Game of Thrones - Book Readers' Thread - - - Part 20

[Reek]

It can easily be misdirection. After all, given that one of the major cliffhangers for the season is Stannis' apparent death, they aren't very well going to immediately say "don't worry, he's alive" right out the gate, surely? Likewise, Kit Harington and the show's producers have also said that Jon Snow is dead and isn't coming back. Yet, people don't seem to be treating such statements with the same level of believability as the "Stannis is dead" ones.

In other words, until the next season starts and we see Stannis either dead or alive onscreen, there's no way of knowing with certainty whether he's dead or not. Or put another way, to this day, people are still debating whether Syrio Forel is alive or dead.

look up... see that? that's a joke and its flying right over your head.

but stannis is dead as ****... A-man has to leave now. ...wait... A-man is... Jaqen?!

 

[dude stannis]

Literally the only thing I can think of is if they need a physical manifestation of R'Hllor to compliment their use of the Night's King as the physical manifestation of the Great Other. But otherwise, he's done.

 

[KevanG]

So he takes over Jons body while he's warged into Ghost then they do a battle of the minds to get control eventually merging into one! Then Jon realizes he's in a book and vaporizes the entire world and ignites the sun just so everyone can finally stop killing each other for Martins amusement. The series ends with Jon flipping Martin the finger.

 

[Roose Bolton]

But where does the fat mast come into it?

 

[Reek]

the fat mast ...all 9 and a half inches of it.

 

[Drz]

So he takes over Jons body while he's warged into Ghost then they do a battle of the minds to get control eventually merging into one!

 

[BatmanBeyond]

Bloody hell, that must've been the most depressing finale of the show so far. Season's been a weird one for me and I daresay Shireen's death by burning was more traumatic than things like Ned's beheading, the Red Wedding and maybe even Oberyn's audition for Smashed Grape of the Year. Hm, maybe not.

Thank god for Daario's "He is. He's the bravest man with no balls I've ever known" line, only genuinely humorous line in the episode, I think. Varys' coming out of nowhere was pretty funny too.

Some things that bother me - is it just me or did they let The Mountain off the hook far too easily when it came to showing just how nasty the poison Oberyn used on him was? I mean, I think it was the episode after the head-smashing where he's laying on the table, napping as peacefully as a fairy princess, with some admittedly nasty scar tissue on his body. I was disappointed we didn't get his horrible screaming from the books in at least one scene or smth, just made the payoff from Oberyn's post-horrible mortem revenge not resonate at all.

I couldn't help but feel for Stannis this episode, despite him burning Shireen the previous episode. You could tell from his reaction to Mel being all like "snows are melting, my king, happy day!!!" that he couldn't stomach what he had done, if that wasn't obvious from his expressions during the burning from the previous episode. Nothing left for him, so of course he goes for the suicide mission of laying siege to Winterfell with only the handful of men he still has. Depressing way for him to go, but there was nowhere to go really after burning his daughter. I had hoped that him and the Boltons would at least cripple each other's forces, but I digress. Davos' reaction to hearing of Stannis' failure and Shireen's demise was heartbreaking as well.

Also, was I the only one who felt off about Ser Alliser being the one to initiate the For the watch... stabbings? I mean, he's a dick clearly, but I thought his actions during the Wildlings' attack last season indicated that, at the end of the day, his dickishness did not prevent him from doing the right thing. Someone else was also pointing out that he was the one to allow the Wildlings through the gates as well, so for him to be the one who initiated the stabbings after that felt kind of stupid.

 

[Roose Bolton]

 

[Reek]

People tend to forget the Red Wedding started with an abortion. Makes me smile.

 

[Reek]

 

[Reek]

Bloody hell, that must've been the most depressing finale of the show so far. Season's been a weird one for me and I daresay Shireen's death by burning was more traumatic than things like Ned's beheading, the Red Wedding and maybe even Oberyn's audition for Smashed Grape of the Year. Hm, maybe not..

This ****...happened on screen.

Shireens death was bad... but people need to REMEMBER.

