I’m kind of really fuckin upset at the lack of talk about Loras’ death on the GoT season finale. He was tortured over a season, then forced to declare himself a sinner that needed to repent for being gay, then mutilated, and then killed before he ever saw freedom again. And none of this happened in the books. Not even close.
They butchered a gay man’s entire character and arc and then tortured and killed him for being gay. And Ive seen no posts about it except my own.
And let’s not forget that in seasons 2-5 the writers basically decided to reduce loras and renly’s relationship into a long-winded joke about gay sex. Oh, and instead of Loras mourning his lost love, they decided it would be better to have him jump into bed with every man he meets, bc promiscuous gays, am I right?
Added another pose and polished a bit the Sansa sketch from the other day, I tried to make them as close as possible but I guess at some point I chose a more saturated hue for the new one.
As a personal note, I’m not a fan of fantasy themed stories (However,
as you can see in some of my works
I dig the “visual aesthetics” of the genre) but I ended up watching this show because 2 weeks ago a friend insisted me on watching with him the 1st episode, I was surprised how much I liked it, I was expecting another trite good vs evil story, perhaps with a better execution than usual but this was much better than that. Now, I would say that in this genre I have enjoyed 2 stories so far: Berserk (I have not read the manga in ages though) and this one.
Hi everyone, it’s me with a not-so-brief opinion piece that no one asked for but I feel compelled to write and share. I am going to talk briefly about R+L=J in the show
So, let us flashback to the week between Episodes 9 and 10 and everyone predicting what was going to happen. Some predictions were correct (the KL sequence), some were incorrect (personally, I thought there was a decent chance the Wall was going to fall, but it didn’t). One of the predictions was regarding Bran returning to the Tower of Joy in his visions to witness… something. Which everyone assumed would be Ned finding Lyanna in the tower, dying after giving birth to Jon Snow. The longstanding theory, a theory that has been around since the publication of A Game of Thrones 20 years ago, is that Jon’s parents are Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen. This was the “big mystery” of the whole series that everyone’s been wanting an answer to. And it looked like the show would be the one to confirm it, not the author. I conceded that the blame for that would have to go on Martin’s shoulders, that he got beaten to the punch, mainly because I figured he would say the exact same thing. That he got beaten to the punch and it was on his shoulders. Oh well, no use crying over spilled milk and in the end, it was not the true identities of Jon’s parents that mattered, it was why, how it came to be, and how it affects Jon and any other characters who learn the truth.
Cue Episode 10, Bran had his vision of the ToJ, we saw Lyanna with a baby boy that, courtesy of a camera cut, is revealed to be Jon Snow. I grumbled, but conceded that this was inevitable, oh well, the show’s over for ten months, I can go back to eagerly waiting for the true Winds of Winter.
And then I started listening to reactions to it, about how it was treated, about the fallout of it from an audience standpoint and I came to a not-unique conclusion: they fucked it up. They fucked it up badly. The biggest mystery of the biggest fantasy series since Harry Potter, and they fucked it up.
First, lets get something straight: Jon’s parents are Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen. There is no doubt of this. But here’s the problem: Rhaegar is badly seeded in the show. He was mentioned in Season 1 by Robert as having raped Lyanna, mentioned as having kidnapped her at the Tourney of Harrenhal in Season 5 from Littlefinger to Sansa, and at the Tower of Joy scene in Episode 2. I probably missed a few places but the point is: he was badly seeded. To the point that, after episode 10 aired, people speculated that Jon’s father was Robert or, ugh, Eddard himself (the latter put forward, possibly in a trolling manner, by Isaac Hempstead Wright). Point is, the show dropped the ball on the identity of Jon’s parents, and the various Game of Thrones social media outlets have been forced to release an infographic to show that, yes, Rhaegar Targaryen is Jon Snow’s true father. How the hell do you bungle up such a huge mystery so bad you have to release an infographic to answer people’s questions days after the episode aired?
