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Post by janicia on Jun 1, 2015 20:18:34 GMT
Somebody said Tyrion will just take Barristan's role- minus the battle obviously. Which would involve what, though? Arresting Hizdahr? I feel like that's more something Daario would do than Tyrion, although Tyrion would obviously be the better choice to take over the temporary rule of Meereen. I don't know that we'll see it, but presumably Tyrion will have to do some fast talking to convince Daario and Greyworm to keep him around.
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Post by janicia on Jun 1, 2015 20:16:24 GMT
Yeah, but in the books they seemed to care about the hit being done right. Maybe is because we don't see how the FM really work, but notJaqen's comment about how the many-faced god doesn't doesn't really care worries me. Is he saying he doesn't care if Arya is caught and dies? or is he saying he doesn't really care if Arya is just pretending she wants to become no-one? It just looked suspicious to me, because it gave the impression notJaqen agreed with the Waif about Arya not being ready, and yet he doesn't give a crap. I agree that Jaqen doesn't care about Arya's life. I think he has a "sink or swim" approach to her training. I don't like the theory that Sirio was a FM and that the FM specifically targeted Arya for recruitment. I get why a female warg Stark could be a great asset to them, but it really downplays her own successes and suffering if she was being groomed and protected by an assassin cult the whole time. So I like this portrayal of the FM barely caring about Arya, and she really is making her own way in the world.
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Post by janicia on Jun 1, 2015 20:03:37 GMT
One way for Melissandre to end up back at the Wall would be for her to see Hardhome in her fire and decide that the Wall is more important than Stannis v. Winterfell. But is anything as important for Melisandre? She believes that Stannis will save the world so her attention is on Stannis, not the apocalypse. However, I disagree with LC Mormont...it absolutely matters who sits on the Iron Throne because if they had a better ruler, Westeros would have taken heed of the NW's warning about the White Walkers returning instead of pissing around with a civil war. I disagree. I don't think any king would have taken it seriously since it seemed like an obsolete threat. Even Ned didn't believe the deserter saying it's been ages since they've walked the lands and he's much closer to that culture and knowledge. But Melissandre does listen to guidance from a higher power. And at the end of book 5, she was no longer convinced that Stannis was the answer. The show could jump to that point by having Melissandre get the vision of Jon at Hardhome (and maybe she has premonition of "For the Watch"?) and realize that she's got the wrong savior. I think Ned would have started to take the Watch seriously about problems north of the Wall after the battle at the Fist. And then Ned would have sent the resources he could at that point, reinforcing the Wall. Ned would also have started agitating for the crown and Southern lords to reinforce the Wall, especially once his own men are up at the Wall seeing the crazy stuff going on up there. It still would take time, but in peacetime a competent warden of the north would have done something to reinforce the Wall by now.
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Post by janicia on Jun 1, 2015 17:53:30 GMT
Speaking of Sansa getting news about siblings, we have to assume that once she runs into Brienne at the end of this season, she's probably going to hear about Arya being alive and well, right? So in the space of a few episodes, she's learned that Jon is now the Lord Commander, Bran and Rickon are still alive and the Arya was travelling in the Vale almost right under her nose in the company of the Hound. That's a lot of family news to take in. Her head will have to explode. Which might be pointing Sansa in the direction of becoming a Stark matriarch focused on familial reunification? Maybe Sansa sends somebody after Rickon? It seems like Brienne has other things to do though, and Theon doesn't inspire confidence. And they don't know where he is. I really don't see Davos going on that mission in the show.
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Post by janicia on Jun 1, 2015 17:42:43 GMT
In Greenwald's defense, that one White Walker did seem to be fire-proof. I bet it isn't dragonfire-proof, but we don't know either way. Well, I don't know if he's 'fireproof' so much as 'he can control the weather enough to put the fires out'. If you watch that scene, you'll notice the cold mist killing the fire around him when he walks in. Sure. But that scene did not give the impression at all the fire was a problem for those guys. There don't seem to be many White Walkers and they seem to be pretty risk adverse with their personal safety. And yet there was one calmly striding through a burning building. Nobody would look at that scene and think "hmm, this tells us that dragons are going to be awesome at killing White Walkers". But I'm just arguing for the sake of arguing, really. The point doesn't matter now, and by the time it does matter it will be properly set up. The dragons get to establish themselves as militarily relevant next week. If Stannis dies soon, it will be a massive blow to Jon. Losing the hope of a king that takes these problems seriously and has a dragonglass mine is going to be a massive blow. But Jon meeting up with Sansa could be really interesting, since she understands the politics of the realm and has the political connections that the Night's Watch hasn't had for ages. Through Sansa, the Night's Watch could probably get Olenna's attention and actually get some resources. Heck, though she doesn't know it, Sansa has a fairly good relationship with Dany's political counselor. That's one of the cool things about compressing the world down from the books to TV. These people all interact with each other more. It is less realistic, sure, but gosh it is lovely when character pairing payoffs happen.
