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SpiralOut

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Posts posted by SpiralOut

  1. Could they at least have bothered to give Gendry the correct last name?  Dude was born in King's Landing.  He specifically tells Davos he was born in Flea Bottom.  There was the entire scene where all of Robert's bastards are getting killed in King's Landing and that's why he has to bail with Yoren and Arya for the Wall.  His bastard name would be Waters, not Rivers.  At best it would be Storm since his pops was King Baratheon.  But fucking Rivers?

    As if we needed more evidence they aren't even fucking trying at this point. 

    • Like 2
  2. Show should be changed to How to Paint Yourself Into a Corner Through Bad Writing.

    It's honestly kind of amazing to watch.  It hasn't just been one bad decision here or there.  It has been a chain of them since Season 5 that has led us to this.  One domino knocking down another until the WWs and the NK ain't shit and Queen Crazy Eyes and her Fuckboi Pirate are the end boss.  And we're really gonna go with the whole "Dany turns evil!" shit. 

    George, buddy.  For fucks sake please finish Winds of Winter.

     

     

    • Like 3
  3. On 5/1/2019 at 5:27 PM, Goo Punch said:

    Didn't he then bench himself with a chance to go for 300 because he wanted to get his young backup some PT? Jamaal was simply a humble superstar. 

    Yep.  He could have easily broken the single game rushing record that night, but decided to be a class act instead. 

     

  4. 14 hours ago, Llano Estacado said:

     


    *checks thread*

    Is there a difference in the Gold Company book to show? They haven’t broke a contract since Blackfyre Rebellion in either TV or books, correct?

    I remember whilst slogging through DWD and thinking some of those Gold Company and 2nd Sons would “heel turn” and pledge loyalty to their families liege lords, rightful heirs Jon and/or Dany. Is there a chance Tyrion or Varys convinces them to follow the mother of dragons?

    Actually they break their contract with Myr to take up with Dany.  Then they change their minds and decide to back fAegon, IIRC.

    In the books Strickland isn't a young Jaime type warrior.  He's an out-of-shape accountant type dude with bad ankles/knees/something like that.  So far that's the only difference between show/books. 

    Them doing an about-face in the show is definitely a possibility.  Having Cersei make a big deal out of the elephants is suspicious, too.  Wouldn't be hard for Stickland and Co. to have landed the elephants and some more troops elsewhere ready to stab Cersei in the back.  The budget had room for Ghost so I don't see why it wouldn't have room for some CGI elephants as well. 

    • Like 1
  5. 1 hour ago, Eastwood said:

    There's something evil still lingering up north. Maybe GRRM (or maybe even the show runners) borrowed from J.R.R. Tolkein in that the Night King had a physical form, but his evil presence continues to exist until it is defeated through a specific means. For Sauron, it was the Ring of Power being thrown into the fires of Mt. Doom. For the Night King, maybe he can only be permanently killed by Lightbringer.

    Remember, the Night King isn't even a thing in the books.

    This whole thing is show silliness.  Ever since D&D realized George wasn't going to keep writing and they couldn't copy off his homework anymore, they've just been doing w/e they feel like.  There's zero way any of this plays out anywhere near the same way in the books.  George is famous for not having a clue where the fuck he's going with his books until he writes them.  I don't think he's told D&D shit beyond maybe some of the vaguest shit like "Dany gets back to Westeros" "Jon comes back" etc.

    In fact, this whole episode is kinda classic D&D writing.  Ever since Season 4 when George fucked off D&D have valued spectacle more than anything.  In that vein, they've heavily relied on stock standard movie tropes like having a "Big Bad" to motivate the characters and move the plot along. 

    That's how Ramsay Bolton, a supporting character at best from the books, becomes the "Big Bad" for Sansa/Jon.  It's why Stannis got thrown on the trash heap.  He was in the way of Jon/Sansa coming in and saving Winterfell. 

    It's why The Waif, the most inconsequential and minor of characters in the books, becomes Arya's nemesis and goes all Terminator and takes up huge amount of screen time.  They couldn't come up with an interesting way to make Arya's story in Braavos matter, so they gave her a Big Bad to defeat.

    The Night King is just another Big Bad in a long line of Big Bads in the show.  I'm still not convinced he's ever going to be a thing in the books.  The White Walkers are an existential threat in the books.  That doesn't really work for a TV show.  They need to have a face that the audience can be afraid of and who the protagonists can overcome.  In fact, here's a quote from George himself about the Night's King, the Night Watcher who supposedly fell in love with a female WW and took over the Nightfort and ruled there for some period of time thousands of years ago, and the Night King from the show:

    When asked if there is a connection between the Night King of the White Walkers and the Night's King of legend, George R. R. Martin replied,

    As for the Night's King (the form I prefer), in the books he is a legendary figure, akin to Lann the Clever and Brandon the Builder, and no more likely to have survived to the present day than they have.[4]

     

    • Like 1
  6. 6 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

    There can be closure on all of those storylines after GRRM passes and his estate hires others to finish the books.  Given the popularity of the books and especially the tv show, this doesn’t end with GRRM dying. 

