I dug it. I think Lady Stoneheart woulda been cool, but I see the point that it would make the finale a bit too busy (and I wasn't expecting this episode to end on Arya, but that worked so well. especially with the big soaring music cue!).

I do wonder where exactly they'll put Lady Stoneheart next season though. It's a shame this show doesn't do cold opens 'cause that would make a great "what the actual fuck?!?" one for the premiere.

edit: also, what Dorkman said about the skeleton fight. i love the fact that the CGI wasn't overly fluid. i mean, it was smooth, but it also had an impressive heft/momentum to it. totally had the Harryhausen spirit going for it. big love for that.

Last edited by Herc (2014-06-16 06:26:09)

Disclaimer: if you dislike the tone of a post I make, re-read it in a North/East London accent until it sounds sufficiently playful

Huh, that never occurred to me. I just assumed it was a wildfire kinda projectile. And watching it back just now in slowmo, she's throwing physical explosive projectiles, not conjuring magic.

Though that leaves open the whole 'it ignites before it hits anything' thing, but I'm sure that can be rationalized away somehow.
Or maybe it is full-on magic. We'll see.

Last edited by Herc (2014-06-16 06:47:14)

Disclaimer: if you dislike the tone of a post I make, re-read it in a North/East London accent until it sounds sufficiently playful

Hah! By this point, the appeal is probably being measured in stables.

And yeah, I know that the 'judging public appeal by internet' thing is kinda dodgy, but with GoT, they pretty much know that even though a lot of people torrent/stream the show, they're also really likely to buy dvd/blurrys, and since HBO is gonna see the majority (if not all?) of those proceeds, there is absolutely NO fear of cancellation.

Frankly, when they announce show renewals, HBO's press release for Game of Thrones should probably just be "What the hell do you think? Have you seen your twitter/facebook feed on a sunday night? That's what we thought. Boom!".

Disclaimer: if you dislike the tone of a post I make, re-read it in a North/East London accent until it sounds sufficiently playful

Ya it's their most watched show of all time domestically, and that's not even getting into the fact that it's INCREDIBLY popular overseas and brings in lots of money that way.

There's no way this thing gets less than 7 seasons at a minimum.

The real fun part is that starting next season we're really into uncharted territory for many of the storylines, so book-readers finally get to just enjoy watching the show and being surprised.

They even stopped letting Netflix carry their DVDs, reasoning that what few people now feel forced to buy them would give them more money than what little Netflix was paying. On the other end of the spectrum, they're putting huge chunks of the new John Oliver show on YouTube, as there is no re-run value to it and they need to drum up some buzz (it seems to be working).

The incident with Tysha was Tywin's one irredeemable and unjustifiable act. He's always acted coldly and without remorse but he never exploited an innocent life to make a petty and cruel point to someone. Tyrion killing Tywin because of what went down with Tysha, and everything that happened since, feels like more justified and natural penance.

Also, Tyrion's rage and depression about being fucked over his whole life by Tywin in that scene makes infinitely more sense if you include the stuff about Tysha. If you're having this big moment with Tyrion getting out his anger, omitting that tidbit doesn't make any sense. It would be akin to Walter White letting the stuff about Grey Matter subside; it's the entire crux of his bitterness. Changing Tyrion's motivation to Shae's betrayal doesn't work as well because the stuff with Tysha was the moment he realized his father would never love him.

Plus, "wherever whores go" is the perfect line to cause Tyrion to fully snap and shoot him.

That's why I wasn't fan of how things happened last night.

Ya, my biggest problem with game of thrones is how cookie-cutter and un-cinematic they play things at times. The creators have mentioned how they hate slow-motion and try to avoid it, and to me, despite a crazy impressive scope and VFX work, the execution of a lot of the episodes feels like someone just laying out plot beats onto the table, instead of film-makers executing a concrete vision. They seem to go out of their way to NOT make things dramatic (no slow-mo, no cross-cutting/montage, etc).

It's not really a fair complaint given most of it is probably for budget reasons, but it's hard, especially coming off something like True Detective, which feels like a 10 hour-long cohesive cinematic vision, whereas Game of Thrones feels squarely like a TV show most of the time.

I'm rather firmly of the "slow motion is gross and lazy" school of thought and approve of its non-use in GoT.

I suppose slo-mo can have its place, but I think the majority of the times it's used these days are unnecessary. The lack of artifice is what makes GoT interesting as a fantasy story, IMO, just as the juxtaposition of the fantastic and stylized made True Detective more interesting than it probably had a reason to be.

Last edited by Dorkman (2014-06-18 02:34:56)

I guess I'm the opposite of Dorkman, I want to see filmmakers bringing their vision and technique to the party, I want stylization, I want personality. Just because more recently, people like Zac Snyder who have no idea how to use slow-motion properly have driven it into the ground, doesn't mean it's a bad or ugly technique inherently (just like any other technique, they're just tools to tell a story and build emotional engagement).

There's a reason Neil Marshal's 2 episodes feel like they have a pulse and energy to them, and it's not just because they happen to be battle episodes. He understands how to move the camera to build moments, and he also seems to be one of the only directors on the show who can film a sword-fight coherently.

I dunno, I love the show and I get why they've chosen this matter-of-fact stylistic approach (easier on the budget, try to ground the fantasy elements), but on the other hand, I can't help but wish I could see a guy like De Palma tackle the Red Wedding and dramatize the shit out of it.

Again, I'm more critical of it on this point than I'd normally be because True Detective and Fargo have raised the bar for TV direction in my opinion.

Perhaps as their budgets continue to increase they'll be freer to take more chances and be more dynamic with it going forward. The closing shot this season was certainly fantastic.

Last edited by bullet3 (2014-06-18 06:52:24)

Yeah, it would be a huge surprise if she wasn't in.