Game of Thrones
Apr. 14th, 2015 12:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
netgirl_y2kI accidentally watched the four leaked episodes of Game of Thrones. I shall now proceed to wait for episode five like some kind of medieval peasant.
I know people were very nervous of some of the S5 spoilers, and S4 was, to be fair, shite, but I was pleasantly surprised by the first half of S5.
-Maybe it was a side effect of binge-watching, but I thought the pacing was much better than it has been in years.
-Dany's arc has reached its oh, Dany, no phase. So far it's actually making for better viewing that it did reading. I like that they're lampshading the a dragon queen without dragons is no kind of queen, because that plays into the larger themes of Dany's story, and stops us getting too bogged down in the Meereense knot. The fact that there are set photos from the fighting pits, and they can't possibly drag this out more than this season helps too.
-They're still not reaching parity in the nudity stakes, but at least the men of Westeros are no longer having sex with their trousers on. So, hey, points for effort!
-The existence of a Margaery/Tommen sex scene was dismaying, yes, and the less said about it the better. But it wasn't nearly as bad as it might have been. I did like that Margaery's reaction was basically: hmm, that was nice, no let's not do it again, instead let's talk about your mother with whom I am passive aggressively obsessed.
-I had a visceral do not want reaction to Sansa being given Jeyne Poole's plotline. But. I can see how it makes sense from an adaption point of view. They have a character they don't want to bench for a season and nothing for her to do, and this plotline that they'd otherwise need to introduce a new character for, so why not bring the two together? And Littlefinger's plan isn't actually bad; if Stannis takes the castle then as the Stark in Winterfell Sansa is well placed to assume rule of the North (though wardeness of the North? In this spell check and I are in complete agreement; stop making up words!), and if Stannis fails then maybe Sansa can leverage her relationship with the Boltons into real power; especially with the inhabitants of the castle whispering the north remembers at her. It's just a plan that doesn't account for Ramsey being a total fucking psychopath.
I mean, it may go horribly, horribly wrong in the back half of the season. But so far it's not nearly as awful as I'd worried it would be. Plus, I'm assuming that between Stannis and Jon marching south, Brienne and Pod trailing Sansa north, and Theon lurking around, something will happen before anything truly horrifying befalls Sansa. I hope.
-Man, I hate that Sansa refused Brienne's offer of protection. But it's the understandable ripple effect one of S4's more nonsensical changes. If Brienne had gone to Sansa in King's Landing, taken the knee and made her knightly vow I'm 101% sure that Sansa would have gone for it. As it is, not only does she have Littlefinger whispering in her ear, the only time she's seen Brienne before she was all chummy with the Lannisters in King's Landing.
I loved Brienne telling the story of Renly and the ball; I love that she's finally, finally bonding with Pod. There's maybe something interesting in the psychology of the bullied become a bully, but every time Brienne was mean to Pod it was like watching someone kick a puppy, and it was making me dislike Brienne.
I'm not sure what the fuck was going on with those knights that were chasing down Brienne and Pod, though. That seemed to escalate quickly.
-I'd been thinking that if the show did want to go with R+L=J as endgame it might come out of nowhere for show only viewers, but I was wondering if Barristan's story about Rhaegar and Littlefinger and Sansa talking about Lyanna at Harrenhal might be a way of starting to lead into that?
-The really egregious part of these first four episodes was Ellaria. Look, I was okay with Arianne's plot being given to Ellaria. Same rule of conservation of characters as with Sansa; why introduce a new character to a bloated cast when you have an existing character who can fulfill the same narrative function. And if they'd had Ellaria mastermind the queenmaker scheme that would have been fine, but having Ellaria Sand, mother of daughters, paramour of Oberyn 'we don't hurt little girls in Dorne' Martell want to mutilate and murder a little girl in revenge for a death she had no part in... I don't understand, and I won't respond to it.
I know people were very nervous of some of the S5 spoilers, and S4 was, to be fair, shite, but I was pleasantly surprised by the first half of S5.
-Maybe it was a side effect of binge-watching, but I thought the pacing was much better than it has been in years.
-Dany's arc has reached its oh, Dany, no phase. So far it's actually making for better viewing that it did reading. I like that they're lampshading the a dragon queen without dragons is no kind of queen, because that plays into the larger themes of Dany's story, and stops us getting too bogged down in the Meereense knot. The fact that there are set photos from the fighting pits, and they can't possibly drag this out more than this season helps too.