But that’s not the worst of it, in my opinion. The real issue here is how the characters reacted. When Jon finds out about his parentage in the books, well, his reaction probably won’t be the most pleasant of reactions. And god knows how other characters will react when they find out. Here, there were no reactions. For one thing, Jon still doesn’t know who his parents are, he thinks he is the bastard son of Ned Stark. You know who does know the truth now? Bran. But we didn’t see Bran’s reaction. It showed Jon’s face as a baby, then did a camera cut to Jon in the present day. No return to Bran to see his reaction, no seeing him coming out of the flashback, nothing (hoo boy I could go into a rant about Bran’s treatment on the show but I will leave that task to better writers than I). They could have shown Bran reacting in utter shock and gasping Jon’s name, reeling at the reveal, but no. By all accounts, the only people who were supposed to react to the reveal of Jon’s parentage, the biggest mystery of the series, is the audience. That’s it. That’s why Jon’s parents were revealed, to shock the audience. Not so the characters can know the truth and react to it accordingly, no. So the audience can be shocked and drive the conversation through the off season to hype up the show. That’s it. That’s why.
There was no reason for Bran to return to the ToJ. No reason to view something that, quite frankly, is irrelevant to his current predicament. The show wanted to reveal the Jon’s parents. They only wanted to shock the audience. They wanted to steal the credit from Martin. It’s like if the Harry Potter films were the ones to reveal Snape’s true allegiance. And they handled it badly. When R+L=J is revealed in the books, it will matter to Jon, first and foremost. To me, the fact the show did this when they could have held off and built the hype up over “what’s in the Tower?” in the offseason, is an insult to all the readers, to the viewers, and perhaps most of all, to Martin himself.
Much like naming the final episode of season 6, “The Winds of Winter.”
It’s almost like R+L=J matters to the characters at play and not as some nifty “just-so” answer to a Scooby Doo mystery…
D&D: changes Cersei’s backstory to be more sympathetic by having her first child with Robert not get aborted & tragically die young of fever instead Also D&D: Doesn’t change Maggy’s prophecy that speaks of her having three children instead of four
D&D: Mentions Theon having two uncles
Also D&D: Theon now only has one uncle
D&D: Mentions Trystane being the youngest of Doran’s children
Also D&D: Trystane is Doran’s ONLY child
D&D: Melisandre’s necklace conceals her true age Also D&D: Has shown Melisandre without it before
D&D: Sends Sansa to Winterfell with Vale men in tow Also D&D: The Vale apparently has no idea what happened, leading one to assume Littlefinger had those men killed, which means The Vale apparently isn’t terribly interested in what happened to those men
D&D: Littlefinger knows Sandor Clegane’s deepest, darkest, most personal secret, because he’s clever Also D&D: Littlefinger apparently doesn’t know that the Bolton’s sigil and their betrayal of the Starks might mean they won’t treat Sansa well, because he’s an idiot
D&D: Sansa has to marry Ramsay to strengthen his claim in the North Also D&D: Nobody gives a shit about Sansa or her claim and are already loyal to the Boltons anyway for helping them with the Ironborn, and also because they hate Robb
D&D: Makes Sansa marry Ramsay “for revenge” Also D&D: Never actually mentions/seeks the original revenge she sought, but suffers unspeakable abuse in the process and gains a new motive for revenge, then still doesn’t get that revenge until thousands of people have died (including her brother) and her abuser has already been defeated, and all of it relied on the success of others rather than her own personal talents that she had several opportunities to showcase
D&D: Everyone who gets stabbed dies immediately Also D&D: Except Arya
D&D: Religious zealots take over King’s Landing, arrest and torture people for being gay Also D&D: They’re completely fine with Necromancy
D&D: Grey Wind’s head was practically larger than Robb’s body Also D&D: Shaggy Dog’s head is approximately the size of a grapefruit
D&D: Sends a member of the Kingsguard with Mace Tyrell to Braavos, he gets murdered Also D&D: Never brings him up again as though it wouldn’t be a big deal to anyone that a member of the KING’S GUARD is missing
D&D: Devoted to portraying a realistic time period Also D&D: Horn Hill jumps to the Renaissance Era
D&D: Brienne has to go to Riverrun in person because ravens may get intercepted Also D&D: Sansa sends a raven to Littlefinger containing sensitive information right after
D&D: Jon to Sansa, “If I don’t watch over you, father’s ghost will come back and murder me” Also D&D: Sansa slips away from Jon twice to secretly meet up with Littlefinger
D&D: Has Tyrion be an asshole to Theon in the first season
Also D&D: Tyrion shames Theon for being an asshole to him in the first season
D&D: Show that the Ironborn don’t take the manly, able-bodied Theon seriously just for being raised by the Starks and don’t give a shit about his opinion. Also show that the Ironborn have great respect for Yara
Also D&D: The Ironborn won’t even listen to Yara during the Kingsmoot before Theon, who at this point royally screwed up at Winterfell and has been crippled and castrated, vouches for her
D&D: Establish that Davos is incredibly loyal to Stannis and deeply cares about Shireen
Also D&D: Make Davos forget to ask what happened to them until it’s convenient for the plot
D&D: Establish that the Faceless Men have to abandon a distinct “self” and don’t act out of personal emotions and agendas
Also D&D: The only two Faceless Men we see have distinct personalities and clearly act based on nothing else but personal preferences, emotions and agendas.
