-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
*UNMARKED SPOILERS ALL BOOKS* Game of Thrones |OT| - Season 5 - Sundays on HBO
- Thread starter Steelyuhas
- Start date
- Status
I think they'll be killing more characters as a way to save money. Didn't they pay some of the main actors $1 mil an episode this season?
Rabbit Lord
Member
The unsullied are terrible in the show, sad. At least we have Stannis.
They should have backed themselves into a corner and let the harpies come to them.
matrix-cat
Member
This so much. I can understand some Unsullied dying to guerrilla, blade-in-a-crowd kind of attacks, but a pitched battle against a ragtag group of freed slaves with knives, when the Unsullied have all their weapons and are in their battle formation? Barristan "I could cut through the five of you like carving a cake!" Selmy going out like a complete jabroni? Gross.
m_shortpants
Member
If they don't do that...I will lose hope. That's a pivotal moment in his arc.
The amount of salt and gross exaggerations to justify that salt has been fucking ridiculous. I guess it's impossible that the masters have great warriors in their ranks or can hire great warriors, so Barry was obviously taken out by unskilled slavers, and because he only killed 7 or 8 instead of 20, he's not a great swordsman and went out like a chump.
Give me a break.
Give me a break.
It was really hard to believe the Unsullied and Barristan got bested so easily after that bullshit with shirtless Ramsey wading into the middle of like 20 fully armored Ironborn and surviving.
The Unsullied especially were laughably poor soldiers.
Edit: And yeah, why were the Unsullied reacting like they were in pain when the show went out of its way to establish they don't feel pain?
The Unsullied especially were laughably poor soldiers.
Edit: And yeah, why were the Unsullied reacting like they were in pain when the show went out of its way to establish they don't feel pain?
Guys, words are just words. They make things more interesting. Yes, you want to see what you read on screen.
You want to see castles that are as grand as what GRRM described. You want to see characters who behave in the way they're characterized. Of course, when there's someone described as legendary, you want to see that too.
I have a problem with a lot of stupid stuff this show does, but them portraying either the Unsullied or Barristan Selmy as flesh-and-blood human beings as not one of them.
I thought one of the underlying points of this show/books was that legends were based on lies.
You want to see castles that are as grand as what GRRM described. You want to see characters who behave in the way they're characterized. Of course, when there's someone described as legendary, you want to see that too.
I have a problem with a lot of stupid stuff this show does, but them portraying either the Unsullied or Barristan Selmy as flesh-and-blood human beings as not one of them.
I thought one of the underlying points of this show/books was that legends were based on lies.
It seems pretty clear to me that Unsullied are not really trained for enclosed space, city fighting. I mean look at their weapons, long spears.
The show itself went out of its way to establish that Barristan and The Unsullied were both top-tier warriors, and that simply wasn't shown in the episode today.
This was the worst scene in the show's history. Tonight's scene was not.
They were surrounded on both sides and outnumbered. I doubt they had faced that scenario before.
Because they were taught not to express their feelings of pain by cruel masters, but it turns out they hurt like the rest of us. I have a bigger problem with portraying the Unsullied as robots.
I thought Barristan fought well. He was cheap-shotted and stabbed. It's not like someone did a fancier move than he did.
The Unsullied did what they could given they were driven into a carefully orchestrated trap.
I wouldn't call a 60 year old knight with no armor taking out 10 much younger fighters before falling a chump.
But he deserved better. Dying to rabble who have no idea who they just killed doesn't seem right for such a legendary warrior.
This.
Even though he went out with a KDR of like 10+, still was an immensely unsatisfying end to such a good character.
dsp
Member
Now she will start? lol
Stuff he did when he was probably around 20 vs him being what 60-70?
The episode doesn't really make it all that clear if he's dead or not. A Sons of the Harpy goes to cut his throat, but then it looks like Grey Worm kills the attacker right before that. Why include that detail unless you're going to have Selmy live?
