Game of Thrones (HBO)

[SO91]

Dumb I agree but he was just a kid. I hope the Dorne story gets better like you said. It seems it would be hard to introduce some hot women that can fight as part of a larger arc and screw it up but so far they have.

He was a kid and those are his cousins. I don't think he had reason to think they would put a spear through his face. The Dorne story is really frustrating for everybody, but I agree with some of the commentary I've read recently. They sped up the story and got to the point instead of dragging it along, which is Dorne at war with the Lannisters. The way the show chose to get there is questionable, but ultimately that seems to be where the book wants to take us anyways.

 

[Stout]

He was a kid and those are his cousins. I don't think he had reason to think they would put a spear through his face. The Dorne story is really frustrating for everybody, but I agree with some of the commentary I've read recently. They sped up the story and got to the point instead of dragging it along, which is Dorne at war with the Lannisters. The way the show chose to get there is questionable, but ultimately that seems to be where the book wants to take us anyways.

The complete and utter ineptness in Dorne is simply one part of this show that's gone down the tubes; they've really screwed things up. Weiss and Benioff seem to have been brilliant at adapting exact book material, but morons when it comes to writing original content. They used to do good side vignettes that weren't in the book, so I'm not sure why they're crapping the bed so horribly now.

 

[Cheesebeef]

He was a kid and those are his cousins. I don't think he had reason to think they would put a spear through his face. The Dorne story is really frustrating for everybody, but I agree with some of the commentary I've read recently. They sped up the story and got to the point instead of dragging it along, which is Dorne at war with the Lannisters. The way the show chose to get there is questionable, but ultimately that seems to be where the book wants to take us anyways.

yeah, but they've made the Dorne clan so blegh, that I don't care or look forward to their war with the Lannisters. They're the female version of Stannis, IMO. I couldn't care less when his storyline was on the screen and it was always obvious that he was doomed to fail. I feel the same way about Dorne.

what really bums me out is Arya's storyline. Her story was always one of the most interesting, but I'm pretty bored by that one as well.

 

[SO91]

The complete and utter ineptness in Dorne is simply one part of this show that's gone down the tubes; they've really screwed things up. Weiss and Benioff seem to have been brilliant at adapting exact book material, but morons when it comes to writing original content. They used to do good side vignettes that weren't in the book, so I'm not sure why they're crapping the bed so horribly now.

Dorne has been a mess, but other than Oberyn (who was in King's Landing the whole time), Dorne was pretty underwhelming in the books as well. That story line moved slowly, and had been moving for a while before we even first read about Doran, Quentyn and the rest of Dorne. It would be pretty boring if they kept it the same on the TV show. That still doesn't excuse how bad the dialogue and story telling has been in Dorne though, so I agree. Other parts of the show I think they've done very, very well, even ones without source material.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Dorne has been a mess, but other than Oberyn (who was in King's Landing the whole time), Dorne was pretty underwhelming in the books as well. That story line moved slowly, and had been moving for a while before we even first read about Doran, Quentyn and the rest of Dorne. It would be pretty boring if they kept it the same on the TV show. That still doesn't excuse how bad the dialogue and story telling has been in Dorne though, so I agree. Other parts of the show I think they've done very, very well, even ones without source material.

man, with how great of a character Oberyn was, it's almost mind-boggling that he came from that storyline.

 

[Stout]

Dorne has been a mess, but other than Oberyn (who was in King's Landing the whole time), Dorne was pretty underwhelming in the books as well. That story line moved slowly, and had been moving for a while before we even first read about Doran, Quentyn and the rest of Dorne. It would be pretty boring if they kept it the same on the TV show. That still doesn't excuse how bad the dialogue and story telling has been in Dorne though, so I agree. Other parts of the show I think they've done very, very well, even ones without source material.

Disagree 100 percent, and I think you're starting to get dissension in the ranks of the show fans too. They can tell the quality has severely dipped since season 4, and not just by a little bit. Choosing to try to force Ramsay to be a major villain rather than the minor mustache twirler he was in the books was a huge mistake, one of many. Not only was the premier bad, it was so predictable we were calling out exactly what was going to happen before it happened. It's got another two episodes to pick it back up again, for me, or it's gone.

 

[crisper57]

The Sand Snakes were literally the only good think about Book 4 but they are the worst part of the show!

 

[Chaplin]

man, with how great of a character Oberyn was, it's almost mind-boggling that he came from that storyline.

