GoT Season Seven

[businesslawyer]

I will break it down for you.

VPN = Virtual private Network - think of the internet as a Firehose and the Data that flows through that firehose is the water. That water is open for drinking from anyone attached to the firehouse. Think of a VPN as a Garden hose that fits inside that Firehose that carries its own water, but shielded from the data that flows through the firehose and people who can drink from the Firehose. Its a tunnel inside a tunnel. And unlike much of the data through the "firehose" which is visible to anyone who knows how to look at it, the "garden hose" is encrypted. In other words you need (in simple terms) a "superhero decoder ring" to read it.

Sandbox - A location to put files you want to test (or not be tracked on) that are NOT on your own computer. So if you are downloading "iffy" files you have a place to safely test them before moving them locally OR It also acts as storage space that is untraceable. There are a few different uses and definitions to "sandbox"

Clearweb - Simply is the internet, or the water inside the previously mentioned firehose. as opposed to the "Dark web" where traffic is encrypted and untraceable (in theory, in practice I think the FBI cracked Tor encryption but thats a lesson for a different time

Its not brilliant.

The thing is, that what Im saying is geek speak for people our age. And Im familiar with it all because its my profession, but its ubiquitous among the young even outside the industry. My 15 year old daughter knows how to setup and use VPN's and has for a while. most kids do. They dont want to be traceable and already take Internet security a lot more seriously than people over 40 do.

Bottom line BL?

To watch this game of thrones this morning. I hid my ass on the internet to make sure HBO didnt know I was watching their show. (they can tell who is watching streams or pirated stuff after a while, and track your IP address. Cease and Desist letters are not uncommon)


The irony? I went to all that trouble to hide, but then just admitted to doing it on a Clearweb, unprotected, search crawled Mediocre conference team sports message board.

I understand that you watched the show. I thank you for your effort. Otherwise, that was a much longer blah blah blah blah than the first part.

The good news is that until I retire I get to rely on my company's tech staff and I don't have to understand any of this crap.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I will break it down for you.

VPN = Virtual private Network - think of the internet as a Firehose and the Data that flows through that firehose is the water. That water is open for drinking from anyone attached to the firehouse. Think of a VPN as a Garden hose that fits inside that Firehose that carries its own water, but shielded from the data that flows through the firehose and people who can drink from the Firehose. Its a tunnel inside a tunnel. And unlike much of the data through the "firehose" which is visible to anyone who knows how to look at it, the "garden hose" is encrypted. In other words you need (in simple terms) a "superhero decoder ring" to read it.

Sandbox - A location to put files you want to test (or not be tracked on) that are NOT on your own computer. So if you are downloading "iffy" files you have a place to safely test them before moving them locally OR It also acts as storage space that is untraceable. There are a few different uses and definitions to "sandbox"

Clearweb - Simply is the internet, or the water inside the previously mentioned firehose. as opposed to the "Dark web" where traffic is encrypted and untraceable (in theory, in practice I think the FBI cracked Tor encryption but thats a lesson for a different time

Its not brilliant.

The thing is, that what Im saying is geek speak for people our age. And Im familiar with it all because its my profession, but its ubiquitous among the young even outside the industry. My 15 year old daughter knows how to setup and use VPN's and has for a while. most kids do. They dont want to be traceable and already take Internet security a lot more seriously than people over 40 do.

Bottom line BL?

To watch this game of thrones this morning. I hid my ass on the internet to make sure HBO didnt know I was watching their show. (they can tell who is watching streams or pirated stuff after a while, and track your IP address. Cease and Desist letters are not uncommon)


The irony? I went to all that trouble to hide, but then just admitted to doing it on a Clearweb, unprotected, search crawled Mediocre conference team sports message board.

That was a very kind description. I knew all of that stuff, even if I haven't put it into practice (except using work VPN as I am right now from home). I suppose I could make my old spare PC a sandbox. I never bothered. I'm a lawyer like BL, but was building PCs from parts before I went to law school, and during law school we messed around on what was then the internet a lot, via those glorious 2400 baud modems. I remember going to Yahoo when it was all just hyperlinked text. Ah the good old days.

 

[Rocktheworld]

watched it this morning.

holy moly.

