The Broken Man was so good. The Hound was rescued by a preacher who had started a community. Jon, Sansa and Davos went searching for a build-up of their army, leading a fantastic scene with the young lady in charge of House Mormont. Theon and his sister plan to go to Mereen. Jaime parlays with the Blackfish at the siege of Riverrun. Queen Margery warns her mother that she’s going to be targeted by the religious zealots next. And Arya gets hurt. Great stuff all around, and all really well directed. One of my favorite episodes so far of this show.
Arya vs the Terminator.
Such a great action sequence. The director filmed 3 jumps by Arya into the unknown, shown with the camera at her eye-level, approaching a lip over which she leaps. When she cut off that candle using Needle, I really thought she was going back to her Master Sylvio’s training from King’s Landing. I could almost hear her thinking herself a cat in her head. So good. God damn, that was satisfying.
The Battle of Mereen finally commences.
So hey, the battle of Mereen that Ser Barristor Selby had to deal with in Dany’s absence finally commenced under Tyrion. Luckily Dany came back and took care of the whole thing in 5 minutes of screen time. That was a pretty glorious start to the Battle of the Bastards episode. I’ll be watching the rest of it tonight to see how Jon Snow fares. I have to admit that in my head, this is the true battle that was left off at the end of Book 5. Only it was Stannis at the helm, not Jon Snow. Tonight I finally get to see how it ends.
I’ve noticed a change in the show in these last few episodes. The show actually takes the time to breathe now. You have the “Tyrion, Messandei and Gray Worm drink wine and tell jokes” scene, and the “Sir Davos walks around in the snow the night before the battle” scene, and a few other examples of the show actually taking its time now and not just rushing through things it has to rush through now that it’s not following the books. I think they needed this freedom to become better.
[quote=“Rock8man, post:225, topic:62437, full:true”]
I’ve noticed a change in the show in these last few episodes. The show actually takes the time to breathe now. [/quote]
Oh, sweet summer child.
Season 7 preview
I was a little disappointed with the Battle of the Bastards. I was really hoping Jon Snow had some master strategy up his sleeve that he was going to pull out late in the battle.
Instead, it was Ramsey who was the smart one throughout. That irked me a little. It made me root for Ramsey to win.
And then the Winds of Winter: Boy, Cersei’s trial was really something else. I’m still kind of shellshocked by that whole thing. Music-wise they were seriously channeling some Phillip Glass there, in a glorious way throughout that episode.
I wonder if the book Winds of Winter will also end at this point, with Dany’s army on its way towards a Westeros that’s controlled by Starks in the North and Cersei taking control at KIng’s Landing? If so, that would be a pretty harsh place to leave it after all that waiting for Book 6.
Hopefully I can catch up with the rest of you by this Sunday’s episode.
Yeah, I couldn’t avoid all the headlines all over the web this week about how this week’s GoT episode is rushed. I see more and more headlines every day, including today. There’s no avoiding them. So clearly S7Ep6 is rushed, but hey, I watched S7Ep1 this morning, and I read the other GoT thread and agree with everyone that it was a great start to the season.
And to provide further evidence of the show taking it’s time to breath, in the season opener the Hound digs that grave. And they they show him slowly, respectfully put each body into the grave. And then shovel dirt back onto the bodies. Very slow, deliberate scene that took its time. Same with all the scenes of Daenerys walking into the empty Dragonstone.
On the topic of prophecies and predictions, there is one from the books that I think is sufficiently detailed to show what Martin was planning at that time (books I to III).
It’s the prophecy Dany got in the House of the Undying:
three fires must you light… one for life and one for death and one to love […] three mounts must you ride… one to bed and one to dread and one to love […] three treasons will you know… once for blood and once for gold and once for love…
It’s a nested group of 3 predictions, each with 3 elements and the first element of each prediction clearly aligns with the Mirri Maz Durr betrayal/burning at the end of ACoK. Drogo is the mount to bed, Mirri Maz Durr is the treason for blood, and the burning of Mirri Maz Durr which caused the dragon eggs to hatch is the fire for life.
I believe the 2nd elements of each prediction are also a combined prophecy, with a fire for death, a mount to dread and a treason for gold. I am fairly sure this is how Martin intended to end the Mereen plot line when he wrote that prophecy, with the mount to dread being Drogon, the fire for death being Drogon getting his flame on Dany’s enemies and the betrayal for gold being Daario who sells Dany out at a critical moment causing her to unleash the (draconian) hounds. Since Martin wrote that, he got a lot deeper into the Mereen plot, but I think that’s how he intended to finish that plotline originally: Dany burning Slaver’s Bay to the ground and heading for Westeros.
I also believe the 3rd elements of each prediction are another combined prophecy with a fire for love, a mount to love and a treason for love. I am fairly certain this prophecy concerns the end game and the battle with the Night King, although I’m not 100% of who will fill each slot. My current thought on this is the fire for love will be Dany unleashing fire against the Night King and I currently think the mount to love will be Jon Snow and the betrayal for love will be Jorah (most likely killing Jon Snow, for reals this time.)
