Fine with me, that was a fairly dull storyline at this point.

Is it just me or is this season falling really flat compared to the previous seasons? I used to eagerly watch them as soon as possible, now it's a bit meh, the plots don't make as much sense (because they are jamming characters into plots written for other characters), and it all feels like bad fan-fiction (Jamie + Bronn Bromance, etc.)

That's exactly the feeling I was getting from this season too: bad fan-fiction. Watching this stuff just makes me wish even more the next book would come out soon...

It definitely has a more sedate pace. It reminds me of Babylon 5's 5th season, where they'd crammed everything big and important into the 4th (fearing the 5th wouldn't be made), so when they DID get the 5th it was all lower-tier more personal stuff.
Ironically, the Centauri Royal Court stuff was GoT-ish with the intrigues and assassinations and torture for amusement and all that.



The Jedi Master

It mirrors the books.Book 4+ are, honestly, a tad dull and long winded with very little happening. "A feast of Crows" especially was very slow.

I was definitely let down by A Dance With Dragons...probably more so because of the painful 6 year wait...

felt like the whole book was about Tyrion floating down a river...about as exciting as The Old Man And The Sea

Ah, is Martin becoming another Robert Jordan?

So mass murder (at the red wedding), torture and CASTRATION (Theon/Reek), armies killing each other (Daenerys Targaryen's Unsullied sacking several cities, and also the Nights Watch vs the Wildlings) pleople flayed alive.. and SO ON ..behadign shown on screen.weren't enough for people to stop, but a scene that takes place OFF CAMERA is horrible enough to stop viewership,. including a remarkable tweet by a senator (democrat) no less..
I am defintely NOT advocating rape, yet in a medievil culture it makes senes, and Ramsey bolton is not a good guy.
I love USA and Canada but sometimes I really don't understand the mentality.. It is not meant as a comment to a specific someone of course. Jus tI don't get why some context and situation even though slighlty touched make a mass revolt and others in my opinion much more graphically depicted and more disturbing are sliding off viewers and critics.
Thus saying other seriere like Spartacus were really disturbing and they DID not make any realistic representaion of Roman daily life. While unfortunatley GOT makes a good reperesentation of emdieval style and mentality. including rape culture.

Episode 7 was one of the best this season. Such an emotional roller coaster and full of twists.

With the most rewarding moment this season so far (I hope we get the best one later delivered by Ramsay):

I just hope her situation doesn't land on Jaime's head if/when he gets back. We don't know yet what she's to be charged with, but, well...ya know.

If the charges are related to incest, the problem may go beyond just Jamie, as Tommen would be a #%&*$# and therefore, not the true King. But I think Lancel Lannister does not have proof of that, so she might just be accused of infidelity to the King, which is not so good news either for her.

My bet, Tommen pulls a Tywin (finally) and calls on his uncle to bring the army from Casterly Rock and liberate her and his queens...er...I mean Loras and Margaery.

Most mysterious is the last line from Little Finger to Lady Oleanna....about finding a young man for her. My bet is he found the true heir to Robert's throne, Gendry (the guy saved by Davos), which can also topple the Lannister's claim on the throne.

Lancel is her cousin, so they have his personal account of incest (cousins still count I would think). I don't know that he was ever aware that Jamie was the father of the children.

I LOL'd at Cersei's "I'm the queen!" comment, like it did anything for Margery, so why it would help her?

As for Gendry, as a #%&*$# doesn't Stannis still come before him? The guy's a humorless arrogant prick but he's the one with the true claim, as Ned knew, so absent Robert having made Gendry an heir before he died (which as he believed he had two sons with Cersei would never have happened) he's irrelevant.



The Jedi Master

Gendry is Robert's illegitimate son, therefore Stannis still has the better claim to the Baratheon lineage. As Sansa pointed out: trueborn > b*stards.

I doubt Gendry will come back to the show and/or the books, at least in any significant role. Maybe again as a "blood donor" for Melissandre.

Not offense to anyone, but we know exactly what the charges against Cercei are: adultery, with her cousin Lancel, which happened a couple of seasons back. Something those Puritan-wannabes with their leader Oliver Cromwell High Sparrow do frown upon. Some of us also are 99% sure about the punishment she will receive. How they'll pull it off will be interesting to see, though; a lot of it hinges on how far Lena Headey is willing to go.

