A Game of Thrones **BOOKS OFF LIMITS** v2

[habernac]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

I don't think Brienne murdering dogs makes for good TV. I think we can assume they were killed.

Exactly. Peta wouldn't stand for this kind of stuff

[Jbo]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

I don't think Brienne murdering dogs makes for good TV. I think we can assume they were killed.

Ummm what? You do remember in Season 1 when the mountain killed his own horse brutally after he lost the joust?

But killing dogs is the line the show won't cross? I'll go with lazy writing.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Jbo

Ummm what? You do remember in Season 1 when the mountain killed his own horse brutally after he lost the joust?

But killing dogs is the line the show won't cross? I'll go with lazy writing.

You obviously don't know a lot of dog people.

It isn't lazy writing. It is limited time, resources etc. If you kill the dogs on screen it ads cost, shooting time etc.

Why include it when only a select few people are going to get hung up on it and let a totally meaningless detail affect their view of the show?

Who cares? The dogs ran away. They were killed by the stampeding horses. They were killed by Theon or Brienne or Podrick or Sansa. Or it just isn't good TV. It isn't interesting. It can be implied and 99% of the audience will figure out what happened or won't notice at all.

Not to mention the fact that people aren't into the brutal killing of their favorite domesticated friend on television.

[Jbo]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

You obviously don't know a lot of dog people.

It isn't lazy writing. It is limited time, resources etc. If you kill the dogs on screen it ads cost, shooting time etc.

Why include it when only a select few people are going to get hung up on it and let a totally meaningless detail affect their view of the show?

Who cares? The dogs ran away. They were killed by the stampeding horses. They were killed by Theon or Brienne or Podrick or Sansa. Or it just isn't good TV. It isn't interesting. It can be implied and 99% of the audience will figure out what happened or won't notice at all.

Not to mention the fact that people aren't into the brutal killing of their favorite domesticated friend on television.

Fine, and I'm not sure why I am choosing this specific hill to die on, but the hounds/dogs are mentioned and referenced numerous times.
1) At start of the episode Ramsey mentions feeding his romantic partner (forget her name) to the hounds as it is "good meat"
2) Dogs are heard chasing Sansa and Theon as a way to illustrate they are being chased.
3) Again, Theon references that he has seen what the hounds could do.
4) Ramsay confirms to Bolton that his best hunting party is out looking for Sansa.
5) When they get across the river, we again hear the dogs.

I don't need to see the dogs get killed, but Ramsey seems to be quite the hunter and to just omit this one bugs me.

I have not even started getting into the Sand snake scenes. Were they on the boat the whole time? Was the prince on a separate boat from Jamie?

[blankall]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

I don't think its the necklace that makes her young. There was a bath scene earlier in the show that she wasn't wearing anything and she didn't revert to Grandma. She's definitely having a crisis of confidence about R'hllor and her abilities. We've seen others bring back the dead using his powers, but she hasn't shown that ability yet.

You are correct.

I was reading some commentary and re-watching the bathtub scene, and a going theory is that Stannis' former wife was able to see her for the old hag she was. Hence her extra disgust.

Maybe the necklace was just for effect though. Perhaps she can turn the illusion on or off at will. Or maybe the directors were just showing us the way she sees herself, which is her true form.

[rayne008]

Found the hounds (big image.. from reddit)

Spoiler!

[GreenLantern]

Haha, that is great.

[sureLoss]

FWIW the gem in the necklace started to glow red briefly as she took it off.

Also really don't see the point of the Dorne story line and the Sand Vipers at this time. Hopefully there is a payoff plot wise soon.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

FWIW the gem in the necklace started to glow red briefly as she took it off.

Also really don't see the point of the Dorne story line and the Sand Vipers at this time. Hopefully there is a payoff plot wise soon.

Maybe the bath-tub scene was a mistake? Or maybe the jewel was still on her somewhere or close enough to have an effect.

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

FWIW the gem in the necklace started to glow red briefly as she took it off.

