Posted on 04/21/2019 8:21:54 AM PDT by martin_fierro
What plot development?
Honestly, there were really only 2 major plot points in the episode I saw...
Sensa Confronting Dani about what about the north when everything is done
And Jon telling Dani, he’s her nephew and legitimate heir to the throne
I guess you can officially realizing Cersi wasn’t sending anyone could be considered a plot point, but you knew as a viewer that wasn’t happening already.
Same thing with the fleet sailing back to the Iron Isles... yes the characters didn’t know that until this episode, but the viewer knew.
There really wasn’t much more plot development... Just tying up lose ends, and some fan boy coming to Jesus before a lot of these characters die.
To me, this potentially raises a serious narrative problem for the show, possibly tied to the shortening and simplification involved in transferring GRRM's very layered world of the books to the film. This may also be compounded by the fact that the show has outrun the books so that the screenwriters are fumbling away a magical logic that, not having been fully developed yet in the books, they do not understand. GRRM presumably has provided a detailed outline and considerable guidance, but based on what we have seen to date, the show is now in a danger zone.
My term for the issue here is "the law of magical integrity." For the story to hold up well over time (think Lord of the Rings), the magic has to be limited in ways that give ordinary mortal characters a dramatically worthy role. Otherwise, mere mortals become spectators as the magical characters hurl mysterious spells at each other, which is not very interesting. The magical elements should also be defined, predictable, and internally consistent, or magic risks becoming an entirely arbitrary deus ex machina, with someone popping up with an entirely unanticipated bit of new magical business to save the day in the final scene or two. In a saga like Game of Thrones, which has now been strung out for five books (and ultimately seven) and eight years of a tv series, jaw-dropping new magical twists shouldn't appear out of thin air in the final couple of episodes. What was the point of all the involved plotting, all the layering, all the prophecies, and all the elaborate character development if, in the end, none of it matters … and the whole thing ultimately is settled by Hermione Granger teleporting in by portkey with the decisive abracadabra triple whacky shazam charm that does the trick? That's a slight bit of hyperbole, but only slight.
If a new magical resolution appears now, it needs to have been well-foreshadowed in the already established lore of the saga. The show has already been sloppy in its handling of Bran's greenseer powers; in the show, his sight is far more omnipresent than in the books, where the greenseers saw through the weirwoods, and perhaps through the actual faces carved on the trees. (This is why the First Men cut down most of the weirwoods.) It would be very disappointing for a character -- who is in fact thousands of years old, temporarily inhabiting the body of young Bran Stark -- to settle an eight year potboiler of a story by using a brand-new set of magical superpowers about which he has told no one. This could have been handled. There are ancient texts in Oldtown that might have provided some foreshadowing. Melisandre might have done so. There might have been ancient prophecies, dimly remembered, that might have given a hint. But none of this has been developed, and it would be cheesy to introduce it now. The show has been too good for too long to go out on a cheesy "surprise, surprise, surprise" note that makes most of the preceding eight years nothing more than an elaborate misdirection.
Well, I guess I saw that one coming, so I didn’t think that was a major plot reveal... If you didn’t know Night King and whatever Bran is, are somehow tied magically, (Ying and Yang) if you will, you probably have zero experience with any sort of fantasy storylines.
Nearly all magic worlds, no matter who brings them about, sooner or later, reveals some sort of balance.... Where the cycles swing back and forth.
I agree though, this was the first time it was explicitly mentioned, so yes this would have been a plot reveal.... So 3 real plot points in the entire episode, rather than the two I stated.
There is something about Iain Glen’s voice (Ser Jorah Mormont). Richard Dormer (Lord Beric Dondarrion), too.
Incest is frowned upon in Westeros (except for the Targaryens), but the primary reason Cersei and Jaime had to keep their sexual relationship a secret was because Cersei was married to the King. For her to have sex with someone other than Robert was considered treason - for her and Jamime. The reason for this was because she had to produce legitimate heirs for King Robert.
Well there really wasn’t much movement of the story. The highlights would be Breanne being knighted and John telling Dani they are related and he is the true heir.
Couldn’t of that been done in 10 minutes or so?
That being said it was enjoyable to watch.
Yeah, the Sansa confronting Dani thing happened but I didn’t think it really was important since it didn’t change the plot at all. Sansa simply stated the obvious.
What I like about this season is all the “call backs” to the first season. Like Bran saying to Jamie “the things we do for love”; which is exactly what Jamie said just before pushing Bran out that window. Thus the look Jaimie gave him in this episode.
Or Sansa. Sansa is of the North.
I dunno, when Jamie says the word "afterwords" to Bran; and, Bran responds, "what if there is no "afterwords"?; well, I found that troubling,especially since Bran is a seer.
I also liked the short scene with Davos serving (whatever that was supposed to be) to the villagers and a little girl with dark hair and the same scaly face as Shireen, speaks to him and he is just dumbfounded.
You and Borges should get a room
I think Dani is starting to believe it though.
I thought it was hilarious when Tormund asked Jon is the big woman still here?
I’d say Sansa is still a virgin. She was forced to marry what’shisname by Littlefinger.
bookmark
Yes because they don’t raise them
Women are super intimidated by men who raise their voices
Which is ironic
I don’t think Brienne, Sansa, Arya, Dani or Sersei are intimidated by any man.
“He is coming to claim his Night Queen - Danerys or Cersei”
“Or Sansa. Sansa is of the North.”
I guess like so many others, I have grown attached to the Starks. So yeah, Sansa or Arya might fit that bill as well - maybe better than Cersei. Danerys makes for a good Ice and Fire combo though.
I have heard other folks speculate that the Army of the Dead might need to win this battle in Winterfell, to keep things building toward a big battle in episode 5 somewhere else.
Alternatively, a climactic battle at Winterfell might be held off until then, in a siege.
They still might kill everybody off though. SOMEBODY ought to die in the next episode. I’m guessing some of the second string should start going.
I’m betting on at least Greyworm next episode. He’s outside the walls, and the “Let’s run away after all this” seemed like a setup to make his death more poignant.
I agree with your points.
Daenerys is being set up to do something bad...betray Jon, wipe out Kings Landing, I don’t know. Just when things seem to be going in the right direction, she has the unfortunate conversation with Sansa about the future of the North followed by an (expectedly) negative reaction to her Boy Toy being her nephew AND him having a better claim to the throne than her.
We might really not like the Mother of Dragons before this is all over.
I think Dani will die giving birth to Jon’s son.
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