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The Duggler posted:Prediction from a non-book reader: You don't have to spoil things that you think might happen, I'm pretty sure. But although I agree things are going too smoothly for Jon, and will probably go to poo poo, I doubt he'll get killed off (yet, at least.) I don't see what point that would make to the viewer, since they've already done something like that several times...that is, building up a heroic character and then killing them off without ceremony. Jon is getting a hero's edit, because he's done nothing of particular note in the larger plot, but we accept that he's an exceptionally good guy and are still spending a lot of time with him. I mean, just last season, we ended things with Melisandre staring him down across a fire to ominous Lord of Light music...he clearly has a significance that isn't being Lord Commander. Killing him off now might be "shocking" (not really, actually: everyone expects it at this point), but what's the point otherwise? Other than nihilism, and they've gone there a dozen times by now. They could kill off Dany, too, but Jon and Dany's stories are the two least central to the main plot...and people expect both to converge on everything else eventually. Killing off either of them beforehand might "defy expectation," but at what point is that just a gimmick or bad storytelling?
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May 3, 2015 10:47
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THE AWESOME GHOST posted:My prediction is Jon dies this season as this season's mass event that crosses into mainstream news since it's been a while since they had one of those (like, wasn't CNN reporting on the red wedding) and then Melisandre brings him back next season as the BIG TWIST because why else would they show Beric coming back in Season 3 with Melisandre's spooky music playing when he has barely any effect on the story till date Oberyn getting his head crushed wasn't a sufficiently significant event? That wasn't episode 9, I guess...it seems they've been alternating "huge epic battle" and "wtf character death" every other season for the episode 9 big deal thing. So, I guess we're in store for another "wtf character death" this year. Who's good for it? You might be right about Jon. I'm feeling pretty good about Cersei, actually, as well. Or, they'll throw everyone for a loop and it'll be the Boltons who get wrecked at a wedding this time. My longer-game prediction is that Dany becomes evil, and as a condition of that corruption decides to kill Tyrion...but I feel like that may be a later season. Mostly, that'd be amazing because of how pissed and conflicted everyone would feel, but also I'm not sure what plot contributions are left for Tyrion at this point. All he can provide for Dany are cynical witticisms about the royal houses of Westeros, which she'll pigheadedly ignore. Jorah offered her less pointed or clever versions of the same thing, and her rejection of his input has been portrayed as part of her general decline into blind totalitarian mania. She's an overzealous ruler who silences any dissenting voices; her empire is more and more a semi-religious dictatorship. There'd be a kind of poetry in Dany becoming every bit as mad as her father, despite the messianic implications of her rise to power.
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May 3, 2015 13:34
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ParliamentOfDogs posted:Yeah Dany is practically always soliciting advice from people and relying on her advisors. Part of her problem this season is she only has Westerosi Law Angel Selmy on her shoulder and no Worldly Pragmatic Devil Jorah on the other. Yeah, but that's kind of what I meant. Last season involved her listening to Jorah about having mercy in Yunkai and Astapor, only for her to throw Jorah out of her court by the end of the season. Listening to her advisors is a good thing, until she silences or removes them. There's a reason the people of Mereen hissed at her after executing her other advisor. They're increasingly seeing her as a tyrant and dictator. She literally replaced Mereen's primary religious symbol - the golden harpy statue - with a giant Targaryan banner. It's a cult of personality, built on religious fervor. It could so, so easily go into straight-up Mad King territory on that basis alone. The only similar example - Melisandre's true believer act - is also marked by extreme violence, and we're supposed to be on Davos' side in criticizing it. The fact Stannis listens to Melisandre and ignores Davos is also one of the most important character dilemmas in that plotline. In general, single-minded, sadistic violence, and isolation from advisors or subjects, is a recurring sign of corruption in GoT. TL;DR I think there's a very clear way in which Dany becomes evil as gently caress. I can imagine a very real situation where she's the final villain of the series, if she increasingly believes in her own legend and rejects those around her trying to contradict it.
