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amyvanhymMan, I do not have enough shovels to make a treasure hunting post every day (I'm supposed to be writing, not surfing). Nor are my treasure chests large enough to hold all my treasures in one. Nor do I like mixing political treasures in with art and fiction treasures.
Today's treasure hunting: Game of Thrones treasure only. Then a bunch of writing about the last episode.
Pics & Gifs:
Three Jorah Moon... of my Life. This shirt should be official merch.
Yarp.
Some parallels.
Tell Google. I want her to know it was googly.
In order to ride the dragon,
You must first become the dragon.
Seven seasons of character growth.
Westeros Olympics gold medalists.
Sweet summer child.
Well, it's true.
You'll regret this day.
Fuck!
Tormond and Brienne, sitting in a tree.
Art:
... kay eye ess ess eye en jee.
King of the North by Lius Lasahido.
Cersei Lannister by Karnival Kun.
Tyrion graffiti in Shoreditch London UK.
I know you and Grieving Mother by Bayard Wu.
Fellowship of the Wight by Thobias Daneluz.
Wightbusters by Draw-It-Ralph.
I don't know who made this but dear Lord it is beautiful.
Night King by Klaus Wittmann.
Video:
S7E6 preview remix: C-U-N-T-S
Ozzyman's S7 reviews are hilarious: the playlist so far
The Fellowship of the Wight by Zurik
Maybe Davos isn't such a great smuggler after all. Some of these criticisms are weak -- for example, working in daylight made him look more like a common smuggler. He was prepared to get 'caught smuggling' as a cover for what he was really doing. But why did he leave all that gold behind? Whyy?
I watched the leaked version of episode 6 on Wednesday. After watching it again last night, I regret watching the leak. The encoding/quality wasn't right in the leaked file, making everyone sound whiny and phony, affecting my suspension of disbelief in ways I wasn't fully aware of until I saw the proper file. I was critical of the writing, the pacing, the characterization, the believability, and then the rewatch dispelled most of it. Does this mean I'm shallowly wowed by production values? Have I been hypnotized all this time? Or was something really important lost in the lower quality leaked version?
Whatever the answer, what a fuggin episode. Although the writing may not quite measure up to the quality of earlier seasons, I confess I still completely forgot about Jon's plot armor and irrationally ordered Dany to go back for him a bunch of times after he fell in the water, out loud, when watching the crappy leaked version.
On pride versus kneeling: I'm not jiving with the execution of this theme. This time around it was Tormond criticizing a leader's pride, which seemed quite out of character for him. I'm not convinced that Mance was motivated by pride, just as I'm not convinced Jon was motivated by pride. It seemed these mentions of 'pride,' first from Daenerys, then Tormond, both to Jon, were intended to implicitly sway Jon toward kneeling, but I don't see why they would or should. Liberty is inherently valuable. It's not prideful to reject unjustified authority, it's responsible, especially when you're doing it in service to people who trust you to lead and represent them.
The Kneel Deal went like this: Dany refused to help fight the Walkers unless Jon knelt first, and then later helped out even though he hadn't knelt. She changed her mind, took a risk, made a big sacrifice for him as an equal instead of requiring his submission. She proved herself to him, proved herself worthy of a position of power by prioritizing the good over her own desires. That was why Jon knelt. If anyone had to learn to swallow their pride, it was Dany. But she was one of the lecturers about pride, and Jon seemed to be the target of those lines. So what gives? I dunno.
I love how Jorah and Jon iz brothers now (giving back the sword, and Jorah being the one to yell at Jon to get on board the damn bus), but I bet Jon will eventually leave the sword to Lyanna Mormont instead of handing it down within his own family.
On Arya and Sansa's conflict: at first it seemed contrived and overdramatized to me, but it doesn't anymore. They really didn't like one another when they were younger, and they're working it out. Like Jon, Arya is a person of action, who knows the world through experimentation and demonstration more than through discussion. Arya proved her strength and showed her distrust, and then by putting the dagger in Sansa's hand and turning her back, showed trust; sort of like a wolf snarling but then showing its belly, not that I know much about wolf psychology. Yes, Arya was also being hypocritical by accusing Sansa of treason for helping Lannisters, but that's not bad writing, that's how she is sometimes. She makes her mistakes openly as part of being an active experimenting character.
[Edit: More insight on Arya and Sansa here.]
I love how Arya used Lyanna Mormont's personality to strengthen her argument against Sansa. "Lyanna is younger than you were when you wrote this. Are you going to tell her you were just a scared little girl?" That was excellent, and it means Arya and Lyanna have likely met. I'm disappointed we didn't get to see that.
Also loved Tormond's face after Viserion went down. He saw his first dragon and saw a dragon die within a few minutes.
On the romance: It's very natural. The actors are carrying the subtext well in a way that proves love is something happening to them rather than something they're consciously choosing. You could say I ship it, but I'm afraid of getting what I want. I mean sure I want what I want, but I don't want to totally GET what I want because that's like eating spoonfuls of pure sugar and butter instead of a carefully crafted pie, you know? I love the part of my tongue that tastes sugar and fat, and I love the part of my mind that seeks wish-fulfillment in stories, but that's not the point of it all. If this story gets a good grip on my heart and then doesn't bother breaking it properly by the finale I'll feel pretty cheated.
