HBO Game of Thrones Season 6!

[Lexx]

Me neither and I don't get what the fuzz is about her.

[ktchong]

Three underwhelming episodes in a row.

Edited June 13, 2016 by ktchong

[Longknife]

THIS WEEK IN GAME OF THRONES....

 

"Grrrr I am the Hound and I am mad so I will avenge my friends."
"Hello Hound, we are the group you seek to murder and we are also mad at those guys and we're killing them for you."
"Oh.....well ****."
 

"I am Jaime Lannister and I am on a redemption character arc, so I am going to offer you nice, peaceful terms if you simply comply and surrender the castle."
"You're a **** and a kingslayer you worthless sack of ****."
"Did I say I am on a redemption arc? I meant it's painfully obvious the writers are trying to stretch out my storyline as long as possible, so I will now proclaim that Cersei is best girl and if you do not surrender the castle I'll rip off your kid's **** and feed it to him before drowning him....also tell Brienne I said hi and ask her if she's doing anything saturday night."
 

"CLEGANEBOWL GET HYPE."
"The High Sparrow has deemed hype a sin in the eyes of the Gods, and therefore there shall be no trial by combat."
"Well ****."
 

"I am Arya Stark, everyone is speculating I am actually Jaqen or some complex, cunning plan or test on his behalf where the Waif is actually the one being tricked."
"Is it true?"
"No lol, brb killing the Waif off camera and then leaving."
 

"I AM DAENERYS TARGARYEN, QUEEN OF THE ANDALS, THE RHOYNAR AND THE FIRST MEN, QUEEN OF MEREEN, KHALEESI OF THE GREAT GRASS SEA, BREAKER OF CHAINS AND MOTHER OF DRAGONS, AND IT HAS BEEN AN ENTIRE EPISODE SINCE I GOT TO SCREAM MY TITLES WITH SOME SMUG BITCHY SMIRK ON MY FACE WHILE PARTAKING IN A MELODRAMATIC AND POINTLESS SCENE, SO HERE I AM BEING SMUG AND MELODRAMATIC."

 

"I am Lancel and we are here to create an excuse for the Mountain to kill some ****."
*The Mountain kills a man*
"K that's enough. Bye."
 

 

 

EDIT: What the HELL is up with the spacing of this post? Does tampering with text size make a post drunk?

Edited June 13, 2016 by Longknife

[BruceVC]

Guys I am really enjoying this series but most of you seem unreasonably negative? I dont over analyze each episode..maybe thats why, besides for me the real story will be in the next book   

[Longknife]

People are being pretty hard on it, but some stuff is pretty bad. The Hound in episode 7 for example left on a note that implied an upcoming conflict and possibly the resurfacing of a book character. Instead no, his conflict was resolved in a matter of seconds. It was a blatant bait-and-switch where they attempted to hype the conflict up, and then lo and behold instead we get nothing. And Jaime, as I implied, I feel the writers are spending TOO much time on his inner conflicts. We're at the stages where we should start to see pay off of his character development, and while overall it is there, it's still amidst mixed signals and seems to be there solely for the purpose of dragging it out, like "filler" except the filler is just the same character development being repeated for the third time.

There was also an image they released that heavily implied Syrio Forel would return; there was a guy behind the waif that had his sillouette almost exactly. The issue is clear: the show is not above playing into hype for viewership. The Hound "conflict" sums that up best: in reality the conflict was practically non-existent, but we left on a note that implied serious problems with the Brotherhood without Banners and that he'd be going nuts on a quest for vengence. Nope, none of that. Nothing whatsoever.

In short I think people are annoyed because the show, it's previews and snippets of it's writing are condoning themselves as though this is god damned DBZ and we need a really hyped up "NEXT TIME ON THE NEXT EXCITING EPISODE OF DRAGON BALL Z: HERE'S AN OBSCURE SILLHOUETTE THAT LOOKS LIKE KHAL DROGO ON THE IRON THRONE. IS HE RETURNING??????????????" Then you get the episode and it turns out it was Tommen with a bad hair day and it's like wtf. The writing of this show can stand up on it's own, they don't need this bait and switch crap and clearly all it does is annoy people.

