Game! of Thrones!
I suspect that, as with The 100, no one likely to see this is actually still watching the show. But now that I no longer have a book canon to compare GoT to, I am really interested again. It can go be its own thing. Still too much (talk about) rape and not enough Frey-related cannibalism, but otherwise it was enjoyable.
I was expecting it to end with Jon Snow's resurrection, so kudos to the showrunners for putting off the inevitable a little bit longer. I wonder whether Melisandre is going to sacrifice her life for his, in the end; in the books Thoros didn't have to sacrifice a life to keep bringing Beric Dondarrien back, but I'm not sure what the canon in the show is for that sort of thing. Maybe the only resurrection they've had is Khal Drogo's, and that obviously did not go well at all.
On that subject, like everyone who saw the trailer I am totally unsurprised about Dany being sent off to Vaes Dothrak but interested in seeing what she will do there. The only vaguely surprising thing is that she didn't know that she was going to end up there! I also liked Khal Moro for his many "why am I surrounded by idiots?" expressions. He and Davos should team up and commiserate (although I guess Davos isn't really surrounded by idiots, but he did have a few "how about a plan in which we don't all die heroically?" moments.) But a side note, because this bothers me in the books: in the books at least Dany assumes that she in infertile but that's actually a misinterpretation of the prophecy she's given, which is setting out the conditions for her seeing Drogo again (or actually, his coming back to her) -- so you get a couple impossibilities, like the bit about the sun, and then the bit about her bearing a live child tacked on to that, so that it looks like another impossibility. It isn't; it's just a precondition for her reunion with Drogo. I've always thought it was an indication that she would die in childbirth. Although who knows, maybe she'll give birth to the reincarnation of Drogo. Maybe I'm totally wrong!
I actually suspect that the less engaged you are, the easier the show is to watch. I don't actually care much about Jaime/Brienne or Jaime/Cersei, so the fact that we have a Jaime who is much more strongly committed to Cersei here than he is in the books doesn't bother me. Likewise, the way that the Dorne plot has gone, which could never happen in the books because the characters are totally different versions of themselves here. I still don't really care about anyone in Dorne, so, you know, whatever. I have liked Indira Varma since Rome, and I am happy to watch her chew some scenery here.
Any anyway, chucking the Brienne-in-the-Riverlands story allowed them to actually let something good happen to someone, holy crap, how long has it been since that happened? Sansa! Saved by Brienne! Brienne swearing her loyalty to Sansa! This had better have some kind of good payoff down the line! Even Theon got his act together a bit. Maybe they can meet up with Asha/Yara at some point! (OK, I don't actually care about that. I just want Sansa and Brienne to be safe. And Pod. A suggested that maybe Pod could end up king of Westeros, and hey, he'd hardly do a worse job than any of the other contenders!)
So bring on next week! Because we watch it on an online service, we don't get the scenes from next week, but I gather that Bran will be back.
This entry has also been posted at http://vaznetti.dreamwidth.org/54963.html, where it has
comments. Please comment here or there, as you like.
I was expecting it to end with Jon Snow's resurrection, so kudos to the showrunners for putting off the inevitable a little bit longer. I wonder whether Melisandre is going to sacrifice her life for his, in the end; in the books Thoros didn't have to sacrifice a life to keep bringing Beric Dondarrien back, but I'm not sure what the canon in the show is for that sort of thing. Maybe the only resurrection they've had is Khal Drogo's, and that obviously did not go well at all.
On that subject, like everyone who saw the trailer I am totally unsurprised about Dany being sent off to Vaes Dothrak but interested in seeing what she will do there. The only vaguely surprising thing is that she didn't know that she was going to end up there! I also liked Khal Moro for his many "why am I surrounded by idiots?" expressions. He and Davos should team up and commiserate (although I guess Davos isn't really surrounded by idiots, but he did have a few "how about a plan in which we don't all die heroically?" moments.) But a side note, because this bothers me in the books: in the books at least Dany assumes that she in infertile but that's actually a misinterpretation of the prophecy she's given, which is setting out the conditions for her seeing Drogo again (or actually, his coming back to her) -- so you get a couple impossibilities, like the bit about the sun, and then the bit about her bearing a live child tacked on to that, so that it looks like another impossibility. It isn't; it's just a precondition for her reunion with Drogo. I've always thought it was an indication that she would die in childbirth. Although who knows, maybe she'll give birth to the reincarnation of Drogo. Maybe I'm totally wrong!
I actually suspect that the less engaged you are, the easier the show is to watch. I don't actually care much about Jaime/Brienne or Jaime/Cersei, so the fact that we have a Jaime who is much more strongly committed to Cersei here than he is in the books doesn't bother me. Likewise, the way that the Dorne plot has gone, which could never happen in the books because the characters are totally different versions of themselves here. I still don't really care about anyone in Dorne, so, you know, whatever. I have liked Indira Varma since Rome, and I am happy to watch her chew some scenery here.
Any anyway, chucking the Brienne-in-the-Riverlands story allowed them to actually let something good happen to someone, holy crap, how long has it been since that happened? Sansa! Saved by Brienne! Brienne swearing her loyalty to Sansa! This had better have some kind of good payoff down the line! Even Theon got his act together a bit. Maybe they can meet up with Asha/Yara at some point! (OK, I don't actually care about that. I just want Sansa and Brienne to be safe. And Pod. A suggested that maybe Pod could end up king of Westeros, and hey, he'd hardly do a worse job than any of the other contenders!)
So bring on next week! Because we watch it on an online service, we don't get the scenes from next week, but I gather that Bran will be back.
This entry has also been posted at http://vaznetti.dreamwidth.org/54963.html, where it has
comments. Please comment here or there, as you like.