The Game of Thrones Thread

You think ? I think that was actually Maisie, as far as I know, GOT does not use body doubles on nude scenes.

Finally, I keep seeing everyone talking how "great" this episode was, but for me it felt like a bad fan fiction with random character interactions, nothing happened in the episode, and with only 6 episodes this season, you'd think they' d use them well.

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Also, why so much trouble with the Arya sex scene ? Maisie is like 20 already IIRC

@thor_parker82: Yeah, I'm thinking double. I believe Cersei had one during her walk of shame scene too, but I think that was because Lena was pregnant at the time.

It did but they needed to set it up to the point where the battle could take up almost the full episode. So I figured it would play out like that. Basically all the characters get to have one last night to reminisce a little before the shit starts to hit the fan from here until the end. Plus Jon revealing his big secret to Dany.

Well... ew...

If we had a longer season I wouldn't mind this episode. By itself, I really enjoyed the character interactions, the quieter tone, and the growing sense of impending doom as everyone just enjoys each others company for what could be the last time. However, when you purposely gutted the screen time and rushed dozens of storylines, episodes like this feel like a waste.

Yeah, I guess my problem is that I still see Arya as a non-sexual character...once I thought about it, I actually liked the scene....the build up at least lol

With only 4 episodes to go, I think they could have easily given our characters this "last night" while also fleshing out and exploring other story elements.

There isn't that much else to flesh out though and the last 4 episodes are like two giant movies worth of screen time. What other story elements needed to be touched upon?

I'm glad we got this episode. We have like 6 more hours of content. No need to skip the foreplay. Let everyone say goodbye.

@johncena69swag: same. The deep breath before the plunge as Gandalf would say.

I have access to who lives dies gets married or gets (sharded) <Spolier word)..muhahahaha.... kinda of a spoiler just saying that. But I don't want to know so not telling more then that.

There's an entire ocean of things they could flesh out. Especially if you consider last season as well.

• Jaimes trial was resolved much too quickly
• All the reunions are short. You just get a taste before they move on to the next scene. Think back to the Jon/Sansa reunion, then think about the Jon/Bran reunion. Sansa and Jon felt much more heartfelt because they allowed the scene to breathe for a while, then after we got scenes of them just catching up. Jon reunites with Bran, and all we get is an emotional hug and then the scene moves on. Even his reunion with Arya felt rather rushed.
• The reveal of Jon's parentage was underwhelming. It felt more like a plot point that needed to be resolved than anything else.
• No one questions Bran enough. It's all just taken in stride. You'd think that if the crippled son of Ned Stark came back to Winterfell as a near omniscient being, more characters would at least be shocked and ask questions. I think Tyrion was the only one to do so, but we didn't even get to see that scene.
• Theon saved Yara in like 2 minutes.

There's more, but I don't wanna give off the impression i'm being nitpicky. I'm not the biggest fan of the last season, or these last 2 episodes, but i'm still a huge fan of the series and i'm glad we're getting something. I just feel like everything is being rushed.

I get where you are coming from here but I'm just not sure any of what you mention seems like story elements that exist beyond what we saw going on at Winterfell. I think what you describe is more like personal preference of which characters deserved more screen time with each other. I don't think most of them really know the full extent of Bran's powers yet and I think he prefers to keep it that way. Remember that for him much of what he sees has already happened most likely since he sees into the past and future. So he's trying to keep things going the way he thinks they need to go.

Next episode is gonna be a killer

Not necessarily; i'll just give you an example of what I meant. Think back to season 4, when Tyrion was on trial for Joffreys murder. The trial itself took roughly 15 minutes of screentime, and then we get additional screentime for the fallout with Tyrion in the cells, and people coming to visit him. Then we get the trial by combat. All this occurs over 3-4 episodes.

If it were written like season 7/8 material, Tyrions trial and the trial by combat would probably be given 10 minutes at most. Not only would the meat in between be cut, the main scenes -- trial and trial by combat -- would be trimmed and dumbed down as well. That's how I feel about these scenes now. And I know it's because they have shorter seasons, but when big, important plot points get rushed only for this episode to move much slower, it feels like we're getting cheated out of material.

Yeah, but they should much more curious.

I'll tell you one character who I feel has been too greatly diminished on the show and that's Varys. He's like barely there because D&D have no idea what to do with him.

I read an article in which Maisie talked about the scene, she mentions that at first she thought it was a joke, that she was taken by surprise, but she was given the choice of how much of her body she wanted to show, they didn't force her to do a nude, it was her decision the amount she wanted to show, and Maisie also said how she wish she was notified sooner so she could hit the gym, so I guess that was actually her and not a body double.