I hate that Barristan is dead because he had such a great scene in season 1, but I am glad they're making Dany's disintegration more personal.
Just hearing that she's losing her power wasn't at all effective.
Doesn't this sting more? It makes anything she does, including marrying Hizdahr Zo Loraq or opening the fighting pits seem understandable. She's lost the love of her dragons. She's lost one of her closest confidants. No doubt the show runners wanted us to know what it looks like when Dany utterly and completely fails. Killing such a likeable character is a start.
Just hearing that she's losing her power wasn't at all effective.
Doesn't this sting more? It makes anything she does, including marrying Hizdahr Zo Loraq or opening the fighting pits seem understandable. She's lost the love of her dragons. She's lost one of her closest confidants. No doubt the show runners wanted us to know what it looks like when Dany utterly and completely fails. Killing such a likeable character is a start.
She's been sort of doing that the whole time though, I thought. With Barristan gone though, it will be even worse.
It's all been down hill for Daenerys since Meereen.
Barristan dying was a shame because I liked the character, but it didn't seem ridiculous given the amount of people he was up against. I did notice that after seeing so many of the Kingsguard this episode that he seemed oddly out of place without armor.
I'm really enjoying the stuff with Stannis this season. The rightful king.
Did Melisandre drop a "You know nothing, Jon Snow" in ADWD? I honestly can't remember.
I'm really enjoying the stuff with Stannis this season. The rightful king.
Did Melisandre drop a "You know nothing, Jon Snow" in ADWD? I honestly can't remember.
I feel like the show has portrayed the Unsullied as organized, disciplined, fighters that rely on structure. Every time you seen them in the previous seasons they're lined up in squares on an open plain. The weapons they use are long spears and shields, which are ideal for meeting enemies on an open plain.
It's clear to me that fighting door to door in enclosed cities is not the ideal environment for Unsullied and they're not going to be anywhere as effective in this situation.
It's clear to me that fighting door to door in enclosed cities is not the ideal environment for Unsullied and they're not going to be anywhere as effective in this situation.
Exactly. I thought the show runners went out of their way to show that the Unsullied were in an unfamiliar environment.
There just wasn't time to execute a plan for that many harpies. Unsullied were bred for war, not patrolling dark hallways.
Their fighting style seems similar to one the Romans might have used. Spear thrust, then advance. How does that work when there are people who come at you from all sides before you have a chance to react?
Ethical Hedonism
Banned
I just can't.
hipsterpants
Member
Didn't they make a point in the books that Unsullied weren't suited for patrolling the streets? Maybe I'm misremembering.
The better question is why would you give soldiers patrolling tiny alleyways multiple foot long spears? What a terrible idea.
The better question is why would you give soldiers patrolling tiny alleyways multiple foot long spears? What a terrible idea.
I forgot there's no spoiler tags required in this thread.
I don't know how this is going to happen. This will be interesting to see.
I disagree. The Unsullied were a phalanx.
A phalanx is at home in a closed alley because they can just close formations (knowing their flanks are protected), rise their shields and spears and wait there while enemies crash against them and die.
Getting them killed so easily was just lame writing like Ramsay fighting shirtless against the Ironborn.
Even Selmy's death makes more sense.
CitizenVectron
Member
Wait, do we actually think Barristan is dead? I mean, Greyworm stopped him from having his throat slit at the end so that would imply (by show trope logic) that he is still alive.
He's dead. The actor has even said as much.
He went out like a warrior should.
Lulz, show watchers believe that Jon Snow can't be a Targ because he's not immune to fire.
D&D truly are masters.
D&D truly are masters.
This is what I was thinking as well. If Selmy is dead then that's just straight up bad filmmaking that isn't correctly showing what is desired. Of course GoT has done this before with the obvious Jamie/Cersei rape scene that apparently wasn't intended to be a rape scene.
CitizenVectron
Member
Wow, that's incredibly lame. Is Greyworm too?
