Yep - it’s easy to find translations of Dante’s “Divine Comedy” that rhyme in English.
(Also, everybody knows that the English translation of “Hamlet” retains the same meter as the original Klingon.)
I enjoyed Dany’s story this episode. I’m sure budget concerns kept the depiction of the slave rebellion small, but it was at least nice to see a small portion of it. The crucifixion was great primarily because it added much-needed depth to Danaery’s character. (It’s a start, anyway.)
The scene between Jaime and Brienne was beautiful. I guess there’s an exception to every rule - not everyone who names their sword is a cunt. I’m not going to lie - I actually teared up a little bit when she named the sword “Oathkeeper”. I should have seen that coming, given the episode title.
Speaking of which, Bolton’s agent at Castle Black made a point of requesting to take his oath early in order to join Jon on his mission. I think this is an interesting contrast. He almost certainly will not take his vows seriously, whereas Jaime is struggling hard to fulfill his oath.
OK, first thoughts after watching (haven’t read the thread yet) :
kiiind of unfortunate that Dany’s a blue eyed straw haired Aryan poster child. Saving the brown people and giving them Justice, for they can’t do it by themselves. I know, I know, I’m being unfair. Still, it’s a bit of an awkward visual.
The Martell family *might *just be creepy as all hell. “I was good. I was veeeery good. But you, my girl, are better !”. Grandma, were you in the cupboard the whole time ?! :o
Bit disappointed that they spelled everything out about Joff’s murder.
Weee, TriPod & Brienne ! Thass gon be geeewd. She looks boss in that armour. “Oathkeeper” was a nice touch, and those looks… lots said there without a word.
OK, I have to know : what’s crawled up the new commander of the Night’s Watch bum and died there ? Why does he have it in so hard for Jon ? He’s been all up in Jon’s shit since season 1, is that all because he wouldn’t smack Samwell into the ground ?
Oh, look, the boss of the traitor Crows is a moustache twirling villain. He drinks from a skull, edgy. A murderer for hire you say ? Yawn and fukken yawn. Craster’s women might have actually been creepy without that tool caricature in the middle.
So the Walkers really have been taking Craster’s babies, and turning them into more Walkers apparently. Which means he might have been *the *one and only reason they’re back in force, scaring the Wildlings into banding up to blow this frozen popsicle stand. Not bad for an old horny goat.
All the more ironic that the Crows knew about it but let it slide because his daughter-hive was convenient.
No Stannis, no Varys, no Hound, no Tywin and Hodor getting bullied. Not a fan-crowd pleaser !
Well, yeah, but the two scenes prior were in part there to establish/remind that the people of Essos don’t share Westerosi language. And “English” is how Westerosi is “translated” to us. So that graffito was written in Westerosi.
I found it jarring myself, but maybe Grey Worm wrote that himself, either for Dany’s benefit specifically, or just because he’s pleased as punch to be able to read and write a new language
That’s the Tyrell family. The Martell family is Oberyn the pan-sexual revenge God and various other people from Dorne.
Eh… I feel like the exasperation of “we already figured that out” among people who had figured it out is a lesser evil than “wtf is he talking about? when will ever find out who did it!!!” among people who didn’t have it figured out.
As far as we know, it’s just a combination of him being a jerk, and getting off on the wrong foot wrt Sam, and Jon being castle-raised (note how he calls him “Lord Snow” sarcastically). I don’t think there’s been a hint that there’s any more backstory than that.
I kind of agree, although GoT is so well written and acted that what would be a cardinal embarrassing sin on a lesser show is just a bit irritating.
Yep. We haven’t seen him yet this season, but he seems to be as close as the wildlings get to a single leader; he has (iirc) brought together several wildling tribes for the common goal of kicking the Night’s Watch’s collective ass at Castle Black and invading the lush temperate plains of Westeros proper. The wildlings we saw last week, with the cannibals and Ygritte, are an advance party of his group.
To others: Yes, I’d forgotten he wasn’t leading a traditional army, but rather a mass migration, so it wouldn’t be surprising for 100K+ total (of whom some smaller number would be warriors). And the Wall is certainly a force multiplier for the Crows that would allow them to hold off a much larger force than they could face otherwise.
I said the same thing to my girlfriend at the end of Mhysa. I realize they’re filming in North Africa and hiring local extras, but it does make me uncomfortable. The iffy part isn’t the fact that she’s giving them justice because at least that much is justified by the story. What bothers me is the huge masses of dark-skinned people worshiping a lilly-white savior. It just looks retrograde.