[majestic]

That was entirely terrible. I'm usually good at this sort of thing, but can someone explain to me how Arya not only survived four stab wounds to the gut which then got exposed to Braavos' certainly not very clean sea water in a world with no antibiotics (if by some stretch all four stabs missed the intestines) and after a good night's sleep on morphine leaps out of the window, manages to kill the Waif off-screen and then sasses Jaqen as if nothing ever happened and his only reaction is a weird smile?

[Rosbjerg]

It's going the way it often goes when series writers run out of source materiel - they revert back to the 'ol tried and true clichés, with plot armor and poorly patched together stories, inadequately fleshed out or explained  - sprinkled with copious amounts of action... when in doubt I guess.

 

Of course they've managed to keep me entertained for 5 seasons so far, even though 6 is subpar, so I can certainly forgive them that. I just hope they listen to the criticism and get back on track by season 7..

[Longknife]

Here's my issue:

 

I predict Wun Wun and one other character (Davos? Tormund?) will die next episode, and I take issue with this. I take issue with this not because I like those characters, but because things are becoming TOO predictable. They're killing off ANY character that lacks plot relevance or proves expendable. Last night's episode...? When Lady Crane was initially spared I explicitly thought "woah wtf she's gonna live," simply because Arya is the ONLY tie to Braavos and thus if she leaves Braavos without Lady Crane's death, then there's no reason to revisit Crane and kill her off. I found that surprising given her lack of importance. Sure enough and completely unsurprisingly, Lady Crane was shoehorned back into the episode specifically so she could be killed off.

 

It's becoming a trope ffs. If you're expendable, you die. The problem is that this far into the series, the important characters are blatantly screaming "HELLO I AM IMPORTANT," so we can all see who exactly is marked for death.

 

I think what the writers need to do is take a step back and realize death is not automatically shocking and interesting. I wasn't moved emotionally when Lady Crane died, I rolled my eyes at how predictable it was. At this stage in the show, minor characters like Wun Wun, Osha, Dolorous Edd, Lady Crane and Tormund should be periodically spared and allowed to ride off into the sunset to live their meaningless lives in peace, because when you indiscriminately kill off ANYONE with no plot importance or value to a character arc, then it's just way, waaaaay too predictable and removes the suspense from any scene where a character could POTENTIALLY die. Show me a scene where Jaime can POTENTIALLY die and I know his plot armor will carry him forward until a certain plot is resolved. Show me a scene where Tormund can die and I know this is it if we haven't met our "secondary character death quota" for the season. Mix things up, let some people live, let us have some victories, and those victories will both be appreciated as fans enjoy knowing at least SOMEONE lived happily ever after, and likewise it means the deaths of the future will be less expected and more impactful, as people will be crossing their fingers on the edge of their seats while watching Osha talk to Ramsay instead of thinking "ah ok so this is how she'll die. Well let's see it I guess."

[Oner]

I wonder why they make a TV show when all the good stuff happens off screen. Not that the Blackfish's BS death was a good thing, but you know what I mean.

[Ganrich]

I wonder why they make a TV show when all the good stuff happens off screen. Not that the Blackfish's BS death was a good thing, but you know what I mean.

This episode was a twofer on that front. Both the Blackfish and Arya. Arya's offscreen fight has people crackpotting that the Waif won and assumed Arya's identity.

 

Still upset about a lack of Manderly. Seems the actor is only credited for one episode this season, and that is probably episode 10. Which means he won't have his speech. :/

 

I've lost hope on this season...

 

Just read the new chapter of WoW for Damphair that GRRM released. Euron is going to be scary.

[Oner]

 

Still upset about a lack of Manderly. Seems the actor is only credited for one episode this season, and that is probably episode 10. Which means he won't have his speech. :/

 

I've lost hope on this season...

