Game of Thrones Season 4 - The Thread

Tonight's the night....I think.

Also,watching the preview for this week's episode, I'm glad for whatever reason that they kept the snow castle part from Sansa's chapters.

Great episode tonight. I really enjoyed that ending scene. I love how you get to see bits of The Hound's humanity poking through in his and Arya's scenes. I never really got that from the book, maybe I just didn't imagine him that way. The actor does a fantastic job. I could not care less about Dany and Daario, and they seem to be burning through a lot of her material. I really have no idea how they're going to handle A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons at this rate. I just don't see that being two seasons worth of meaningful content.

Good episode. It just sucks that we have to wait two weeks for the next episode.

Only. Cat.

For some reason I thought Oberyn's visit to Casterly rock wasn't going to be mentioned at all. That was a nice surprise.

(all book spoilers) I wonder if Petyr and Lady Stoneheart will ever cross paths.

I'm just glad that after a couple "WTF" episodes in the middle there, they're mostly back on track with the books. Still not sure how they're going to deal with sending Jorah away though.

Fucking Hot Pie, guys. That brought me joy, seeing his dumb face again.

Yeah, that was supposed to happen already, but (book 3 spoilers) he mostly seems to be in Dany's good graces. Barristan has to drop the Jorah was a spy bomb on Dany at some point if he is to be exiled for a second time.

Yeah, I've read all of the books, so I was super confused when it didn't happen before entering the sewers. There's a couple other things they've dragged out beyond when they were "supposed" to happen (i.e. The Hound getting injured (which has now happened a different way) and Ygritte dying (which happened way earlier than they're going to do it).

Also, as you know, Biter becomes relatively important later. So, not sure why they killed him off so easily.

If you saw the trailers then it was kinda obvious Oberyn would fight for Tyrion after last weeks trial, but how it would get to that point was the big question. What a great scene between the two of them. Another great episode all around.

The ending was good, but something about the effects were a bit... goofy. Like, hands waving and all, just plain silly.

Also, seeing the Mountain again, I feel I should reiterate just how much of a bummer recasts can be. Takes me right out of it.

Also also, other noteworthy scenes: Arya and the Hound, Dany and Jorah, Bronn and Tyrion, and Sansa watching the snow fall, and Brienne, and the dying man, and... well like I said, another great episode all around.

The great Two Week Wait begins. D:

The new Mountain has a soft face, big ol softy.

Holy shit, watching the ending a bit closer, I think you can actually see the impact. Still looks goofy, but a bit more grim.

I'm glad the season is turning around, most of it so far has been pretty tame. All this set up is finally starting to pay off and things are starting to actually happen again.

Currently on the top of my "want to see die" list in the show would be that new nights watch commander, what a petty little douche he is. Sure the dude who tortured the shit out of theon is awful, but at least he's interesting to watch because he's so batshit insane. The new nights watch commander is just such a petty prick. I hate him so much.

I have to say these last few episodes have been fantastic. There really isn't a terrible acting performance at all which is super rare. most of the time there are a few characters in movies/shows that really make you cringe. This cast may be the best all around for a drama that I can remember.

I am actually looking forward to A Feast for Crows. I like when the show gets all plodding. Also, if you haven't been reading this guy's recaps you are missing out. They are fantastic. Tyrion's Trial Recap Most weeks, Andy Greenwald kills it.

I'd say the issue was the overlay as she went through the hole. That looked liked some 80-90s bluescreen effect.

Nice episode, I really like Oberyn, which is a shame.

**marked spoiler - Marino

Book spoiler: he isn't the new Lord Commander; the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch is an electected position. We haven't seen the election yet. It'll probably be at the end of this season or beginning of the next season.

@clonedzero: He isn't the new commander. He is just a temporary acting commander until they elect a new one. Thorne has been around since season one, and he has always been a colossal dick to Jon Snow.

Another good one tonight. I'm definitely liking the back half of this season more. I know the Daenerys stuff is pulling from book 5 (I'm about halfway through it now), but is anyone not really feeling her arc right now? Her reign over Meereen is really boiled down from what it was in the books, but more than that I feel like she is a lot more single minded. I dunno, maybe I'm crazy.

Well yeah i know, but you know what i mean!

Dude is a total dick!

Guess I'm in the minority. I thought this episode was complete garbage. Yet another super lame teaser for the upcoming fight and a bunch of super cliche writing on top of childish directing. I called every single moment in this episode before it happened. It's feeling really lazy at this point. Yes, I'm aware important people have died and all that, but these are brief heavily-forecasted moments hidden amid hour-long banal borefests.

