Game of Thrones: A girl tells a man where he can get off

A girl sees that a man failed to pay the light bill again. A girl is out of here...

A girl sees that a man failed to pay the light bill again. A girl is out of here…

Lots of websites, including some run by respectable newspapers (how respectable? in one case, so respectable that Donald Trump has banned it from his campaign), drive traffic by posting weekly recaps of “Game of Thrones.”

Any interest in that here? After all, I stayed up too late a couple of nights ago to catch up on it, and I hate for that lost sleep to count for naught.

SPOILER ALERT

I was glad to see that Arya woke up and decided that, after all, she does have a name. Jaqen H’ghar had been one of my favorite characters, based mostly on his idiosyncratic speech habits. But at some point, damn, girl — it’s time to realize you’ve had enough, head home and use some of your new assassin skills on Ramsay Bolton, or someone else who richly deserves it.

OK, so the Khaleesi’s back home. But is anyone besides me tired of waiting for her to actually get it together and head for Westeros? Enough stilted, grandiose talk! Get with the program or put your dragons out to pasture!

As to the scene with the fugitive Ironborn heirs in the brothel (poor Theon!)… Anybody besides me wonder how they cast a scene like that? Do they place an ad asking for “beautiful young women with shapely boobs; no skills required?” Hollywood is a ever-weirder place as we descend further into cultural decadence.

Take a good look at Jon Snow, with his perpetual petulant, worried, put-upon expression. He looks like a boy-band member who didn’t get his bowlful of red M&Ms. Would you follow this guy to almost-certain doom? Neither would most of the noble houses of the North. When Sansa, habitual victim, comes across as the stronger sibling, House Stark is in trouble.

Finally, is Winter ever going to come? There’s a whole army of zombies up there north of the Wall, and did we get to see any this week? No.

Personally, unlike all those fanboys out there, I’d like to see all this get wrapped up….

Seriously, does this face inspire confidence?

Seriously, does this face inspire confidence? Do you want to follow it into battle?

13 thoughts on “Game of Thrones: A girl tells a man where he can get off

  1. Burl Burlingame

    It won’t get wrapped up until HBO pulls the plug. Until then, it’s profitable to stretch it out. It’s the storytelling difference between narrative arc and soap opera.

      1. Brad Warthen Post author

        I took USAToday’s version of the test, and got a character that’s a better match for me. The questions were slightly more thoughtful, which is not saying much:

        Eddard

    1. Scout

      Dang, I got Daenerys. I object.

      I’ve read all the books, but the show has gone into an alternate universe, so I don’t know how I feel anymore. I was only still reading to find out what happened to Bran, Arya, Jon, and Tyrion, and hoping that maybe one day a Stark would see a Stark again. At least Jon and Sansa finally did meet in the show. That was nice. The show mostly is constantly disturbing, but I just keep watching hoping that something good will happen to someone decent every once in a little while. We shall see.

      I’m really not Daenerys.

      1. Brad Warthen Post author

        From now on, we will address you as Mother of Dragons.

        Just kidding. “Scout” is too awesome a sobriquet to waste.

        Anybody think the Khaleesi kind of hard to see as “mother” of anything, much less dragons? She’s this tiny, ridiculously young and vulnerable-looking slip of a girl. No wonder Jorah is moved to protect her (he may be the most chivalrous knight yet on live in this ‘verse)…

  2. David Carlton

    In all fairness to Jon Snow, his betrayal by his Night Watch “family” really seems to have gotten to him. I was very much on the side of “revive him,” because, of all the major characters on GoT, he was the only one who (a) understood what the real danger was (the White Walkers) and (b) understood that it was time to put ancient enmities aside (the Free Folk) to confront it. In his reincarnation, he’s lost that laser-like focus; if it weren’t for Dolorous Edd and Davos reminding him, he’d be utterly adrift. Everyone else (Sansa included) is trapped in their old dynastic squabbles. Daenerys has completely lost me; I liked her idealism early on, but it was so inextricably intertwined with her cruel streak as now to make me afraid that she’ll wind up a sort of medieval bolshevik with WMDs. If she allies with the hopefully victorious House Stark and the Free Folk (though wouldn’t it be just like GoT to have Ramsay win?) to confront the danger from Beyond the Wall, it might work out OK. But the failure of Tyrion’s diplomatic approach will only confirm her in her might-makes-right proclivities. Of course, this assumes that the White Walkers aren’t a hoax gotten up by the Chinese.

    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      If Donald Trump read this, he would berate you for calling them the Free Folk when you should call the threat what it IS — radical Wildlingism.

      And he would promise to bar immigration into Westeros by anyone from north of the Wall…

    2. Brad Warthen Post author

      But you’re right — getting killed took a lot out of Jon Snow. Few people recover fully from that sort of thing, of course.

      I sort of wonder whether Ygritte would even be interested in this Jon. I doubt it. It’s bad enough that he knows nothing; now he’s gone all fey…

  3. Brad Warthen Post author

    Speaking of Ramsay Bolton…

    I watched a bit of “Vicious” with my wife last night, and it creeped me out to see that actor on the sitcom.

    Every time he grinned that insane grin of his, I wanted to shout at the other characters to “Look out!”

    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      By the way…

      Does anyone besides me think it passing strange to see two venerable actors who happen to be gay mugging for laughs by playing gay stereotypes that wouldn’t have been out of place in mainstream lowbrow comedy 50 years ago?

      Seems like they’d turn their noses up at that.

      There is much here that I do not understand…

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