Post by Deleted on May 19, 2015 6:09:10 GMT
Hi Y'all - sorry to be so late to the post-show party. I have been sick with the worst case of the flu I think I've ever had, wow. I have been in bed since Saturday night and my head and stomach hurt too much to even sit up and watch the episode on my laptop - so I just waited it out - especially knowing how big this one was going to be. No sense being physically AND psychologically ill, right?
So anyways - I did read all your comments here today because that was about all I wanted to do. Kind of odd to read all the episode discussions without seeing it first, but it actually set me up for a better experience I think. I also think some of you might be a tad too critical, but you're certainly entitled to it. After reading pages of criticisms, I was expecting the episode to be horrible and 'that' scene to be even worse. But neither was the case, thankfully. Overall, except for that last 5 minutes - it was a great hour with so many great moments!
So lets focus on all of the good since everyone's had a chance to get the bad out of their system, shall we? (meaning the bad sand snake fight scene and sansa rape scene)
1. Iain Glen did a fantastic job of showing a myriad of emotions when Tyrion revealed how his Father died. I genuinely felt hearbroken for the poor guy especially after all he's been through, two exiles and now greyscale. If anyone gets the "I've been shit upon" award in the show, it's poor Jorah. I also really enjoyed Tyrion and Jorah becoming a little closer and helping each other out when the slavers captured them. Jorah understood that Tyrion needed his help and he backed up his claims as a good fighter. It was a great scene.
2. I was absolutely thrilled we finally got to see behind Littlefinger's little twisted web of deceit, and all the while deceiving Cersei Lannister at the same time. It was brilliant. I'm surprised more people haven't praised that scene because in one fell swoop it showed us pretty much Littlefinger's entire hand of cards and who he's bluffing to - well, everyone! Great poker face.
3. Arya's slow progression finally panned out tonight and that was good. I think we could have done with a few less corpse washings, eh? The hall of faces just astounded me - what a creepy and amazingly cool set that was! Her lying to the little girl and giving her the gift of death was also very well done and sad and yet empowering for Arya. She passed her first test! Also, there was a great meta moment in there when Arya screamed at Jaqen that she's not playing the game anymore and he simply replied: "We never stop playing..." Oh, how crafty you are show-writers!
4. The inquest at King's Landing was well done and made sense. I have often complained in discussions that I didn't see how they would find a legit way to arrest Marg since there's been no adultery plot like there was in the books but they found a fairly neat and simple way to turn it around on her by setting her up to lie under oath to the gods that she knew nothing of her brother's homosexuality. Well, all for that tiny rankling bit of them believing a brothel worker over her. The stupid birthmark (I hated that scene) ended up being the smoking gun I guess!
5. Jaime and Bronn getting into the Watergardens was easy and worked. Their plan was flimsy - you can't really 'improvise' getting out of there with a helpless girl you've got to carry - where? Back down the beach? But that nitpick aside, I thought it all went well and even the choppy fight scene wasn't THAT terrible. I was expecting far worse from what I'd read here and those silly gifs but really for the average show watcher they weren't terrible. The girls they picked for the sand snakes all look the part but can't act or do fight scenes. Mistakes are made. You roll with it.
6. The wedding setup was fantastic at Winterfell. I even loved the bath scene with that little bitch Myranda because it gave us one small glimmer of hope that somewhere in there, Sansa's still fighting. She didn't let Myranda bully her and I applauded that scene! Her dress was magnificent (I live for the costumes they come up with) and the setting for the wedding was absolutely stunning and heartbreaking because of the Godswood and the tree (Ned!). Yes it was a mockery that such a beautiful setting had to be spoiled by that ugly grinning Ramsay. Props to Iwan though, he's got the crazy-eye look pegged for sure and is a great actor! I'm not going to say much more on the final scene other than bravo to Alfie Allen. That guy has really pulled out all the stops in the amazing, wordless emotion department for several seasons now. How far Theon's character has come from the arrogant jerk he was in the first season and what a great actor to be able to take Theon's character through all those immense changes to the (almost) broken retch he is now - so perfectly.
Last but not least - did any of you catch the perfect parallel between the scenes of Arya washing the little girl's hair and focus on the water bowl beneath (clean water), and Myranda washing Sansa's hair and the focus on the black water in the bowl beneath (dirty water)? I loved that and felt it was an intentional symbolic parallel for the two as they move through their own self journey.
