Game of Thrones - Season 5 | Page 12 | The Boneyard

Game of Thrones - Season 5

Spoilers below...








Drogon spittin hot fire on those gold faced Jabbawockeez? Awesome. Stannis's daughter? BRUTAL
 
It was a powerful episode, but I still am not overly pleased with this season. As a book reader, I already thought they were walking a tight rope with their changes. Then, the events of this episode happen to make me fully question what the heck the writers are doing. Some of the changes have made sense (Sansa, Jaime), but most have fallen flat in my opinion, especially what happened tonight.

My biggest problem is that I view the show as a subordinate to the book series, when they should be treated as two different entities that just happen to have the same characters and some (very) similar plotlines. In reality, as this episode affirmed, asoiaf and GoT are two separate entities with similar, but different canon.
 
The daughter scene was horrific. It drowns a lot of the rest of the episode out to be honest. I am not going to rewatch it for a few days.
 
HBO Stannis is a baaaaaad man. Still, that greyscale visage of Shireen's made me want to itch every time she was on camera. Won't be sorry never to see it again.
 
Say what you want about this season, but the writers seem to find new ways to top themselves. I didn't think they would be able to create a more hated figure than Ramsey or Joffery....but Stannis just took that crown with room to spare.
 
Lets be honest folks, we new the little girl was gonna get wacked. It's part of that red witches game plan . It was brutal but we all knew it. The dragon scene was awesome.
 
.-.
Another example of shock fabricated for TV that doesn't add anything to the story. They are all backfill in time to replace the Ironborn/Pyke storyline with Sansa still at the Vale, Stannis's family still at Castle Black with Jon Snow, Jamie in the River lands and a whole cast of characters in Dorne and Essos. Just to give you an idea how far they've strayed.
 
SubbaBub said:
Another example of shock fabricated for TV that doesn't add anything to the story. They are all backfill in time to replace the Ironborn/Pyke storyline with Sansa still at the Vale, Stannis's family still at Castle Black with Jon Snow, Jamie in the River lands and a whole cast of characters in Dorne and Essos. Just to give you an idea how far they've strayed.
Expand ...

I guess in the Inside the Episode video for this episode David Benioff says "when George first told us about this" when describing the scene. Obviously it would have to be a bit different in the books, and I would think more instigated by Selyse than Stannis. We are probably at the point where certain events that are not in the books, might actually be from future installments and we just don't know it. I never expected Stannis to actually go through with it.

Really hoping George is able to get the next book released before the next season.

 
One problem solved: Danni doesn't have to decide allegiance between her lover-bodyguard or her political husband. Now she has two suitors in the bodyguard & her "banished" gladiator. She now knows that both have her back in time of trouble. Will the dragon recover quickly from its wounds?
 
Spartacus said:
HBO Stannis is a baaaaaad man. Still, that greyscale visage of Shireen's made me want to itch every time she was on camera. Won't be sorry never to see it again.
Expand ...

Such a ridiculously good job at using make up that actually added something to a character. You're supposed to like her, you're supposed to feel for her and that scaly deformity just sealed it.
 
So, Dany has dragons. Don't you need dragons to make Valyrian Steel? Westeros will need Dany down the road.


I'm sure that everyone else expected the dragon to make an appearance once Dany and her party were surrounded. And that look on Tyrion's face, haha.
 
SubbaBub said:
Another example of shock fabricated for TV that doesn't add anything to the story. They are all backfill in time to replace the Ironborn/Pyke storyline with Sansa still at the Vale, Stannis's family still at Castle Black with Jon Snow, Jamie in the River lands and a whole cast of characters in Dorne and Essos. Just to give you an idea how far they've strayed.
Expand ...
Agreed. Seemed way gratuitous, and just for extra shock value.By far the weakest penultimate episode in the series so far. "well we cut off Neds head, We had the red wedding, and we had the epic mountain/viper battle. How can we top that? " Tough bar to live up to though because the other 4 have been stupendous. They would have been better off flip flopping Hardhome episode with the Dances with Dragons episode if they were going to do it at all. While this hasn't happened in the books, and maybe it will, maybe it wont, I don't like the way it was done on the show. Although maybe it is just the father of a daughter in me talking. It takes a lot to disgust me. That disgusted me.
 
.-.
Two of my favorite chapters from ADWD will not make it into the show, but I am overall happy with the adaptation. I get why they had Stannis' daughter killed, but it was still a rough scene to watch.

I really don't get what they tried to do with Dorne this season. They wrapped it up with a bow and.....so what? It basically didn't move the overall story forward at all. Jaime and Bronn could have had all their important conversations while sitting in Kings Landing, have Tristane show up next season as the new guy from Dorne, and just skipped the whole Dorne arc altogether.

