I think book readers are reading too much(hehe) into Littlefinger’s feelings for Sansa. The dude wants to rule, he’s chafing to stick to everyone who looked down on him. He’ll do anything to anyone in order to make that happen. If he can somehow come out of this with a sane, not mutilated Sansa, great! If not, well them’s the breaks.
Just in case folks have not seen it - the Chrys watches game of thrones series is up to date - http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/117561063377/chrys-watches-got-s5-ep03 - that link it to the latest.
“I am going to Regina George her so hard.” OK, I both knew that reference and laughed at it.
If people think book readers are projecting too much emotional motivations for Littlefinger, explain how the only known surviving child of a noble house that lost the war, saw its patriarch, matriarch, and heir die, one attainted for treason against the crown, married off to a disfigured dwarf, and whose family home has been burned and given away is some great bargaining chip upon which to base your plans.
The book has a lot more creepy glances and awkward moments between the two that definitely sets off your Chris Hansen radar into full swing. Dude was full on in love with Catelyn, but she got married to Ned. Sansa is a spitting image.
Also,
Why in the fuck did she have her hair dyed only to be immediately announced as herself. Also, the dye-job didn’t do much in the inn where she was instantly recognized (albeit by two people that had seen her before, a lot). I guess the dye job was to transport her from the vale to Winterfell?
Oh, I agree. But there has to be something motivating Littlefinger in the TV series beyond using Sansa as some bargaining chip when I’ve pretty accurately described her current reduced value as one.
I think we might overestimate the degree to which D&D were thinking ahead to Season 5 at the end of Season 4. Sansa’s arc had been planned to the end of ASoS pretty early on, and they went with the canon treatment in terms of hair. After they went for a different tack with Sansa’s story, it may well have not been set in stone and the writing only vaguely (it at all) considering that new point of departure.
In short, I think the transition from Season 4 to 5 is the greatest divergence yet form the books, far and away. They really are making up a good third of this shit as they go along at this point.
OK, so that was unexpected. If, and it appears nearly certain, that particular character is dead, it’s going to represent a significant departure in the Danerys arc, which has so far been mostly on track.
It’s certain, EW has an interview with the actor discussing his early departure from the series.
Terrible fucking change, what an ignoble death for a noble character.
Plus, it turns out that Littlefinger’s plan is to leave Sansa and hope for the best.
Very strange choices. The show is strongest when they stick closest to the source material. What a shocker, GRRM actually knew what he was doing. So the scenes at the wall are the strongest. Melisandre’s attempted seduction was just bizaare.
- Baelish leaves Winterfell. Virtually guarantees that he isn’t going to be able to control Sansa, why he’d do something so foolish, who knows. If he knew Stannis was going to attack Winterfell why not wait that battle out and see who, y’know actually wins the fight? Instead of abandoning your most valuable asset with a family of traitorous psychopaths?
Anyway, why does he care what Cersei wants? He is already Lord of Harrenhal what else could Cersei offer him? Whatever Cersei wants him back for it’s tough to see that it’d permit for a quick thousand mile trip north. Also, in the long trip for Moat Cailin to Winterfell his spies learned nothing about Ramsay?
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Faith Militant, part I. They spend all this time explaining that the Crown is in debt but then completely leave out why they were created in the books. How hard would it have been to add a line to allow their resurgence in exchange for forgiving the Crown’s debts?
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Faith Militant, part II. Way over the top. Queer shaming and arresting Loras is a wholesale change here that doesn’t fit in at all.
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Cersei and Tommen. Cersei would NEVER let Tommen leave the palace.
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Jaime and Bronn, part I. On the ship, Bronn raises a number of reasonable objections about the flaws in the plan. He’s pretty much asking what all the book readers are asking. The answer by definition reflects the thinking of the showrunners because it sure didn’t come from the text. “It has to be me.” Repeated twice for emphasis. Memo to D&D - repeating an unpersuasive line doesn’t make it better. “Dorne is just fighting and fucking.” I guess that about sums up what the showrunners know about Dorne. No wonder this thing is going off the rails. Prince Doran is the most important character in Dorne, not Ellaria, why are we seeing so little of him?
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Jaime and Bronn, part II. What did that fight against 4 nameless guards accomplish? Bronn got to look like a bad ass, but we already knew that.
