thought things would move at a faster clip. can't afford much filler at this point

Finally watched the episode. "Tell them winter came for House Frey". I really enjoyed it. It was a typical season opener - an opportunity for the various characters to reflect and regroup. These are rarely action-packed episodes, and anybody who has been following the show knows that the action tends to be reserved for the second-half of the season with a slow build-up in the first few shows.
My highlights

• Cersei's scenes. Lena Headey is terrific. I enjoyed the symbolism of her walking on the map, this is what she does, while her brother stood aside.
• The continuing evolution of Sansa. She has proven herself the master schemer with her call to Littlefinger. However, she once again finds herself in a weakened place. How will she play Littlefinger to gain the power she desires? And what exactly has she learned from Cersei?
• The Sam poop montage was perfect. After a few cycles of his serving, poop-cleaning, book stacking routine, you really felt empathy for his lot
• Jon Snow's progression as a leader. Forgiveness was hard in the wake of a vicious battle, but he has the foresight to understand that humans need to band together, rather than be divided in the face of winter

What I did not like

• Yet another Dany closing with her awesome army and dragons. These are overdone and feel quite repetitive
• Scene with the singers. It did not advance the overall narrative as far as I can tell. I would have preferred that time be spent with Snow or Cersei

Apart from the obvious problem of it being a pointless scene to get Ed Sheeran fans to watch that scene with the Lannistar soldiers was also contradictory to every other scene with Lannistar soldiers in the whole run of the show. They've always been a shower of vicious bastards. Now we meet a few nice ones with Ed Sheeran and Shaun from TIE.

It would be pretty unrealistic and cartoony to have an entire army be a bunch of pricks, and I think that was the point. Disliked the scene myself though.

My point is that its pretty shit writing to have many encounters with that army throughout the series and suddenly find a gang of them now that are just happy go lucky, rabbit sharing, homesick folk singers.

I mean I don't expect it to be realistic of course. If it was realistic (within its own world) Danny would have sailed straight to Kings Landing killed Cersei and Jamie and taken the throne.

I'm with Quincy here. At the start of the scene, she is ready to kill them, checking carefully for their weapons. But once they invite her, she relaxes. The conversation is a reminder of her lack of family as well. Perhaps that diverts her from Kings landing, to find whatever family she mighty still have out there. So potentially, this scene has an impact. It is easy to disregard little acne, but as we saw with the Hbound this week, sometimes seemingly inconsequential scenes return down the road.

another thing i thought about. i actually enjoy the small moments of the show as much as the big epic battles. like someone mentioned, the hound shows emotion realizing the place they stopped was the farm he had been at before and the father/daughter are dead. those little scenes are great, imo, and im okay with them being in there even if it slows down the pacing overall.

i think people are too harsh toward the show now. maybe its bc the bar is so high with shows like the sopranos, the wire and breaking bad, but GoT is better than almost any show outside of the very best of the best. i dont think theres anything wrong with being slightly worse than the wire.

mdgoonah41 wrote:

i think people are too harsh toward the show now. maybe its bc the bar is so high with shows like the sopranos, the wire and breaking bad, but GoT is better than almost any show outside of the very best of the best. i dont think theres anything wrong with being slightly worse than the wire.

Well maybe for you its "slightly worse than The Wire" but I don't think it comes close to that. Its not even in the conversation with those shows.

Like comparing a pixie stick to a meal at St John.

Best show currently on TV. Some of the episodes, like the finale to last season are incredible. Particularly the first 15 minutes it's some of the best TV I've seen. The show can be a bit uneven, but all shows are like that. I remember being particularly fond of certain seasons of The Wire over others.

It was ok. I'm struggling to feel much for most of the characters—I think Sansa was the most compelling in this episode, poised between the damage that's been inflicted on her and her taste for power, making her authority known but showing the wrong instincts. It will be interesting to see how Littlefinger gets his just desserts. The Hound is in second place in that episode.

Didn't mind the Ed Sheeran bit, as it served to set up Arya's arc for the season ("I'm going to kill the Queen.") That kind of thing is important in an opening episode.

Really the only part that was desperately bad was the arrival of Daenerys and her fleet at Dragonstone. The scene went for too long, the animation was beautiful but lifeless, the empty castle felt unrealistic, and the bareness of the production design really reminded us all, for minutes on end, how poor some of the costumes and character concepts are.

Arya is going to die

flobaba wrote:

Arya is going to die

Good.

Finally watched it.