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May 4, 2015 02:25
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Am I just being a pedant, or is it a weird and stupid idea to use spear-wielding soldiers as street cops? I thought the Unsullied were supposed to be crazy badass supersoldiers who can kill a dozen men each. Apparently not as much. Oh well, I guess Ser Barristan got to take out a bunch of dudes before going out. Good for him, I guess. Hope Grey Worm is ok.
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May 4, 2015 05:27
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Any king works for Melisandre's sex magic, but yeah, he's not just Ned's bastard. She has very specific tastes and she was giving a real hard sell, there. Also, they haven't mentioned Lyanna in seasons. That can't be coincidental.
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May 4, 2015 05:30
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EccoRaven posted:Prepare for a lot of really weird responses. Yes, yes. That's a possible but less interesting answer. People lost their poo poo in previous GoT threads because apparently it's a book thing, but at this point it's pretty clear and reasonable conjecture that Jon is more than he's claimed to be. Didn't Littlefinger even say in this episode that it "wasn't Ned's way" to bang out some tavern wench? It's pretty obvious to me they're trying to imply Jon is Lyanna's kid, since everybody who cared about Lyanna has been dead for seasons, and they still devoted an entire scene to exposition on that point. That, coupled with the king's blood fascination with Melisandre, pretty overtly suggests Jon is either Robert or Rhaegar's kid. Probably the latter, since he was also brought up twice in this episode.
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May 4, 2015 05:47
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Solvent posted:Stannis Baratheon, but basically, I agree. Right, Stannis said it; my mistake. But it's also true. I'm glad Tyrion called out how stupid Jorah's "plan" is. Because what? Why would Dany give any particular gently caress about Tyrion Lannister? "Khaleesi, you said you'd kill me on sight if I returned. But hey, remember that guy who betrayed your father by switching allegiance to the Usurper? Well, that guy's dead...but here's his dwarf son you've never met!"
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May 4, 2015 05:56
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override367 posted:you know none of these people have seen Selmy fight in 20 years or thereabouts right? It's true. But I'm one of those people who thought he was like that Yakuza guy from the end of that Simpsons episode. "But the little guy hasn't done anything yet! And you know it's gonna be good!!"
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May 4, 2015 06:13
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Petr posted:Edit: check out Littlefinger's face after Sansa says "he raped her." Could he know something? How would he? How does he know anything? He's a creepy dude who makes it a priority to know. I buy that he'd kind of arbitrarily be able to figure poo poo out; he's Evil Varys, who uses a network of spies and a superhuman sense of discretion to manipulate others. Of course, he does it to entirely selfish and destructive ends, but he still sleuths it out. If anyone was going to know the truth about Jon Snow, it'd be Littlefinger or Varys. Though, I guess Bran gets magic psychic dreams, and Melisandre sees poo poo in the fire...so there are a few realistic avenues, I guess.
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May 4, 2015 07:13
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Lycus posted:It's a short-sighted way to gently caress the Tyrells, but that's Cersei. That's how I saw it, too. Of course it's dumb. Cersei is kind of dumb. That's definitely a thing she'd do, and it'll totally backfire in an obvious way. Bobo the Red posted:I favored that idea, since Jon does look far more Baratheon than Targaryen, and also, gently caress the show ending on a 'Hooray the Targaryens are back in charge' note. Yeah, but I suspect Jon may never be "legitimized" in any real way. Jon Snow seems like a "Bill Everyman" kind of name, a sort of boringly average name that suggests some populist victory if he becomes powerful. "Lord Snow" as an insult from Thorne has always really struck me as a concise shorthand for everything about Jon...a figure with all the trappings of nobility and none of the ego. Even if he is a Baratheon or a Targaryan, I feel like he'll always still be Jon Snow. He wouldn't even accept the name Stark; I can't see him willfully accepting the name of either of those dong farms.