Whew! Good to be feeling better enough to type a big long review here. I know you've already discussed a lot of it to pieces but I really enjoyed the episode despite the disturbing ending. I am grateful they left it unseen and handled more gently than in the books.
So anyways - I did read all your comments here today because that was about all I wanted to do. Kind of odd to read all the episode discussions without seeing it first, but it actually set me up for a better experience I think. I also think some of you might be a tad too critical, but you're certainly entitled to it. After reading pages of criticisms, I was expecting the episode to be horrible and 'that' scene to be even worse. But neither was the case, thankfully. Overall, except for that last 5 minutes - it was a great hour with so many great moments!
So lets focus on all of the good since everyone's had a chance to get the bad out of their system, shall we? (meaning the bad sand snake fight scene and sansa rape scene)
1. Iain Glen did a fantastic job of showing a myriad of emotions when Tyrion revealed how his Father died. I genuinely felt hearbroken for the poor guy especially after all he's been through, two exiles and now greyscale. If anyone gets the "I've been shit upon" award in the show, it's poor Jorah. I also really enjoyed Tyrion and Jorah becoming a little closer and helping each other out when the slavers captured them. Jorah understood that Tyrion needed his help and he backed up his claims as a good fighter. It was a great scene.
2. I was absolutely thrilled we finally got to see behind Littlefinger's little twisted web of deceit, and all the while deceiving Cersei Lannister at the same time. It was brilliant. I'm surprised more people haven't praised that scene because in one fell swoop it showed us pretty much Littlefinger's entire hand of cards and who he's bluffing to - well, everyone! Great poker face.
3. Arya's slow progression finally panned out tonight and that was good. I think we could have done with a few less corpse washings, eh? The hall of faces just astounded me - what a creepy and amazingly cool set that was! Her lying to the little girl and giving her the gift of death was also very well done and sad and yet empowering for Arya. She passed her first test! Also, there was a great meta moment in there when Arya screamed at Jaqen that she's not playing the game anymore and he simply replied: "We never stop playing..." Oh, how crafty you are show-writers!
4. The inquest at King's Landing was well done and made sense. I have often complained in discussions that I didn't see how they would find a legit way to arrest Marg since there's been no adultery plot like there was in the books but they found a fairly neat and simple way to turn it around on her by setting her up to lie under oath to the gods that she knew nothing of her brother's homosexuality. Well, all for that tiny rankling bit of them believing a brothel worker over her. The stupid birthmark (I hated that scene) ended up being the smoking gun I guess!
5. Jaime and Bronn getting into the Watergardens was easy and worked. Their plan was flimsy - you can't really 'improvise' getting out of there with a helpless girl you've got to carry - where? Back down the beach? But that nitpick aside, I thought it all went well and even the choppy fight scene wasn't THAT terrible. I was expecting far worse from what I'd read here and those silly gifs but really for the average show watcher they weren't terrible. The girls they picked for the sand snakes all look the part but can't act or do fight scenes. Mistakes are made. You roll with it.
6. The wedding setup was fantastic at Winterfell. I even loved the bath scene with that little bitch Myranda because it gave us one small glimmer of hope that somewhere in there, Sansa's still fighting. She didn't let Myranda bully her and I applauded that scene! Her dress was magnificent (I live for the costumes they come up with) and the setting for the wedding was absolutely stunning and heartbreaking because of the Godswood and the tree (Ned!). Yes it was a mockery that such a beautiful setting had to be spoiled by that ugly grinning Ramsay. Props to Iwan though, he's got the crazy-eye look pegged for sure and is a great actor! I'm not going to say much more on the final scene other than bravo to Alfie Allen. That guy has really pulled out all the stops in the amazing, wordless emotion department for several seasons now. How far Theon's character has come from the arrogant jerk he was in the first season and what a great actor to be able to take Theon's character through all those immense changes to the (almost) broken retch he is now - so perfectly.
Last but not least - did any of you catch the perfect parallel between the scenes of Arya washing the little girl's hair and focus on the water bowl beneath (clean water), and Myranda washing Sansa's hair and the focus on the black water in the bowl beneath (dirty water)? I loved that and felt it was an intentional symbolic parallel for the two as they move through their own self journey.
Whew! Good to be feeling better enough to type a big long review here. I know you've already discussed a lot of it to pieces but I really enjoyed the episode despite the disturbing ending. I am grateful they left it unseen and handled more gently than in the books.