"Power resides where men believe it resides. It's a trick. A shadow on the wall. And a very small man can cast a very large shadow." -Lord Varys
Scout Aside, this is from an international dvd brief from Cinema Scope magazine: On another recent trip, thanks to Bloomington resident James Naremore, I managed to land an English-subtitled version of one of my all-time favourite French noirs (and, arguably, the very first), Jean Renoir’s 1932 La nuit du Carrefour (1932), on a homemade label calling itself Video Dimensions, with Douglas Fairbanks’ The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916) included as an extra.
Fox Well thats possibly the best news I've ever gotten in a Game of Thrones facebook thread.
Scout To damn that piece of news with faint praise. Balon Greyjoy blew my mind. I loved him in yesterdays episode. What a shitbag he is. I liked how much of a shitbag he was because with Theon standing next to him to intimidate, he's basically powerless.
Fox boooooi! Love Davos the pirate, too. And Melisandre is downright terrifying
Scout Oh yeah. Carice Van Houten, a titan! Perfect for that role! I love that Melisandre's whole story line is spelled out in just that moment alone with Stannis. Like you can see every possible bad way that shit's gonna end.
Fox Although it's killer watching it one at a time - it's the most all-at-once show I've ever seen
Scout You wanna be like "Ain't you seen a goddamn movie before!?" It's so fatalistic. Even more so than Deadwood.
Fox For sure. I just love how hard they're going to make it a book-tv show . They don't give a shit about spending time with fan's favorite characters. They're telling a story and refuse to compromise
Scout Exactly. But in doing so they actually get more mileage out of their cast. The thing about the structure is that, yes, you'll only spend a minute with Daenerys and Jorah, but those two sell the plight in that time with no problem because they're great at what they do. And it also makes you appreciate those few minutes with these people because you know there's a lot going on in the world.
Fox I've never had more faith in a show runner (or show runners in this case). They love Game of Thrones to death so they're doing it right. It's funny because having read the story I still come at this season like its something completely new. I guess I did with the first season as well but it's got me in unfamiliar territory and I like it .
Scout Last season seemed so much more about establishment. They had room in a given episode to follow winding and often cryptic conversations to strange ends because they were helping you get to know these people and understand exactly what sort of world this was. Which worked not only to give you a sense of what the show was, but also what it wasn't. It's not whimsical, it's not about fulfilling prophecy, it's about everyone trying to keep their head above water. So the first season played like a cross between something by Aaron Sorkin and The Sopranos. They took their time within a given scene and filled them to the brim with crackling verbiage. This season, whole nother fuckin' ballgame. Because we know everyone every scene feels like a cliff-hanger, even if nothing happens. Far more than last season I feel like I absolutely have to know what happens next when the credits roll, which is a major improvement over the great first season. The show isn't as densely written these days because it can only spend a minute in every kingdom, which is slightly to its detriment, but the pacing is now closer to first season Walking Dead territory. I need to see what happens, something that the first season only managed in the last few episodes for me.
Fox Thats a great way of putting it. Yeah I'm interested to see if they slow down. I'm really trying not to compare it to the book. We recently discussed the problems with that. What I will say is that the novel is SUPER slow and it's almost entirely Tyrion's ballgame. I think that the writers know that it's a stagnant story at times (though never bad or boring) so they're trying to make it as manic as possible, especially since there's a war on now even though there's no combat yet
Scout Indeed. It's a little more West Wing this time around and less Sopranos. Which I like because I know these people and because the writing is still amazing. If we get one good Tyrion scene, I'm happy because I know he's got a lot to do this season and if it's stuck between the other people that the Lannisters will have to deal with when the actual combat starts, I'm ok with it. What they've done is made this season The Two Towers. It's a gradual build-up to something we know is being promised. The difference is that Towers felt like a lot of wheel spinning when it wasn't directly about Aragorn building up the Hornburg's defenses. GOT is better because everyone's headed to the same fracus, and you want to know what the combatants will be up against and whether the fighting will actually come to mean a damn. If the backroom dealings and stealth firings/assassinations continue, there may be no allies left. It's an exciting feeling whenever someone leaves by a different door than they came in.
