It's Euron, mate.
It's Euron, mate.
I was just about to say that.Originally Posted by Mahow
Lolling at nomenclature while getting it wrong. More power to you, Adamski. You're nothing if not consistent.
How, other than being a ninja or the Iron Islands actually being as sparsely populated as they're portrayed, is he supposed to have arrived, entered and navigated the castle, and pitched up on the bridge he knew the King would be using, suggesting it's at least in close proximity to his own chambers, without being stopped or noticed.
Incidentally, it seems odd that they'd come back into the story the episode after the Leaver of Friends' fleet was burned down. The best trained sailors in the world and the invading force with a mutual enemy seem like a match made in The Flames.
That scene with Captain Pugwash being thrown to his death was utterly absurd on several levels. Firstly, why is there a rickety rope bridge between two bits of his castle? Secondly, why is the elderly king attempting to cross such a rickety rope bridge, on his own, in the middle of the night, during a severe storm? Thirdly, how has the decidedly middle-aged Euron managed to ghost into the place and ghost out again without anybody noticing?
The rest of it was OK. Tommen will get bummed to death quite soon. Oh well. Who is king after that?
He will almost certainly die given they killed off all 3 of his heirs within 2 episodes (if you ignore Stannis being a traitor, at least).
There's no one left. It probably gets traced back to Dany, just to make her storyline even more pointless.
Lover of Nicknames pissing around in the Med has been a lot of things, but it isn't pointless. It only becomes pointless if she somehow dies before setting foot in Westeros, which won't happen. As it is, she'll piss around with the incredibly gullible Dothraki bloke a bit longer, get back to her place around episode five, whinge about the slavers taking their shit back for an episode or two, and be furnished with a fleet through somehow linking up with the Iron twats in the last episode.
You're right, that was a poor choice of words. Just meant more along the lines of it really hasn't gone very far over the 5 and a bit seasons. I actually enjoy those scenes more than most people on here (it seems) but she really needs to get her act together and just invade. If that ends up being how it all ends (meaning we'll have to wait another 2-3 seasons for them to figure out how it happens) I'll be a bit annoyed.
I'm really happy with their choice to basically bin the Iron Islands until they become (presumably) relevant. Rather than having them cut to a scene every second episode of Balon sitting on the throne being grumpy, before eventually dying midway through the last season and then nothing happening for ages. They had enough faith in the viewers to assume we'd be able to pick up the thread again when it mattered. Good on them.
EDIT: The rickety bridge was definitely foreshadowed in the credit sequence when Pyke came up out of the map, too. Bridges wobbling all over the place.
They did throw in a little curveball at the popular book-related theory that Jon warged into the direwolf. By making him stir first, they did do a quick bait-and-switch.
I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for him to act that scene, but he absolutely nailed it. That said, I'd watch Tyrion and Varys wandering around and bantering for hours.Tyrion with the dragons represented the furthest out of the park a ball has been whacked on this show since Oberyn told him a story. That he presumably done it acting opposite a clothes horse with some tennis balls on it makes it perhaps more impressive than the scene about his 'little pink cock'.
Also, given that Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams were both hired as nobodys with barely any acting experience, the fact that the both of them turned out to be outstanding actors must be incredibly satisfying to the casting agents.
Although the hands-down best acting performance on the show, and I'm including Peter Dinklange in this, has been Alfie Allen. Even when his storyline was stuttering, he was conveying his character perfectly every time he was on screen. He's gone from brash to cowardly to despairing to hopeless, and now he's capturing a small chance at redemption. I realise there are a number of actors who are bringing their A-game to every episode in which they appear (see also: Liam Cunningham, Jonathan Pryce), but his arc must have been incredibly challenging to pull off, and he's done it spot-on.
