Games Of Thrones

[Kaymyth]

Is it just me or plot got a lot faster? Theon just teleported to Iron Islands from Winterfell in the same time it took Brianne, Sansa and... urgh, Brianne's squire (cannot remember his name, really) to ride from WInterfell to the Castle Black.

 

I figure there's no solid reason why things in far-flung regions really have to be happening at exactly the same time.  There could really be a lag time of weeks between Theon's bit and what's going on at Castle Black, but we have no point of reference between them.  Just 'cause they're lining up in the same episodes doesn't mean they're really simultaneous.

 

Tears were shed during this episode.

 

Summer AND Hodor? That's two direwolves this season! All that's left is Ghost and Nymeria, who hasn't been seen since early season one. And Hodor. Poor, poor Hodor. I'm much more interested in Bran's story than I thought I would be. This was definitely one of the best episodes so far.

 

 

I...am not 100% convinced that Shaggydog is dead.  That head seemed awfully small for a direwolf.  After all, how long did the Umbers have Rickon?  And they only pop over and declare an allegiance once Roose (the real brains of the operation) is dead and out of the picture?

 

Ramsay may be a bloodthirsty crazy person, but he's also a dithering idiot.  Could be that the Umbers are looking for a shot at breaking his army from within.

[Briar King]

It's possible the Umbers are playing the Manderly plot for show since we saw them before but I'm about 90% sure that was indeed Shaggy. You don't send in the last known true Stark heir in an undercover plot. You use an expendable. Still it could indeed be a fake move on Umber part I just don't think it is though

[The Sovereign]

A couple of great GoT memes:
 

 

 
 

[Kaymyth]

 but I'm about 90% sure that was indeed Shaggy.

 

*whimper*

 

No, do not crush my illusions!

 

Direpuppy is safe....direpuppy is safe....direpuppy is safe...

[The Sovereign]

*whimper*

 

No, do not crush my illusions!

 

Direpuppy is safe....direpuppy is safe....direpuppy is safe...

 

Nymeria and Ghost are going strong.

[Oversleep]

I figure there's no solid reason why things in far-flung regions really have to be happening at exactly the same time.  There could really be a lag time of weeks between Theon's bit and what's going on at Castle Black, but we have no point of reference between them.  Just 'cause they're lining up in the same episodes doesn't mean they're really simultaneous.

What about Petyr and his travel from the Valley to Mole's Town? I am not sure how far away is it, but I'm pretty confident it's quite far (Valley is another Kingdom after all and The Wall is at the farest end of the North Kingdom).

Remember how long trips took at the beginning? How many episodes? It's significantly sped up.

BTW, how long is Sam, Gilly and Aemon sailing now? How many people made long trips in that time? My timelines got confused.

[Kaymyth]

I don't think there's any reason to assume that any of them are perfectly simultaneous.

Plus at this point, Sansa has been at the wall long enough to hand-sew herself a new dress AND make Jon a new cloak. There's definitely some time-skipping going well n here.

[vineyarddawg]

*whimper*

 

No, do not crush my illusions!

 

Direpuppy is safe....direpuppy is safe....direpuppy is safe...

 

(Obligatory response is obligatory in a GoT thread.)

[Quiver]

So...just wondering. Where do you guys think Baelish falls in terms of culpability?

...not a good way to put it. Let's rephrase; did he know how bad Ramsey was, and so took a calculated gamble with Sansa, or did he just underestimate Ramsey?

I find both positions hard to believe; Ramsey has a reputation, after all. But rolling the dice with Sansa seems risky by Baelish's standards, so...I'm left to conclude it was just a poorly conceived plot in the first place.

And hey, might as well ask here, does anyone have a copy of the A Song of Ice and Fire tabletop Rpg? I've picked it up and been reading, curious if anyone has played it...

[vineyarddawg]

So...just wondering. Where do you guys think Baelish falls in terms of culpability?

...not a good way to put it. Let's rephrase; did he know how bad Ramsey was, and so took a calculated gamble with Sansa, or did he just underestimate Ramsey?

I find both positions hard to believe; Ramsey has a reputation, after all. But rolling the dice with Sansa seems risky by Baelish's standards, so...I'm left to conclude it was just a poorly conceived plot in the first place.

And hey, might as well ask here, does anyone have a copy of the A Song of Ice and Fire tabletop Rpg? I've picked it up and been reading, curious if anyone has played it...

