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Game of Thrones: The Door

Until I got to the end I would've said this was the best episode of the season by far but god dammit stop killing direwolves. And Hodor.

Hodor.

I do wonder though, if the magic woods people made the white walkers, can't they unmake them? This lack of foresight is not exactly an indicator of great wisdom.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:23 PM on May 22, 2016

Ok and also: what does this say about Bran's ability to time travel? I mean it's legit time travel now, and not just looking into the past to see stuff. I sense some time-travel voodoo getting us out of our White Walker problem.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:26 PM on May 22, 2016

but they have reverse-Chekhov'd themselves and I therefore suspect their competence as showrunners, creators, writers, directors, fathers, sons, brothers, and humans in general.

YES.

This was a fantastic episode. And even Hodor's death was well done. But why kill off Summer? There's no reason! I'm gonna go pet my dog.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:31 PM on May 22, 2016

Hodor on Hodor in the NYT today.

One thing of great interest for our theories about timey-wimey-stuff is this:

Did the fact that Bran was responsible for not only his death, but also his simple-mindedness change your idea about the nature of their relationship?

No it doesn't. Although Bran was responsible for the whole chain of events that killed Hodor, Hodor didn’t have to hold that door. He wasn’t being… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 12:20 PM on May 25, 2016

Also Hodor must not know about Samwell Tarley: "There’s no one else like Hodor on “Game of Thrones.” There’s no other character with that warmth, humanity and a little bit of comic relief.".
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 12:23 PM on May 25, 2016

Game of Thrones: The Door

like a part of rural New Hampire

New Ham-Pire, ruled over by Hot Pie, lord of Hams.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:43 PM on May 22, 2016

I'd add, "After 1000 years and knowledge that the zombies are on the way, why don't the Children have a way to alert Bloodraven to danger when he's in his trance?" But yeah all of your questions came to me, too. Nothing about that scene made sense as I watched it.

There were a lot of things about this scene that were just: zombies and death-king on the way! right at the door! bran still in a trance! OH NO. TENSION RISES. Like I think the… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 5:31 AM on May 24, 2016

Why is Edd leaving for the Vale in Bran's vision?

Doesn't he go to the Vale for a while, as part of his getting-to-know-the-world-because-he's-a-little-lord. And that's where he meets Catelyn and Baelish?
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 8:21 AM on May 25, 2016

Or, no, I'm mixing all kinds of things up.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 8:22 AM on May 25, 2016

Game of Thrones: Book Of The Stranger

But now, he's getting House Arryn involved, is it because he doesn't expect the Lannisters to move? Or because he wants to keep Sansa in the game?

It seems to me that the arrangement of the marriage between Bolton and Sansa was entirely to sell it as her being kidnapped and married against her will, so that he could enlist the Vale to conquer Winterfell for him.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 11:42 AM on May 16, 2016

It should be Sansa who delivers the killing blow. What that's, she's never held a sword and it'll take a while of her hacking away at his neck? Not seeing the problem here. Yeah, it probably won't happen that way, but I can dream.

Am I the only one that's kind of annoyed at how obvious this sort of outcome is? Not Sansa hacking away at Bolton's neck, but at Jon+Sansa killing Bolton. Although the Vale is going to complicate things, Ramsay has been so… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 12:07 PM on May 16, 2016

Game of Thrones: Oathbreaker

Shaggydog isn't dead, that head was part of the ploy.

The umbers have a mediocre, but passable, props department, apparently.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:30 PM on May 8, 2016

Technically Ned did deliver the blow that killed Dane, so if he told Bran that he killed Dane, and not that he beat him, he wouldn't be lying.

