[TV] A Game of Thrones

[Gob Hobblin]

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It was his determination, drive, and willingness to do things with almost emotionless efficiency that made him look good. Compared to some of the others fighting for the Iron Throne, he seemed almost a more worthy candidate. He had confidence, intelligence, and a ruthlessness to follow through, all the while with the appearance of doing it not because he wanted to, but because no one else could.

That makes him an appealing sort of anti-hero, but at this point it's become more clear that it's not any of that which was driving him, but a slowly creeping sense of fanaticism and ambition: he may still tell himself the platitudes he started out with, and to some this may look like the ultimate sacrifice for a cause greater than himself. In the end, though, it's just fanaticism and ambition.

[A.T. Fish]

I like to think I'm desensitized enough to fictional violence and other gruesome acts to not bother with it, but Game of Thrones showed me I have a line, and burning little girls alive crosses it. Melisandre is literally worse than Joffrey.

[Guy Nacks]

Melisandre is literally worse than Joffrey.

You forget that Joffrey ordered the murders of DOZENS of babies.

[A.T. Fish]

You forget that Joffrey ordered the murders of DOZENS of babies.

Well, yeah, murdering babies is also atrocious, but I have a hard time believing Joffrey would ever kill a baby himself. He was a cruel boy who was given too much power and rarely thought about the consequences of his actions. Melisandre actually has no power, she's influencing the one with the power to do what she wants, and when the time came to burn an innocent little girl alive she lit the pyre herself.

[Gob Hobblin]

Joffrey would very much kill a baby himself: he had a gleeful and ruthless disregard for human life, and saw everyone around him as playthings for his amusement. Even though he didn't do it himself, there's nothing in his behavior that would say he wouldn't.

Melisandre and Stannis are both evil, but a different kind, being that they are sacrificing people (and children) not because they think it's fun, but because they think they have to. If humans are toys to Joffrey, humans are tools to Stannis and Melisandre (remember Stannis's casual line at the Battle of Blackwater? One of his commanders says hundreds will die in the assault on the gates, and he shrugs and corrects the guy that it would actually be THOUSANDS).

[Tankred]

I guess they're actively trying to make a major split between GoT and ASOIAF with all these bizarre happenings, sending Sansa to Winterfell, Barristan getting jobbed by weekend warriors and turning Stannis into a monster, I guess if the TV show is going to steam ahead it's better if it mutates into its own incoherent monster.

[Gob Hobblin]

"...wait a minute, Jon Snow is the Kwisatz Haderach? What...what show is this again...?"

[Fireball]

JORAH JORAH DO YOU SMELL WHAT THE ROCK IS COCKING?

[Reichu]

I thought this review by Ms. Rosenberg brought some thoughtful perspective to the episode.

[Chuckman]

When I have seen the entire season I will give you a full lolchuckman review of it.

[Guy Nacks]

FUCK. FUCK SHIT-ASS FUCK. THE SHIT CUNT ASS. FUCKING SHIT BALLS.


GOD.

FUCKING.

DAMMIT.

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I also think this settles what GRRM thinks of religion, if the earlier eps weren't clear enough.

[A.T. Fish]

As I browse Lena Headey's pictures on google my appreciation for the make up in Game of Thrones grows. She's not a natural blonde.

Last episode of the season was amazing, completely game changing, can't wait for next season.

[Chuckman]

Guys,

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Melisandre returning to Castle Black is all but explicit confirmation that she will resurrect Jon. He's Azor Fucking Ahai.

[Ray]

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I also think this settles what GRRM thinks of religion, if the earlier eps weren't clear enough.

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Don't most writers of successful modern day fantasy have an axe to grind with most organized religion?

Tolkien was a pretty devout catholic, so his religious influence on the genre has kind've been a bit of uncomfortable hurdle for some secular writers of the genre to get over. But too often, it goes too far into the opposite direction into mean spirited.

I mean in the series, the only 'god' shown to actually exist is a literal god of evil that makes women give birth to shadow babies. Everyone elses gods are either impotent and/or non-existent (The Seven, the gods of the forest), or batcrap crazy (The Drowned God).

[Guy Nacks]

Guys,

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Melisandre returning to Castle Black is all but explicit confirmation that she will resurrect Jon. He's Azor Fucking Ahai.

I kinda clued into this even before the end credits were rolling, but still. Fuckballs.

[Chuckman]

They did not portray this in S5, but in the book it is made clear that

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The Old Gods are explicitly real. They're the spirits of dead Greenseers that have gone into and been preserved in the weirwood trees.

The Seven are the only ones that don't appear to have anything backing them up.

[Ray]

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The Old Gods are explicitly real. They're the spirits of dead Greenseers that have gone into and been preserved in the weirwood trees.

The Seven are the only ones that don't appear to have anything backing them up.

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In other words, the closest analogy the world of GOT has to Catholicism. . . meh, at the end of the day it's fiction. So it doesn't bug me too much.

[Chuckman]

It sort of reflects the real world in that

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Some of what they attribute to supernatural forces works, and some doesn't. They don't really know why. It just happens that some of it really is the product of the supernatural.

[Stillborn]

Sooo...

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The promising queen got most likely kidnapped by Dotraks, Arya got blind because she got too close to fullfiling her revenge, Stannis' daughter died in vain, Melissandra got away to brainwash other guillible folk, the only genuinely decent Lannister (besides Tyrion) got poisoned for revenge by proxy and Jon got killed Julius Ceasar style.

I'm not even surprised. It's like B slasher movie. Everyone but villian will die in the end.

[KingXanaduu]

Sooo...

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The promising queen got most likely kidnapped by Dotraks, Arya got blind because she got too close to fullfiling her revenge, Stannis' daughter died in vain, Melissandra got away to brainwash other guillible folk, the only genuinely decent Lannister (besides Tyrion) got poisoned for revenge by proxy and Jon got killed Julius Ceasar style.

I'm not even surprised. It's like B slasher movie. Everyone but villian will die in the end.

Nah Stillborn, that's not cynical enough for Game of Thrones. Here's how I think the whole series will end:

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Eventually everyone will kill each other off either competing for the Iron Throne or either wiped out by the White Walkers, until there's nothing but a very small tribe of people left. They struggle to survive, but eventually rebuild and grow, but start the whole damn thing over again in a vicious cycle.

Rinse and Repeat, cash in the fucking check.