Game of Thrones [SPOILERS]

[Merusk]

Even excusing that Arya may have been out for days, or a week, or whatever before the Actress died. As soon as she leapt out of the window, stiches torn, bleeding, death. The not-bleeding until the 2nd fall was just so eye-rollingly bad I was pissed as it was happening.

Plus we've wasted essentially two episodes on the same outcome that we could have had at the end of Arya snuffing the candle. It was a pointless, pointless, pointless arc and we're worse for it.

Hell, even Clegane's story is better. He's changed and you can see it. He actually hangs around Barric instead of killing them as he said he would have in the past. Real growth and change. This Hound you can see might help BoB or work against the Lannisters. Old Hound would have kept running and killing.

The Mereen stuff seemed like it was just because Dinklage has a contractual amount of screen time he has to get now. All scenes there with Tyrion, Grey Worm and Miss. have been pointless.

Varys going back?

[Rendakor]

Just like Stannis, I'm not sure the Blackfish is actually dead because we didn't see him die on screen nor did we see a body. This episode also basically confirmed that we aren't getting LSH since Beric is still alive; it would be pretty stupid if they found her years-dead body and rezzed it now.

Edit: I don't think she was actually bleeding after the 2nd fall; they make a point to show that she fell into a crate of blood oranges, so I assumed it wasn't real blood and that she was just using it to bait the Waif. That jives with her being able to best her in a fight, since she was actually in better health than she appeared to be. That does assume she was convalescing for longer than an evening, but the timing has been pretty shit for a while now (with everyone basically teleporting to wherever the plots needs them to be) so it didn't really surprise me.

[Threash]

The Blackfish had plenty of time to escape and chose death, the Lannister guard confirmed his death.  He is not alive.

[angry.bob]

Edit: I don't think she was actually bleeding after the 2nd fall; they make a point to show that she fell into a crate of blood oranges, so I assumed it wasn't real blood and that she was just using it to bait the Waif.

Previously I would have said that blood orange juice doesn't look much like actual blood and probably wouldn't fool anyone who's had a cut, let alone a trained assassin. Now though? Sure, why the hell not.

[eldaec]

Just like Stannis, I'm not sure the Blackfish is actually dead because we didn't see him die on screen nor did we see a body. This episode also basically confirmed that we aren't getting LSH since Beric is still alive; it would be pretty stupid if they found her years-dead body and rezzed it now.

Maybe, but with Brienne in theatre you'd have to assume they are doing the same story with Beric. Which is worse. Like so much of s5 and s6, it would mean replaying a book scene shorn of all context.

Even if they couldn't get Fairley back they could have recast the part and kept her hooded, making who she is a "mystery" until an expensive one off cgi reveal.

[satael]

So I was completely wrong about Arya and the whole faceless men thing as it turns out there was no great insight or mystery to the whole Aray plot and could have been cut from the story altogether and replaced with Aray just surfacing somewhere at the beginning of the next season without affecting the greater plot at all (seems like this is one of the plot points that the time skip GRRM originally planned for the story would have greatly benefited from). 

[Teleku]

90% of the plot points would have benefited from the time skip (since they were all setup for that).  That's why everything started to go to shit after book 3.   

Just, bleh.  I'm having a hard time reconciling the overall great adaptation decisions made by the TV writers during the first half of this series, with what's happened the last two seasons (mostly this season).

[Speedy Cerviche]

Well as someone confirmed a few pages back, the whole long Arya the assassin plot was shoehorned in because his wife liked the character otherwise she'd be long dead. The basis of any great story.

[eldaec]

If TV Arya had the same proportion of screentime as book Arya had page time, they'd have covered the entire arc in less than half an hour.

And that isn't what GRRM said. Arya's plot has been foreshadowed from the beginning. GRRM said he was tempted to write more of her for his wife and was scared of killing her.

[Teleku]

Yeah, as far as I know, he intended her to be a long term character from the get go.

[angry.bob]

There were just so many better options to go with this last episode for her, and they picked what I consider the worst one. It's been 6 seasons of build up and we got the equivalent of how they handled Sauron in the theatrical release of LOTR. "But gandalf, Sauron is still alive in his tower" "Yes, and there he'll have to stay because we have to go do some other shit someplace else, LETS GO!"

[Polysorbate80]

Plot-wise it's salvageable if someone were to explain that the faceless wanted to train Arya as a killer and turn her loose to wreak havok on Westeros, and that fighting the waif was a test of her abilities and intentions, but I doubt they'll go that route

[Khaldun]

I don't mind that they didn't do some insane zomg Fight Club plot or whatever. I am furious though that they didn't just leave Arya huddled in the dark waiting for the Waif. They have enough other characters and plots, go do those. The next time we saw Arya, she should have been meditating next to a candle, then said a few tough-ass things when the Waif came in to murder her, and then darkness. And then fine, show us putting her bloody face in the temple, it's beautiful at that point. But the whole goddamn "I got stabbed, I survived, I have to escape the Terminator, I got healed by the nice lady, the nice lady got murdered, I escaped the Terminator, look at the oranges", jesus fuck. The impulses behind that would have had Ned Stark grabbing a sword, fighting the executioner personally, and getting blasted by magic from Khadgar the Warcraft Mage or whatever. It is a shitty eruption of dumb and obvious into what has been surprising and careful. Martin's books have been more in charge than I thought, fuck it.