You would've had a lot more excitement there if Sansa went down so I guess we will be seeing her right up to, or at, or even beyond the bitter end

 

[August_West]

You would've had a lot more excitement there if Sansa went down so I guess we will be seeing her right up to, or at, or even beyond the bitter end

I would never spoil things for you guys but I will say something that will become apparent I think when you guys see it. I was alternately enthralled and disgusted with this episode. And it has nothing to do with Sansa or characters or anything.

 

[auggie22]

HBO NOW or GO

Yep, good call. Thanks for the suggestion.

I have wrestled all day with xfinity to get my password reset with no luck. I am hoping to call back this evening and get it done.

 

[CTMike]

This whole north of the wall plan is just bad bad bad.

 

[August_West]

Gendry runs back to eastwatch , raven flies from wall to dragon stone, Danny flies back in 3 minutes.

Show has jumped the shark.


Arya abused Sansa tgat whole episode. She needs to cut her to complete the job

 

[Walker11]

Definitely a thrilling episode. I am fully invested. Ice Dragon = awesome. That said, the last two episodes have been terrible in terms of writing. Ungodly amount of stupidity. Because of the writing, I almost jumped off the boat in either S4 or S5 but the show entirely won me back last year.

The entire plan to retrieve a wight is ridiculous. Who thought of this ? Seeing the guys fight together North of the Wall is awesome but the idea to get them there was just such bad writing. The time jumps are absurd. John chasing down the wights while the dragon was waiting for him was dumb. Benjen rescuing him was a cop out. Have Rhaegal scoop him up. The writers seem like they don't have the guts to kill a major character now that they are on their own. Tormund was a dead man.

Worst of all are the Arya and Sansa scenes. Absolutely cringe worthy. Arya has had an amazing arc and is one of the most captivating and easy-to-root-for characters. Now, I am finding myself wanting her dead, possibly at the hands of Sansa and that is entirely the fault of the writing. I should not be rooting against Arya. I should not be rooting for Sansa. Stop sucking writers.

 

[John]

Ice dragon. I called it.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Definitely a thrilling episode. I am fully invested. Ice Dragon = awesome. That said, the last two episodes have been terrible in terms of writing. Ungodly amount of stupidity. Because of the writing, I almost jumped off the boat in either S4 or S5 but the show entirely won me back last year.

The entire plan to retrieve a wight is ridiculous. Who thought of this ? Seeing the guys fight together North of the Wall is awesome but the idea to get them there was just such bad writing. The time jumps are absurd. John chasing down the wights while the dragon was waiting for him was dumb. Benjen rescuing him was a cop out. Have Rhaegal scoop him up. The writers seem like they don't have the guts to kill a major character now that they are on their own. Tormund was a dead man.

Worst of all are the Arya and Sansa scenes. Absolutely cringe worthy. Arya has had an amazing arc and is one of the most captivating and easy-to-root-for characters. Now, I am finding myself wanting her dead, possibly at the hands of Sansa and that is entirely the fault of the writing. I should not be rooting against Arya. I should not be rooting for Sansa. Stop sucking writers.

This season is fun, but GoT is stumbling a little from what made it one of the best shows in history.

The wight capture plan was so stupid, and just sloppy. There are a dozen ways to get that crew north of the wall that would have made more sense than capturing a wight that no one will give a about. Why not send them to retrieve the horn that was mentioned in the books? Why not put them on a ship that blows off course? Why not make a wildling rescue mission for some band that escaped and is racing to the wall? Anything is better than that stupidity, which incidentally now is a huge pivot in the overall plot.

Jon Snow got a dragon killed. Of all the stupid scalitoing things that any character has done in this show, that has to be the scalitoing stupidest. Wouldn't pretty much everyone want to beat the snot out of him for doing that?

Benjen either should have been with the band from the start, or not been there at all. Showing up at the last minute was ridiculous. How did he find out?

I actually like the idea of discord between Arya and Sansa, but it should be a lot more clever than this. Sansa was a prisoner of the Lannisters. Getting her father captured was stupid, but she was trying to save his life with that letter. Why didn't she say that? Why didn't Arya just ask her wizard brother to tell her what happened? To be honest, I don't even see how this helps Littlefinger. Arya is a rook, not a queen in the game. Sansa is a queen. He should be playing for both. It would make more sense if Littlefinger had hatched a plan for Arya to kill Cersei and that was what the sisters were fighting over.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Gendry runs back to eastwatch , raven flies from wall to dragon stone, Danny flies back in 3 minutes.

