Spring TV Update: GoT/ASOIAF, Vikings, The Americans, and Outlander
Well last week was sure one of highs and lows for ASOIAF fandom. On the bright side, GRRM released a Sansa chapter from TWOW!!! (And said he is trying for 2016!) On the other hand, the spoilers that have come out from the screeners of the first four epps of s5 make it sound like the worst, grossest season yet...:/
I thoroughly enjoyed it, I have to say--it's nice to see that Sansa is actually enjoying a respite and some relative happiness/contentment right now, and that she even has a new friend. It was interesting to see her continue to keep up the charade and scheming with Littlefinger...it's good to see Harry the Heir clearly doesn't know her identity at least! I thought the callback to Jeyne was interesting--I would love for someone at the tournament to mention "Arya's" wedding and see if Littlefinger fesses up to Sansa about who "Arya" really is...if only she knew how much ~running~ through Winterfell Jeyne will be doing soon. I need more of this book, please let 2016 actually be the year it's released!
I was especially happy to see a Sansa chapter out, since on the show they have inexplicably rushed to the end of Sansa's AFFC storyline already--it's good to know what Sansa is *actually* up to right now in the story, as opposed to D&D's horrible fanfiction. Let's talk about that fan fiction for a moment:
So many terrible, disturbing things going on, I can't even. Natalie Dormer having sex with teenaged!Tommen (even them aging up the actor to 15 doesn't make it OK), Sansa inevitably getting horribly raped by Ramsay Bolton now that she will be getting Jeyne Poole's storyline apparently...so much wrong next season. D:
But then again, this show has always been full of added wrong and creepiness and rape, thanks to D&D being sick fucks and shitty showrunners...I must admit that on an emotional investment level, the thing that is perhaps upsetting me most about the spoilers that have come out is the one saying that THEON DOES NOT HAVE A SINGLE FUCKING LINE OF DIALOGUE IN THE FIRST FOUR EPISODES!!! >:( FFS, he was the ONLY character in the books who they had consistently done justice, but no more, apparently. :( It's not looking good for my favorite arc/storyline of ADWD and the series thus far. I mean, I figured they would probably not do his storyline right, since it is full of things like emotion, drama, and epicness that are anathema to this show, and since they hadn't cast a Jeyne yet, but I had gained some hope when I heard about a brown-haired Winterfell servant girl being cast; a servant girl who looked like Arya and had grown up around Arya would have been able to work.
But nope, instead they are going with Sansa...which is a bit confusing, are they going to have her pretend to be Arya with her dyed hair or...? :s Surely they can't openly have her be Sansa when the Lannisters are still actively searching for her with a price on her head, and she is still married to Tyrion, legally (even Littlefinger was going to wait until Tyrion was dead before marrying Sansa off in the books, but I guess they are cool with bigamy)? Of course the fact that Littlefinger would reveal Sansa's identity and actually hand her over to Lannisters allies who are as treacherous as the Boltons is rather absurd in of itself, but we already know this show isn't a stickler for logic or making Littlefinger as subtle and clever as he is in the books.
Honestly, aside from my great distaste at them putting through Sansa through Joffrey Redux (and what the marriage to Ramsay would include), her as a substitute for Jeyne wouldn't have been the worst fit in the world, since Jeyne does have a lot in common with Sansa tbh (their storylines closely parallel one another, and they had similar attitudes and memories, etc), and she would certainly have known enough to pretend to be Arya. It might have even been extra interesting to see Sansa confronting Theon about her brothers and his betrayal, and so forth. But if Theon is that marginalized/absent in the first four episodes, then I am doubtful that they will do any of his storyline with Jeyne vis a vis Sansa, which is BS. Like even if the Ramsay/Sansa wedding happens in episode 4 (unless they are only talking about it then, and it's 5x05?), it would make no sense that Theon wouldn't have a speaking role then, when he played such a major role in the wedding scene. I want to hope that he is really heavy in the second half of the season and NOT the actor who said he was surprised to be killed off early when he still has a lot left to do in the books (I hope that is Barristan Selmy, even though I am sad he is going too--but better him than other characters), but with these spoilers I am going to assume that nothing of his great character work in ADWD remains. D&D can never resist the chance to waste potential after all...