Way to give a chump death to the greatest swordsman in the world. And to save Greywork, one of the most boring characters in the most boring story? Geez. Barristan was the only good thing about Danny's storyline. Who is going to help command her armies?
I thought it was a hole?
m_shortpants
Member
Barristan is probably dead so SPECULATION
Tyrion can take his spot as advisor.
Also, Grey Worm needs to survive so we can have a sex scene with MIssandei
adamsappel
Member
To be fair, they didn't write that episode. Still, they steer the ship, and Barristan's death was really disappointing and out of character.
PHOENIXZERO
Member
That and hair color are standard show watcher reasons against it, maybe some book readers too who didn't pay very good attention.
The latter's also probably why Daario wasn't the one who died too.
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
That episode was rough:
Did anyone else notice that Dorne, and not Sunspear, appeared in the opening credits? The city of Dorne? lol Anyway, it looked kind of bland to me, outside of the giant snake/spear, which looked sort of cool but also sort of cheesy.
The Sandsnakes were...okay? But not really? I don't know. I couldn't get a real feel for them in that brief scene.
So Barristan was the big "this actor wrote to the showrunners and begged not to be killed off" alive-in-the-books-but-dying-for-shock-value-on-the-show thing that we were talking about a few weeks back? I can't say I'm surprised. I figured it'd be either him or Sam. I liked that he managed to kill a bunch of dudes before dying, but it definitely could have been handled better. I don't think Show Barristan was ever given a chance to shine, and as a result, I didn't feel anything in response to his death, even though it was supposed to be, at the very least, a shock for me as a book reader - and reading through the Unsullied thread, it doesn't seem like many people there cared either. I think that if you're going to kill a character for shock value, then you need to kill someone people actually care about in some way.
The gay persecution angle to the Faith Militant storyline felt way too heavy handed and ripped from the headlines to me. Yet another example of the show's poor handling of homosexuality.
I guess we'll have to see how it plays out, but I don't think Littlefinger's plan makes any sense at this point. It's basically "Stannis will save you and make you Wardeness of the North (is there even such a thing as that?) and if he fails you'll just have to outmaneuver this crazy dangerous and cunning family all on your own. Believe in yourself gurl! Laters!"
Mhm
Not really. Just because a person gives an "awards worthy" performance in one movie doesn't mean that every performance thereafter is expected to be of the same quality. This applies not only for children but also adults too.
Did anyone else notice that Dorne, and not Sunspear, appeared in the opening credits? The city of Dorne? lol Anyway, it looked kind of bland to me, outside of the giant snake/spear, which looked sort of cool but also sort of cheesy.
The Sandsnakes were...okay? But not really? I don't know. I couldn't get a real feel for them in that brief scene.
So Barristan was the big "this actor wrote to the showrunners and begged not to be killed off" alive-in-the-books-but-dying-for-shock-value-on-the-show thing that we were talking about a few weeks back? I can't say I'm surprised. I figured it'd be either him or Sam. I liked that he managed to kill a bunch of dudes before dying, but it definitely could have been handled better. I don't think Show Barristan was ever given a chance to shine, and as a result, I didn't feel anything in response to his death, even though it was supposed to be, at the very least, a shock for me as a book reader - and reading through the Unsullied thread, it doesn't seem like many people there cared either. I think that if you're going to kill a character for shock value, then you need to kill someone people actually care about in some way.
The gay persecution angle to the Faith Militant storyline felt way too heavy handed and ripped from the headlines to me. Yet another example of the show's poor handling of homosexuality.
I guess we'll have to see how it plays out, but I don't think Littlefinger's plan makes any sense at this point. It's basically "Stannis will save you and make you Wardeness of the North (is there even such a thing as that?) and if he fails you'll just have to outmaneuver this crazy dangerous and cunning family all on your own. Believe in yourself gurl! Laters!"
Mhm
Not really. Just because a person gives an "awards worthy" performance in one movie doesn't mean that every performance thereafter is expected to be of the same quality. This applies not only for children but also adults too.
- Status