You know, having just looked up the Melisandre stuff from Dance, GRRM really, really telegraphed the shit out of Jon getting stabbed.
"It is not the foes who curse you to your face that you must fear, but those who smile when you are looking and sharpen their knives when you turn your back. You would do well to keep your wolf close beside you. Ice, I see, and daggers in the dark. Blood frozen red and hard, and naked steel"
"This is my place as it is yours, and soon enough you may have grave need of me. Do not refuse my friendship, Jon. I have seen you in the storm, hard- pressed, with enemies on every side. You have so many enemies. Shall I tell you their names?"
Olly foreshadowing ain't got nothing on this.
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"Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life" - Terry Pratchett
There is a massive difference between constantly cutting the camera away to a sullen stroppy little face than Melly Sanders dropping one hint from her fire visions.
Al, her vision literally says he's going to be stabbed by the Nightswatch members. Just cutting to Olly's face doesn't reveal nearly as much. There's so many things he could do to fuck things up: killing Tormund for example.
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"Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life" - Terry Pratchett
Let me just say that Daznak's pit was much improved over the book. In the book they try to poison Dany with honeyed locusts and then Drogon kinda appears out of nowhere.
Here the Harpy coup felt a natural evolution over what transpired earlier in the season. Drogon coming to save the day felt a bit "Hollywood" ish, but it worked very well. Her motivation for leaving ( they were attacking Drogon, and Drogon wasn't gonna leave her side) made sense also.
Stop and think what we have gotten so far this season, this show really has us spoiled, because most of the time it makes us forget it is a TV show...I from the top of my head cannot recall a show similar in scope and production quality like this...can any of you?
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"Robert was never the same after he put on that crown. Some men are like swords, made for fighting. Hang them up and they go to rust.” -DN
Don't get me wrong, I liked the scene, I even got some goosebumps watching it, but it can't compare with the book because of limitations and budget constraints. Also, no Strong Belwas = No Buys!
Drogon didn't appear out of nowhere, it was pretty obvious to me the roars from the crowd and violence inside the arena lured his attention away from roasting sheep.
I was losing my shit during the Daznak's pit scene. I felt as though they waited an extra moment for Drogon to arrive, just to fuck with the heads of book-readers (I don't mean that in a bad way). I was screaming at the television for Drogon to go on and show up. I think it was probably a combination of a lot of things, only some of which had to do with Daznak's specifically, and GoT, in general, but I started sobbing. I don't sob over movies and tv shows...maybe a single tear on rare occasions, but not sobbing (ok, except many years ago when I watched the film the Mission).
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I really need to stop saying, "how stupid can you be?" Some people are starting to take it as a personal challenge.
Shit. I just got back in town. I can't turn around and leave again...not right away. Hell, my cat isn't sure she's recovered from me leaving her to go to Kentucky. The poor thing gets this look on her face every time I walk out the door...like she's afraid I won't come back for another week, again.
Back on topic...can't wait for the finale...what they'll include...what they'll leave for next season, and of course the stuff even book-readers don't know will happen.
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I really need to stop saying, "how stupid can you be?" Some people are starting to take it as a personal challenge.
On my side of the world more and more people are watching GOT. Some of them are loving season 5, while some that are disappointed think it's been slow (which is the books' fault).
So after watching the preview for episode 10 a thousand times, my conclusion is that Brienne is facing Theon.
Can't be Stannis, because her sword would have been drawn if it was.
Can't be Sansa because the outfit on the right side of the screen doesn't fit.
But the outfit does look raggedy and brown, and Theon fits the bill. So he and Sansa escape and meet Brienne?
What if Theon is the only one to escape, meets Brienne and they all get captured by Stannis's army? And Brienne has to work with Stannis to get Sansa out safely?
I don't know, I'm just making up crazy stuff because the wait is killing me.
Lol at trying to blame the quality of this season on the books, season 4 was awful and that was an adaptation of the best book in the the whole series. Just face it guys, D & D's mediocrity is finally coming to fruition. I've seen multiple people all over the web complaining about the poor writing this season, from both book fans and unsullied alike.
The ratings are pretty much the same as they were on average for season 4. This is probably as high as it can get, considering HBO is a premium service that not everyone can afford. Also, ratings are very unreliable as an indicator anyway
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"Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life" - Terry Pratchett
On my side of the world more and more people are watching GOT. Some of them are loving season 5, while some that are disappointed think it's been slow (which is the books' fault).
I'm not siding with Al, but this is a bullshit argument. I see it being used a lot around the web, for example "yeah Dorne is shit but in the books it was double the shit." D&D could do whatever the fuck they want so don't blame the things you don't like on the books. If they were really good at their job they could have fixed the pace and story arcs.
On my side of the world more and more people are watching GOT. Some of them are loving season 5, while some that are disappointed think it's been slow (which is the books' fault).
I'm not siding with Al, but this is a bullshit argument. I see it being used a lot around the web, for example "yeah Dorne is shit but in the books it was double the shit." D&D could do whatever the fuck they want so don't blame the things you don't like on the books. If they were really good at their job they could have fixed the pace and story arcs.
