Game of Thrones!

[Totenkindly]

JON SNOW IS BACK

Mother

MOTHERFUCKERS

Predictable, right?

It was probably one of the best-kept, yet most unsurprising secrets in television history.

The only reason people weren't sure and it became such a "thing" was because they actually managed to lock it down and lie about it so well, creating some real doubt in the audience.

GRRM is known for breaking narrative expectations, but it was on the magnitude that things not happening this way would have threatened to shatter trust in the meaning of the story.

 

[Cellmold]

The constant online talk prevents there from being something new....if there is any plausible idea about something, it gets talked to death.

You kinda have to live under a rock to not hear about everything.

I live under THE rock. Although the PLOT in this case ran towards the expected conclusion.

It remains to be seen if the PLOT will follow the predictable how, though.

 

[Totenkindly]

Damn. That (s06e04) was one of the best episodes ever, I think.

And their pace has really kicked up.

for example, Sansa shows up at Castle Black immediately, rather than us having to watch four weeks of her traveling through minutia and mud and snow to get there, like GRRM would make us do in the past.

ALL the storylines seemed to make significant process. It's pretty clear they are moving the story along, all the pieces are quickly coming together, and really do plan to finish this probably at the end of Season 7. it's just so unlike the pace we've experienced in the past that it feels too fast, even if it's not. And almost all of the scenes was actually pretty substantial, with decent dialogue. (The only one I didn't enjoy much was the Winterfell sequence, it felt like an abrupt and rather ignominious end, alas.)

(No recaps of Dorne? No problems here. That storyline was terrible.)

The whole ending was pretty effin' awesome, though. Dani is finally back to doing what she is good at. let Tyrion handle the politics. She's just an asskicker. I had forgotten about that. I loved the expression on her face... that terrible but knowing smile.

 

[senza tema]

The Dany CGI at the end was terrible but AT LEAST her plot is FINALLY moving.

LOVED Sansa this episode. PLEASE do not take her development away from her with more misplaced torture porn, D&D ...

Also, based on the promo, I'm SO excited for Bran stuff next week.

 

[tinker683]

The Dany CGI at the end was terrible but AT LEAST her plot is FINALLY moving.

LOVED Sansa this episode. PLEASE do not take her development away from her with more misplaced torture porn, D&D ...

Also, based on the promo, I'm SO excited for Bran stuff next week.

Agreed. When Sanda and Jon finally met up, I looked over at my wife and said, "Finally, after 6 Seasons of getting crapped on, she's come into her own."

I did love the scene between her and Jon sitting down and just talking...there was a lot of real emotion there, for the characters and for the audience.

The scene of Dothraki felt a little...I don't know, if rushed or convenient is the right word? But as you said, it's nice to see her moving along. I was wondering where they were going with her or what they were doing.

 

[Totenkindly]

The Dany CGI at the end was terrible but AT LEAST her plot is FINALLY moving.

LOVED Sansa this episode. PLEASE do not take her development away from her with more misplaced torture porn, D&D ...

It was an episode for real reunions.

It was handled really nicely... that long moment in the courtyard.... and then I liked how they shifted back to personality later. Jon is sick of fighting; Sansa has a keen sense of "right and wrong." So they obviously care about each other deeply, but they weren't in agreement about what happens next, or at least weren't until Ramsey's goad arrived. It looks like Jon won't be alone, however. I think Littlefinger has decided Ramsay isn't manipulatible and has a lot of bad press, so he's pushing to position himself as the guy who helped restore the Starks... and maybe he'll get Sansa out of the deal as a reward.

There was of course the Theon and Yara reunion as well. It seemed to make sense in how it played out.

Also, based on the promo, I'm SO excited for Bran stuff next week.

Yeah, Bran has been interesting finally, now. That final shot of him in the promo... haha, wow! Hello!

Rickon's still not much more than a plot device at the moment.

And our little Robin has grown.
But he hasn't changed much.

It looks like King's Landing is going to be crazy next week.

I really liked the Margaery scenes.

And Cersei, without power now, is learning other ways to move situations to what she desires. Smartly played.

Again, I really liked the resolution to Dani. I thought it was going to be something lame. It ended up being elegantly simple. Her entire manner with the Dothraki leaders was regal and in control; she was the Kahleesi again.

 

[ceecee]

It was an episode for real reunions.