It does seem like they're only bringing the islands back as they're about to become worthwhile, and the aforementioned burning of the Forgoer of Facial Expressions' ships adds weight to that, but they brought in a top level actor to head the Dorne scenes last year and then did absolutely fuck all with them so I'll hold fire on the praise for now.I'm really happy with their choice to basically bin the Iron Islands until they become (presumably) relevant. Rather than having them cut to a scene every second episode of Balon sitting on the throne being grumpy, before eventually dying midway through the last season and then nothing happening for ages. They had enough faith in the viewers to assume we'd be able to pick up the thread again when it mattered. Good on them.
EDIT: The rickety bridge was definitely foreshadowed in the credit sequence when Pyke came up out of the map, too. Bridges wobbling all over the place.
They must know that book readers make up a small portion of their audience, so that sort of low level subterfuge can't be considered anything more than a wink at this point. Even something as small as ending the scene on Ghost perking up or having Jon open his eyes peacefully would have made it feel different and somewhat original. The only way to inject some actual tension into the scene would have been to have Alliser knife him at the beginning of this season rather than the end of last, so that there were ten fewer months for people to mull over the state of play if he was actually dead, but they could have improved on the staging in a hundred different ways.
A spinoff with Tyrion and Varys walking around various fictional landscapes remarking upon what's going on would definitely have my admission fee. Stick them in Baltimore and I'll fund the fucking thing myself.
Sophie Turner is good but Maisie Williams is tremendous. Which makes it a shame that their respective looks will mean that Sophie Turner will have a huge career while Maisie Williams will be a bit player and occasional lead.
About sixty percent of Alfie Allen's acting is his haircut. He's capable, but on the spectrum of the show's performances he's much closer to Littlefinger than to Tyrion.
I'd rate them the other way, to be honest. I think Sophie Turner has had more subtle work to do, while Maisie Williams has only had to do very broad brush acting.
Also, Jon Snow coming back to life barely even registers as a twist at this point, so going over the top with the dramatic reveal would have been a bit hollow.
He's the brother of the King, why would he have to be stopped or enter the castle unnoticed?
The cliff the castle towers stands on has been eroded, so the only way to access each tower is using the rope bridges.
If anyone had seen him on the way in or out, the King's brother having returned after twenty years on the night he died and then missed his send off, the 'whoever did this' stuff at the funeral would ring hollow and false. I suppose they could create a retroactive conspiracy if they want to do Dorne again with shite weather, but I doubt they're that daft.
Not killing Balon before now made the whole 'leeches' thing a bit weird, given that 2 of the 3 died fast and Balon just hung around for fucking ages. That said just having him die and then postponing the story probably wouldn't have been any better, so I guess they made the best of a bad situation. If the books are anything to go by it should be more interesting than Dorne... but you never know I guess.
I've said for a long time I'd watch a Tyrion and Varys walking around spin off. Even more so if they can add Bronn.
"Tyrion and Varys explores the world of Game of Thrones" would be so much more enjoyable than this show. Get all of the mosaic that GRRRRRRRRM has created but removing all of the convoluted plot threads.
I could do with less of the Mexican soap opera directing though, with people talking to the wall (primarily Cersei) and stuff like the extended scene where the camera shows Tommen and Cersei hugging from outside the balcony and the appropriate music playing. I mean I don't mind the odd scene here and there, but it happens too often for my liking.
Also for me (and basically all of my friends), Turner's acting ranges from bad to meh. Maybe it's the accent? I don't know.
After a discussion about the show at work I've been watching some quality scenes from previous series. This is still a favourite:
There's about fifteen seconds after Joffrey accuses Tywin of "hiding under Casterley Rock" where not a single word is said but it's just perfect. And Dance does that tiny turn of the head and slight hardening of the expression in response.
Are we due any more Dance in this series? I'm hoping so via Bran's flashbacks, the useless little gimp.
Joffrey's "oh shit, I've overstepped" face when Tywin glares at him is brilliant too.
I always thought Lena Headey did excellent work whenever she was on screen opposite Joffrey. She always managed to convey that her character knew exactly how much of a horrible little bastard her son was, but that she loved and was concerned about him regardless.
That final Tyrion/Tywin exchange is so good.
The best ACTING scene in the whole thing remains Oberyn telling Tyrion the story of his 'little pink cock' but Tywin would feature heavily in a top ten.
