Game of Thrones (HBO) TV Show • Page 260

I enjoyed the way he physically died, found it fitting... but the entire buildup was off, so when it was revealed that all the Stark kids were aligned, it was just like... okay, so the show has been intentionally misleading me for what reason this entire season? It would have been infinitely better/more interesting, to see Arya, Bran, and Sansa discovering the extent of Littlefinger's evil doing and deciding how to handle it. At least even a hint at it. Anything. Instead, we saw repeated scenes of tension between Arya & Sansa, while also seeing Littlefinger counsel Sansa repeatedly. It was just weird and poorly done. A waste, really. Especially with a character as smart and conniving as Baelish who had so much influence and control over the chaos he caused. The scenes with tension between Arya and Sansa essentially feel worthless now, as we can assume they were on the same page from the beginning... or not? Meh.

 

I was really disappointed by that finale. Sure all the reunions were cool to see, and people meeting for the first time, but I thought the LF death was terribly done and so was the reveal of Jon being....Aegon? I didn't see that one coming (in the books he's a whole diff character), but meh. It makes sense. But it going along with their sex scene was too on the nose, and wtf was with Tyrion standing there all sad/creepy-like? Does he love Dany too? I had no implications of that until that moment. Was just really odd to me.

The fall of the wall was very well done though. Also good to finally see Jamie break away from Cersei. I thought overall this season was good, just not the best. I get we are at the end game now, but it just seemed way too rushed at times. Great for the casual binge watching viewers, but not for people who have been around since day 1 or book readers. I guess they have to appease everyone now, with it being such a big show.

 

I don't get how seeing the surviving Stark children all secretly plot to out Littlefinger with the Vale, corner him and watch him try to squirm out of it as he gets convicted of all the shitty things we watched him do since season 1, and then cry at the realization he was never gonna talk himself out of it, THEN have Arya slit his throat, wasn't satisfying?

 

I read it that way. Since Bran is relatively new to being the Three Eyed Raven, he doesn't know the extent of his powers, so maybe he needs some help from time to time about knowing where/what to look for. It makes sense in my mind and I don't want to hear any naysayers haha.

 

Littlefinger represents a quiet, cunning misogyny. Before Jorah, he was in love with Cat who loved another man, and he knew to gain power and status he'd have to be a different kind of man, and he largely used and sold and manipulated and abused women to do so: he ran a literal brothel, commodifying the literal sexuality that rejected him, and used it to further himself. He then manipulated Catelyn, Lysa Arryn, Sansa, and attempted to do so again with Sansa and now with Arya, and the two of them, female characters who represent the future of Westeros, saw right through it and put an end to him and everything he represented. It was a very satisfyingly dramatized and thematically resonant moment.

 

Yep, I agree. I think what the disconnect comes from is everything that had to have happened off screen. It made it a little confusing how they came about all the information and how they formed the plot against him...and also when Arya and Sansa came together. Did Bran help? Did Arya tell Sansa that she was just testing her?

I think the entire plot was great on paper and the actual scene of his death was satisfying. It's just everything that led up to it wasn't the most clear and a lot of things had to be assumed.

 

After that episode I think the greyjoys storyline might be tied for Dorne with worst adaptation.

I enjoyed the incest scene with the parentage reveal.
Gave me that uneasy feeling that this clearly is going to end poorly. Which for me, is what game of thrones has always been about. Characters making a few wrong moves and it causing a massive cascade of consequences.

If J and D just shrug off that they are related, no one in winterfell cares, and Jons hair turns gold when he sits on his dragon...I might re evaluate that scene as poor to quite poor.

 

I think the chances of that are highly likely since, again, in this world, people who aren't brother/sister or parent/child getting together/getting married is viewed as relatively normal.

 

Regarding the Bran thing, he can see everything that has happened in the past, but he has to know what to look for. As soon as Sam revealed the truth about the secret wedding, Bran was able to go right back to that specific point in time.

