Except the actual solution to that problem was sending Edd to get help from Tormund? Mel didn't actually do anything until that situation was resolved. This is what I mean by a selective reading
Onion Knight: Boys, I've been running from men like that all my life. In my learned opinion, we open that door-- And they'll slaughter us all.
NW BB: They want to come in, they're gonna come in.
OK: Aye, but we don't need to make it easy for them. Edd is our only chance.
NW BB: It's a sad fucking statement if Dolorous Edd is our only chance.
OK: There's always the Red Woman.
NW BB: What's one redhead gonna do against 40 armed men?
OK: You haven't seen her do what I've seen her do.
Then we spend the last couple of minutes showing off her glamour. If you find there's discord between the dialogue and the action this is the stuff I'm talking about :
D
"Ramsay: She was 11 the first time I saw her. The kennelmaster's daughter. She smelled of dog. I wasn't much older, but everybody was already afraid of me. You certainly were. Myranda wasn't, though. What could I do to her that those hounds couldn't? She was fearless. There was nothing she wouldn't do. Your pain will be paid for a thousand times over. I wish you could be here to watch."
Eulogy for fearless and exceptional Myranda, who was quite unnecessarily killed off to show Theon growing a spine (which he immediately loses).
"Roose: Your command of the cavalry was impressive. Thanks to you, the false king Stannis Baratheon is dead. Do you know who struck the killing blow? No. A shame. I'd reward the man. Still, a great victory." Ironic because they're being sexist, when it was teleporting Brienne who scored the killing blow.
"Roose: I'm glad to hear it. Without Sansa, you won't be able to produce an heir. And without an heir, well... let's hope the maesters are right and Lady Walda's carrying a boy."
Without Sansa, Ramsay is disposable
"1GOODMAN: It's a bloody woman!" (Before being 1hit KO'd by aforementioned woman).
"2GOODMAN: No! Please!" (Ditto)
D&D don't want to let any subtlety be lost on the viewer
"Doran: I always envied Oberyn. He lived. He truly lived. Sailed around the world. Fought men from every country. Lay with the most beautiful women alive.
Mama snek: And men.
Doran: And men. He experienced everything while I sat here in Dorne trying my best to keep my people alive and well fed. But that is life. We each have our roles. Oberyn was born to be an adventurer. And I was born to rule.
Mama snek: The gods are not fools. You would have been a lousy adventurer. And Oberyn, pfft, he would have been a terrible ruler.
-Sand snekking ensues"
Maximize diversity points on all fronts before sand snekking
"Doran: Your mother is a brilliant woman, you know that?
*5 seconds later*
Mama snek: "Your son is weak just like you. And weak men will never rule Dorne again."
Again, subtlety, considering what follows is "ur a fookin greedy bitch m9"
"Daario: Perhaps she's tired of being queen. I don't think she likes it very much.
Jaario: She's too smart to like it.
Daario: Maybe she's flown somewhere else, somewhere far away from men like us.
Jorolo: I've been all over the world. There's no escaping men like us."
Again, they're too ill defined to comment on what D&D are trying to say, but given that they're something to escape from it's not flattering, all the whilst Dany is established as merely being a reluctant world-conqueror with zero ambitions whatsoever, who just so happens to be conquering the world out of altruism
Red woman bit already commented on, so onto ep2:
"People of Tree: Brandon Stark needs you.
M.Reed: For what? I sit in there and I watch him have his visions and nothing ever happens.
People of Tree: He isn't going to stay here forever. And out there he needs you."
"Tommen L. B. (not that anyone gives a shit about maintaining that facade... Despite it being life or death): You raised me to be strong... and I wasn't. But I want to be. Help me.
"Cersei L.: Always."
"Jaqen Hagen Dar: If a girl says her name, a man will let her sleep under a roof tonight.
No one Stark: A girl has no name.
Jaqen Hagen Dar: If a girl says her name, a man will feed her tonight.
No one Stark: A girl has no name.
Jaqen Hagen Dar: If a girl says her name, a man will give her eyes back.
No one Stark: A girl has no name."
Arya quite symbolically giving up her patriarchal name to become an independent woman, wholly unreliant on a man for any support - becoming a faceless man in her own right. Then you get into the gender politics of what the hell the faceless men are gender wise, especially when you start delving into being no one, the many-faced god or the way their depiction in the seven is handled, what with there being 3 male facets and 3 female facets - with the stranger being exactly neither.