Perhaps babies really are coming. But if Daenerys gets pregnant and dies in childbirth as some are predicting I will probably be disappointed. That is a lame death for a main character. It would mean her whole character as an individual has culminated in a death that reduces her to her sex. That said, it could be a good source of tension if she were to knowingly risk such a death, as while there is more to her than motherliness, she has always wanted to be a real mother, not just a figurative one.
I see people arguing around the fanosphere about the merits and flaws of "team Daenerys."
Seems to me the general debate about Daenerys can be reduced to,
"Dany's a great character because she has flaws!"
"Yes, flaws like [______]."
"Shut up haters, Dany's a great character!"
And on and on we go.
I hope Jon will boopsnoots with sad Rhaegal to cheer him up about his lost buddy, and through this they will build their rider bond.
On the Night King: why did he throw his first javelin at Viserion when he had a sitting duck, the strongest dragon, bonded to the Queen, carrying a ton of heroes, right there on the ground? One could argue that what he wanted most was a dragon that hadn't bonded to a rider, but does a guy who can raise zombies, control them, and presumably see through their eyes, really need that extra boon?
I wish the plotters had made Viserion swoop directly at the Night King, ready to blaze him up. If he took after his namesake, it would make sense for him to be impulsive, wrathful, and overestimate his own strength. Then the Night King's aim might have been shifted from Drogon to Viserion at the last moment. And then Viserion's death would have been a bittersweet sacrifice to save others.
But instead, the plot of the big action scene seemed reduced to a checklist, at least at that one point. The plotters knew the Night King would kill Viserion so they made it happen without giving enough thought to the desires/strategies of the minds involved. Of course, I might not have a grasp on the mindset of the Night King. Perhaps he didn't want to kill everybody yet. His long-distance interactions with Bran prove he's got some third-eye abilities of his own. Maybe he's playing 4D chess, setting all of this up intentionally for a future big win, and if that were revealed later, after the scene had been done with the 'fixes' I described, it would look like an asspull because the evidence wouldn't support it. But then, why did he try to take down Drogon once the crew was in the air? Bah. So he did want to kill everybody after all, which means he should have aimed for Drogon first. When villains don't strategize well it makes them less threatening.
That's all I got.
Today's treasure hunting: Game of Thrones treasure only. Then a bunch of writing about the last episode.
Game of Thrones General
Pics & Gifs:
Three Jorah Moon... of my Life. This shirt should be official merch.
Yarp.
Some parallels.
Tell Google. I want her to know it was googly.
In order to ride the dragon,
You must first become the dragon.
Seven seasons of character growth.
Westeros Olympics gold medalists.
Sweet summer child.
Well, it's true.
You'll regret this day.
Fuck!
Tormond and Brienne, sitting in a tree.
Art:
... kay eye ess ess eye en jee.
King of the North by Lius Lasahido.
Cersei Lannister by Karnival Kun.
Tyrion graffiti in Shoreditch London UK.
I know you and Grieving Mother by Bayard Wu.
Fellowship of the Wight by Thobias Daneluz.
Wightbusters by Draw-It-Ralph.
I don't know who made this but dear Lord it is beautiful.
Night King by Klaus Wittmann.
Video:
S7E6 preview remix: C-U-N-T-S
Ozzyman's S7 reviews are hilarious: the playlist so far
The Fellowship of the Wight by Zurik
Maybe Davos isn't such a great smuggler after all. Some of these criticisms are weak -- for example, working in daylight made him look more like a common smuggler. He was prepared to get 'caught smuggling' as a cover for what he was really doing. But why did he leave all that gold behind? Whyy?
On S7E6
I watched the leaked version of episode 6 on Wednesday. After watching it again last night, I regret watching the leak. The encoding/quality wasn't right in the leaked file, making everyone sound whiny and phony, affecting my suspension of disbelief in ways I wasn't fully aware of until I saw the proper file. I was critical of the writing, the pacing, the characterization, the believability, and then the rewatch dispelled most of it. Does this mean I'm shallowly wowed by production values? Have I been hypnotized all this time? Or was something really important lost in the lower quality leaked version?
Whatever the answer, what a fuggin episode. Although the writing may not quite measure up to the quality of earlier seasons, I confess I still completely forgot about Jon's plot armor and irrationally ordered Dany to go back for him a bunch of times after he fell in the water, out loud, when watching the crappy leaked version.
On pride versus kneeling: I'm not jiving with the execution of this theme. This time around it was Tormond criticizing a leader's pride, which seemed quite out of character for him. I'm not convinced that Mance was motivated by pride, just as I'm not convinced Jon was motivated by pride. It seemed these mentions of 'pride,' first from Daenerys, then Tormond, both to Jon, were intended to implicitly sway Jon toward kneeling, but I don't see why they would or should. Liberty is inherently valuable. It's not prideful to reject unjustified authority, it's responsible, especially when you're doing it in service to people who trust you to lead and represent them.