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May 4, 2015 10:33
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ParliamentOfDogs posted:I like Stannis because he sort of seems like he has Ned Stark's maniacal sense of duty but with all the warmth removed and that is just interesting to me. I guess he kind of has that. But he definitely also wants to be king; it's not just obligation. Though, I'm in the same camp who doesn't get why people like Stannis so much here. His greatest strength is his battle acumen, and even that seems like more of a 'tell' and not a 'show' situation. Nobody outside his cabinet seems to particularly care about or respect him in-universe. And obviously, most of his success as a political figure seems to come from 1) Melisandre being a super effective proselytizer and 2) Davos being a chill loving dude. Stannis is competent, I suppose. But he's the least sexy choice. He's Mitt Romney, John Kerry...the kind of politician who inspires people to the extent of, "him, I guess?" His blood claim on the throne being real or not isn't even the point; the point is, "who gives a poo poo?"
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May 4, 2015 20:20
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CharlieFoxtrot posted:The Three Musketeers taking over the city was goofy as gently caress and only kind of got away with it because they did the whole "We don't have the budget to show you anything so imagine it happened offscreen" thing. Someone here described that scene as a level from Double Dragon. A few guys jump into frame, get knocked out, then blink into nothing as a floating arrow unlocks the next screen. Now that's just exactly what happened in my mind. The city guard organized into groups of only a handful at a time. Then the heroes fought some miniboss and the city was theirs. Also, I can't stop imagining Jorah punching a guy a few times, before winding up a haymaker with a pumpkin-sized fist that sends the goon flying offscreen like a rocket. Battletoads style.
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May 5, 2015 00:10
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Blazing Ownager posted:If Pycelle of all people fucks over Cersei that will be the most hilarious episode in the run of the show. She's enough of an idiot and underestimates him enough I could totally buy it, too. I forget, is Cersei aware of the degree to which his absentminded old coot act is actually an act? I mean, clearly she gets that it isn't totally on the level, but I'm not clear on how oblivious she thinks he is. Tywin was totally aware that Pycelle was a calculating bastard, based on that fishing scene from back when. But Cersei seems to underestimate him, hence why she constantly dogs him to his face while elevating Qyburn. This season is going to ruin Cersei, hard.
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May 5, 2015 00:27
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CharlieFoxtrot posted:Alfie Allen is killing it with the performance, though, for all ninety seconds of it every other episode. Definitely. At first I found the whole S3 torture plot unnecessary, but I've since re-contextualized it as a brilliant comment on the audience and their desire for violence. Because after season 2 and all the hosed up stuff Theon did, I hated him so much and totally wanted him to face some kind of justice. Ultimately, we all got that wish...but it was horrifying and terrible, and we all regretted it. The sheer, prolonged cruelty of the whole thing became a sort of vicarious punishment for the audience for wanting it in the first place; I wanted Theon to suffer, but goddamn. I suspect the show will sooner or later turn a lot of those cathartic impulses on their head, the "justice" we want happening too late or in a way that feels awful. It's going to be so upsetting when the Lannisters fall apart, because Joffrey and Tywin were assholes. But Tommen is a nice kid who's over his head and too decent to fight back. He doesn't deserve what his family's brought on his name, but there's no way to get out of it. (I also suspect, longer-term, Arya will become a badass murder wizard. But by then, everyone she wanted to kill will already be dead, the people she will kill will provide no catharsis, and her entire story will amount to a vibrant young girl who literally gave up her entire identity in a futile pursuit of revenge.)
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May 5, 2015 11:24
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tooterfish posted:Someone said it in this thread before, but the Iron Islanders are legends only in their own heads. They talk themselves up constantly, but get the absolute poo poo kicked out of them at the first hint of any real resistance. It's wonderfully cathartic. They're the McPoyle family of Westeros. The Greyjoys being idiot clowns is wonderful. Say what you will about the Boltons, but they aren't bullshitting you...they're actually that cutthroat and malicious. "We do not sow." Sure, good for you guys.
