GAME OF THRONES Rules Thread 7 7

[Antpark]

Didn't like this episode at all, mainly because of reasons already stated.

A couple major points for me:

• The super-accurate ballista that got 3 shots on a flying dragon from a moving boat before couldn't hit the broadside of a barn from stationary platforms while prepared, waiting, and expecting the dragon attack. This same dragon was then able to take out EVERY SINGLE ONE of them (on boats and atop the castle walls) without so much as getting nicked.
• Varys, who has survived many rulers prior, suddenly gets careless and allows himself to be caught? A man of many words had none at the end for Daenerys - not even a warning of not turning into that which you're trying to defeat?
• The vaunted Golden Company as nothing more than Dragonfire fodder?
• The city surrenders and Daenerys basically says "F' it" and begins wholesale slaughter? Why not go right for the Red Keep and Cesei? I could understand burning the keep down with Cersei in it, but what was the point of flying around and burning unimportant parts of the city? Cersei might be trying to escape, but let's burn down shantytown and the marketplace instead?

I noticed that there were never any shots of Daenerys once she starts burning everything. I'm guessing even Emilia Clark couldn't sell this "madness" that suddenly came over Daenerys.

[Bosco685]

4 minutes ago, Doc McCoy said:

So, clowns, making a comeback or overly used tropes for GOT Memes?  Discuss.

Yes.

[comix4fun]

Just now, zhamlau said:

Dany only cared about building an army and killing anyone who stood in her way. “The breaker of chains” was just marketing. She only gave gifts that cost her nothing but she felt helped gain her end goal. Sparing Sams family might have slightly inconvenienced her by allowing someone defy her will publicly, so at least one honorable man had to die screaming and on fire while she thought about what was for lunch.

Cersei either wanted the throne or have it be destroyed, Option A or B. She knew Dany was he fathers daughter. All she had to do was provoke her into getting her and her dragon killed in some wild arrogant offensive giving Cersei desired option A...OR her forces can’t stop them but Danys violent Targaryen tendencies would take over and she would turn the city so against her she could never truly be queen...Cersei got option B.

People wanted Dany to be some hero because they projected that onto her.  This however is not who she ever truly was. She was just a broken person with a core of hurt and fear that drove her. In the end the desire for power and her own fears drove her to their worst natural tendencies.

 

Which is all fine and an acceptable character progression for the overall story.

 

However, in valuing speed over quality, they had her go from Zero-to-Nero in 1.2 seconds....and provided the audience with "Oh, they killed my best buddy" and "Oh, my nephew won't kiss me as hard as I want him to" hopelessly shallow pretexts for her abandoning all rational thought and action and slaughtering innocents when her actions heretofore have been to punish only the enemy, the disloyal, or the treacherous. 

Would have been fine to get her there. Not fine to force the story there. 

[adampasz]

* SPOILERS (duh) *

I enjoyed it, and felt it was consistent with what the show has always been: a solid dark fantasy, with great world-building, that occasionally gets too up its own butt and becomes just silly.

For me, the dragon attack was a legit. "woo-hoo" moments. Overall, I felt the battle scenes were better executed than the previous 2 episodes.

Dani's turn was surprising, yet still clearly motivated by her experiences. If the producers had chosen a more traditional arc for her, fans would complain that the end was too predictable.

Jamie's end was kind of pathetic, but in line with his character. He always gave in to his weaknesses, and never earned any kind of redemption. 

Cleganebowl was gory fun. Not sure what else they could have done there to lend it more stakes. Maybe a callback to the original conflict between the brother would have helped...

Arya's choice to leave was surprising, but, again, consistent with the show's pattern of under-cutting its hero figures.  I'm sure she'll be critical to the last episode, so we'll have to see where she ends up.

Varys's end was a bit of a flop. I feel like the show never had a good handle on what to do with him. I think a "bottle episode" with Varys really would have helped.  Doesn't he still have that sorcerer in his luggage?

Anyway, that's my 2¢.

Edited May 13, 2019 by adampasz

[awakeintheashes]

33 minutes ago, jcjames said:

This sums up so much of my same frustrations.

Benioff & Weiss utterly destroyed almost every character's "character" that was built up for the last 6-7 years.

GONE are the episodes of patient story-telling and intricate character development.

SO many well-layed out complex character and story-arcs were just ham-handedly trampled and cast aside this season.

Benioff & Weiss were handed "The Godfather" and they turned it into "Fast & Furious Meets The Transformers".

So bad!

 

I think that's a bit extreme... It's more like they were handed The Godfather Parts 1 & 2 and they turned it into The Godfather Part 3.

[Bosco685]

 

[awakeintheashes]

1 minute ago, Bosco685 said:

 

 That's actually pretty funny.

[comix4fun]

14 minutes ago, awakeintheashes said:

I think that's a bit extreme... It's more like they were handed The Godfather Parts 1 & 2 and they turned it into The Godfather Part 3.

More accurate for sure, not any less egregious though.  

[jcjames]

23 minutes ago, awakeintheashes said:

I think that's a bit extreme... It's more like they were handed The Godfather Parts 1 & 2 and they turned it into The Godfather Part 3.

LOL okay but did Godfather 3 make almost everything seem frantic and have have gigantic things crushing and destroying whole cities for seemingly no reason?

 

Edited May 13, 2019 by jcjames

[comix4fun]

Just now, jcjames said:

LOL okay but did Godfather 3 make almost everything seem frantic and have have gigantic things crushing and destroying whole cities?