My only consolation with the Sansa spoilers is that there is no way that is spoiling her storyline in TWOW...which I had been especially concerned with after all the talk that they would be spoiling things from the books soon...please let it not be Theon's death.
If Theon's arc is out, I think the only things I have left to really look forward to are the scenes filmed at los Reales Alcazares for Dorne and the flashbacks of Young!Cersei (although apparently the valonquar part isn't even mentioned?! Like wtf is the point then?). I am sure they will not include the best Dany scene anyway of her walking through that field...*sigh*
On a lighter GoT note, did you guys see this funny Seth Meyers Brings Jon Snow to a Dinner Party video? ;)
+ Also, an episode of Vikings happened--my thoughts on 3x07:
So it was our first episode without Athelstan since the pilot (*sigh*), and all I can say is: THANK GOD FOR KING ECBERT! He was by FAR the most entertaining part of the episode for me, just as he is almost every week. He had better be sticking around for a while, revenge be damned--I need to be able to still watch for him, with Athelstan gone...
Seriously though, what a magnificent bastard and delightful troll! :D The way he first mentions his plans to invade Northumbria oh so casually to his son, all "Of course I must overthrow him. I just wondered how upset your wife would be." What a BAMF. I also liked the line, "He is my ally, but not my friend. I don't have any friends. It's better that way." (Even though I think Athelstan was an exception to that rule). Then my favorite scene:
x
Lmao at the bone he threw to the bishop at the end there. God only knows where Aethelwulf got his religious devotion from (his mother, perhaps?) because it sure as hell wasn't from King Ecbert...;) Speaking of that relationship, I loved this part too:
You go, gurl! Very well-deserved. It was wonderful to see that Ecbert brings up Athelstan all the time (judging by his son's comments)--I think it shows that he misses him! <33 (Clearly it wasn't entirely true that he has no friends, ahem). I also loved seeing him all adorable and affectionate with Alfred, calling him his grandson, etc. I need to see more of him raising Alfred pleaaaase!
The one thing that I did not enjoy about Ecbert in this episode obviously was the weird creepiness with Judith in that one scene. :s I really have to wonder what Hirst is on about sometimes...I don't really see him suddenly having a thing for Judith out of nowhere, and I can't tell what the political purpose would be (I mean, he needs his son to succeed him when he dies, and he needs him married to Judith in part to cement the claim to Northumbria...). Could it be an attempt to get a contact high with Athelstan, I wonder, to try to connect with him via her? (e.g. kissing the only person to kiss him, etc, lol). I hope it's something like that, although poor Judith...:/ It looks like she is probably the one he is asking to be his mistress in the trailer, unfortunately. *sigh* Before the kiss I was so enjoying that scene of them remembering Athelstan together, and Ecbert's callback to this conversation in season 2:
I thought Ecbert looked a bit pained at her statement that "it's like Athelstan is talking to us now." Please continue with these Athelstan callback, show.
I also quite enjoyed seeing my beloved vegetarian fratricidal murder princess again, being the delightfully crazy, fabulous troll and HBIC she is! Lol forever at the way she kept Athelwulf waiting forever in her epic menagerie (A+ taste in pets!) while she had noisy sex--I'm sorry, "bathed!" ;) I also loved her teasing him about always doing what his dad said, and ~tempting him. Her eyeroll/expression during the wine scene cracked me up too:
Idk if I still would have drunk that if I were Aethelwulf...:p I also thought it was very interesting to see her claiming this baby of Ragnar's:
What a clever political move, trying to use the baby to solidify Ragnar as an ally against Wessex, etc...and to get an heir without worrying about marrying and losing power to a man. Not sure it really would have been possible for her to have pulled that off in that era, but it's still fun to see (and maybe she had enough hard power and intimidation to manage it!). This does make me wonder, however, if Ecbert might not be using Alfred as a counter/insurance against Ragnar as well, knowing that Ragnar would never harm a son of Athelstan's. It will be interesting to see when Ragnar finally meets Ecbert again, and Alfred...also I think Ecbert would have been totally willing to let Aethelwulf be sacrificed as a pretext to invade Mercia. ;) He does not give enough of a fuck about him (I think he would rather put his eggs in the Alfred basket now...).
