Horns, not bells
1 - Night’s Watch returning
2 - wildlings approaching
3 - white walkers
Yes, magic is slowly coming back to the world after having disappeared for hundreds of years, but it’s not just because the summer is ending - seasons on Westeros last anywhere between ~5 and 15 years each; but the last dragons died centuries ago and the White Walkers had last been seen so long ago that they’d become myths that no one believes in.
I agree to some extent, but you don’t expect him to die in so gratuitous a fashion either. There was absolutely no reason for Dagmer to kill him, and his death doesn’t really move any part of the plot along.
It’s just “oh, btw, fuck you. Now, where were we…” which both cold cocked me and had a real sense of “yup, there’s no getting off that shithole train boys. Westeros sucks, didn’t you know that by now ?”. It felt as “wrong” and out of left field as Tara’s death in *Buffy.
*I’d fully expect, say, Samwell-the-comic-relief to get gutted just to prove that the White Walkers don’t fuck around, or the cute Stark boys to have been burned by Theon for real to establish just how much of a hopeless fuck up he is. I’d even have expected Cersei to just kill Sansa out of boredom. Hell, even Ned’s death had been foreshadowed for a long time. But not… not grandpa 
I guess you’re right. It’s just that there are more comfy ways to travel unnoticed, y’know ? 
That’s probably a reference to the book where he’s really disfigured (lose half of his nose). Doesn’t make much sense in the serie where he isn’t, so I hope they won’t mention it again.
I don’t remember it being ever mentioned or even hinted at previously. I’m not even sure they had any screentime together. Until now, only his love for Sansa’s mother has been mentioned. And according to one of the previous episodes, where he essentially proposed her, it seems he’s still in love with her (the mother, I mean).
Nope. If you watch again the episode, you’ll notice that the people killed when the dragons were abducted were Xaro’s guards, not Dothraki (except for the faithful female servant).
1 bell for friends approaching, 2 for foes, 3 for Nightwalkers.
I expected the same thing.
It’s going to take years to watch the show, while reading the books only takes days. So, when reading, it feels like a lot of characters are quickly dispatched. I had berely begun to read and already the king had been murdered, Ned decapitad, one of the Baratheon pretenders shadow babyed, etc…that along a number of secondary characters who get more coverage in the books, like the old woman who was taking care of Stark’s children or even the swordmaster (I truly don’t know if he’s actually dead or not. I’m just assuming he is). X might have been dead half a week after I began reading, while he might still be around in 2014 in the show.
That explains why there’s a different feel about the show.
Not remotely the same ballpark. Not even the same sport.
This is actually a great example of what I’m talking about. What you spoiler boxed was a perfect example of a ruthless writer crushing our souls by killing a well liked (beloved may be a bit strong) main character, emphasis on the “main.”
Grandpa Westeros was a bit-part side character who, in most stories, serves exactly one purpose: to die a wrongful death so the main characters have something to avenge or mourn or have an arc of some sort. His death in GoT was borderline cliche.
I disagree, not just with your take on his death being totally unnecessary, but also with those who are saying that Theon’s men were going to turn him in for free passage out.
Grandpa mentioned tunnels out of Winterfell. Theon’s men probably discovered them during their stay there, or else grandpa also told them in an effort to give them an easy out without bloodshed. I think they killed him so that when they made their escape, he wouldn’t immediately go out to tell the siege force where they went. They probably started the fires to add to the confusion and delay the discovery that they were no longer there. Also to make their sacking of Winterfell more complete, and make it seem less like they lost and had to flee without accomplishing anything.
If they were going to turn in Theon, why throw a bag over his head? (Though, I’m not exactly sure why if they weren’t, either.) The other unanswered question is where was the siege force when Bran et al. emerged from hiding? That was a bit of a head-scratcher. Did they come in, find nobody and figure out that the Iron Islanders must have snuck off, then go out in search for them?
As for why knockout Theon? They didn’t want to die, and figured they’d do him a favor by letting him keep his life along with whatever dignity he has remaining for not having given up. It’s also quite possible that his captain dude was under orders from his father the whole time. The Winterfell mission was his idea in the first place - maybe it was ALL a test to see where Theon’s loyalties laid, and how much of a true Greyjoy he was. Once that was thoroughly determined, it was job done and time to hit the road. Or maybe they still have more in store for him, and that’s why the mask?
I think this was deliberatly left out.
Apart from him being a dwarf (I think it plays a part)? He has aknowledged that his son definitely had some unexpected qualities when choosing him as the hand, but he obviously still disaproves of his lifestyle, in particular sleeping with whores (that was mentioned several times), but I suspect also his frienship with people like his henchman (can’t remember his name. The guy he made commander of the watch), or even more generally common people Tyrion seems to care about a lot.
I think he would like his son to live like people of very high birth are supposed to live, instead of drinking in taverns surrounded by commoners in arms and whores. His general attitude (for instance when he talks with Arya or his commanders) depicts him as someone who’s very solemn and also cares a lot about protocol and appearances (a king doesn’t do this, if you weren’t a Lanister I would have you killed , commoners don’t say “my lord”, etc…)
Maybe he also resents the fact that his wife died while giving birth to Tyrion? Cercei does resent it, at least.
