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*UNMARKED SPOILERS ALL BOOKS* Game of Thrones |OT| - Season 6

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Speevy

Banned
She spent several months being blind and learning to fight without sight. However, in the daylight not only could an assassin come up to her and stab her repeatedly but she literally ran from a girl because she knew she would die. So you're telling me she's now going to go to Westeros and tear shit up? Is she going to Needle the Mountainstein in a pitch black room? She is smart and has learned to kill but she was only fooling herself. She was always Arya Stark not a remorseless assassin. That is why she couldn't kill Lady Crane. But that is precisely what made fighters like the Hound and Mountain dangerous. They didn't care who they killed. Arya still has her list. She will probably see it through to completion but she has not had proper sword training. Has not fought in iron armor.

Arya knows Westeros better than her enemies ever could.
 

grandjedi6

Master of the Google Search
I think Sophie Turner pulled a Ben Kenobi... "What she said was true from a certain point of View"

If the fight club theory is true then Arya has crossed 3 names off her list and appeared as other people and it's already happened.

Arya appeared as the Waif. So if the waif was in the trailers that part is true. Arya/Waif have also killed 3 people on Arya's list (sir Merrin, Cersi Lannister(as played by an actress) and the Waif)
It's very hard to believe that Sophie went through such a convoluted thought process for a simple interview question, especially when her other answer was
lol Lady Stoneheart
. The simplest answer is that she lied to troll people.
 

Iksenpets

Banned
The Riverrun stuff was also weird because I don't believe for a second that those guys would have actually obeyed Edmure's order to stand down, especially after Blackfish specifically warned them he's giving these orders under duress. In the book the surrender made sense because there's clearly some larger plan with Blackfish's escape and with the possible Brotherhood connections to that, but this version is just dudes who take their oaths to their lord with a psychotic degree of seriousness.
 
So is Jaqen an idiot too?

Arya Stark, who refused to kill her target, ran away from the faceless men, then bought passage back to Westeros, killed the Waif with Arya Stark's sword, and he smiles at her and says "finally a girl is no one".

What has anything Arya done the last 2 episodes come anywhere close to help him to this nonsense of a conclusion? Everything she's done clearly shows she's still Arya Stark.

So why would he say this completely idiotic thing?
 

Speevy

Banned
The Riverrun stuff was also weird because I don't believe for a second that those guys would have actually obeyed Edmure's order to stand down, especially after Blackfish specifically warned them he's giving these orders under duress. In the book the surrender made sense because there's clearly some larger plan with Blackfish's escape and with the possible Brotherhood connections to that, but this version is just dudes who take their oaths to their lord with a psychotic degree of seriousness.

Well, at least someone didn't enter the castle and kill the Blackfish in front of 50 people.
 

Iksenpets

Banned
So is Jaqen an idiot too?

Arya Stark, who refused to kill her target, ran away from the faceless men, then bought passage back to Westeros, killed the Waif with Arya Stark's sword, and he smiles at her and says "finally a girl is no one".

What has anything Arya done the last 2 episodes come anywhere close to help him to this nonsense of a conclusion? Everything she's done clearly shows she's still Arya Stark.

So why would he say this completely idiotic thing?

The whole Faceless Men organization is a little ramshackle in the show. Stealthy assassination consists of violent chases through the streets. The waif is never reprimanded for her obvious vendetta against Arya. Security on the magic wall of face is lax enough that Arya just steals one once.
 

Saya

Member
So is Jaqen an idiot too?

Arya Stark, who refused to kill her target, ran away from the faceless men, then bought passage back to Westeros, killed the Waif with Arya Stark's sword, and he smiles at her and says "finally a girl is no one".

What has anything Arya done the last 2 episodes come anywhere close to help him to this nonsense of a conclusion? Everything she's done clearly shows she's still Arya Stark.

So why would he say this completely idiotic thing?

benioffweiss.jpg

They have no idea what to do with the Faceless Men. Maybe GRRM doesn't want to help out with the story anymore and tries to save some susprises for his book lol
 

Speevy

Banned
So is Jaqen an idiot too?

Arya Stark, who refused to kill her target, ran away from the faceless men, then bought passage back to Westeros, killed the Waif with Arya Stark's sword, and he smiles at her and says "finally a girl is no one".

