Game of Thrones episode 6.4 spoilers

Sorry, was out of town for the week so didn’t post this in a reasonable time.

This episode clearly revealed what will probably be the case for the rest of this season.  There are story lines I care about and those that I really, really don’t.

But first, RIP Osha.  After being gone for many episodes, she returns for two quick scenes, and then Ramsay stabs the frick out of her.  I hope we don’t get too many more tease scenes like this of “oh, oh, is Ramsay going to die? noooooo, I’m sorry.”  Either don’t show him or kill him. Continue reading →

Game of Thrones episode 6.3 spoilers

I’ve written about most of the episodes in Game of Thrones.  And I’m sure I’ve said this a few times about certain quotes.  And each time, they were probably correct.  But truer words than the title of this post have not been spoken on the show.  Both the books and the show have failed on numerous story occasions.  One of my favorite books is The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, which will hopefully be a topic for another post.  The hero of the story is an architect, and the book sets him up as a very, very good one.  One of the other characters asks him if he ever makes mistakes.  He says that he makes them all the time.  He just doesn’t build them.

Everything doesn’t always have to go right for the characters.  Characters themselves can make mistakes.  But consistently putting barriers in their way that move them seemingly further away from their arc is a failure of storytelling.  And Game of Thrones has seen that often. Continue reading →

Game of Thrones episode 6.2 Spoilers

Really?

Let’s waste no time and jump Ned’s head first right into Jon Snow’s resurrection.  So, after the countless characters who have died, and the list was added to in this episode, Jon Snow is the one who gets brought back.  I know book people will point to another character who gets brought back.  I doubt we will see her in the show, but my response there would be what is her point?

Anyway, we all pretty much knew this was coming.  Of all the ways they could have done it, I can’t believe this is how they chose to present it.  At least with Thoros and Beric, there was some passion, some performance.  Here we have Melisandre all but meh-ing her way through the ritual.  She doesn’t believe it will work, and she seems to put the barest minimum of effort into it.  If you are going to frickin’ resurrect someone from the dead and counteract one of the greatest forces this story has exhibited, give us some sound, some fury.  Maybe the editors chose the wrong take.  Maybe the next one was once more, with feeling.  This moment should have been a great moment, but it had none of the shock and awe of either the red or purple weddings.  Jon’s exhalation of the breath of life felt more like the story releasing a sigh of frustration.  This is what the story has come to: we have to magically bring people back alive to progress.

Continue reading →