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*UNMARKED SPOILERS ALL BOOKS* Game of Thrones |OT| - Season 5 - Sundays on HBO

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My Overall Thoughts:

Dorne scene was bad. First thee are no solders or protection in the water gardens then like 100 of them show up. The whole thing really didn't make sense.

Kinds Landing was fine. I think the perjury charge streamlines that part and Queen of Thorns shows why Cersei is a fool. Like Tywin knew when to work with their rivals, Cersei doesn't. She just wants to destroy everybody and this will come back to bite her (like we know). Littlefinger still playing his game, wonder if he will succeed at becoming Warden of the North by the end of this season.

Arya part was great. Can't wait to see her kill next.

Jorah/Tyrion part was fine, Jorah finding about his father. The dwarf lives until we find a cock merchant best line of this episode lol.

Now, for the most controversial part. Sansa and Ramsay. I have no idea what people have been expecting, Sansa suddenly becoming all cunning, killing Ramsay at that point? It is a gradual change, will have to be. The Myranda - Sansa scene was great. That is where you see some of the change in Sansa.. The wedding setting itself was great, in front of the tree. The scene was disgusting as expected, Sansa knew she would have to do this. What made it more awful was Theon and Alfie's acting and face. But I have no idea why this isn't keeping with the plot, this is far better than what GRRM wrote.

wut
 

Crisco

Banned
They kinda wrote themselves into a corner with that one, but there was really no way around it as soon as Sansa agreed to the marriage.
 

foxtrot3d

Banned
So, GRRM writing a random girl gets fucked by dogs is more acceptable than Sansa having sex with Ramsay (in a case where she didn't want to, but she knew she had to)?

Well, you see characters have something called an arc in which they grow and change over the course of a story, usually (although not always) overcoming whatever obstacle is placed in front of them through this growth. Sansa has already gone through the terrified, abused girl routine her character has become more wise and accepting of the world and her current situation, she is beginning to learn how to play the game. So having Sansa become Jeyne Poole makes no sense. This isn't about sex. This is about rape and abuse. Sansa isn't "playing the game" she isn't seducing Ramsay as she (TWOW material)
starts to seduce Harry the Heir
she is being raped. The fact that she is "allowing" this rape is inconsequential, she never had a choice. LF basically forced her to marry Ramsay and go off with the Boltons this wasn't the choice of some "strong woman" doing whatever is necessary to retake her homeland. No, this is the tale of an abused little girl being used and played with by powerful men routinely. She isn't playing or even learning to play the game, she is learning to just bend over and take it with the hopes that maybe it will get better later on.

If you believe that Sansa's story is somehow "better" than what GRRM writes then I truly don't know what to say. Also, we don't know what happened with Jeyne Poole and the dogs, that's kid of the point. Subtly. Also, JP is a powerful lesson upon the effects the GoT has on the small people. JP has nothing to do with these highborn games, she just happened to be the daughter of the steward of Winterfell. As such her tale is a tragic story about the small folk caught in the crossfire as the highborns play their GoT.
 
Well, you see characters have something called an arc in which they grow and change over the course of a story, usually (although not always) overcoming whatever obstacle is placed in front of them through this growth. Sansa has already gone through the terrified, abused girl routine her character has become more wise and accepting of the world and her current situation, she is beginning to learn how to play the game. So having Sansa become Jeyne Poole makes no sense. This isn't about sex. This is about rape and abuse. Sansa isn't "playing the game" she isn't seducing Ramsay as she (TWOW material)
starts to seduce Harry the Heir
she is being raped. The fact that she is "allowing" this rape is inconsequential, she never had a choice. LF basically forced her to marry Ramsay and go off with the Boltons this wasn't the choice of some "strong woman" doing whatever is necessary to retake her homeland. No, this is the tale of an abused little girl being used and played with by powerful men routinely.

If you believe that Sansa's story is somehow "better" than what GRRM writes then I truly don't know what to say. Also, we don't know what happened with Jeyne Poole and the dogs, that's kid of the point. Subtly. Also, JP is a powerful lesson upon the effects the GoT has on the small people. JP has nothing to do with these highborn games, she just happened to be the daughter of the steward of Winterfell. As such her tale is a tragic story about the small folk caught in the crossfire as the highborns play their GoT.

My part about GRRM writing only has to do with what happened to JP vs what was shown as happening to Sansa in the scene that is supposed to mirror the books. Yes, Sansa isn't seducing Ramsay, she isn't some master (at least yet). She is also not the old Sansa either. What really matters is what we see next in the Sansa arc on the show.

