Game of Thrones

HOLY FUCKING SHIT WTF WAS THAT

Flol, yeah, my thoughts exactly.

LOL

True love overcomes.... ehm nevermind.

It's def. not one of those romantic comedies.

I re-watched the whole thing, that just fucking brutal. The whole thing was well done and well acted, Michelle Fairley's face there a the end spoke lauder than a thousand words. The whole sequence was TV at its best.

oh and lol (dont watch the video if you dont want to be spoiled)

flol @ that ^

I thought this was a genius episode. It was Shakespearean to the core and even though I'm not impressed with Martin's storytelling, the filmmaking here is sometimes quite good.

What the fuck did people expect?

The value of Game of Thrones IMO is how it doesn't feel workshopped or research grouped to death by test audiences, etc. These stories come from the novels. You either like it or you fuck off to another show.

Talisa getting stabbed was fucking grim.

this almost beats JR getting shot and its not even the end of the season yet!

Only 4 Starks left (and the half Stark), none of them have any real power over what happens in the Iron Throne. Thats what i loved about the books, everyone expected the Starks to have a say in the Iron throne but now its up to other powers to defeat The Lannisters, this story is full of twist muah!

I did not watch yet because I am saving it for a SPECIAL moment. I know what happens because I read all the books ages ago, but I just need to know:

it'll be in next week's episode

also: too soon?

mr filch and vladimir putin

LOL@ wedding crashers

but yeah, I think I like this show because of episodes like that one. very shakespearean, as was said....the end actually reminded me a lot of Oldboy for some reason.

actually, i felt more sad about jon leaving ygritte and tormund. what happened with the starks was to be expected.

  On 6/4/2013 at 2:48 AM, thanks robert moses said:

I did not watch yet because I am saving it for a SPECIAL moment. I know what happens because I read all the books ages ago, but I just need to know:

 

 

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did they do the wolfhead thing?

 

  On 6/4/2013 at 9:07 AM, roasty said:

 

 

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Yup, that was a little bit heartbreaking.

Well I finally caught up. I was about 3 episodes behind when I saw multiple FB posts of agony, shock, and utter WTFness about the last episode, so I watched them all last night night. I knew it was going to be brutal, but still I was like:

  On 6/4/2013 at 3:32 AM, SR4 said:

LOL@ wedding crashers

 

 

but yeah, I think I like this show because of episodes like that one. very shakespearean, as was said....the end actually reminded me a lot of Oldboy for some reason.

 

 

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the thing I like about it is that it doesn't pick a "good guy" side. If you really think about it, none of these warring families are "good" in any sense. Rape, murder pillage so they can put their family member up on that throne. Its senseless feudalism in all its ridiculous bloody glory. I think there was a scene when Stark first met Talisa where she basically says "whats the point of all this? people just die for names" that sums it up perfectly.

A lot of medieval fantasy ruins the brutal and horrible truths of the Middle Ages by creating some "good" side destined to rule righteously, but as we can see from all parties, only those that are amoral and ruthless win, at the great expense of the innocents that support them.

 

an awesome ending to this would be if the Lannister's managed to quell all rebellion, right when the Whitewalkers swarm and destroy their now exhausted civilization. but i doubt it would happen that way. there's gotta be SOME sort of happy ending, right?

 

 

^That's exactly how I feel. I was talking to a friend and we both concluded we enjoy the series because it's like, anti-escapism. For a fantasy novel it's very, very realistic (and bleak) in tone. I kind of feel like good won't prevail, but it will survive, even if the rulers and governments are anything but good and righteous. That's human history to me in a nutshell.

Also, gonna tangent here - I have no idea if anyone here is a fan or Harry Potter, or would even admit to it, but one major argument I have in defending that series is the amount of death of major characters in the books, even with it having a "happy" conclusion. I think compared to many other children's books it's a lot more grim and honest. For instance, when I think of any Disney film with a sad ending, it's literally one "major" character and usually before the middle of the film, whereas toward the end of the HP series it was like "whose going to be killed next?" Maybe HP prepped a lot of people to be Game of Thrones fans.

