MetaFilter

10 zombie bears and the south is finished
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:41 PM on August 20, 2017

This episode was pure fan service. I enjoyed it, but jeez. And that rowing joke? Twitter is writing the dialogue now, apparently. What I wonder is, are we being set up with false heroes now, who will be cut down later? That would've been the GRRM way of things before, but who knows anymore.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:11 PM on August 13, 2017

Also I can't be the only one thinking Cersei's pregnancy has some Qyburnish weirdness going on? I dunno, he gives me the heebie jeebies.

My first thought when Jamie asked who they would say was the father was, "It was the Mountain, obvi".
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:18 PM on August 13, 2017

Asshole Dad and Earnest Son Tarly being barbecued

Great Houses, Nobility and all that. You can't just go roasting the important people who matter like you can all the plebe dragonfodder.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 6:27 AM on August 14, 2017

Gendry (I can see plot significance for him, but not in a way that fits with the super streamlined race to the finish that the show is currently in. They also gave him enough emotional resonance in this past episode to make him dying meaningful)

This would be so delightfully bizarre if they decided to bring Gendry back in just for a rowing joke, let him smash some heads, and kill him in the next episode. That would be A+ advanced TV trolling. Here's hoping.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 10:15 AM on August 14, 2017

Dany wants to bone. zombie Jon Snow still knows nothing and just wants to go adventuring in daNorf.

Oh, they gon' smash, or I know nothing about cliche TV narrative arcs. But it seems like Dany wants him to "bend the knee" first, if you know what I mean. She's a woman who knows what she wants.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 2:03 PM on August 15, 2017

Chrys Reviews Episode 3: Tainted Love

This episode: B-. This Chrys Reviews: A+++++++++.

Why were the Tyrells so easy to squash? Also, so the Lannister Army wasn't there to get got by the Dothraki. So? They still lost Casterly Rock. I'm not excited about my house getting robbed and new people moving in just because my guarddog was at the vet. The whole point of fortresses is that they're really hard to take. Now they have to… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 12:07 PM on July 31, 2017

We've had hints for so long that he was not to be trusted and it seemed like his membership of team evil conspiracy was confirmed last week and now we see a way that he might just wiggle off the hook for it

Is there really any doubt that Dar is in "team evil conspiracy"? I thought it was made pretty clear that he was behind the midtown bombing, and the lie about Iran breaking the nuclear deal. What this episode showed was his human weakness,… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:44 PM on April 8, 2017

The only thing that gets me about this episode is that window was way too easy to get open.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 2:57 PM on March 30, 2017

I too wish to know who is on the Martian Purple Heart.

I'm rooting for Matt Damon
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 6:54 PM on March 24, 2017

I dunno, my take on it is that Holden's an audience insert for the boring nice guys that make up a lot of the likely audience for a show like this.

He ain't bad to look at, either.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 10:26 AM on March 22, 2017

+ everything.

Cried like a damn baby at the end.

Absolutely beautiful, at least for me, it resonated so deeply with my own experiences of trauma, the search for meaning in our pain, the dreams we have that construct a meaning out of the senselessness of life.

Not that I'm a kidnap victim or had an NDE, or anything.

This was a daring and moving work of art. I want to watch it all over again. And I… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 11:00 AM on December 27, 2016

The show loses a star for putting Naz on the stand, but it gains one back for the ASPCA commercial feels.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 5:56 AM on August 29, 2016

the acting was top-notch all around

Michael K. Williams deserves special praise for managing to bring a unique sense of character to Freddy, who he could've played as Omar Little or as Chalky White but who he played as a whole 'nother character. As someone who is basically typecast as ex-con gangsta with a high IQ, he manages to play each character as that character and not as just Michael K. Williams. I'd like to see him play a greatery variety of… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 8:09 AM on August 29, 2016

SinBad

It is his nickname in Rikers. But it's embarrassingly over the top. Might as well have gotten a "maybe i did it" tat.

What was the deal with the murder in the beginning? I expected that to play a role somewhere in the rest of the ep but it just was tossed in and then dropped down the memory hole.

Something did seem off about the courtroom scenes in this one, even to this layman who doesn't know much about court procedure.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 8:58 PM on August 21, 2016

because if you're gonna meticulously build a show around nitpicky details then don't screw up the nitpicky details.

Yeah they've got one more episode to fire about 100 chekov's guns. Don't think they can pull it off. I'm enjoying it though.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 2:38 PM on August 22, 2016

Is this where we talk about how Ledecky just destroyed the 800m? I'm agog.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 6:33 PM on August 12, 2016

What's a plausible reason to make up a robbery? The only one I can think of is insurance fraud.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:39 PM on August 17, 2016

Apparently this is the reason?

If true, Lochte is as much of a doofus as I thought.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 8:13 AM on August 18, 2016

Once more into the confusion-brink, my friends.