That's not what he wrote for Sansa. Jeyne was a fraud who is abused by Ramsay and is Theons redemption.

We already know this change was made, so I really am not sure what people were expecting. Theon will still have his redemption.
 
I think Sansa was supposed to be one who is the innocent.
Idolizing purity and innocence is pretty creepy. I don't really like Sansa taking Jeyne Poole's place, but the "it's okay to
subtly
rape, torture, and have dogs fuck Jeyne, but don't touch my pure Sansa" line of thought is pretty disturbing.
 
PD you rather see dogs and theon action?

Oh I misread your post; I thought you meant the overall arc (Theon) is better than ADWD's Theon arc.

But yes, even the Poole rape isn't done in an exploitative or ugly way. You don't see it "on camera," the shock comes in the aftermath as you see Poole's terror (hiding in the corner of the room, flinching at being touched, etc).

As I said my problem isn't that Sansa was raped, even though the more I think about it the less it makes sense narrative wise. My problem is how it was done, and the showrunner's track record on this.
 

Ratrat

Member
We already know this change was made, so I really am not sure what people were expecting. Theon will still have his redemption.
Jeyne is a nobody plot device. Sansas arc shouldn't be nuked for Theon or Ramsay.
We knew she was taking Pooles role but not to what extent. And the backlash was there before the rape.
Idolizing purity and innocence is pretty creepy. I don't really like Sansa taking Jeyne Poole's place, but the "it's okay to
subtly
rape, torture, and have dogs fuck Jeyne, but don't touch my pure Sansa" line of thought is pretty disturbing.
People would not be complaining if Sansa seduced Ramsay/Hairy whatever. You really think it's about virginity and not rape?
 

Zabka

Member
I can't pay attention to whatever happens in Dorne with all these people running around in grandma couch skins. The production design is terrible.
 
I must say Alfie Allen was just superb in this episode.

9Yja2Cf.gif


The scene where Sansa rejected Theon to take her arm. Damn that was cold.
 
I can't pay attention to whatever happens in Dorne with all these people running around in grandma couch skins. The production design is terrible.

The courtroom scene was even worse. Using that small little room for such an event looked so cheap.

People would not be complaining if Sansa seduced Ramsay/Hairy whatever. You really think it's about virginity and not rape?
For some of the things I've seen said, perhaps. I don't mean to lump all the criticism of the plotline with it though.
 

TTG

Member
So there's no chance Jaime convinces the baroque wheelchair guy into finding an antidote for Bronn, right? What a shame.
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Everyone complaining about the final scene...

NSutycG.jpg


Seriously, what did people think was going to happen?
 
The courtroom scene was even worse. Using that small little room for such an event looked so cheap.


For some of the things I've seen said, perhaps. I don't mean to lump all the criticism of the plotline with it though.

Seriously. It´s just such a contrast to what it should have been. Where´s all this "biggest budget ever / shooting on so many locations worldwide" in the actual show?
Season 5 feels more like a cheap Xena/Hercules spinoff than anything else. Why did they change the people in charge? I remember lot´s of "this is my first season" talk in the behind the scenes video. Well, make it your last season as well then.
 

TTG

Member
I dont remember seeing any complaints after Margery raped Tommen


85473-south-park-NICE-meme-fi0v.png



Like I said, it's not a shock, but Sansa has been on the brink(and rescued from it) of that scene for almost the entirety of the show. People seem to be surprised at the reaction, I'm a bit surprised it's been taken for granted.


What are you talking about? It's perfectly reasonable that the most important people in the kingdoms would huddle together in a broom closet for tea and gossip.

I got the impression it was a secret/closed doors trial.
 
Everyone complaining about the final scene...

NSutycG.jpg


Seriously, what did people think was going to happen?

People aren't complaining about the scene so much the as the sequence of events leading up to that scene. Sansa paid her dues already. Her suffering phase is behind her. How this serves the story remains to be seen but there is an already existing (or transpiring) progression to the character that follows the sequence of events that lead her to where she is in the books. Consolidating Sansa's arc of becoming powerful to one the most helpless people in the books was a dumb move.
 
Everyone complaining about the final scene...

NSutycG.jpg


Seriously, what did people think was going to happen?
People keep saying this and I don't get the point you're trying to make. Just because we already knew the show writers had shoehorned Sansa into a plotline that wasn't originally intended for her, we should pretend we don't think it was a shit idea?
 

foxtrot3d

Banned
Everyone complaining about the final scene...

NSutycG.jpg


Seriously, what did people think was going to happen?

