple PoVs covering different sides of some of these events.
So, I have a question about the map in Season 5.
I’ve seen this intro a few times now. In both Episode 4 and 5, it clearly goes from King’s Landing to Winterfell to The Wall, to Braavos across the narrow sea, and then zooms to Mereen, and then goes further east to Dorne. So in the TV universe, Dorne is clearly east of Mereen, so that’s really confusing to me.
Now we know that the map on the TV show is this really cool Dyson’s Sphere type thing, right? There’s a Sun in the middle, and then all around the Sun are the continents. Is that how Dorne ends up being east of Mereen? Maybe it’s South of King’s Landing AND east of Mereen because you’ve gone all the way around the Dyson’s Sphere by that point?
Watch it more slowly; it just moves quick. Dorne is not east of Mereen; it’s where it should be (south of King’s Landing, jutting out on its own peninsula).
That’s what I was thinking when I saw Episode 4, but then I was watching Episode 5, and I didn’t see any rotation of the camera, you’d have to go the other way to go back east, it looks like the Pyramid rises in Mereen and then the camera zooms in the same direction (East). Oh well, I guess I’ll have to watch more carefully on Episode 7.
So the end of Episode 6: wow, Sansa’s wedding night was something. It’s weird, but I’ve completely dissociated the show as a fan fiction sideshow in my mind, so I’m not really bothered by all these wild changes now. But now I know what kind of fan fiction this is. Though I do wonder if this portends something along these lines happening to Sansa in the books later in the series?
Story aside, I just want to focus on the quality of the audio again for a second. The score had this almost scratchy guitar/violin irritant note play, which kind of grew and grew as the scene progressed, adding to the unsettling scene. The actors were all really excellent too.
I love the music, the sound… as you said, the audio in the show is pretty remarkable and spot on.
Tyrion met Danaerys already! Wow. I’d been waiting for this moment throughout Book 5 and it never happened, and here it happened before a lot of other events that are coming. Very curious. Maybe they’re going to change more of the Dany storyline than I’d anticipated.
I see it now. As the zoom to Mereen is finished, there’s a hard cut to the Harpy. As the pyramid rises out of the ground towards the harpy, we zoom out, and this time I noticed that we’re now looking towards the West, since Slaver’s bay is behind Mereen now.
I saw the first half of the episode “Hardhome” this morning before work. Clap*ClapClap. This is so awesome you guys. Tyrion’s long conversations with Danarys is the best fan fiction the show has come up with so far. This even exceeded what kept occurring in my head throughout Book 5 when I imagined them finally meeting each other.
Come back here and talk to us again once you have finished the last half of Hardhome.
The second half of Hardhome was, indeed, really good. In the book, the partial evacuation of Hardhome was only described vaguely in reports received at Castle Black. And then when Jon was arranging a follow-up visit, that’s when he was killed by his own men.
Here, I felt they came up with a pretty good reason for Jon to go personally to invite the Wildlings behind the Wall. They also introduced a new villain. The blue-eyed creature who seemed to be in command. I wonder if he’ll show up in the books eventually too.
That was really exciting. It’s something that the book never really does with regards to the White Walkers. They’re always the unseen enemy, described through the lens of characters unwilling to open their eyes because they are so scared, or through vague insinuations and recollections. They’re kept in the dark, hidden from view, and very frightening for it. But here in this episode, it’s open viewing season.
The follow-up episode is the one where Daenerys presides over that fighting pit battle. It’s interesting that in this case, Drogon didn’t come in and kill lots of innocent people and fighters. He only killed Sons of the Harpy people. Still, it’s strange that they didn’t have that other character introduced in the series yet. The one who was sitting in that box with Dany in the books, the one that might be behind the Sons of the Harpies if he is the betrayer. And of course, Ser Barriston Selby wasn’t in the box either, because in this version of the story, he’s dead, so he can’t take command over the troops now that she’s gone.
I think after this next episode, I need to find that GRRM post again. The one he wrote before Season 6 to announce that Winds of Winter won’t be out before Season 6 started airing. In it he had spoilers for both the book and the TV series that I couldn’t read at the time, since I still had to read books 4 and 5, and I still had to watch a single episode of the TV series.
I’m almost done with this season. It occurred to me this morning that Mereen wasn’t in the high stakes tense situation that was present in the books. Weren’t there armies on the doorstep of Mereen, staked out outside the city walls when Dany left on her dragon? And didn’t Ser Barristor Selby have to deal with all that after she left?
It’s interesting that in this alternative fan fiction version, Tyrion is going to be in charge of the City, with the help of Varris. I have to say, that is an ideal fan fiction alternate version that I would love to see. I hope the two of them can whip the city into shape while Dany is gone, completing the dissociated nature and split between the books and the TV show so the two are completely different entities. I’d like to think Tyrion and Varys are the perfect dream team of who I’d hire to set Mereen right.
Meanwhile, thinking back to Hardhome for a second: wasn’t that a great piece of story telling? It was 20 minutes of pure awesome. They arrive on the beach, they introduce you to a few characters. Some you like, some you dislike. They make them sympathetic to us by showing their kids. And then when all hell breaks lose, we have people to root for, and that is the key to that great action sequence. And it all happens within the span of about 20 minutes, from before we even knew these characters, to the end with Jon Snow riding away in the boat, looking at his new enemy.
Yeah, the GoT show demonstrated that the “Mereense Knot” that Martin tied himself into was not all that hard to deal with: just make like Alexander and cut that sucker down to size. The show chopped out about 80% of the Mereen content from the books and was vastly better for that. Also, even though the show cuts the Mereen stuff down a lot, you will still get what I feel is a complete story for Mereen. The “high stakes tense situation” get does dealt with by the show, a little further along than you are now.
Also, yeah, Hardhome. Until a recent spectacular half episode a few weeks back, Hardhome 2nd half was easily the best half episode of the show EVAR. As you say, great storytelling, plus great effects and great action.
Also Jon’s new enemy is not a new villain, he’s the Night King, who has been mentioned in the books as well as the show. I do like how they portray him purely by his impressive actions. The Night King doesn’t need no stinking dialogue :O.
Yes, look at Birgitte Hjort Sørensen playing Karsi. We are introduced to her, get her characterization in the meeting, establish her family relationship, then watch her kick major ass until her final tragic ending all in about 20 minutes. This is pretty amazing considering the show is also conveying the overall story of Jon and Jormund trying to gain the Free Folks’ trust, and showcase the in-your-face-holy-shit threat of the undead, while folding in a bunch of complicated special effects scenes and fight choreography.