"There must be fifty ways to spell Kadaffi.
Use a Q for the K, Jay.
Double the D, Lee.
Get rid of an F, Jeff.
And set yourself free."
“Woman called mother, she go the house?”
Not really—after all, it was introduced that her family has a special connection to dragons, and her heat resistance has been introduced early on, not just all of a sudden to perform a last-second save. It makes sense in the context of the show, and in the context of what we’ve been shown; I don’t see that for Jon, yet. I mean, it’s not even the case that he’s just the LoL’s chosen one—Beric Dondarrion came back like nine times, so it seems that there’s a few spare chosen ones around.
Plus, as evidenced by his need to keep being resurrected, Beric apparently enjoys no magical protection in battle. So there’s no real precedent for that sort of protection, it wasn’t even hinted that it might be possible in the show—rather, we’d just have a literal deus ex machina. But if we want to go that way, then why not have the White Walkers be destroyed by an act of God? If new powers and abilities can just be introduced willy-nilly because oh yeah, God wills it, then why bother writing a consistent in-story conclusion?
Certainly it was unusual, but the question is whether it was meant to appear unusual, or it was just standard Hollywood tactics. I’d go with the latter.
Critical1 has made it abundantly clear that he misspells the names on purpose because he gets some kind of jollies from it. That one is a lost cause.
I have read a couple of times here and at other sites that Sansa was silent because she didn’t trust Littlefinger to come to their aid in time or at all.
I don’t think that fits with the conclusion that they must have been in more extended communication than we saw; more importantly, it contradicts her behaviour.
If she didn’t trust Littlefinger, the last thing she should have done, is deliver herself into his control when she rode away to join his army.
At that point, Littlefinger could indeed freely chose if it suited him to intervene on Jon’s behalf and when.
The repeated hostage either still had no clue that she ceased to be a bargaining chip through her actions, or she didn’t see any reason to consider herself one - which can only mean that she did trust Littlefinger after all.
If I had to judge solely from that clip, it is clear that Grey Worm and Missandei speak Valerian, and Tyrion’s Valerian is a little rusty. It doesn’t mention what language Tyrion speaks.
Yes, her heat resistance was introduced early on, but at the time, it was just as big a surprise to everyone as Jon’s battle immunity, especially considering it was shortly after her brother was killed by heat (in the form of molten gold). I’m not sure if she was older than Jon when she first demonstrated her powers, but she couldn’t have been much younger.
And Jon was shown to have a supernatural connection with Ghost early on, and survived many encounters, including zombies and White Walkers, that most people wouldn’t.
I could even wank this to say that he gained his battle immunity when the Lord of Light transferred his favor from Stannis to Jon, after Jon proved himself more worthy. Stannis was willing to sacrifice everyone else for his own gain, while Jon was willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good.
Yes, but the key difference is that it didn’t just magically save her, without having been introduced beforehand; rather, it was explicitly introduced earlier on, so as to then be available for use when needed. The same with Jon’s resurrection, the possibility of which was introduced by means of Beric Dondarrion. But his battle luck, if that’s what it was, came totally out of the blue.
(And I’m not sure if I remember correctly, but wasn’t the scene with her getting into the scalding hot bath in the pilot episode already?)
I’m not sure we ever saw Jon having a supernatural connection with Ghost. And yeah, he’s survived lots of things; but if he hadn’t, there simply wouldn’t be any story to tell. Nobody tells the story of the knight that went to slay the dragon and then just fell of his horse and died after tying one on in the tavern. Certainly, nobody before this episode ever talked about him having some form of magic immunity to damage (and after all, he certainly wasn’t immune to damage before he was, you know, killed).
I don’t really see Jon’s survival as anything but dumb luck. There were human sized gaps in between the arrows when they hit the ground around him. A horse knocks an attacker down here, an ally takes out an attacker there. He was pretty close to getting snuffed out under a pile of bodies, but the bodies didn’t just magically lift off of him - he crawled his way out. The hero survives the battle.
I didn’t think it was magical when Ollie saved his life by shooting Ygritte, either.
I’m not understanding your point. All of them are speaking the Common Tongue when they are speaking in English. (Missandei has been shown teaching Grey Worm to speak the Common Tongue, which he still speaks awkwardly.) Tyrion, like everyone else in Westeros, natively speaks the Common Tongue. In the clip, he says he is speaking Valyrian in the subtitles. If you are nitpicking whether they are speaking just Valyrian or High Valyrian or Low Valyrian, I’ll concede that I don’t know if that distinction has been made in the TV show.
But it’s been made clear that the people of Slaver’s Bay, like the Dothraki, generally speak a different language than the Common Tongue because they are shown doing so, and their language is translated in subtitles. To be strictly consistent, the graffiti directed against Danaerys should be in Valyrian as well, since it’s written by Valyrian speakers and directed at a Valyrian speaker. Showing it in English is just a convenience so they don’t have to use subtitles, which would lessen the impact.
However, they have not been consistent in whether they show people who are not speaking the Common Tongue as speaking in some other language which is translated in subtitles. For example, dialogue in Volantis is mostly in English (although maybe they speak the Common Tongue in brothels because of their international clientele) even though the Red Priestess is shown preaching to the people in Valyrian (which Tyrion understands). Likewise dialogue in Qarth as I recall was mainly in English when they might be assumed to speak another language when they are even farther east than Slaver’s Bay. So is dialogue in Braavos, which I believe has been stated in the TV show to have been founded by escaped Valyrian slaves (or at least the Faceless Men were).
