Game of Thrones - Season Final - Mhrysa..
Jun. 11th, 2013 09:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatJust finished watching the finale, I'm admittedly behind. Keep in mind I have to get up at 6am each morning, and GoT comes on around 9. Also was busy watching or trying to watch the godawful Tony's...beginning to think awards shows and I are unmixy things now? My tastes have changed again.
Before I do a review, a brief take on a discussion regarding GoT with a co-worker, regarding the books and tv series characters:
So here's the thing - which may explain a lot to people who have read me over the years? I don't care about the morality of fictional characters, well I do but not to the degree some apparently do, I care about how the fictional characters actions are explored and more often than not flawed characters, deeply flawed ones, are explored better than morally upstanding/perfect characters. I don't know why this is. It just is. Maybe because the writers find them more interesting too? (shrugs) This isn't always the case. I find Superman and Buffy interesting.
Apparently various discussion boards call people who are unspoiled and haven't read the books the unsullied? (amusing considering the unsullied are constrated, niave, and follow anyone who owns them) While book walkers are the one's who have read the books possibly more than twice and get off on baiting and spoiling the unsullied. I'm guessing a reference to the walking dead and the zombies in the north? Also amusing. And why I'm very glad I'm not in the GoT fandom. Ach. One internet fandom per lifetime is enuf. I can deal with lj folks, they are more civilized.
This was a wrap-up section. For a bit I expected them to do the Joffrey/Margery wedding, but they are apparently holding that for next season. Which makes sense, but it would have been an awesome season ender.
* Finally they explain why we had to endure Theon's torture arc in the same section as Jamie getting his hand sliced off, Brienne almost being killed by a bear, and the Red Wedding...because we're supposed to feel sympathetic towards Asha's plight or her decision to sail after her brother. (I don't remember this happening in the books, unless they are spoiling me again on the fifth book A Dance with Dragons? Actually I Theon's entire arc has almost been spoilt for A Dance with Dragons, and some of sadistic humor lost. My least favorite thing about the books and this season is admittedly Theon.) I do vaguely remember Theon's cock being delivered to Balon Greyjoy, so I think that was in the books. Wonder if they will let her succeed? Half tempted to tell her not to bother...by the time you get there, he'll be dead. Only people who reunite with family or loved one's are the people who sort of wish they hadn't. (aka The Lannisters) While it is admittedly hard to care what happens to Theon (boring character and on the whiny side), no one deserves this.
* Jamie and Brienne - they've changed the story. In the book they don't arrive until ahem, much much later and another "major" game-changing event has occurred. One I thought was going to occur at the end of this episode, but did not. Which makes me wonder how those major events are now going to play out?? Because there is no way they can happen the same way they did in the book. Jamie not being present at Joffrey/Margery's wedding feast was important. Now what? This is as big if not bigger change from Robb Stark marriage.
Which means the series continues to veer ever so slightly away from the bookverse.
* Davos endears me - he scenes with Gendry were wonderful with some funny lines...
Gendry: The gold cloaks are still hunting me..
Davos: Do they know your face?
Gendry: No.
Davos: Don't worry about them, they've been hunting me for 20 years - it's the Red Woman you should worry about.
They've consolidated Davos arc - he spent ten chapters in the dungeon ruminating on his life after freeing (in the books Edric, Gendry stuck with the Brotherhood), him. Here, he gets to tell Stannis and Melissandra about the threat to the north, which Melissandra, accurately interprets as a far more dire issue than their WAR. In fact that the WAR means nothing in comparison to that threat. This saves Davos' life, because she realizes that Davos is right, Stannis needs him to garner support.
* Meanwhile Dany is doing quite well with her huge following, the only question is - how does she plan on feeding and taking care of all of these followers? But the reaction of her advisers is interesting - both see her for what she is - a leader. She is the antithesis of Stannis, Joffrey, Robb etc...she's garnering loyalty with respect and love, not fear and anger and vengeance. Dany is an example of a morally upstanding character that I find interesting.
* Joffrey can you be any more monsterous? Also stupid. At that table were at least three people I would not want to piss off: Tyrion, Tywin, and Varys. Tywin deals with him well - sending him off to bed without his supper, as Tyrion notes wryly. Tywin's scene with Tyrion is fascinating.
Tyrion: Easy for you to talk about putting family first above yourself, when you make all the decisions for everyone. When have you ever done anything against your own self-interest?
Tywin: The day you were born. I wanted to throw you to the waves and watch you drown, but I did not - and chose to raise you as my son, because you were a Lannister.
Tywin: You know it wasn't the Freys...