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May 5, 2015 19:25
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marktheando posted:Stannis is right to burn people though, because his god commands it, and unlike any of the other gods on this show, this god has been shown to be the real deal. That...really isn't how "right" works? In Lovecraft mythos, elder gods objectively exist, too, but they're still forces of evil. This is also assuming Melisandre's interpretation is on the level; that the Lord of Light works the way she says he does. All we know is that some set of magical phenomena associated with R'hollor actually work, but there's also a ton of magic with no connection to it that works - that behind the White Walkers or Children of the Forest, or the weirwood religion of the First Men. The true nature of "magic" in the show isn't fully known. But I'm going to go out on a limb and say you're supposed to have seen Jon as heroic for killing Mance humanely, in defiance of Stannis' pyromania. The way he uses his religion is supposed to be hosed up and upsetting; characters like Davos, or Gendry, or Shireen who speak critically about it are also in the right to do so.
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May 7, 2015 00:59
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Slashrat posted:Problem is that Tommen seems fundamentally averse to exerting his will upon others in the face of any resistance at all. He's literally the Anti-Joffrey and it is a miracle that the two didn't annihilate all of Westeros from being in contact with each other. You might be averse to conflict, too, if your brother was Joffrey. He's probably a worse older brother than Gregor Clegane. Tommen already said Joffrey once threatened to skin Ser Pounce, and you just *know* that wasn't the extent of it. I imagine it was hell growing up around a violently entitled child-psychopath. Even as King, Joffrey responded to any perceived slight with sadistic abuse, so picture what a ~10 year old Prince Joffrey would do to his kid brother with no audience or oversight. I assume passivity and confrontation-avoidance were Tommen's best defenses, growing up. It should come as no surprise that, as King, his default response is to try and de-escalate the situation before it gets worse.
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May 7, 2015 23:17
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Dick Jones posted:Now that he has the Eyrie, I don't think LF will be very upset about his whoring business when he returns to the capital. I also doubt he cares all that much about his brothels. They earned him some money, and more relevantly provided him sensitive information. But at this point, he's probably beyond both things. He's way wealthier as Lord of the Vale than he ever was as a pimp, and his masterstroke political maneuvering in King's Landing - incurring crippling debt as Master of Coin, and destabilizing the Lannisters by killing Joffrey - already happened. The Starks, Arryns, and Lannisters are already either under his control or falling apart thanks to his actions. At this point, I'm sure he's looking North to dismantle both the Boltons and Stannis Baratheon. I'm just curious how Littlefinger would think to cope with Daenerys. She seems like a variable he hasn't addressed yet.
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May 8, 2015 22:52
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Bobo the Red posted:I kinda think he killed Joffrey in an act primarily driven by vengeance, not strategy. Probably a little from column A, a little from column B. He couldn't have predicted the precise outcome with Tywin, but I could see him predicting Tyrion would get the blame. Because that would accomplish a lot: alienating Jaime from Tywin, forcing a wedge between Jaime and Cersei, and making Cersei more paranoid and generally insane. And it gets Tyrion out of the game, who's one of few people clever enough to see through Baelish's crap. Also, Joffrey may have been a rabid dog, but his death creates the perception that the Lannisters are a dying dynasty, imploding from within. It makes it harder to have confidence in their staying power. Not to mention that Baelish is currently allied with the Tyrells, who stand to gain the most from the Lannisters being as weak and malleable as possible, and are more likely to let him do his thing in the North. Of course, Tywin getting crossbowed is just gravy. And you can't make a kidney pie without that. Bobo the Red posted:And if a loving Targaryen thought it was bad idea... Eh. They must have been pretty chill once upon a time, right?
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May 9, 2015 15:43
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Junkfist posted:Daenerys is the villain of the show. This for real. I had a moment where I felt bad for Jorah, then I remembered he's frankly kind of dumb, and defined primarily by creeping on a girl less than half his age. Hope the greyscale works out. Or doesn't. Or whatever.