Weird how it became a total non-mystery in two weeks, isn’t it?
They didn’t shoot season 4 Dany arc in North Africa. They shoot it in Croatia, with Croatian extras, and I don’t think Croatians are considered to be “dark-skinned”. It’s funny how people see what they want to see.
There’s also the fact that not all the slaves were dark or “brown” at all. The majority, maybe, but there were quite a few that weren’t. At all. Not even close.
The Wikipedia article on season three says, “Morocco, a new location, was used to film Daenerys’ scenes in Essos such as the city of Astapor, for which locations in Essaouira were used.”
Grey Worm & Translator Girl sure aren’t white, and the crowd that gathered to watch Daenerys Victrix looked, on the whole, vaguely Middle-Eastern to me. shrug
(for that matter, how long’s Dany been tooling around in Open Plain & Desert Country ? Months ? Years ? Shouldn’t she be the least bit tanned by now ? Maybe she’s UV-proof on top of fireproof :D)
[QUOTE=Marley23]
What bothers me is the huge masses of dark-skinned people worshiping a lilly-white savior. It just looks retrograde.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, that’s a better way to phrase my own discomfort.
[QUOTE=MaxTheVool]
That’s the Tyrell family. The Martell family is Oberyn the pan-sexual revenge God and various other people from Dorne.
[/QUOTE]
:smack: Of course. Still, cheeky gramma. And funny that Margaery doesn’t even blush or go “oh, stop !”, she just takes that stuff in stride, with a half-proud smile
It’s not so much “gawd, we already figured that out !”, but more that they just… put it all there in one (well, one and a half) expository Bond monologue. I feel like they could maybe have been more subtle about it. Which brings us to…
I’d agree if it wasn’t for the Thenns last two eps. And Littlefinger’s “oh yeah, I did that, here’s why and that’s for whom. Here’s *their *angle. Get it ?”. Now I’m tentatively scared the show’s slowly moving downhill. Time will tell I suppose.
[QUOTE=Acsenray]
Unless someone in the show remarks that there was Westerosi graffiti on the walls, then it makes no sense to impose that on the show.
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But the show does make a point to keep Valyrian a made up language, subtitling as need be, where the stage convention would be “speak in English but with a silly accent”.
I dunno, YMMV I guess. Had the graffiti been in a vacuum I would have absolutely agreed with you. It’s just the juxtaposition of scene where slaves + GW speak gibberish / master is scared of English street art / slaves yell Valyrian for “Kill the Masters” that makes it all a bit weird.
I get the feeling they’re a bit more comfortable with open sexuality in Westeros than we are here on earth. After all, this a society in which you are expected to ahem perform in front of your guests on your wedding night…
I was slightly surprised at the graffiti written in English. It’s not a big deal, but there are other ways they could have conveyed the same idea. They could have provided a subtitle to the text. They also could have implied the meaning of Valyrian text very clearly - for example, have the slaves in their secret meeting start repeating the phrase “Kill the masters!” in Valyrian, then cut to a slave furtively painting the garffiti in Valyrian. The scene with the master getting mobbed could then be identical except for the graffiti, and the audience would follow along just fine.
I had a thought about Little Finger’s conversation with Sansa. She actually seems to have improved her ability to understand duplicity. Finally! Granted, Little Finger took the time to spell everything out to her. Why is that? I have this image in my head of Little Finger pushing, pulling, and prodding Sansa down the path of deviousness. Much like the Hound is Arya’s current guide in the direction of bad-assery.
I have a request for the Internet at large: Poster of Abraham Lincoln with the caption: “I will take what is mine - with fire and blood!” Bonus if there are Confederate soldiers fighting a dragon in the background.
Well, he (the Acting Lord Commander) recently returned from King’s Landing, and I suspect that his initial disdain for Jon Snow has now solidified and become something much more motivated. And not just because he’s worried about being replaced by him, but also because he’s possibly under orders from a certain somebody he met with in King’s Landing.
What made me think that originally was that if he wanted Jon Snow to get himself killed in his foray beyond the wall and wanted as few Crows as possible to help him on his quest, he could have easily decided *against *allowing Bolton’s inside-man (which he had seen was a quite capable fighter) to go based on the fact that he was just a new recruit that hadn’t taken his vows and was forbidden from going past the wall. But instead, quite uncharacteristically, he quickly and graciously gave him the nod, and right after it seemed that the director was subtly implying that they were exchanging a knowing glance. The only reason it would make sense to let him go is if he knew he was going to try to make sure Jon didn’t come back alive.