    That probably involves a quite inferior product though, right?

    Sanderson finishing up for Jordan wasn't a huge deal because it isn't like Jordan had a zillion different mysteries, prophecies, and riddles to tie up.  Plus, while Jordan was a very good writer, his prose wasn't something you just had to replicate.  I think it's a much bigger ask to pull that off for Martin. 

    There's also the issue of Martin's writing style.  He has referred to himself as a gardener who doesn't really write down plot points and outlines and all the rest.  So, while he may have a general idea of how he wants everything to finish up, I can't for a second believe he has each plotline and character arc mapped out.  So if he croaks I think whoever steps in would be taking a lot of shots in the dark.

  7. While walking the dog tonight I was thinking about this thread and ol' George not finishing the books.  And I kinda realized how much even we ultra-cynics have underestimated the impossibility of him finishing.

    About the time ADWD came out and George was still writing and people still thought book releases would keep up with the show, George said he planned for the series to be seven books.  So only two more.  The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring.  Because of publishing restraints related to the printing process, books can't be more than around 1200 pages or so, but lets assume George could get 1500 pages apiece of TWOW and ADOS.  That's 3000 pages to finish his story.  Here's a list of things that still need to be wrapped up in the books assuming no new places, people, or plots get introduced.  And of course, I'm going to forget about half a hundred things.

    Essos:

    1.  Arya is still with the Faceless Men and none of this has been resolved.

    2.  Illyrio Mopatis is still out there kicking around and we probably need to have a check in with him at some point.

    3.  Dany has just been found by the Dothraki.  She still has a LOT to do in Essos.

    4.  We haven't been to Asshai yet.  It's big in the prophecies.  We probably need to see this place.

    5.  Tyrion, Penny, and Jorah's stuff.

    6.  Second Sons, the slaver army, attack on Meereen.

    7.  Victarion's story and him showing up at Meereen.

    8.  Everything to do with the Golden Company.

    9.  Iron Bank stuff.

    North of the Wall:

    1.  Bran's entire storyline.  He's still with Bloodraven under the tree and hasn't learned jack shit yet.

    2.  Night King and Co.

    3.  Everything to do with Hardhome.

    4.  Coldhands/Benjen.

    The North:

    1.  Stannis is still snowed in outside Winterfell.  Boltons still run Winterfell.  This involves a bunch of characters.

    2.  Theon/Fake Sansa escape shenanigans.

    3.  Mance Rayder and his ladies.

    4.  Jon just got murked at Castle Black.  Melisandre, Shireen.  All the wildlings stuff.

    5.  Howland Reed (unless he's the High Sparrow?)

    6.  All the crazy weird shit to do with the crypts of Winterfell.

    Riverlands:

    1.  The Freys and Old Man Walder still need to get got.

    2.  Blackfish Tully is still kicking about.

    3.  Harrenhal

    4.  Brotherhood, Lady Stoneheart, Brienne, Pod, Jaime.

    5.  The Hound being the Gravedigger and working for the Sept.

    Vale:

    1.  Sansa and Littlefinger

    2.  Robbin

    3.  Harry the Heir

    Iron Islands:

    1.  Bunch of Ironborn stuff.

    2.  Bunch of Euron stuff.

    Crownlands:

    1.  A zillion things to do with Cersei and King's Landing.  We haven't even finished up with the Sparrows.

    2.  Fake Dragon storyline w/ Young Griff involving a bunch of characters.

    Westerlands:

    1.  Gotta get to Casterly Rock at some point.

    2.  Jayne Westerling w/ Robb's kid is still a thing, unlike in the show.

    Reach:

    1.  Queen of Thorns is still kicking about.

    2.  The Tarlys are still kicking about.

    3.  Ja'qen Hagar infiltrating the Citadel, Marwyn, Samwell, and everything else to do with Oldtown.

    Dorne:

    1.  The entire Fire and Blood Martell plot.

    2.  Darkstar

    3.  All the Sand Snakes nonsense.

    How in the sweet fuck are you going to fit all of that into 3000 pages?  There are dozens of major plotlines to finish.  There are at least 100 major characters who need to have their stories handled.  This series needs 10 books, easy, to convincingly wrap everything up.  And we're now on Year 8 for book six.  George turns 71 in September.  Enjoy these final four episodes.  Cause it's all the closure we're gonna get.