Tyrion: Walder Frey is many things, but a brave man? No. He wouldn't have done it without assurances...
Tywin: From me, yes.
Tyrion: And you no doubt gave Roose Bolton similar assurances?
Tywin: Warden of the North, that is until Sansa's firstborn comes of age...you better get working on that.
Tyrion: After what you've done, she's hardly going to open her legs for me.
Tywin: I wish someone would explain to me the difference between killing 10,000 in battle and a couple of thousand at a dinner?
Tyrion: So killing them at the dinner was meant to save lives?
Tywin: No, it was to win this war.
And earlier the scenes between him and Cersei, which go a long way to explaining Cersei.
Tyrion: Sansa is not going to be happy about this. Someone needs to tell her.
Cersei: Give her a child - it will help towards making her happy.
Tyrion: You have children, are you happy?
Cersei: No. But there are moments...(pause) even with Joffrey. It is nice to have someone focused on you, who cares for you, and is made happy with you - even if it is for only a little while. Before Joffrey, I was so lonely, after Joffrey...they say the nasty miserable babies will turn out nasty, that's how you can always tell, but Joffrey was a happy baby, always smiling and laughing...
And of course what Tyrion states to Joffrey...Tyrion, Jamie and Davos get the best lines.
* The actress playing Sansa seems really tall to me, of course she's paired with a lot of shorter people. I loved Shae who tells Varys that she loves Sansa, and would kill for that girl. That actress is fierce. (I hope her story veers away from the books. I didn't like Shae in the books, I like her a great deal here.)
* Oh dear...they actually showed what was only mentioned but never described in the books, and had us see it through Ayra and Sandor Cleghan's eyes. I sort of was hoping they wouldn't do that. Although after Theon and the Red Wedding, can't say I'm all that surprised.
Yes, they actually showed that the Freys chopped off Robb's head and sewed his wolf's head on his body and carted around the corpse. Which was grisely enough in the books. It wasn't too bad here - since it was at a distance and not up close and personal, but still - ugh.
Did pack the necessary wallop emotionally - and did a good job of explaining where Ayra is going and why.
Ayra after she stabs the man who brags about sewing the wolf's head onto her brother's body...:The first man? Yes, that's the first man I've killed.
Sandor: Where'd you get the knife?
Ayra: From you.
Sandor: Well the next time you decide to do something like that, tell me first!
They are doing the Sandor:Ayra (PLATONIC!) tale quite well. Very happy about this. It and the Jamie/Brienne bits are amongst my favorite.
* Bran's story was well-done here - where tells about the Rat Cook, one of the few tales of Bran's that I remember vividly from the books - because it does a great job of explaining exactly why what the Frey's did is such big problem in that society.
Bran: The cook who used to live here...was upset with the king for slighting him, so he killed the king's young son and served him to the king in a pie. The king liked the taste of his own son, so much he asked for another slice. The cook offended the Gods, so they turned him into a giant Rat for eternity, doomed to eat his rat children, but never be full and always hungry...some say he still haunts these halls.
Mereen: That's funny, not scary...
Bran: You don't understand, the Gods did not turn him into a giant white Rat for killing the king's son or for serving him, but for doing it to a guest at his house, someone who was dining at his table. That is a sin against the Gods...an offense that can never ever be forgiven or forgotten.
Trust me, the Frey's will get it. That story more or less tells us as much.
* Jon doesn't believe Ygritt will harm him. Teary-eyed, she shoots him full of arrows, but doesn't kill him. Go Ygritt. I adored her. Jon...not quite that much.
Excellent episode. Hit all the necessary points and pushed the plot forward, even though not a lot of action. I actually liked this episode better than the previous one. Mainly because it featured my favorites.
Overall rating - A
This was a great season, the best to date. It echoes the books in that respect. And they are giving me hope for later seasons by bringing forward certain events from latter books, and tightening the story. It's not quite as sprawling and tedious as the books were in places.
Co-worker: I envy the people working on the series - they must know where GRRM is headed with the story.
ME: No, they really don't.
Co-worker: He had to have told them.
Me: He's not that type of writer. He writes intuitively, he's not a planner. He doesn't have them outlined way in advance. He sort of sees where it takes him. In short, he doesn't quite know where it is going and even if he does? He has a tendency to change his mind.
Co-worker: Arrgh.
Before I do a review, a brief take on a discussion regarding GoT with a co-worker, regarding the books and tv series characters:
Co-Worker (not the one who skipped Storm of Swords, entirely different co-worker - this one has read all the books, but got fed up because of how DwD dealt with her fav): How can't you like Davos and Jon Snow in the books they are morally upstanding characters...
