netgirl_y2k: (winter is coming)
netgirl_y2k ([personal profile] netgirl_y2k) wrote2013-06-04 11:08 pm

Gird Your Loins. Gird Your Everything

Fuck me, if ever there was an episode to make me wish I was watching the show unspoiled then that was it.


Tiny, tiny little niggles first. As much as Sam's face when Gilly called him a wizard was a delight, and as much as I love that Jorah's expression whenever he's forced to deal with Daario defaults to: "He's just so dramatic and flamboyant it makes me want to set myself on fire." You and me both, Jorah. But. I really think that they should have been taken out and a scene with Sansa added. This episode should have been just the Starks, all the Starks.

Talisa, what was the point of creating her character, again? I mean, even in-show it makes no sense. I've come to apologise for reneging on my promise to marry your daughter, and for no conceivable reason I've brought my gorgeous pregnant wife with me. And talk about accidentally foreshadowing something that never actually happens. My name is Talisa Maegyr, my dislikes include slavery, my likes include amputating limbs and writing suspicious letters suspiciously, and I am, to even my own surprise, not a spy. Although her being stabbed in the stomach was fucking horrible, and I'm guessing thoroughly debunks the fan theory that Jeyne Westerling is pregnant somewhere with Robb's kid. I'm biased, though, I never liked that theory, it was too neat.

I have to admit I was worried about the Red Wedding, it's supposed to be all about Cat & Robb, but, well, they sacrificed that relationship on the altar of Robb/Talisa, and I worried that they were going to make it all about Robb.

But, no, totally Cat's moment. By the way, this is why, if you've got Michelle Fairley you don't background her, because when you don't she can do this.

My favourite part of the Red Wedding (crying and garment rending not-withsanding) was always Catelyn's sense of rising dread throughout the chapter, and I didn't imagine how that would ever translate. But Cat's face as soon as she hears the first strains of The Rains of Castamere. By the way, I do think the show did a cracking job establishing The Rains of Castamere so that we know it means bad shit when it starts playing at the Twins.

I may resent the way Cat and Cat & Robb's relationship has been sidelined, but Robb's "Mother" was affecting.

I could write more, but most of it would be slight variations of: Michelle Fairley! Michelle Fairley's Face! All The Emmys!

I am actually glad they had Cat kill Walder Frey's wife. I don't know if we're getting Lady Stoneheart (gosh, I hope so) and I have heard segments of fandom complain about people baying for the scalps of all everyone named Frey, regardless of guilt. And though I enjoy the idea of Frey pies as much as anyone, I do see the point. But surely that's the point of Lady Stoneheart, she's vengeance without reason. So it's potent if the last thing she does as Cat is slit the throat of a blameless girl who'd done nothing but have the misfortune to be married off to Walder Frey. Vengeance without reason.

Other thoughts,

Not the wolf! Not the wolf! Don't kill the wolf! Don't-- Oh.

Gosh, that kid who plays Rickon is surprisingly good!

I'm guessing their pushing the Purple Wedding to nest year, then? Because ep 9 is usually the big set-piece, and 10 the fall out.
kmo: (jaqen)

[personal profile] kmo 2013-06-05 03:14 am (UTC)(link)
i just got around to watching it and i was really impressed with how they did it justice. because the RW isn't a big special effects showpiece like "blackwater" last year- it's about character and atmosphere, which are much more subtle. and yes, i don't know how they did it, but they really conveyed that sense of rising dread, contrasted with all the sort of happy buoyancy you'd expect at a wedding. you can understand how the Starks and Tullys could have let their guard down and genuinely believed that nothing was amiss.

Michelle Fairley for all the everything. and they *have* to do Lady Stoneheart! otherwise what was the point of introducing Dondarion and the Brotherhood? Maybe she gets brought back to life next week and that is the big wtf moment in the finale.

I totally agree with your point about Lady Stoneheart. Cat's last moment is about being overwhelmed with horrible rage and violence. the unjust world that is Westeros has broken her, an otherwise fair and moral woman. and as Lady Stoneheart she now deals that injustice back- a vicious circle.

ugh Talisa, you couldn't even have the decency to be a spy? blergh.
kmo: (Default)

[personal profile] kmo 2013-06-05 03:17 am (UTC)(link)
oh yeah- and for some reason the death of the direwolf made me more upset than anything else. i blame it on tv!Robb being so lame...
cleo: (ASoIaF: Stark Words)

[personal profile] cleo 2013-06-05 04:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Whyyyyyy does everyone think tv!Robb is so awesome. I mean, he's super pretty and all, but I thought he was kinda meh. I was so hoping that Arya would somehow be able to let Greywind out before they killed him. So hoping... *sigh*
kmo: (Default)

[personal profile] kmo 2013-06-06 06:33 pm (UTC)(link)
i find both tv!Robb and tv!Jon Snow waaay less interesting than their book counterparts. this may also be that i am a gay lady and the dudes that play them do nothing for me. i think Jon's character especially suffers from us not knowing what's going on in his head.
cleo: Famke Jansen's legs in black and white (Default)

[personal profile] cleo 2013-06-07 10:51 pm (UTC)(link)
I completely agree.
kmo: (Default)

[personal profile] kmo 2013-06-06 06:37 pm (UTC)(link)
ugh i really hope they don't do that. or. worse, make Talisa Lady Stoneheart. Michelle Fairley gave an interview on vulture.com which made it seem like it *might* be her last episode...but I am choosing to believe she was just being coy about it. right? please? i think that's an adaptation that would really anger book fans. and surely it wouldn't be that time consuming to film one or two appearances as Stoneheart.

some people on the avclub boards were speculating that Talisa still could be a spy...and was double-crossed by Tywin, who had her murdered to tie up any loose ends. but it's beginning to seem a bit far-fetched. i still would have liked that better than what we got. talk about done to death star-crossed lovers' plots...