It was handled really nicely... that long moment in the courtyard.... and then I liked how they shifted back to personality later. Jon is sick of fighting; Sansa has a keen sense of "right and wrong." So they obviously care about each other deeply, but they weren't in agreement about what happens next, or at least weren't until Ramsey's goad arrived. It looks like Jon won't be alone, however. I think Littlefinger has decided Ramsay isn't manipulatible and has a lot of bad press, so he's pushing to position himself as the guy who helped restore the Starks... and maybe he'll get Sansa out of the deal as a reward.

There was of course the Theon and Yara reunion as well. It seemed to make sense in how it played out.

Yeah, Bran has been interesting finally, now. That final shot of him in the promo... haha, wow! Hello!

Rickon's still not much more than a plot device at the moment.

And our little Robin has grown.
But he hasn't changed much.

It looks like King's Landing is going to be crazy next week.

I really liked the Margaery scenes.

And Cersei, without power now, is learning other ways to move situations to what she desires. Smartly played.

Again, I really liked the resolution to Dani. I thought it was going to be something lame. It ended up being elegantly simple. Her entire manner with the Dothraki leaders was regal and in control; she was the Kahleesi again.

Thank the Seven Face God that the Sansa/Jon reunion was not bogged down with 3 episodes on the road (as much as I like Brienne and Pod aside).

Tyrion - It's just a conversation. But this is where he excels and I hope Dani sees that and I know she rewards loyalty. But I wonder what Grey Worm will have to say when/if she shows up with the Dothraki army. Could be fun. But the entire last scene was so awesome (although I laughed when they called her a midget).

The Cercei/Jamie/Olenna alliance - this has to happen, no matter how disgusting it tastes.

Teenagers with power - Ramsey eclipses Joffrey but are all of them going to be horrible? We knew Robin was coming but there is Bran and if the trailer for next week tells us anything - it's telling us this is awesome. If Ned can hear him, you know nothing good can come of it, though, right?

I keep thinking - who should really have the honor of dispatching Ramsey? Theon - yes. Sansa - yes. Rickon? Maybe. I hope he isn't just a placeholder until Jon/Sansa and the Wildlings arrive.

 

[Totenkindly]

Thank the Seven Face God that the Sansa/Jon reunion was not bogged down with 3 episodes on the road (as much as I like Brienne and Pod aside).

It's one of the most obvious explications of narrative style between GRRM and the showrunners. I remember book readers (before the show) complaining about how Brienne kept doing lots of minutia... riding from town to town -- "Are the stark girls here?" -- it was like an endless litany from them. And there was a lot of time in the show spent on movement when they were following the books.

The way the narrative has leaped forward since going off book... pretty different. They don't waste time. I thought the Osha storyline capped too quickly, but mostly it's been a nice change.

Tyrion - It's just a conversation. But this is where he excels and I hope Dani sees that and I know she rewards loyalty. But I wonder what Grey Worm will have to say when/if she shows up with the Dothraki army. Could be fun. But the entire last scene was so awesome (although I laughed when they called her a midget).

I think Tyrion made a lot of sense in terms of restructuring an economy. He's not an idealist, he's pragmatic and rational. you need to give change time to settle. I'm sure too he is also aware that these guys are barely warming up to the idea, and so the standard response will be to wait til near the end of the allotted time, then complain about not having enough time to make the changes. But like you said, he is just having a conversation (and buying time until Dani gets back). After all, they aren't in position to do much either -- they occupied territory without really managing any real change in the areas, and now they can't control them effectively. We've seen this before, where you can conquer a land but not manage to hold it IRL or replace it with anything better.

The dialogue in that temple barn was pretty great.
I love how neither side was cowed, well, until the endgame.

The Cercei/Jamie/Olenna alliance - this has to happen, no matter how disgusting it tastes.

For once, Cersei knew what card to play on Olenna.

Teenagers with power - Ramsey eclipses Joffrey but are all of them going to be horrible? We knew Robin was coming but there is Bran and if the trailer for next week tells us anything - it's telling us this is awesome. If Ned can hear him, you know nothing good can come of it, though, right?

Who knows what Bran might do, by accident? He must tread carefully.

But it was the last shot with him and.... well, you know who... that made me laugh in a good way. I wouldn't want to stand that close.

I keep thinking - who should really have the honor of dispatching Ramsey? Theon - yes. Sansa - yes. Rickon? Maybe. I hope he isn't just a placeholder until Jon/Sansa and the Wildlings arrive.