-They're still not reaching parity in the nudity stakes, but at least the men of Westeros are no longer having sex with their trousers on. So, hey, points for effort!
-The existence of a Margaery/Tommen sex scene was dismaying, yes, and the less said about it the better. But it wasn't nearly as bad as it might have been. I did like that Margaery's reaction was basically: hmm, that was nice, no let's not do it again, instead let's talk about your mother with whom I am passive aggressively obsessed.
-I had a visceral do not want reaction to Sansa being given Jeyne Poole's plotline. But. I can see how it makes sense from an adaption point of view. They have a character they don't want to bench for a season and nothing for her to do, and this plotline that they'd otherwise need to introduce a new character for, so why not bring the two together? And Littlefinger's plan isn't actually bad; if Stannis takes the castle then as the Stark in Winterfell Sansa is well placed to assume rule of the North (though wardeness of the North? In this spell check and I are in complete agreement; stop making up words!), and if Stannis fails then maybe Sansa can leverage her relationship with the Boltons into real power; especially with the inhabitants of the castle whispering the north remembers at her. It's just a plan that doesn't account for Ramsey being a total fucking psychopath.
I mean, it may go horribly, horribly wrong in the back half of the season. But so far it's not nearly as awful as I'd worried it would be. Plus, I'm assuming that between Stannis and Jon marching south, Brienne and Pod trailing Sansa north, and Theon lurking around, something will happen before anything truly horrifying befalls Sansa. I hope.
-Man, I hate that Sansa refused Brienne's offer of protection. But it's the understandable ripple effect one of S4's more nonsensical changes. If Brienne had gone to Sansa in King's Landing, taken the knee and made her knightly vow I'm 101% sure that Sansa would have gone for it. As it is, not only does she have Littlefinger whispering in her ear, the only time she's seen Brienne before she was all chummy with the Lannisters in King's Landing.
I loved Brienne telling the story of Renly and the ball; I love that she's finally, finally bonding with Pod. There's maybe something interesting in the psychology of the bullied become a bully, but every time Brienne was mean to Pod it was like watching someone kick a puppy, and it was making me dislike Brienne.
I'm not sure what the fuck was going on with those knights that were chasing down Brienne and Pod, though. That seemed to escalate quickly.
-I'd been thinking that if the show did want to go with R+L=J as endgame it might come out of nowhere for show only viewers, but I was wondering if Barristan's story about Rhaegar and Littlefinger and Sansa talking about Lyanna at Harrenhal might be a way of starting to lead into that?
-The really egregious part of these first four episodes was Ellaria. Look, I was okay with Arianne's plot being given to Ellaria. Same rule of conservation of characters as with Sansa; why introduce a new character to a bloated cast when you have an existing character who can fulfill the same narrative function. And if they'd had Ellaria mastermind the queenmaker scheme that would have been fine, but having Ellaria Sand, mother of daughters, paramour of Oberyn 'we don't hurt little girls in Dorne' Martell want to mutilate and murder a little girl in revenge for a death she had no part in... I don't understand, and I won't respond to it.
no subject
Date: 2015-04-14 02:18 am (UTC)manmonster Ramsey is? And if he does that he's prepared to leave Sansa in his tender care to what purpose? To gain a foothold in the North while he waits for Stannis to descend and attack? That's cold even for him.)/the north remembers/ - Yes, I might have cheered out loud for that.
/Brienne and Pod trailing Sansa north/ - Yessss, we finally got a Brienne&Sansa meeting. Only, like her sister before her Sansa didn't trust poor Brienne. But I'm so so stroked Brienne wasn't let down by that. Every time Breinne is on screen I feel like cheering up, I need all the Brienne ever! *_* That bit when she was telling Pod about meeting Renly for the first time, aw...
/But. I can see how it makes sense from an adaption point of view. They have a character they don't want to bench for a season and nothing for her to do, and this plotline that they'd otherwise need to introduce a new character for, so why not bring the two together?/ - Yes, it does make sense. Still, I keep thinking what a mess it would be to adapt the next book (if it ever comes out LOL) when half of the characters will be somewhere else doing something else. *shakes head*
/Maybe it was a side effect of binge-watching, but I thought the pacing was much better than it has been in years./ - Yes, me too! I wound up feeling weirdly satisfied, like I hadn't in years with GOT. Maybe I'm finally at the stage when I automatically ignore all the gratuitous nudity and cunt-calling. Also no one is more surprised than me that I seem to have made my peace with the whole Arianne thing since it means we get more Ellaria Sand/Indira Varma playing Arianne's warmongering role.
