I was not that impressed with the Dornish scene. It’s all new, nothing is preset in stone, and I never felt frightened for any of the characters we cared about. No dramatic tension.
Which is ironic, given that Bronn appears to have been cut by a poisoned blade and his fate is not looking good.
I was okay with the Sansa scene everybody is frothing about. It was telegraphed a long way’s off. Having Theon present to watch, so that he could confirm A) Sansa was a virgin and B) that Ramsay took her on their wedding night is actually, from a hyper-rational point of view, quite logically defensible, however cruel it may have been.
I was not, however, okay with three of the Kingsguard, armed and armored, standing idly by while Queen Margaery is forcibly seized by thugs in robes armed with wooden clubs. There should have been instant violence and blood flying in that room. GRRM was very careful to strip both Cersei and Margaery of their KG protectors when they were in the High Sept. They were each arrested because they trusted the High Sparrow and placed themselves within his power.
No way does that happen. They should have left the KG out of the room. That was bullshit.
rowe33
6262
No kidding - are the Boltons not known for their FLAYING in this TV world too??
I thought the point of that was to drive home how useless Tommen is, and how Cersei was counting on it - like in the previous episode where he could have given the word and got the KG to cut the FM guys down, in this one he could have given the word too, but he was frozen. The KG are the KG after all, not the QG, they would certainly have sprung into action if the King himself were in danger, but it makes sense that they’d await his orders for anything less (and obviously a Real Westerosi King wouldn’t hesitate to have the KG cut down anyone who so much as touched his Queen).
Yeah. And beyond that Tommen represents the last ounce of strength house Lannister can project. Everyone knows it now but Cersei.
HBO has an agreement with Amazon Prime for all of their programming (I believe it’s 2 years after the episode airs or something like that). Don’t think HBO will ever show up on Netflix.
The coincidence of Jamie and Bronn and the Sand Snakes all meeting up just like that didn’t bother me. The alternative is lots of tv time spent on showing the machinations of how it happened, and I don’t need to see that. What did bother me a lot was this very episode already had a scene where the prince says in no uncertain terms “we must protect them”. Then we see not one, but TWO separate groups of people come to kidnap the girl and not one guard to be seen. Not only that, but the kidnappers all have time to fight for a while before anyone shows up. This could have easily been fixed by having the prince gloat “they’re safe here” to indicate the lack of guards was due to overconfidence. Instead they did the opposite and stressed that the danger level even there was known to be high.
Otherwise I thought it was great. I liked seeing Tyrion screw up for once by thoughtlessly dropping that news to Jorah. I liked a lot of Cersei’s exchanges, from what I see she’s playing the “the best defense is a good offense” card. She knows she’s in a bad way, so there’s no reason to cozy up to any of these people. I’m sure she fears the Queen of Thorns but really, is that woman going to show Cersei any mercy if she played nice? No. The actress who played Myrcella did a good job, she’s clearly into this role, I hope they give her more screen time. She’s feisty and this show could use more feisty female characters. What I liked about the inquest thing was that it was consistent with the Lannister mode of operations. Have your questioning of the accused, at which time they lie, then bring in your secret witness who spills their guts about everything. The Tyrells should have seen that coming, maybe they underestimated Cersei.
Sansa, the most innocent of all, gets defiled by the most vile of all. Joffrey would have been pretty bad but he was a young whippersnapper still learning how to torment, so I think the Boltons one up him. I’ve been down on Sansa’s cluelessness and uselessness and passiveness since the beginning but it really pays off now. I felt enraged at seeing her treated that way, I don’t think I’d have cared as much if she had been more of an active player. Margaery for instance, if she got caught in a situation like that, well you play with fire and you’re going to get burned. Sansa though has not wanted to have anything to do with any of these people and yet there she is.
What happens in the book is worse than what happens in the tv show in this scene, so I don’t get the criticism that this tv show has lost the plot. It’s toned down the bits that would not fly on tv, and it’s used known characters in more scenes than in the books so as not to require the involvement of even more side characters this late in the series. Both choices are not only valid, not only good, but necessary.
Exodor
6267
The Dorne stuff really feels like it’s being done by a new second unit. It’s not as good as the rest of the show - the only thing worse is the interminable Dorne sequences in the last two books.
The two most recent books have SO MUCH filler that I’m enjoying the show far more even with the missteps.
Maybe it’s just because they cut all the awful Kingsmoot sequences.
Because the wedding night rape didn’t involve Sansa in the books? Sansa in the books is taking an entirely different story arc as seen in the TWOW preview.
In the show, she’s once again a victim. This time as a pawn of Littlefinger who apparently somehow didn’t hear that Ramsay is a complete psychopath.
Quaro
6269
One thing about this scene, if there’s any remaining Sansa bashers out there, it’s like, if you don’t feel bad for Sansa now…
Right, then you really have something wrong with you. I swear, this show, after the first season when people were hating on Sansa. Showrunners [David Benioff and Dan Weiss] must have been like, “Okay, let’s do everything we can to make her the most abused, manipulated character!”
Great job combining the story of two different book characters and completely undoing the growth we’ve had from Sansa. I’m sure I’ll really like her character now that she’s really being abused!
Just confirms they should have done that Lisa Simpson kidnap-torture episode back in the 90s.
I think Littlefinger knows exactly what kind of people the Boltons are, and I think book readers are overestimating his concern for Sansa on the tv show. When he negotiated his deal with Cersei he did not mention Sansa, marrying her I mean. He’s a winner no matter what happens. If Stannis comes out ahead, Littlefinger throws in with Stannis and marries Sansa, claiming the north. If the Boltons win and are depleted, he throws in with Cersei, kicks the Boltons ass, and Cersei gives him the north.
Involving Sansa in that scene makes perfect sense because who the f in the tv audience cares about the book character who is originally in that scene? It would carry no weight, and leave Sansa with less to do. Blame that on Martin, since Sansa may have awesome things to do in the final books but unfortunately those books are years away and we need that story now.
I agree.
Littlefinger cares about Littlefinger… and whoever can help him right now.
Razgon
6273
It was also probably one of the worst choreographed fight scenes, and filmed fight scenes I’ve seen recently, which is rather weird, considering what GoT has shown previously.
The whole thing is beginning to remind me of Lost, and its inability to remember what the heck happened last season and how to build on it.
I love fantasy - I love medieval stuff, but they’ve actually managed to make me not want to watch the show anymore - nice going!
Teiman
6274
Hehehehe… they where really weak looking. A casting error, maybe.
Gil102
6275
Littlefinger sure made good time getting to King’s Landing…did he hitch a ride on Drogon or something?
This is fucking genius. And it makes sense for his character and what ended up going down.
Ha! It is 1000 miles right? Well, if traveling on a horse, quickly on well traveled roads, you can probably go 30 miles in a day? Maybe more, but it looked like he had an entourage with him. Also, fans have estimated winterfell to kings landing being a 1500 mile trip. 30 miles in a day is the high end of horse speeds with rest/etc filled in. The journey should take like… 30-45 days.
Yeah.
rowe33
6278
Littlefinger has the ability to use whorehouses as fast travel gates. Makes it easier to find new talent and keep abreast of current events around Westeros.
But, of course, nobody speaks of Ramsay’s cruelty ever.
I felt the same way when the show runners decided to inject so much homophobia into their Westeros and have peasants arrest Loras while he’s armored and with weapons all around him. Loras would’ve left a trail of blood in his wake, but here instead he’s the queer little mincing gay Tyrell boy.