"Roose is Loose: Half a dozen 20goodmen? Your best hunters?
Ramsay: They obviously had help.
Roose is Loose: I didn't think Lady Sansa killed them all by herself."
Aye, it were a bloody woman
"Brienne: I saw her with a man. I don't think he hurt her. She didn't want to leave him, he didn't want to leave her.
Sansa: You don't know which way she went?
Brienne: I spent three days looking for her. She disappeared.
Sansa: How'd she look?
Brienne: She looked good. She wasn't exactly dressed like a lady.
Sansa: No, she wouldn't be.
Brienne: What happened at Winterfell? (The entire audience asked the same)
Sansa: I should have gone with you while I had the chance. (She had no reason to go with the woman bearing Lannister weapons who may or may not have gotten her mother killed).
Brienne: It was a difficult choice, my lady. We've all had to make difficult choices. (I.e., the decision to move Sansa from the Vale to the North. Idiots lel).
"Salty Priest: The Salt Throne is not yours to swear upon, not unless the kingsm00t chooses you.
Yara: My father would have wanted me to rule.
Salty Priest: Your father does not get to choose. The law is clear. Perhaps you'll win. Perhaps you'll be the first woman in history to rule the ironborn. And perhaps not." Oh sheeeit, disenfranchised out of the Kingdom
"Sam: The Citadel doesn't admit women. There won't be a place for you there or for Little Sam.
Gilly: I stayed at Castle Black. There's no women allowed there.
Sam: The Citadel isn't Castle Black. I don't have a Jon Snow or Maester Aemon to help me bend the rules.
Gilly: I'll stay in Oldtown, then.
Sam: By yourself? With a baby and no money?
Gilly: So if we're not going to Oldtown, where are you taking me?
Sam: To my home. Horn Hill. My father's-- well, my father, but my mother's a kind woman and my sister's lovely."
Pretty box standard, can't do much more since the Aemon and Baratheon storylines are caput and we are yet to get glass candles conspiracies
"Varys: I'd like to make you happy, Vala. That's your name, isn't it, Vala? (chuckles) That's all right. I know who you are and what you've done. You've done a lot. You've sacrificed your body for a cause, which is more than most people do. And you've helped the Sons of the Harpy murder the Unsullied and the Second Sons.
Vala: The Unsullied and the Second Sons are foreign soldiers brought here by a foreign queen to destroy our city and our history.
Varys: I understand. Well, that makes perfect sense from your perspective. I have a different perspective, of course."
Given that Meereen is the Iraq War, this has especially disturbing insight into D&D's ethos. Whereas in the books it's jumping at shadows, making things worse in an attempt to force peace and liberty, in the show Dany does nothing wrong (again, it bears mentioning even literally crucifying innocent people or burning people alive is portrayed as heroic and without consequence), and her enlightened philosophy is wholeheartedly adopted and supported from the ground level up. The moral of the story is all the backwards religious people need a white girl to lead em, given GOT's recent enrapture with that demographic - I see no affiliations, musing this was always according to D&D's master plan
"Jaime L.: What about Myrcella's death, Uncle? Do you consider the murder of your own blood a troublesome issue? The same women who murdered Myrcella have overthrown House Martell and taken control of Dorne."
This is so unfathomably ill-planned it warrants its own highlight. Not only have the Sand sneks succeeded in gaining control of Dorne, despite being bastards who just assassinated all of the legitimate Martells (in order to avenge the... Martells, gj there), everyone knows it was them who assassinated Myrcella. We've had several seasons of people trying to avoid sparking war between the Dornish and Lannisters, it was even a major plotpoint that Oberyn was made a judge at the poisoning trial to throw suspicion off of him, yet everyone seems rather chill that the sand sneks have sand sneked everyone - and it doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
"High as fuck Septon: The Crown and the Faith are the twin pillars of the world. Do you know who told me that? Your mother.
Tommen B: My mother who is unclean? My mother who still needs to atone after all you've put her through?
High Septon: How do you think the Mother Above first came to us? How did men and women first come to feel the Mother's presence, hmm? It was through their own mothers. There's a great deal of falsehood in Cersei. You know that. But when she speaks of you, the Mother's love outshines it all. Her love for you is more real than anything else in this world because it doesn't come from this world. But you know that."
