Speaking only for myself, I was joking when I proposed “multiparty parliamentary democracy” as a potential outcome. Still, I think that what results from breaking the wheel is an interesting and wide-open question.
pet peeve: linchpin Linchpin vs. lynchpin
I guess in my mind he was one of the main antagonists. He hasn’t done dick since the battle of the bastards, and even that was just to make the battle more dramatic. I don’t see the emotional impact of a LF death anymore. Certainly not compared with the ends of Seasons 5 or 6.
I found this episode contrived and unbelievable. Both the Sansa/Arya story and the catch a zombie to show Cersei story.
As many have said, the show jumped the shark (seemingly since the story lines aren’t provided anymore by Martin’s) : they reverted to the usual tropes, with the main characters doing implausible things in not credible ways, and being saved equally implausibly at the last moment from an impeding death.
I note that the wights aren’t nearly as though as they were. Once “killed”, they stay dead (or are they supposed to use dragon glass weapons? It hasn’t been clearly stated…anyway, regular ones like the hammer seem to work too), they have feelings (they grunt and move when you kick them), and even some form of intelligence (they can notice the lake has frozen over again and act accordingly : for some reason, the WW didn’t think of ordering them to attack until some animated skeleton realized that he could cross).
That, exactly.
And that. Frankly, the show writers don’t seem to be idiots. Why on earth couldn’t they keep the concepts the show accustomed us to instead of reverting to classical TV series tropes? It’s not like GRR Martin is the only man on earth able to avoid clichés when writing a story line, is it?
Indeed. Most of the characters and arcs seem pretty irrelevant now. Bran? Samwell? Littlefinger? Frankly, even Arya seems irrelevant at this point. Why have we been following their stories for so long?
One last thing : everybody agrees that everything is rushed now. Why on Earth did they shorten the seasons given how much they still have to show?
Money. Money and the risk of losing key players to other projects or life changes. The leads have been doing this for quite a while now. You can only money-whip actors so far before they get all “artistic” and quit to do an off-off-off-Broadway play about a dog with Tourette’s.
I would be absolutely shocked if Dany doesn’t end up on top. The only genuinely open question in my mind is if they make her a tyrant.
Jon could definitely end up dead in a sacrifice. Lord knows he should have died at least three times now.
I think the Euron story line was a mistake. They didn’t have the time to let it develop properly. The battles he has won don’t seem to have affected the outcome of the war and he doesn’t seem to have a role anymore.
Sending Arya north was also a mistake. She should have gone and dispatched Cersei. Or better yet, be captured and killed. Her story line with Sansa is ill thought out and rushed.
The battle of the bastards was cool, but ultimately Jon Snow’s plot in the North ended as soon as it began. He was in Winterfell for what? Half an episode before heading off to meet Dany. They probably could have done without that as well.
That particular Wight was created by a different White Walker than one they destroyed. Apparently destroying a White Walker also takes out any Wights they’ve sired; which is why Jon is hoping that the same principal will work on the Night King, destroying him destroys the regular White Walkers which destroys the Wights. If he’s right Westeros’s odds of survival just went up a lot.
I don’t think it’s occurred to anyone that Viserion could be resurrected as a Wight yet, though the possibly should be obvious to anyone familiar with the White Walkers.
Well to be fear while Littlefinger knew Ramsey would forcibly rape her if she didn’t consummate the marriage willingly I think he genuinely believed she would’ve been treated a lot better than she was given how valuable she was to the Boltons. Heck Lord Bolton would’ve likely treated her better than Ramsey didn’t. Littlefinger is still a terrible person and ultimately he’s still throw Sansa under the bus if he has too; he’s just give it a lot more thought that he would than he would with anyone else.
Tyrion seems to be leaning towards some kind of elective monarchy, but Daenerys is a different story.
I think Daenerys is leaning towards an absolute monarchy where she can be the enlightened despot and rule the whole continent directly instead of through vassals like the Lords Paramount. Elective monarchy can wait until after she’s dead.
Okay so when they see the bear for the first time, the circle up and I count 12. So one of them just got chomped a bear, right? So that means they started with 13.
It’s still confusing though—why was that 13th guy so much closer to the bear?
Yeah, the point is it was way too convenient that they all happened to be made by the same WW, except for one lone wight, who they conveniently needed to capture.
It occurred to many people. We’ve been expecting an undead dragon for years.
Fair*, Ramsay*, to*
I dislike this episode more and more the more I think about it. It’s probably in my bottom 5.
Most of the other disliked episodes were boring, I can’t remember one this damn stupid. Everything above the Wall made no sense, planning to negotiate with Cersei is stupid, the Arya/Sansa feud is stupid, the multiple deus ex machinas were stupid.
The whole thing seemed like D & D said “we need to get this dragon killed, how do we get there” rather than make something that made sense.
In addition it looks like the show has completely changed from a subversion of the fantasy genre to just a fantasy genre. Really really not a fan.
I meant it doesn’t seem to have occurred to any of the characters yet.
I thought it was Arya disguised as Littlefinger that suggested sending Brienne away? In this episode, Sansa discovered the faces in the bag, and it was the maester’s and Littlefinger’s faces. Littlefinger suggested sending her away and the maester received the (fake?) message that prompted Sansa to send Brienne away. Am I misinterpreting what happened?
I didn’t get that at all in the moment and looking at screen shots, this is not true.
Predictions for next week:
[ul]
[li]Cersei tries to have the Mountain kill everyone at their meeting and Sandor fights him.[/li][li]The Wall comes down[/li][li]Jorah dies[/li][li]Euron dies[/li][li]Jaime kills Cersei[/li][/ul]
I don’t think it’s possible to take someone’s face until they are “given to the Many-Faced God” – i.e. killed.
Sure, but even if this is all true it still proves that Littlefinger’s goal is, and always has been, power and not being with Sansa.
One of the faces Sansa pulled was Walder Frey, not sure who the other belonged to. That was a really odd confrontation between Arya and Sansa; Arya seemed to be hinting that she could use Sansa’s face without killing her. The whole thing just felt off.
Littlefinger suggested Sansa send Brienne away? I thought he suggested grooming her and getting her onto Team Sansa.
I’m pretty sure it was Meryn Trant.
Thanks for the reminder. I did not remember any of that, and Benjen’s reappearance was bugging me – and not just because of yet another last-minute-rescue.
Jaqen took Arya’s face.