 

No ....it had Sophia Coppola trying to act.... Po-Tay-To/Po-Tah-To

[awakeintheashes]

1 minute ago, comix4fun said:

No ....it had Sophia Coppola trying to act.... Po-Tay-To/Po-Tah-To

Ugh...please don't remind me.

[Flaming_Telepath]

I really don't get the angst of Dany 'turning'. It has been on the cards now for three/four seasons and has simply built and built.

She has been played as the epitome of the 'Don't you know who I am?' guy. Those who answered in the negative have usually met with a fiery death. She even exiled her most trusted companion, and most fervent defender, (Ser Jorah) because he had been employed as a spy before he even met her. Her list of titles was all she desired, her desperate need to be somebody and have her due.

The build to her finally cracking was, IMHO, very well done.

She came to Westeros thinking she would be hailed as a saviour...but everybody either feared her, distrusted her, or didn't know who she was.

She came to reclaim what was rightfully hers...and then discovered that it wasn't.

She came with a mighty army at her back...and then lost half of it.

She had three dragons, her children...and she lost two of them.

She found love again...and then it was taken from her.

She was betrayed by everybody...Jon, Sansa, Tyrion, Varys.

All the hints have been there for seasons, but they've been ramped up since the start of this season. Remember the scene with Jamie and the Starks when she gets in Jamie's face about what he did to her father? By then she knew exactly what her father had been, and what he intended, but it did not matter...what mattered was that Jamie had betrayed him.

Finally, it was Missandei's words on the battlements that cracked her. 'Dracarys' she said, an perfect echo of the Mad King's 'burn them all'.

 

[kimik]

2 hours ago, PunisherPunisherPunisher said:

The Mountain is a zombie lol...The Hound did everything he could 

 

When the Mountain's helmet was knocked off the first thing I thought was - he looks just like Jason did in the 80s Friday the 13th movies with his mask off.

Edited May 13, 2019 by kimik

[Bosco685]

Uh-oh.

Quote

ESPN's SportsCenter anchor Michael Eaves began his basketball recap with a major spoiler, revealing a huge character death before the episode even began to air on the west coast. And fans were livid, to say the least. Once the spoilers hit, the network was immediately bombarded with tweets from fans who were none too thrilled by this major reveal.

 

 

[kimik]

While I was fine with the episode last night, they are rushing things way too much. So basically, all Dany needed to do 2 seasons ago was fly across on Drogon and lay waste to Westeroos? They could have saved a few $10s of millions and ended up in the same place. The fact that you had the entire Lanister army behind the wall and nobody with a spear or bow/arrow to shoot at Drogon was a rushed oversight as well. 

I guess the only question now is whether John or Arya kills Dany before she uses Drogon on Winterfell.........

Edited May 13, 2019 by kimik

[comix4fun]

Just now, Flaming_Telepath said:

I really don't get the angst of Dany 'turning'. It has been on the cards now for three/four seasons and has simply built and built.

She has been played as the epitome of the 'Don't you know who I am?' guy. Those who answered in the negative have usually met with a fiery death. She even exiled her most trusted companion, and most fervent defender, (Ser Jorah) because he had been employed as a spy before he even met her. Her list of titles was all she desired, her desperate need to be somebody and have her due.

The build to her finally cracking was, IMHO, very well done.

She came to Westeros thinking she would be hailed as a saviour...but everybody either feared her, distrusted her, or didn't know who she was.

She came to reclaim what was rightfully hers...and then discovered that it wasn't.

She came with a mighty army at her back...and then lost half of it.

She had three dragons, her children...and she lost two of them.

She found love again...and then it was taken from her.

She was betrayed by everybody...Jon, Sansa, Tyrion, Varys.

All the hints have been there for seasons, but they've been ramped up since the start of this season. Remember the scene with Jamie and the Starks when she gets in Jamie's face about what he did to her father? By then she knew exactly what her father had been, and what he intended, but it did not matter...what mattered was that Jamie had betrayed him.

Finally, it was Missandei's words on the battlements that cracked her. 'Dracarys' she said, an perfect echo of the Mad King's 'burn them all'.

 

That's all accurate, except for the part where she's suddenly willing to slaughter every last man, woman and child in the city...people that did nothing to her, that she'd never seen or met, that gave her no provocation, basis, or reason for what they got. 

They skipped a whole bunch of steps to get her to where she's willing to kill everyone as opposed to every single indicator from her past actions which was fiery vengeance targeted to those that opposed her. 

It's slap-dash-race-to-the-finish character wrap up. 

What's been in the cards for three/four seasons just had her take a moral/ethical leap that's more than she's moved in the entirety of those three/four seasons. 

[fastballspecial]

12 hours ago, bentbryan said:

One thing that I really didn’t like 

  Reveal hidden contents

Jamie and Cersei taken out by bricks?! C’mon that is pretty lame!

 

Totally agree that was too good for them.

[Catwomancomics]

The show makes a great big deal about Cersei purchasing the help of the Golden Company and they are taken out in seconds what a waste.

[punksdropdirtysrh]

They’re doing my Queen dirty and I don’t like it. I did see it coming but they are rushing it way too much. The first half of the episode was mucho excite then she “goes bad” and I wished Dave and Dan would appear so I could scream at them. 

This season needed a couple more episodes. We'll see how it goes. 

[comix4fun]

3 minutes ago, Catwomancomics said:

The show makes a great big deal about Cersei purchasing the help of the Golden Company and they are taken out in seconds what a waste.

They should have named them "The Golden Plot Device" so at least we'd know why they were there.