What has anything Arya done the last 2 episodes come anywhere close to help him to this nonsense of a conclusion? Everything she's done clearly shows she's still Arya Stark.

So why would he say this completely idiotic thing?

It's very poorly conceived, but I took it to mean Jaqen is presenting Arya with the cost of killing.

He's presenting her with the same choice she's had along, which is either to abandon her family and herself or return to them.

I think Jaqen knows who the faceless men are, but he wanted to teach Arya to find who she is.

This is probably what happens in the books but with much, much better setup.
 

Gurrry

Member
Damnit man! I wish we wouldve seen the Arya fight! Im still awaiting our big pay off with her bad ass coming of age combat scene... but I guess I can wait a little longer. It will eventually pay off and be so glorious.

Can someone tell me what the mad scientist guy was implying to cersei when he said his ravens found out "so much more". I cant remember what she asked him to do. Was it to find dirt on the high scepton?
 

Nowy

Member
Somebody needs to add a laugh track and the Seinfeld music to the scene when Danny walks into the pyramid. I honestly laughed out loud when that happened.
 

LordCanti

Member
So is Jaqen an idiot too?

Arya Stark, who refused to kill her target, ran away from the faceless men, then bought passage back to Westeros, killed the Waif with Arya Stark's sword, and he smiles at her and says "finally a girl is no one".

What has anything Arya done the last 2 episodes come anywhere close to help him to this nonsense of a conclusion? Everything she's done clearly shows she's still Arya Stark.

So why would he say this completely idiotic thing?

This could be me applying wishful thinking to the showrunners but I read the line "finally a girl is no one" as being about the Waif. The Waif held a grudge against Arya and wanted her dead despite a girl not being allowed to choose who lives and who dies. This failure led to her death, and in death she finally became no one. As for why Arya was allowed to leave... the Many Faced God was promised a face and a face was collected. I guess.

A man can dream (that they still care enough to be subtle about anything on this show)
 

Staccat0

Fail out bailed
You probably shouldnt define "audience" as "people who post in the GoT NeoGAF thread".

I don't. I am however talking about a percentage of the whole including AV Club, Twitter and my personal circle.

Think of it this way, if I had a basket of apples and two went bad. I can say, "These apples have gotten worse." without someone pedantically correcting me for no reason, because this is a forum and I bet they would know what I meant.
 

Cromwell

Banned
It's insane how badly they fucked up Jaime's arc in contrast to the books. Aside from his friendship with Brienne he went right back to the way he is in S1, whereas in DwD he's changed dramatically in almost every way. What a complete fuck up on D&D's part.

And Arya as expected spent all her time in Braavos for basically no reason but to stay put until the plot needs her and get better at killing people, which is kind of what I'm expecting with the books only with some added character depth and world building.

I love the Hound stuff, probably the main highlight of the episode along with Gregor ripping the dudes head off. Good seeing Beric again. I'm guessing we see Stoneheart in the finale.
 

grandjedi6

Master of the Google Search
So what justification does anyone have for going to Dorne now?

The people who "rule" there are murderous thugs.
Varys seems to be going there and acknowledged the possibility he'll be killed so at least he realizes that. Not sure why he wants those murderous thugs to be allies but I guess they are out of options.
 
Regarding Arya's story, didn't Jaqen "prove" she was No One at the beginning of the season, when he gave her poison to drink and if she was truly No One it wouldn't kill her but cure her blindness? Since she was still Arya it should've killed her. That gut wound should've killed her. And then Jaqen should've killed her for peacing out. God I'm so confused
 

Turin

Banned
I did enjoy the Brotherhood scene for what it was. Beric and Thoros are cool and Rory of course is still great as Sandor.

I kind of thought we might see Gendry with the Brotherhood again for whatever reason. Whenever he does turn up again, I hope there's a line about how he recently got off a boat.
 

Apt101

Member
What a mess of an episode. I think the worst in the series for me. Nothing made sense at all. Not a single scene.

- what was ultimately Tyrion's story arc and purpose in Mereen? It seems he turned out to be an even shittier ruler than Danny. Wasn't he supposed to be the witty character in the series?

- so Tommen has sided with the Faith but can't force Cersei to talk to the Septon? Didn't Tommen apologize to her mother just a few episodes back?