The Kneel Deal went like this: Dany refused to help fight the Walkers unless Jon knelt first, and then later helped out even though he hadn't knelt. She changed her mind, took a risk, made a big sacrifice for him as an equal instead of requiring his submission. She proved herself to him, proved herself worthy of a position of power by prioritizing the good over her own desires. That was why Jon knelt. If anyone had to learn to swallow their pride, it was Dany. But she was one of the lecturers about pride, and Jon seemed to be the target of those lines. So what gives? I dunno.
I love how Jorah and Jon iz brothers now (giving back the sword, and Jorah being the one to yell at Jon to get on board the damn bus), but I bet Jon will eventually leave the sword to Lyanna Mormont instead of handing it down within his own family.
On Arya and Sansa's conflict: at first it seemed contrived and overdramatized to me, but it doesn't anymore. They really didn't like one another when they were younger, and they're working it out. Like Jon, Arya is a person of action, who knows the world through experimentation and demonstration more than through discussion. Arya proved her strength and showed her distrust, and then by putting the dagger in Sansa's hand and turning her back, showed trust; sort of like a wolf snarling but then showing its belly, not that I know much about wolf psychology. Yes, Arya was also being hypocritical by accusing Sansa of treason for helping Lannisters, but that's not bad writing, that's how she is sometimes. She makes her mistakes openly as part of being an active experimenting character.
[Edit: More insight on Arya and Sansa here.]
I love how Arya used Lyanna Mormont's personality to strengthen her argument against Sansa. "Lyanna is younger than you were when you wrote this. Are you going to tell her you were just a scared little girl?" That was excellent, and it means Arya and Lyanna have likely met. I'm disappointed we didn't get to see that.
Also loved Tormond's face after Viserion went down. He saw his first dragon and saw a dragon die within a few minutes.
On the romance: It's very natural. The actors are carrying the subtext well in a way that proves love is something happening to them rather than something they're consciously choosing. You could say I ship it, but I'm afraid of getting what I want. I mean sure I want what I want, but I don't want to totally GET what I want because that's like eating spoonfuls of pure sugar and butter instead of a carefully crafted pie, you know? I love the part of my tongue that tastes sugar and fat, and I love the part of my mind that seeks wish-fulfillment in stories, but that's not the point of it all. If this story gets a good grip on my heart and then doesn't bother breaking it properly by the finale I'll feel pretty cheated.
Perhaps babies really are coming. But if Daenerys gets pregnant and dies in childbirth as some are predicting I will probably be disappointed. That is a lame death for a main character. It would mean her whole character as an individual has culminated in a death that reduces her to her sex. That said, it could be a good source of tension if she were to knowingly risk such a death, as while there is more to her than motherliness, she has always wanted to be a real mother, not just a figurative one.
I see people arguing around the fanosphere about the merits and flaws of "team Daenerys."
Seems to me the general debate about Daenerys can be reduced to,
"Dany's a great character because she has flaws!"
"Yes, flaws like [______]."
"Shut up haters, Dany's a great character!"
And on and on we go.
I hope Jon will boopsnoots with sad Rhaegal to cheer him up about his lost buddy, and through this they will build their rider bond.
On the Night King: why did he throw his first javelin at Viserion when he had a sitting duck, the strongest dragon, bonded to the Queen, carrying a ton of heroes, right there on the ground? One could argue that what he wanted most was a dragon that hadn't bonded to a rider, but does a guy who can raise zombies, control them, and presumably see through their eyes, really need that extra boon?
I wish the plotters had made Viserion swoop directly at the Night King, ready to blaze him up. If he took after his namesake, it would make sense for him to be impulsive, wrathful, and overestimate his own strength. Then the Night King's aim might have been shifted from Drogon to Viserion at the last moment. And then Viserion's death would have been a bittersweet sacrifice to save others.
But instead, the plot of the big action scene seemed reduced to a checklist, at least at that one point. The plotters knew the Night King would kill Viserion so they made it happen without giving enough thought to the desires/strategies of the minds involved. Of course, I might not have a grasp on the mindset of the Night King. Perhaps he didn't want to kill everybody yet. His long-distance interactions with Bran prove he's got some third-eye abilities of his own. Maybe he's playing 4D chess, setting all of this up intentionally for a future big win, and if that were revealed later, after the scene had been done with the 'fixes' I described, it would look like an asspull because the evidence wouldn't support it. But then, why did he try to take down Drogon once the crew was in the air? Bah. So he did want to kill everybody after all, which means he should have aimed for Drogon first. When villains don't strategize well it makes them less threatening.
That's all I got.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-08-22 01:24 pm (UTC)I never watch leaks, so I appreciate that people save their commentary until the official episode is aired. I love participating in the fandom meta and when things leak early it sucks to have to wait to join in on the fun.
That Davos graphic. :D