Game of Thrones [SPOILERS]

[eldaec]

I like how everyone knew golden boy Joffery was a fucked up child of creepy don't marry your daughter to that boy implications. Why and how Ramsay fell off the radar is beyond me especially since the books mentions his cruelty off hand several times before his character is even introduced.

Whatever people knew about Joffery didn't appear to stop Sansa ending up betrothed to him either.

Can't think of anything TV Ramsey has done openly that would make highborns dislike him on the same scale or even notice him.

Book Ramsey had of course forced his previous wife into marriage then starved her to death to steal her land (lady Hornwood?), which might have been how he ended up in the dungeon. But don't think that happened in the show?

[MediumHigh]

With the Starks they were counting on King Robert to reign in on his boy (I don't think joffery was much older than 13-14 at the time) and eventually have a greater influence on him than his mother. Little finger practically gave away his claim to the North to a guy whose sigil is a flayed man. And he did so apparently with very little research and under no duress. He basically said "welp sansa here you go, now take it like a woman till I'm back"

[MahrinSkel]

Littlefinger left Sansa to guarantee the Boltons would stay and fight for Winterfell when Stannis shows up, rather than fall back to better ground. He wants the two of them to grind each other down so when he shows up with the knights of the Aerie, he can take down whatever is left of both. Without Sansa, Winterfell would not be worth trying to hold, with her it's their claim to 'legitimacy' in the eyes of the North.

He's betting that even if Stannis rolls over Winterfell, it won't be without significant losses and one way or another, Sansa winds up a widow.

--Dave

[MediumHigh]

Physical ownership of Winterfell is the only thing keeping the Boltons in charge of the North. Its the only thing preventing the northen houses from ousting the Boltons in the first place, because doing so means burning Winterfell again and starting a civil war in the north after Rob Starks death is something no one wants. In time Roose Bolton wants to move the center of northern politics and power from Winterfell to Dreadfort, but that's not going to happen anytime this decade. In the meantime with or without Sansa or fake ayra the Boltons can never abandon Winterfell because abandoning Winterfell means giving up their position in the North which in turns opens them up for attack. All Stannis has to do if he were to claim Winterfell is appoint a House the North actually likes as Wardens and rally the entire North against the Boltons and probably burn the Dreadfort to the ground.

[Samwise]

Unlikeable git though he is, Stannis has the advantage of being the one that Ned supported as king before his death, so that plan is pretty sound.

If Stannis does take Winterfell handily enough to where it would be difficult to repel him through force, I imagine Littlefinger's play would be to hope he had some goodwill left with Sansa and use her to get in good with Stannis.  He's playing nice with Cersei for now as a hedge, but at this point the Lannisters are all out of friends, having just added the Tyrells to their long list of enemies.

[HaemishM]

I imagine Littlefinger's only motivations on "helping" Cersei Lannister are to 1) legitimize him as the leader of the forces from the Aerie, 2) make her weaken her position further by isolating her from the other lords who might support her, and 3) keep everybody from allying together against anybody (if the Bolton's don't trust Cersei to support them against Stannis, they won't help Cersei crush a revolution from the Aerie, nor will they help her when she starts a stupid war with the Tyrells). Littlefinger is trying to play everybody against everybody else in the hopes he can stab them in the back when they are all tired from fighting each other.

[Ironwood]

Wait, what's wrong with Stannis ?

[MahrinSkel]

Wait, what's wrong with Stannis ?

Besides the mistress/priestess that's really big on human sacrifice?


--Dave

[K9]

[Ironwood]

lol.  Great gif.

Yeah, I know Red Sorceress is a bitch and Stannis is probably not going to have a good time allying with her, but, frankly, he's a likeable enough chap.  Possibly that's just me tho.

[Tannhauser]

No, I'm firmly in the Stannis camp as well.  Unless he does something really horrible here in the next few episodes.

[eldaec]

Littlefinger left Sansa to guarantee the Boltons would stay and fight for Winterfell when Stannis shows up, rather than fall back to better ground. He wants the two of them to grind each other down so when he shows up with the knights of the Aerie, he can take down whatever is left of both. Without Sansa, Winterfell would not be worth trying to hold, with her it's their claim to 'legitimacy' in the eyes of the North.

He's betting that even if Stannis rolls over Winterfell, it won't be without significant losses and one way or another, Sansa winds up a widow.

--Dave

Pretty sure there is no better ground in the 7 kingdoms than winterfell under snow. They've made much play of Stannis having the stromger army, but I suspect this is to address the problem in the book where it appears suicidal for Stannis to be storming winterfell.

[apocrypha]

"Fewer".

Stannis forever.

[Chimpy]

The scene between Jonathan Pryce and Diana Rigg was one of the best acted scenes in the series so far. They are both so good in those characters.

[Merusk]

I was giggling like mad the last 7 minutes.  I saw it coming and it was as great as I hoped. Well acted indeed.

With only three episodes left and next weeks being called "Hardhome" we know what's coming. I wonder if we're done with Arya for the year though.

[HaemishM]

I wonder if we're done with Arya for the year though.

I expect one or two scenes of "Cat" Arya before the season is done.

