Game of Thrones - Raines of Castamere...

[shadowkat]

Eh believe it or not, this scene was far gorier in the books. Sort of glad they didn't go there.

But in both cases it upset me, because of Arya mostly...and the fact that Robb and Catlynn had finally grown on me. It also deadened me to anything that could happen afterwards.

Weird that his wife was there and pregnant. She wasn't in the books. But I now know why - to explain why Robb is rendered defenseless and doesn't run.

Forgot the Blackfish was there...thought he wasn't. And they didn't do the scene with Edmund Tully in the bath with his new wife, who warns him when the song begins. Did it here - with Catelynn recognizing the song and seeing Lord Bolton's expression and the closing of the gates.

Oh well at least Theon wasn't on. But I missed the Lannisters quite a bit. Even though it's made clear by Lord Bolton that Tywin Lannister was behind it - when he says, "The Lannisters send their regards" - when he stabs Robb through the back.



ETA:..there be spoilage in the comments thread.

Comments

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Xander was one of those characters that seemed to push people's triggers one way or the other. Have a lot of folks on my flist who adore the character, and he is their favorite male character. And one of my friends at the time (cjl) adored him.

I was admittedly ambivalent about the character. Didn't care one way or the other. I felt the writers run out of ideas or grew tired of the character somewhere after Hells Bells...and feels like the token guy who gives pep speeches or calls people on their shit. Also, the character really began to grate on my nerves in S6 - with his hypocritical judgemental moralizing. I so wanted to see him get it - I think I applauded when Buffy got shot in Seeing Red - because it kicked Xander in the gut. Also Selfless - was a joy to behold, Xander finally gets to see his hypocrisy up close and personal. (actually the S6-7 made it difficult for me to care what happened to Xander, which ended up proving problematic when I read the comics.)

I give the actor a lot of credit - he made the actor, who was written poorly at times, rather interesting. Whedon clearly didn't know what to do with him after a certain point. And the actor was an alcoholic - which spiraled out of control during the sixth and seventh seasons, that's why we saw less of him.

Rumor has it Whedon originally intended Xander to be the Ben character in S5, but thought better of it (because it doesn't track at all) and
considered killing him and having him pop up as The First in S7, which the actor states he sort of wished they had done, because he would have had something to do - he was bored out of his mind in S7. (And so were die-hard Xander fans.) I'm lucky, I picked a more interesting character to adore - Spike. If I'd picked Xander...I think I'd have stopped watching in S6.

[sophist.livejournal.com]

I think there's a strong correlation between those who liked Xander and those who disliked S6-7. I also think NB's personal problems explain a lot about how his character was used in S7 (not so much in S6, which was always going to be Willow and Spike dominant [no pun intended]).

I actually jumped up from my couch and shouted at the TV when Buffy threw Xander's hypocrisy in his face in Selfless.