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| Winter is coming |
Jaime is adapting to king's Landing while his twin sister Cersei is giving him a cold shoulder blaming him not doing enough to come back to her earlier. Joffrey is being an annoying prick like always. Tyrion is back to the status of the disposable Lannister, greeting a new important character, Martel Oberyn Martell the Red Viper from Dorne. For some reason they made the Red Viper gay or at least bisexual. I guess they need to do stuff like that to shock the audience every once in a while. With all that said about the Red Viper’s sexual orientation Oberyn Martell had a pretty good entrance in the whore house , with the Lannister soldiers and with Tyrion himself explaining to Tyrion but mostly for the audience of the show why did he come to King’s Landing. Unfortunately Deanerys had a waste of space of a scene that achieved mostly nothing, well maybe except the dead slave girl that was crucified, who served its purpose. Sansa had a first, well it’s the 2nd contact with ser Dontos. John Snow is back to castle Black standing trial for treason in one of the most entertaining scenes of the episode and all that thanks to one sentence directed to Jonna Slynt .The best was saved for last. the scene with Aria and Sandor Clegane was the best in the premiere episode. Their scene had everything from comedy “Aria: He killed Loomy, Klegane: What the fuck is a Loomy” to serious conversation between Klegane and Polliver which included too many chicken metaphors and ended with a sweet taste of a revenge achieving another step in Aria’s transformation.
The premiere episode of the new season was everything we were waiting for and it is only the beginning there are plenty of great things to come.
A Song of Ice and Fire Amazon Boxed Set
ASOIAF Book set
HBO's Game of Thrones DVD Set (all Seasons)
Game of Thrones: The Complete First Season (Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy)
Game of Thrones: The Complete Second Season (Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy)
Game of Thrones: The Complete Third Season (Blu-ray)
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While I'm not a Dany fan for the most part, I'm inclined to disagree about Cersei being "fun." Her chapters are far worse than Dany's as far as I'm concerned. And I don't think Dany's as crazy as her father, she's just young and surrounded by yes-men and good fortune. You'll note that A Dance With Dragons had more than a few things turn sour for her, and who knows, maybe she'll redeem herself. But Cersei? Not fun. She needs to die about three books ago.
ReplyDeleteYes I totally agree. Watching the TV series is like watching 2 universes. A universe of harsh reality and injustice. And a universe of fantasy and luck where all good things happen to the retarded ignorant child That freed the slave, and yet has a servant bathing her. What kind of freedom is that anyway. The free slaves are still working as slaves and taking orders with no appreciation or pay ... How is she feeding that army anyway? They need food, water clothe, armor etc...In a real world Jorah would have left her to be poisoned and returned home. He's willingly degrading himself and agreeing to be treated as a servant for no reason. What kind of perv middle aged man falls in love with a child anyway...
ReplyDeletelike i said in the review. the first 7 episodes were pretty good but the last two were ... difficult to watch.
ReplyDeleteThe first couple of episodes weren't very compelling, but after that it picked up nicely.
ReplyDeleteHoult is one of my newest favorites. Wasn't impressed by Palmer.
ReplyDeleteShe had her funny moments.
ReplyDeleteher zombie impersonation practically killed me :)
I can't read spoilers for Thrones! But, I'm sure it's a fine post. :-)
ReplyDeleteThe Starks and king Robert are dead, no one remembers Jorah anyway either, he wouldn't register on anyone's radar anyway with all the ape shit going on... He's just stupid. Go back, become a lord again... Grow some damn balls
ReplyDeleteThat would be the best move for him, but he didn't and he will probably think a lot about the opportunity he had to leave, especially when we know how he will end up.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all *Lyanna and *Arya, secondly I think you miss the point, Martin creates realistic characters with faults and high points, Dany is an idealist, and her voice is what makes her sympathetic but she is also naรฏve, and ignorant and has little self-awareness she also makes bad decisions. However if you look at the context in which she was raised all Viserys focused on was their right to the seven kingdoms so she is practically indoctrinated from a young age to believe that and Martin uses situations like this to question the 'right to rule' that comes with monarchy, it is addressed with Renly, Stannis and even Roberts rebellion and Joffreys succession to the throne , it is a continuing theme throughout the series.