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Post by janicia on Jun 1, 2015 16:44:11 GMT
I started reading the review but then Andy said that Dany could throw her dragons at the end of the sea for all the good they'll do in the apocalypse. And then I faced palmed when he mentioned how useful Valyrian Steel is. In Greenwald's defense, that one White Walker did seem to be fire-proof. I bet it isn't dragonfire-proof, but we don't know either way.
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Post by janicia on Jun 1, 2015 16:40:28 GMT
Hey Konrad, looks like you were right about them swapping out Varamyr for Karsi. This interview with the director confirms that Karsi was originally supposed to be a man but they changed their minds. That also explains why a role as significant as Karsi was never a part of any S5 casting call, it was the Varamyr one listed right from the very first one. Good deduction skills. www.mtv.com/news/2173859/game-of-thrones-hardhome-interview/I don't understand how a casting call for a man ends up with an actress. I guess she auditioned for a different part, but they liked her enough to rewrite Varamyr's part. A bit disappointing that Varamyr wasn't used to give some more info on warging, I also kind of wanted to see his pet boar. I suppose they just wanted to give homage and use a book character's name, but if that was their goal, why not name her Varamelle? The Karsi stuff worked really well. Varamyr could had a cool fight scene, but Karsi is arguably the best the show has ever done for a one episode character. They probably made the right choice in going with her. Her name barely matters, it was hardly emphasized. giving the Varamyr homage would have been weird since the character had absolutely nothing to do with Varamyr. I'm really wondering if Jon is ever going to warg. It has been broadly assumed that he will, but the show hasn't laid any groundwork for that this season. They've been carefully building up to the big Olly moments, but completely mum on Jon developing any warging ability. My guess is that whatever happens with Jon at the end of the season will be received pretty negatively on account of defying expectations. One way for Melissandre to end up back at the Wall would be for her to see Hardhome in her fire and decide that the Wall is more important than Stannis v. Winterfell. But another option is for Stannis to banish her over Shireen. The Stannis voice over in the premier was intended to imply that Stannis had decided to to with a "ends justify the means" approach, but I bet that was intentionally deceptive.
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Post by janicia on Jun 1, 2015 16:23:17 GMT
Also funny that Ramsay offers up essentially the same battle plan that Yara did on her attack on the Dreadfort. I guess he wanted to try to be on the other side of the coin in that type of confrontation. Ramsay had so much fun the first time! Of course he'd want to go again! I don't see Ramsay's basic plan as fundamentally unsound. He's just going to try to light some of Stannis' stuff on fire, right? Maybe scare some of the men horses into running off. Armies on the move tend to be vulnerable to that kind of guerrilla harassment, and it would also dampen the morale of Stannis' troups and worsen their supply problems. Ramsay has already established that he has high risk tolerance and a need to show himself to be useful. Or do you think he'll try to assassinate Stannis? That is a riskier mission, but far from the craziest thing Ramsay has done. Probably complicated by the fact that he doesn't know what Stannis looks like, but he can probably figure that out from Stannis' big tent.
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Post by janicia on Jun 1, 2015 15:48:00 GMT
So we think Chekhov's corkscrew is going to make its way into Myranda's throat in this episode? I can't imagine the reason though. It would make sense if Myranda attacked her but I don't think that lady will risk Ramsay's wrath like that. Sansa attacking Ramsay or defending herself against him makes more sense to me. My personal speculation is that she's going to use that to somehow open the locked door of her room. Don't know how, but I hope she suddenly developed the knowledge for picking locks . What she does next is probably hang on to it as a weapon. So Sansa and Theon take advantage of Ramsay being away to stage an escape. Somehow Brienne and Pod are involved. The four of them are skullking their way out when they bump into Myranda. Brienne goes to subdue Myranda but leave her alive, Sansa puts a corkscrew in Myranda's neck. Brienne reevaluates her life choices. Or just Sansa and Theon are escaping and bump into Myranda. Or Myranda decides to mess with Sansa while Ramsay is away. Or Sansa has Theon lure Myranda into Sansa's room so Sansa can kill her and leave her as a decoy. Stannis capturing Ramsay would be very interesting, but I don't really see how that works. I kind of doubt that Stannis will capture Theon and Sansa.