I assume we will get Littlefinger back in the finale. He was really important in AFFC and ADWD, and remains very important in the overall story. Surprised we don't see more of him.
 
MilliniumPrince said:
Say what you want about this season, but the writers seem to find new ways to top themselves. I didn't think they would be able to create a more hated figure than Ramsey or Joffery....but Stannis just took that crown with room to spare.
Expand ...
All in a matter of 10 minutes as well.

And let's not forget they almost immediately followed that up with straight up pedophillia and child sex slavery

Just a tough episode to watch for half of it. Luckily the fighting pits scene made it good.
 
Last edited:
@Penfield I'm with you on Martin finishing that darn book. If it's not done, there's a good shot I don't watch next season until tWoW is published, not to mention the 7th (and presumed last) season versus A Dream of Spring (could the delay be that he's writing them concurrently? Ain't that wishful thinking!), which would in theory spoil the ending of the series.
 
Are you guys saying you thought Stannis burning his daughter at the stake didn't have any value to the plot? It's an act that is the defining moment of his character?
 
OkaForPrez said:
Are you guys saying you thought Stannis burning his daughter at the stake didn't have any value to the plot? It's an act that is the defining moment of his character?
Expand ...
It's gratuitous in its placement. It was a weak build and was thrown on Ep 9 just to shock the shit out of you. It certainly defines his (lack of ) character but like many other things in this VERY uneven season (Dorne, Faith militant etc...) it was plotted out poorly.
 
August_West said:
It's gratuitous in its placement. It was a weak build and was thrown on Ep 9 just to shock the out of you. It certainly defines his (lack of ) character but like many other things in this VERY uneven season (Dorne, Faith militant etc...) it was plotted out poorly.
Expand ...
Sorry, non book reader so forgive me. Through my eyes it makes perfect sense for his story arch in the timing it takes place. He is unilaterally moving towards what he thinks is his birth right giving away more and more of himself in the process and becoming increasingly pigeonholed into a death march. He's clearly a desperate man who just sold what's left of his soul. The act like many in the series is upsetting, but it didn't seem forced to me or violence for violence's sake. What alternative means is there to underscore what happens when a man chases power he believes is his divine right in a world where power is fickle and granted by the masses?
 
.-.
I may be forgetting my reading, but weren't Stannis's wife, daughter, and the Red woman cooling at Castle Black at the end of ADWD while Stannis was getting ready to attack Winterfell?
 
UConNick said:
@Penfield I'm with you on Martin finishing that darn book. If it's not done, there's a good shot I don't watch next season until tWoW is published, not to mention the 7th (and presumed last) season versus A Dream of Spring (could the delay be that he's writing them concurrently? Ain't that wishful thinking!), which would in theory spoil the ending of the series.
Expand ...

In some thread I gave my theory that he will either never finish the series or dump a giant deuce on the world in a A Dream of Spring. I think the book will suck beyond words because he just wants to get it done. It will be released some time in 2019 or 2020. I do think he will get The Winds of Winter out just in time for next season.

I think Martin mentioned once in an interview he wants to do a movie prequel of Robert's Rebellion. I expect him to focus on that once the show ends.
 
August_West said:
It's gratuitous in its placement. It was a weak build and was thrown on Ep 9 just to shock the out of you. It certainly defines his (lack of ) character but like many other things in this VERY uneven season (Dorne, Faith militant etc...) it was plotted out poorly.
Expand ...

They hinted at it earlier in the season, then hinted much more strongly at it later, then went through with it. In a 10-episode season, how did you want them to build it?
 
SubbaBub said:
I may be forgetting my reading, but weren't Stannis's wife, daughter, and the Red woman cooling at Castle Black at the end of ADWD while Stannis was getting ready to attack Winterfell?
Expand ...

Correct.
 
Excalibur said:
They hinted at it earlier in the season, then hinted much more strongly at it later, then went through with it. In a 10-episode season, how did you want them to build it?
Expand ...
Here is how it went. Stannis wife on the show was always portrayed as the imbalanced one in favor of torching Shireen.
Here is the build up we had over this season:
-A scene where Stannis tenderly told Shireen how she is his daughter and all the lengths he went through for the Grayscale treatment
- Stannis pretty much telling Melisandre to "get out of here" at the slightest mention of touching Shireen.