Naz is driving me nuts, but I think that's a very deliberate choice on the part of the writers. Don't get knuckle tattoos you dingus! Don't chase the dragon! Take the clothes you're offered! (If you like the ones your mom is giving you better, you don't have to wear the other ones, smdh). And so on. Also don't stare through the window at two people in flagrante delicto. Glance, and move the fuck on. And don't fall in love… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 9:29 PM on August 14, 2016

ee'rybody in the club gettin' burnt. can't process. too much wildfire.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:15 PM on June 26, 2016

Oh, and while Cersei gets all the points for the whole kaboom and then her "shame!" revenge, her outfit was a little too on-the-nose.

Dress was awesome. But without wildfire, she's toast. Dragon toast.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:26 PM on June 26, 2016

Also, don't send Bran south, 'cause him crossing the Wall would mean the Night King can cross the Wall, right?

Yeah I'm pretty confused about this. Maybe Zombie-benjen is actually working for the Night King? Line of thought being: it seemed like when Mr. Ice Crown touched Bran, he got instant knowledge to Bran's whereabouts. Why would that wear off? If you've got a homing beacon on your greatest enemy, it doesn't matter how many Zombie-uncles he has… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 8:28 PM on June 26, 2016

But, either way, it is super obvious a lot of time is passing off-screen.

Sometimes, time passes off screen. Other times, Littlefinger uses the fast-travel option on his map of SkyrimWesteros.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 9:07 PM on June 26, 2016

I weep not for Lancel because he was stupid to follow the kid in there.

Oh yeah, I totally forgot to complain about this because Cersei BLEW UP THE SEPT and it slipped my mind. Why the hell would Lancel follow that kid? He was supposed to go to the Red Keep. Let the little spy go do his spying. Who cares? The whole time I felt like I was yelling at the screen when the teenagers go upstairs in the abandoned house in the woods to have sex in a horror movie.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 9:20 PM on June 26, 2016

I wanted to laugh out loud when the inaudible whisper thing happened. Like, really? You're gonna build up this scene to satisfy book readers, even though you've given show watchers almost no reason to care about it, and then you're going to fucking *not even say the words out loud*?

Maybe GRRM hasn't decided yet. He told HBO that baby Jon was in the tower of joy, and then was like, but I haven't written that part yet so...
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:02 AM on June 27, 2016

Yall think Tommen killed himself because of Margery's death or was he more like "Fuck it. My mom's going to ruin everything I try to do anyways"?

Tommen was completely lost after Tywin's death, and didn't find himself as a King again until he was reborn under the High Sparrow's tutelage. I think it's more than Margery's death, and the death of the Faith that made him jump. And shock. But really, when Cersei says to the Top Nun "he is… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:14 AM on June 27, 2016

I've always had the impression that any of the faces in the House of Black and White are magically available to the Faceless Men at a moment's notice. They don't actually physically carry them around with them. Remember just before Arya went blind when Jaqen (or was it Jaqen?) drank poison and ripped off like 10 face in a row, including Arya's? It's magic.

Yeah however the faces work you don't actually have to have the face with you, in your satchel.… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 11:25 AM on June 27, 2016

The show has a lot of young actors, just occurred to me that they don't/can't watch the show.

If I had been one of Qyburn's stabby little birds, I'd have a clip of the Pycelle death scene on my phone ready to show every kid in the 1st grade.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 6:22 AM on June 28, 2016

I assume this ends with some sort of dragons vs. ice zombies showdown, so we just have to reverse engineer it from there.

Yeah but in the meantime we've got Euron Greyjoy problems (and him possibly coming across a horn that can control dragons?) and Littlefinger working his wiles on Sansa to betray KINGINDANORTH II, The Resurrected One.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:36 PM on June 26, 2016

Did I miss it, no one has really said who the father is? Do we just assume RT raped Lyanna?

In the context of the show, you'd have to do some deep recall to chatter in the first season to remember that Lyanna was kidnapped by Rhaegar Targaryean. But they did set have King Robert set that up in season 1.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:46 PM on June 26, 2016

Isn't Jaime technically available since he's not in the King's Guard anymore?

Yeah, with Kevan Lannister's unexpected early demise in the SEPTSPLOSION, Jaime is totally Lord of Casterly Rock now.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 6:44 AM on June 27, 2016

The real story here is I have nothing to say about this ep yet because HBO Now was down until 10:30pm EST. It was like the Red Wedding on twitter.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:35 PM on June 19, 2016

Oh shit. Doggos. Doggos and Ramsay. I'm speechless.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 8:03 PM on June 19, 2016

I'm having trouble grokking the "Jon fucked up". Ramsay's plan was to slaughter his own men in order to kill all of Snow's fighters on the battlefield. Then surround them and slowly kill them all. How would it have gone differently if Jon hadn't rushed out and tried to single-handedly win the war?