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May 11, 2015 12:34
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JT Jag posted:The reason areas like the Reach and Dorne are so relatively well-off compared to the rest of Westeros is that parts of them tend to stay temperate even during Winter. But it turbofucks the North, freezes over the Riverlands and the Vale and hits the Crownlands and Stormlands pretty hard too. Yeah, it seems essentially impossible for a medieval society to survive something like that. Intense winter conditions that persist for a decade without respite, affecting that huge of a population and area. There can't possibly be enough food stored up for it, and importing food from elsewhere probably isn't that much more feasible. It sounds like "winter" turns the Northlands into Antarctica, an area nobody in a pre-modern context would think to try and settle in the first place. It's an aspect of these stories that makes no sense literally, so I can only perceive "winter" as an allegorical idea.
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May 12, 2015 00:01
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radmonger posted:In early medieval times, starving to death because the crops failed, or an army burnt them, was a thing that could happen. Like most of the magic in the series, magic deep-winter is mostly there to try and give modern Americans the impression of what that might have felt like. The grimness of this context becomes so claustrophobic on this show; I think it's pretty effective at conveying that. It's nice to see other parts of the world for this reason, where the cosmology isn't necessarily centered around existential terror at the changing seasons. That said, Essos feels so underdeveloped. And mostly uninhabited. There appears to be nothing there but a handful of city-states, with no empires or larger polities at all. They've implied the existence of empires - Valyria or Ghis - but none of them exist anymore. Who's in charge? Whose banner is hanging from the piles of poo poo on the side of the road? I'd like to think there are areas the show hasn't mentioned, other continents and the like. Maybe there's some analog for the medieval Muslim caliphate or fuedal Imperial China on the other side of Essos. Not that we'll ever hear about it, I'm sure.
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May 12, 2015 02:21
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Bobo the Red posted:Basically, as I see it, Stannis and Tommen are at war for the Baratheon dynasty; Daenerys wants to reestablish the Targaryen dynasty (though, she also killed the one ahead of her, so...). Technically, that was Drogo.  I think the reason Littlefinger even matters in this show is because dynasty and birthright don't *actually* matter. People like to say they do, but when it comes to it, they back who they like or who offers them the best option. Mance Rayder was a king for offering the best leadership. Robert was a king for beating the previous one. Renly wanted to be a king because he was just such a chill guy. Robb wanted to be a king because screw the Lannisters and screw the south. How entitled they were didn't play into it; above all else in this society, might makes right. How "legitimate" any of these options were at the time seems more like narrative than a relevant fact.
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May 14, 2015 08:11
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Blazing Ownager posted:I'd watch that spin-off. The Netflix Marco Polo series is pretty much what you're asking for. It's a Game of Thrones-inspired period drama about Kublai Khan and his conquest in Song China. No fantasy elements, obviously, unless you count a blind monk who's a Kung Fu master, or Arab ninja assassins. (Marco himself is pretty boring, but Hundred Eyes is awesome as gently caress.)
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May 14, 2015 19:05
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Bobo the Red posted:Well, the trouble there is that Ned, having rejected Robert's entire line, absolutely did owe Stannis his loyalty, because to Ned, Stannis was the King. Pretty much. Ned wouldn't betray his beliefs to save his own life. He was defined by his duty. When Varys goes to see him while imprisoned, Ned makes it clear that he literally cared more about his integrity than his life. From his perspective, he probably didn't view his decisions as mistakes. Sure, they got him killed, but they were right, dammit! Given that Jon Snow is almost definitely Ned's nephew, it's hilarious that he's still more Ned's son than Robb, who despite his good intentions still married Talisa and broke a vow. Jon Snow is every bit as pigheaded as his "father."