So lets Fast forward to Ep 9. All of a sudden Stannis is in favor and his wife is not? At what prompting? Some barely shown tough times getting to Winterfell? They showed NO internal struggle to getting to that extreme point of desperation. What Ramsay burned some stuff, so now all of a sudden it goes from "Melisandre you will never touch Shireen" to "OK we have to make a sacrifice of my daughter" . How did he get there? That is a MAJOR swing. It was even more hastily thrown together than the Faith Militant. It was opportunistic TV writing at its finest.

In pro wrestling vernacular that is what is known as a "cheap pop"
 
Last edited:
SubbaBub said:
I may be forgetting my reading, but weren't Stannis's wife, daughter, and the Red woman cooling at Castle Black at the end of ADWD while Stannis was getting ready to attack Winterfell?
Expand ...
yup,
and I can say this because its not a spoiler.
Shireen is still alive and in fact in the preview chapters of Winds of Winter already published Stannis tells one of his guys that if he dies in battle that they are to make sure that his daughter is put on the Iron Throne.

In an interview with an HBO show runner today, he says that they got the Shireen dying thing from GRRM although they don't say that GRRM told them HOW she died. I feel like that part of the story could have been explored more and waited on. They have plenty to draw from to finish this season. (as you show only watchers will see next week) Like I said Shireen in flames at this point was a "cheap pop"
 
.-.
August_West said:
All of a sudden Stannis is in favor and his wife is not? At what prompting? Some barely shown tough times getting to Winterfell? They showed NO internal struggle to getting to that extreme point of desperation. What Ramsay burned some stuff, so now all of a sudden it goes from "Melisandre you will never touch Shireen" to "OK we have to make a sacrifice of my daughter" . How did he get there? That is a MAJOR swing. It was even more hastily thrown together than the Faith Militant. It was opportunistic TV writing at its finest.
Expand ...
Well I imagine the viewers are supposed to infer his internal struggle over time. This wasn't an overnight decision; that first scene about him saving her set that premise that it would be a monumental decision for him to make, not that he wouldn't go there. I personally don't need scenes of him in his chambers alone debating the pros and cons. The idea of sacrificing his daughter was actually a kind of Chekhov's gun. We already knew Stannis was far from perfect, so while I appreciated his anecdote about saving her, it didn't convince me he wouldn't sacrifice her if it meant he would get the Iron Throne. We saw the option made available, him initially reject it, and then see setback after setback and the desperation grow greater. You know it was in the back of his mind the entire time. Ramsay didn't just burn "some stuff." It didn't shock me for one second that Stannis went where he went when pushed to the desperation he is evidently being pushed to.
 
OkaForPrez said:
Sorry, non book reader so forgive me. Through my eyes it makes perfect sense for his story arch in the timing it takes place. He is unilaterally moving towards what he thinks is his birth right giving away more and more of himself in the process and becoming increasingly pigeonholed into a death march. He's clearly a desperate man who just sold what's left of his soul. The act like many in the series is upsetting, but it didn't seem forced to me or violence for violence's sake. What alternative means is there to underscore what happens when a man chases power he believes is his divine right in a world where power is fickle and granted by the masses?
Expand ...
Don't bother. These discussions are rarely worth having with the book readers.
 
August_West said:
Agreed. Seemed way gratuitous, and just for extra shock value.By far the weakest penultimate episode in the series so far. "well we cut off Neds head, We had the red wedding, and we had the epic mountain/viper battle. How can we top that? " Tough bar to live up to though because the other 4 have been stupendous. They would have been better off flip flopping Hardhome episode with the Dances with Dragons episode if they were going to do it at all. While this hasn't happened in the books, and maybe it will, maybe it wont, I don't like the way it was done on the show. Although maybe it is just the father of a daughter in me talking. It takes a lot to disgust me. That disgusted me.
Expand ...

I am very sympathetic to this. Okay, I pretty much agree with it. I didn't say anything---deleted what I wrote on this score before posting---because I feel like HBO Stannis took an alternate path from Book Stannis the minute he slept with the Red Witch and I therefore didn't know HBO Stannis well enough to complain.
 
UConNick said:
@Penfield I'm with you on Martin finishing that darn book. If it's not done, there's a good shot I don't watch next season until tWoW is published, not to mention the 7th (and presumed last) season versus A Dream of Spring (could the delay be that he's writing them concurrently? Ain't that wishful thinking!), which would in theory spoil the ending of the series.
Expand ...

He pretty much made a promise last week that he would have the next book released before the show starts again. I believe him but who knows, he has made a lot of promises on release dates.

I have no expectation of getting book 7 before season 7.
 
jdzuvY9.jpg
 
.-.
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
168,640
Messages
4,587,374
Members
10,497
Latest member
Orlando Fos


Top Bottom