My question is

[Chimpy]

Seeing as they have basically bunged all of the storylines that lead up to that event, I am guessing it won't happen.

[eldaec]

Seeing as they have basically bunged all of the storylines that lead up to that event, I am guessing it won't happen.

My guess is that this storyline in the books will be used to  explain the asoiaf world and rather than drive the plot. TV is likely to leave that stuff unexplained.

Though of course, he could just teleport there early next season. GoT has never had much respect for distance, or for laying groundwork in advance of plot points.

[Setanta]

Ser Friendzone just doesn't learn does he?

On another note, I just realised that the girl from Whale Rider grew up to become Obara Sand (and also had roles in TWD and Red Dog).

[K9]

I'm just happy


Great moments from this episode:


Meh moments


Overall this was a much better episode than the past few; possibly the best this season.

[Merusk]

Seeing as they have basically bunged all of the storylines that lead up to that event, I am guessing it won't happen.

My guess is that this storyline in the books will be used to  explain the asoiaf world and rather than drive the plot. TV is likely to leave that stuff unexplained.

Though of course, he could just teleport there early next season. GoT has never had much respect for distance, or for laying groundwork in advance of plot points.

[Bunk]

So reading through a Reddit thread on the episode, where a bunch of people for some reason speculate that the big guy that chops through Tyrion's chains was Foggy Nelson from Daredevil. It goes on for a while with people talking about how amazing it was, etc.

Then this gets posted in the thread seven hours ago:

[HaemishM]

ROOFLES. Take that geeks.

[Tannhauser]

Probably the best episode of the season so far.  This is such a dreary, joyless show, when something finally happens to a bad person it's very welcome.

[Threash]

If Emilia Clarke refuses to get naked anymore they should quit putting in scenes were she should be.

[Rendakor]

Is that why we haven't had any more Daenerys nude scenes? I didn't know the actress objected.

[Surlyboi]

I'd heard she'd objected after the first time. Then she did another one, so I'm not sure where she stands anymore. Don't particularly care either as she's one of the least interesting bits of the show.

[Tannhauser]

My understanding is that it wasn't her, it was the actress who played Shae. 

[disKret]

My understanding is that it wasn't her, it was the actress who played Shae. 

You mean turkish porn star?

[angry.bob]

Emillia Clarke is reported by another cast member: "She said, 'I want to be known for my acting, not for my breasts." and refused to do any more nude scenes. The show seems to support this. I find it nearly impossible to believe Sibel Kekilli would object to nudity.

In general, the show hardly has any nudity in it any more, the splendid Tyene Sand/Bronn scene being an exception.

[MediumHigh]

The lack of boobs is bringing out this shows lovely writing 

[Samwise]

I'm expecting more boobs before the season is out unless they do unforgivable things to Cersei's storyline.   

Loved the whole scene with her getting hoist by her own petard.  The best part was how obviously in denial she was over how badly she'd fucked herself.  She kept smirking even as they were bringing Lancel out.  Classic.

Curious to see what Tommen does, if anything.  Based on his portrayal in the show I'd expect him to go a little nuts, since he was on the verge of storming the sept before Cersei talked him down and said she'd handle it.

[angry.bob]

I have to assume that this religion is waaaaaaay more powerful and beloved in the books than it looks like in the show. Otherwise the first thing Tommen should have done was do whatever he had to do to get in there and get his wife. Yes, even if the first thing the chaos cultists did was kill her when they were attacked. Same goes for when they arrested his mom. Not even the Catholic Church at the height of it's power would have thought it could get away with arresting and punishing the Queen and Queen mother of what would be the equivalent of a unified Europe, with the Vatican sitting in the same city as the political capital and base to most of it's army. If the next episode doesn't have Tommen sitting on the Iron Throne with a astonished look saying "Wait, they did what?" followed by a scene of Kings Guard burning dead fanatics like stacks of cordwood, Tommen hasn't got what it's going to take to be king. There's being a merciful, understanding ruler, but these guys are just showing him their ass.

I now await someone to list half a dozen examples where the Catholic church did exactly that and burned all sorts of royals at the stake or something. Man, those fucking Popes...

[Threash]

It is.  Basically the peasants finally got sick of getting shit on.

[HaemishM]

Tommen hasn't got what it's going to take to be king. There's being a merciful, understanding ruler, but these guys are just showing him their ass.

That's kind of the point. Tommen is a weak king and everyone who knows the kid knew he would be. Plus, he has the added problem of 1) his legitimacy is very much in question (which is why he backed down outside the sept the 1st time - the crowd were chanting slurs about his incestuous parentage) and 2) he no longer has the very huge power of his grandfather backing him up. The Lannister's are hated by EVERYONE and the only reason they hadn't been picked apart by the other houses was Tywin's strength. Cersei has been acting like she has his power but no one will recognize that and power that isn't recognized doesn't exist. The Sparrows give no shits about earthly power which is something both Cersei and the Queen of Thorns misread. Cersei thought she could control them because she expected the church to bow to temporal rule as it had done since the church was stripped of its military arm. She wasn't smart enough to realize why allowing a bunch of fanatical zealots to form militias was outlawed in the first place. The Queen of Thorns just thought the Sparrow was as corrupt as all the other High Septons she'd dealt with in the past.