The incest case is now nothing more than a rumor among a few "insiders". I doubt those allegations are even known to the High Sparrow, and there is not a shred of evidence left to prove it.


Regarding the latest episode:

I can't help but think that Littlefinger comes off as more mastermindish than he actually is. In fact he does not nearly pull as many strings as he himself believes; IMO he's merely an opportunist with a decent network.

Also, I still don't like the Sansa narrative, which I regard as utterly useless to the story, as well as to the character. Jeyne Poole reloaded, only with poor Sansa in her stead. Redundant, because the writers merely pile on her crappy life with almost exactly the same bad experiences she's already had with Joffrey - just more intense and cruel. What is that supposed to accomplish (for her character)? Out of the frying pan, into the fire? Lame, IMO.

There would have been more creative and better ways to give Sophie Turner something "interesting" to do with her character: in the Vale of Arryn,for example, usurping Littlefinger's power there, using Robin to get what she wants and/ or marrying some influential knight there. Or anything else. She also could have taken over some traits from Lady Stoneheart, even ending up leading the Brotherhood without Banners in her stead, if they absolutely had to get her within "striking distance" of Winterfell. Or start a lemoncake franchise.

I can live with the extremely abbreviated Tyrion storyline, because he still does what he's supposed to do...he just took major shortcuts. Sam getting beaten up again is evidence of the same uninspired writing as Sansa finding herself in the same situation as before, IMO. In the books Sam advanced to at least being respected by most of his peers (also, he traveled); letting his character remain this static is unimaginative writing. If there's any development to his character, it's in baby steps.

To me, this season it seems as if the producers have shoved George Martin aside, entered "uncharted waters" with their writing and lost their bearings. OTOH, they have to advance the story now at a greater pace, while still trying to remain more or less faithful to the books already published - without boring the audience to tears. I imagine this to be a considerable challenge.

I don't know, it's finally moving along at a good clip. There's only 2-3 episodes left in the season already, right?

They had to use Lancel because the Kattleblack brothers weren't included in the TV Show to provide the catalyst for Cercei's imprisonment (the gist is about the same - that Cersei tried to frame Margery and it backfires).

That was a reference to Lancel, I believe. Littlefinger probably knew about Cersei's infidelity with Lancel.

George Martin on book characters missing in the TV show:

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/05/31/game-thrones-lady-stoneheart


BTW, regarding Lady Stoneheart: this season's final episode is titled "Mother's Mercy". Now, one of Lady Stoneheart's noms de plume is "Mother Mercy".

Hmmmm. Either that is some form of homage by the authors, or a taunt. Or......we'll see, I guess.

They specified incest as one of the charges, but not whether they know of it with Jamie.

I can't help but wonder...can giants swim?



The Jedi Master

It's not easy to pinpoint exactly what constitutes incest in Westeros as an amoral/criminal offense. The Targaryen dynasty almost exclusively married off brothers and sisters (to keep their bloodline "clean"), and they've ruled over Westeros for centuries.

So, compared to that, I am not quite sure if a sexual encounter with cousin Lancel can be even judged as incest (in the context of that world). Then again, the "Sparrows" turned into the "Faith Militant" are essentially Puritans, and therefore rather radical in their interpretation of the Faith of the Seven.

Therefore, my guess is the incest charges are based on Cercei's sexual encounter with Lancel. I think that would be in line with what we've heard the High Sparrow pontificate about. It also would be in line with the book(s).

I highly doubt any Jamie connection in the charges, because I assume the punishment would be rather more severe than what Cercei will have to face in the season finale. And so far, the authors of the show have not made up anything new compared to the books; they merely shortened and redistributed (some may even call it "butchered") plot lines.

Could mother's mercy maybe be a reference for the poison Arya is using for the Seven Face god? I can remember what that is called but I am pretty sure the fish monger is about to die.

But I agree the most likely reference is Cersei's punishment. If the charge was incest with Jamie, I would imagine in the eyes of the Sparrow it would invalidate Tommen's claim. So most likely it is in response to Lancel.

With some of these accelerated story lines there is no way for Martin to finish book seven before we reach it in the show. I am just hoping to see book 6 this year. Winter is coming...slowly.

S