Me: See, I read and watch things a bit differently than you do. I honestly don't care if the character is morally upstanding or not, or even if they have morals for that matter - they just have to interest me on some level. If they bore me...I don't like them. Which is why I wasn't a fan of Davos or Jon in the books or Bran or Ned Stark or Catelynn...
So here's the thing - which may explain a lot to people who have read me over the years? I don't care about the morality of fictional characters, well I do but not to the degree some apparently do, I care about how the fictional characters actions are explored and more often than not flawed characters, deeply flawed ones, are explored better than morally upstanding/perfect characters. I don't know why this is. It just is. Maybe because the writers find them more interesting too? (shrugs) This isn't always the case. I find Superman and Buffy interesting.
Apparently various discussion boards call people who are unspoiled and haven't read the books the unsullied? (amusing considering the unsullied are constrated, niave, and follow anyone who owns them) While book walkers are the one's who have read the books possibly more than twice and get off on baiting and spoiling the unsullied. I'm guessing a reference to the walking dead and the zombies in the north? Also amusing. And why I'm very glad I'm not in the GoT fandom. Ach. One internet fandom per lifetime is enuf. I can deal with lj folks, they are more civilized.
This was a wrap-up section. For a bit I expected them to do the Joffrey/Margery wedding, but they are apparently holding that for next season. Which makes sense, but it would have been an awesome season ender.
* Finally they explain why we had to endure Theon's torture arc in the same section as Jamie getting his hand sliced off, Brienne almost being killed by a bear, and the Red Wedding...because we're supposed to feel sympathetic towards Asha's plight or her decision to sail after her brother. (I don't remember this happening in the books, unless they are spoiling me again on the fifth book A Dance with Dragons? Actually I Theon's entire arc has almost been spoilt for A Dance with Dragons, and some of sadistic humor lost. My least favorite thing about the books and this season is admittedly Theon.) I do vaguely remember Theon's cock being delivered to Balon Greyjoy, so I think that was in the books. Wonder if they will let her succeed? Half tempted to tell her not to bother...by the time you get there, he'll be dead. Only people who reunite with family or loved one's are the people who sort of wish they hadn't. (aka The Lannisters) While it is admittedly hard to care what happens to Theon (boring character and on the whiny side), no one deserves this.
* Jamie and Brienne - they've changed the story. In the book they don't arrive until ahem, much much later and another "major" game-changing event has occurred. One I thought was going to occur at the end of this episode, but did not. Which makes me wonder how those major events are now going to play out?? Because there is no way they can happen the same way they did in the book. Jamie not being present at Joffrey/Margery's wedding feast was important. Now what? This is as big if not bigger change from Robb Stark marriage.
Which means the series continues to veer ever so slightly away from the bookverse.
* Davos endears me - he scenes with Gendry were wonderful with some funny lines...
Gendry: The gold cloaks are still hunting me..
Davos: Do they know your face?
Gendry: No.
Davos: Don't worry about them, they've been hunting me for 20 years - it's the Red Woman you should worry about.
They've consolidated Davos arc - he spent ten chapters in the dungeon ruminating on his life after freeing (in the books Edric, Gendry stuck with the Brotherhood), him. Here, he gets to tell Stannis and Melissandra about the threat to the north, which Melissandra, accurately interprets as a far more dire issue than their WAR. In fact that the WAR means nothing in comparison to that threat. This saves Davos' life, because she realizes that Davos is right, Stannis needs him to garner support.
* Meanwhile Dany is doing quite well with her huge following, the only question is - how does she plan on feeding and taking care of all of these followers? But the reaction of her advisers is interesting - both see her for what she is - a leader. She is the antithesis of Stannis, Joffrey, Robb etc...she's garnering loyalty with respect and love, not fear and anger and vengeance. Dany is an example of a morally upstanding character that I find interesting.
* Joffrey can you be any more monsterous? Also stupid. At that table were at least three people I would not want to piss off: Tyrion, Tywin, and Varys. Tywin deals with him well - sending him off to bed without his supper, as Tyrion notes wryly. Tywin's scene with Tyrion is fascinating.
Tyrion: Easy for you to talk about putting family first above yourself, when you make all the decisions for everyone. When have you ever done anything against your own self-interest?
Tywin: The day you were born. I wanted to throw you to the waves and watch you drown, but I did not - and chose to raise you as my son, because you were a Lannister.
Tywin: You know it wasn't the Freys...
Tyrion: Walder Frey is many things, but a brave man? No. He wouldn't have done it without assurances...