Fox I'm rewatching "The Night Lands" and I'm realizing how I'm a total sucker for horribly sun burned lips. Dany and Jorah wandering the desert is actually the most compelling part of this season so far. And you're totally right. Even though the sequences are so brief they pack the most wallop. The one thing I will say is that they had better really nail us with a battle near the end of the season. Even though the show is brilliant with just dialogue-driven sequences they really need to build up to something this season. I think they will but I'm saying that they must to give a lot of what they're doing real meaning.
Scout It's funny, there are a few things I can think of where a sort of action setpiece is filled exclusively with people we know. To go back to a previous example, Helm's Deep may as well have been a Hanna Barbara cartoon because the only people we knew or cared about on either side of the fighting was Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas, who we'd been with the whole time and who were never in any real danger to begin with. What I'm excited to see is a battle where all sides are filled to bursting with people we know, and not simply faceless soldiers. The beauty of HBO is that the cast of characters on a given show is massive and so when even a minor character is stabbed to death, you feel it. The best example of this is, for my money, on Deadwood when out of nowhere you discover that someone, who is narratively a minor character, turns into someone you realize is a huge part of the reason you love the show. I'll always cite W. Earl Brown as Dan Dorrity perfecting the art of the Milch side character. Brown meant nothing to me until midway through the second season when Al Swearengen's laid up in bed, suffering and pissing blood, and Dorrity excuses himself to cry on the balcony. Until then you hadn't really figured he was much more than a child in a hulking and terrifying man's body. You'd seen him capable of jealousy, but that's not much on the emotional richter scale. Here he was openly sad, experiencing emotions so overwhelming he could barely explain them to Trixie later in the day. And just like that someone who will never actively figure into the plot as you could write it on paper, became an indispensable character. To the point that when his life is in danger, I found myself saying that he was the one character I was certain I could not live without. And then they pull the rug out from under you by killing someone equally if not more important. Now, that's a very long tangent, but my point is that the best shows on HBO or Showtime or wherever will fill their worlds with enough people to sell the place as believable.
Todd Van Der Werff constantly talks about Deadwood as a microcosm of community which means that someone like Dorrity or in his case Charlie Utter can be people you love and believe in, even if they're often sidelined by the ostensible leads. So what I'm saying is that when Game of Thrones gets to the combat portion of the story, it's going to be one of the most brutal and honest moments in currently running TV series. Let me explain: until this point the GOT writers have made it abundantly clear that no one's life is guaranteed, unless they're so much a shitheel that killing them before the end of the show would rob the series of a lot of drama and of a greater catharsis, as in the case of Cersei and Joffrey, who still have so many more situations to ruin. And as we've seen not even being the show's lead character and poster adornment will save you from the executioner. So, why this is so exciting is because as the show fills out its world with more and more characters, each of whom we know better with every episode, when they finally clash, the stakes will be astronomical because everyone in danger of being killed in their scenes of combat could be someone's favourite character. If Stannis' forces make it to King's Landing first, you have Bronn, The Hound, Ilyn Payne and potentially Tyrion on one side, and Davos, Stannis, Mathos and Salladhor fighting with the fate of Melisandre, Joffrey, Cersei, Baelish and countless others in the balance. If the North gets their first, Theon, Robb, etc. will be on the battlefield. Then anyone could and probably will get an axe buried in their face and that'd the end of it. Film typically doesn't have the potential for wringing this much pathos out of a set piece, unless it's something like the excellent Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World, but even there you only really knew about 10% of the crew. What I'm saying is even if it only lasts for ten minutes, it's going to be amazing.
Fox It certainly doesn't help that I'm approaching this show from a reader's stand point as well so I know more or less exactly what's going to happen narratively. Though some of my excitement is extinguised in that regard I have even more fun watching exactly how the writers decide to carry out a lot of the action in the show. I'm in full agreement with your saying that the stakes are high no matter what. That is unquestionably true. The way the book goes about telling the eventual chaos (as with a lot of what goes on in the book) is they sort of sideline the action and only tell you hearsay and at most what one or two characters experienced there.