Show has jumped the shark.


Arya abused Sansa tgat whole episode. She needs to cut her to complete the job

It was more like a day. That was one of the less controversial teleportations in recent episodes.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

 

[Walker11]

This season is fun, but GoT is stumbling a little from what made it one of the best shows in history.

The wight capture plan was so stupid, and just sloppy. There are a dozen ways to get that crew north of the wall that would have made more sense than capturing a wight that no one will give a about. Why not send them to retrieve the horn that was mentioned in the books? Why not put them on a ship that blows off course? Why not make a wildling rescue mission for some band that escaped and is racing to the wall? Anything is better than that stupidity, which incidentally now is a huge pivot in the overall plot.

Jon Snow got a dragon killed. Of all the stupid scalitoing things that any character has done in this show, that has to be the scalitoing stupidest. Wouldn't pretty much everyone want to beat the snot out of him for doing that?

Benjen either should have been with the band from the start, or not been there at all. Showing up at the last minute was ridiculous. How did he find out?

I actually like the idea of discord between Arya and Sansa, but it should be a lot more clever than this. Sansa was a prisoner of the Lannisters. Getting her father captured was stupid, but she was trying to save his life with that letter. Why didn't she say that? Why didn't Arya just ask her wizard brother to tell her what happened? To be honest, I don't even see how this helps Littlefinger. Arya is a rook, not a queen in the game. Sansa is a queen. He should be playing for both. It would make more sense if Littlefinger had hatched a plan for Arya to kill Cersei and that was what the sisters were fighting over.

I also have no problem with the writers sowing discord between the Stark girls. It is just not being done well. No subtlety. Arya is jumping the shark.

There are such larger issues with the development that I am barely phased by an action such as the NK throwing the spear at the dragon flying in the distance, instead of the sitting dragon with all of the main characters directly in front of him.

 

[John]

I also have no problem with the writers sowing discord between the Stark girls. It is just not being done well. No subtlety. Arya is jumping the shark.

There are such larger issues with the development that I am barely phased by an action such as the NK throwing the spear at the dragon flying in the distance, instead of the sitting dragon with all of the main characters directly in front of him.

Where'd NK get those battleship anchor chains to drag the dragon from the water?

 

[Walker11]

Where'd NK get those battleship anchor chains to drag the dragon from the water?

Another good point. Can the NK see the future like Bran? Did he know Dany would bring the dragons, so he came prepared? That was a big ass chain.

Why didn't the wights attack when encircling the boys. Were they waiting for the ice to freeze? It didn't seem too clear to me. I thought the NK may have seen the future so he waited for Dany's grand entrance.

 

[UConn Esq]

View attachment 24269

If you can throw a spear into the air and hit a flying dragon at 1000 feet away than why not just throw a ton of spears at the (shield-less) guys while they were sitting on the rocks for hours..

 

[intlzncster]

Definitely a thrilling episode. I am fully invested. Ice Dragon = awesome. That said, the last two episodes have been terrible in terms of writing. Ungodly amount of stupidity. Because of the writing, I almost jumped off the boat in either S4 or S5 but the show entirely won me back last year.

The entire plan to retrieve a wight is ridiculous. Who thought of this ? Seeing the guys fight together North of the Wall is awesome but the idea to get them there was just such bad writing. The time jumps are absurd. John chasing down the wights while the dragon was waiting for him was dumb. Benjen rescuing him was a cop out. Have Rhaegal scoop him up. The writers seem like they don't have the guts to kill a major character now that they are on their own. Tormund was a dead man.

Worst of all are the Arya and Sansa scenes. Absolutely cringe worthy. Arya has had an amazing arc and is one of the most captivating and easy-to-root-for characters. Now, I am finding myself wanting her dead, possibly at the hands of Sansa and that is entirely the fault of the writing. I should not be rooting against Arya. I should not be rooting for Sansa. Stop sucking writers.

Bingo.