Remember in the books when Viserys forced Daenerys to marry Khal Drogo and she was all like "no, I don't want to" but he was all like "you will." And then on the wedding night Khal Drogo comes to take her but she actually leads him to where they consummate the marriage and seduces him? You know so it's like not Khal Drogo violently raping Daenerys as she cries?
 

Bert409

Member
Well if it's any consolation, the books at this point of the story were ass as well. Maybe the third act(out of four) of ASOIAF was just meant to suck no matter what medium...
 

Nokagi

Unconfirmed Member
People keep saying this and I don't get the point you're trying to make. Just because we already knew the show writers had shoehorned Sansa into a plotline that wasn't originally intended for her, we should pretend we don't think it was a shit idea?

Exactly. Dunno why people keep posting that stupid ass gif like it means anything as to what people are actually complaining about.
 
In the show...

That was my point.

In the books too. He seduces her that first night into saying yes. But after that:
Yet every night, some time before the dawn, Drogo would come to her tent and wake her in the dark, to ride her as relentlessly as he rode his stallion. He always took her from behind, Dothraki fashion, for which Dany was grateful; that way her lord husband could not see the tears that wet her face, and she could use her pillow to muffle her cries of pain. When he was done, he would close his eyes and begin to snore softly and Dany would lie beside him, her body bruised and sore, hurting too much for sleep. Day followed day, and night followed night, until Dany knew she could not endure a moment longer. She would kill herself rather than go on, she decided one night …

He rapes her as she cries in pain every night.

The scene you are thinking of where Dany leads him is much later, not at the start. Book Drogo "violently rapes Daenerys as she cries" many many times. Dany was even considering killing herself until she dreamed of dragons!
 

Aiii

So not worth it
So people have been whining to GRRM about the show, apparently.

He's having none of it though:
The Show, the Books

May. 18th, 2015 at 12:55 AM

I am getting a flood of emails and off-topic comments on this blog about tonight's episode of GAME OF THRONES. It's not unanticipated.

The comments... regardless of tone... have been deleted. I have been saying since season one that this is not the place to debate or discuss the TV series. Please respect that.

There are better places for such discussions: Westeros, Tower of the Hand, Watchers on the Wall, Winter Is Coming, the comments sections of the television critics who regularly follow the show: James Hibberd, Alyssa Rosenberg, Mo Ryan, James Poniewozik, and their colleagues. I am sure all those sites will be having a healthy debate.

I have a lot of fans asking me for comment.

Let me reiterate what I have said before.

How many children did Scarlett O'Hara have? Three, in the novel. One, in the movie. None, in real life: she was a fictional character, she never existed. The show is the show, the books are the books; two different tellings of the same story.

There have been differences between the novels and the television show since the first episode of season one. And for just as long, I have been talking about the butterfly effect. Small changes lead to larger changes lead to huge changes. HBO is more than forty hours into the impossible and demanding task of adapting my lengthy (extremely) and complex (exceedingly) novels, with their layers of plots and subplots, their twists and contradictions and unreliable narrators, viewpoint shifts and ambiguities, and a cast of characters in the hundreds.

There has seldom been any TV series as faithful to its source material, by and large (if you doubt that, talk to the Harry Dresden fans, or readers of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, or the fans of the original WALKING DEAD comic books)... but the longer the show goes on, the bigger the butterflies become. And now we have reached the point where the beat of butterfly wings is stirring up storms, like the one presently engulfing my email.

Prose and television have different strengths, different weaknesses, different requirements.

David and Dan and Bryan and HBO are trying to make the best television series that they can.

And over here I am trying to write the best novels that I can.

And yes, more and more, they differ. Two roads diverging in the dark of the woods, I suppose... but all of us are still intending that at the end we will arrive at the same place.

In the meantime, we hope that the readers and viewers both enjoy the journey. Or journeys, as the case may be. Sometimes butterflies grow into dragons.

((I am closing comments on this post. Take your discussions to the other sites I have mentioned. And for those who may be curious as to the road the books are taking, I direct you to the WINDS OF WINTER sample chapters on my website)).
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Remember in the books when Viserys forced Daenerys to marry Khal Drogo and she was all like "no, I don't want to" but he was all like "you will." And then on the wedding night Khal Drogo comes to take her but she actually leads him to where they consummate the marriage and seduces him? You know so it's like not Khal Drogo violently raping Daenerys as she cries?

Remember the time in the books that Drogo and Ramsay were actually different characters who behaved differently?
 
Oh I misread your post; I thought you meant the overall arc (Theon) is better than ADWD's Theon arc.

