HBO: Game of Thrones

[DRW50]

Isn't she still pretending to be his niece (to most of the outside world)?

I think she is trying to show him her manipulations, as she knows that's what he wants, but also trying to make him think he's in control of her, as that's also what he wants. I hope it won't go too far - I don't want to see them as a couple, and I don't want to see him rape her - but the current dynamic could be interesting.

Does anyone know who played the old woman on the council? She looked so familiar to me.

I didn't think Dany was manic in that scene, per se, but it was just the look on her face, the tone of her voice. Dany spent over a decade and a half dealing with her brother believing that everyone was out to get them. This is the paranoia that ultimately killed him, because it meant he was unable to have a perspective beyond what he was owed in his mind. I'm concerned that the same will happen to Dany, because now she may believe that everyone close to her is lying to her, manipulating her, and she will have no one to truly trust (just as Aerys and Viserys never did).

I guess the Jaime and Tyrion scene was supposed to be Tyrion facing his impending death, and also a meta commentary on the show/books killing off so many characters. It did go on a little too long...and it's tough for me to laugh at some poor handicapped guy.

Lena Headey once again spoils in a delightfully trollish way.

http://instagram.com/p/mVN1fdvAzU/

BFF.

http://instagram.com/p/ov11YCnw-U/

Funny video. Probably NSFW though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hpewbz7GwCU#t=15

[quartermainefan]

Her name is Paola Dionisotti (you made me curious so I checked), I am not familiar with her but she seems to be an actress who got a lot of work in supporting roles on British TV. On the show she reminded me of dead character actress Meg Wylile, who once filled in as Lila on GH.

[Vee]

I dug Tyrion's speech. I grew up with a relatively minor but notable disability, and it doesn't exactly make you more sympathetic or more keenly attuned to that many handicapped or mentally challenged folks. Especially the ones who are lumbering assholes. Everything he and Jaime described in relation to their interaction with their idiot cousin, I've been there - from their vantage point, that is, not the cousin's.

Edited June 2, 2014 by Vee

[DRW50]

Thanks qfan. I guess if I know her from anything, it's The Young Ones, but she may just look like someone.

I'll have to watch the Jaime and Tyrion scene again, as I saw someone saying Jaime mentioned that he'd been sexually abused or something? I don't know if he said that or if the fan just misheard.

Iain Glen interview.

http://www.makinggameofthrones.com/production-diary/2014/6/1/interview-with-iain-glen

[Vee]

No, he never said that. He said offhandedly that one of the maesters they mentioned "tried to touch me once," but the clear implication was the man did not succeed.

[DRW50]

Alfie Allen talks about Theon, castration, why you shouldn't hate Ramsay (or the actor who plays him, anyway). He also flat out denies that Lily Allen was ever offered the role of Yara/Asha.

This has a spoiler, so be warned.

http://www.vulture.com/2014/06/alfie-allen-theon-reek-ramsay-nudity-chat.html

Vee, thanks for telling me what the line was.

Another Pedro Pascal interview.

http://www.vulture.com/2014/06/game-of-thrones-pedro-pascal-on-oberyn.html

[DRW50]

I thought this was the best scene in the episode. It was just so quietly devastating, and in some odd way, beautiful.

http://www.farfarawaysite.com/section/got/gallery4/gallery8/hires/35.jpg

[ThePrinceOfSunspear]

That was powerful as is most Theon scenes these days but the Sansa one at the very end....just mind destruction. I hope someone got a still pic of her at the top of the stairs. The way the light hit her and the outfit she was wearing...just incredible. She looks absolutely terrifying to me for some reason and 15 years older. It was like a complete transformation.

Pedro looks pretty cute in that Instagram pic with the guy who plays The Mountain....who despite his muscles upon muscles is not attractive.

For some reason I thought this was the second to last episode but glad to know there's two more. However I don't think they're gonna be as exciting as this one but maybe I'm wrong.

Edited June 2, 2014 by ThePrinceOfSunspear

[Juliajms]

No, obviously I did not mean pretend to be Cat to other people. It's pretty clear that he wants her to create the illusion that she is the Cat of his youth for him alone. This is his one weakness, imo. I don't even think this is alternate universe. I think this is exactly what he wants in the books too. It's just slightly more obvious on the show. Cat is dead, he can never get her back, all he an have now is the illusion. How ironic, considering real Cat never loved him that way in the first place. All his talk about how things would have been in a better world were self delusion. Cat never wanted him.

