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Game of Thrones (Current episode spoilers)


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Who Will Be Next To Die?  

12 members have voted

  1. 1. Dany Crew

    • Tyrion
      0
    • Greyworm
    • Varys
      0
    • Sandsnakes
    • Yara
      0
    • Olenna
      0
  2. 2. Northern

    • Jon Snow
      0
    • Sansa
      0
    • Little Finger
    • Brienne
      0
    • Tormund
  3. 3. South

    • Cersei
      0
    • Jaime
      0
    • Mountain
    • Qyburn


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"Can we please not do the line by line deconstruction thing? I find it rude."


 


That's ok with me since I found your posts pretty rude too. Only because they were dismissive and condescending though, not because I have my own private interpretation of what it means when someone block quotes my text when replying to me. Regardless, I'm not changing the way I structure my posts because someone imagines that the formatting carries some connotation.  


 


On that topic, while we're sharing what we find rude and perplexing about each others' reasoning and mode: The amount of speculating you've done in responses indicates that you first decided that you took issue with my criticism, and then second got to work at figuring out why that is that you took issue. As a result you've thrown several theories against the wall, and offered up as many inept analogies as you could to suggest that I'm being selectively critical, and that everything about the narrative was executed adequately. It didn't slow you down a beat either when one of the conclusions that you considered viable in the absence of any evidence provided by the show (the idea of the face database) didn't fit in with what we've seen on the show. There must be some other way that I'm an idiot for my criticism, you just haven't figured it out yet - seems to be the idea. The difference is that when I see you do that, I'm not going to sit here and try to tell you to interact with me the way I would like you to. I'm just going to respond in a way that I feel is appropriate, and I don't feel like the quotation of texts to support my argument is going too far at all.


 


"My point is that the face thing is obviously done by "some kind of magic",


since they clearly aren't wearing actual masks a la Texas Chainsaw"


 


Nothing is clear or obvious, and that's my problem. You reached that conclusion for the sole reason that the alternative (some method of skin-wearing, and no, these aren't mutually exclusive) sounds ridiculous. The problem is that the alternative has more content that supports it, no matter how silly that looks to us without further detail. The show itself has only shown us that, at least for Arya, the carrying of carefully-removed face skin is involved. The show has shown us that far from teaching her how to use the faces, Jaquen forbade her to do so (take a physical face from the wall to wear), even telling her that it would be poisonous for her to try, which suggests that he did not teach her. It doesn't seem likely that the waif did either, given her disposition towards Arya. They made a point to send her on missions with her own face, which worked to drive that idea home pretty well for me.


 


"I don't get why it matters to you which kind of magic it is exactly or that we see how Arya learns it."


 


I would like something, and that something could come in different forms. Give me a single scene of Jaqen smiling slyly as he welcomes Arya into a new area of the house. Then I can say "ok, he showed her how to do whatever magic-tricky and/or artisanal thing they do to apply the faces." Give me a scene of her sneaking into an area of the house where she doesn't belong, and then her beginning to eavesdrop on Jaquen or the waif about to engage in some activity, and close the scene. Then I can say "ok, she was sneaky and managed to learn some magic-tricky and/or artisanal thing they do to apply the faces." If they were to get more descriptive with the technique itself as Arya (or anyone) employs it, I might, depending on what that process involves, be able to reasonably suspect how we're meant to believe that she came about this ability. As of now though, it seems that I'm expected to believe that it just rubbed off on her from her remaining in close proximity to those who know how to do it for long enough. 


 


I feel like you're being deliberately obtuse with your bow & arrow example, but in case you're not, I'll explain why it's not the same thing: We know how people tend to learn how to shoot a bow & arrow. They practice shooting one. Some people are naturally talented at such things too. I'm not taking issue with the story not showing me how Arya learned to walk either. 


 


When Arya handed over her Bravos coin to the captain of the ship that took her there, I think it's safe to say that a lot of people were excited to see when/if she masters the mysterious technique that Jaquen showed off to us, even if we didn't expect an eHow video on it. We spent the following two seasons shadowing her every major move and event, and some minor ones. By the end of it we pretty much saw her do everything but defecate and learn how to wear faces. One of those is typical to omit in any story, but in this context, the other one is a glaring omission, especially given all the show's suggestions that nobody showed her how to do it.


 


Say Podrick was separated from Brienne in a dramatic scene that ends with him stowing away in some ship that heads for Bravos. If Pod shows up a season or two later and starts pulling faces off left and right, I'm not going to ask any questions. He went to Bravos and learned this. Fine. It would be cool if he talks about it in a conversation when he reunites with Brienne, but I wouldn't count it as a strike against the show if that never happens.


 


The narrative doesn't have the same relationship with Pod as it does with Arya, where we're privy to her every meaningful development. In the case of Arya, as opposed to the Pod hypothetical, the impression it leaves me with is that something about her learning this was deliberately avoided. 


 


Two possibilities come to mind as to why. The first is that something involving her picking up that ability is going to be revealed at a later, more appropriate time for other developments/reveals. This is the one I'm hoping for. The other one is that this faceless thing wasn't thought through very well, and that it's being awkwardly treated for that reason. That's the one I fear, and that I'm being tentatively critical of.


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10 hours ago, Mal said:

I've been seeing a bunch about this Ed Sheeran fella. Why should I care about him?

He did a song with Taylor Swift a few years ago. I don't know if he's had much success otherwise, I'm assuming so if he was in GoT.

 

1 hour ago, Mr. GOH! said:

It's almost as if Arya were the bad guy at that campfire.

I thought shit was going to go down when she was eyeing those swords.

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It was a decent opener. I was expecting more to happen, since it's a longer episode and the seasons are getting shorter, but I suppose it does a decent job of mapping everything out (quite literally).

The "Ed Sheeran scene" and the scenes with The Hound were good because they show what's happening to the "proles" which is something I'd heard the books did more: showing the impact this all has on ordinary folk, not just the lords & ladies.

I think my favourite scene(s) however, were (spoiler just in case)

the leadership tension between Jon and Sansa. It's great to have come this far and have seen how their approaches are informed by different people and environments. It should make for interesting viewing ahead.

 

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On 7/17/2017 at 3:14 PM, Mr. GOH! said:

It's almost as if Arya were the bad guy at that campfire.

I mean. At this point how do we feel about Arya? I get we want to see her succeed but she's done some pretty fucked up things in the name of revenge. I mean,

Spoiler

she murdered an entire room of people and whilst I guess we've decided they all deserved to die

 is that something we should be cheering for in a character? 

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You are never the only one. No matter how edgy you may feel you are being. (A pet peeve of mine).

I wasn't hugely bothered by Sheeran, it was a bit immersion breaking, but there you go.

Spoiler

As for Arya, yeah she's being a bit vicious, but she didn't murder the Lannister soldiers (yet) so it's not like she is totally gone to the dark side. All the Freys she killed were in on the Red Wedding, she spared the wife cos she was innocent.

I think Jon and Sansa is interesting, I don't think it will come to violence between them. I think blood will hold them together over Littlefinger's meddling.

 

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