Game of Thrones

[Warpsmasher]

I always took the end of book 5 as a foreshadowing that she would get the Dothraki armies, so that part's not a surprise. I also thought the immunity to fire was a one-time thing. I've always had doubts that she'll survive the series though. No one is safe, and she's no exception.

Tormund having the hots for Brienne is the best thing about this season so far.

[pigmaker]

Tormund having the hots for Brienne is the best thing about this season so far.

lol for sure, that face when he first saw her, i make that exact same face when i see a hot chick. even before the dinner table scene i knew what was up. could make for some great comic relief this season

[psychic vampire.]

https://gfycat.com/GlitteringEntireHoiho

There you go. I will die on the hill of Jon and Tormund boning down, just because i love their bromance.

[Gone Fission]

Everybody seems to have the "mehs" about a screenwriter-plotted season. Me, too, mostly. Still, a point about last night's episode:

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A bit unsettling that Sansa plotted to sacrifice loyal Northmen in a trick, not just in straight battle. Including Jon. Do you suppose he even figured it out but accepted it a necessary cost?

[Strange Tales]

Everybody seems to have the "mehs" about a screenwriter-plotted season. Me, too, mostly. Still, a point about last night's episode:

NSFW: show

A bit unsettling that Sansa plotted to sacrifice loyal Northmen in a trick, not just in straight battle. Including Jon. Do you suppose he even figured it out but accepted it a necessary cost?

NSFW: show

I feel like that would've went different if they waited you know, like one god damn day like Sansa has been saying for the past 2 or 3 episodes.

[psychic vampire.]

The writing has been super off and lackluster in a lot of aspects of this season. A lot about the plotting of last night suffered, but really, i wound up being more okay with the episode than i thought i would be based off the spoilers and set leaks i was reading. The cinematography alone did a lot to coax me.

[popvulture]

I'd been out of town and watched the last two episodes last night. I'm with y'all on most of it. I guess more than anything I overwhelmingly feel like

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They've made it so much much more predictable and Hollywood as they've diverted from the books. Too many things to list, but:

Arya gets shanked in the gut several times, knife twisted, yet is somehow ok a few days later, or at least until she falls down some stairs and I guess re-agitates her wounds. Even then still has a swordfight.

Blackfish's "I'm going to go down as a fighting old man" goodbye speech was maybe the dumbest thing I've seen all season.

Ramsay v John was of course pretty damn awesome, but of course fucking Baelish comes over the hill at the very end, just in the nick of time.

It's all really not bad—I'm not complaining, because I still totally enjoy watching it. I just feel like it could've been so much better, which is exactly what I've been worried about since I've heard about the plans to go off-book.

I guess the one thing that's really surprised me this season was introducing Ian McShane's character and killing him off in the same episode. I would've imagined HBO would at least milk that a little longer.

I'm really psyched that the Brotherhood are back... I suppose this means we can expect zombie Catelyn next episode?

[Strange Tales]

Yea, I don't think it's a coincidence that the writing has gone downhill just as they've run out of material to adapt from finished books.

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They randomly murder people in Dorne and uh we haven't been there for the majority of the season now.

Dany is somehow more shit in the show than the books.

King's Landing seems to be the only place with actual political intrigue now, everyone elses story line just seems to be wafting around and loosely connecting together.

Looks like they just decided to fuck around with the Kingsmoot. I don't know what the fuck all of that was.

[bigchiefbc]

Everybody seems to have the "mehs" about a screenwriter-plotted season. Me, too, mostly. Still, a point about last night's episode:

NSFW: show

A bit unsettling that Sansa plotted to sacrifice loyal Northmen in a trick, not just in straight battle. Including Jon. Do you suppose he even figured it out but accepted it a necessary cost?

NSFW: show

There were very few actual northmen in that army, it was almost entirely wildlings, which Sansa has no particular feelings for. I don't totally fathom yet why she didn't tell Jon, unless she didn't trust that Jon would stick to an actual battle plan and would let Ramsey goad him into a dumb move, which is what actually ended up happening.

And count me out of that group having the mehs. I fucking love this season. Because they don't have to worry about Martin burying them into a neverending series of unsolvable plots that go nowhere. (like Dorne, or the last 3 seasons of Dany's plot) They can just get shit done.

[psychic vampire.]

Sorry, i'm used to talking about the show in the incredibly spoiler friendly r/FreeFolk...

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Season 5 was the pretty clear indicator that as they moved away from GRRM's writing they moved into trite nonsense. The clusterfuck of Dorne's plotline is the most telling aspect of this. Also, just the utter bastardization of Jaime's character, who is still a terrible human being in the books, but at least is growing and changing in interesting ways, even if i still hate him.