Man, this is so true, Varys has been left behind, whereas in previous seasons he was one of the most interesting, dynamic and active characters, I remember there being a lot of talk about the real Game of Thrones being between Varys and Littlefinger, and that was actually true, but now Varys is just.....there.

It's because they completely axed his book material in a way that not only severely limits what they can do with him, but also makes him pretty shortsighted and dumb in hindsight.

The same thing happened to Littlefinger.

@buttersdaman000:

It's because they completely axed his book material in a way that not only severely limits what they can do with him, but also makes him pretty shortsighted and dumb in hindsight.

The same thing happened to Littlefinger.

What do you mean by this ? I didn't quite get the expression.

I agree. I think how both of them play out in the books will likely be much different(if we ever get another book(s) which seems highly unlikely). I get the feeling George didn't want to tell them what to do with those characters and to just wing it. More so once they went way off course with the whole LF/Sansa/Ramsey storyline.

Varys hasn't had book material since season 4 iirc. In the books, he spirits Tyrion out of Kingslanding then disappears. You don't see him again until the epilogue of book 5 where he reveals his true plans. They changed it for the show since they got rid of the Aegon storyline.

Yeah...in general I can't really blame them for changing the source material. GRRM made it seem like they'd at least have book 6 to lean on before the end of the series, but that obviously didn't come to fruition.

However, i'll never forgive them for that Sansa/LF/Ramsey debacle lol

What was Varys' true plan in the books ?

What debacle ? Sorry for the questions, I don't read the books but I'm curious :P

Things I see happening....

Theon either dies next episode defending Bran or lives to eventually marry Sansa

Grey worm dies or he and Missendie Go to Narth where she becomes Queen of Narth..

Jamie and Breanne die fighting together at winterfell...

Arya is saved from either a walker or night King by Jaquen Hagar.. or Nymeria and her pack

Tyrion offers Bron double and Bronn says he don't like his bitch sister anyway...

Cersi poisons Theons uncle cause she won't share anything. Or has the mountain kill him suddenly..

Messisandre re appears with back up many red fire weilders Arya kills her after she's on the list...takes her face maybe..not sure on that last bit

Tormund saves his big lady love from a dead Giant and earns the name Giants Bane or gets killed by one with a sense of Irony...

In the books there is another character who is said to have a legit claim on the throne via the Targaryen bloodline that Varys has been protecting. We don't know how true that claim is though. Sansa where the books left off is still in the Vale with LF and Ramsey is given a bride who is said to be Sansa but is actually just a childhood friend of her's. Theon does manage to escape with her but that's where it leaves off. There's also a lot more intrigue going on in the events that lead up to the battle between the Bolton army and Stannis' army which hasn't been resolved yet. It also involves the iron bank of Braavos.

The Arya scene was just untasteful...

Why is everyone so upset about see the naked back of a 22 year old girl.

No one complained when Danny was getting freaky with Kal Drago and she was 13/12? In the books.

@xyzen: Didn't know she is 22 years old. No offence to the actress but she looks 13-14. Not everybody read the books so we judge by how old actors look instead of stated age.

@gaoron: oh well she's 22 now and the man who plays Gendry is 30 I believe.

In the books/season 1 she's 11 and he's Jon's age so 14/15. And if each season is a year that's 7-8 years so she's 18-19 and he's 21-22. So I again see nothing wrong here, if was a bit weird because we watched her grow up but they're both adults now.

Also I know they're using winterfell to slow the WW down but had I been in charge, I would have taken everyone to the Iron Islands once Theon got back and said his sister was taking it back.

Let the Night King kill Cersi's army and she can return the favor with wild fire. Two birds 1 stone.

Hmm.

In the books Varys has been working with Illyrio (guy who gave Dany to Drogo in season 1) and Doran Martell for years to destabilize Westeros and put a boy who is supposedly Aegon Targareyen, Rhaegars son, on the throne. After Tyrion kills Tywin, he disappears for while only to show up in the epilogue of book 5, reveal his plans and kill Kevan Lannister, the regent. No one knows if this Aegon is truly Rhaegars son so he's generally called (F)Aegon -- the F stands for fake. If he is actually fake, then he's probably a blackfyre along with Varys himself. Varys doesn't have good show material because the show severely expedited and simplified the remainder of his arc. It also makes him seem kind of dumb in hindsight since he was actively sending assassins to kill Dany in the previous season. If his plan was always to put her on the throne, why try to kill her??

