Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!
I thought the finale was just okay. It seemed more like they were interested in setting up season two than focusing on making a good episode. I guess it would be hard to top last week's episode in any event. I wish last week's episode had been the finale, that would've totally blown me away.
Overall I really enjoyed this season, looking forward to more, but I hope they find a way to better balance all of the subplots they've got running.
I hated Phantom Menace all over again when I saw the little girl and the dismissed blacksmith together for the first time barely looking at each other and I said "Fuck me, it's the king and Queen!"
P.S. I believe we got to see everyone's favorite freaks - Rorge and Biter (and cloaked Jaquen, it seems) - in the scene where Arya meets her new friends:
Yay for dragons with only four limbs! There was an oddly 'practical-effect' look to them, I thought Drogon/the black one might be a puppet when he first started moving. So hurray for realistic portrayal of biologically logical mythical creatures.
haven't seen it yet, haven't read any posts . . .
just wanted to peek at the poll results, and wow . . . 100% excellent ratings so far!
can't wait to get home and watch!
I'm going through the first book right now and re-watching the episodes when I feel I've read most of the content that they cover, and its quite uncanny how closely the show follows the books. Its not 100%, it can't possibly be, but the show is still closer to the original material than any adaptation I have ever come across. Key scenes and conversations are taken word for word from the book, with the absolute minimum of paraphrasing/addition/deletion.
This live chat, presented by The Daily Beast, will feature TV critics Jace Lacob, James Poniewozik, Maureen Ryan, Myles McNutt, as well as Elio and Linda from Westeros.org and yours truly! Join us at 2PM ET/11 AM PT on Monday as we talk about season one of Game of Thrones and look forward to season two!
-And tonight's pointless sexposition scene goes to.... PYCELLE?! I couldn't even begin to understand what purpose that served. And the following Littlefinger/Varys scene was redundant given episode 5.
I came to this thread pretty much to comment on these two points alone.
It baffles me where they start raising the drama, and pace, then it just goes CLANGGGGG and stops with this.
The Pycelle seen felt so inserted, so forced, it was just baffling that it'd see the light of day. When you see him straightening his clothes in the mirror it felt like the beginning of the scene, then you'd be watching the "extended scenes" on DVD and you'd see the full stuff with what he did before the mirror.
And the scene after felt forced. I love those two as actors, so that was nice, but it felt like when you had Quark and Odo have some scene at the beginning of a DS9 episode, because it was a mirror universe episode and they had to put in their token scene involving voles so they got an appearance that week.
With SOOOO much content cut, I can't understand these choices. Except, in the case of Pycelle, they have a tit and ass quota to fill and they decided to do it this way.
I thought the finale was just okay. It seemed more like they were interested in setting up season two than focusing on making a good episode. I guess it would be hard to top last week's episode in any event. I wish last week's episode had been the finale, that would've totally blown me away.
After reading more on it today, it looks like there were two points to the Pycelle scene:
-Pycelle's feebleness is largely for show, as you see him stretching after Ros leaves, and then reverting back to hunched-over mode before he opens the door to leave (which I didn't initially pick up on, still being baffled by the whole scene)
-Ros is very likely there to spy on the affairs of Pycelle for Littlefinger, as the last time we saw her she was "auditioning" for him at the brothel
And between that, Cersei banging Lancel, and Joffrey's shenannigans, I guess it all serves to show the mess at court Tyrion will have to deal with next season.
-And tonight's pointless sexposition scene goes to.... PYCELLE?! I couldn't even begin to understand what purpose that served. And the following Littlefinger/Varys scene was redundant given episode 5.
I came to this thread pretty much to comment on these two points alone.
It baffles me where they start raising the drama, and pace, then it just goes CLANGGGGG and stops with this.
The Pycelle seen felt so inserted, so forced, it was just baffling that it'd see the light of day. When you see him straightening his clothes in the mirror it felt like the beginning of the scene, then you'd be watching the "extended scenes" on DVD and you'd see the full stuff with what he did before the mirror.
it actually baffles me how so much people don't seem to "get" this scene.