I've heard it put this way: Bran has access to the entire internet, he just needs to know what site to search for in the address bar

 

You've nailed it. I'm also going to quote my friend on this because he and I have been texting about this, but he explains the problem better than I can and raises some great points:

"We needed to see more of what the kids were doing together and planning than to wait all season long and announce they knew what was up right before they kill the man. The killing scene was visceral, but the point leading up to it had no dramatic heft to it at all because the conflict seemed completely internal between Sansa and Arya because that's all they decided to show us as one big red herring for six damn episodes. I'm glad when shows don't treat me like an idiot and won't spell shit out for me, but they also don't need to hide everything either and then have some big revelation about how they were gunning for Baelish the whole time. Like you said, some small scene in an episode here or there of the Starks working together, talking, plotting... We needed a glimpse of it. Even if it wasn't clear, some kind of subtle exposition would have made the pay off of Littlefinger getting killed that much better. And because they did it this way, we'll never know how close the sisters may have actually had been to fighting one another or if they knew the whole time, or a couple of episodes ago. When you question how we got to the big pay off more than the pay off itself, something went wrong."

 

I think my biggest issue with this season as a whole is that it felt like they knew how they wanted it to end, so they worked backwards, leading to a lot of conveniences for the sake of simply getting us to those end notes of Littlefinger dying, the big three (Jon, Dany, and Cersei) confronting one another, and the wall coming down. All three of those moments had me on the edge of my seat and were great scenes, but I wish the build-up to those scenes were given as much care and fleshed out a bit more.

 

That's definitely how I feel. I like the line about the show not treating you like an idiot but at the same time, there needs to be some sort of explanation present. I kind of feel that way about a handful of things in this latest season.

A lot of the plot lines could have been much better with just a tiny amount of explanation or showing a little more build up. Then, other times they will go in the opposite direction; Bran and Sam just straight up say in plain English, "Jon isn't Ned Stark's son. He's the son of Rhaegar and Lyanna and the heir to the iron throne." haha

 

The reveal scene was borderline insultingly on the nose. Like "really? you don't know? ok, here."

 

But there really, truly is likely a good amount of people that were confused even with all that exposition

 

Oh yeah, for sure. It's a hard line to walk.

 

Yeah wasn't there a poster in here last week who was calling everyone who didn't get it dense? I responded by saying it wouldn't be solved until a character on the show flat out says the reveal in plain speak and then it happens lol

 

“Targaryen family trees are a special kind of special. They look more like ladders than trees. Dany’s father and mother, Aerys and Rhaella, were full siblings. So were her grandparents, Jaehaerys and Shaera. You have to go all the way to her great-grandparents, Aegon V (Egg) and Betha Blackwood to find a couple that wasn’t closely related. Genetically, this makes Dany half Blackwood, a fourth Dayne, and a fourth Targaryen.

“So because of all this incest Rhaegar and Daenerys weren’t just siblings. They were super-siblings. Normal siblings share 50% of their DNA. Rhaegar and Daenerys shared 88%. That’s approaching identical twin level of incest.”

(Spoilers Extended) Westerosi Genetics/ I did the incest math • r/asoiaf

 

I like to think that Ned's thought process for choosing Jon's name went something like this:

Lyanna: "His name is Aegon Targaryen"

Ned: "I'm gonna name him Jon lol"

 

How are they still so intelligent and beautiful with all that inbreeding?

 

Dragons.

 

Yeah, it had no storyline purpose. We want Jon to know. That's what should have happened.

 

They? Viserys looks like Lucius Malfoy's second, far more annoying son and Rhaegar looked like Prince Charming and Lord Farquad met somewhere in the middle.

Which is frankly impressive cause both of those actors are cute as hell.

 

Make them look more like the McPoyles

 

I'd say both this and "Spoils of War" were the cream of the crop this season. And while "Eastwatch" and "Beyond the Wall" were incredibly frustrating (albeit very entertaining).....I hate them less now that the finale has aired and all is right within the realm again. I think we're back on track.

 

Tyrion - ::strongly calls out Bronn::
Bronn - ::produces receipts::
Tyrion - "great to see you again man"
Bronn - "you too bud"

^ ^ one of my favorite moments from last night lol