Schemes and Plots are the Same Thing
May. 2nd, 2012 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
netgirl_y2kYou know how when you're a fan of something you sort of have two versions of it, there's the one that actually exists, and the one that's only in your head, where all the rough edges have been sanded down and there's no extraneous brothel scenes. Well, the brothel thing may only apply to Game of Thrones fans, but I think the general rule applies. And then sometimes there's an episode where the actual episode and your idealised episode are the exactly the same episode.
Show, I hope you realise that any future missteps will be judged much more harshly because now I know what you can do when your heart is in it.
-The shadow which killed Renly was actually scary, and the two guards rushing in set up exactly how awesome Brienne is with a sword. Obviously the first thing I would do were I transported to Westeros is find Brienne of Tarth and cower behind her, she seems the type who'd protect a tiny, defenceless Scottish person.
-Brienne swearing loyalty to Cat is one of my favourite scenes in the book, and quite possibly my new favourite scene in the show. I think my favourite thing is that it isn't done in a meta fuck-the-patriarchy way (although that's good too) it's so beautifully sincere. Brienne's going to stay with Cat forever and protect from bad things, right? Right?
-"I want to be the queen." Oh, Margaery, please hasten to King's Landing where you can have many delicious scenes with Sansa and Cersei.
-Speaking of Cersei, drinking to blot out exactly how much things are falling apart. Remember Robert, Cersei? Talk about becoming what you despise.
-Oh, Theon, I want to hate you so much, but then there you are with your face and your failures and I just can't. God, the way he's on his way to attack the North and his idea of being a commander is still to do a kind of weak impression of Robb.
-"Stop! We yield!" I think I'm a lot more convinced by Yara than a lot of fandom is. Yes, it's a slightly over the top performance, but that's what I thought Asha was in the books, a performer, it's a performance she's all but internalised because she's been doing it so long, but she's faking it as much as Theon. The difference is Theon's faking it because he doesn't know anything about the Iron Islands, Asha's faking it because she does.
Okay, nowhere in Westeros is exactly woman friendly, but in the Iron Islands you're basically fucked sideways as soon as you're born, there must be a reason all the non-Asha Ironborn women we meet are batshit insane. Asha has seen her mother and aunt go mad living there, has been reaving most of her life and knows what happens to women. She can't let her crew see her as a woman, she has to be the Kraken's Daughter all the damn time because she knows how easily everything she's got could be taken from her, and exactly how screwed she is if that happens. And I think that's where Gemma Whelan nails it, that that amount of swagger must be desperately covering something up.
-So, Dany continues to try to pick up pretty girls with her dragons. Shipping Dany/Doreah so, so hard right now. Please let us keep her. I actually liked the wee bit with Doreah and Irri about whether Dany is a princess or a khaleesi, because the point is what Xaro brings up later, she's neither, she's a conquerer. Right now she's a conquerer without an army, but that's what she is. That's why her story falls apart a bit when she stops trying to get back to Westeros. And the look of ... satisfaction when Xaro calls her, "Daenerys Targaryen, First of Your Name" and her utterly awkward how-can-I-pretend-this-is-not-happening-while-it's-actually-happening look when Jorah was kind of declaring love for her. Emilia Clarke, congratulations on your face. But the thing is, Jorah is right, those are all the reasons Dany should be queen. Also, wee baby dragons which will one day grow up to be bigger dragons.
Hmm, would arranged marriage fic work for the trope fest given that all weddings in Westeros are arranged, does it work better if the two characters getting married are Dany and Sansa?
Show, I hope you realise that any future missteps will be judged much more harshly because now I know what you can do when your heart is in it.
-The shadow which killed Renly was actually scary, and the two guards rushing in set up exactly how awesome Brienne is with a sword. Obviously the first thing I would do were I transported to Westeros is find Brienne of Tarth and cower behind her, she seems the type who'd protect a tiny, defenceless Scottish person.
-Brienne swearing loyalty to Cat is one of my favourite scenes in the book, and quite possibly my new favourite scene in the show. I think my favourite thing is that it isn't done in a meta fuck-the-patriarchy way (although that's good too) it's so beautifully sincere. Brienne's going to stay with Cat forever and protect from bad things, right? Right?
-"I want to be the queen." Oh, Margaery, please hasten to King's Landing where you can have many delicious scenes with Sansa and Cersei.
-Speaking of Cersei, drinking to blot out exactly how much things are falling apart. Remember Robert, Cersei? Talk about becoming what you despise.
-Oh, Theon, I want to hate you so much, but then there you are with your face and your failures and I just can't. God, the way he's on his way to attack the North and his idea of being a commander is still to do a kind of weak impression of Robb.
-"Stop! We yield!" I think I'm a lot more convinced by Yara than a lot of fandom is. Yes, it's a slightly over the top performance, but that's what I thought Asha was in the books, a performer, it's a performance she's all but internalised because she's been doing it so long, but she's faking it as much as Theon. The difference is Theon's faking it because he doesn't know anything about the Iron Islands, Asha's faking it because she does.
Okay, nowhere in Westeros is exactly woman friendly, but in the Iron Islands you're basically fucked sideways as soon as you're born, there must be a reason all the non-Asha Ironborn women we meet are batshit insane. Asha has seen her mother and aunt go mad living there, has been reaving most of her life and knows what happens to women. She can't let her crew see her as a woman, she has to be the Kraken's Daughter all the damn time because she knows how easily everything she's got could be taken from her, and exactly how screwed she is if that happens. And I think that's where Gemma Whelan nails it, that that amount of swagger must be desperately covering something up.
-So, Dany continues to try to pick up pretty girls with her dragons. Shipping Dany/Doreah so, so hard right now. Please let us keep her. I actually liked the wee bit with Doreah and Irri about whether Dany is a princess or a khaleesi, because the point is what Xaro brings up later, she's neither, she's a conquerer. Right now she's a conquerer without an army, but that's what she is. That's why her story falls apart a bit when she stops trying to get back to Westeros. And the look of ... satisfaction when Xaro calls her, "Daenerys Targaryen, First of Your Name" and her utterly awkward how-can-I-pretend-this-is-not-happening-while-it's-actually-happening look when Jorah was kind of declaring love for her. Emilia Clarke, congratulations on your face. But the thing is, Jorah is right, those are all the reasons Dany should be queen. Also, wee baby dragons which will one day grow up to be bigger dragons.
Hmm, would arranged marriage fic work for the trope fest given that all weddings in Westeros are arranged, does it work better if the two characters getting married are Dany and Sansa?