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Post by janicia on Jun 1, 2015 15:40:05 GMT
My hope is that Theon is the one who actually kills her. like the mysterious hooded man winterfell killings. this prompts an outburst from ramsay to attack stannis. I don't think Ramsay would give a fuck about Myranda dying. He goes after Stannis to please his daddy In the books, didn't Ramsay use the Frey kid's death to go into a rage? ShowRamsay certainly cares a lot more about Myranda than BookRamsay cared about the Frey kid. Anyway, even if Ramsay views all people as expendable, he is really prickly about people disrespecting him or taking away his things.
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Post by janicia on Jun 1, 2015 12:51:26 GMT
Hmm, I read the Waif's objection kind of as concern. She doesn't seem to like Arya much, but it seemed like she was kind of worried about her. But maybe it was just jealousy.
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Post by janicia on Jun 1, 2015 12:48:38 GMT
I wonder how they’ll transition back into political drama at the start of episode 9. Suddenly all the stuff south of the Wall feels lower stakes, though I guess Jon trying to talk Thorne into opening the gate would elevate political wrangling in importance as Westeros’ only hope of dealing with the White Walkers.
Hardhome also raises the stakes on Stannis’ survival, since he’s the only one remotely likely to set up a dragonglass mining operation anytime soon. The Wall could really use Brienne and Oathkeeper – I wonder if she will end up there. Sansa has several good reasons to try to flee to the Wall – Jon is Lord Commander, Theon thinks Bran and Rickon might be there, and she doesn’t really have anywhere else to go. (But there are also pretty good reasons to think Sansa and Brienne go south to join up with the Riverlands plot, so I dunno.)
It was a good Sansa moment when she was sitting fully clothed and fuming at Theon. She was definitely channeling Catelyn.
And it was nice to see Arya smiling. I thought it was interesting that the Waif seems to care more about Arya surviving than Jaqen does.
So funny that Ramsay gets all those meta lines.
I thought it was interesting that Tyrion suggested the Tyrells as a possible alliance for Dany. Sounds about right. Though Tyrion notably didn’t mention the Dornish or Littlefinger.
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Post by janicia on Jun 1, 2015 12:38:40 GMT
Exactly! I almost appended my post with that special note but figured someone else would catch it and we could have good discussion about it. That anyone denied he's the Night's King was kind of silly anyways but now we know for certain that's his title and it's pretty damn exciting to think of what that means for Jon Snow. Surely the NK recognized who Jon Snow was, both as Lord Commander of the Night's Watch and as a Stark of Winterfell! The look of interest on his face was pretty obvious. Mightn't he have mistaken Jon for a Mormont, since Jon was carrying the Mormont sword instead of Ice? But yeah, he definitely was interested in / facing off with Jon.
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WWJD??
May 31, 2015 21:11:27 GMT
Post by janicia on May 31, 2015 21:11:27 GMT
So after Dany leaves, the three military forces in Mereen will be the Unsullied controlled by Greyworm, the mercenaries controlled by Dario, and the Sons of the Harpy who are aligned with, if not controlled by, Hizdahr. Greyworm and Dario seem to have a good working relationship. I doubt Missandei likes Dario much, but she probably believes that he follows Dany sincerely. Anyway, the mercenaries and Unsullied will probably continue to operate as a unified force for now.
Tyrion will assess this and make himself indispensable to Dario, Greyworm and Missandei while they deal with the SotH. Since Jorah is the only person Tyrion trusts in Mereen, Tyrion brings Jorah back into the inner circle. By the time they all meet back up with Dany, Jorah is firmly re-entrenched, Dario and/or Missandei have betrayed Dany, and Dany is ready to forgive Jorah's transgressions.
I don't see Jorah's story as particularly pathetic within the framework of GoT. Joer Mormont seems to have a more pathetic legacy. Joer presided over the final rotting out of the Night's Watch. Led the Night's Watch to devastating defeat north of the Wall rather than staying in a defensible position. Was killed by his own men. Lost his only son to exile, had to give his family sword to his steward. Tywin, for all his intelligence, seems to have set the destruction of his own family into motion and was murdered by his own son. And none of the Stark kids seem likely to ever experience romantic love. And people like Ros and Sandor only ever wanted a tiny little slice of the world that didn't hurt.