He’s made it clear that he doesn’t particularly care whether he gets a vowel or two wrong. I don’t think most people care about that either. But even if he’s doing it deliberately, the best way to deal with that is to ignore it.
Littlefinger’s original plan was to wait for Stannis and the Boltons to battle it out and defeat the winner with the army of the Vale. Because Stannis was defeated so easily he had to wait. It was in his interest to wait til the last minute to join the battle because now the Stark’s army is almost all gone and Littlefinger has the only real army in the north.
Sansa did not want to tell Jon because he would have immediately asked for Littlefinger’s help and Sansa is still mad and distrustful of Littlefinger for giving her to Ramsey. She only went for Littlefingers help when she knew at the final conference there was no other way to defeat Ramsey. I’m sure Littlefinger knew that the Blackfish would never have left Riverrun to come north and the meeting in Mole Town was just to let her know that he has an army that is her only hope of defeating the Boltons.
Littlefinger know has control over two of the seven kingdoms. The has the largest kingdom the north because Sansa and Jon no longer have an army and are totally dependent on him. He has the Vale, which is impregnable to anyone without dragons. The stormlands and the iron islands have no armies left. The riverlands are being ruled by the Freys who are weak. The Lannisters and the Tyrells both have armies but Littlefinger knows that the Tyrells killed Joffrey and if he tells Jaime then can get him to attack the Tyrells.
Littlefinger is playing chess and everyone else is playing checkers.
Jon isn’t playing at all. Sansa might not have yet fully understood that the time for games is over, had been over even before Robert came into the north to unwittingly entangle them into this distraction.
And we’ll have to see how Littlefinger will take it, when he is confronted with the truth about the White Walkers and their overwhelming force.
Littlefinger’s success as a player might have led them all toward doom.
I’m assuming Braavos speaks the common tongue, seeing as how Arya has no issues talking there.When they do speak Valyrian there (Valar Morgulis) it’s not translated.
Arya, like Tyrion and other highborn, might have learned some Valyrian as part of her education, although her lessons would have stopped when she was very young. And Valar Morgulis hasn’t been translated when Missandei says it to Danaerys, even though they both speak Valyrian.
On the Blue-ray “Histories and Lore” feature on the Free Cities (and so legitimately info on the TV show) it is stated that all of them, including Braavos, are former Valyrian colonies (or in Braavos’ case, founded by escaped slaves from Valyria). Theoretically, they should all speak some kind of Valyrian instead of the Common Tongue of Westeros. In Volantis, they definitely speak Valyrian, as shown in the show.
You can explain the fact that they speak English in Braavos (and Pentos as well) either by 1) Assuming at some point those two cities switched from Valyrian to the Common Tongue; or 2) What language characters are shown speaking in depends mainly on the dramatic demands of the scene. If they want to emphasize the foreignness, they will show them speaking in Valyrian or Dothraki, and use subtitles. In scenes in Braavos or Pentos, it was more convenient just to have them speak in English, even though they should be speaking Valyrian.
The actual answer is 2), but you can choose 1) if you prefer. However, even so there would be some inconsistencies with what language people are shown speaking.
My problem for a long time has been–the threat of the White Walkers should be the first consideration and first thing talked about.
I thought an interesting twist would be for the Wall to have fallen before the battle of the bastards and Jon and Sansa are put in the terrible position of needing Ramsay and his forces.
Two other ‘why didn’t they just…’ ;
- Have Mel make another smoky vagina assassin to kill Ramsay.
- Ask her to try and resurrect Rickon/Wun-Wun/that ‘Get word to-’ guy (goodnight sweet prince).
From the trailer for next week looks like Mel is finally for the chop, but it seems her demonstrable powers are being a tad underused.
One other quick one, on the show have we ever seen Dany/her council mention The Wall or White Walkers?
That apparently required her having sex with Stannis. Whether his sperm were magically qualified to produce a shadow baby because he was a king or the chosen one wasn’t spelled out. If the former, then they don’t have a king or king’s son handy. If the latter, then Jon would have to do the deed. Jon didn’t look like he was feeling particularly spunky after his resurrection.
I don’t recall it being mentioned, but Tyrion is the only character who has both been to the Wall and also met Dany. He would at least have heard about White Walkers from the Night’s Watch.
Braavos scenes are in English because it’s the closest free city to Westeros and traders from all over mingle there, and “the common tongue” is another word for “lingua franca”. They have shown a few Westerosi in Braavos, and they speak English, so I interpret that to mean “common tongue”/English is widely understood there. The further east you go, the less common “common” is. Qarth in particular was certainly dramatic license.
No, a lingua franca is a trade language adopted by speakers whose native languages are different. The Common Tongue in GoT is the specific name for the native language of Westeros.
The Common Tongue is widely understood in cities outside Westeros, but they show everyone in Braavos speaking English, even when locals speak to locals and not to Westerosi. Arya shouts in English when she is selling her shellfish through the streets to locals. The players perform in English to a local audience and everyone understands it. No one is shown speaking any other language (aside from the phrase Valar Morghulis).
The Common Tongue is not just “widely understood.” Either the whole city has at some point switched from Valyrian to the Common Tongue and speaks it as their everyday language; or they speak Valyrian and are depicted as speaking English anyway.