 

Just read the new chapter of WoW for Damphair that GRRM released. Euron is going to be scary.

Since the next episode will be The Battle of the Bastards, I thought they're going to use ep 8 to set the stage and maybe unleash a double episode of bastard on bastard action. Now with ep 8 behind us, my current guess would be ep 9 being the setup and ep 10 the actual battle. Which, if we're lucky, won't mean that Littlefinger just says hy with his dudes and suddenly WAR! and they'll spend some more time gathering allies and we could have that lovely, lovely Manderly scene. Though I guess the feast won't happen either way, which is just as much of a shame.

And maybe The North stops having amnesia and they start remembering and Ramsey will suddenly lose a bunch of allies. Which is a dumb enough twist for it to be likely.

 

As for Euron... dammit, I want Victarion.

[majestic]

I'm guessing the last two episodes are going to kill off all characters that are left which aren't central to the plot any more. That includes:

 

Brienne

Tommen

Rickon

Meera

Ramsay (he either loses Winterfell or the Others take him)

Bronn (why bother if he has two minutes of screen time per season)

A bunch of Freys

Tormund

Wun Wun

Podrick

...

 

[Oner]

I think between Meera and Benjen, Meera will do more sled pulling before Bran gets her killed and/or bones her.

[HoonDing]

Cersei will kill everyone.

[Ganrich]

I think Cercei will definitely kill Kevan Lannister and Pycel. They inhibited her from getting to and/or whispered things to Tommen. Getting between her and her last remaining child is a deathwish, and being an untrusted manipulator of him is just as bad. She will probably use Qybern and his control of Varys' little birds. That way it's similar to the books. Of course, Varys himself could make a pit stop on the way to his secret mission.

 

As to the rest of the list of characters that majestic posted: Meera, Brienne, Podrick, and Tormund are probably safe for the moment. I agree about Bronn. He is a really minor character that has been extended because of fan loyalty and he has little to contribute because of it. Ramsay and the Freys will be outta Winterfell. The Freys at the Twins will probably survive a bit longer.

[Gorgon]

 I hope the Starks fail miserably. It can't happen I realise that but it would make things so much more interesting.

[Guard Dog]

In fiction there are two types of characters, static & dynamic. Static characters do not change and dynamic characters do. Jon, Sansa, Jamie, Cersei, Dany, Arya, the Hound are all dynamic characters. Ramsay, Mormont, all the Tyrells, Stannis, Thorne, Asha, etc are all static characters. The static characters drive the plot and the dynamic characters bend with it. The point of most story arcs is for the dynamic character to "become who they were meant to be" so to speak. Jon had to leave the wall to continue his story arc. Ramsay is what provides the motivation to do so. The murder was just the conveyance. That means Ramsay has now served his part of the story so I'm guessing he's f----d on Sunday. 

 

The best static character on the show and the book IMO is Petyr Baelish. The recurring theme of this whole plot is the characters are undone by their mistakes. Robb lost the war because he broke a vow. Ned Stark lost his head because her couldn't think strategically. The show did not play up this angle (which makes his murder more "out of the blue") but Jon was stabbed by his officers because he was going to lead the Nights Watch to war against the Boltons. Mormont lost everything because he lied (he's worse off in the books. The show Mormont is actually an amalgam of two book characters). But Baelish has been driving nearly the whole plot and ASFAIK has made no mistakes yet. 

[Oner]

Fun fact, in the books Ned dies because Sansa pulls a retard.

[Zoraptor]

Well yeah, book Sansa makes show Sansa look like an amalgam of all the best bits of The Prince, Littlefinger, Walsingham (historical, not forum) and Sun Tzu in comparison. She really is an utterly abject moron in the books, albeit mostly in the 1st book. Subsequent books she's just run of the mill dumb instead of elevating it to an art form.