- Arya's story is just lol. Why all the running, and Lady Crane rescue if she's capable of beating the waif in the dark anyhow? What was the point of the who are you I'm no one x 100000 training we had to endure the past two seasons?

- lollercaust at the whole Riverrun siege. So visually threatening to kill Edmure didn't make the soldiers budge but a voice command does carry weight? I won't even comment on the ridiculousness of the entire Edmure-Jaime exchange or the pointless Brienne intervention

Well, I mostly agree with you, but I'll try to play devil's advocate:

- I think Tyrion basically failing in Mereen was to highlight what a catastrophe all of Dany's actions have been. Even Tyrion, Grey Worm, and Missandei - with all of their respective insights - couldn't salvage it

- Tommen still seems conflicted, Cersei has a fierce reputation and an invincible super-strong zombie, and the court in general (including the King's Hand) aren't exactly completely in charge

- Lady Crane was a tough women who followed her heart - a character Arya could relate to. Her death at the hands of the waif gave Arya strength and resolve. The preposterously stretched out origin story of Arya wasn't completely wasted though it wasn't tied up well. She was strong, then weak, then on the run, and suddenly defeated an undefeatable by relying on training from Syrio Forel at the last moment. I did like that Jaqen showed respect and let her go in the end. I thought that wrapped up their relationship quite nicely, actually

- This is another beat that's hard to justify. I suppose they weren't able to act when Edmure was threatened, because Edmure wasn't able to give them any orders and they had to defer to Blackfish. Once their liege lord arrived they were compelled to follow his orders. It's kind of silly though because all of this time we were lead to believe that the Tully's were unwavering and rebellious - so now all of the sudden they cow and allow themselves to be taken by Lannisters of all people? Yea, I can't defend this one
 

studyguy

Member
Honestly that episode was just all over the board. Arya is leaping off shit with multiple gut wounds. Dead Cleganebowl hype, Jaime story is going... where? Arya arc seemed useless, SUDDENLY DANY IS HERE!
 

Cromwell

Banned
Next week looks fucking legit though. Calling it now that Littlefinger rides in at the last minute to save the say like Gandalf at Helm's Deep.
 

Pkaz01

Member
Honestly that episode was just all over the board. Arya is leaping off shit with multiple gut wounds. Dead Cleganebowl hype, Jaime story is going... where? Arya arc seemed useless, SUDDENLY DANY IS HERE!

I don't understand how it was useless or pointless? Poorly executed, yes I agree. but we all know what the point of it was and it would lead to her heading back to westeros with assassin skills.
 
Hm

So Jamie is diverging from the book version quite a bit. Wasn't Jamies last chapter in teh books practically him giving up the love for his sister when she asked for him back?

In the show(Can we talk about the show here? Spoiler tag I suppose)
he seems content on loving Cersei
 

Sheroking

Member
Honestly that episode was just all over the board. Arya is leaping off shit with multiple gut wounds. Dead Cleganebowl hype, Jaime story is going... where? Arya arc seemed useless, SUDDENLY DANY IS HERE!

The trial by combat is dead, but that doesn't mean they aren't going to clash eventually.

This is the episode where Jaime finally felt like he had a direction. Brienne's return makes him question himself and his honor for the first time since he reunited with Cersei. If we're to assume Qyburn was informing her of Wild Fire, I don't think we should ignore the obvious comparison between Cersei and the Mad King. This is a potentially much more impactful breaking point for Jaime than "oh, she fucked Lancel".

Arya's arc wasn't useless, just logically problematic and stretched out over too many episodes. I like where she is as a character now, and I'm excited to see her leave the narrative cess-pit that is Essos.
 

Kain

Member
I'm fully expecting zombie Gregor to betray Cersei by now. When Cersei thinks she is in control of something that something turns on her, this has been the rule throughout the whole series and books. So Qyburn will say "Oops, I'm an evil bastard and someone is paying me to kill you (probably LF). The lobotomies and collecting dead body parts things should have warned you of my untrustworthyness, but I guess you were too busy fucking the Kettlebacks (well, this part shouldn't be in the show) and hating Margie to notice. Lobotomies, seriously lol".
 