Either this season is the most inconsequential season to date, or it's me that has changed.

Also, if someone pushes you backward, you don't open your arms wide. No one does that. No one will ever do that. The natural reflex is to grab the person, however futile it is, which she could have done. But then they'd have to put an effort into writing that scene better. Yeah. Lazy.

@development: Yeah, I am little worried about the directing. These past few episodes have not been that strong and the show as a whole is becoming more like an average tv-crap where everything interesting happens during the last 10 seconds.

The Tyrion stuff was golden, particularly the Bronn and Oberyn scenes...and like someone else said, I'm glad to have gotten the story about Obey's first visit to Casterly Rock. It's such an awful story and nicely underlays the Lannister family dynamic.

As for the moon door scene, it felt rushed like many plot points on the show are due to the 10-ep restriction. The scene worked fine but the book scene is a master work of building tension and suspense, I felt its absence here.

Two Questions:

1. Why the two week break between episodes?
2. (Future Spoilers) Does Bronn come back at some point? Bronn easily one of my favorite characters.

Still feel the same way about Danys story, just...ugh...feel like there is no reason anymore for her story, the overall plot has always been about Winter and hers relates nothing to that. If winter were to come next episode, is Easteros (is that the right word?) effected at all?

EDIT: Also anyone actual miss the original Dario? The new guy is awful and the fact that they got another actor that looks like so many other actors makes it worse.

@charlie_victor_bravo: If you thought the scene between Bronn and Tyrion was bad you may not have a pulse. I dig scenes like the one from last week at the Iron Bank. The dude behind all the dudes doesn't even have to get out of his seat.

I sense an implied spoiler here. I guess I better stay clear of this thread in the future, it is getting really dangerous reading this stuff. There are book spoilers everywhere.

Interestingly, I think I'm going to stay away from following the series actively as well. This is the first season where I watched the new episode every week. And man is it disappointing. I almost forgot that barely anything happens in any given episode. You really need the entire season to be satisfied a bit. With the next season, I'll once again just not watch until all episodes are out. Seems like a much better way to watch this series.

I think there's been some great scenes this season (basically just Arya, Tyrion and Oberyn) but overall the show has lost me a bit. As you said, the writing & directing just seems worse. The scene where Theon's sister tries to rescue him sums it up pretty well...on par with made-for-TV movie cheese.

I for one have really enjoyed Bron's run as the unofficial moral adviser to the Lanister brothers. Even though it's horribly cynical and pessimistic it's still some of the most top tier advising in this series. He keeps it real. The match up for the trial by combat is what I expected. It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to see that coming. I think I was spoiled on a specific detail about this upcoming fight by some internet jerks but only time will tell if that is indeed the case. To be fair what I'm thinking about is also teased back in episode 3 so it's probably not that big a deal. I think most of the plot threads in this episode were well done. The stuff with Stannis's wife and what's-her-face was probably the weakest in the episode as far as building plot or developing characters. And that ending sure was an ending. Two weeks is too long to wait.

And yes, winter does effect Esos, just not as hard and quick as in the north.

God I hope so

I continue to be baffled by people complaining about spoilers in a series discussion thread.

@pr1mus: With this particular series, there is source material that it is based on which many people don't want spoiled. For instance, I've read the first two books in recent months and I sure don't want people to tell me what happens in Book Five in a thread about the TV show. So I and others like me appreciate all book spoilers being blocked out.

Now about the show... has anyone figured out what's up with Petyr Baelish's voice this season? He suddenly decided he needs to do a shitty Irish accent and it's really distracting. Did G.R.R. Martin or some random fan mention Littlefinger should have a brogue and the actor is trying to switch gears? Was he looking at the way his name is spelled and suddenly decided his character is Gaelic? Because that makes no sense on a total fantasy planet where Ireland doesn't exist!

Arg. I wish they hadn't changed that line to "Only your sister." The original was so much more curt and effective.

This is nonsense. Out of the people I push and see pushed on a daily bases, very few desperately try to grab hold of whoever pushed them. Most people use their arms and flail them around to try and break their fall.

What do you do on a daily basis that involves so much pushing?

@pr1mus: There's nothing wrong with spoilers about the show that just aired; I would assume that you should watch the latest episode before heading into a thread discussing it. But spoilers from the books, for events that haven't happened yet? None of that is relevant to the TV show, until it happens in the show. Tag that shit. Once it shows up, feel free to discuss how different/similar it was to the events in the books.