Basically Wessex was where it was all at this week, and I did not mind it one bit--frankly I find the political wheeler-dealing there to be 500x more interesting than a raid on Paris; the fight scenes are never what I was here for, and the new characters in Paris are not as interesting as my Wessex peeps yet. (I do like though that they are introducing a new female character after Siggy's exit--they are good about doing that each season, like how they introduced Aslaug and Torvi after Gyda and Siggy's daughter died, etc. I can already tell she is too good for either Rollo or Bjorn to marry....*sigh*). The only thing I really liked in this storyline was of course all the scenes of Ragnar mourning his bae...<333
x
I LOVED that he is openly wearing Athelstan's cross, for some reason I thought he would keep that hidden...but nope, he is openly in mourning, to hell with Floki! Just look at him patting his chest to check it's next to his heart, and holding the cross while looking at Paris to share the view with Athelstan...♥ I think he must be playing Floki, doing a long con with the way he is giving him such a big role in the raid...he looked so scary while discussing Athelstan and handling snakes. (Clearly it was ~symbolism~ with Floki as the mouse...). I hope the payoff is good. As much as I hate Floki, I did enjoy seeing him being so derpy during the war council and truly earning the nickname "Flop-i":
RME though at him saying that ~the gods~ were making those siege towers, FFS just DIAF already! (Helga, leave this asshole!!!) Speaking of Helga, I once again found it impossible to tell her apart from Torvi, and I finally learned why--the two actresses are sisters!!! I feel relieved to know I am not going crazy...:p (Apparently both are the daughters of Michael Hirst? Talk about nepotism!).
I hate that with the time jump we didn't get to see anyone else's reaction to Athelstan's death--like surely Lagertha would have been sad too, especially after all their time together in Wessex?!?! This show sometimes moves so fast it's a detriment to the character development. :(
+ Also, can we talk about The Americans for a moment?!
[Major spoilers for 3x10-3x11]OMG PAIGE KNOWS NOW AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! I did NOT expect her to find out so soon--normally that is like season finale shit, but nope, not on this show! <333 THAT WHOLE REVEAL SCENE WAS SO AMAZING! THEIR FACES, PHILLIP'S LITTLE NOD, THE WAY ELIZABETH WAS SO TOTALLY AT LOST FOR WORDS AND PHILLIP ENDED UP BEING THE FIRST TO BREAK THE NEWS DESPITE HIS RESERVATIONS!!! SO perfectly done, I had to rewatch it a few times..."we were born in another country", I CAN'T! And Paige's reactions, asking them to speak Russian, and this week what their real names were...I really can't wait to see where that all goes! I was terrified during the scene where she calls her pastor (who continues to be super creepy btw) and they are all anxious at work...this show sure knows how to pile on the tension and put you on the edge of your seat! I think they are lucky actually that the Centre had ordered them to recruit Paige, or they might have been in real trouble otherwise for telling her the truth...
Also omg Martha, YOU IN DANGER GURL! D: I must give her props for being such a good liar under all that pressure, but I am worried she still gave herself away...I want to hear what Walter Taffet says to Gaad! I also was bummed we didn't get to hear Phillip's plan for how Elizabeth can see her mother. These episodes always end far too son! I can't believe we are only two away now from the finale...thank god we know there will be a season 4 now.
Oh and how about that reveal about the defector?! I loved how it was done, with Arkady actually noting it could have been the KGB ordering that attempt because of how compartmentalized everything was...I hate for Stan to be right about anything, but it was still cool! And now Oleg is in on the Mail Robot scheme too, which is neat...the conversation about what had been overheard was hilarious. More Rezidentura scenes, please.
+ Finally, Outlander returned this week at last...
I have to say, I wasn't so impressed. :/ I knew the beating scene was coming thanks to honeymink, but I still felt it was really poorly handled, the way it was actually played for laughs?! O_o Like wtf, show...NAGL at all. And I hate that they included Jamie actually getting turned on by it--did they really need to include that at least?! :s Oh well, lucky for me I had already realized that Frank/Claire is my true OTP during the hiatus, so I am no longer as invested in Jamie/Claire anyway...which I suppose is a problem in that they are so emphasized. I actually found the sex scene to be too long/boring, for instance? At least she did good in threatening him if he ever raised a hand to her again...seriously fuck that.