Matticers

Member
After the failed assassination, she found a room, with no windows, and a single candle, and left her sword there. It seems pretty obvious this was the plan all along.



I never mentioned Jaqen letting her go. I'm just saying it was terrible writing.

At what point would she have set up this plan though? It seemed like more of a "hey, I'll just run here and do this since I'm close to my room" kind of thing rather than a whole plan or a lure. She drank milk of the poppy and was knocked out. She easily could have been killed during that time.
 

Sheroking

Member
knowledge of poisons? ability to detect lies and lie? take on identities and play roles that put her in positions to assassinate? night vision? most assassins won't even need to sword fight

She leveled up with a staff, as well.

The point of her arc was rediscovering herself, her identity and what that means for her future. Her gaining some valuable experience and applying it practically (by murdering the Waif in the dark) is only a small narrative positive. She has consistently improved under different masters and it gives the show the ability to sell her ability in a fight or as a killer in the future.
 

Real Hero

Member
She was already amazing at telling a lie and playing a role that put in her position to kill, remember her bring Tywin's bff for awhile?
 

Pkaz01

Member
She was already amazing at telling a lie and playing a role that put in her position to kill, remember her bring Tywin's bff for awhile?

she was good but hardly amazing. She failed to lie about not being from a northern house, and gave away being high born by saying how she eats a lot and how her father was literate. She played the role, but he wasn't buying it for a second that she was lowborn. Arya now? he would be poisoned within a night

I would also like to point out how inconsistent the show runners make these characters. Last season she was able to plan execute Meryn Trant easily. Now she is a blubbering idiot for the sake of the plot. Poorly executed arc in Braavos for sure, but it got her the skills to do damage.

no idea what the fuck they are doing with Jaime though
 

Staccat0

Fail out bailed
It's insane how badly they fucked up Jaime's arc in contrast to the books. Aside from his friendship with Brienne he went right back to the way he is in S1, whereas in DwD he's changed dramatically in almost every way. What a complete fuck up on D&D's part.

I'm betting they keep making the show and characters continue to do stuff. We don't really know the timing and plotting of his show arc. The table is more set now than it was last season.
 

TTG

Member
So, what was Cercei's Punished Maester's fact finding mission all about again? I fast forwarded through the recap at the start, apologies if it was mentioned.

Joquen guy doing an about face(huh ho!) seemed abrupt. I think it may have served them to keep a target on Arya's back. As it stands now, she was off on a summer vacation while the plot moved along.

I think you guys aren't giving Jaime enough credit and complexity. He was playing the bad guy to get a less bloody result, that was my impression. He's more conflicted than his season 1 self.

Lastly, I hate misunderstandings as plot devices. If it turns out that idiot Tommen and his wife were planning to oust the Scepten guy, but Cercei didn't know so she went and did something disastrous, I'm gonna be sad.
 

studyguy

Member
No sorry that episode was basically the Dorne arc in one shot. Skills she learned? Which ones exactly, everything was cut from the books to show. The castle guards being unaffected by a potential hanging but okay with a word from the lord? Blackfish getting teary at Sansa being Cat 2.0 but going nah I'm gonna go be shite with a sword and die offscreen?

Honestly the entire castle arc. What purpose did it serve other than to reinforce that Jaime in the show cares for nothing but fucking his sister? It could have gone largely off screen to little change.

Top to bottom it was just poorly written outside of the simple 'I'm here to fuck shit up again I guess and crack jokes' bit with the hound. At least that was more or less straight forward for what it set up as.
 

LowRoller

Member
Go back to my niece and help her win the battle for winterfell and be there by her side when she rules? Nah fuck that, I'll just go kill myself.
 

TTG

Member
Honestly the entire castle arc. What purpose did it serve other than to reinforce that Jaime in the show cares for nothing but fucking his sister? It could have gone largely off screen to little change.

He got the band back together again with Bronn! Also, maybe they thought it would shut the nerds up about forgetting Blackfish.
 

Sheroking

Member
Honestly the entire castle arc. What purpose did it serve other than to reinforce that Jaime in the show cares for nothing but fucking his sister? It could have gone largely off screen to little change.

We're gonna have to come back to this after Episode 10, but I think lots of people have EXTREMELY poor perception on what the episode was doing with Jaime.
 
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