This scene is very well done and it's feminist as fuck, the High Septon even makes Tommen sit on his Freud bench lol
"Jon Targaeryan confirmed: I'm tired of fighting. It's all I've done since I left home. I've killed brothers of the Night's Watch. I've killed wildlings. I've killed men that I admire. I hanged a boy younger than Bran. I fought and I lost.
Sansa Stark: If we don't take back the North, we'll never be safe. I want you to help me. But I'll do it myself if I have to."
Quite odd change of character. Some surmise this is a result of the being we see not actually being Jon Snow, others surmise it to the show being shit.
"Brienne of Anonymoose: Yes, it's in the past. It doesn't mean I forget. Or forgive. He admitted it, you know.
Stavos: Who did m8 u avin a giggle
Brienne of Anonymoose: Stannis. Just before I executed him."
No reaction, from Stavos or myself
"Unknown magister of Slaver's bay: Just because your master has silver hair and tits doesn't mean she's not a master."
Lel, if only this didn't come out of the mouth of this show's equivalent to the people payrolling ISIS
"Tyrion: Friends, friends, friends, please. There have always been those with wealth and power and those with nothing. That is the way of the world. I'm not here to change the way of the world.
UM of Slaver's bay: Slavery is the way of our world.
Tyrion: You don't need slaves to make money. There haven't been slaves in Westeros for hundreds of years and I grew up richer than any of you. But our queen recognizes that she erred by abolishing slavery without providing a new system to replace it. So here is the queen's proposal. Slavery will never return to Meereen, but she will give the other cities of Slaver's Bay time to adjust to the new order."
Oh shit, illuminati doritos confirmed
"Tyrion: Instead of abolishing slavery overnight, we will give you seven years to end the practice. Slaveholders will be compensated for their losses, of course, at fair prices."
Roll credits, get oscars
"Tyrion: Let us sail on the tide of freedom instead of being drowned by it. And as a parting gift to our honored guests... Give freedom a chance. See if it doesn't taste every bit as good as what came before."
Did I mention it is the Iraq War
M. Tyrell: Loras. Loras. ( sobbing ) Listen to me. You need to stay strong.
L. Tyrell: I can't stay strong. I never was strong.
M. Tyrell: You are strong. You are the future of our house, the future of our family.
L. Tyrell: I don't care about that. Shh! Shh. Have you-- have you told them that? That you don't care?
M. Tyrell: I just want it to stop. Help me. ( sobbing ) They want me to help you. They want me to help tear you down. They want me to help tear you down. That's why he's letting me see you. I know it is. And if either of us give in to what they want, then they win.
L. Tyrell: Let them win. Just make it stop. Please.
M. Tyrell: ( sobbing, hugging, Loras cries on her shoulder ) All right."
Sieger of Storm's End everybody
Yara: You were a spoiled little cunt, but you were my brother and I risked everything for you and you betrayed me.
Theon: I know. I know and I'm sorry.
Yara: Stop saying that.
Theon: He broke me. He broke me into 1,000 pieces.
Yara: I know.
Theon: You don't know.
Yara: He sent us one of those pieces. That's why I came for you. ( sobbing, presumably over the sheer retardation of seal team 6 losing to doggies ) Why did you come here?
Theon: Where else could I go? (the wall. Right now - Stannis, if he hadn't been teleBrienne'd.
Yara: You heard Father was dead and you thought you'd claim the crown? (This is actually a big deal. The Iron Islands are not all reavers, the majority are farmers, miners and traders who have seen better days with the Seven Kingdoms' greenlanders than they have under the reavers. Theon, being a greenlander and the last male heir of the King, is one who would resonate with them whilst his attack on Winterfell is remembered - and whether he has his spine or not is up to the whims of D&D. Now Theon is broken again, and we're back to square 1. As it stands now Aeron made the deliberate move to fall back on the Kingsmoot to decide the succession of the reformed Iron Kingdom, as it's the only way to stop a civil war on the Iron Islands between those who would support the greener Yara/Theon vs the crazy fucker Euron. To fall onto hereditary law, it would go to Theon (since Theon is actually at the Islands when he shouldn't be). Since he's there, it'd just end up in Euron's hands. Through the Kingsmoot, Theon could be selected, and lacking an ability to produce his own heir would be forced to use the Kingsmoot to select the next King, solidifying the process (providing he wasn't assassinated by Euron).