D&D: Have Stannis burn Shireen because his army is stranded in the snow and can’t reach Winterfell
Also D&D: Show, that Stannis’s camp wasn’t even an hour ride away from Winterfell
D&D: By season 5 Myrcella says she’s been in Dorne “for years”, after going there mid-season 2. Fat Walda carries a baby to full-term in the second episode of season 6, after announcing her pregnancy mid-season 5.
Also D&D: Gilly’s baby still doesn’t look older than a year in season 6, after being born in season 3.
D&D: Screw up Dorne.
Also D&D: Continue to screw up Dorne… oh look, there’s consistency!
To be honest, this whole “there is no point in comparing the show and the books when they are two completely different mediums” thing is a very overused and jarring excuse that I’ve literally only encountered in the Game of Thrones discussion forums.
People in the LOTR fandom don’t attack Tolkien fans because they wish they’d had Tom Bombadil in the movies. And yet every time there’s some serious and fact-based discussion about how problematic some of D&D’s choices are, there’s always people going “Well then why are you watching?” or “Shut up they’re different mediums they can’t do X”.
It’s just an easy way to shut down critics, at this point. Because at the end of the day, the Tom Bombadil comparison I made is a very mild comparison. Most LOTR/Tolkien people agree that it would have been anticlimatic and weird to have Tom in the movies, in spite of how fascinating he is in the book.
But what would the Tolkien people say if Peter Jackson had decided to make Faramir take the ring? Or Eowyn be graphically sexually assaulted by Grima? Or cut Galadriel’s involvement in the story to profit Celeborn’s character?
Because this is what it feels like to be an ASOIAF fan right now
I think most people don’t realise how much GOT is different from ASOIAF. Because of course adaptations are always going to be different from the original work, and of course there are people who don’t understand that and want the books translated word by word. But most other stories are somewhat translated when it comes to plot, characters and themes. GOT is hardly an adaptation at this point, because I can’t recognize any of the plot, characters or themes. Granted, some stuff that happened/will happen in the books happen on screen too, but the context is so widly different that you can’t consider it to be the same thing. Imagine LOTR if Aragorn was the one to destroy the One Ring. You check “destroy the One Ring” from your list of plot points, but it’s hardly the same story.
So I don’t think people are aware of how much has changed. I’m not a big fan of LOTR movies, but at least they try.
One of my favourite things in life is that every year after the Season finale, Joe Dempsie writes a rowing related tweet. HE IS AS MUCH PART OF THE JOKE AS HIS CHARACTER IS.
“What is a valonqar? Some monster?” The golden girl did not like that foretelling. // “It’s High Valyrian, it means little brother.” She had asked Septa Saranella about the word, after Melara drowned.
I’ve often lamented that show!Cersei is never as truly awful as she is in the books. And she is pretty appalling. But mostly because she’s overreaching, trying desperately to be as brilliant (if brutal) as her father. Convinced it’s her gender holding her back from gaining the respect she feels she deserves. This is paralleled by her male twin, who despite being male cannot live up to his father and will never regain respect or recover his honor. Kingslaying and all that–but mainly, it is noted repeatedly they are both rash and impulsive, unlike Tywin or Tyrion.
In the books, she’s a mad dog, a drunken and out of control queen of bad planning, unable to strategize to the point of rearming the Faith Militant and ending up on her Walk of Atonement. Estranged from all, Jaime and Kevan having abandoned her. We leave her humbled at the end of ADWD, shortly before Uncle Kevan gets some stabby stabby from Varys’ Little Birds.
This lament due to the show is largely because most of the characters are made to look, for want of a better term, badass. One liners, brutal revenge with a smirk, no signs of the inner trauma or any complexity. I’d throw Sandor, Arya, Dany, Bronn, among others into this category on the show. Arya doesn’t start out killing for self defense or revenge like a cold hearted serial killer, she is traumatized and in a frenzy. Cersei is no different, she is grasping for any straw that seems powerful, and choosing the wrong ones, but on the show she keeps her composure and is often more sympathetic than her book counterpart.