Jorah isn't ever going to get what he wants - happy marriage to the woman of his dreams. But nobody in this story gets what they want. Jorah hasn't had a particularly bad life. He had a good family, he married a beautiful woman, he got to see the world and go on adventures, he heard the singing of baby dragons, he is respected as a skilled warrior by whomever he meets. He's never been rich and he had to wear the same shirt for 5 years, but he rarely goes hungry.
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Post by janicia on May 31, 2015 19:57:30 GMT
Well, Gilly's baby is still a baby so it can't have been that long. He was born before RW. Maybe about 5 months? I think there's a plot glitch going on with the timeline to be honest. It's been pointed out by critics. Myrcella and many of the "kids" have aged up considerably since the Red Wedding but Gilly's baby is still a baby of less than 6 months old. Worlds slowest growing baby! I realize it's television, and they fudge things and leave it vague. Whatever. That kid should probably be at least a year or two old by now. I think putting a toddler in the Gilly storyline would be really distracting. Toddlers move around and shriek. They'd have to actually cast Little Sam, and then every Sam and Gilly scene would either be consumed by toddler antics, or each scene would raise the questions "where is Little Sam during this scene? - the Wall doesn't have babysitters" or "Little Sam is a toddler that never moves or makes any noise - is he dying?". Having Little Sam be a magical forever-baby might be the least problematic solution.
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Post by janicia on May 31, 2015 19:48:02 GMT
Dany's flight will be awesome: I keep thinking of the terrible sequence of Buffy riding and killing the giant snake in season 5.
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Post by janicia on May 31, 2015 15:00:59 GMT
It seems like Littlefinger has to go muster his army before he can die. The buildup about "what will Littlefinger do when he gets his army" should be paid off. And it also seems like Littlefinger and Varys should maybe have one final face off - the early seasons set this thing up very much as a Littlefinger vs Varys game and it would be really cool to get back to that ideal as the story wraps up. I don't think Littlefinger will be offed casually like Locke - Littlefinger is arguably the main villain of the entire show.
But I am so very curious about what happens in Winterfell to end the season. Keeping that book cliffhanger would be cruel!
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Post by janicia on May 30, 2015 1:41:40 GMT
I was assuming that Yara would interact with Stannis this season. Mostly because I think that would be a fun interaction - I think Stannis wouldn't really know what to make of her. But when I saw King Tommen saying that Yara would take on the role of Euron's lieutenant, I realized that made a lot more sense for the show. I do think a great way to introduce Euron's scariness is to show Yara freaking out when he shows up.
Yara and Asha might be permanently diverged at this point, or maybe have different adventures and then snap back into place for the ending.
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Post by janicia on May 29, 2015 18:35:05 GMT
Well said! There has been a lot of symbolism revolving around family and the importance of loyalty to your house and even, I daresay, strong female power themes - both good and bad in this season. Sansa's empowerment is the only one I have some niggling issues with and I have continued to hold my tongue on it until we see where the story is going for her because we absolutely cannot know what Sansa's endgame role is to be able to say what's happening to her right now is unnecessary or wrong not even based on the books. I am not justifying the terrible things they've put her through - it's broken my heart to see her battered and bruised ... but I hold out hope that this is something greater than any of us can see from our small vantage point this season. Much love y'all. Well, I'm hoping that "Mother's Mercy" doesn't refer to Sansa because I don't want her to be pregnant with Ramsay's child. But yeah, motherhood has been a big theme with Sansa as well. I really hope they pull off Sansa's arc this season and beyond.
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Post by janicia on May 29, 2015 18:30:12 GMT
I think even Tywin would have had problems with the smallfolk eventually. Their anger was mounting, and he could be pretty tone deaf. Tywin ravaged the Riverlands, sacked Kings Landing, had the baby prince and princess and queen murdered, and empowered men like the Mountain to rape and pillage. Anger over those atrocities probably would have come home to roost eventually. Tywin also allowed a lot of rottenness in his administration. The High Septon was rotten, the Grand Maester was rotten, nobody liked Varys or Littlefinger, the boy king was a bastard, and so on. One legacy of Tywin's rule was that the smallfolk loathed the Lannisters.
Olenna and Tywin both signed off on Joffrey and Margaery's ostentatious wedding at a time of austerity and suffering. In the books, Tywin wanted to send Tommen back to Casterly Rock and rule in his stead, which seemed unlikely to go over well.
If Tywin had lived long enough, there would have been a smallfolk rebellion against him. Tywin's instinct would have been to crush it mercilessly. And that could well have backfired into a full on peasant revolt. The smallfolk hated him and had very little to lose, especially with winter coming.
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