I also missed not seeing any flashbacks of Frank. :( And are all of the episodes this half of the season going to be narrated by Jamie?! Because I am much more interested in hearing Claire's inner thoughts, even though I suppose it's good to get a peak into Jamie's head too...but we'll never get Frank flashbacks that way.
Too much TV going on right now!
I thoroughly enjoyed it, I have to say--it's nice to see that Sansa is actually enjoying a respite and some relative happiness/contentment right now, and that she even has a new friend. It was interesting to see her continue to keep up the charade and scheming with Littlefinger...it's good to see Harry the Heir clearly doesn't know her identity at least! I thought the callback to Jeyne was interesting--I would love for someone at the tournament to mention "Arya's" wedding and see if Littlefinger fesses up to Sansa about who "Arya" really is...if only she knew how much ~running~ through Winterfell Jeyne will be doing soon. I need more of this book, please let 2016 actually be the year it's released!
I was especially happy to see a Sansa chapter out, since on the show they have inexplicably rushed to the end of Sansa's AFFC storyline already--it's good to know what Sansa is *actually* up to right now in the story, as opposed to D&D's horrible fanfiction. Let's talk about that fan fiction for a moment:
So many terrible, disturbing things going on, I can't even. Natalie Dormer having sex with teenaged!Tommen (even them aging up the actor to 15 doesn't make it OK), Sansa inevitably getting horribly raped by Ramsay Bolton now that she will be getting Jeyne Poole's storyline apparently...so much wrong next season. D:
But then again, this show has always been full of added wrong and creepiness and rape, thanks to D&D being sick fucks and shitty showrunners...I must admit that on an emotional investment level, the thing that is perhaps upsetting me most about the spoilers that have come out is the one saying that THEON DOES NOT HAVE A SINGLE FUCKING LINE OF DIALOGUE IN THE FIRST FOUR EPISODES!!! >:( FFS, he was the ONLY character in the books who they had consistently done justice, but no more, apparently. :( It's not looking good for my favorite arc/storyline of ADWD and the series thus far. I mean, I figured they would probably not do his storyline right, since it is full of things like emotion, drama, and epicness that are anathema to this show, and since they hadn't cast a Jeyne yet, but I had gained some hope when I heard about a brown-haired Winterfell servant girl being cast; a servant girl who looked like Arya and had grown up around Arya would have been able to work.
But nope, instead they are going with Sansa...which is a bit confusing, are they going to have her pretend to be Arya with her dyed hair or...? :s Surely they can't openly have her be Sansa when the Lannisters are still actively searching for her with a price on her head, and she is still married to Tyrion, legally (even Littlefinger was going to wait until Tyrion was dead before marrying Sansa off in the books, but I guess they are cool with bigamy)? Of course the fact that Littlefinger would reveal Sansa's identity and actually hand her over to Lannisters allies who are as treacherous as the Boltons is rather absurd in of itself, but we already know this show isn't a stickler for logic or making Littlefinger as subtle and clever as he is in the books.
Honestly, aside from my great distaste at them putting through Sansa through Joffrey Redux (and what the marriage to Ramsay would include), her as a substitute for Jeyne wouldn't have been the worst fit in the world, since Jeyne does have a lot in common with Sansa tbh (their storylines closely parallel one another, and they had similar attitudes and memories, etc), and she would certainly have known enough to pretend to be Arya. It might have even been extra interesting to see Sansa confronting Theon about her brothers and his betrayal, and so forth. But if Theon is that marginalized/absent in the first four episodes, then I am doubtful that they will do any of his storyline with Jeyne vis a vis Sansa, which is BS. Like even if the Ramsay/Sansa wedding happens in episode 4 (unless they are only talking about it then, and it's 5x05?), it would make no sense that Theon wouldn't have a speaking role then, when he played such a major role in the wedding scene. I want to hope that he is really heavy in the second half of the season and NOT the actor who said he was surprised to be killed off early when he still has a lot left to do in the books (I hope that is Barristan Selmy, even though I am sad he is going too--but better him than other characters), but with these spoilers I am going to assume that nothing of his great character work in ADWD remains. D&D can never resist the chance to waste potential after all...
My only consolation with the Sansa spoilers is that there is no way that is spoiling her storyline in TWOW...which I had been especially concerned with after all the talk that they would be spoiling things from the books soon...please let it not be Theon's death.