I don’t remember them letting him escape. He was watching from a distance, if I remember correctly. My take is that he just ran as fast as he could all the way to Winterfell where he was caught.
Or… maybe there really wasn’t a siege force at all, and that was also part of testing Theon. It’s quite possible that the forces led by his sister had prevented the the detachment of Rob’s forces from ever even getting there. The bag over Theon’s head might have been to prevent him from waking up and realizing that… hmmm!
Other random thoughts…
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Nice touch on the opening scene with the reflection in Tyrion’s eye of his last sights in the battle, then switching to him regaining consciousness with Pycelle standing over him. Had to love old Pycelle reveling in his revenge!
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Convenient for Tywin to enter the ceremony on horseback and never dismount so he didn’t have to be seen kneeling before Joffrey. There’s no doubt where the true power lies.
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I don’t think Baelish has the hots for Sansa. He’s looking to score points with Cat, or else he wouldn’t have tried to convince Sansa that she needs to leave King’s Landing, and that he would reunite her with her mother. He’s got a stable of whores for sex, and would probably prefer a wife with more (currently) noble standing.
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So, Cat really did send Jaime to KL. I wonder how that’s going to go over. I wonder if Jaime will have the honor and gratitude to insist that they return Sansa now that she’s off the Joffrey hook.
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The wizard dude being so stupid and quickly defeated was a bit of a let down. I’d have preferred they developed that outcome a bit more, even if that meant that they left this season off with Dany in captivity.
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White Walkers are cool. Man, even if the Lannisters, Starks, Greyjoys, Stannis and his LoL, and Dany and her dragons, AND the Wildlings all joined forces, it looks like they’d still have their hands full. With them all battling it out… man this is gonna get good! Something tells me that the Lannisters will soon be like, “Oh, you want to be King of the North? Okay! It’s all yours.”
I just rewatched it; what happens is that the NW leader gets killed at the site where the younger NW guy found the mutilated wildling bodies.
Both the other NW guys start running, pursued through the woods by many WWs. They get tired and confused, and end up facing each other. The older one gets beheaded from behind by a WW.
The younger NW guy falls to his knees, and the WW throws the severed head down in front of him. Fade to black, roll credits.
The next time we see the younger NW guy is when he’s captured south of the wall. Clearly the WWs had him at their mercy and let him go. He was kneeling, not running. He was surrounded, or at least that’s how it looked to me; there was one WW for sure right in front of him and the others were certainly very close.
I watched it again and in fact, you’re right. They seem to let him go away. One of the white walkers throw to him the head of his companion.
ETA : as Shakester wrote
Only because the dragons are tiny babies. If fully grown, Dany and her dragons could literally incinerate everyone else. What are the white walkers going to do, throw spears at them?
Oh yes ! Forgot that, but that eye shot with the filter dropping in sync with the batting eyelash was very neat.
I’m also thinking that Pycelle dropping the frail dippy old man act just to get in some burns on Tyrion, thinking the dwarf’s days of power are over, is going to bite him in the ass one of these days.
Did you miss the part where he was going “you remind me so much of your mother” while leering like the most goony-ass lecher ? Plus, it’s already been established in a previous exposition whores scene (back in season 1 IIRC) that he doesn’t partake in his own merchandise because he’s saving himself for his twue luuuuurve.
So yeah, maybe I’m imagining things, I dunno, but I was really getting “dude in a van outside the playground” vibes from his little talk with Sansa. Which is even creepier when you remember that Sansa is supposed to be something like 14 or 15 years old.
Totally agreed. They spend like 5 episodes establishing him as this eerie scheming inescapable Presence, some kind of magical evil genius begging for a “Doktor” or at least a “von” somewhere in his name and then… whelp :/. Underwhelming payoff to say the least.
Oh, trust me, it is known :). My SO wouldn’t shut up about how he was “supposed” to be hovering between life and death for a super long time, and also wake up without a face and oozing pus 
But that’s the thing, yes. I can understand them not wanting to go forward with that out of make-up/CGI concerns but hopefully they’ll adjust his lines accordingly next season, because if Tyrion spends any amount of time getting all emo over having a badge of badassery across his cheek it’s going to feel more than a little narm-y and :rolleyes:.
The Winterfell thing i felt was handled badly, but i understand why that is. When the season was written/cast/filmed there was no guarantee of a third season yet so you can’t have a major character for a single scene only and expect he will be back if there are other seasons, but that leaves you with a situation in which one side does not even exist yet.
Or, according to Delorious Ed
- Night Watch returning
- Wildings approaching
- RUN!
I liked the episode, but I do agree they crammed way too much into it. It’s like they suddenly realized they had a season finale to do and hadn’t planned for it.
Did Tywin’s horse defecate all over the threshold of the throne room?
“Valar Morghulis” sounds like something from Tolkien.
I was disappointed that so little time was spent on King’s Landing intrigue.