Game of Thrones (HBO)

Yup. Sad!

That’s true of things requiring budget, eg the big battle scenes, CG dragons etc, but can you elaborate on what you think we’re seeing in the show other than production values that we’re not seeing in other shows? You say “taking all aspects into consideration”, but so far you seem to only be talking about things directly related to budget. Do you think the acting is better than other shows? The dialogue? The plotting? The set dressing? I mean, comparing it to a blockbuster theatrical release is not necessarily a good thing. Blockbusters, by and large, suck.

That would have taken all of the shock value out of the trial scene. Like Baelish, we don’t know it’s about him until it’s too late. In retrospect, it seems pretty obvious that siblings living together would have talked.

It’s like the scene where ‘Walder Frey’ poisons his whole family. They didn’t show us Arya cutting off his face and making the disguise, but it’s pretty clear that she did.

And Littlefinger didn’t deny them. That was the point of the trial scene, to ambush him with this evidence in front of everyone, including the northern lords. If you didn’t know he was guilty beforehand, you would know by watching his reactions to the accusations levied by Sansa and Bran. When accused of treachery, his reaction wasn’t “Nonsense, none of this is true,” as much as “But but but… I loved your mom! Also you!”

Cersei’s decision not to help them reminds me of 3-player FFA games. You might as well let them kill off each other and then kill whoever’s left.

Another callback spotted: “When you win the game of thrones you win, or you die”, Cersei tells Ned in Season 1.

Also, Fuck the whole Arya/Sansa thing.

The problem with her plan is that if the dead win against the North, they will be even stronger, not weaker.

Oops, should have read the rulebook then.

All right. Cersei can’t beat North. Cersei can’t beat dead. Maybe if North beats Death then she can beat weakened North.

There’s a bit of a difference. Leading up to that scene, viewers were shown that Arya can wear other people’s faces and we were shown when she killed him. Having him show up hale and hearty, unaccountably being generous to his kin, could only reasonably be the result of one explanation. Then, throughout the serving, there were hints of what was about to happen.

In contrast, the turnabout at the trial happens with a contradictory lead up. We are shown the sisters being bitchy to one another. We are shown Arya seemingly taking the bait. We are shown Sansa ordering Brienne to King’s Landing after Littlefinger tells her that Brienne could be used as a wall between the sisters. The only hint of cooperation is the bit when Arya turns the dagger around to give it to Sansa, but that could reasonably be interpreted as a “Your move, bitch” type dare as much as a peace offering. Many viewers took it that way.

Realistically, Sansa could’ve arrested Littlefinger at any point after Bran showed up, based on the charges at the trial. The explanation that she needed to build a legal case to placate the lords is bull. Half the charges are based on Bran’s sight, and the other charge (Lysa’s death) was arguably necessary anyway. As for the lords, you can’t tell me that most of them hated Littlefinger. Definitely the “I think not” general that ran the Knights of the Vale hated Littlefinger. There was no need for any gotcha twist. It was 100% an artificial thing done for TV viewing.

There was one other tell: Arya still had her weapons when she was brought before Sansa.

Bringing her in for a mock trial at all was a tell in the first place. I’m talking about the lead-up to that.

When she walked in, the con they were still trying to sell us was Arya was the one standing accused. When Arya walked in with her weapons, I thought something was odd. If her sister was going to try her, she also would have ordered the guards to take her weapons. or I would, given we saw her give Brienne a run for her money.

I thought Littlefinger’s plan was clear.

  • Convince Sansa to take over for Jon as Queen in the North. We see him doing this throughout the season, gossiping with the Northern Lords and counseling Sansa.
  • Marry Sansa to cement the alliance with the Vale.
  • Let Dany and Cersei beat each other down then ally with the winner.

What he didn’t anticipate was the Stark children returning as level 15 magic users. His fatal flaw was he actually loved Sansa, He couldn’t just dispose of her or leave her when things turned against him. That was his undoing.

As soon as Bran showed up and repeated what Littlefinger said in private, he should’ve hightailed it out of there.

Maybe, but look at it from his perspective. He can turn tail and run, but he’s abandoning his life’s work, essentially, on the suspicion that this crippled kid that just came back from living beyond the Wall for 3 years is now a time traveling psychic. Plus, he loved Sansa and couldn’t leave her.

I mean, he loved her so much he abandoned her to fend for herself with Ramsay Bolton - a scheme I complained about endlessly already. Sansa even called him out on it at the mock trial.

Yes that was dumb and the show should not have done that. There’s no reason she couldn’t have stayed in the Vale with Littlefinger, and then shown up at the Battle of the Bastards with the Knights of the Vale like, “yeah Jon I saved you” and then everything else happens the same way.

BTW in the R+L wedding in Bran’s holodeck scene, did they dig up the same actor that played Vyseris in Season 1? Sure looked like him.

I thought so too, so I looked it up. They are different people, as it turns out.

Absolutely true.

But characters in GoT do dumb things all the time. They all have personality flaws that lead to mistakes. Baelish is greedy for power and arrogant about his own abilities. At the end, he was within inches of getting everything he wanted – Sansa, the whole north, perhaps even the Iron Throne. Even when the cards turned against him with Bran’s return, he couldn’t help but play out the hand. He didn’t think he could be out-schemed by some meddling kids ;)

I wondered that too. I thought maybe they recast the actor to create a sense of family resemblance…