 

To be honest, I've given up on all of the motivations in the show really making complete sense all the time.  There is literally no justification for what Littlefinger did to Sansa if he loves her as much as he clearly does in the books. We know he's incredibly well-informed about virtually every major lord and lady in all of the realm, and given his past history, I just don't see how it is plausible that he didn't know how messed up Ramsay would be. So since that's clearly not plausible, there no reasonable answer for why he would put Sansa in that position if he loved her as much as he claimed... even in his creepy "I loved your mother, too, you know" way. 

 

I think in the book, his actions will be much more in line with his motivations, but in the show we'll just have to accept that one of the smartest people in Westeros did one of the stupidest and most clueless things imaginable. (Either that, or he doesn't really care about Sansa and just wanted to use her as a pawn the way he used Ros in King's Landing... and that's an even less plausible explanation.)

 

So, going with that reasoning, we've seen throughout the entire series that Littlefinger gets what he wants by using sex as his weapon to manipulate people.  As horrible as this is going to sound, he probably intended for Sansa to get "broken in" (but not in a cruel way) by Ramsay, and then he'd swoop in and "rescue" her from him, earning Sansa's respect and love in the process. So he gets the North, and he gets Sansa, too.

 

Yes, that sounds incredibly naive and foolish, but remember, we're suspending disbelief, because it's entirely impossible to believe that Littlefinger didn't know who Ramsay really was in the first place. Just my thoughts on the matter.

[Blackhoof]

I think he never expected her to escape tbh, and her doing so surprised him immensely.

 

I think he either was planning to rescue her with the armies of the Veil, or simply sacrifice her entirely in order to secure an alliance with the Boltons. Likely, he planned for both outcomes, to play both sides.

[Patar]

So I don't know what to think about this episode.

 

At the moment, it has definitely been my least favorite episode in season six so far. After the intro with Bran, which was incredible, it only slowed down for the rest of the episode. I was bored during the entire Sam segment, and the entire King's Landing segment was slow up until the very end, when Tommen declared for the Faith. This episode only served to build up several new stories, and that's not a bad thing. I know that I'm very curious in what Jamie and Arya will be doing.

 

So far The North/Bran has, without a doubt, had the most interesting things going on, at least in my opinion. That's not to say the other areas haven't been interesting, but The North stands out the most to me.

 

Also, Benjen's return was awesome.

 

[Oversleep]

I'm calling that Arya will mess something up soon, probably. It's all set up.

CALLED IT.

So Benjen is Coldhands after all? I swear I saw someone post evidence it's impossible, but I don't remember where. Also, we have a spiked individual in Westeros. Way to go, Ruin.

 

Who cares about Daenerys marching? (I am not saying Daenerys is uninteresting, but they are wasting space. She's marching, guys. We show it to you. Couldn't they just show her arrive or when something actually happens?)

Or whatever people are doing in King's Landing? When there's army of Ice Undead preparing to attack human lands, it's hard to be entertained by power struggle between Church and Crown.

BTW, I find it weird that all those people in King's Landing are so occupied with Faith Militant and so on... YOU'VE GOT A KINGDOM TO RUN, FOR STORM'S SAKE! "Oh yeah, Blackfish got Riverrun back. Let's strip Lord Commander of the Kingsguard of his position and send him there to clean up the mess." They should have sent some forces there way earlier.

Anybody else feels that Riverrun is set up as place for major plot points? Jon and Sansa are going there, because Blackfish is there and Freys are trying to get it back and now Jaime is going there.

IIRC Sam should've ended up in Braavos, but now he's in Hornhill. And he's doing stupid things.

I totally forgot to post this:

Edited May 30, 2016 by Oversleep

[Orlion Blight]

Yeah, we're definitely in those dips you have in story telling so that future interesting stuff seems more interesting in comparison!

I'd say Bran's arch is pretty much done for the season. He'll mostly serve now as a reason to show flashbacks while he's learning to control his powers.

The only interesting plot point we'll get this season at Kings Landing may be the trial of Cersei... Maybe. The focus seems to be now on Riverrun and the inevitable conflict for Winterfell.

[jaimeleecee]

So...just wondering. Where do you guys think Baelish falls in terms of culpability?

...not a good way to put it. Let's rephrase; did he know how bad Ramsey was, and so took a calculated gamble with Sansa, or did he just underestimate Ramsey?

I find both positions hard to believe; Ramsey has a reputation, after all. But rolling the dice with Sansa seems risky by Baelish's standards, so...I'm left to conclude it was just a poorly conceived plot in the first place.

And hey, might as well ask here, does anyone have a copy of the A Song of Ice and Fire tabletop Rpg? I've picked it up and been reading, curious if anyone has played it...

 

I am so confused about Baelish's motives here too!!

In the book...