I really have no problem with this method and much prefer it to being treated to a God's Eye camera so that I always know what's going on. This method fails more often than not because it doesn't allow the audience to truly delve into the world they medium is trying to sell you. GOT does a tremendous job of putting its viewers into its locales by first putting you into it's character's shoes. I guess my plea for violence comes from a yearning to really see GOT go ballistic on itself. I think their advertising for this season (constantly promising that "War Is Coming") had better pay off with some serious blood if only to satiate the viewers who don't really get what GOT is going for yet, but I have to say I'd love to see a really well executed battle sequence mainly because I've seen the series succeed flawlessly at just about everything else. I want one more great battle for my "best of" pantheon.
"You gave me away!" -Theon Greyjoy
Fox Stray observations from this week: First, best episode this season. Second, Lena Headey rocks the fucking shit as Cersei. Even more so than people give her credit for. Theres so much going on in her head. You can see these wonderful little nuances in her eyes, particularly when she's dealing with Sansa. It's like Cersei really just wants Sansa to bust out and rebel like crazy but can't ever let her at the same time. In direct opposition to that, the guy that plays Little Finger drives me fucking crazy. He looks the part for sure and I'd never call him a bad actor but he is incredibly inconsistent as LF. I hate to judge him harshly but LF is one of the most secretive and interesting characters and I really think he's dropping the ball more than he's carrying it.
Scout Let me first say this: Natalie Dormer's here, and I couldn't be happier. She's got that very english cuteness that I can't resist and has a splendid curiousity about the violent craziness around her. Those eyes are alive with it. The way she treats her husband is so goddamn perfect (Oh, and I'm glad as anything that the gay knights are back) her manner is so agreeable that you don't know if she's taunting him or appeasing him when she says that she'll turn over and pretend to be her brother. Either way, she's running the show at Renly Baratheon's place. Anyway, I'll see your Cersei compliment and raise you a Theon Greyjoy finally coming into his own. I liked him more and more as his dad smacked him around but it wasn't until Theon bites back with "You Gave Me Away," that a whole season worth of his being minor and ineffectual made sense and he became a real character. He's been in the shadow his whole life - unloved by one family, another kind of bastard in the other.
But to your criticism about Aiden Gillen - I don't mind him being tossed aside like this because he's paying for handing over Ned Stark by losing his control over everything except the girls in his harem - and even they need to be terrorized in order to do what he wants. He was who you describe him as in the first season, but the way I see it, and the way I want it, everyone who had a hand in Ned's murder (namely LF, the eunuch and Walter Donavan), Tyrion's going to make them pay. Not because he cares about Ned Stark (though I think he respects him and was sorry to see him die) but because everyone who killed him happens to be in opposition to his taking power, pleasing his father and staying alive. So perhaps LF's fallen in your estimation and in his stature as secret keeper, but I don't think it's by accident. Watching Tyrion move pawns is so hugely entertaining that I don't mind anyone seeming small in his presence. I loved his conflicting wedding proposals, I loved him putting Shae in Sansa's bed chamber (maybe one of the best scenes in the episode), I loved him intimidating Donavan with Bronn. I love him in charge. And because of this, I have to predict that it won't last because this show is just as crafty and backhanded as he is.
A final note. The series is paced much more briskly this time around, so even if we spend time with a given character, it's in a series of locations, as with Renly and Tyrion. And then comes that beautiful sequence with Arya and Yoren. Yoren is my favourite kind of character on Game of Thrones - dependable, colorful and bearded. Yoren, along with Bronn (who, it must be said, is to GOT what Dan Dorrity was to Deadwood) and Jorah Mormont, lives to serve, each in his own way. They are supporting players but they imbue their characters with experience, of lives hard lived and piece of mind hard earned. They have nothing to prove and act because they believe in who they act for.
