GoT Episode 8..4 - Game of Thrones

[shadowkat]

Great episode, except for one thing...



They killed another dragon. Honestly, I do not care if they kill all the humans, I want the dragons to survive.

If they don't kill off Greyjoy in the next episode, I'm going to be annoyed.

Also beginning to think Jamie may kill Cersei after all -- although I think it's a better twist if Ayra kills Jamie and does it, or Ayra kills Garren and does it.

Brienne: Don't leave stay with me, Jamie. You're a good man.
Jamie: No, I'm really not. (lists all the hateful things he's done for Cersei, then leaves.)

ME: Brienne, seriously, you chose the wrong guy. Again. There was a perfectly good wildling man who liked you.

Honestly it was hard to care. We all knew he'd leave for King's Landing eventually.
And I can't say I was shipping Brienne and Jamie..actually I was sort of shocked by it. Seemed sort of out of character for both of them. I was shipping Brienne with the wildling guy. Thank god - they chose not to show us their sex scenes. I'm guessing the actors have a nudity clause in their contracts? Also is it just me or are all the sex scenes somewhat awkward this season...and subdued?

Dany: Don't tell anyone you are my nephew. We'll be fine.
Jon: I don't know if I can do that.
Dany: You'll ruin us.
Jon: Oh, I can trust my sisters.
Dany: Not Sansa.

Dany is not dumb. Jon however...

Ghost will survive -- thank you, Jon for sending Ghost with the wildlings, wise move.

I adored Tyrion and Varys' discussion. They aren't wrong. But I do wish that not all the strong female characters in this story were a wee bit on the deranged side, and worshipped at the altar of the vengeance god, so heavily.

I do however agree with Varys -- give the power to the person who does not want it.
Never give it to one who does.

Oh dear, half of King's Landing is going to burn in the next episode, I also think, Greyjoy will lose his fleet. I know Dany and company will win, because they lost the first battle. It's going to go down pretty much the same way the Night King battle did -- with the Starks taking out Cersei.

Comments

[shadowkat]

To be honest? I don't think television and film in general are good at realistic sex scenes. I find them deathly dull, except for a few exceptions, and those are art films. Buffy did manage to do really good sex scenes, weirdly enough, although the people were pretty -- the sex scenes didn't feel gratutious and did further the story and metaphors. (An exception.) HBO does horrible sex scenes, I think it goes back to HBO's origins as an adult cable network that could do it, when broadcast couldn't?

But here -- they just felt weirdly choreographed and awkward. Sex scenes are like fight scenes -- choreographed dance numbers. And I actually think it is harder to write or choreograph a good sex scene than action/fight scene. Mainly because most sex doesn't involve conflict or really further character, unless you make it well "violent" such as a rape, or rough sex, or hate sex, or well... It's just well sex -- and it's not meant to be a spectator sport. Loving sex can be rather boring to watch or read -- no conflict. (I know I've read a lot of sex scenes -- and seriously less is more. It's better if you just suggest.)

I do find it interesting though that they showed Cersei and Jamie in detail, Tyrion and his whores in detail, Bronn and his, Theon and his, and the rape sequences (which I could have done without -- I fast-forwarded, even GRRM didn't feel the need to show the rape scenes or torture scenes in his books). Also Dany and the Drofaki. But very little of Dany/Jon, Brienne/Jamie or Ayra/Gendry -- which were more consensual and not well ...

So yeah, I agree -- they suck at realistic sex scenes. Battle scenes no problem, but realistic loving sex scenes...now what that says about the writers and our society in general isn't something I'm sure I want to contemplate.

[rogin]

It's better in European television, but with the US shows it is usually heavily censored or pornographic.

I do find it interesting though that they showed Cersei and Jamie in detail, Tyrion and his whores in detail, Bronn and his

They never show Jaimie's crippled arm during sex and they never show Tyrion either, just the women, same for Bronn, who was mostly clothed. The lack of Dany/Jon was because of her nudity clause in the later seasons. And with Arya I think it was that if they don't go for porn, they don't know what to do. And they knew that porn would ick out the viewers because they know the actress as a child.

It's a Madonna/whore complex problem I think. I wonder what it does to kids. I know, I really had to unlearn the notion that only pretty and young people have sex as a teenager. Must be even worse for the kids today.

[mefisto]

Emilia Clarke doesn't have a nudity clause and never has. That's an internet rumor based on a misunderstanding of what a different actress said.

As for the Arya/Gendry scene, Maisie Williams was (according to her) given full control over what that scene showed.

[rogin]

Emilia Clarke doesn't have a nudity clause and never has. That's an internet rumor based on a misunderstanding of what a different actress said.

I didn't know that, thank you. Is there some other reason, why they undressed her all the time in the first season and then stopped?

[mefisto]

In the books, Dany was naked and having sex a LOT in book 1. The show actually understated that. In later seasons, they cut back on the nudity generally, not just for her, but Dany still had nude scenes: think her bath scene with Daario (S4) or her destruction of the Khals (S6E4).

As for the scene with Jon, one never knows exactly what considerations go into a scene like that, but in this case there may have been personal issues. Emilia is a very good friend of Rose Leslie, then Kit Harington's fiancé and now his wife. A full on sex scene probably would have been personally awkward.

Kristen Bell tells a great story along these lines. She had to get married in the morning because she was filming later in the day. At the end of the ceremony, she turned to her maid of honor, thanked her, and then said "now I'm going to go have fake sex with your husband".

[rogin]

Dany has sex in the later books too. There is her in between husband that they wrote out in the show. There is lots of Daario.

I think it was a decision of the show not to go that explicit with her again. The later scenes were done much more moderately. Maybe also because they needed the character command respect and that didn't work with the way they are doing sex scenes on this show.

[shadowkat]

The sex scenes tended to diminish in number in the latter seasons. The book did have a lot more nudity and sex for Dany, in part because of where she was located and that culture -- I found it annoying in the books and series. Cersei also has more sex and nudity in the books and series. BTW-- Lena Headly who portrays Cersei was the one with the nudity clause in her contract. They used body doubles for all of her nude scenes.

I'm wondering about Kit Harrington -- and how much of it is due to his contract? Although that explanation makes sense. The major characters they've not shown much of it on, interestingly enough.

The writers and network got a lot of push-back on both "torture" and "graphic sex" by the media -- which most likely prompted the decision.

[shadowkat]

It's actually gotten better over time. With Melissa McCarthy and Rebel Wilson. And in the series THIS IS US -- two of the main characters are over 400 pounds, in love, married, and having a kid. HBO also is doing better...I would not call Jon Snow pretty any longer (Harrington has not aged well). And Sam and Gilly certainly aren't. They've also within the last few years scaled back. And there's shows like The Kominsky Method that show people in their 70s having sex, the latest Diane Keaton film which also did, and Grace and Frankie. So, I wouldn't say it's like that any longer across the board.

What happened is that there are over 1000 distribution outlets now. So sure, you have the pretty twenty-somethings who all look alike on various CW and Freeform series...but the others are a bit more diversified. With more areas to choose from, people have been able to demonstrate to the network programmers and casting agents -- that viewers don't need the actors to be pretty, just good at what they do. And preferably relatable. Are we still shallow? Well, yes. But it's more diversified in some respects. Although thinking back -- it always was -- various shows like Roseanne, All in the Family, Hill Street Blues, had diverse casts and weren't "pretty and thin" people.