/Look, I was okay with Arianne's plot being given to Ellaria. Same rule of conservation of characters as with Sansa; why introduce a new character to a bloated cast when you have an existing character who can fulfill the same narrative function./ - Yesyes, exactly. Though planning to mutilate and murder Myrcella doesn't feel quite right, I would have felt better about the queenmaker scheme, true. Also this kind of woman on woman (potential) violence is pretty squeeky when there's enough violence coming from men to go around in Westeros...
Also, Alexander Siddig! *_* I definitely need more Dorne.
I'm also pleased with all the flashbacks/memories of the past we seem to be getting all of a sudden (we finally get to have young Cercei and the prophecy, Lyanna&Rhaegar, Rhaegar singing) And yes, I thought too they may be preparing the viewer for R+L=J. Or maybe they're just afraid of people forgetting the whole issue of Dorne, Elia and Rhaegar etc...
no subject
Date: 2015-04-14 10:17 pm (UTC)What a horrible thing to be right about! I don't like this trick, I want to go back to predicting femslashy endgames.
And are we meant to believe Littlefinger with all his spying and plotting doesn't actually know what kind of man monster Ramsey is?
Wasn't there a bit where Littlefinger basically admitted that he didn't know much about Ramsey? I suspect that Roose might have been keeping Ramsey on the down low, first because he was bastard born, and second because he was feigning loyalty to the Starks, and I can't imagine the things Ramsey does going over well with Ned. Plus, if Ramsey's nature was well known in the North, wouldn't Robb have had second thoughts about sending him to liberate Winterfell? Of course bad news like Ramsey will travel fast now that he's openly flaying Northern lords alive, but I don't think it stretches belief too much that Littlefinger, who after all isn't infallible and isn't Northern, wouldn't have heard yet.
Still, I keep thinking what a mess it would be to adapt the next book (if it ever comes out LOL) when half of the characters will be somewhere else doing something else. *shakes head*
I think part of the reason so many people were leery of this season is that this seems to be the year where the show starts majorly diverging from the books. And, actually, I wonder if that isn't why the pacing feels so much better this year. To be honest, hewing back to book continuity even when it made no sense in the context of the show, and dithering around hoping that Martin would get his finger out have been huge problems for the show for the past couple of years.
Not, of course, that I think that GRRM should be chained to his keyboard, or that the people constantly pestering him aren't behaving like huge dicks. But. The show overtaking the books has been inevitable for years now, and I'm out of patience for 'this isn't what will happen in the books (that I haven't written yet)!
Basically, for better or worse, I hope the show takes the ball and runs with it.
Also no one is more surprised than me that I seem to have made my peace with the whole Arianne thing since it means we get more Ellaria Sand/Indira Varma playing Arianne's warmongering role.
I'm certainly happier with Arianne's plot going to Ellaria than I was with it going to Trystane, which is what I initially suspected was going to happen. I think that from what we've seen they've badly borked the execution, but I don't think the basic idea was unsound... which is how I feel about a lot of GoT's adaptation choices.
no subject
Date: 2015-04-14 10:50 pm (UTC)/Wasn't there a bit where Littlefinger basically admitted that he didn't know much about Ramsey?/ - Yesyes, there was, and your thinking is pretty reasonable, I just can't help but think that this makes Littlefinger look a bit incompetent at his own job, when the show took painstaking steps to let us now that he is always a step ahead of others with his cunning schemes. Not this time I guess... *shrugs*
/And, actually, I wonder if that isn't why the pacing feels so much better this year./ - Oh, you're absolutely right, hadn't thought of that! *nods*
/Not, of course, that I think that GRRM should be chained to his keyboard, or that the people constantly pestering him aren't behaving like huge dicks. But./ - Of course! It's just sad that there is no more material for the show. :( Plus, this always makes me think of the hilarious Write Like the Wind (George R. R. Martin) by Paul and Storm, where the lyrics actually go "And if you keep writing so slow / You’ll hold up the HBO show" LOL
/I think that from what we've seen they've badly borked the execution, but I don't think the basic idea was unsound... which is how I feel about a lot of GoT's adaptation choices./ - Eheh, word!