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Grey Worm and Ser Barristan. This was just horrid. The Unsullied are some of the best warriors on the planet and they straight up lose a fight where they aren’t ambushed or even really outnumbered that badly. They are supposed to have the best training and discipline. The Hound and Arya killed more people I think in that tavern in last season than the Unsullied killed.
Ser Barristan is supposed to be a step slower but still is supposed to be a legendary swordsman. He loses to some idiots with daggers and masks. Come on.
- Sand Snakes. Painful to watch. Some of the dialogue is lifted straight from the text but they’ve murdered the context and turned Ellaria into a caricature. If they don’t have time to be true to Ellaria then they should just have shelved the character and let Obara take that role herself. Need a better actress though, current one is hard to watch.
What gets me is they’re highly trained infantry, arguably the most feared in the known world, and decide their best chance is to immediately break ranks, fall apart, and get surrounded by a knife-wielding mob.
Ser Barristan is supposed to be a step slower but still is supposed to be a legendary swordsman. He loses to some idiots with daggers and masks. Come on.
While clumsily stumbling about like an unskilled actor. With the show’s growing budget, you’d think they could hire someone to choreograph a fight.
While clumsily stumbling about like an unskilled actor. With the show’s growing budget, you’d think they could hire someone to choreograph a fight.
Yeah, very jarring to watch how inept they and Barristan looked. Is it premature to think this is beyond possibility of salvage?
When I first saw that ending fight(back when the 4 episodes leaked) I had to immediately whine on the IMDB boards.
The old sod finally gets a chance to shine like some aging Yoda but instead he trips over himself trying to get stabbed as many times as humanly possible while all the bad guys run into his sword.
At least he died doing what he loved. Getting stabbed. What a letdown that fight was.
Ser Barristan has to die - and perhaps Grey Worm too, to leave Dany alone and groping for some aid and, above all, good advice.
Enter Ser Jorah and Tyrion Lannister in Mereen by… ep 7 maybe? 8 Perhaps? A little earlier in the tale. GRRM wailed and kvetched over the so-called Meerenese Knot. D&D have no such feelings of apprehension. They bring em in a wee early but first clear the decks to make some room and leave Dany grasping at straws and stumbling first to make her turning to them so readily seem more believable. D&D are moving this tale along. Given the pace of Dany’s arc in ADwD, I don’t blame them.
Unlike GRRM , HBO also has to pay for its cast. There is a budget which makes them more bloodthirsty.
As for Ser Barristan being the voice in Dany’s and the Reader’s ear about the Mad King and hints at Tyrion’s real father - they have Bran for that (I don’t think D&D are necessarily going for Tyrion, bastard son of Aerys on the show as there is no “Three Heads of the Dragon” prophecy to deal with). Though seeing as Ser Barristan was probably one of the only people alive who could have verified Jon Snow was not a bastard – they’ll have to do that through Bran as well. Not nearly as persuasive in Dany’s ear - but so be it.
rowe33
6097
Got to agree on that last fight - what a travesty. The Unsullied are embarrassingly inept at actual fighting. Ser Barristan goes down to some rabble. Ugh.
And yeah, oh man, some bad casting in Dorne. I sure hope they know what they’re doing.
Tim_N
6098
So an old guy is felled by eight younger and probably fitter guys, and a bunch of soldiers trained only in open warfare and armed with massive spears are beaten by a larger group in an enclosed space. Sounds about right to me, someone can be a great swordsman in a fantasy show without being invincible. Furthermore, in the books the unsullied were supposed to be highly unsuited to the kind of fighting Dany required of them in Mereen and were regularly ambushed and killed (although if I remember correctly, it was more 1-2 at a time not a group as large as that).
rowe33
6099
It’s too bad their training didn’t ever involve preventing unarmored masked knife-armed non-soldiers from easily slitting their throats. Would have been helpful apparently!
And I could be wrong but isn’t Barristan not just a great swordsman but pretty much one of the greatest in Westeros history? The fight looked goofy and bizarre & I’m disappointed they couldn’t have given him a better ending.
olaf
6100
Yeah I was disappointed there. I thought he was gonna roll into that corridor with all of the assailants in front of him and just slice them up, saving Grey Worm in the process. And then when the last scene was Grey Worm killing the dude about to cut his throat I thought he was at least gonna survive…preview for the next episode shot that down. I do not like this turn of events.