Having checked which episodes Charles Dance appeared in I was surprised that he'd only been in half of those aired so far. Obviously he wasn't around at all last year but even before that he was only in two thirds, which seems low given how prominent he was and what a massive shadow he cast.
The flashbacks seem to be going back so far - one of the clips in the trailer has someone in a King's Guard helmet with a dragon sigil on their armour - that any Tywin appearance would probably need to be recast.
Nah, apart from Zombie Jon Snow which everyone saw coming anyway, and Roose, which was also fairly expected for people who've paid attention, nothing was new last week to book readers.
It also had the advantage of subtly reminding people about the fact that Melisandre does actually possess powerful magic, which is easy to forget given that it's a while since she's used any.
Tywin was so good. I hope he gets flashed back to.
I wonder what Littlefinger's up to now that all his plans seem to have come to nothing.
Marrying off Sansa to Ramsay seems to have been a colossal miscalculation on his part. He had to know that Ramsay was a loon who would abuse her until she either died or escaped.
I wonder if Gendry will be rowing for another season.
For any flashbacks is it not likely it would be all the way back to Robert's Rebellion though, like the one in the next episode? i.e. no chance of Charles Dance
He does have the Knights of The Vale at his disposal. I wouldn't be surprised to see them make an appearance when the battle at Winterfell takes place, going by his scene with Cersei in season 5.
I really loved that flashback in the book, glad they kept a lot of the dialogue.
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Things really are moving now. That training montage did more for 'A. Girl' than the entire last series.
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Good episode that.
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Probably because if you show your tits all the time you get typecast as an actress who shows her tits all the time.
When she was first in it she was an unknown, so getting the mammaries out would have been more of a needs must sort of thing.
Good episode. As Lewis said, things are moving at a pace now.
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Even Ramsay managed to be relatively interesting in that episode.
That was excellent.
Do you see what you get olly? Do you see what you get when you mess with the warrior?
It's going well. The Starks are on the march.
The episode also showed that we need more Tormund in episodes.
Him and Jon Snow having a jolly around the country on his way to the dragons would be amazing.
I was genuinely worried he was going to let the little fucker live. Even when he was hanging, I half expected him to just cut Olly down . Held firm though.
I think I'm going to miss Ser Alliser though.
Quite enjoy this reading of it-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqv-UtJQk5Q
One thing I was wondering when watching it, and maybe the the book people can help me out here (unless it's one of those situations where they've branched off from the book), but when did this cool bastard die:
?
The Red Wedding, presumably? I can't remember seeing it though, and I feel like he was a big enough character that we would have. That was meant to be his son, who brought Rickon to Ramsey, right? He mentioned something about killing his own father if he wasn't already dead.
He made it out of The Red Wedding AFAIK. Could it be that Smalljon Umber is setting a trap for Ramsay?
Also, mentions of 'Ser Gregor' and 'trial by combat' in this episode are hinting towards a popular fan theory coming to fruition this season.
He did make it out of the Red Wedding and we only learnt about his death because of what his Son said.
In the TV show Rickon was sent to the Umber's for protection.
The alleged direwolf head looked a bit small to be a direwolf if you ask me. Umbers are historically loyal to the Starks as they said in the episode, so I reckon something fishy could be going on there, trying to overthrow the Boltons and seat Rickon at Winterfell.
Why use the actual Rickon in that case?
The 'Your Dad was a cunt and you're a cunt but I need you to kill some cunts for me' bit was good.
What is he going to do with Rickon, then? Anyone worth their salt would have had his head off well before the end of that scene.
That was a decent episode. Absolutely no idea what is going on in Meereen, but plus ça change.
I'm inclined to agree with your previous analysis that they simply have no way of getting Dany to Westeros without it being a massive anti-climax. She should really be building an army now, not fucking about in Vaes Dothrak, as cool as seeing it is.
Varys was an absolute don, once again.
Agreed, Varys was the best bit.
No idea where this Rickon thing is going. Ramsey surely should have killed him there and then.
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