    • Like 2
  8. 3 hours ago, idigTexas said:

    Why would a master manipulator ever feel that he couldn't weasel his way out of any situation?  You said it yourself.  He's a badass, and he knows it.  Why should he worry?  A random line from a conversation in the Littlefinger's past is supposed to suddenly make him understand the extent of Bran's abilities?  Even if he knew that Bran was now the Three Eyed Raven, how would he know what that means?  No one fully understands it.  Not Littlefinger, not Sansa, not Sam, not even Bran....okay maybe the Night King does.     

    Bran's abilities should also lay to rest any theories that the person who died wasn't actually Littlefinger.  On top of that, someone else in a Littlefinger mask would not have reacted that way.  They would have had to know about all the shit from his past that was mentioned, and they certainly would not have been so desperate if they were expecting to die.  

    Littlefinger's death was deserved, satisfying, and plausible for what we have been shown.  Sorry he's gone, but unless you are a ginger with a vagina and Tully blood, you aren't his type anyway. 

    You're a master manipulator who is phenomenal at working people, their motivations, and things that aren't outside the scope of human politicking, etc.  Then you find out dragons are real, zombie dead people are real, the kid you had stabbed with your own dagger is now a crazy prophet seer who is quoting your own evil lines back to you, and your protege's sister who you're trying to fuck around with is a top-level assassin and you're not gonna worry?  Not even a little bit? 

    Honestly, I think part of the reason that whole plot line doesn't sit well with me is because of how goofily done they tried to set up the tension.  The whole Sansa v. Arya thing where Arya is telling Sansa she wonders what it would be like to take her face and be Lady of Winterfell is just awkward.  Whole thing just felt off to me.

    Again though, Littlefinger had to go.  The show has no time for anything else.  So in that context, eh, it's fine. 

  9. 7 minutes ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

    Show us again on the doll where you want to touch Littlefinger.

    Same place your mother touched me last night!

    Holy shit, I didn't know we weren't allowed to have slightly negative opinions of the direction of the show.  It's like, just my opinion, man.  If you guys love it, great.  I still love tons of stuff about the show.  Just thought that part was handled badly. 

     

  10. Just now, futureman said:

    littlefinger had more money than anyone in westeros?  I don’t remember that at all. 

    Easy to forget since it was all the way back in Season 1. 

    He was Master of Coin.  He had brothels set up all over.  He was able to backstab Ned by paying off the Gold Cloaks.  When Tyrion takes over he mentions how Littlefinger had the magical ability to rub coins together and make more appear, etc.

    Remember, Littlefinger was a nobody heir from the most minor of minor houses.  The reason Bobby B and the Lannisters kept him around was because he kept coming up with money for all their extravagant spending.  He uses his economic skills to become Master of Coin, sit on the Small Council, and then start pitting the important people against each other and gaining influence for himself. 

  11. 17 minutes ago, Sleepygrad said:

     


    So the Stark kids, one of which is an all knowing psychic and another one is an assassin, finally find out who betrayed their father and kicked off the entire war and they’re NOT going to kill him?

    Not every death is going to have some poetic justice to it. How should Little Finger have been killed?

    Doesn't really matter because we got what we got.  That being said, the way it was done was dumb as shit.

    Littlefinger has proven over and over to be a master manipulator.  He set up the overthrow of Bobby B.   He set up the entire war between the North/Lannisters.  He set up the murder of Joffery.  And then he got the people he just screwed over to give him land and titles and juice with the people who matter.  He worms his way into and takes over one of the biggest factions in Westeros and their giant army.  Oh, and he managed to make himself the richest dude in the seven kingdoms at the same time. 

    So this guy, as badass as he is, has zero inkling of the danger he's in at Winterfell?  He sells Sansa off to the Boltons to get raped and tortured and just thinks she's cool with it?  Even though she has said to his face over and over she clearly ain't cool with it?  He technically runs the Eerie, but he knows Bronze Yohn hates his ass and likes Sansa.  So he should know he's never getting any backing there.  He has zero leverage over Sansa anymore.  And then like the conspiracy video shows, Bran basically straight up lets him know he's on to him with the whole "Chaos is a laddah!" line.  Our evil genius instead ignores all this to play Sansa against Arya.  And Sansa straight up tells him Arya is a stone-cold killer.  Not just a killer.  A killer who never fails/has magical assassin powers. 

    Season 1-4 Littlefinger would have never found himself in that situation in the first place.  But if he did, he'd have bailed before we ever got to that council scene. 

    If I had to come up with a better ending for him it would probably involve him realizing Sansa isn't under his control anymore, turning on her, denying her the Vale forces to save Jon, Sansa/Jon somehow getting out of that scrape anyway, and then Arya or Sansa tracking him down after he's used the Vale forces to basically make himself the ruler of central Westeros.  The Freys have been wiped out.  The Tullys are toast.  No one really controls all that territory.  Harrenhal is there and Lord of Harrenhal is the title he was given anyway from the Lannisters.  Hell, you could even rope Nymeria and the wolves who are roaming that area into the plot.  