The story Yoren tells is about the one purpose he had in life, revenge, is beautiful not only because he delivers it quite nicely, but also because it shows that the things that Arya and the other lead characters are building to now, the things that this series are ultimately about, are still ahead of them. His purpose has been met; he killed the man who killed his brother, so every step he takes is for someone other than himself. So it was fitting to see him go for Arya because she still has her destiny, for lack of a better word, ahead of her. And I think he was happy to die for her. And better still, he left with a cry that will ring in my ears long after his presence has ceased to be felt on the show: "There's men out there want to fuck your corpses!"
Fox Good gravy Natalie Dormer. Yes she runs the show in Renly's camp for sure. And I agree 100% about not being fully sure how she actually feels about Renly's orientation which was brilliant. I think for the first time in the show's 13 episode run I actually came away liking Theon. Which I'm glad about. As far as the book is concerned, you're occasionally in Theon's head but you never really like him and more importantly you don't sympathize with him. The writers here have done a fantastic job putting us in Theon's camp, even if it is only for a little while.
Now Aiden Gillen. My complaints have very little to do with his situation. One of my favorite sequences ever in this show is Tyrion laying down the law 3 different ways on Varys, Little Finger, and Grand Meister Pycelle. My troubles with Alden come entirely from watching his body language. Because though Little Finger is a sniveler to some degree he's almost always in control whether the audience knows it or not. I found him particularly inconsistent in last night's episode. Alright I'll stop complaining about him. It's not worth it since last night was (for me) the best episode this season. They're really picking up speed but managed to spend more time with almost as many people as the previous two episodes. Arya and Yoren stole the show for me last night as well, even after I just harped about Tyrion's wonderful work. It was so tender yet very funny in the way that I only thought Deadwood could ever truly deliver on. I'm just happy that Arya got even a little bit of sympathy for her plight from Yoren. Because at the end of the day, Arya is 12 years old and that girl is going through some serious shit for anyone let alone a girl her age. And as far as last lines go, I'm putting Yoren's on my tombstone.
"Bronn, the next time Sir Meryn speaks kill him" - Tyrion Lannister
Scout TCM's running an old ad for Mack Sennett. With Featured player Harry Langdon. On a keystone cop pie fight, the narrator helpfully informs us: "This one killed in its day!"
Fox You have to remember that all the guys that put those ads together were first seeing those things their freshman year in quallege. Ladies and Gentleman, this is "Garden of Bones"
They start by doing a lovely little job of showing the ferocity with which Robb Stark is fighting his war. The soldiers that die at Grey Wind's jaws are not obviously evil men. They're sitting their post (in a heavy downpour no less) and are trying to make the best of their situation. Robb's conversation with the field nurse Talisa, following the slaughter was great as well. Eye opening for both sides of the war. We finally get a little insight as to Robb's intentions and its almost comforting that he wants nothing to do with the Iron Throne.
Fox When Joffrey's bedroom scene got going I really felt it was over the top. I wasn't exactly sure if they needed to drive the point home as much as they did as far as him being a madman. I came to be fine with the scene only because they're really trying to ramp the stakes up. Absolutely no one is safe from Joffrey's sadistic nature. Not whores. Not Sansa. Not even his own mother. Though these are all female examples, we got a few others at the end of Season 1 including the minstrel who was singing ill-willed songs about Joffrey's lineage and of course Ned Stark himself. Little Finger got some nice air time in this episode. He heads to the Storm Lands to speak with Margaery Tyrell (and any time at all with Natalie Dormer is a blessing) as well as Cat Stark and Renly. Though he's here on Tyrion's orders, he does a wonderful job taking control of his situation and getting everything he would want and every word he wants said, out before taking his leave. Little Finger also has no qualms about toying with Cat. Even though he loves her (and its probably the only genuine feeling that he feels for anyone) he isn't even remotely afraid to play with her motherly affection to try and strike and deal with her instead of Robb.