Ramsay's been such a busy boy, I think his dance card is already full for the night.

I'm not sure what they can do with Rickon. He wasn't developed as a real character before he disappeared, and with the quicker narrative pace, I fear he might end up just a plot point.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I've managed to catch up on this show a little over the last few days. I think right now I'm finding Jon's storyline more interesting than Tyrion. I predicted that if he comes back, he won't have the same loyalty to the Night's watch, and he won't give a damn about what Melisandre has prophesized for him. This is pretty much where he's at emotionally right now, coincidentally. I think the reunion with Jon and Sansa was my favorite scene of this whole season. I guess people probably differ with me on this, but I think Jon's really grown into a compelling character. I find something relatable about everything that's happened to him as a character.

It's also interesting to me that the show is still working on plot points from the book that I thought they'd abandoned, like the pink letter and the kingsmoot. They're still drawing on material from the books in a lot of places, it's just in a different sequence of events.

I suspect the show is moving us towards a big battle at Mereen. With dragons.

 

[Forever]

Season 6 definitely is bringing some excitement that I haven't been seeing consistently like season 2 and before.

It was during season 3, the show slowed down in its pace.

WHOOP WHOOP

#teamtargaryen

We can't cut Margaery's hair!

Quick, let's make the seven god worshipers pay. Yeah. That's something interesting.

Oh oh! So much hair rising next episode, I think it's going to be an exhilarating episode next time.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Season 6 definitely is bringing some excitement that I haven't been seeing consistently like season 2 and before.

It was during season 3, the show slowed down in its pace.

To be fair, that's also where the books kind of slowed down. I found Book 5 more enjoyable to read than the first half of book 3 (aka season 3 on the show). They're actually still using stuff from Book 4 and 5 on the show.... they just cut out a lot of the stuff that was just meandering, and replaced a few side characters with main characters or just eliminated certain characters altogether. Getting Tyrion to Mereen earlier was a wise move, also.

 

[Forever]

To be fair, that's also where the books kind of slowed down. I found Book 5 more enjoyable to read than the first half of book 3 (aka season 3 on the show). They're actually still using stuff from Book 4 and 5 on the show.... they just cut out a lot of the stuff that was just meandering. Getting Tyrion to Mereen earlier was a wise move, also.

Ah good to know! Yeah, I'm pretty glad they made him do a hop, skip, and a jump to Mereen and focused him and slowed down there because I don't think Tyrion's role would be that exciting being with Jonah over and over going whereever everyone else was going, now if this was some massive reversal where we'd start the show over again and had that happen way earlier, it'd be definitely cool to see like a tour of the GoT map getting there from King's Landing to Mereen although it'd mess up the whole Targaryen storyline having that happen so early.

It may seem that season 6 might be one of my favorite seasons of the show if I assume that they might slow down again for season 7 on again.

I really enjoy the King's Landing thing what's going on right now for some reason, probably because of the beautiful scenery. Where Danearys + Tyrion was the most interesting character combination ever, the building of him and Verys is quite cool too.

Okay, I got to admit, I was really happy to see Littlefinger (Petyr Baelish) again.

Offhand I know, I tend to enjoy watching INTJ's instead of seeing myself as one now, I think I am happy being who I am, not that I am trying to impersonate, it was just massive confusion to see if I was really Te/Fi with untapped Te than actually an Fe/Ti user but that's just fluff.

 

[Totenkindly]

Seeing an interesting idea that maybe the letter from Ramsay was forged. It was definitely missing an attachment care package of body parts Ramsay is well-known for sending along with his missives. And seemed to be stylistically a bit different from his normal approach.

So are the writers playing it straight? Or is this a Karstark or even Littlefinger plot? It's interesting to see Littlefinger push immediately to "go all in" with the Eyrie forces, he's normally more cautious; it suggests maybe he's actually pushing for this war (another reason he married Sansa off to Ramsay?), so as to leave him to pick up more pieces when it is through? It's all about positioning. Maybe we're seeing part of his long-game in action. So send the letter, trigger a confrontation, and hey, look at who shows up to help and prove his mettle to the "new king of the north" since Littlefinger really couldn't trust Ramsay (unstable as he is) being in charge, he's a mad dog who would as soon as bite Littlefinger as lick him...