As for Sansa, the showrunners decided it would be cool to drop her Vale storyline and send her to Winterfell to be raped by Ramsey. This never happens in the books. In the books, Roose marries Ramsey to a Jeyne Poole, Sansas old friend, and passes her off as Arya Stark. Sansa is still in the Vale with Littlefinger, as he tries to manipulate events to "let" Robert Arryn die, and marry Sansa off to Harry the Heir before revealing who she truly is. Sending Sansa to Winterfell severely changed the arc of her character, yet it somehow ended in the same place as well. She was supposed to learn the game from Littlefinger, but that was cut short. Yet, somehow she still does end up learning either way....Giving her away to Ramsay also made Littlefinger seem dumb as hell. He'd never make a mistake like that in the books. And frankly, the Vale storyline is simply much more intriguing than what we got in Winterfell.

But, I do understand why these story elements had to be changed for TV.

@buttersdaman000: From what I understand, Martin gave HBO key moments to go off of but the rest is up to them.

I would like to see a Blackfyre thrown into the mix but with 4 episodes left I don't see it happening now.

So can anyone explain cerci’s plan here she doesn’t have any dragon glass how is she gonna deal with the dead that are surly going to come

@thevvitchking: she's delusional.

Either the North wins or everyone dies. Or she uses the wild fire some how.

I think that Northern girl with the burned face who talked to Davos and Gilly might be Mel under a new disguise. Although it would be awesome to see her and Kinvara arriving with an army of red priests to fight the dead the same way the knights of the Vale did during the Battle of the Bastards.

Drogon should be the one to put Viserion down.

Where is Dawn? Perhaps Howland Reed took it with him after the showdown at the Tower of Joy, and Meera will show up wielding it at some point next episode.

@anna_karenina: IMO Winterfell is going to get overrun quickly, the army will scatter and Danny/Jon escape on their dragons.

This will force Cersi into working with them in the end, and I believe the throne will be vacated and a new system will be adopted perhaps 1 person from each major house forms a council or something.

I remember GRRM saying the ending was butter sweet so I think 80% of the cast dies including Danny, Tyrion, etc. And we get a new ruling system when it's over.

Yeah he did. He said the ending of the show is the ending of the books, but the journey there is different and more simple.

Yeah after season 5 I knew they weren't gonna do it lol

I actually think they "win" the battle of Winterfell. Then, at the end of the episode we see the Night King flying over Kings Landing....

@xyzen: I really hope the night king is marching to kings landing just to see the look on her face

@buttersdaman000: @thevvitchking: that would be dope, the night king taking Kings landing.

@xyzen: Kind of agree. Winter will fall hard upon them. But I think there might be a way out of Winterfell through the crypts, and they'll use it rather than the dragons. The crypts are probably protected by some sort of magic, and Bran haven't gone down there so the Night King's mark won't break that protection.
The mere thought of it pains my heart, but I can see Rhaegal dying in the battle (there's a chance Drogon is "pregnant", so it could live a little longer to lay an egg).

For some reason, now I think that Jon is more likely to die than Dany. Or maybe both. But either way she won't be sitting on the Iron Throne at the end.

I actually had a feeling they were building Sansa to become the queen the seven kingdoms needed, but after seeing her talking with Daenerys in the last episode, I'm not so sure anymore.

Ok, first, why is everyone so disgusted and upset about Arya and Gendry? Maisie Williams is 22 years old. Like there are people who have intercourse all the time that are like 5 years younger. I was actually happy that they did that. If I knew I had one night to live, I would most certainly do what Arya did, and I like them as a couple. And you want to talk about books? Let's talk about 13 year old Dany getting raped in season one. Everyone remember that? But yeah, the scene was perfectly fine.

The dialogue and interactions were also fine. I hear people complaining about how it was boring or fanfic or whatever. This is the last time we will ever see several of those characters alive together. You're SUPPOSED to enjoy the fact that they made it this far and were all together one last time.

As you can all tell, I really liked the episode. Jaime's interactions were nice, Dany and Sansa was a good scene, Jon Sam and Edd all on the wall gave me huge nostalgia, Tormund was hilarious as always, Ghost at least made an appearance, Brienne becoming a knight made me so happy, the council scene was awesome (you could just feel the intensity of it)...I thought it was a great way to celebrate the characters before many of them die in the battle.

@xyzen: wait is Bronn still in Kings landing? That would be a bad way for him to go

@thevvitchking: I have no idea we didn't see any of that side of westros last episode it was all in the north.

Dany was a grown woman in the show

We've watched the Arya character, and therefore Maise Williams, grow up for 8 years now. It's just weird to see a character who was never sexualized suddenly become sexual. Even Sansa, with all the implications of womanhood and sexual undertones (harassment) in KL, has never been sexualized like that. I don't count the rape because it's not sexual. It also doesn't help that Maise still looks rather young.

But after the initial shock the scene has grown on me. I also understand why Maise pushed for it as well.

@spambot: @buttersdaman000: I see, thanks for the info guys.

Hot Pie only has 4 more episodes left. He can make it. Let's hope he survives.