Arya's storyline is frightening as always. The first shot of Harrenhall is fucking horrifying and then we watch with Arya as strangers and friends are tortured. It was smart of the writers to not really explain yet what it was the interrogator was asking for. It added to the general confusion of the situation. Tywin knowing she was a girl was a great little touch. Plus its a nice surprise to see a Lannister appear as a guardian angel.
"Born amidst salt and smoke? Is he a ham" -Renly Baratheon
Fox Daenerys finally learns that being a Targaryen and a Khalisee will not get her everything. She's spent her life surrounded by men who get everything they want through threats, violence, and fear. At Qarth, Dany now has to try a new method: Submission. And she doesn't take to it well since she spent the first 16 odd years of her life being forced into this very way of life. Arya is really beginning her transformation this episode. When she watches her friends (and even strangers) die, she doesn't cry or show fear. She's tempering steel. She's hardening herself for the most true and total revenge. And I really can't wait until she gets it. Tyrion is so absolutely thrilling to watch. Not only because Dinklage is a revelation but because Tyrion is literally the most powerful man in the realm and he's utilizing his power in the smartest way. He's moving the most pieces out of anyone but he's doing it with such skill that it's impossible to look away.
Lastly, we don't see magic a lot in Game of Thrones. So when we do it needs to be a big deal. Melisandre's shadow child is absolutely terrifying and is important for a number of reasons. 1. Renly seems to be in real trouble now that we see exactly what Stannis was threatening him with. 2. Melisandre isn't just all morbid talk. The woman is very very dangerous especially now that we know the kind of power she can harness. Great episode.
Scout This episode is all about sleight of hand. The show could be said to be about the hands moving pawns, the action behind the action. This episode has Tyrion responding to harshness with uncanny deftness. He'll walk into any given room, change the tone and direction of whatever conversation or action he witnesses, and then leaves in charge of everyone and everything. He's going around snipping wings in King's Landing, meanwhile I couldn't help feeling like the whole scene in Qarth was a put-on, a bait-and-switch to lull Dany into a false sense of empowerment. Stannis talks a big game, but he's in Melisandre's pocket. Tyrion and Baelish are hoping to use Cat to get around Robb. Stanis came to Renly to get him to surrender, already prepared for his refusal. Tywin Lannister, in thirty seconds of screentime, puts a few people abusing their tiny amount of power in their place and changes the fortune of many. In other words, earnestness is a put-on, and everyone's hoping that someone gives them a reason. Everyone wants to be pushed so they can flex their muscle, whatever it may be. So even though no one is stabbed to death, this is the most exciting episode we've seen all season.
Fox So 6 seasons in, The Sopranos is just starting to be on the same level as Deadwood.
Scout Yeah, it took some time getting there, but the time it wrapped up, it was absolutely unmissable. I love the last episode so much.
Fox I didn't even know you've watched The Sopranos, but yeah this season is so far above the last seasons and i'm only 4 episodes in.
Scout Oh, yeah. I saw the whole thing. Barring a few in Six part 2. You hit johnny Sack's Wedding yet? That's some Godfather type genius shit. Or, well I guess it's not his wedding. It's his daughter's wedding.
Fox It's in the next episode but I'm watching this show entirely for the last episode so that i can understand everyone's problem with it. I'm fully prepared to love it.
Scout I had no problem at all with the last episode. To me it's as fitting as Al on his knees scrubbing blood off the floor. How else are you going to end a show that's one portion of a hundred people's lives? Nothing's going to wrap it all up for them. You know? Van Der Werff said of Deadwood that he liked the feeling that you could still happen upon these people if you somehow walked into the black hills. I think they were after the same sort of thing.
Fox A great point. I think the people that were upset were the non-critical viewers who watched it for the mob part, which is still the least interesting aspect of the series for me
Scout Yeah. I like that critics are still talking about the ending to The Sopranos.
Fox I know pretty much everything about how it ends except how they get there .
Scout You'll like it. There's a thing at a gas station that is blackly hysterical that I still think about from time to time.
Fox But having seen most of this, most of The Wire, and all of Deadwood I think the latter tops the holy trinity of television.