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May 15, 2015 09:43
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hiddenmovement posted:Apologies for veering into spoiler territory, but now that youve brought it up I wouldnt mind airing it. I thought that Jon Snow was the son of Rheager. I suppose this is a good time for me to make my prediction that Melissandre will try to have him burned, but it wont work because he has Dragon's blood and will just strut on out of the flames naked as the day he was born. I mean I know he doesnt have platinum blonde hair but still. I think we're beyond spoilering that particular theory. He's probably Rheagar's son, yeah. It's pretty reasonable to assume based on things the show has said or shown. Though, I believe Jon already proved he CAN be burned. When he killed the wight that tried to take out Jeor Mormont, I'm pretty sure he burned his hand on a lantern he improvised as a weapon. So, he's not a dragon, even if he is a Targaryan.
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May 15, 2015 10:11
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feedmyleg posted:If Lyanna and Rhaegar are John's parents, who alive right now would even know? What proof could be presented? As presented from the show, they definitely implied Littlefinger knows more than he lets on. Also, Bran is hanging out under some kind of psychic Yggdrasil with Radagast, who's been "watching everyone all their lives." Also, Melisandre's smoke ovaries swell for King's blood, and she sees magical visions constantly. Any of these could take care of it.
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May 15, 2015 20:14
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whoflungpoop posted:After hearing the sand snakes Aiden Gillen's bad accent doesn't even register "When I wass a chi-el, this man come to me and sayed he was my fatheyr." Seriously, do better, Sand Snakes. Oberyn ruled insanely. Be better.
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May 16, 2015 12:27
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Hexel posted:Probably too ethnic for mainstream I hate this argument so much. Some of the most popular and most-watched shows on television are things like Empire and Scandal, which all involve nonwhite leads and significantly nonwhite casts. Not to mention that Game of Thrones is itself pretty "mainstream" at this point (the second most-watched cable show after Walking Dead), and Oberyn was one of its most popular characters last season. The continued insistence that "America won't get behind a nonwhite leading man" mostly helps to perpetuate racist attitudes, frankly. Just a few years ago, it was "a fact" that female-led films didn't earn money and weren't worth funding. The last 2 Hunger Games films earned $700-$850 Million each. I see no reason Pedro Pascal couldn't become a big deal.
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May 17, 2015 13:16
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MC Fruit Stripe posted:Things I learned in the final scene: Ramsay is evil, Sansa is a victim, Theon is helpless. Glad they spelled that out for me. Exactly this. I'm not scandalized by lovely, sensationalist things happening to people on this show, because that's what it does and I expect it. But this instance changes nothing and provides no new information or stakes. Sansa is still in danger, Theon is still being tortured, Ramsay is still a psychopath. It was clearly supposed to antagonize the audience and provide a visceral reason to hate the Boltons, but everyone already felt those ways. So, what's the point? You've already shown this guy flaying people alive, feeding women to dogs, and cutting off a man's penis...trying to push that envelope further should make you reconsider where you're trying to send it.
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May 18, 2015 11:09
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BubbleGoose posted:Interesting. This is the same argument people made about Theon's torture scene, that the audience didn't need to see, yet we were made to watch anyway. I've commented on this earlier in the thread, but I think the value of showing the Theon torture scenes is that seeing that level of brutality challenges the viewer's previous desire to "punish" Theon for what he did in Winterfell. The revenge people initially wanted became horrifying and upsetting, just through the sheer extreme it goes to. Sansa being raped is different, because it's not particularly challenging the audience. Sansa being raped is a sort of Chekov's gun that nobody needed to see fired...it's been hanging there since Joffrey killed her father, and at this point the threat of it has been implicit to all of her plotlines. I agree with the assessment that a stronger version of this scene would've involved a clearer display of Sansa's resolve; if she braced herself for what was going to happen or even feigned complicity, however they could think to show that. That way, it'd be less about how Sansa is STILL a victim, and more about how she's coping with this horrific circumstance. Which would actually be new territory to explore.