If Theon's arc is out, I think the only things I have left to really look forward to are the scenes filmed at los Reales Alcazares for Dorne and the flashbacks of Young!Cersei (although apparently the valonquar part isn't even mentioned?! Like wtf is the point then?). I am sure they will not include the best Dany scene anyway of her walking through that field...*sigh*
On a lighter GoT note, did you guys see this funny Seth Meyers Brings Jon Snow to a Dinner Party video? ;)
+ Also, an episode of Vikings happened--my thoughts on 3x07:
So it was our first episode without Athelstan since the pilot (*sigh*), and all I can say is: THANK GOD FOR KING ECBERT! He was by FAR the most entertaining part of the episode for me, just as he is almost every week. He had better be sticking around for a while, revenge be damned--I need to be able to still watch for him, with Athelstan gone...
Seriously though, what a magnificent bastard and delightful troll! :D The way he first mentions his plans to invade Northumbria oh so casually to his son, all "Of course I must overthrow him. I just wondered how upset your wife would be." What a BAMF. I also liked the line, "He is my ally, but not my friend. I don't have any friends. It's better that way." (Even though I think Athelstan was an exception to that rule). Then my favorite scene:
x
Lmao at the bone he threw to the bishop at the end there. God only knows where Aethelwulf got his religious devotion from (his mother, perhaps?) because it sure as hell wasn't from King Ecbert...;) Speaking of that relationship, I loved this part too:
You go, gurl! Very well-deserved. It was wonderful to see that Ecbert brings up Athelstan all the time (judging by his son's comments)--I think it shows that he misses him! <33 (Clearly it wasn't entirely true that he has no friends, ahem). I also loved seeing him all adorable and affectionate with Alfred, calling him his grandson, etc. I need to see more of him raising Alfred pleaaaase!
The one thing that I did not enjoy about Ecbert in this episode obviously was the weird creepiness with Judith in that one scene. :s I really have to wonder what Hirst is on about sometimes...I don't really see him suddenly having a thing for Judith out of nowhere, and I can't tell what the political purpose would be (I mean, he needs his son to succeed him when he dies, and he needs him married to Judith in part to cement the claim to Northumbria...). Could it be an attempt to get a contact high with Athelstan, I wonder, to try to connect with him via her? (e.g. kissing the only person to kiss him, etc, lol). I hope it's something like that, although poor Judith...:/ It looks like she is probably the one he is asking to be his mistress in the trailer, unfortunately. *sigh* Before the kiss I was so enjoying that scene of them remembering Athelstan together, and Ecbert's callback to this conversation in season 2:
I thought Ecbert looked a bit pained at her statement that "it's like Athelstan is talking to us now." Please continue with these Athelstan callback, show.
I also quite enjoyed seeing my beloved vegetarian fratricidal murder princess again, being the delightfully crazy, fabulous troll and HBIC she is! Lol forever at the way she kept Athelwulf waiting forever in her epic menagerie (A+ taste in pets!) while she had noisy sex--I'm sorry, "bathed!" ;) I also loved her teasing him about always doing what his dad said, and ~tempting him. Her eyeroll/expression during the wine scene cracked me up too:
Idk if I still would have drunk that if I were Aethelwulf...:p I also thought it was very interesting to see her claiming this baby of Ragnar's:
What a clever political move, trying to use the baby to solidify Ragnar as an ally against Wessex, etc...and to get an heir without worrying about marrying and losing power to a man. Not sure it really would have been possible for her to have pulled that off in that era, but it's still fun to see (and maybe she had enough hard power and intimidation to manage it!). This does make me wonder, however, if Ecbert might not be using Alfred as a counter/insurance against Ragnar as well, knowing that Ragnar would never harm a son of Athelstan's. It will be interesting to see when Ragnar finally meets Ecbert again, and Alfred...also I think Ecbert would have been totally willing to let Aethelwulf be sacrificed as a pretext to invade Mercia. ;) He does not give enough of a fuck about him (I think he would rather put his eggs in the Alfred basket now...).