Scout Game of Thrones has the uncanny ability to turn my hands into Devil Horns. My official word is simple: This episode manages to burn even brighter than last week's despite it being simply the release of tension expelled in the first scene. It's all agreements, bonds and promises, and is it ever thrilling! Brien and Cat, Arya and the prisoner, Little Finger and the widowed queen, Tyrion and the alchemists, Theon and his first mate, Jon and the rangers, and on and on and on. Every union broadens my smile because not only is it this kind of bond that Game does so well (somehow people swearing allegiance to each other has the excitement of a swordfight and the catharsis of a love scene in this show) but also because they all grow stronger to fight each other. Each gains a powerful ally, each goes from crawling to walking in proving themselves worthy of the throne and toward their destiny.
On an individual note how goddamned great is Iain Glen? We've talked about him before, how much we adored his understated performance in the first season and here he finally gets a moment of confession that you believe in. Most confessions in the show come either with the stench of guile or the earnestness of the naive. Jorah Mormont is neither a liar nor an innocent. At times he seems the last noble character. When backed into a corner he does not grovel and beg for Dany's love or even confess what I assume is the extent of his; he keeps his head above water, remains uninvolved and yet somehow strikes at her sympathy deeper than if he had started in with schoolboy language. "Sometimes I stare at you and can't believe you're real." These are the words of someone besotted, and it's clear that Mormont has feelings that run deeper than protector or companion, but he sells his devotion so simply and so perfectly. He is there to keep Dany honest, to remind her that she can unseat the firmly grounded simply by being herself. She seems uncertain of it because she sees a veritable buffet waiting for her just within reach but Mormont has two excellent reasons to warn her away from what she thinks she wants. One, she won't be queen as he sees her, free of debts to anyone but himself (which I feel he'd shrug off in a minute - he seemed content to die of thirst for her). And second she'd be another man's wife, which would kill him a little. And mind you, Glen says all this in about twenty seconds with nothing more than that beautifully grizzled face and the most heartfelt delivery a man with his inner scars can muster. It's a command performance among command performances. To return once more to Deadwood, he's Whitney Ellsworth with a touch of the bleeding, violent interior of Seth Bullock. As if it needed to be said, I can't goddamn wait to see what happens next.
Fox Everyone made a partnership this episode and if the pieces weren't clearly moving before, they certainly are now. I'm so glad you mentioned the fealty bit because I was on the edge of my seat when Brienne drew her sword for Catelyn. I'm trying to keep the book and the series seperate but Margaery Tyrell gets a lot less time in the novel. Its clear the show runners know what they've got and are giving Natalie Dormer every single chance they can for her to slowly turn her head and flash those sexy ass fox eyes. Arya's new friendship with Jaqen H'ghar is wonderful. He makes me smile everytime he's on screen but what's more important is Arya has power (though a thimbleful) for the first time ever and it'll be very interesting to see who she picks for the remaining two lives owed. Literally every scene with Bronn has me psyched. The dude doesn't have to even do anything anymore and I'll still be laughing madly at every one liner he's got.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Iain Glen. I didn't even know what to do with myself when he dropped his 20 second monologue. I really wish it was the last scene in the episode only so that it'd force viewers to think about it even more. In a show where literally every single word uttered is a lie, we finally got some genuine truth and its about what seems to be the rarest thing in Westeros, Qarth and all the rest: Real genuine love.
Scout Charles 'Charlie' Dance and Maisie Williams rocking out. Fuck a goddamn I love the way this show does verbal sparring matches. Jon and Ygritte, Jaime and his cousin, Tyrion and Cersei, Theon and everybody who'll listen to him bitch. It's like chess and sex in one. This was the first episode where tension was sustained from scene to scene. Skipping between Qarth, Winterfell and beyond the wall was an excellent choice. Stakes are always high in Westeros but we've never been more certain that death is over the next hill.
