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Game of Thrones 1.08 The Pointy End
This was the GRRM-penned episode. It may be confirmation bias played a factor in my judgment, but I think it showed: everyone's dialogue seemed particularly on-point, especially the Tyrion-Bronn sections. Anyway, this is still the part of the book where stuff is heating up, so it was bound to be intense.
That being said, oh my God.
- Syrio is a badass motherfucker and his last scene, along with Arya and "stick them with the pointy end," was played utterly pitch-perfect. "The First Sword of Braavos does not run." ("What do we say to the god of death?" "Not today.") And her sticking the one kid with the pointy end -- yeah, I don't even have words for the feelings this whole sequence causes me. It turns me into one of those "why can't I hold all these feelings" people.
- I love Varys and I would still like to read a celebrity gossip blog co-authored by him and Littlefinger. Nobody trusts the eunuch!
- Tyrion and Bronn Adventures continue to be, well, Tyrion and Bronn Adventures, which are like 50% of the attraction of this book anyway. Tyrion was fucking delightful, and I'm glad Tyrion-wins-friends-and-influences-people is getting on a roll; "he's braver and I'm better-looking?" Tywin was well-played too, including his blaming Tyrion for getting himself captured. Bronn won't admit they're frieeeeee-eee-eeeends. Not that Bronn's wooo-ooo-rried. (Bronn son of no one you've heard of.) SO delightful.
- Meanwhile, back at the Wall -- "meanwhile, back at the Wall" is my least favorite thing about A Song of Ice and Fire -- Jon makes nothing but a series of screencappable, macro-and-LJ-icon-asking emofaces while Ghost is cute and Sam is still the most useful member of the Night's Watch. I feel like if Tyrion took Sam under his wing he could teach him a thing or two about maturing into a full-grown BAMF.
- Robb was really likeable in this episode, and also really gay with Theon. The Robb/Theon is charmingly strong in the Game of Thrones TV series. I approve. All they ever do is shoot each other significant glances, banter, and like each other more than they like other people. Cat-Robb interaction was cute too, and showcased Cat's somewhat endearing inability to a. say anything encouraging or b. stop mommying Robb. I like how the Stark family dynamic is being made out right now.
- Rickon? Was that Rickon?? Could that have been Rickon??? Did the mythical Rickon beast finally show its face????
- Greatjon!! Greatjon is adorable. Your wolf bit off his fingers? Hahaha, you've got spunk, kid!
- Cersei and Joffrey are being played great for exactly how they're supposed to come off in this point in the storyline. I'm getting distracted periodically, however, by how much Cersei looks like a white woman version of my mom. (I do not look like Joff, thank God. I do look kind of like Arya though.)
- Ser Barristan is amazing -- I love how this book series is full of little moving badass moments like Ser Barristan stripping off his armor, throwing down his sword and storming out, things that make you realize that it is not in fact the gritty story of bored amoral people doing amoral things to each other, Crowning Moments of Awesome that belong to genuinely decent people. And yeah, he could've taken the whole Kingsguard. Probably still could've if Jaime was there. Sorry Jaime. Too busy failing at command over in Riverrun.
- Meanwhile, back in Vaes Dothrak, which I like better than the Wall, Drogo is busy doing things and having screentime again, which I appreciate. I realize it's to set him up to cark it, but at least he's got some time to smoulder at his wife, kill unruly riders with his bare hands and sheer force of his contempt, and attempt to manfully shrug off his wound in a manly man man way. Unfortunately, everyone would be better off if he had gotten to shrug off his wound. Mirri Maz Duur does not mean well by him. I like the actor they picked for her, though -- much more suitably dignified than how they did by Osha -- and am now watching this unfold with due dread. The Dany storyline is as full of sketchy Mighty Whiteyness as it ever was, as particularly the way it's being played now makes it look like White Woman Introduces Mongols To The Idea of Not Raping Their Prisoners, but that's straight from the books so I cannot really mark it as a point-against in the adaptation. It is, unfortunately, doing what it's supposed to.
Musing on that point, I think the Gratuitous HBOness isn't actually doing that any favors, though probably unintentionally. Contrary to semi-popular misconception, the A Song of Ice and Fire series did not come quite this HBO already: the adaptation's added a lot of random sex and violence, to say the least. This is all well and good when it's (the still WTF) Petyr Baelish monologuing to a pair of cavorting whores, but it makes the Dothraki portrayal look even more brutal and savage and lurid than it was in the books because we have to watch all their uncivilized-savage-person-violence as Dany does.
I'm not a fan of the HBO-ifying in general; it gives it a mood occasionally too close to HBO'S Rome, where you get dulled to the violence in the company of Antony and Atia eventually because you can't emotionally engage with it. In A Song of Ice and Fire, you're supposed to take all the violence dead seriously: it's a world where bad things happen to people, oftentimes for no reason, but commoners and foreigners and whores are not meant to be redshirts even if some of the POV characters think so. Adding too much more background violence makes it just seem like it's colored with blood and no one cares -- which undermines the context of various characters' classism, callousness, and self-centeredness, and misses the whole point of the intended social complexity in favor of a simplified bloody political sword-and-sorcery epic. It's good TV and good entertainment, but it's not the books.
