I'm sorry, what? Why and how was Valyria even shown in the show?

 

Watch episode 5 and find out?

 

It got meshed with the Rhoyne.

Spoiler

As did Ser Jorah with Jon Connington

 

That really doesn't make sense, how the fuck did they survive? Isn't the whole place still on fire and a hellish wasteland that kills you even before you get close to it? Who thought this was a good idea?

 

It's told to be like that in the books, but it's never confirmed. For all we know it could be just fisherman's tales and folklore or an exaggeration. Anyway, plenty of things are happening in the show, but as there are no twists or not a lot of action, it gives off the feeling that nothing much is going on. Much like the fourth and fifth books, like someone pointed out a few posts up. I don't know if it's me though, but I do feel like there's been a drop in quality this season.

 

I'm pretty positive they only did it so they could substitute a greyscale outbreak for the Pale Mare. Also... I'm not sure they were in Old Valyria exactly. Just in a ruined city on the coast of the smoking sea.

 

Well, they do state a couple of times in the show that the Stonemen are left in the ruins of Old Valyria.

 

Yeah... but they are literally just starting their trek into the Smoking Sea when the stone men attack, and the Smoking Sea is pretty damn big.



Old Valyria is south in the center of a big ass island (also surrounded by sheer cliff) so if they were simply sailing East to Meereen, they wouldn't need to even approach the ruins of the main city.

I dunno. Since they've been relatively loyal to all the other maps, I'm guessing it was just one of the outer islands that had a Valyrian city.

 

It's my understanding that Valyria, like Rome, is a synecdoche which came to signify not just the city but the entire civilisation around it. So it's quite correct to say we saw Valyria, i.e. Valyrian civilisation.

 

Sansaaa.



Nothing good ever happens to her. I think this made me feel worse than the red wedding. She was supposed to be getting stronger, not completely torn down again. Ugh. The acting was too good, I still feel sick to my stomach.

 

tldr: This episode made me angry.

I want to like Tommen, but my sympathy is quickly evaporating. There hasn't been a bigger wuss on the Iron Throne yet. He has to know how important the Tyrells' support is to him and his family, but he pussies out and does nothing when they haul his queen away. The Kingsguard was right there. WTF? Do the Sparrows already have so much influence as to be untouchable?

And Cersei is being massively stupid. Margaery being taken away may be a personal victory, but she has to know that her little smile could be as good as a declaration of war to Olenna. Of course, we know that giving the fanatics so much power will come back to bite her in the ass, but that's not what I expect from someone supposedly so devious. Although the kids may be clouding her judgment and she simply believes herself to powerful to fail. In the words of Robin Williams, that's like saying "too fat to die".

Ramsay is an unbelievable bastard, pun intended, and there's no justification for rape. However... I can't help but kind of admire how he schemed and tortured his way to the top. He probably wants to break Sansa like he did Theon. Still, fuck him with a thorny branch.

Can't help but think that Arya made a rash decision and is starting to regret it, but she's too stubborn to admit to herself. And I can't believe she didn't figure out what happened to the corpses on her own. It was pretty obvious from episode 2.

I hope we don't have to wait until the end of the season for Jorah and Tyrion to get to Meereen. I like Jorah. I'd like him to do something exciting this season, the stonemen in Valyria notwithstanding. Especially since he may not have much time left.

 

I want Ramsay to die so badly...

I wanted her to at least ask 'You'd shame me this way?'. Noting would've changed but at least- I don't know-...

Fuck.

 

How? He didn't, really. He was just a cruel asshole to everyone he could. How was that scheming? Breaking Theon the way he did, didn't really give him that much of an advantage, it just made Theon useless as a political figure and hostage. He got his position as legitimate heir handed to him as was his wife. He certainly didn't scheme or manipulate his way to the top. All the decisions were made by his father and others.

Or am I missing something? He is evil, sick and demented, and kinda childish in that he tortures everyone that he can get away with but I don't see a mastermind manipulator in there.

 

I still think they bungled the stuff with Littlefinger - why did he leave Winterfell again? Because Cersei called him for... what exactly?

 

I kept expecting Sansa to stand up to herself. Now she understands the politics and how influence can protect someone and right now the Boltons need her more than she needs them.

Plus we saw that Ramsay doesn't seem to mind when someone talks back to him, I even thought that was one of the reasons why the miller's daughter was still relevant.

Also fuck the fact that the scene was also important for Theon, he's a piece of shit and I don't understand his relevance at all.

 

It doesn't seem like he's accomplished much when there are or have been people like Olenna or Tywin in the same show, but he's smart and devious, he takes initiative. He conquered a fortress without a battle. So no, he's not a politician on Littlefinger's level, but when compared to his peers, he's not half bad. You'll say that Robb and especially Daenerys (who literally went from nothing to a ruler) have done more, but then again an argument could be made that Sansa, Arya,Tommen or Joffrey (let's be honest, his greatest deed was ordering Ned's death) have achieved less.

 

Because in the books Theon's redemption is one of the best arcs, IMO.

And what do you mean, "I kept expecting Sansa to stand up to herself. Now she understands the politics and how influence can protect someone and right now the Boltons need her more than she needs them."

I don't know what I expected to happen what with the way they've managed Sansa's arc. Try and make her a political badass by lying to the Vale lords, but she can't realize Brienne is trying to help her. Cries and says she doesn't want to go to Winterfell only to regain some composure and decide to go...and get raped. Did she not truly realize the kind of people she was dealing with? I dunno, D&D have her arc is all over the place and that's not her fault. They're just doing a shitty job this season.

And the Boltons don't need Sansa - what exactly does she offer them? She doesn't command the Vale, or the North, she only somewhat legitimizes their ruling of Winterfell by being an actual Stark (though wasn't she technically a Lannister?), though I don't see why that matters when you factor in Roose murdering their king and former lord of Winterfell.

The Boltons need Littlefinger if anything, though Roose seemed skeptical enough to know he wasn't going to be much help. I mean, "Stannis is about to come here and burn some shit but that's OK Littlefinger, by all means head back to King's Landing! Oh yeah, just so we're clear, the Knights of the Vale will be here in time for the battle, right?"

 

Show seems to be falling apart this season. This is why I hate when they deviate. I know a good argument can be made in favor of adaptation changes, but if you have a good story written by a talented author on the scale of ASoIaF or LOTR the last thing you should do is deviate as much as it seems they are. Martin has earned his creativity and writing chops. No name script writers who care more for a pay check haven't.

Or maybe this is just another example of visual media's inferiority to written media.

 

I know everyone's really hung up on the butchering of Sansa's plot, but they have fucked up Dorne even worse arguably. They've totally ruined Ellaria's characterisation from both the books and the previous season of the show (remember how they don't hurt little girls in Dorne?), made the Sand Snakes as bland and pointlessly stupid and interchangeable as possible, and just made Doran outright toothless. And that's not even getting into how awful the directing was for the big fight scene, and for Jaime and Bronn just wandering into the Water Gardens which only has guards when the plot demands it.

It's actually kind of shocking how sloppy the writing can be on this show when it costs so many millions to produce.

 

Fucking hell, I was so hung up on Sansa and Dorne I nearly forgot how big of a pussy Tommen is. Saw a post somewhere saying something along the lines of, "you know things are going bad when you wish Joffrey was still king" cause he wouldn't have let shit go down on his queen like that. Loras, probably, but Marg had him wrapped around her finger. I mean, fuck, his knights were ready to fuck shit up! And he just sits there!

Great. Now I'm starting to hate Tommen as well.