It is very clear the show has moved towards Hollywood moments and shock value. I knew that Littlefinger lead/Knights of the Vale cavalry charge was going to end the BastardBowl for months, and it frustrated the hell out of me knowing yet another battle in this show was going to be cavalry ex machina. I actually enjoyed the Northern Storyline this season, but compared to the weird conspiratorial political intrigue of ADWD, this season was more about what would make headlines, obvz, and the story did suffer for it. It was still a terrific battle scene though. This season has been a lot better than season 5, but still not anywhere near the seasons 1-3 or 4 caliber.

Dany's character has always been one that i felt was punishing the readers for wanting the girl with dragons to win, as it becomes increasingly clearer that she is a terrible ruler, a child, and probably going out of her violent damn mind. The show, on the other hand, bends over backwards to make things go her way and give her these "Epic" moments with the dragons. It's trite, and boring, and i hope those fucking dragons die off more horrifically than the god damn unnecessary direwolf deaths this season went to great lengths to remind us of.

I understand a season with 10 hours of content didn't have time for Victarion Greyjoy, but i really adore the asshole pirates from dickhead island, and wish their plot was a little more flushed out than just them being a vessel for Dany's return to Westeros (because yet more things have to go her way), and the awful/wonderful gay-baiting of Yara/Daenarys.

Popvulture: People on r/freefolk have been going out of their god damn minds at the thing with Arya getting stabbed, the knife getting twisted, and her living. Arya's whole Faceless Man plot was mostly a travesty with a few good moments. After directing the episode where Arya gets stabbed, and the season 5 episode where the most highly trained, elite fighting force in the world (the unsullied) and the greatest swordsman in the world (Barristan Selmy) decide to break formation and get fucked by some nobles with masks and knives, it seems clear that Mark Mylod is a terrible director? Oh well.

Who's pumped for the finale next week? KINGINDANORF?

[popvulture]

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Yeah I'm with you on seeing the Vale cavalry thing from miles away—it was so obvious but I kept thinking "are they really going to do this?" For a second I did think that maybe Jon would just die and the Ramsay shit would just bleakly continue on... in a way I feel like that would've been much more GRRM.

The Dany shit is also so dumb to me. Every time she rides a dragon, I groan—the show seems to have some pretty great VFX but those moments always seem like the absolute nadir of their skill set. Basically it reminds me of Falcor/The Never Ending Story, only not awesome.

In the finale... I dunno. I'd be stoked for some more good Hound/Thoros/Beric moments, zombie Catelyn, some cool Bran Greenseer stuff (maybe acknowledge some theories that in some kind of loop he's Brandon the Builder), whatever Margery has planned.

I wish they'd just kill Cersei, but I'm not expecting that to happen. Oh and I wanna see something bad happen to the Faith Militant, because I think they're the dumbest element of the entire series and I'm sick of watching them.

[Strange Tales]

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They really, really changed everything with the Iron Isles. I wanted Victarion sailing with Morroqo and his sweet ass burning hand of fire (I think I'm remembering that correctly, it's been like 5 or 6 years since I've read ADoD)

I think Lady Stoneheart isn't going to happen? I don't know, it's like the show is deliberately fucking with people on if it will happen or not.

The faith militant gets a pass because Margery is like the most interesting character on the show now. I wanna know what she has going on. I imagine Cersei is going to last maybe through the finale, but will probably get killed next season. That's my guess anyway. I don't know how she hasn't died yet because she has made 0 good decisions in the entire series.

[psychic vampire.]

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Last we saw Cersei, she was discussing some insidious fucking secrets with Qyburn. Shit is gonna get strange and bad, before it gets better, in KL at least.

At this point Lady Stoneheart is almost certainly not appearing. She wasn't in the season 4 finale at the end of ASoS where she belonged, and there were multiple points where she was set up this season, but now that Beric is back, it pretty much definitely means she won't be around.

Victarion's crispy burnt hand and Moqorro's mysterious end game would have been a lot more fun than Euron basically being turned into a Donald Trump insert.

Even after reading tons of spoilers, i honestly don't know where Margaery is going to end up, let alone Cersei or the rest of KL, but apparently next week's episode is supposed to have huge shit. There have been a lot of allusions this season to what i think is going to happen. Whether that was foreshadowing, or setting up excited idiots like me i don't know.

[bigchiefbc]

Wow, I feel so completely and totally opposite from you guys, I'm not sure we can even have a fruitful conversation about this.

[psychic vampire.]

I mean, i don't seek to convince you, i meet plenty of people who prefer the show, or have simply never even read the books. It's fine. I think there are a lot of things that are still very enjoyable about the show, i just am frustrated by the selective ignorance that leads to things like

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characters getting stabbed repeatedly in the guts and jumping into dirty water and being fine to go for a run the next day.

But that is not to say that GRRM doesn't do similar things sometimes in the books. There are plenty of instances of plot armor or just kind of selective ignorance in both mediums. Show is just fresher on my (and many people's) minds bc there hasn't been a new book in half a decade.

I prefer the books, but that's for other reasons. Or these reasons and others.