That being said, oh my God.
- Syrio is a badass motherfucker and his last scene, along with Arya and "stick them with the pointy end," was played utterly pitch-perfect. "The First Sword of Braavos does not run." ("What do we say to the god of death?" "Not today.") And her sticking the one kid with the pointy end -- yeah, I don't even have words for the feelings this whole sequence causes me. It turns me into one of those "why can't I hold all these feelings" people.
- I love Varys and I would still like to read a celebrity gossip blog co-authored by him and Littlefinger. Nobody trusts the eunuch!
- Tyrion and Bronn Adventures continue to be, well, Tyrion and Bronn Adventures, which are like 50% of the attraction of this book anyway. Tyrion was fucking delightful, and I'm glad Tyrion-wins-friends-and-influences-people is getting on a roll; "he's braver and I'm better-looking?" Tywin was well-played too, including his blaming Tyrion for getting himself captured. Bronn won't admit they're frieeeeee-eee-eeeends. Not that Bronn's wooo-ooo-rried. (Bronn son of no one you've heard of.) SO delightful.
- Meanwhile, back at the Wall -- "meanwhile, back at the Wall" is my least favorite thing about A Song of Ice and Fire -- Jon makes nothing but a series of screencappable, macro-and-LJ-icon-asking emofaces while Ghost is cute and Sam is still the most useful member of the Night's Watch. I feel like if Tyrion took Sam under his wing he could teach him a thing or two about maturing into a full-grown BAMF.
- Robb was really likeable in this episode, and also really gay with Theon. The Robb/Theon is charmingly strong in the Game of Thrones TV series. I approve. All they ever do is shoot each other significant glances, banter, and like each other more than they like other people. Cat-Robb interaction was cute too, and showcased Cat's somewhat endearing inability to a. say anything encouraging or b. stop mommying Robb. I like how the Stark family dynamic is being made out right now.
- Rickon? Was that Rickon?? Could that have been Rickon??? Did the mythical Rickon beast finally show its face????
- Greatjon!! Greatjon is adorable. Your wolf bit off his fingers? Hahaha, you've got spunk, kid!
- Cersei and Joffrey are being played great for exactly how they're supposed to come off in this point in the storyline. I'm getting distracted periodically, however, by how much Cersei looks like a white woman version of my mom. (I do not look like Joff, thank God. I do look kind of like Arya though.)
- Ser Barristan is amazing -- I love how this book series is full of little moving badass moments like Ser Barristan stripping off his armor, throwing down his sword and storming out, things that make you realize that it is not in fact the gritty story of bored amoral people doing amoral things to each other, Crowning Moments of Awesome that belong to genuinely decent people. And yeah, he could've taken the whole Kingsguard. Probably still could've if Jaime was there. Sorry Jaime. Too busy failing at command over in Riverrun.
- Meanwhile, back in Vaes Dothrak, which I like better than the Wall, Drogo is busy doing things and having screentime again, which I appreciate. I realize it's to set him up to cark it, but at least he's got some time to smoulder at his wife, kill unruly riders with his bare hands and sheer force of his contempt, and attempt to manfully shrug off his wound in a manly man man way. Unfortunately, everyone would be better off if he had gotten to shrug off his wound. Mirri Maz Duur does not mean well by him. I like the actor they picked for her, though -- much more suitably dignified than how they did by Osha -- and am now watching this unfold with due dread. The Dany storyline is as full of sketchy Mighty Whiteyness as it ever was, as particularly the way it's being played now makes it look like White Woman Introduces Mongols To The Idea of Not Raping Their Prisoners, but that's straight from the books so I cannot really mark it as a point-against in the adaptation. It is, unfortunately, doing what it's supposed to.
Musing on that point, I think the Gratuitous HBOness isn't actually doing that any favors, though probably unintentionally. Contrary to semi-popular misconception, the A Song of Ice and Fire series did not come quite this HBO already: the adaptation's added a lot of random sex and violence, to say the least. This is all well and good when it's (the still WTF) Petyr Baelish monologuing to a pair of cavorting whores, but it makes the Dothraki portrayal look even more brutal and savage and lurid than it was in the books because we have to watch all their uncivilized-savage-person-violence as Dany does.
I'm not a fan of the HBO-ifying in general; it gives it a mood occasionally too close to HBO'S Rome, where you get dulled to the violence in the company of Antony and Atia eventually because you can't emotionally engage with it. In A Song of Ice and Fire, you're supposed to take all the violence dead seriously: it's a world where bad things happen to people, oftentimes for no reason, but commoners and foreigners and whores are not meant to be redshirts even if some of the POV characters think so. Adding too much more background violence makes it just seem like it's colored with blood and no one cares -- which undermines the context of various characters' classism, callousness, and self-centeredness, and misses the whole point of the intended social complexity in favor of a simplified bloody political sword-and-sorcery epic. It's good TV and good entertainment, but it's not the books.