He did beat him. It's bloody war. You stab fuckers in the back. But I liked this as an instance of GRRM's efforts to make fools of deontologists. It's a concrete instance of Jamie Lannister's speech to Brienne about duty. (Your duty is to the realm and the king? What if the king tells you to burn down the realm? etc.)
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:40 PM on May 8, 2016

I was half-expecting Cersei to just have Gregor straight murder everyone in that room, and I'm very much not looking forward to what seems like Olenna and Margery's inevitable death.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that right after "A Lannister Always Pays His Debts" comes "Never Suggest To A Lannister That They Won't Murder You" in the Book of Lannister. Granted, Tywin forgot this when Tyrion encountered him in the privy, but we all have… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 8:16 PM on May 8, 2016

Last thought on this ep: if Arya gained Daredevil magic while blind, but now has sight, is she like an ultra-ninja now? Just where is this storyline going anyway? She's 100% my favorite character of all and I would watch a pure Arya-show, but it's gonna have to fold back into the rest of the narrative, and soon. Will A Girl go back to Westeros to do some murdering, or will A Girl get involved with Mhysa and the intrigues here in Essos?
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 8:45 PM on May 8, 2016

Also, I don't think Jon left the castle, he just left the courtyard. It was an awkward scene, where it looked like he was heading north, which makes no sense. Sansa and Brienne will probably meet up with him and convince him to retake Winterfell.

Yeah I feel pretty sure he's gonna team up with Davos and Mellisandre. Unless the good smuggler is taking the black. The leave-the-courtyard scene was just more dramatic than "excuse me I've got to go… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 6:35 AM on May 9, 2016

what is with the White Walkers?

You can't fight the Big Boss until you've made it through all the other levels. White Walkers are Final Season Territory.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:01 PM on May 9, 2016

Also, Dany needs to train her dragons. No way humanity wins out against The Winter without dragons.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:08 PM on May 9, 2016

Did anybody else find themselves thinking the black watch could have used a javascript web calculator to do a better job with the hanging? That drop was seriously insufficient for the purpose of hanging execution. This is why you need maesters!

From the interview with Owen Teale:

I asked them, "Why isn't there a bigger drop, when you hang them?" And they said, "Because if it's a bigger drop, you would die… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 1:13 PM on May 10, 2016

Game of Thrones: Home

OH MY GOD A COMPLETELY SHOCKING AND UNEXPECTED TWIST AT THE END.

NOT AT ALL TOTALLY PREDICTABLE THINGS HAPPENED.

I am looking forward to Tyrion, the Dragon Tamer, however.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:01 PM on May 1, 2016

Well played and well done. Didn't bring him right back and Melissandre looked like she felt something at first, then lost it.

More like cliched and overwrought, with manipulative pauses, and deus-ex-machina Wildlings invasion. Better to have brought him back at the end of last episode, instead of gratuitous tits+naked grandma, so he could feed Thorne to Ghost.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:19 PM on May 1, 2016

We saw GreatJon Umber in season one, as a advisor to Robb Stark. He's been off in the Riverlands, fighting Lannisters, so what he's doing aligning with Ramsay is unknown at this point. He seemed loyal to Robb, so why would he align with Roose Bolton, who betrayed Robb?

I dunno. I mean, there are like, no Starks left as far as anyone knows. Gotta go with the flow (I think that's the Umber motto <g>)
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 6:05 AM on May 2, 2016

So, the dragons are off the leash, but that door looks too small for them to get out of. I had thought Tyrion's idea was to let the dragons out to go wreak havoc upon the cities that fell back under the rule of slavers.

I assume there's some big door on the other side that is still closed. I thought the point of that was the beginning of Tyrion establishing a relationship of trust with the dragons so that he could get them to do what he wanted. I mean,… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 8:27 AM on May 2, 2016

Game of Thrones: The Red Woman

If anything, this episode was worth it for the return of "it is known".
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 8:16 PM on April 24, 2016

Also happy that Theon and Sansa are teaming up with Brienne and Pod; I'm guessing that they're going to be the embryonic court of the House of Nu-Stark.

Let's not fool ourselves. They'll all have their throats cut by the end of the season.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 9:15 PM on April 24, 2016

I enjoyed the "what is best in life " lampshading from Nu!Khal and his posse (did we get to see any humour amongst the Dothraki before?)

I thought it was pretty stupid humor, and also, not in fitting with previous remarks about the Dothraki. They're supposed to be pretty blase about nudity, making sexytimes under the open sky in the grass sea, etc., in front of everyone. Also why do they just take her word for it that she's Drogo's wife? The… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 9:54 AM on April 25, 2016

A more interesting question is why wouldn't they take her word that she was Drogo's wife?