Also really don't see the point of the Dorne story line and the Sand Vipers at this time. Hopefully there is a payoff plot wise soon.

I think the immediate end goal is to provide complications to the King's Landing/Lannister storyline.

Franken-Mountain has to vanquish someone beyond a bunch of religious kooks.

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by rayne008

Found the hounds (big image.. from reddit)

Spoiler!

A fitting photo, as that was also likely Gendry's reaction to watching the last 5 minutes of last night's episode.

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by blankall

Maybe the bath-tub scene was a mistake? Or maybe the jewel was still on her somewhere or close enough to have an effect.

Yeah, you could be right. It's pretty well documented that most common magical jewels have a spell casting range of 2 feet, give or take an inch. Unless she had it custom made? Or perhaps the jewel had a low mana count due to not being recharged by prayer over fire. But it's very plausible.

I mean mistakes like that couldn't possibly happen on our beloved TV show right? Continuity is everything after all.
Evvverryythhhiiiinnngggg.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Wasn't really thrilled with that episode on the whole, but there were some great moments, like the Dothraki conversation (It is known), the Melisandre reveal, Arya's new training, and Ser Davos and his band of merry men.

However, I'm extremely pissed at two things in that episode:

1) Lack of Bran. Sorry, but I've been patient. I accepted they were taking a season away from his story to catch up chronologically. But for christ sakes, when last we left him, Bran, Hodor, and Meera had narrowly escaped a bunch of skeleton army wights attacking them way beyond the wall. Jojen was stabbed to death by one of them, and they fled into a nearby tree that was magically protected by the 3 eyed raven and the children of the forest (presumably). That's a lot of payoff for a story that took forever to get there, and I've been waiting a very, very long time to find out what that's all about. Are you telling me there wasn't something that could have been cut or delayed in that episode to catch us up a little with Bran? Did we really need that scene with the Septa and Sparrow that basically advanced nothing? Did we need any of the Dorne scenes? I cannot believe they didn't provide any info on that and left so many other plots stagnant.

2) Speaking of Dorne: Was that the easiest coup d'etat ever? They literally had to kill one guard and then the leader. Was he that universally hated that every single one of his sworn guards were glad to be rid of him? He didn't seem despicable in any way, so it's hard to imagine that not one of them would have been upset at his dispatching by his own family to usurp power. Ok, sure, probably just needed to get him out of the way so the story could progress, but that was some of the laziest writing I've seen, and it was especially bad considering how good the writing on this show has been. That was painfully disappointing, as was the scene on the boat. The kid didn't have a single guard other than those two girls? Come on, there's usually a contingent of 10 guards for a person of royalty in direct line for a throne. Just ridiculous, and extremely clumsy.

I'll give it a pass because on the whole the episode was decent, but I hope they sharpened their writing skills for the rest of the season.

[Alberta_Beef]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Ok clear one thing up for me that I can't figure out.

Was the Dornish Prince on the ship with Jamie and his daughter at the end of last season? If yes the whole scene with the two Sand Snakes has me confused. Is it forward in time and the ship had sailed back to Dorne, or did the two Snakes get on at some point? And if that was the case wouldn't Jamie have been a little pissed?

Some time passed, there was enough time for the Prince to get a message from King's landing about her death. I'd assume the Sand Snakes got his son as he arrived back in Dorne

[Senator Clay Davis]

The premiere reminded me that the only storylines that are really interesting at all right now is the Wall and beyond the Wall. Who would have ever thought we'd be longing for Bran to spice things up? But I just can't say I find much intrigue in Dorne, or Kings Landing, or with Daenerys or with Tyrion and Meereen. Even Arya seems to be going nowhere. Sansa/Ramsey is alright I guess, but nothing seems to be working otherwise. They need to tighten up the writing a little bit.

[Fuzz]

I can see why they left Bran out of the first episode. There were a lot of story lines going last season, and this advances a lot of them to the point where they can leave them for a bit to develop(Aria, Stansa, Cersei/Jaime) and concentrate more time on the Bran issue. If they had jumped into it then they would have to revisit all these. So this lets them put them to bed for a little. But ya, next episode better be Bran or I take it all back. Probably some more John, too.