Tywin: From me, yes.
Tyrion: And you no doubt gave Roose Bolton similar assurances?
Tywin: Warden of the North, that is until Sansa's firstborn comes of age...you better get working on that.
Tyrion: After what you've done, she's hardly going to open her legs for me.
Tywin: I wish someone would explain to me the difference between killing 10,000 in battle and a couple of thousand at a dinner?
Tyrion: So killing them at the dinner was meant to save lives?
Tywin: No, it was to win this war.
And earlier the scenes between him and Cersei, which go a long way to explaining Cersei.
Tyrion: Sansa is not going to be happy about this. Someone needs to tell her.
Cersei: Give her a child - it will help towards making her happy.
Tyrion: You have children, are you happy?
Cersei: No. But there are moments...(pause) even with Joffrey. It is nice to have someone focused on you, who cares for you, and is made happy with you - even if it is for only a little while. Before Joffrey, I was so lonely, after Joffrey...they say the nasty miserable babies will turn out nasty, that's how you can always tell, but Joffrey was a happy baby, always smiling and laughing...
And of course what Tyrion states to Joffrey...Tyrion, Jamie and Davos get the best lines.
* The actress playing Sansa seems really tall to me, of course she's paired with a lot of shorter people. I loved Shae who tells Varys that she loves Sansa, and would kill for that girl. That actress is fierce. (I hope her story veers away from the books. I didn't like Shae in the books, I like her a great deal here.)
* Oh dear...they actually showed what was only mentioned but never described in the books, and had us see it through Ayra and Sandor Cleghan's eyes. I sort of was hoping they wouldn't do that. Although after Theon and the Red Wedding, can't say I'm all that surprised.
Yes, they actually showed that the Freys chopped off Robb's head and sewed his wolf's head on his body and carted around the corpse. Which was grisely enough in the books. It wasn't too bad here - since it was at a distance and not up close and personal, but still - ugh.
Did pack the necessary wallop emotionally - and did a good job of explaining where Ayra is going and why.
Ayra after she stabs the man who brags about sewing the wolf's head onto her brother's body...:The first man? Yes, that's the first man I've killed.
Sandor: Where'd you get the knife?
Ayra: From you.
Sandor: Well the next time you decide to do something like that, tell me first!
They are doing the Sandor:Ayra (PLATONIC!) tale quite well. Very happy about this. It and the Jamie/Brienne bits are amongst my favorite.
* Bran's story was well-done here - where tells about the Rat Cook, one of the few tales of Bran's that I remember vividly from the books - because it does a great job of explaining exactly why what the Frey's did is such big problem in that society.
Bran: The cook who used to live here...was upset with the king for slighting him, so he killed the king's young son and served him to the king in a pie. The king liked the taste of his own son, so much he asked for another slice. The cook offended the Gods, so they turned him into a giant Rat for eternity, doomed to eat his rat children, but never be full and always hungry...some say he still haunts these halls.
Mereen: That's funny, not scary...
Bran: You don't understand, the Gods did not turn him into a giant white Rat for killing the king's son or for serving him, but for doing it to a guest at his house, someone who was dining at his table. That is a sin against the Gods...an offense that can never ever be forgiven or forgotten.
Trust me, the Frey's will get it. That story more or less tells us as much.
* Jon doesn't believe Ygritt will harm him. Teary-eyed, she shoots him full of arrows, but doesn't kill him. Go Ygritt. I adored her. Jon...not quite that much.
Excellent episode. Hit all the necessary points and pushed the plot forward, even though not a lot of action. I actually liked this episode better than the previous one. Mainly because it featured my favorites.
Overall rating - A
This was a great season, the best to date. It echoes the books in that respect. And they are giving me hope for later seasons by bringing forward certain events from latter books, and tightening the story. It's not quite as sprawling and tedious as the books were in places.
Co-worker: I envy the people working on the series - they must know where GRRM is headed with the story.
ME: No, they really don't.
Co-worker: He had to have told them.
Me: He's not that type of writer. He writes intuitively, he's not a planner. He doesn't have them outlined way in advance. He sort of sees where it takes him. In short, he doesn't quite know where it is going and even if he does? He has a tendency to change his mind.
Co-worker: Arrgh.
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Date: 2013-06-13 10:25 pm (UTC)Stuff that veered away from the thread were harder to predict, or things we as an audience did not want.
Predictions that were basically fans pipe dreams were off and did have the negative result of turning off those fans.
Dicy biz speculating. If it's what you want to happen - yay, but if it isn't...or is disappointing...