Because she's just some woman they found and enslaved? In the first season the Dothraki didn't bother to bring the slave women back to the Khal before they got started with the raping. So maybe they thought: this yellow haired one is special, let's give her to the Khal so he likes us more. Ok, plausible. But it seems like the Khal's ladies had the more likely… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 10:53 AM on April 25, 2016

What does Varys want? He claims to serve the realm, but the realm is fickle.

There was a scene last season, when Oberyn asks Varys what he wants, and Varys looks knowingly at the Iron Throne.

I think the thing with Varys setting up the poisoning of Danerys is pretty bizarre, especially since early on, in the "Chasing Cats" scene where Arya overhears Varys talking with that ... dude who had custody or whatever of the… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 10:33 AM on April 26, 2016

There's no way in the world that a man as smart as Tywin doesn't figure out that's Arya or at least suspect and begin questioning her.

I don't think the jump to Arya would be that plausible, since presumably Tywin had never met her, and he has no reason to assume she's made it all the way to Harrenhall. But he does question her a lot and comes off as pretty sure that whoever she is, she isn't the daughter of a stonemason, but likely a noble of some… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 10:37 AM on April 26, 2016

The dragons burnt the ships. You know how teenagers can be.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 5:40 PM on April 26, 2016

The Walking Dead: Last Day on Earth

You could make a political cartoon with the bludgeoned body labelled "viewing audience's hopes for quality drama".

I mean, if you're still in this game since the debacle with the Governor cliffhanger interrupted by half a season of The Sickness, then you get what you deserve. TWD is gonna keep on keepin' on, until the ratings collapse.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 12:37 PM on April 4, 2016

There's the theory out there that Enid is colluding with the Saviors. In the last episode she runs into Maggie in the pantry and tells her to eat some pickles then was with her later when she falls ill. This episode there was the conversation with Coral where she didn't really want him to go and what if he didn't come back? So, maybe it's Negan's peck of poisoned pickles ploy proceeding as planned.

Didn't we first think she was in cahoots with the… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 5:30 PM on April 4, 2016

Alicia was in contact with another group of saviors on their way to reinforce via walkie-talkie. In several scenes.

yes. but she didn't know who Maggie and Carol were or where they were from.

I missed the part about the CAT tracks. What can I say, it wasn't that engrossing.

I think the point still stands that they had no way of knowing that now was the time to organize their roadblock party.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 5:41 PM on April 4, 2016

You can buy your own Lucille.

Psh! $164.00! And not even a full sized bat. How could you beat anyone to death with this? Anyway, I can get a coil of barbed wire and a (fake) louisville slugger for < $30.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 10:34 AM on April 15, 2016

The Walking Dead: East

Guns for arms was awesome. I always knew Carol was actually a terminator.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 12:01 PM on April 4, 2016

The Walking Dead: Season 6 (All Episodes)

So, normal Walking Dead episodes are about 42 minutes long, plus 16 minutes of commercials. This was 64 minutes long, with 26 minutes of commercials. We gained 24 minutes of show for a gain of 10 minutes of commercial break. Just in case you weren't feeling swindled by the whole thing already.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 10:59 AM on April 4, 2016

The Leftovers: Off Ramp

Has "who wants a hug" ever been so ominous? No Tommy, I don't want your evil cult hug.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 5:17 PM on October 31, 2015

The Walking Dead: Thank You

Glenn is definitely zombie food now (in a zombie's stomach? But they don't need stomachs to live. Do they digest human flesh with enzymes present in their mucous membranes?), but will also definitely definitely come back to life, having escaped through the kind of magic that keeps TWD regulars alive, and it will definitely be lazy writing.

But hey, at least all 3 episodes of this season so far have been action packed adventures full of stress!… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 9:34 AM on October 26, 2015

Maybe the Walking Dead's writing is itself a metaphor for the experience of the show's characters? How will the experience of a lazily written but still somehow attractive and adrenaline pumping show that repeats the same agonizing themes over and over again, marching forward on its dumb way, steady, predictable and zombielike, transform its viewers psychologically, who, despite the loss of any hope that things will improve, continue to watch instead of turning it off (the metaphorical TWD… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 9:41 AM on October 26, 2015

And Hershel, Beth, Tyreese, Bob...