Roz is Littlefingers whore. Pycelle is keeping up his act (being old and weak) for as long as she is in the room.
He is also feeding her (and Littlefinger) misinformation about what he thinks of Joffrey.
I mean, do you honestly believe that a maester as old and experienced as him would "sense greatness" in this little piece of shit?
This scene showed us, that Pycelle too is very adapt at playing the Game of Thrones, and could even have his own agenda.
I found this scene not pointless at all, as it revealed a lot about his character.
Actually Game of Thrones didnt do any of that, HBO did it. They pre-set Ned Stark to look like the main character, where in the book he was more of a mechanism to set things going.
The novel A Game of Thrones and indeed the TV series Game of Thrones does indeed present Ned Stark as the main character.
In fact, check out this video featurette about behind the scenes of episode 9. David Beinoff, one of the two showrunners, observes, and I quote:
David Beinoff said:
Traditionally in a book, whether it's fantasy or any other genre - um, you might do a terrible thing to a side character, you might murder off a minor character but you're not going to kill Tony Soprano.
The reason Ned Stark's death works so well in both the novel and the book is that it's striking against that expected convention. It's basically the same shock to the system that made Psycho so memorable.
HBO's marketing was only playing to the same bait and switch that was preplanned and part of why the first novel works so well.
I disagree here. Where that scene comes basically depends on the editing room, since the Catelyn/Robb material ends with that scene.
But the focus on the early stretch of the episode is very much on the Starks and their immediate reactions and dealings with the aftermath of Ned's death. And while some of them sign off a little later - Jon and Arya - Robb's story is most directly a response to that action.
Putting it later would just be juggling more endings, since a huge chunk of this episode is ending beats.
Yeah, Maege Mormont was a character I'd mentally pegged as the Mormont that won't show. Now we got all three Mormonts in one episode - Maege at the King of the North scene, Jeor Mormont telling Jon Snow about their mission beyond the wall, and Jorah Mormont by Daenerys' side as she walks into fire.
-Wow, amazed they showed Cersei and Lancel shacking up already!
I'm surprised we did, really. They cast Arry's travelling companions for what is basically one scene (in the novel, we leave Arya shortly after Yoren's told her she's off to the Wall), which would have been the only scene with them if the show didn't get a second season, but now, obviously, we'll see some more of them.
So I guess the fat kid was supposed to be Hot Pie and the other kid... Lommy Greenhands?
I think Daenerys (and hell, Lancel) did that nicely anyway.
I agree the Pycelle scene had a purpose, which has been spelled out, but it's also the weakest scene of the episode. It's not as bad as Littlefinger's exposition to lesbian sex, as at least it implies what it wants to say about Pycelle rather then painting us an unsubtle word picture, but I think it goes on a little long all the same.
Yes, Pycelle has a public persona that contrasts a little with who he is when absolutely nobody is watching - but if you hadn't noticed, it takes a healthy dose of deception to not get your head cleaved from your shoulders in King's Landing so that should be of no surprise.
The already noted use of Roz as a spy is pretty obvious here, too. Why? Because after hearing a longwinded and doddering bit of rambling from Pycelle, she actually asks him a question about it, prodding him to finish his thought.
Why would she even feign interest at such a boring recitation unless Littlefinger wanted her to pump Pycelle for opinions?
I was just looking around on the Ice and Fire fansite Tower of the Hand, and I found a list of each chapter with a short description. I just thought for those who haven't read the book and were curious how it breaks down might find it interesting.
It'll be really interesting to see how they manage showing the dragons in the next few seasons.
Personally I think they should bite the $$$ bullet and make some really nice animatronic dragons - for close-up shots, hanging off of Dany's shoulders, etc... justify the cost by using them in every episode over the next 2-3 seasons, hence spreading the cost out.