I've managed to catch up on this show a little over the last few days. I think right now I'm finding Jon's storyline more interesting than Tyrion. I predicted that if he comes back, he won't have the same loyalty to the Night's watch, and he won't give a damn about what Melisandre has prophesized for him. This is pretty much where he's at emotionally right now, coincidentally. I think the reunion with Jon and Sansa was my favorite scene of this whole season. I guess people probably differ with me on this, but I think Jon's really grown into a compelling character. I find something relatable about everything that's happened to him as a character.

I agree. I think he was superceded in importance, storyline wise, by other narrative strings in the front part of the story -- they were always playing the "long game" with his particular story, backloading versus frontloading. Now he is reaching fruition, and all that build is starting to pay off. If his experience didn't impact him like this, I'd have been surprised.

But in a way, it makes him more trustworthy. He's got ideals, but he's seen the fruition of those ideals and knows what is at stake -- Eddard never got a chance to come back from that. Stannis, also... another man driven to stringent choices because of his rigid views of his role in the world, and now look. So Jon is reassessing and trying to determine what his purpose is in this kind of world now. I think it makes him stronger. It makes him his own person, versus someone trying to fit themselves to the mold of hero or even wanting to be a leader.

 

[ceecee]

I really enjoy the King's Landing thing what's going on right now for some reason, probably because of the beautiful scenery.

Dubrovnik. At least that's where they did film the King's Landing scenes. I'm not sure if they still do. But the walled city (intact as far as I know) was an excellent choice.

Where Danearys + Tyrion was the most interesting character combination ever, the building of him and Verys is quite cool too.

I love this combo. lovelovelove. I think Tyrion + Verys would be great on it's own (and it is) but the current combo is so good. And I think Grey Worm and Missandei will eventually be right there with them in the understanding of negotiation.

 

[Forever]

Dubrovnik. At least that's where they did film the King's Landing scenes. I'm not sure if they still do. But the walled city (intact as far as I know) was an excellent choice.



I love this combo. lovelovelove. I think Tyrion + Verys would be great on it's own (and it is) but the current combo is so good. And I think Grey Worm and Missandei will eventually be right there with them in the understanding of negotiation.

Dubrovnik. That sounds beautiful! I did a quick google image search and I would love to visit that place for sure! Although I wonder if I would give too much of a tourist vibe.

Grey Worm and Missandei will eventually understand, I quite agree with it. Tyrion is more than what he says that's for sure so even should they not get their end of the bargain, they will liberate the slaves for sure. But I hope the show isn't them entirely liberating slaves through, I mean the humanitarian theme is nice but this is a show too haha.

 

[ceecee]

Seeing an interesting idea that maybe the letter from Ramsay was forged. It was definitely missing an attachment care package of body parts Ramsay is well-known for sending along with his missives. And seemed to be stylistically a bit different from his normal approach.

Uhh-huh, I said the same thing immediately. You know he would have sent like the pinky finger or maybe some pulled out toenails of Rickon's if he really wanted to prove he was at Winterfell.

 

[Duffy]

Does he eat people after flaying them? No. "Then I've seen worse."

There's been speculation regarding the whereabouts of Rickon prior to being captured... something to do with Skagos and cannibals.

All of the Stark kids have been given uncanny experiences, save Rickon. I think Ramsay's in trouble.

 

[erm]

The Dany CGI at the end was terrible but AT LEAST her plot is FINALLY moving.

LOVED Sansa this episode. PLEASE do not take her development away from her with more misplaced torture porn, D&D ...

Also, based on the promo, I'm SO excited for Bran stuff next week.

You're bad and you should feel bad.

 

[Kasia93]

A lot of sadists in power in The Game of Thrones universe. I'm looking forward to Jon Snow's march on Winterfell. I want someone to finally give Ramsey his due. I was a Stannis supporter in the books, but he wasn't nearly as honorable on the screen.

 

[Totenkindly]

...That was so sad.

Freakin' Hodor. He is the man. But...
And another direwolf down. Sigh.
I guess that fan theory was correct, though. About what Hodor meant.

And I'm not sure what this means now for Bran. He is the new watcher, but doesn't even have a tree to spy from. What is next for him?

Lots of stuff went down. Not quite as good as last week's episode, but the plotlines are still rocketing forward. I felt bad for Arya. That really sucked, to watch that play about King's Landing; she kept herself in control, though, at least.