Even though I think she gave bad advice to Dany, the war planning scene made me want to see Lady Olenna survive to the end and become Master of Something on Dany's small council....I've accepted she's probably going to die this season tho :(
Since you mentioned that, in curious if the Knights of the Vale at this point truly do recognize Jon as King in that North or are still just following him because that's what Littlefinger commands.
Might be a little nod to that book mention, but I thought the person have their tongue ripped out, along with all the other terrible things happening during the battle, were there specifically to trigger Theon's PTSD. Apologies to Cormac McLaggen.
That episode was EVERYTHING I love about this show. I legite forgot about the Sand Snakes, and then they had the coolest fight ever. Also I'm so hype for Jon/Dany
Just had two pages to catch up on and I commend some of you for being willing to combat the silly and shallow criticisms with honest, polite common sense explanations. I don't know how you could not have liked this episode or say it wasn't directed well. There was so much nostalgia and throwback to early seasons. More betrayal. A great action scene (minus the cheesy Euron entrance I already mentioned). Plus, there aren't many shows that can be so dialogue heavy, with so many different stories, yet still stay intertwined and relevant to the main purpose. No others really that I can think of. Also, Dany doesn't do anything? Is the Queen supposed to be fighting with a sword for her to be entertaining to you? I don't think there's any transition of any character I like more than hers. I do fear her becoming like her family ancestors, but regardless she is a fierce character and even her presence on my tv screen makes me giddy.
The criticisms aren't silly nor shallow nor invalid just because you can ignore them easier than others. There's a time for cheeky writing but the entire boat scene prior to the attack was pretty much just set up for making two jokes. The directing overused transition cuts. I think every Sam scene was book-ended with transitions like that, which should be used sparingly. The Grey Worm/Missandei scene was good but almost every single shot was at least a second too long. The close-up shots were a great idea but the decision to contrast them with the extremely heavy handed shot of fire in the background was unusual. It's actually funny because while I do like the episode, it's those side comments about the show is devoid of criticism that causes these posts haha. I'm not saying any of the flaws make it a bad episode. I was just pointing out some issues. The praise for the episode is WAY more over the top than the criticisms, which are all pretty minor. The episode was good, better than some, but still not very good in the context of the rest of the series.
Only gripe with the episode is it felt like it was moving a bit too fast. I think that will prob be my biggest complaint with the whole season...but understand it's how it has to be. My hope is they don't deal with really large threats too swiftly. The wall falling, the dragons, the night king, bran and whatever he means to time...etc.
The travel time and matching up of the different parts of the story seem illogical with the way the other seasons have worked. I.e. Brienne, arya, the hound, Jamie..or anyone who had a travel season. Don't think it's necessarily bad. Just sticks out within the context of the unviverse. It's like reading the cliff notes version.
I think more time is elapsing than you'd think. But yeah, the time of travel has always been wonky. But if I'm going to complain about unrealistic time of travel, at some point I'm gonna need to come to terms with the whole "dragons don't exist" thing.
With the way the new season is going. We would have seena dragon egg episode 1. Dragon hatch episode 2. And dany riding on one while talking to Jon snow in episode 3. Lol
The Vale isn't part of the north, so they don't really have to. Little finger is their Lord, so they go where he tells them. also, knowing Arya is going to Winterfell, along with her wearing a certain dagger in some promo pictures, i don't see how she won't be the one to finish him.
I think those all over the place criticisms come because the show is so massive and so popular. If you placed the same magnifying glass on other shows that are casually watched, you'd probably find all of the above in a lot worse amounts. The show isn't perfect, but it's certainly not boring nor do I think any of the scenes this episode had pace issues or directing issues.
Do any of the Starks know that Littlefinger's betrayal of Ned was the catalyst that led to his murder? I can't remember if it was ever brought up to any of them in a previous season or not.