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

The premiere reminded me that the only storylines that are really interesting at all right now is the Wall and beyond the Wall. Who would have ever thought we'd be longing for Bran to spice things up? But I just can't say I find much intrigue in Dorne, or Kings Landing, or with Daenerys or with Tyrion and Meereen. Even Arya seems to be going nowhere. Sansa/Ramsey is alright I guess, but nothing seems to be working otherwise. They need to tighten up the writing a little bit.

No one thinking clearly is looking for Bran to spice things up

[Looch City]

Thorne 2016

Spoiler!

Comments are great also haha http://imgur.com/gallery/neU6A

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

2) Speaking of Dorne: Was that the easiest coup d'etat ever? They literally had to kill one guard and then the leader. Was he that universally hated that every single one of his sworn guards were glad to be rid of him? He didn't seem despicable in any way, so it's hard to imagine that not one of them would have been upset at his dispatching by his own family to usurp power. Ok, sure, probably just needed to get him out of the way so the story could progress, but that was some of the laziest writing I've seen, and it was especially bad considering how good the writing on this show has been. That was painfully disappointing, as was the scene on the boat. The kid didn't have a single guard other than those two girls? Come on, there's usually a contingent of 10 guards for a person of royalty in direct line for a throne. Just ridiculous, and extremely clumsy.

I'll give it a pass because on the whole the episode was decent, but I hope they sharpened their writing skills for the rest of the season.

The Sand Snakes make the episode almost unbearable. Oberyn was "butchered" in their words when he was really killed by his own overconfidence and stupidity. Elleria expects Doran to do what exactly? Immediately go to war against the crown? Murder Mycella in cold blood when Oberyn says that's exactly what people in Dorne wouldn't do? Apparently that's what the Sand Snakes want.

Aero Hotah gets killed in the back by fricking little girl with zero effort whatsoever after building him up to be such a badass last season... We also see sworn royal guardsmen are willing to just let Elleria kill the Prince because he didn't swear to kill the closest Lannister immediately in retaliation? Did we see any unrest in Dorne at all?

The whole scene is just so stupidly lazy. It's just so jarringly bad compared to the rest of the plot lines running right now.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

The Sand Snakes make the episode almost unbearable. Oberyn was "butchered" in their words when he was really killed by his own overconfidence and stupidity. Elleria expects Doran to do what exactly? Immediately go to war against the crown? Murder Mycella in cold blood when Oberyn says that's exactly what people in Dorne wouldn't do? Apparently that's what the Sand Snakes want.

Aero Hotah gets killed in the back by fricking little girl with zero effort whatsoever after building him up to be such a badass last season... We also see sworn royal guardsmen are willing to just let Elleria kill the Prince because he didn't swear to kill the closest Lannister immediately in retaliation? Did we see any unrest in Dorne at all?

The whole scene is just so stupidly lazy. It's just so jarringly bad compared to the rest of the plot lines running right now.

In terms of the Sandanakes, I find it wholeheartedly believable that Elleria is making irrational decisions based purely on emotion and not logic.

Everything you said was true. But a broken hearted love of Obryn, who feels the need for revenge isn't letting cooler heads prevail.

In terms of the guards, Elleria said something along the lines of "you don't even recognize your own men" I took that to mean the guards were plants/imposters.

As for Aero Hotah, stabbed in the back is stabbed in the back. How much of a fight did Jamie put up when he lost his hand? Not all the great warriors go down in battle.

The Sandanakes are saying one thing (respect, honour) but doing another. While that's frustrating to watch as a viewer because TV 'rules' don't allow for it; that's possibly the most realistic part of the show.

I pray you, not anyone else on this board ever has to work for/with an Elleria, they're the worst. I'll take plain mean arsehole over the randomness, do as I say not as I do, and sociopathy.