Basically I’ve long held the view that the Ice and Fire of the title are not just the White Walkers and Dragons but also Jon Snow and Dany, and also that in keeping with the bittersweet nature of the series, Jon Snow will die at the end, leaving Dany victorious yet desolate. Also, now that I’ve seen most of S7 I’m thinking will also lose her Dragons - possibly in that final fire.
Eh, I suppose I don’t have much more real support for that theory than the “Bran is the Night King” theory which I deride, but the structure of those 3 in 3 nested predictions makes me think that was Martin’s plan at the time he wrote it.
Didn’t Jorah’s betrayal already happen? I remember it being tied to the prophecy in the book. Or is that a GRRM fake out?
Dany was speculating in the book that this was one of the betrayals. But she wasn’t sure, and as readers we were never sure either. Personally, to me, it didn’t feel like a true betrayal.
I watched up through S7Ep3 now, and caught up to the comments in the other thread. I’m very surprised by all the grousing about the travel times by a lot of people. For me, the timelines on the show were already very hand-wavy. If the actors on the show have aged 6 years from Season 1 to Season 7, presumably 6 years have gone by, and like I said upthread, they mentioned 3 times in Season 6 that “years have gone by”, mentioning it once from Sansa, once from Arya, and I forget the third instance. I’m not really bothered by temporal inconsistencies with weeks or months going by between one scene to the next. There’s no reason for them to get bogged down by timeline consistency or travel times or even geography at this point. I’m just glad that they’re focusing on the character moments that I wanted to see for a long time.
The reunion of Tyrion and Jon for the first time since they met on the Wall.
The first meeting of Jon and Dany.
The awkward reunion of Sansa and Bran, or more accurately, the three-eyed raven.
The revenge of Cersei on the Dornish that killed her daughter.
The meeting between the Queen of Thorns and Jaime, and her admission that she killed Joffrey.
I did laugh out loud at Littlefinger trying to explain multiverse decision-making to Sansa. It’s as if the show keeps wanting to remind us that he still exists, without having any idea of what to do with him in these past few episodes, going all the way back to Season 6 Battle of the Bastards. That’s okay. I don’t need the show version of Littlefinger to be as clever as the one from the books anyway. He’s unimportant in the TV show and they should get rid of him already.
Diana Rigg is just amazing. When James Bond finally gets married in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, it was so fitting that it was Diana Rigg. She has a charisma that’s just radiant in any scene she’s in, no matter how good or bad her lines are. She’s got a presence that’s inexplicable yet undeniable. And she’s still got that here in Game of Thrones, despite being sooooo much older than she was in OHMSS. She’s still got that charm in every scene. It gives me so much pleasure to see her in every scene she’s in. I’m glad the show gave her a great sendoff.
By the way, as a reader of the books who is viewing the TV show and wondering which portions are from GRRM’s notes and will likely be in the novels and which ones are not, I have to admit, it’s a fool’s errand at this point. There’s so much divergence already that I think anything on the show with actual character moments are unlikely to show up in the books. I’m feeling pretty safe now that these TV episodes are not spoiling the books for me. They will no doubt spoil some broad strokes of the overall outcomes perhaps, but I think fates of indivdual characters and stories are safe from spoilers at this point, as a reader of the saga.
Assuming Martin will ever finish the next book, much less the whole series, is like expecting the new Powerball winner to finish that big annoying work project before heading out the door.
One of the bigger differences between the show and the books, I feel, is the competence of Cersei Lannister. In Book 4, it was particularly delightful to see her bungle up the rule of King’s Landing. There was some of that in the show, but on the show she didn’t tell the Iron Bank to go fuck themselves like she did in the book. I do still hope to see what consequence that will have in the books. After all, the Iron Bank doesn’t have an army. So what can they do in retaliation to show the rest of the world that you don’t spurn the Iron Bank?
I’ve caught up to everything except last Sunday’s episode.
Both the books and the show referenced the Iron Bank hiring mercenaries like The Golden Company to enforce their debts. In Essos and Westeros, money talks and carries a big sword.
I doubt the bank is above hiring a Faceless Man either, considering both groups operate out of Braavos.
Great article that summarizes where we were at the end of Book 5:
And also provides links to the various chapters released from Book 6, including readings of chapters at events. I was trying to ignore all that in the discussion above, but I don’t know how long I can resist now that I have all the links in list form, one right after another.
One interesting tidbit in that summary that I didn’t pick up when reading Book 5:
That last bit about Jaqen H’ghar: Of course! That’s who Sam met. It seemed to me that the guy was talking in a very familiar way, but I couldn’t remember who used to talk like that when I read book 5.
He kills the servant with keys in book 4’s prologue. Sam also meets Alleras, which is Sarella backwards. Sarella is one of the sand snakes. And Marwyn the mage, who drops a bomb there at the end of book 4 on who exactly killed off the original Targaryen dragons.
Considering his writing process seems to entail him rewriting and and restructuring his story multiple times, what are the odds of him actually keeping those released chapters as they are and leaving them in the book?
I think most of what he makes public early has remained unchanged once published. At least that’s my impression from books 4 and 5. He probably only doles out what he considers final edits.