Tyreese's death is a good argument for why Glenn is still alive and kicking under a pile of Nicholas-guts. Think about how heartfelt and long and drawn out his death was, with lots of flashbacks and ghosts appearing, and how they tried to save him through amputation but couldn't. I loved Tyreese, he was one of my favorite characters, but Glenn is even more important to the show, so they can't just let him go out like… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 11:50 AM on October 26, 2015

Yes, they loudly heard a horn several miles away through the woods, a town, etc.

As pointed out above, the notion of space in this episode is really baffling. Morgan gets back to town super fast, but Michonne and Crew are still working their way there by the end of the episode. I think there are some games being played with relativistic physics that perhaps also explain how the Walkers can function as basically perpetual motion… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 2:08 PM on October 26, 2015

oy Daniel Lindehof is working on this show? Fuck that guy.

Is he? I can't find him in any credits. He just seems to be a superfan, and was on Talking Dead the other night. He is the showrunner for Leftovers, which is a pretty good show, tbh, although I haven't been watching this new season.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 4:38 AM on October 27, 2015

From an interview with David Alpert, TWD executive producer:

I think that part of what that scene is about is the violence inflicted on Glenn, but from a bigger perspective, I think it’s really about his interactions with Nicholas. [...] I feel like, regardless of what happened to Glenn, he paid a tremendous price for having been human to Nicholas, and that, to me, from an emotional point-of-view — whether or not Glenn is alive or dead or something else — the Glenn that… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 6:30 AM on October 27, 2015

The Walking Dead: JSS

I enjoyed this episode, but holy shit, Carl's "WHAT?!" when Preacherman talks to him is the worst acted thing in the history of TWD. Didn't they do multiple takes? But still, he rocks an M16 as well as anyone.
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 8:09 AM on October 19, 2015

Carol is great in this one and I loved the not-so-subtle symbolism of her having trouble washing the bloody W off her forehead. Homo homini lupus
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 8:38 AM on October 19, 2015

What is the significance of the red A that Carol saw on the railing?

I thought maybe that was a blood mark from the Wolves that got shot, saying that that building was the Armory?
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 8:44 AM on October 19, 2015

The Enid as a spy theory makes no sense. If she was a Wolf, why didn't she tell them where the armory was so they could go right there and secure it? And why the big reveal of a Wolf carrying Aaron's bag and photos? Although I wouldn't put it past this show to have a fairly incoherent plot point like that, it seems a bit much. But then again, why focus on her background for the first 10 minutes or so, and why that ominous scene of her first arriving at Alexandria? I hope they wrap everything up… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 7:12 PM on October 19, 2015

I also don't think we've seen the last of that trio of Wolves that Morgan let go with a handy intelligence report about what kind of weaponry the Alexandrians have. I'm thining they'll probably go back, report to the rest of the pack, and return with a larger force.

I'm sure they will, but it will likely play out a lot differently with the A-Team there instead of out playing Pied Piper, leading a hoard of Walkers out of Hamelin. With Rick, Daryl, Glenn,… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 12:29 PM on October 22, 2015

The Walking Dead: First Time Again

Yeah it would've made more sense to use all the gas in those cars to make some kind of napalm and just burn them all. But then I guess maybe they might start a forest fire?

I was hoping that instead of being walker-focused again they would deal with the aftermath of the meeting and then shift into a plot about the Wolves, because the likely parallel in the comics was definitely my favorite storyline for a while there. Walkers are boring, especially big ole herds of them,… [more]
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 8:51 AM on October 12, 2015

And eventually it attracts so many zombies that it's so full of zombies that the new zombies are able to crawl over the backs of the lower layer of fill zombies.

Kill the zombies. Gather them. Render fat from the zombies into zombie-tallow. Make candles from the zombie-tallow. Also you could make glue from the bones?
posted to FanFare by dis_integration at 9:12 AM on October 14, 2015