[eldaec]

Plot-wise it's salvageable if someone were to explain that the faceless wanted to train Arya as a killer and turn her loose to wreak havok on Westeros, and that fighting the waif was a test of her abilities and intentions, but I doubt they'll go that route

It would have been salvagable if they'd given us any way to read this in to what was on screen before this episode. As it was, the kindly man's smirk was simply irritating.

Fwiw I didn't hate Maisie Williams performance in this and I did quite like the idea of beating the waif by combining the blindness training with her water dancing (my guess is that is a book idea). But the problems remain the choice to overdo the stab wound, the choice to have waif act nothing like a FM, the choice to never allow Arya even close to crossing a moral line, and the choice not to have shown the FM do anything outside of Arya's PoV.

[eldaec]

Getting off of Braavos for a moment, KL was very well done this week. Really liked the way the sparrow sought to offer terms before moving on cersei. The Qyburn reveal was surprisingly nimbly done for a s5/6 plot point.

I'm now putting all of this in head canon...

Cersei will find the mad king's wildfire, then attempts to burn down the city, probably after the sparrow causes Tommen's death, ending the "Baratheon" line and leaving himself as the only source of of power. We know Tommen must die before Cersei because of Maggy's prophecy.

Jamie will kill Cersei to stop her burning the city, again as per Maggy's prophecy. He might not be successful in stopping the fire (Dany's TV vision of a burnt throne room), but not a chance that he misses out on repeating his Kingslayer moment.

Finally, as Sandor is likely to cross paths with Jamie soon, this also provides us with the road to Cleganebowl, only instead of a trial by combat, we get a no holds barred smackdown in a city on fire - which sounds much more satisfying, and resolves Chekov's face burn.

[apocrypha]

'Only Tits & Dragons' - Season 6, my review so far:

Entertainment 70%
Plot holes 40%
Unnecessary rape & torture of female characters 0%

E > P+R therefore it remains on the watch list.

Could do with more tits and dragons.

[K9]

What it really needs is more Pod and Bronn. Whenever an episode is lagging the answer is always more Pod and Bronn 

[apocrypha]

Can't argue with that. In fact I'd go so far as to class them both as honorary dragons. Or tits. Whatever.

[HaemishM]

I was fine through about 2/3rds of this episode. Right up until the Blackfish decides to be a fucknut and get killed offscreen (probably because the actor didn't want to do it anymore - it felt like a very Sean Connery in Highlander 2 moment). The Hound had funny moments and killed people funnily. Tyrion had some fun character interaction with solider and translator. The siege from the water seemed silly, as I think a siege by land from the books made more sense. This felt kind of tacked on for the sake of unnecessary drama. Dany coming back in was ok but didn't really have that inspirational feeling.

And then Arya... what... the... fuck? Not only was the whole pile of shit we've seen on her this season complete bullshit, it now turns out to be pointless bullshit because the only thing we got out of it was that Arya became an actual badass? I mean, really? Did we need all this just for that outcome? Couldn't a training montage set to an '80's power anthem have been just as effective? And yes, it made the entire Faceless God cult seem completely ridiculous and nonsensical even in the context of a fantasy story. It was clownshoes.

[Polysorbate80]

Militarily, the siege from the water is stupid.  But plot-wise it makes it much more reasonable that the Ironborn can show up, wreck the fleet, and actually look useful enough for Dany to negotiate/ally with.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if Tommen gets offed suddenly in the final episode of the season, with Margery then claiming she's pregnant with his heir.  Bonus points if it turns out she's faking that next season before Cersei chokes a bitch and leaves the power vacuum the High Sparrow is waiting for.

[Amarr HM]

"You're shit at dying, you know that'. That made it for me.

[IainC]

I was fine through about 2/3rds of this episode. Right up until the Blackfish decides to be a fucknut and get killed offscreen (probably because the actor didn't want to do it anymore - it felt like a very Sean Connery in Highlander 2 moment).

It's not a whole lot different from how it went down in the books except that the show has closed the door on that character (which is probably a good move). In the books he surrenders in return for exile to the Wall after being given Edmure by Jaime, but thinks he's still being set up so he escapes before the castle is occupied. We don't hear from him after that. I can see why the show decided they didn't need that character hanging around as a potential loose end any more.

[Speedy Cerviche]

And then Arya... what... the... fuck? Not only was the whole pile of shit we've seen on her this season complete bullshit, it now turns out to be pointless bullshit because the only thing we got out of it was that Arya became an actual badass? I mean, really? Did we need all this just for that outcome? Couldn't a training montage set to an '80's power anthem have been just as effective? And yes, it made the entire Faceless God cult seem completely ridiculous and nonsensical even in the context of a fantasy story. It was clownshoes.

At least we shouldn't see anymore of that for the next 2 episodes.

[HaemishM]

Oh come on, you know she'll teleport to Winterfell to stab Ramsey Bolton from behind.