 

(To be fair, book wise I'm 99% sure it's Littlefinger who actually gets Ned the chop as (1) he's trying to get into Catelyn's pants (2) Ned knows LF betrayed him and (3) he's talking to Joffrey before he tells Payne to send yet another role to the great Sean Bean character farm in the sky)

[Chilloutman]

Best part of last episode was Jamie's face when he get told that Black Fish died fighting for his cause, loved that moment

[Ganrich]

In fairness, book Sansa is 12 or 13 years old in Game of Thrones. I wouldn't call her stupid, but incredibly sheltered. She sees the world she wants to exist, and ignores the one that actually exists. Ignorant? Absolutely. Stupid implies the wrong attribute IMHO. She is much more interesting as the books go on, for sure. It's ironic that the one time she rebels against her father is the one time she shouldn't have, and the consequences were incredibly dire.

 

On Petyr Baelish - I would argue that he has made mistakes, but hasn't seen the ramifications of them, yet. He has made an enemy of Tyrion by pointing the Starks at him with the dagger, and he has tried to kill him twice. (Once at the blackwater, and at Joffery's wedding). You could argue that the dagger could have gotten Tyrion killed as well. He obviously wants Tyrion out of the way (in chains or a grave). Tyrion is still alive, and I'd imagine that he will undoubtedly have issue with Baelish if they cross paths again. Tyrion may have a Queen with dragons when they meet again. That is, "if" they meet again. I think they will. Baelish's obsession with Sansa may also be a mistake. They kind of have a Sith thing going on, and eventually the servant kills the master in that scenario. His arc could go another way, but he has made mistakes and I expect he will pay for them in the end. We will see. It could also be a combination of those two things as well. Tyrion saves his wife from the man that tried to kill him multiple times.

 

I would also say that Stannis has had a lot of effect on the story (he is also a static character). He definitely disposed of Renly, and one could argue he had a magical hand in Robb's and Balon Greyjoy's deaths. His attack on King's Landing had some ramifications on that story. His movement North saved the Night's Watch, got the Wildlings south of the wall, helped ensure Jon as the new LC, it allowed Mance to go on his mission, he started gaining Northern allies and enemies, he sealed a deal with the Iron Bank, his command to Davos may bring Rickon into the scenario, etc. He may not quite have as much impact as Littlefinger, but he is a close second.

[Guard Dog]

I always suspected in the books we've seen the last of Rickon. GRRM sent a message with the name of his direwolf. The show might still make use of him though. I agree on Stannis though, I found him to be an interesting character both on the screen and on the page.

[majestic]

I always suspected in the books we've seen the last of Rickon. GRRM sent a message with the name of his direwolf. The show might still make use of him though. I agree on Stannis though, I found him to be an interesting character both on the screen and on the page.

 

I don't know. It would really be just like Show!Ramsay to kill Rickon in front of Jon and Sansa for ****s and giggles, and he's served his purpose luring Jon to battle. *shrug*

 

edit:

 

Oh, and yes, I kind of forgot the King's Landing characters. Kevan and Pycell are probably biting it. Loras might too, and Tommen, who knows. Tommen is actually in the way of Cersei ruling again, and the show has for some reason tried to establish at least some semblance to the political structure and whereabouts of the characters during the latter half of ADWD.

Edited June 15, 2016 by majestic

[Guard Dog]

In the book Pycell and Kevan were assassinated because they were stabilizing the government and repair the alliance with the Tyrells. That had to be stopped to prevent them from presenting a unified defense against Connington & Aegon. In the show there is no Aegon and no Connington and the government is already an unstable mess and show Kevan appears to be just a yes man who frowns a lot. Nothing at all like book Kevan. They might still kill them off but there does not seem to be any imperative to do so.

[Gorgon]

Remember the tease in the last episode, Cercei's maister/spymaster about a 'rumor' that might be true. What if someone killed and swapped Tommen while he was a baby to avoid having a king who was the result of incest. Maybe Tywin Lanister. 

 

What if the Sparrow knows this and this is his leverage. That would make Cercei or Jamie next in line. It's the kind of thing that the TV writers would come up with.