 

[Roose Bolton]

They had it coming

 

[YodaOfTheNorth]

NO Roose you will when Ramsey kills you to become lord only to be killed by Jon and The Wlidlings Army. Its destiney for Jon Snow has to come back and kill the Bad Snow.

 

[BatmanBeyond]

This ****...happened on screen.

Shireens death was bad... but people need to REMEMBER.

Right, I hadn't forgotten, but I guess I had consciously tried to put those images away in my head. Besides, I wasn't even referring in terms of graphic content (because we of course don't actually get to see Shireen burning) - just the whole concept of it, namely her dad, who earlier on this season had had a specific scene where he basically told her that she was more precious to him than anything (in his own, emotionally-stunted, way), consciously choosing to have her burned for the war effort, at the whims of a bloody witch.

Of course in terms of visuals, both the Red Wedding and Oberyn's exploding head are more traumatic, but one of them was a wedding gone horribly wrong and the other was the conclusion to a trial by combat. While Shireen's death was her bloody father ordering the death of his sole ****ing child because of fanaticism. I mean, of course the contexts are more complex than that, but that's the bare bones, more or less.

In a way, it's specifically because we don't get to see the actual burning that it's more traumatic in my mind, because we get to focus on the context in which it actually happens, instead of being traumatized by the graphical content of it only.

Speaking of Roose, I'm disappointed we didn't get any reaction from him on the battle instead of an umpteenth emphasis on Ramsey being teh evil,lolz!!!

 

[Roose Bolton]

The absence was quite remarkable, as was Ramsay's one scene that really didn't do a lot other than further display how evil he is. I think it goes back to the pacing where they had to speed through so much content in a single episode, like a lot of shocking bullet points.

 

[BatmanBeyond]

The absence was quite remarkable, as was Ramsay's one scene that really didn't do a lot other than further display how evil he is. I think it goes back to the pacing where they had to speed through so much content in a single episode, like a lot of shocking bullet points.

Yeah, that makes sense. Shame, really, Roose is probably the closest thing the show has to a Tywin, now that the actual Tywin is gone. I was watching the Season 3 scenes with Jaime recently, king of the trolls he was.

Michael McElhatton has a really cool way of playing him, even though the character, like a lot of things nowadays, is rather different from the book version.

 

[Roose Bolton]

I was incredibly disappointed that he never got any scenes with Stephen Dillane, those two on screen together exchanging barbs could have been a thing of beauty.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

For all we know it'll be a reunion where they all die and come back as wights.

And the day after that airs GRRM just uploads a video of himself laughing maniacally.

Wouldn't surprise me at all.

 

[Serpico Jones]

I was incredibly disappointed that he never got any scenes with Stephen Dillane, those two on screen together exchanging barbs could have been a thing of beauty.

Stephen Dillane is awesome.

 

[KevanG]

You know, GRRM could just write the end of the books where the bad guys win then the Walkers win over them with the last words being "Winter has come. Forever."

Really make the series where anyone can and has died.

 

[Loki882]

I seem to recall Martin saying that, while it wouldn't have a 100% happy ending, the ending wouldn't be as bleak/depressing as a lot of people thing (I think that he used to word "bittersweet" to describe it).

Really Roose's absence from the latter half of the season sticks out like a sore thumb. I kept asking myself "WTH is he?"

 

[Colossal Spoons]

You know, GRRM could just write the end of the books where the bad guys win then the Walkers win over them with the last words being "Winter has come. Forever."

Really make the series where anyone can and has died.

Eh, Essos is untouched by winter so let them have Westeros for all I care.

 

[mr. peasant]

look up... see that? that's a joke and its flying right over your head.

Which is? Your quotation of David Nutter's comments or Kit Harington's claims that he's not coming back?

 

[KevanG]

Eh, Essos is untouched by winter so let them have Westeros for all I care.

So does the year long winters only happen in Westeros or world-wide?

 

[Reek]

Which is? Your quotation of David Nutter's comments or Kit Harington's claims that he's not coming back?

I'm just messing with you, lol... Earlier Asteroid-Man said he'd leave if Stannis was dead... they confirmed his deaths I said 'would you kindly leave'... now that i look at it, it looks like you might not of meant to quote the 'kindly leave part'... it was all just a joke