Theon: No, no. I only heard he died after we docked.
Yara: You happen to show up on Pyke right before the kingsmoot? (You know it's bad when your characters are remarking how shit the writing has become).
Theon: I didn't know.
Yara: You think any ironborn wants you to be king after what you've done?
Theon: I don't want to be king.
Yara: What do you want?
Theon: I should have listened to you. You're the only one--
Yara: That doesn't matter anymore. Stop crying. Look at me. Tell me what you want.
Theon: You should rule the Iron Islands. Let me help you.
ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
For the Danaerys scene I think this articulates everything perfectly:
( speaking Dothraki )
( door opens )
( door closes )
( laughs )
( laughing )
( shouting )
( screams )
( Dothraki screaming )
( screaming )
( nude low shot )
( music playing )
That's not even going into the other branches of marxism, like the High Septon's cheeki rant about living by the Mother's Mercy to overthrow Empires with the poor and powerless or Seven Years a Dwarf Privilege
I also didn't include the usual D&Disms that had nothing to do with the grrl power theme that are nonetheless, nonsensical and painful on every level
Thoros also got his resurrection powers after losing his faith so I guess the LoL just works weirdly.
I'm leaning more towards Preston's line of thinking here - there is no Lord of Light, and the people capable of performing their "miracles" are psychically gifted buggers. One of the big themes we've had since Berric is the Red Priests and Priestesses asking those they've brought back - what did you see on the other side. Rather than hearing of the Seven, the Old Gods or the Red God, or even the God of Shadows - in the end the Braavosi are the only winners, in that Winter is always coming and the only God is Death. Berric replies "nothing," and Jon too sees "nothing."
Interestingly when Melly asks Thoros why he deserves this power, Thoros said he didn't know - he was the worst Red Priest, failed to convert Robert and the Seven Kingdoms and spent his time acting in a most un-priestly manner, fighting, drinking and whoring. Then he says the words, performs the ritual - as an afterthought, a friendly farewell to his old companion. And he comes back to life.
Melisandre believes she is unworthy of holding this power, and so never tries. Once she loses her faith, Davos asks her to not believe in the Red God, but to believe in her own ability. We get close up shots before she takes off her necklace in episode 1 of her vials - these vials being the powders she used to create special smoke or flames to trick people into believing in miracles (recall season 2 where she burns the heretics on Dragonstone, and their "souls" rise to the skies - with it later being revealed to have just been her powders), so she is at this point probably feeling like herself as a fraud with all she believed in literally dead.
Then she says the words, does the rituals - hey presto, it works because her power has always come from her, not from the Red God.
The stuff to do with watching the flames and prophecy gets more complicated though, especially since GOT diverging from ASOIF has meant the prophecies must be entirely bullshit (in the sense that they were just smoke and mirrors, if you pardon the pun), whereas in GOT the prophecies are true but are either:
- Deliberately manipulated
- Reports or suggestions twisted into prophecy
- Prophecies... That are misinterpreted
So assumedly, the shadow baby stuff and resurrection power is all hers, everything else smoke and mirrors. I think Melisandre gets the best grrl power story arc, admittedly though we haven't seen the conclusion to Arya or Margery's arcs yet so it's too early to say - but it seems rather fitting that her patriarchal god was false and her powers to bring life true, no? Shame her conclusion rather needlessly concluded the entire Baratheon and Onion storylines. It is rather telling that when Brienne informs Melisandre and Stavos that she executed Stannis, they make no remark on this, with D&D not caring one iota ;]
Depends. I guess Kingsguard lines would be really cheesy, while Ned should be more like "pls no go awai I don't want to stab you war is shite pls guis ;-;" instead of "WHERS MUH FOOKING SISTAH NOW EHT ENS".
I still am very sad that Oreo Hotah didin't have time to show off some sick axe/halberd skills.
I'm sad that Oreo dunk it Hot didn't even get to develop much of a character. He still got to pimp slap Jaime but that's about it
The bear the bear, the maiden fair
And they all lived happily ever after
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Topic: A Game of Thrones: Every time somebody uses the spoiler tags take a shot. (Read 205817 times)