I think that in terms of the story, all the arcs have started in a clean slate this season and had to ramp the action from ground up, which is a direct result to the events of ASOS. D&D have done a really good job of upping the pace from the dead stop of AFFC and ADWD while still keeping close enough to the arcs contained within and delivering the same climaxes and the same long-term story consequences (mostly). They had to juggle between deviating for faster storylines and keeping them similar for the sake of the payoff and the endgame (which is supposedly a good one). I actually think this season was faster paced than season 3, but the Red Wedding blinds people from that
This is the first season where having multiple people at the helm has really impacted the show negatively. Much of this seasons inconsistency is a direct result of this. Thank God Michele McClaren is not directing or this season would be a complete disaster! Imagine if we had her for episodes 7 and 8???? Fuck my face.
-- Edited by Rygar on Friday 12th of June 2015 08:36:06 AM
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"If you drink, don't drive. Don't even putt." - Dean Martin
Dorne is equally meh for me show or book-wise, however I could call TVMeereen a fucking revelation compared to the books. It was alert and engaging, with only minor missteps (men's locker room comes to mind ).
This is the first season where having multiple people at the helm has really impacted the show negatively. Much of this seasons inconsistency is a direct result of this. Thank God Michele McClaren is not directing or this season would be a complete disaster! Imagine if we had her for episodes 7 and 8???? Fuck my face.
D&D + director from Ep. 7/8 is a dream team. Best combination in all 5 seasons, all the more because it works for both quieter and action-packed episodes. I wasn't too impressed with the other directors this season, none of them seem to have a personal style that would benefit the show. Nutter has his, sometimes it works, but the editing on his episodes is often so damn choppy and the camera angles just look weird.
I'm not siding with Al, but this is a bullshit argument. I see it being used a lot around the web, for example "yeah Dorne is shit but in the books it was double the shit." D&D could do whatever the fuck they want so don't blame the things you don't like on the books. If they were really good at their job they could have fixed the pace and story arcs.
Exactly! The whole point of an adaptation is that D & D have the ability to trim away the fat and tighten up the pace. What they have done with Dorne has been a complete disaster. And I am not entirely convinced that dropping Sansa in Winterfell was a good idea either.
It's funny how people say this season has felt slow cause I personally feel like it has been a rushed mess. D & D have been too eager to speed up certain character's arcs just so they could please Unsullied fans I.E Tyrion meeting Dany.
And I remain adamant that cutting Arianne Martell was a huge mistake. Nor does Jaime need to be in the region. I would of changed it so Cersei ordered Bronn to bring back Myrcella and then have Arianne seduce him.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, D & D are exhausted and have now begun to sprint for the finish line. The show will suffer greatly because of this.
If D & D no longer have the energy to steer this ship then they should both step down and hand other the reigns to another Show runner. The least they could do is bring on board another Show Runner to help out.
HBO is too busy counting cash to notice that the quality in their flagship program is declining at a rapid rate
I've said it before and I'll say it again, D & D are exhausted and have now begun to sprint for the finish line. The show will suffer greatly because of this.
Give me a break, Al. If the showrunners were really exhausted, why on earth did they write and film "Hardhome"?
There was no need at all for them to go out of their way and film that, they could've stuck to the books and have Jon do fucking inventory for half an episode, and still have the "big" episode 9 Daznak's pit scene. "Exhausted" showrunners would not go out of their way to make such a large off-book sequence in episode 8 unless had the desire and drive to do so.
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"Robert was never the same after he put on that crown. Some men are like swords, made for fighting. Hang them up and they go to rust.” -DN
I've said it before and I'll say it again, D & D are exhausted and have now begun to sprint for the finish line. The show will suffer greatly because of this.
Give me a break, Al. If the showrunners were really exhausted, why on earth did they write and film "Hardhome"?
There was no need at all for them to go out of their way and film that, they could've stuck to the books and have Jon do fucking inventory for half an episode, and still have the "big" episode 9 Daznak's pit scene. "Exhausted" showrunners would not go out of their way to make such a large off-book sequence in episode 8 unless had the desire and drive to do so.
Because it's their contractual obligation to do so. One big CGI action sequence doesn't gloss over the catastrophe of the majority of their tinkering.
Sure, D&D have made mistakes this season. Dorne should have been cut entirely, Arianne was a lame rehash of Cersei and it would still have sucked. Winterfell hasn't paid many dividends yet, even if I've enjoyed parts of it. But they've made enough improvements to the books this season that I can forgive them. Brienne's chapters were dull as all hell, the show is better for having lost them. Cersei's chapters were extremely repetitive. Dany and Tyrion's "arcs" ruined the characters. Quentyn is the worst idea that GRRM ever had, he's gone. That this season can be characterised as "rushed" by book fans when Tyrion spent 6 episodes travelling to Meereen, and Stannis took 5 episodes to leave the Wall, shows how much of a trudging morass those books are. Most of the Unsullied are complaining that it's been too slow.
There is no real evidence at all that D&D are exhausted, it's just wishful thinking.
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"Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life" - Terry Pratchett
I know it's under a spoiler code, and I haven't clicked on it, but given it looks like people may be talking about it, I guess I'm out until after the episode airs.
I'll try chat, but if that starts to look unsafe...
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I really need to stop saying, "how stupid can you be?" Some people are starting to take it as a personal challenge.
Al, Jorah is still Ser Friendzone though. It won't change.
Hurry!
). 