Good episode but the show really is suffering from killing off all the good actors.

Peter Dinklage and Lena Headley are the best ones left from the original crew. The rest have mastered variations of resting bitch face.

I stopped watching when Sean Bean died.

I feel like Littlefinger getting killed off would be underwhelming. His character has tailed off massively in the last few seasons.

Remember, this is the guy who started everything. He convinced Lysa Tully to kill Jon Arryn which led to Robert asking Ned to be his hand. He was involved in the dagger which led to Catelyn capturing Tyrion, thus beginning the War of the five Kings, and he was behind the Purple Wedding and the death of Joffrey.

He has constantly been playing all sides, and has been the most influential player in the actual game of thrones. Like many characters, his motives and actions have become really messy since the show overtook the books.

Giving Sansa away to Ramsey Bolton? Still can't get my head around that one.

Shady wrote:

I feel like Littlefinger getting killed off would be underwhelming. His character has tailed off massively in the last few seasons.

Remember, this is the guy who started everything. He convinced Lysa Tully to kill Jon Arryn which led to Robert asking Ned to be his hand. He was involved in the dagger which led to Catelyn capturing Tyrion, thus beginning the War of the five Kings, and he was behind the Purple Wedding and the death of Joffrey.

He has constantly been playing all sides, and has been the most influential player in the actual game of thrones. Like many characters, his motives and actions have become really messy since the show overtook the books.

Giving Sansa away to Ramsey Bolton? Still can't get my head around that one.

hes calculated things pretty carefully, but the sansa thing with ramsey was his biggest miscalculation. its obvious he has had a crush on sansa since early in season 1, if he truly knew that ramsey was a sociopath, he wouldnt have sent her into his arms.

im finally home again and im going to watch season 7 episode 1 again. as ive digested it more in my head, i like it more. will add more thoughts after a 2nd viewing.

Nah. Finger doesn't care. He's in it for finger.

He's actually done well for himself despite his humble beginnings. Any possible chance he ends up on the Iron Throne at the end of all the squabbling?

assorted thoughts:

• euron is a deviant. his not so subtle jabs at jamie while standing right in front of him were over the top, and you could see cersei licking her lips and so very interested, but she turned him down anyway. i think based on jamie's reaction in that scene, he knows that he is going to pick his brother over cersei when the shit hits the fan

• the weakest scene of the episode was probably the last scene. thinking stylistically, they should have opened the episode using a sort of dual scene, alternating between the white walkers approaching and dany ascending the castle and then dany saying "shall we begin" and cutting to the opening credits. then you play arya's scene with the freys. the hound and thoros having their moment digging the grave would have been a fine way to end the episode.

• the hound's story arc has been arguably the best of the series. it helps that rory mccann is brilliant.

• the first time i watched, the scene with arya and ed sheeran seemed really off, not because he was in the scene, but because the lannister army soldiers did not behave like that for the large majority of the series. the fact that they would just welcome in a stranger to their camp seemed really odd. but if you view it through the lens that the lannister army is basically hanging on by a thread, and that they have been knocked down a few pegs, i guess it isn't so strange. they are all young, which maybe had something to do with them not really questioning/digging in to who arya is.

• arya slaughtering the freys is okay, but her turning into some kind of magic superhero is weird, especially since her ability to mask his voice and take on his form (hes much taller than her) without an explanation is bizarre. at some point, they will either have to explain how she is able to shape shift like that or they need to show that she isn't all powerful. otherwise, its just a silly gimmick.

• i thought more about the pacing that people complained about. lets think about the dynamics at play here:

• dany is in westeros. for 6 seasons she floundered on the fringe, shes here now. given her army, she is the biggest chess piece and shes now positioned.

• cersei and jamie are in place

• jon has basically united the north

• euron is in king's landing but might be leaving

• the white walkers are coming toward the wall

there are 12 episodes left in the entire show, but really, there are basically only a few big confrontations that still have to happen. you have to imagine it will be dany v cersei, jon possibly fighting what is left from that battle, euron getting killed, and then its whatever is left against the white walkers. right now, it sure feels like the show is going to end with the white walkers wiping out everything, if you believe the whole "white walkers are a metaphor for global warming" like people have posited. the pacing may have felt slow, but basically everyone is positioned now, or close to positioned. and they have 12 hours left to wrap everything up. the big battles in the show (blackwater bay, hardholme, battle of the bastards) took up an entire episode each. i think there is plenty of time left to properly tie things up without it dragging and without them rushing through it.