But yes, even the Poole rape isn't done in an exploitative or ugly way. You don't see it "on camera," the shock comes in the aftermath as you see Poole's terror (hiding in the corner of the room, flinching at being touched, etc).

As I said my problem isn't that Sansa was raped, even though the more I think about it the less it makes sense narrative wise. My problem is how it was done, and the showrunner's track record on this.

I expect us to see a stronger Sansa as the season progresses. If you are right and this just goes back to Sansa who becomes sad again at what happened to her then yea, this whole plot will have had no reason to exist.
 

AkuMifune

Banned
The only thing that bothered me about the episode was the junior Michelle Rodriguez fan club. Otherwise I thought it was all fine.

Jorah and Tyrion the best stuff for sure though. Wonder if we get to see the circus. That would be more offending than the wedding consummation I think.
 

Tuffty

Member
The show's full of dark moments interspersed by moments of triumph that make the reader/viewer feel good (Robb inducted as King of the North, Arya killing the Tickler, Joffrey's death, Stannis saving the Night's Watch, Tywin's death and so on). What happened was awful, as it should be, but you can only assume Ramsey will get his or there will be some pay off for Sansa eventually. Considering they've made efforts to show Sansa learning to play the game at the end of last season, I'm not going to believe that D&D just gave all that up just to revert back to form. She is the most powerful woman in the North now. At a terrible cost, obviously, her character arc is probably the lowest it's ever been. But it doesn't mean she can't rise up from it when presumably Stannis or Brienne (likely to be the latter) comes knocking on Winterfell's door.

I think the real problem is that 10 episodes just isn't enough for this kind of adaptation. Multiple story threads here are given short time to truly flourish.
 
No one complained about the good original scenes, it's the bad ones people have problems with.

People have complained about everything there is to complain about. There is plenty of legitimate criticism, but there are a lot of people whining about irrelevant shit. I imagine it's the latter that has mostly reached GRRM's ear.

The show's full of dark moments interspersed by moments of triumph that make the reader/viewer feel good (Robb inducted as King of the North, Arya killing the Tickler, Joffrey's death, Stannis saving the Night's Watch, Tywin's death and so on). What happened was awful, as it should be, but you can only assume Ramsey will get his or there will be some pay off for Sansa eventually. Considering they've made efforts to show Sansa learning to play the game at the end of last season, I'm not going to believe that D&D just gave all that up just to revert back to form. She is the most powerful woman in the North now. At a terrible cost, obviously, her character arc is probably the lowest it's ever been. But it doesn't mean she can't rise up from it when presumably Stannis or Brienne (likely to be the latter) comes knocking on Winterfell's door.

I think the real problem is that 10 episodes just isn't enough for this kind of adaptation. Multiple story threads here are given short time to truly flourish.
They are adapting almost 750k words into 10 episodes, so yeah, the pacing is going to be especially strange this season.
 
People have complained about everything there is to complain about. There is plenty of legitimate criticism, but there are a lot of people whining about irrelevant shit. I imagine it's the latter that has mostly reached GRRM's ear.
That reached him a long time ago, but statement like this released just after this episode, you know that most of those comment most likely aren't "irreverent shit".
 
I just realized.

Sansa is being played by Littlefinger. He hasn't taught her anything, she thinks he has. So yea, less sure how this will be played out now.
 

Asami208

Banned
I've never been one of those people who says "if it isn't 100% like the source material, then it sucks." I understand that these are adaptations, and certain changes must be made, for practicalities sake. And to be honest, it makes things more interesting sometimes.

However, THIS particular change was completely unnecessary and serves no purpose. You went too far there show.
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
I just realized.

Sansa is being played by Littlefinger. He hasn't taught her anything, she thinks he has. So yea, less sure how this will be played out now.

I think it will be interesting if she actually did learn from him, or at least substantially more than he had expected/planned and it somehow comes back to bite him in the ass. I hope that is the direction her arc eventually heads down, at any rate.
 

Monocle

Member
One of the best character in the books, the best character in the show.
I can't agree while Varys and Lady Olenna are still around. Each and every one of their scenes are gold.

If you say something is jumping the shark "again", you're automatically using the term wrong lol
Yeah, yeah... I know the shark can't be unjumped, but some of this season's earlier episodes were giving me a little hope that the show might recover from the wasted opportunities of Season 4.
 

munchie64

Member
The problem is that everything that's bad, like really bad, is all non-adapted content.
That's because they've tethered themselves to two books in one season. Either one book or no books will streamline everything which I think is the main problem.

Edit: Just to be clear, I'm saying this to be hopeful. Mostly for myself.
 
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