So, it’s a bit alarming to see all the cries of, “BADASS! QUEEN Cersei!” upon the season finale tonight of Game Of Thrones. Are people even remotely aware of what they’re saying? Did they see the same show I did?? Are people actually cheering for this woman? After tonight??
(Spoilers, rather obviously…)
A little recap. She left her remaining child alone while skipping her trial. She skipped her trial (and that of Loras and Margaery) sticking to the Red Keep while the Sept of Baelor was packed with not only her enemies, but multiple innocents. She had Qyburn step in, during these events, with his own Little Birds, instead of Varys’ book ones, to murder Grand Maester Pycelle (loyal to House Lannister, right?? Not to Cersei at this point in the books, but on the show, no sign he’d be a problem…). She has the wildfire under the Sept of Baelor (in the books, it was removed from this location as noted in ACOK, by Hallyne) rigged to explode. Which it does. In her cousin, and former lover, Lancel’s face. Then up and out while Margaery pitifully is piecing things together and trying to get everyone out of the Sept of Baelor. Including her father, her Uncle Kevan, plenty of innocent people besides. Skipping my trial to blow UP my trial, bitches!
She blows up the bloody Sept of Baelor with her son’s wife inside! Her Uncle! She leaves her son alone, with no regard as to what this will do to him emotionally, and he leaps from a window to his King’s Landing. Why is he all alone and not under her watch (remember, Maggy the Frog prophesied her children’s deaths to precede her own, which would then leave her open to death-by-valonqar)? Yes, because she has decided to torture Septa Unella. Now, no one likes poor old Shame Septa, but Cersei leaves her not to be killed, but TORTURED by Gregor Clegane (or something?? It’s the Undead Mountain, so likely everything), the same monster who murdered Elia Martell and her children, not to mention countless numbers since and during the War of the 5 Kings!
And this is more important to her, along with a snazzy new Maleficent dress, than being with her son as she blows up, well, his beloved wife? Barely a whimper over Tommen being dead after this, burn the poor kid and put his ashes where his other relatives WERE interred, yes, she blew up their resting places as well.
Just when you thought Qyburn was the Mengele of KL, that the Mountain was the worst serial rapist and murderer in Westeros barring perhaps Ramsay Bolton, just when we’ve had a taste of justice and revenge (though I don’t particularly think Sansa smiling as Ramsay gets no public trial but instead death-by-dogs was in character for book Sansa, nor do I think Arya’s new step into faceless revenge killer bodes well, no matter how “cool” it appears on a show, this crosses a line into beloved characters losing their very humanity), enter QUEEN Cersei? Destroyer of Worlds?
And people cheer. Make “girl power” comments. Just…..NO. Like throwing triple parentheses around names on twitter, just NO. Cersei didn’t show herself as a powerful figure not to be trifled with, she committed mass murder. It was perhaps her only way to win, but with the help of The Mountain, she could just as easily have fled a la Lady Olenna. A tactical retreat with Lannister forces (Jaime seemed to have quite a few these past episodes) at her side. Yet she blows up the holiest place in the capitol city, causes her remaining child to commit suicide, has her father’s trusted Grand Maester (and he was the GRAND MAESTER, after all) murdered and a Septa tortured by the Mountain and people cheer?
Just no. People were upset that Sansa was raped brutally, and rightly so. I can even understand cheering her and Arya on in their revenge scenes these past two episodes. Each killing one person who murdered members of their families and/or brutalized them personally. Cersei murders this many, proves herself the worst of take-your-pick-of-historical-tyrants, and people cheer her on? Even if this wasn’t the intention of the showrunners, please tell me this is not the effect we were looking for, is it? IS IT?? Cersei is officially worse than Ramsay, Joffrey and The Mountain, with a little Vargo Hoat thrown in, and she was bad enough already!
If nothing else, one thing is certain, Cersei is as hated and evil to me in the show as in the books, now she’s even more. I despise that instead of descending into drunken, paranoid madness they let her plot cooly and with a seemingly level head as it is, and with Jaime’s approval, and even Uncle Kevan’s, but that a woman was even crowned when she just committed such atrocities, and to cheers from the web, that is appalling.
At least somewhere Sandor Clegane is fucking pissed that another Lannister burned hundreds (thousands?) with the help of his brother.
PB (after using the ever reliable aggregate source, Twitter, to gather a bit of information that is likely completely useless and baseless)
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