Okay, I'll confess that I think it's a bit creepy and unsettling that HBO's showrunner, David Benioff, added shit to the Red Wedding that wasn't even in the book.

Talisa wasn't even in attendance, let alone brutally rape-baby-stabbed to death. When I was watching the scenes leading up to the insanity, I thought it was a really unmotivated bit of writing and I was questioning whether Martin was quite the hack. Why on earth would she have been in attendance? Anyway, definitely disturbing...I can understand why people found it offensive, especially within our current cultural context of Tea Party female-hating. If the idea was to hold a mirror to society, I suppose it succeeds as powerful symbolic representation.

I'm with you, Joshua.

To the extent that Martin, and by extension Benioff, have eviscerated the dull Good v. Evil binarism of generic fantasy literature (E.g. Tolkien and his countless clones), is both anti-escapism and anti-hierarchical structures. The common formula of disequilibrium giving way to banal equilibrium and the restoration of status quo is every bit as insulting and offensive as anything Martin is doing with his universe. If fans of the genre and fans of typical television shows had their way, the northern army's scrambling to gather forces to storm King's Landing would end with an utterly orgasmic battle, with a bit of Gandalfian deus ex machina and a musical score that would make even the hardest among us weep with joy. Facebook would be filled with "That was fucking awesome. I LOVE the Starks." zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

The political allegorization can be endless and tedious in equal measure, but I'm definitely reminded of the slackjawed acceptance of, say, President Obama. Most the so-called "good" or benevolent characters in Game of Thrones are merely wolves in sheep's clothing. Hence, I love the symbolism of all these dire wolves running around. If the Starks are empowered, they'll inevitably mete out the same tyrannical brutality as the Lannisters.

"Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss."

Obama, our beloved prince of the West.

?

  On 6/4/2013 at 5:25 PM, Mirezzi said:

Talisa wasn't even in attendance, let alone brutally rape-baby-stabbed to death. When I was watching the scenes leading up to the insanity, I thought it was a really unmotivated bit of writing and I was questioning whether Martin was quite the hack. Why on earth would she have been in attendance? Anyway, definitely disturbing...I can understand why people found it offensive, especially within our current cultural context of Tea Party female-hating. If the idea was to hold a mirror to society, I suppose it succeeds as powerful symbolic representation.

Martin only wrote episode 7 this year. Jeyne (Talisa) is really only there to build Robb's character in context of the book and show, so having her there makes plenty of sense. TV shows never translate directly from books, there are always tweaks made to help the non-reader to understand better. I was never a huge fan of Jeyne or Robb, but I appreciate their characters in the context of the whole series. What really ruined me, just like in the books, was Catelyn. Michelle Fairley exceeded my expectations in the last scene. Sure, she didn't claw her face off, but the look on her face in that last shot after dropping the dagger...just wow. I was concerned they didn't do enough Robb/Catelyn this season and that the RW wouldn't be as profound, but that fear subsided after I realized how many people just did not see this coming.

Really I'm not one of those readers that is going to whine on and on about how things have changed. This isn't LOTR, whining gets you nowhere. I suppose if I could choose ONE nitpick it would be that there should be more screen time for the Stark wolves. They play a more profound role in the series as it progresses...

  On 6/4/2013 at 5:25 PM, Mirezzi said:

 

 

Talisa wasn't even in attendance, let alone brutally rape-baby-stabbed to death. When I was watching the scenes leading up to the insanity, I thought it was a really unmotivated bit of writing and I was questioning whether Martin was quite the hack. Why on earth would she have been in attendance? Anyway, definitely disturbing...I can understand why people found it offensive, especially within our current cultural context of Tea Party female-hating. If the idea was to hold a mirror to society, I suppose it succeeds as powerful symbolic representation.

Well, to go even further than that, Talisa doesn't even exist in the book. Her character is based upon a girl from noble Westeros lineage, and is eventually pardoned after the events of The Red Wedding. I am assuming that writers of the show didn't include her because it just introduced one too many names and families for people to remember.

edit*

didn't see the post above until now, but yeah you get the idea.

Also, if the next episode follows the books properly, I will be impressed. I have my doubts though.

i think next week's episode will consist of: