Snooze

when the ep opened with arya killing the rest of the freys, i was like, "welp, they're giving us some action since the rest will prob be all setup" ... lol yup

i thought it was fine though. it was interesting setting up the parallels with arya and the hound (him headed north, regretting his past sins, finding purpose; her heading south, finding out just how ruthless a killer she's going to be...) my guess is she gutted ed sheeran and all those nice innocent lannister foot soldiers.

also - note the lannister soldiers' new song - something about how hands of gold are cold but a woman's touch is always warm. is there mutiny brewing in the lannister ranks?

i could really have done without the five minute "epic" dany arrival scene though. yes we get it, you landed. i don't really hate her character but i don't think the show will ever overcome the pacing problems that come with her arc. they need to get to these big symbolic moments and get us to invest in her, but it's hard because it's so obvious everything in essos is just prologue and all the characters around her are so comparably unimportant, at least til tyrion arrives. she's been through all this wild **** but the show can't effectively convey her as an underdog or an upstart because she's the star of her own little spin-off for the first five seasons, essentially.

hound calling thoros out for his combover, lollllllllll that was gold

The Citidel scene makes no sense to me. The maesters (sp) are supposed to be rare, educated valuable assets. Why would they waste potential candidates time doing all those tasks when they could be training or learning ? I also don't understand how a maester that believes in the existence of whites could be so lackadaisical. The Night King is after land, money or power, he is attempting genocide .

It's like an apprenticeship I guess, menial tasks to get discipline idk. Seemed odd to me too.

The white walker thing reminded me of like men in black (lol). Like how Will Smith is freaking out about the arkillian battle ship that has earth on the brink of destruction and Tommy Lee Jones is like "there's always an arkillian battle ship, or a death ray etc".

The maester who had studied must have read this same winter story for generations past, yet the wall prevails and man prevails etc but the people in the present always feel like it's the most dire of circumstances. Idk. That's how I interpreted it.

it's always funny to me the things people get hung up about. new initiates doing bull**** jobs is like the most common fantasy trope ever (and also makes perfect sense... somebody has to empty bedpans and put away books, and this is exactly how old world monastic orders would often run).

meanwhile nobody cares that a bunch of lannister conscripts can sing in five-part harmony like modern day pop stars.

just because the maesters are a powerful institution doesn't mean they can't be a bit out of touch or a bit full of themselves. what you say is true - they see themselves as the institutional memory of humanity, as being a bit above the fray... so they may be prone to missing it when the **** really, truly hits the fan.

Casual watcher here, probably been explained elsewhere, but could someone tell me why a huge effing castle with a port suitable for so many ships was abandoned?

Wasn't that where Stannis and the Witch were at a few seasons ago?

Aren't the maesters supposed to be completely neutral though? Maybe they're breaking him to not feel any type of dissent?

Yes, but he's been dead long enough for another tenant to move in. It's hard to believe 1000s have died defending ****ty little castles and houses but Dragonstone can't even attract a few squatters .

Because one of them , Ed Sheeran is a pop star irl?

Great opening, anemic ending.

The second scene with the walkers walking should have been the final scene.

Sansa calling out Jon like that seemed very much out of character. The emasculating of Littlefinger was decent tho.

The Sam chamber pot / food scene was edited poorly. Concept was fine but the execution was like a high school drama student project.

What was Uncle Greyjoy wearing during his audience with Cersei? Looked like a Portland hipster. That was distracting. Nice that he didn't say what the gift would be. Assuming it is Tyrion's head.

Really hope the "khaleesi is on the way" scenes are finally over. I get that they want to have an excuse to play the badass inevitable-khaleesi-conquering music, but come on.

Hound GOAT character. They better not nerf him with the fire stuff.

I think earlier in the show it is mentioned that dragonstone is a harsh and rocky place and there is very little farmland around it. Might even be an island? Remember stannis was kind of slighted by Robert giving him dragonstone instead of storms end. And when he goes to the Iron Bank they're like "how much wheat do you grow at dragonstone lolz"

So in other words might not be a long line of mofos trying to live there. Though it is odd that it's totally deserted

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His voice threw me so out of the moment. Lots of little things in this opening episode that kinda bit at me.

I thought the whole drink the coolaid scene was pretty long and drawn out also.
Taking that from real life events kinda makes me think they might jump the shark like the simpsons did so long ago.

Still enjoyable though.


Question~ is that place that Sam read about in the book where all the dragon glass is where Dany landed? Meaning Jon Snow is going to have to go there and yoink some from her or something?

We're talking about the continuity and (relative) realism of the narrative within the show. Obviously it's no surprise ed sheeran can sing. Doesn't mean he needs to be on GoT. If Ice T wants a guest spot, would it suddenly make sense to have a gangster rapping Unsullied roll up to the party?

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Yes, same place.

I'm assuming he proposes an alliance rather than yoinking.

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Maisie Williams isn't trying to shag iceT. She's trying to shag Ed though. He's not the first musician to get a cameo.

I can't tell if you're completely obtuse or if you're just ****ing around.

Arya isn't gonna bang Ed Sheeran, she's gonna gut him like a fish.

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I imagine the Ed Lannister scene is to show Arya that people she thinks of as enemies are just people. I doubt she kills any of them.

The maester dismissing Walkers was pretty believable to me. Sam needs to read about survivor bias so he can answer back.

Hound stuff was good. Are we to assume that the castle the zombies were walking past is where the wildlings are headed? That could be the end of season finale, with some kind of naval & dragon fight in the middle.

Has Ser Davos heard the story of how Shireen was cured of greyscale? Has Sam heard the story from Davos? That'd help sort things out a bit, as it seems like the citadel haven't heard of the cure. Or the cure is very slow.

come on man you don't have to do this

More action isn't always better...but I want more action lol.

I've been robbed of good zombie/white walker stuff for the past 5 years or so except for like a couple scenes last season and want more to fill that void!

An alliance makes too much sense, I just hope they don't talk and then be like, that's it for this story arch for these few episodes this year.

The Sansa/Jon thing has been bothering me. What kind of king doesn't take advice from his counselors before making a major address to his allies? How come what he was saying was a surprise to them?

Yeah, the castle in the Hounds vision, per his description, was Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, same as where Jon sent Tormund and the wildlings.

Feel like theres going to be some seriously fast travel between the Wall and Dragonstone. Btw, nobody much cares about Dragonstone because its on an island and hard to supply. One thing that helps with quality of life there is having dragons.

Ed Sheeran totally took me out of the show for that scene. Just totally out of place.

The rest of the episode was fine, most season openers are a bit slow.

guess it was good I didn't recognize Ed Sheeran then - was he the one who gave her the food?

That is not a good reason.