[Rendakor]

Cersei is the more likely target; I don't think Arya even knows who Ramsay is.

[Khaldun]

I would not be at all surprised if Arya shows up to kill Ramsay after he retreats into Winterfell to wait out a siege or something of that sort. If Littlefinger can zoom around Westeros in a day or two, why not others? Arya may not know who Ramsay is, but if he's in Winterfell and she goes home she's going to get the picture very quickly.

[HaemishM]

I expect she'll stand over Ramsey's body with Needle dripping in her hands, look right into the camera and say, "I'm Arya Stark... BITCH!"

[Thrawn]

I expect she'll stand over Ramsey's body with Needle dripping in her hands, look right into the camera and say, "I'm Arya Stark... BITCH!"

I have a hard time laughing at this because with the quality of the writing this season, especially with Arya, I could see this actually happening.

[Speedy Cerviche]

You forgot the [crotch chop]

[Teleku]

I was fine through about 2/3rds of this episode. Right up until the Blackfish decides to be a fucknut and get killed offscreen (probably because the actor didn't want to do it anymore - it felt like a very Sean Connery in Highlander 2 moment).

It's not a whole lot different from how it went down in the books except that the show has closed the door on that character (which is probably a good move). In the books he surrenders in return for exile to the Wall after being given Edmure by Jaime, but thinks he's still being set up so he escapes before the castle is occupied. We don't hear from him after that. I can see why the show decided they didn't need that character hanging around as a potential loose end any more.

Big issues I have with this overall is WHY.  Why bring up Riverrrun and everybody in what they just admitted to was years after it mattered.  Even in the books all this shit seemed a little pointless when faced with everything else GRRM needed to address (and that was with it taking place in the immediate aftermath of book 3 events).  Brienne comes down for an army.  Could have left it in a way that she leaves with the Blackfish leading his rebels away from the castle at Jaime's orders, having effect further down the season.  Nope, and the reintroduced Blackfish everybody totally forgot about offs himself.  Why bother.  Brienne leaves with nothing, why bother.  Crown forces take control of the castle, which everybody at this point had already assumed happened when the stark faction got wiped the fuck out at the wedding.  WHY BOTHER.

I literally would have been happier if they'd taken the time to show Tyrion working even harder at having witty conversations with Grey Worm (not by much).  If it was 'we need an excuse to get Jaime away from Kingslanding' while everything goes to shit and Cersei burns it to the fucking ground, they could have done that in a hundred ways much easier ways.

All that shit, along with the pointless unrealistic 'Arya runs 10 miles with her stomach ripped open' shit (as people said, just cut straight to the candle room), is giving me serious doubts about their decision making.  And I've been really pro TV to this point.

They still have great writers on the show, you can tell, by the awesome character dialog.  Over all plot and direction is the big fucking issue though.

[Paelos]

So I was completely wrong about Arya and the whole faceless men thing as it turns out there was no great insight or mystery to the whole Aray plot and could have been cut from the story altogether and replaced with Aray just surfacing somewhere at the beginning of the next season without affecting the greater plot at all (seems like this is one of the plot points that the time skip GRRM originally planned for the story would have greatly benefited from). 

Arya the character sucks imo, so I have no reason to believe these writers could make anything interesting out of her. She's one of GRRM's Mary Sue's that should have been dead 10x over by now.

[Khaldun]

There is nothing wrong with plot armor survival. Otherwise, honestly, a true-to-life story like this would have the only survivors being dumb-luck (and people would complain, even though it does happen) and maybe the people who never get within a hundred miles of a battle. And maybe not even then--if it was medieval/early modern, some of the characters would just die from sepsis or venereal disease.

[Setanta]

Why bring up Riverrrun and everybody in what they just admitted to was years after it mattered. 

Wasn't Jeyne Westerling there? I can't remember if that's Why the Lannisters/Freys were attacking.

For the TV version the answer is:

Why Dorne?

[K9]

Militarily, the siege from the water is stupid.  But plot-wise it makes it much more reasonable that the Ironborn can show up, wreck the fleet, and actually look useful enough for Dany to negotiate/ally with.

Pretty sure Drogon could wreck that fleet single handed. Ships be mighty inflammable yo. I fully expect the next scene in Mereen to largely involve a fleet of burning wrecks as yet another deus-ex-army gets wiped out inconsequentially.

In other news, this: 

[eldaec]

Why bring up Riverrrun and everybody in what they just admitted to was years after it mattered.  

Wasn't Jeyne Westerling there? I can't remember if that's Why the Lannisters/Freys were attacking.

For the TV version the answer is:

Why Dorne?

In universe they just want riverrun because riverrun is the symbol of authority over the riverlands.

In book it contains Jeyne Stark, and introduces the idea of her flight to (presumably) Howland Reed, while at the same time it is a training montage for Jamie the leader, and gives him an excuse to stay the fuck away from Cersei. It also puts Jamie in the riverlands so Brienne stuff can happen.

If the Brienne stuff doesn't happen then I'd agree the decision to do Riverrun was just weird on TV. But judging from the trailer, Brienne does not appear to have apparated back to winterfell for the battle next week.