Arya's laugh was simply a young girl confronting the Absurd (in the philosophical sense). Why wouldn't she laugh hysterically? I thought it made perfect sense. It wasn't scary and I don't think it means she psycho. Quite the opposite in fact.

[ThePrinceOfSunspear]

In the books he wants power so I completely disagree on that point. His motives in the books are complicated and his moves hard to read but I think at the end of it he wants respect and power. He had a weakness for Cat for sure in the books but I don't think he's got the same obsession with Sansa because of it in the books like he does in the show.

Show Arya just comes across very psychotic to me and disturbed at this point. I understand the reaction and its totally justifiable. I just think her delivery was pretty poor and very awkward. It should have been reshot but that's a minor point.

[DRW50]

To me her reaction worked if we're supposed to see her as losing it. I've seen Maisie Williams say things like we're not supposed to be rooting for Arya at this point, so I do think she's playing this as disturbed. JMO of course.

I think that at one point Littlefinger saw Sansa as a young Cat. Over time I think his feelings about her have become increasingly muddied.

There was some fan talk of how that scene with her walking down the stairs was a middle-aged pervy man's version of that teen comedy scene where the woman walks down the stairs and she's suddenly gorgeous and magical and his fantasy come to life. I think in that scene, he saw her as who he wants her (Sansa, now "Alayne") to be, not who he wanted Catelyn to be, because I think even he knows Catelyn never would have been like that.

[YRBB]

Just a quick few thoughts:

Grey Worm & Missandei got me right in the feels. So little romance in the show (one wouldn't expect to find it in GOT) so it stands out a lot when it happens.

Arya's reaction to yet another, last-minute twist in her life: Perfect. Hilarious. It was simultaneously unexpected and completely recognizable when it happened. I don't know how anyone can think it's supposed to show she's lost it. It was, very simply, a "I cannot believe this happened. Are you fu.cking serious?" reaction. The ultimate frustration at crushed hope (yet again) that comes out in a weird, unexpected way. Brilliant.

Sansa's testimony and last scene, were she emerges at the top of the stairs with the light behind her wearing that magnificent gown... Brilliance. She's learned how to play the game. From now on, she will start living instead of just barely surviving, and I guess that could take her to some unexpected places.

Every time Ramsay mentions the word bath, I instantly get images of him fu.cking Theon. Which is probably what happens anyway.

I've always thought Dany reacted too harshly to the truth about Jorrah, in the books and in the show, but it is an understandable reaction.

Vee said that the fight scene happened the may one expected as well as not and it's totally true. What an electrifying scene. And those final moments... the squashing of the head, Ellaria's scream, the shot revealing the end of Oberyn, Cersei's smile, Tywin standing up and sentencing Tyrion to death, Tyrion's shock... magnificent.

Edited June 3, 2014 by YRBB

[DRW50]

The thing is I don't know if there was any hope to be crushed. She didn't seem to particularly care that she was going to her aunt. She went with The Hound partially out of not having other options and not having a ton of choice in the matter. She doesn't think she'll be seeing her family again. She has no one else. She's given up on most of life and sees nothing that will change that. She barely reacts to anything now, and when she reacted here, it was just to laugh and laugh.

Edited June 3, 2014 by DRW50

[Vee]

I think she had hope for something - and she obviously wants revenge for what was done to her family. I think she reacts to things, most of them the Hound's cruelty to people and his cynicism. She has been positioned as his counterpoint all along, even as she learns from him how to defend herself and be a warrior.

Edited June 3, 2014 by Vee

[Juliajms]

Of course, he wants power! We just saw him set Robyn up to be his shill in a bid for the Iron Throne. My point is Sansa is his weakness. His soft spot. Possibly the only one he has. He moved heaven and earth on the show and the books to get her to The Vale. He did that because he wants her and he wants her because she looks like the only woman he's ever loved. I don't know how they could make that any clearer.

This was exactly my read on it too.

Edited June 3, 2014 by Juliajms