ReplyDeleteIn many ways you can draw parallels between Cersei and Dany as they both were deprived of power as young girls, and they both rise to power to be terrible rulers using brute force to keep their power, both prioritise their 'children' over everything else and use sex and marriage for power. Martin uses the same technique to point out their idiocy, the characters both feel they are doing the right thing, however their actions tell a different story and Martin leaves it to the reader to recognise the folly of their actions. They are very similar characters. Luck and Dany's families inherited magic play large part in keeping her safe and also dragons they are the nuclear weapon of fantasy, she is clearly a charismatic person as she is able to obtain loyalty and as a person she is not evil which is why her voice is sympathetic but she is a bad ruler as her actions have shown. you also have to remember that there is a network of people she is unaware of pulling strings to keep her safe such as Varys and Illyrio, and Ser Jorah was answering to Varys. Dany is not wise and maybe she does not wish to look at her family in a bad light but most people do not especially at a young age. and what's with the thing with the names characters like Arya have way more than she does and just serves to make any valid arguments you have seem ridiculous by association. I am not a fan of Dany but I don't hate her my problem is that you are degrading Martin and the story he has created purely because he created a character you don't like, I don't think he favours her, and there is a pattern you can see within the books where houses rise and fall, first Stark, then Lannister. Now Tyrell, Bolton and Martell are on the rise and Ageon might be on the rise but Dany is starting to fall, I also think the set up suggests the house Stark is about to start to rise again. The story is intricate and complex the readers don't have the full pictures but with the others headed for the wall, I think the dragons are gonna play an important part in protecting the seven kingdoms and Dany is the device that brought them into the story, to control and move them to westeros.
What's with the feminist crack?
ReplyDeleteThis may be me trying to desperately hold onto hope but, what if Martin is setting her and Aegon to fall super hard. Both have bad tempers, and an entitlement complex, and have people better than them covering their backs at all times and turns.
ReplyDeleteThat's what so great about Martin, you cant see whats coming next. it actually can work because after all we all want to be shocked and surprised just to say "OK i didn't see that coming".
ReplyDeleteWith Aegon, there are two scenarios that could ruin Aegon.
ReplyDelete1. Aegon ends up with a quarrel in his face for charging into Storm End as part of the front lines. 20ish years of work undone in an instant.
2. Connington spreads greyscale and causes a huge rift in Aegon'a army and is routed.
$10 says Jorah reaches Danny, and she upholds her word and kills him.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest i don't even remember whats going on with Aegon, i remember that he conquered some lands but other than that Nada. i guess i need to read a Dance with Dragons again, its been almost 3 years since the book was published.
ReplyDeleteWith that crazy chick everything is possible :)
ReplyDeleteI'm not a Danny fan, at all. I think she is cruel. Every time I read her chapters I feel she has some sort of split distorted personality. She's kind and a "good person" sometimes, but cruel and sadistic as well. It's creepy. But I guess that's realistic. We're all like that if we look closely at ourselves.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I agree with some of the points made by the author, but most of the text just sounds like he's trying to justify his hate with stuff that is common to almost every character. If he hates Daenerys for those reasons, he should hate everyone.
Another thing is, the distorted ideals Danny has of her father and Rhaegar were put in her head by Viserys and everyone else she knows. Every time she asks people to tell her about her family, they just get uncomfortable and throw in some fake courtesies. We can't really expect her to know the truth.
I'm still waiting to see an article explaining why Danny is overrated that actually makes sense.
She is childish, yes, but we can't really go that way since she is a child and she even admits so herself. However, she kind of forgets that sometimes. That's what is fucked up about her. She changes her mind in the same fraction of time. She will go from "I'm just a naive girl" to "You will not dare doubt by decisions again". What the hell?!
The thing that made me dislike her was in the very beginning, in GoT when she decided out of nowhere that she wanted the Iron Throne. Her brother died and all of sudden she's all entitled.
She kept saying she was a Khaleesi, not a Princess, and she was all happy in her Stockholm Syndrome relationship with her rapist of suns and stars, but still she pouted and decided she wanted to rule Westeros. And because of this decision Khal Drogo and his khalasar sacked, pillaged, murdered and raped entire villages to support her cause. After 99% of the evil had happened, she decided to save 1 or 2 women from being raped and in her distorted reality, she was a savior and those women owed her thanks.
Mirri Maz Duur was more than right in taking revenge and she was a victim until the very end, when Daenerys tortured and killed the poor woman.
Daenerys is a flawed character, like any other. I don't hate her to the point of being irrational, and likewise I don't love her. She's far away from being my favourite character, but I think she's very well written. Her insanity is very realistic, very easy to relate to, especially if I take into account my pre-teen years.
I agree that she only survives out of luck, but this is not less realistic. Some people have luck, some don't. Life is made of causalities.
I just hope she doesn't get the Iron Throne in the end, that would go beyond clichรฉ and just reach ridiculousness.
There may be distorted personality in the story but only few of the characters implement their sick ideals, most of the character overcome their impulses and proceed with their lives.
ReplyDelete“Every time she asks people to tell her about her family, they just get uncomfortable and throw in some fake courtesies” – that is not true Barristan Selmy and Jorah Mormont tried to tell her the truth about her family but she refused to listen.
There is luck and there is Martin protecting her, with all the bad decisions she made luck wouldn’t have saved her.