Remember, we met Oberyn in King's Landing if I recall correctly, so we didn't have ANY Dorne stuff at all in the majority of his time on the show. That helped, IMO.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Disagree 100 percent, and I think you're starting to get dissension in the ranks of the show fans too. They can tell the quality has severely dipped since season 4, and not just by a little bit. Choosing to try to force Ramsay to be a major villain rather than the minor mustache twirler he was in the books was a huge mistake, one of many. Not only was the premier bad, it was so predictable we were calling out exactly what was going to happen before it happened. It's got another two episodes to pick it back up again, for me, or it's gone.

I'll say this... In comparison to the first four seasons, season 5 was REALLY dull until the last two episodes which were peak level TV. But they definitely stumbled overall last year and need to pick up the slack. Stashing Kahleesi in ANOTHER stall story will suck balls and the faster they're done with Dorne, the better.

 

[SO91]

Disagree 100 percent, and I think you're starting to get dissension in the ranks of the show fans too. They can tell the quality has severely dipped since season 4, and not just by a little bit. Choosing to try to force Ramsay to be a major villain rather than the minor mustache twirler he was in the books was a huge mistake, one of many. Not only was the premier bad, it was so predictable we were calling out exactly what was going to happen before it happened. It's got another two episodes to pick it back up again, for me, or it's gone.

We'll have to agree to disagree then. I thought the Hardhome episode was amazing, and there was very little source material to base it off of. While you may disagree with Ramsey's portrayal, I don't see him as the major villain in the North. That's Roose, and last episode kinda helped drive that home. The show may be suffering from too much hype, with fans expecting so much revealed after the season premier. This from a show that historically hasn't given away much in the 1st episode of each season.

 

[SO91]

The Sand Snakes were literally the only good think about Book 4 but they are the worst part of the show!

Doran Martell's "Fire and Blood" speech surpassed anything the Sand Snakes did or said in AFFC.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I feel like the show's greatest strength... the idea that anyone and everyone could and have died at any moment has lead to it's greatest weakness... a lack of truly great characters to continue watching. Khal Drago, Ned, Rob, Lady Stark, Joffrey, Tywin, The Hound, Oberyn... these were all GREAT characters, on both sides of good and evil and they're all gonzo and the people who have risen in their place as antagonists (The Dorne peeps, the high Sparrow, Ramsay) just ain't all that interesting. I loved to hate some of the above and loved to love others, but the new peeps who have risen through the ranks... meh. Throw in the fact that Khaleesi's story has been running in mud and Arya is a drag and the whole show ends up being one. Not to mention the story went away from Littlefinger, who's still interesting, but completely AWOL.

 

[SO91]

I feel like the show's greatest strength... the idea that anyone and everyone could and have died at any moment has lead to it's greatest weakness... a lack of truly great characters to continue watching. Khal Drago, Ned, Rob, Lady Stark, Joffrey, Tywin, The Hound, Oberyn... these were all GREAT characters, on both sides of good and evil and they're all gonzo and the people who have risen in their place as antagonists (The Dorne peeps, the high Sparrow, Ramsay) just ain't all that interesting. I loved to hate some of the above and loved to love others, but the new peeps who have risen through the ranks... meh. Throw in the fact that Khaleesi's story has been running in mud and Arya is a drag and the whole show ends up being one. Not to mention the story went away from Littlefinger, who's still interesting, but completely AWOL.

Those were great characters, but we also had a lot longer to fall in love with them, or hate them, or the show was so young that it was easy to become attached to a new character right away. Khal Drogo was hardly on screen, but people liked him. The issue with the show and the world GRRM built is it's too damn big, with too many characters and there's way too much stuff going on to properly show it all to satisfy the curious minds. Littlefinger, as you brought up, is responsible for killing the King, smuggle Sansa away from the Lannisters, and we've barely heard from him because of all these other threads that need to be addressed. Same with Bran up North (although word is it's about to get really freaking interesting real soon). If you ever decide to read the book, look at the back and the list of characters named and connections to the great houses. It's insane to try to keep track of it all.

 

[jf-08]

Those were great characters, but we also had a lot longer to fall in love with them, or hate them, or the show was so young that it was easy to become attached to a new character right away. Khal Drogo was hardly on screen, but people liked him. The issue with the show and the world GRRM built is it's too damn big, with too many characters and there's way too much stuff going on to properly show it all to satisfy the curious minds. Littlefinger, as you brought up, is responsible for killing the King, smuggle Sansa away from the Lannisters, and we've barely heard from him because of all these other threads that need to be addressed. Same with Bran up North (although word is it's about to get really freaking interesting real soon). If you ever decide to read the book, look at the back and the list of characters named and connections to the great houses. It's insane to try to keep track of it all.