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May 18, 2015 11:36
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Neptr posted:Lol at people thinking that Sansa is a grade A schemer now instead of a stupid girl like she knows she is She's not stupid. She was forced into an impossible situation. Insulting people who found the rape scene to be triggering of personal trauma is lovely. Media can evoke painful experiences for people, and it's not a question of how "valid" the reaction is. Nobody would give a war veteran poo poo for being triggered by combat scenes in films like Hurt Locker. And this is no different. But I definitely disagree with people who argue that their personal experience of displeasure means the showrunners have a moral obligation not to depict certain things. At no point are you supposed to think Ramsay is right to do what he does...he's unquestionably a monster, and the scene is plainly designed to be horrific. Calling it "bad art" because they didn't enjoy what is an intentionally unsettling scene feels unfair. It's not glamorizing or defending any of it. If someone wants to quit the show because they can't watch that kind of scene, that's a totally valid reaction. But I agree that signing petitions to cancel to show or fire people is kind of capricious. (Of course, the scene also sucks because it offers no new information and is an uninspired attempt to manufacture emotional investment in a season that's felt kind of emotionally unfocused.)
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May 19, 2015 00:24
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Blazing Ownager posted:The only rape I think that really deserved the kind of scorn (probably more than it got really) was the one HBO accidentally filmed with Cersei. Exactly. That Cersei scene is lovely because there is no fallout and it meant nothing. That episode isn't terrible because this traumatic thing happened to Cersei, it's terrible because it doesn't even regard the repercussions of that, or even acknowledge her experience happened in-universe. Sansa's scene was ugly, but it won't be erased from memory and it matters that it happened. In light of that, I wish people wouldn't moralize what happened to a fictional character. Criticize the scene if you feel it didn't provide value to the show (which is a fully valid position; I don't think it did, either.) But asserting the writers are bad people and trying to punish them through online activism is ridiculous. This is fiction. Hate it because you think it sucks, not because you disagree personally with a decision it made.
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May 19, 2015 13:31
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Away all Goats posted:You ask the broken shell of a tortured prisoner who witnessed it If you rape your wife in medieval times and there isn't a traumatized eunuch to see it, does it make a sound? Seriously, though, it'd be pretty cool if Theon tries to kill Ramsay, proves to be too chickenshit, and then Sansa stabs Ramsay in the neck with a cheese knife or something. I guess Brienne has to get involved somehow, though. Otherwise, why have we been following her at all this season?
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May 20, 2015 12:51
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So, warhammers aren't effective? How does the situation change if it's a runeword maul and I'm dual-casting Fury and Feral Rage to compound damage and increase attack speed? Would that have worked better during the Hundred Years War?
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May 20, 2015 21:51
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tooterfish posted:To conserve their good steels for the edges of their swords, the Japanese were still heat welding their blades together like hobos for gently caress's sake. The hobos in your city are pretty intense. Isn't it a problem to have a pit fighter with an intensely infectious disease? Seems like a poor investment; when the pit fighter officials do weigh-in, these dwarfcock pirates will be poo poo out of luck.
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May 21, 2015 12:50
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Moridin920 posted:Based on what? She doesn't inherit the Vale and while the knights and lords of the Vale wanted to help the Starks in their war it's kind of too late for that now. If given a choice between open rebellion and handing Sansa back to KL I think they'd do the latter but either way it's a bit of a gamble. The potential consequence was probably too high for Sansa. Possibly that. Or something equally lovely that involves using her as a bargaining piece. The point is, as you say, it's a gamble. The lords of the Vale were a complete unknown quantity, and Littlefinger wasn't. As a few people have said of Sansa's decisions, she literally doesn't know what we know. We know the extent to which Littlefinger is a piece of poo poo, or the insane degree to which Ramsay is a psychopath, but there is no reason for her to be aware of any of it. All Sansa could know of the Boltons is what is publicly known: they're ruthless but calculating, and crave legitimacy in the North amidst an extremely bad PR problem. Sansa undoubtedly knows their reputation for flaying prisoners and their complicity in the Red Wedding, but Ramsay being a sadist maniac who'd torture her for fun isn't a part of that. She signed on for a marriage of political convenience, trading one gilded cage for another. There's no reason she should "know better" than that...Ramsay's disposition could just as easily have been reluctant and kind like Tyrion, or passionless and businesslike like Roose seems to be with Walda, or respectful but formal like her own parents when they first married. The reality that he is a vile, monstrous animal is only "obvious" from the more objective vantage we have as viewers. Baldbeard posted:No one deserves to be sexually humiliated or mutilated. That's why the Ramsay torture plotline was so effective: most people have totally forgotten what an rear end in a top hat Theon was in S2. If Theon had disappeared and showed up as Reek in S4, it wouldn't have been a fraction as compelling because the sheer extreme of his "punishment" sold his transformation so thoroughly. I've heard the showrunners want 7 seasons, but that HBO wants literally as infinitely many as is possible. I wouldn't be surprised if the end result is 8 or 9, as the plotlines through the end of the story crystalize.