As a fellow Daenerys-hater, I think our disdain for her (at least mine) comes mostly from her storyline. Her character is indeed very annoying for many reasons, but the major problem I have is that her chapters are usually boring. They have been since the second book at least. Book Daenerys needs a serious reality check (Ser Barristan should just tell her her dad was the craziest lunatic in all of Westeros), but she is bearable in the interesting sections of her overall dragging storyline. Show Daenerys is even more annoying because she is portrayed even more favourably - for now anyway.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the fifth book (A Dance with Dragons) was very difficult to read because of her.
ReplyDeleteI hope that the currant 4th season of game of thrones will change the clean perspective many viewers got to see before
and may I add, the reason her storyline is (comparatively) boring is because, as you point out, everything turns out great for her. So far the surprise element is missing at least since Khal Drogo's death, with a couple of exceptions, and that makes her part of the story obviously less captivating. There are some interesting parts, like every time Quaithe shows up or when the dragons start eating people, but that's it.
ReplyDeleteMy question is how Dany managed to develop so many Westerosi cultural idiosyncrasies when she's never even been there before. Why is she so sickened by slavery when she literally grew up in a slave trading society and more than likely was waited on slaves her entire life? Further, she's already royalty which in of itself comes with a certain amount of entitlement and expectation for people to beg and scrape.
ReplyDeleteTrue she was never actually in a position as Royalty but she grew up in the lap of luxury of rich benefactors, like Illyrio.
i guess its OK having slaves that serve her her entire life but its wrong for somebody else to have slaves to do with them the exact same thing
ReplyDeleteTHE TRUTH HAVE BEEN SPOKEN! also what really pisses me off is how she always talks shit about the lords of westeros. "the starks and baratheons are dogs and all deserve to die a painful death. why? because they killed my psychopath father who burned the starks alive and let his son go and kidnap roberts fiance"
ReplyDeleteI knew i forgot to add this subject to the post, thanks for the comment
ReplyDelete"Who died and made you Queen"...ummmm well she is the rightful queen of Westeros and all of her party gives her that title as they're loyal to her.
ReplyDelete"She is the rightful queen of Westeros" says who? Daenerys and all of her yes man. Than I crown Hodor as the rightful king and I got my pet cat to back me up on that.
ReplyDeleteCome on dude, the moment that the Targaryens were overthrown, she lost her legitimacy to the throne.
Even though I agree with you, the overwhelming number of spelling/grammatical errors in this article makes it almost unreadable. Maybe spellcheck next time? Otherwise, all good points.
ReplyDeleteThank you for writing this. I didn't like her but I didn't know why,now I do.
ReplyDeleteShe just gave off a Targaryen madness vibe from the second book and on.
I hate the fact that she's loved because she wants to rule and will do anything for it. That's so hypocritical,when other people do it,they're tyrants. She's like Viserys when it comes to the iron throne except she has support and not as mad. Just too self-confident and cocky.
English is not my native language, i do have some errors. Point me to the errors and i will try to fix them as soon as possible.
ReplyDeleteYou are right.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment
I agree COMPLETELY! Every time I picked up Dance of Dragons I'd be thinking "Am I the only one who thinks George RR Martin has fallen madly and desperately inlove with Daenerys?"
ReplyDeleteI'm tired of reading her chapters.
I know exactly how you feel, every time I picked the Dance with Dragons to read it was so difficult and frustrating it was. Never had that feeling with the other books, not even with the Feast for Crows which was relatively slow and uneventful, and still it was interesting .Nothing important happened in Dance with Dragons and when something did happen it felt to be so slow and unimportant. I guess Martin just killed our spirit in Dance with Dragons.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, I think Arya is almost as bad as Dany. GRRM pushes you SO hard to like and revere her when she was a spoiled brat who got away with everything and has now become a little sociopath. So while she does have a few redeeming qualities (
ReplyDeleteunlike Dany anymore), she's not that likable to me at all and is written in an alarmingly similar way to the Mother of Dragons.
IMO Sansa is best ;) she's highly underrated and unlike those two, actually pays for her mistakes but still tries to be a positive person amidst the evil around her.
Brienne isn't a tomboy really. She doesn't fit in whatsoever with men. She's feminine in her own way, just not girly. I TOTALLY agree about the show though. Like the books aren't packed enough with smut, the show is even worse.
ReplyDeleteExactly, they threw in some extra with littlefinger. I cant believe the crap they pulled with his character in the show. The way they had him reveal his whole past with Cat to a pair of hookdrs . Like seriously did they need to throw in a useless seen that never happened just to add more sex.
ReplyDeleteAfter the unsullied and Dany started her emancipation crusade it was like Martin was trying to force us to like her. All she did though was let others fight for her in useless battles and justify torturing her own enemies.
ReplyDelete