Fox The last couple of episodes they've actually strayed from the books a great deal. I don't want to compare them but its nice to see that the writers of the show are treating the series like a second chance to tell a great story. Dany's dragons never get stolen in the book but it's making for a much more interesting plot line for her. And Tywin and Arya literally never say word one to each other in all their time together at Harrenhall. Thank god they've added those sequences because they're arguably the best the show has ever done. And yes, even with only a brief glimpse at Tyrion he's a frontrunner for stealing the show with that little quip off with Cersei. This show needs to stop casting such wonderful women because ever since Ygritte showed up I've just been pawing my way over furniture to be as close to the TV as possible when she says anything. She's one of the best casting choices yet.
"Any man dies with a clean sword I'll rape his fucking corpse!" -The Hound
Scout Haha!!!!! "Blackwater" proves my desperation in the face of a narrative and spectacle. So a storm knocked out my internet and I got it back around 10. I started two downloads, one for a 1.56 gb, one for a 386 mb, which oddly took longer. So I start watching and the file's too big for my processor and every few seconds the screen freezes, then tries to trudge through the frozen image - I'm sure you know what I mean. So this won't do. I go online to find it streaming and it works, but the picture and sound are shit. So I kept switching between them until Stannis hits the beach. Finally the other download is at 97% and I decide to just sit in silence and wait it out to watch it in slightly diminished quality but better sound. Which means I watched that guy get his shit wrecked by a thrown rock three or four times. Upside I got to hear the Hound say "Any man dies with a clean sword I'll RAPE HIS FUCKING CORPSE!!!!" three times . A fantastic episode that makes you forget about everyone else in Westeros. The Hound makes the strongest showing of himself yet. Rory McCann takes a one-note character and gives him life. I loved this episode. I loved Tyrion cutting off a warrior's leg and proving Varys right about his ability to save the city. I loved this fucking episode!
Fox Couldn't have said it any better myself. The wildfire explosion actually forced me to stand up out of my chair and yell at the tv. George R.R. Martin actually wrote that one too. It's always interesting to see changes that an author makes on their own material for film and television.
Scout Agreed. It's like Lindqvist doing the script for Let The Right One In - you have to know the strengths of the medium, because that novel is a real grotesque slog and that movie is the most beautiful thing ever made.
Fox But I think the best parts of the episode were all the dismemberings. They were fucking incredible and all completely unexpected.
Scout Rewatching this, I agree with your dismemberment theory two-fold. For this we have Director Neil Marshall to thank. Someone else might not have thought like he did. Neil knows work on a budget - he's never had bloat (except maybe Doomsday, when he blew it) so he knows that if you get a little money, you've got to make it last. So the dismemberments are not only tonally appropriate to the grisly proceedings in Westeros, but also Neil uses them as shorthand for the violence of combat. You only see one or two men getting killed in battle, but those few men are cut in half or have the tops of their heads cut right the fuck off so their brains are like a blood mary in Dudley Moore's shaky hands. You're going to remember those images, and you're going to get how fucking dirty the men of King's Landing fight.
Fox I think you're totally right. The imagery from the episode that really stays with me are all the dismemberment and the Wildfire explosion. I remember the entire time I was watching it on tv I kept looking at the clock hoping for more time for fighting. What I didn't notice while doing that is the entire episode goes by in a flash. Its nothing but gold even when there isn't any fighting. Cersei's drunken breakdown is fantastic. (Though I will say that the most touching thing on the planet also happens in "Blackwater". Sansa bitched Ned out for getting her that doll and she was so attached to it in this episode) Really tugs at the haat strings....
Scout Tugs right on 'em.
Scout Well that was a hell of a way to end a season.
Fox Haha. Yeah they're really setting everyone up for disaster in book three. It was an extremely busy finale unlike the first season. I'm just about to the point where I want a spin off buddy cop movie with Jaime and Brienne.
Scout Best scene. I loved Jamie's cockney put-on .
And then we start talking about lord knows what. A bit of a copout considering how well the season ended, but then, we were too heartbroken to admit it was over. So we didn't say goodbye...we said bon voyage.
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