You aren't a fan of the Brienne/Podrick power hour? I feel the pairing of not a knight with not a squire has great potential, and "You're not interesting enough to be offensive" has to rank up there with the better lines in the whole show. Sure, the Theon rescue scene had me a bit baffled; I'm surprised they didn't use a clip of Monty Python's King Arthur yelling "Run away!" after that weird jump cut. But overall, I've felt fairly positive about the season.

Maybe I'm just so used to shitty TV that when I get something better than average I eat it up. Dunno. :/

I was exaggerating. I do BJJ and wrestling. Out of the new people that come and train, which is once every 3 weeks or so for the past 5 years, most of them just flail about as they fall. Which is common kowledge to be natural. Obviously, this is purely based on my own experience and no 'statistical proof', but I'm confident in saying the the part I quoted is pure nonsense.

As for #1, in the US next weekend is a holiday weekend, Memorial Day. A three day weekend. And on this particular one lots of Americans go camping by tradition. And HBO wants to make sure as many people as possible watch them when they air, like all networks. So they don't air new episodes of shows that run on Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Monday of those weekends.

@sterling: I feel like the people who go camping wouldn't watch the show in the first place so I only see them having a bigger audience because of the holiday, probably why I don't run a television network.

It is not just camping but in general most people are not at home to watch an episode, they're off socializing and drinking because of a no work monday

@jay_ray said:

Again, why I don't run a network, and the fact that I would rather stay home, watch Game of Thrones and drink rather than go out is a factor of my mind set. Getting married and having a kid does that to you.

@jayzilla said:

Well, it was not shot well and you could see it coming a mile away. Show has taken a subtle turn for the worse and I fear for it.

1. The actor is Irish.
2. You think Irish accents shouldn't exist because there is no Ireland? What about all the English accents (most of Westeros)? Or the Dutch (Melisandre)? Or the Chilean (Dornish)? Or the Russian (Thenns)? If no one is going to have accents...what does that even mean? No one can speak. They've constructed the show (mostly) so that when someone speaks, you can tell where they are from in that world. The actress who plays Cat is also Irish, which makes sense considering (in the story) they grew up together. It works pretty well and is infinitely better than simply having everyone speak with English accents like most fantasy films/shows.

This is the boat I'm in. I consumed the previous seasons 3 or 4 episodes at a time. I'm not sure if it's how the show has always been or if this season is just incredibly plodding. I think I'm gonna do the same for next season. I do think this season specifically is much more slow than the previous. My sister told me she just stopped watching because she felt nothing was happening.

In response to your comment on the moon door scene:

I guess you'd know more than me. I don't take any martial art. Was still an incredibly unexciting moment, though. Could only have been more forecasted if Lysa was wearing a parachute.

I don't know, I rewatched the entire series before season 4 and when I look back I think not that much happened in any of the episodes of the other seasons either. Watching an entire season in a row is great. It shows several stories evolving, but there is still a 'I can't wait to see what happens next to these guys' after the finale for pretty much all the major characters. I just think I never realized an episode by itself is almost pointless without the others to set the stage.

I apologize for the dick-comment I made by the way. I still sometimes forget how written words can seem much more assholish then I intended them to be. It has nothing to do with martial arts though, you can look at people falling on slippery ice or kids pushing each other over. Yeah, you're right that some people instinctively grab hold of the person who pushes them or whatever is close (my mom grabbed hold of me when she slipped on ice, apparently in an effort to try and yank me down with her), but most people don't do that. They reached out with their arms and hands to anticipate the ground.

Add in the fact that she was insane, in shock from the sudden reveal of littlefingers true feelings, and... insane again... its no surprise she didn't act rationally or quickly.

@zevvion: Bronn foreshadowing.

@marino: I think you misunderstand me. I don't have a problem with actors using existing accents to differentiate what region/continent their character came from. It's just super-weird when they use one accent for three seasons, then change it in the fourth. Which many other people in this thread have noticed in Littlefinger since the season began. It may actually be closer to the actor's everyday speaking voice, but it sounds "fake" because it's not the way he was performing it for the previous three years.

Just wondering if there's any story behind this change, not trying to start beef with Ireland!

@marino: Along these same lines, but off-topic: does anyone find American accents in fantasy worlds extremely ridiculous? I know they probably shouldn't sound ridiculous, but to me they do (possibly because I'm American? I donno). The Bound in Flame Quick Look comes to mind. The main character just sounds hilarious to me. I wonder if that says anything about our culture; like we think of American accents being too "modern" or something.

I think they tried this one year in season 2 (Blackwater episode) and the ratings were lower than all the other episodes. Since then, they have avoided Memorial weekend and its been working for them.