It was stupid and emotional, sure. I guess he thinks he's immortal now. But it wouldn't have changed the outcome of the battle. Generally you can't account for a… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 8:22 PM on June 19, 2016

Interesting how our emerging Queens all come in brother sister pairs, except Dany

Dany already dealt with her meddling brother. I do wonder if we're going to see Sansa pushing Jon out when it comes to ruling Winterfell. She certainly seems the more capable ruler.

Also, where'd they get those Stark wolfshead banners? It seems like you oughta burn the banners of the people who you stole a castle from. Otherwise you're just jinxing yourself.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 6:54 AM on June 20, 2016

What a shit life that poor kid had.

And that poor actor! He basically had 3 lines on the whole show that I can remember, but still had to have a humiliating onscreen death, once again without lines!
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 9:54 AM on June 20, 2016

I admit, I skipped through most of the battle because it was pretty clear what was going to happen, and I feel like after you've seen one or two people and their horses get punctured by arrows and then close-upedly stabbed, why sit through approximately 1/3 of an episode worth?

I've been whining about this whole season but that battle was tops. Will watch again.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 8:28 PM on June 19, 2016

That was an incredibly underwhelming episode.

Most of the action was off screen. But we got to see a flash of Clegane-dong. So there's that.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:13 PM on June 12, 2016

I'm no trained assassin, but if it were me, I'd kill the sleeping assassin in training first, before going for the easily killed actress. But again, I'm not a trained assassin, perhaps there's some protocol on killing trainees that I'm aware of.

She fell victim to her villainous nature. Evil Gloating is unavoidable, and there's no way, as a villain, that you can kill your nemesis without gloating to her about her imminent death by your hand.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 5:53 AM on June 13, 2016

LSH isn't happening, is she?

Jaime's speech about Catelyn made me think LSH was still a possibility.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:06 PM on June 12, 2016

what I love the most is that every fan forum after The Door everyone was all like ZOMG BEST SEASON EVARRR

now after two episodes that shot down a bunch of pure tinfoil and tied up a bunch of loose plot threads they're all like OMG WORST WRITING EVARRR

This season had one episode I thoroughly enjoyed (the Door) and the rest I spent the whole time yelling at the screen about the bizarre plot choices and unnecessarily drawn out… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:47 PM on June 12, 2016

I can't wait for a weird CGI battle of bathtub toy ships in Meereen's incredibly fake looking bay.

Y'know, I knew I saw that scene before, when I was playing Civ V and conquering the Egyptians. Seriously, did the CGI budget run short? That was like the PS3 version of of a naval siege.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 8:35 PM on June 12, 2016

The only thing about Arya's scene that made sense was that she was wearing a nice dress, because it makes NO sense that Arya would be wearing a dress unless she was up to some secret triple cross plan. She can't just stab the faceless girl or all the faceless would come after her, she probably can't just fake her death in the water, it's gotta be sneakier than that.

Yeah I'm totally baffled by the whole thing. The set up in the previous episode showed… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 6:28 AM on June 6, 2016

Why does SANSA get no opportunity to say a word or two? Why the hell does the actual living Stark not get the speech that persuades House Mormont to commit its 62 fighters? Why would Ser Davos, who ought to be an unknown in Bear Mountain, make the argument?

I believe the point of those scenes was to make Sansa feel much less confident than she was before, pushing her into asking Littlefinger for the Vale's help.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 5:36 AM on June 7, 2016

But dis_integration, wouldn't that point have been made better if she had been the one making the case asking the Northerners for help?

Well the way I read all of it was that Sansa had believed that the Stark name was enough, and that even if she was no longer naive in many ways, she had yet to really realize that even in the North, which "remembers", what they remember is power and might, gold and grain, etc., not honor and old pledges to… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 6:12 AM on June 7, 2016

Arya! Get thee to a red lady.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 6:58 PM on June 5, 2016

Srsly though if Arya dies I'm done with the show.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 6:59 PM on June 5, 2016

Well, as you know Hound, I found you not two years ago nearly dead, and since then you've come to be a valuable member of our...

If you read this in Ian McShane's voice it sounds legit. Which must be why they cast him. That buttery baritone can make up for the worst flaws in a screenplay.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 5:47 AM on June 6, 2016

The Waif bores me senseless. I know it's too much to hope for that she will disappear from the plot due to Arya's exit from The Cult Of A Thousand Faces, but A Girl can dream.

The last Arya scene was *literally* a set up for an attack in the dark from the Waif, so expect her again soon enough. There are four episodes left, and my prediction is the Waif will be dead, and perhaps Arya even on her way back to Westeros by the last one.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 5:52 AM on June 3, 2016