Over 700 characters if I remember correctly.

 

[oaken1]

Spoilers put in

Spoiler

Jon Snow is back............

good episode.... ramsey shanking daddy was expected...but not this soon...

are the faith taking jaime

 

[Stout]

Edited?

It was still a mixed bag, but better than last week. I actually liked the slower King's Landing stuff, which set the tone. I thought they were going to do some really stupid things, the show writers, but they avoided some of them. Still some real anti-climax, some yawning predictability, a really poor, really late effort of bringing forward a forgotten story line, and a nauseatingly bad effort to ram a certain character down our throats. Yes, all of this was in there, and about half the episode was just bad. The rest of it, however, was rather compelling. After last week's complete fumble, I'll take a 1/2 good, 1/2 awful episode. At least W+B avoided one major, major mistake.

Spoiler

Really thought they were going to schmuck bait the Jon Snow thing...again...by giving just a hint of him waking up in Ghost. They did well to set up that expectation and pulling out the carpet on the viewer.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Much, much better episode. Glad they haven't dragged out a couple story lines I was fearful of.

Any scene with the Lannisters is almost always gold. Tyrion had the line of the night: if I ever have an idea like that again, punch me in the face. Ha! Great advice probably for most of our lives.

 

[TJ]

Much, much better episode. Glad they haven't dragged out a couple story lines I was fearful of.

Any scene with the Lannisters is almost always gold. Tyrion had the line of the night: if I ever have an idea like that again, punch me in the face. Ha! Great advice probably for most of our lives.

Had he said that line four seasons ago, he would've been punched about 600 times thus far.

Meanwhile:

Spoiler

Now that Jon did his Jesus Christ impersonation, we can stop vacillating over whether or not he'll live and focus on the story going forward in Castle Black.

Cersei has always been someone I couldn't stand, but I find myself rooting for her in this instance. Jamie has been likable for some time. Seems as if now the Lannisters are decent people. Due to Tywin being dead?

Little Finger's omission thus far is pretty odd.

 

[Covert Rain]

Good episode IMO. They moved along a couple plots they could have dragged out for another week or so. Really happy about that. Plus, things are really starting to unfold. The dragon scene was awesome and it appears things are finally starting to take shape.

I hope you know who is "right" after just what happened.

 

[Shaggy]

Slow but a great episode. I've always like Jamie.

 

[cardfaninfl]

Steaming pile of predictability. Every scene was telegraphed. Except for the dragons, did not see that coming.

Spoiler

Could have flown off to celebrate their freedom, played dragon ping-pong with the Imp, or... I don't know... anything other than act like "Cheers mate. Those chains were a drag. If you need us. we'll be in the back cowering in the darkness of our prison."

 

[Stout]

Spoilers put in

Spoiler

Jon Snow is back............

good episode.... ramsey shanking daddy was expected...but not this soon...

are the faith taking jaime

 

[TJ]

Steaming pile of predictability. Every scene was telegraphed. Except for the dragons, did not see that coming.

Spoiler

Could have flown off to celebrate their freedom, played dragon ping-pong with the Imp, or... I don't know... anything other than act like "Cheers mate. Those chains were a drag. If you need us. we'll be in the back cowering in the darkness of our prison."

Agree

Spoiler

I found it very odd that when Tyrion unchained the dragons, nothing happened, with the exception of them not eating him. And even when he went back to Varys, they still did nothing. I expected them to fly away to look for Danarys or something to that effect

 

[crisper57]

That episode made getting through last week's filler so worth it!

I read that GoT succeeded in shocking viewers for years because it went against the norm of established fantasy rules. There is no "Happily Ever After" in Westeros. But after 5 seasons, a new rule is known to viewers. They've come to expect bad things to happen.

So what did this episode do? It delivered hope, after hope, after hope. It turned our expectation on its head once again. It was uplifting in some ways, to see so many story lines resolved and/or pushed into new and exciting directions!

 

[oaken1]

Agree

Spoiler

I found it very odd that when Tyrion unchained the dragons, nothing happened, with the exception of them not eating him. And even when he went back to Varys, they still did nothing. I expected them to fly away to look for Danarys or something to that effect

I expected them to fly away in search of food...since they have not been eating....and I expect they did just that.
However... they obviously were not going to exit by the same door Tyrion entered from,...ya think??.... my guess is they have some sort of hangar door further back in the building somewhere and they are gonna go out that way.