Basically Wessex was where it was all at this week, and I did not mind it one bit--frankly I find the political wheeler-dealing there to be 500x more interesting than a raid on Paris; the fight scenes are never what I was here for, and the new characters in Paris are not as interesting as my Wessex peeps yet. (I do like though that they are introducing a new female character after Siggy's exit--they are good about doing that each season, like how they introduced Aslaug and Torvi after Gyda and Siggy's daughter died, etc. I can already tell she is too good for either Rollo or Bjorn to marry....*sigh*). The only thing I really liked in this storyline was of course all the scenes of Ragnar mourning his bae...<333
x
I LOVED that he is openly wearing Athelstan's cross, for some reason I thought he would keep that hidden...but nope, he is openly in mourning, to hell with Floki! Just look at him patting his chest to check it's next to his heart, and holding the cross while looking at Paris to share the view with Athelstan...♥ I think he must be playing Floki, doing a long con with the way he is giving him such a big role in the raid...he looked so scary while discussing Athelstan and handling snakes. (Clearly it was ~symbolism~ with Floki as the mouse...). I hope the payoff is good. As much as I hate Floki, I did enjoy seeing him being so derpy during the war council and truly earning the nickname "Flop-i":
RME though at him saying that ~the gods~ were making those siege towers, FFS just DIAF already! (Helga, leave this asshole!!!) Speaking of Helga, I once again found it impossible to tell her apart from Torvi, and I finally learned why--the two actresses are sisters!!! I feel relieved to know I am not going crazy...:p (Apparently both are the daughters of Michael Hirst? Talk about nepotism!).
I hate that with the time jump we didn't get to see anyone else's reaction to Athelstan's death--like surely Lagertha would have been sad too, especially after all their time together in Wessex?!?! This show sometimes moves so fast it's a detriment to the character development. :(
+ Also, can we talk about The Americans for a moment?!
[Major spoilers for 3x10-3x11]OMG PAIGE KNOWS NOW AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! I did NOT expect her to find out so soon--normally that is like season finale shit, but nope, not on this show! <333 THAT WHOLE REVEAL SCENE WAS SO AMAZING! THEIR FACES, PHILLIP'S LITTLE NOD, THE WAY ELIZABETH WAS SO TOTALLY AT LOST FOR WORDS AND PHILLIP ENDED UP BEING THE FIRST TO BREAK THE NEWS DESPITE HIS RESERVATIONS!!! SO perfectly done, I had to rewatch it a few times..."we were born in another country", I CAN'T! And Paige's reactions, asking them to speak Russian, and this week what their real names were...I really can't wait to see where that all goes! I was terrified during the scene where she calls her pastor (who continues to be super creepy btw) and they are all anxious at work...this show sure knows how to pile on the tension and put you on the edge of your seat! I think they are lucky actually that the Centre had ordered them to recruit Paige, or they might have been in real trouble otherwise for telling her the truth...
Also omg Martha, YOU IN DANGER GURL! D: I must give her props for being such a good liar under all that pressure, but I am worried she still gave herself away...I want to hear what Walter Taffet says to Gaad! I also was bummed we didn't get to hear Phillip's plan for how Elizabeth can see her mother. These episodes always end far too son! I can't believe we are only two away now from the finale...thank god we know there will be a season 4 now.
Oh and how about that reveal about the defector?! I loved how it was done, with Arkady actually noting it could have been the KGB ordering that attempt because of how compartmentalized everything was...I hate for Stan to be right about anything, but it was still cool! And now Oleg is in on the Mail Robot scheme too, which is neat...the conversation about what had been overheard was hilarious. More Rezidentura scenes, please.
+ Finally, Outlander returned this week at last...
I have to say, I wasn't so impressed. :/ I knew the beating scene was coming thanks to honeymink, but I still felt it was really poorly handled, the way it was actually played for laughs?! O_o Like wtf, show...NAGL at all. And I hate that they included Jamie actually getting turned on by it--did they really need to include that at least?! :s Oh well, lucky for me I had already realized that Frank/Claire is my true OTP during the hiatus, so I am no longer as invested in Jamie/Claire anyway...which I suppose is a problem in that they are so emphasized. I actually found the sex scene to be too long/boring, for instance? At least she did good in threatening him if he ever raised a hand to her again...seriously fuck that.
I also missed not seeing any flashbacks of Frank. :( And are all of the episodes this half of the season going to be narrated by Jamie?! Because I am much more interested in hearing Claire's inner thoughts, even though I suppose it's good to get a peak into Jamie's head too...but we'll never get Frank flashbacks that way.
Too much TV going on right now!