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May 22, 2015 20:04
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IMB posted:pisses me off how loving handsome ramsey's actor is No, it's actually perfect. I'm told the character in the book is supposed to be a huge, hideous ogre. Casting him as super handsome is way better. It's disarming to have a conventionally handsome guy actually be psychopathically insane and utterly rotten inside...like a medieval Patrick Bateman. Iwan Rheon could, by many accounts, play an absolute Prince Charming. Your Hollywood programming is to assume someone who looks that way is a good guy. It's what makes his "evil Jon Snow" thing work.
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May 23, 2015 06:50
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Bobo the Red posted:Psychopaths can and do succeed and achieve positions of power even to this day in our world. It's not weird that in a setting as brutal as Westeros, one as sadistic as Ramsay would be thriving. I think that's the most important aspect of Ramsay on this show. He's not particularly nuanced, and his psychopathic tendencies are absurdly extreme. But the point is: the system rewards him for this. People with rigid codes of honor and baseline senses of decency tend to find themselves stepped on (particularly the Starks), while the blatantly monstrous and dishonorable ones (Littlefinger or the Boltons) secure power and keep it easily. Dany's plotline is also very centrally concerned with this dilemma. midnightclimax posted:No, worrying about smelling bad as a marketing invention. Don't make me fact check it, a university lecturer dropped it once. That's...only sort of true. The inventions of things like deodorant and Listerine fabricated new insecurity over those specific aspects of personal hygiene. Within the last ~150 or so years. But it's not entirely accurate that nobody bathed in the medieval era and that was totally accepted. Public bathhouses, as a cultural institution dating back to Rome, remained popular well into the medieval period. They did eventually fall out of fashion in much of Europe, due to Catholic insecurities over sexuality and the general public health fear of disease. But saunas as a source of cleanliness in Scandinavia pretty much never went away. And bathhouses in general resurged following the Crusades, after Europeans were exposed to them in the Middle East. The idea that everyone in Medieval Europe was a revolting, poo poo-covered slob who literally never bathed was really only true at certain points in time. I wouldn't be surprised if something like Castle Black had some sort of sauna / bath that people used, if for no other reasons because it's below freezing all day, every day, and the North of Westeros seems heavily influenced by Scandinavian culture.
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May 25, 2015 21:33
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Hexel posted:If you think about it, Oliver rolled over like a wet biscuit on some high profile clients. Super amateur, unless its all part of the plan to say he was coerced by Cersei and she is the only guilty party in the whole situation. I so hope that's what happens. If Littlefinger's current masterstroke is to wreck Cersei's poo poo that way, it'd be hilarious. Actually, this seems like quite a likely outcome. Oliver probably trusts Littlefinger, who knows all Cersei's secrets including the Lannisters being in extreme debt they cannot pay back (a situation he put them in.) Also, Littlefinger's alliance to the Tyrells is still intensely valuable, since they're the de facto wealthiest House. He has every incentive to help them and crush Cersei. And manipulating this situation is an elegant way to do it. He didn't actually go back to King's Landing to rat out Sansa. I forget, did he go back before or after she armed the Faith Militant?
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May 26, 2015 01:03
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