 

[jleves]

Yup - it's getting kind of stupid. But somehow still exciting. I blame George R. R. Martin for not finishing the freaking series. It would have been much better if he did. Oh well - it's what we got.

 

[intlzncster]

Benjen either should have been with the band from the start, or not been there at all. Showing up at the last minute was ridiculous. How did he find out?

That was the mother of all deus ex machinas.

The whole north of the wall thing was horribly written.

• How does this ice pond have such thin ice? It's been beyond frigid up there for months upon months.
• How does one get savaged by a bear, drink a little liquor, get the mother of all cauterizings, and then pop right up and continuing hiking through arctic conditions with nothing but a joke.
• How in #@$%k does one fall under the ice, being weighted down by whites, with all that armor/heavy clothing, and manage to come up sputtering minutes later, pop up out of the ice, perfectly lucid, and brandishing your sword like a mad bastard? Jon is not human.
• Why couldn't Gendry make the last 15 steps?

We could go forever here...

 

[John]

GOT has become heavy on the flash and light on the substance, definitely feels like a different show this entire season. I've enjoyed it, but story-wise it's become GOT Lite. It dawned on me tonight that I'm becoming concerned about a Seinfeld-level dissatisfying ending next year.

Thought about Jon - obviously the guy is some sort of supernatural/super-human, takes a gaggle of white-walkers on a ride to the bottom of the lake, but he's the one who comes up (never mind already being raised from the dead once before). Had another thought - since he's (in all likelihood) a Targareyan Dragon whisperer AND is some sort of supernatural being, perhaps he'll be able to ride the ice dragon and take it away from the NK.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

If you can throw a spear into the air and hit a flying dragon at 1000 feet away than why not just throw a ton of spears at the (shield-less) guys while they were sitting on the rocks for hours..

Good point. I think the Night King enjoys seeing what his foes can do. Think back to Hardhome, he could have sent that blitz at any point. Instead he sent a small wave to see what his enemy was made of. Tonight I think he wanted to with them.

Ok, that's best i've....just waiting made no sense, but I loved the episode any way.

 

[Scalito]

GOT has become heavy on the flash and light on the substance, definitely feels like a different show this entire season. I've enjoyed it, but story-wise it's become GOT Lite. It dawned on me tonight that I'm becoming concerned about a Seinfeld-level dissatisfying ending next year.

Thought about Jon - obviously the guy is some sort of supernatural/super-human, takes a gaggle of white-walkers on a ride to the bottom of the lake, but he's the one who comes up (never mind already being raised from the dead once before). Had another thought - since he's (in all likelihood) a Targareyan Dragon whisperer AND is some sort of supernatural being, perhaps he'll be able to ride the ice dragon and take it away from the NK.

It is a different show, but the change was baked into the cake from the beginning because of the way Martin wrote Danaerys' character.

People seem to forget that that novel series is Song of Ice and Fire, not Game of Thrones. That was the first book in what was supposed to be a four or five book series witb a big time jump between numbers one and two. The Stark kids were supposed to be adults in Season Two, if you will, and the Dragon Queen on her way to Westeros. Instead, Martin kept Dany from intermingling with anyone and the strife on Westeros was prolonged so the Stark kids had something to do until the original plot begins . . . fighting zombies.

Bottom line, Seasons 1-6 was great political intrigue and character development. The Game of Thrones. Season 7-8 is all war, dragons and other fantasy stuff. The Song of Ice and Fire.

I warned Waylon about this seven years ago . . . .

 

[Scalito]

Good point. I think the Night King enjoys seeing what his foes can do. Think back to Hardhome, he could have sent that blitz at any point. Instead he sent a small wave to see what his enemy was made of. Tonight I think he wanted to with them.

Ok, that's best i've....just waiting made no sense, but I loved the episode any way.

It was a great episode. I loved it. I am not going to complain because the Zombie Ice King had spear throwing powers I only just learned of nor question the way in which he uses them. He is a freaking Ice Zombie and we know nada about him. Don't assume you know what he is thinking people!!! He isn't real.

 

[Scalito]

Daenerys dies. If there was any doubt, the whole succession thing cements it.

 

[Scalito]

Oh, and the dialogue beyond the wall was great.