It is not even Sansa that goes to Winterfell to marry Ramsay, it is Sansa's friend that she thought was killed when her father was taken prisoner and his men were killed, who is being passed off as Aria because everyone thinks she died. Sansa was supposed to stay with Baelish and be an important part of his overall plans.  So since that entire story line has changed it makes no sense anymore, especially now that Sansa (rightfully so) hates him for what he did.. I don't know how he fits into all of this now.

[Quiver]

A group of bastard who have expressed anti-crown sentiments and who murdered the Princess to the Iron Throne rise in open rebellion and murder the entire family of one of the Great Houses of Westeros? Never gets mentioned.

The Blackfish steals a castle? Everyone loses their storming minds

Between that, Sansa dressing down Baelish and the reintroduction of the Riverlands plot, I'm convinced this is just a season admission that their original plot lines last year were terrible.

Edited June 1, 2016 by Quiver

[Oversleep]

Random thought: after all that time Daenerys finally comes to Westeros to claim Seven Kingdoms. She thinks she'd win, cause she got dragons and a huge army... and then Bran decides he's having none of that, hijacks the dragons, burns her armies and steals the dragons to wipe out Others.

 

Or maybe Jon takes her army while Bran takes the dragons

Edited June 5, 2016 by Oversleep

[Kaymyth]

Random thought: after all that time Daenerys finally comes to Westeros to claim Seven Kingdoms. She thinks she'd win, cause she got dragons and a huge army... and then Bran decides he's having none of that, hijacks the dragons, burns her armies and steals the dragons to wipe out Others.

 

Or maybe Jon takes her army while Bran takes the dragons

 

I really think that things are eventually going to come to a head where Dany learns about the White Walkers and joins up with Jon to drive them back.  She's not going to have to conquer Westeros - she's going to come in and save their sorry butts.

[Oversleep]

I really think that things are eventually going to come to a head where Dany learns about the White Walkers and joins up with Jon to drive them back.  She's not going to have to conquer Westeros - she's going to come in and save their sorry butts.

How would she even learn about them in the first place if everybody south of the Wall think them a fairy tale and superstition?

I am counting on Bran to rise to power. I wonder how he's going to be able to stop Night's King (like Coldhands said) if all he can do is warg things and see past.

[Kaymyth]

How would she even learn about them in the first place if everybody south of the Wall think them a fairy tale and superstition?

I am counting on Bran to rise to power. I wonder how he's going to be able to stop Night's King (like Coldhands said) if all he can do is warg things and see past.

 

Bran's Greensight allows him to eventually learn the truth about Jon's parentage.  (I subscribe to the R+L=J theory.)  Jon finds about about Dany's dragons and realizes that dragonfire is the best possible weapon they could have against the Walkers and their army of the dead.  He decides to take advantage of his newfound family tie to her, seeks her out, and proceeds to give her an infodump.  The wounds from his death are pretty good evidence that there's something funky going on here, plus the dragons instinctively like him because he's a Targaryen. 

 

(I am also amused/intrigued by the other fan theory that's floating around that suggests that Meera is actually Jon's twin sister, and thus the third Head of the Dragon.  Howland Reed was the only other adult besides Ned Stark who survived the Tower of Joy - what if there were two kids born, and Ned took one and Howland took the other?  They REALLY did an interesting casting job in the show with those two actors looking an awful lot like each other...)

[Oversleep]

I'd rather very much that the defeat of White Walkers would happen without the dragons. Because it reduces Jon and Bran and Bloodraven and Benjen and Night's Watch and many others role to just "get Daenerys and her dragons to help us". Everything they did and suffer and sacrifice reduced to laying the path for Daenerys to just come and wipe out White Walkers.

I'd prefer Bran rising to power in supernatural, while Jon and Sansa reunite the North and lead them and Night's Watch against Others.

Also, I'd like more of this:

Edited June 5, 2016 by Oversleep

[Kaymyth]

I admit that narratively, it's an obvious path, which makes it feel lazy.  But all of the prophecy and magical weirdness seems to point to that being the answer.  And Dany can't do it all herself - three dragons, three riders.  And the dragons being predisposed to liking Targaryens suggests that there need to be three people with Targaryen blood to tame them down and train them up.

 

Dany more or less has Drogon working with her, if not under her control.  It's arguable that she's going to have trouble with Rhaegal and Viserion now, as she was the one who chained them up and they are none too pleased about that.  She needs help there.

[Briar King]

I think it's likely Tyrion Targaryen is the third head with Green. Jon gets White, Dany obv always has Black

[Orlion Blight]

Last time, on Game of Thrones:

[The Sovereign]

He is going to need so many chickens...