    I just think his end was sloppily done and didn't line up with who the character was.  Of course, that has been the case with a lot of characters since D&D had to take over from George.  Tyrion becoming a moron being one of the more glaring examples. 

    And you say not every death is going to have some poetic justice to it, but that's clearly what D&D were going for with Littlefinger's death.  "Hah!  See!  Littlefinger got outwitted by Sansa!"  It was just done badly and kinda fell flat on its face.

    • Like 1
  12. 2 hours ago, Gene Parmesan said:

    I guess I need to go back and watch that scene.  My first thoughts are he was paying her for info.

    Same.

    Benioff and Weiss can't write anything that good.  And they're out of time anyway.  Littlefinger was a loose end that needed to be tied up before we got to the Zombies v. Dragons stuff.  So they (clumsily) got rid of him.

    Shame, too, since the character deserved a better send off.  But I imagine we're going to be seeing a lot of that in these final few episodes.  Lots of characters are going to get the axe in unsatisfying ways because we're speeding along to the end and there's no time to give them their due.

  13. 1 minute ago, jimmyjazz said:

    I'm not a Democrat, and your both-sidist approach is not only predictable, it's reductive and silly.

    Yeah, you're not.  You're a mouth breathing fuckwit who wishes he could come close to Hugo's level of pathetic.  You're a laughingstock everywhere on this site outside of this one forum.

    I actually have some respect for real Democrats.  You on the other hand? 

     

    • Like 2
  14. 6 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

    God damn, the stupid, it burns.

    I can sleep at night knowing that Clinton brokered a loan for the most pro-Western Russian candidate.  That's light years from sucking off and being the lackey of a decidedly anti-Western authoritarian who is currently doing everything he can to undermine world order.

    Seriously, man.  Learn some fucking history.

    So because you "can sleep at night" that means we're absolved of all wrongdoing overseas in meddling with other elections, carry no blame for the rise of Putin, and are therefore justified in "going to war" with the Russians over this?  You're right.  The stupid.  It burns.

    No one here supports Putin you simple fuck.  Just some of us don't have our heads so far up our own asses that we realize this whole situation came about because of the US' actions.  We've done shit far and away worse to Russia than Putin has ever done to us.  Dude sucks.  He's also our fault.

    Oh, and I've yet to see any of you mention how the Mueller report shows how this entire Russia interference should be laid right at Obama's feet.  The Russians started these shenanigans back in 2014.  Obama and his crew knew.  They chose to do dick all about it.  Then, when they finally got around to imposing some sanctions they were literally the least and most ineffective ones they could pass.  So Obama knew, did nothing, let it continue, passed some weak ass sanctions which were just symbolic, and then proceeded to gaslight the American people saying shit like "No one can rig an election" and acting like everything was hunky fucking dory. 

    https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/19/opinions/mueller-report-obama-jennings/index.html

    Learn some history, my ass.  You're not even remotely acquainted to recent history.  Oh, that's right.  Because it conflicts with your own partisan bullshit.  Democratic Presidents have completely dropped the ball and fucked us, but MUH TRUMP!!

    • Like 7
  15. 44 minutes ago, Michael Knight said:

    What elections do you think Russia has?

    Well they used to have them.  Ya know, because Bill Clinton literally bought and paid to keep Yeltsin as the Russian president.  Dude's numbers were completely in the tank.  Everyone knew he was going to get crushed.  Then ol' Slick Willy stepped in with a boatload of cash so Yeltsin could start paying people off and, wow, he magically won by a narrow margin!

    That's not a foreign intelligence agency spreading shit on the internet for the rubes to lap up and maybe change their opinion.  That's the leader of a foreign power outright buying off your election.  But we should "go to war" over this shit when the Russians didn't over that shit back in '96? 

    In fact, it can easily be argued that our current predicament with Russia is just yet another consequence of our awful foreign policy of meddling everywhere we can stick our dirty fingers.  The list of democracies where we've come in, fucked shit up, installed a dictator, and then bailed is long as fuck.  Russia probably falls into that camp.  We broke them in the Cold War, then we started fucking around in their elections, but instead of getting our guy in there and keeping him there we opened the door for a ruthless fuck like Putin to take over.  He, naturally, doesn't have many fond feelings for us and our hypocrisy.  So tit for fucking tat.  If we were in his position we'd be doing the exact same fucking thing.

    Acting aggrieved and indignant is fucking stupid.  This is how the game is played.  We're fucking morons who are glued to our phones 24/7 and believe any crap spewed in the media or online that justifies our own warped ideologies and prejudices.  It bit us in the ass.  The only proper response is to nail Zuckerberg and his ilk to the wall and to be more vigilant about this type of shit.  I'd say we should also learn to stop giving a fuck about what we see in the media and online and not let it work us into a frenzy, but yeah, we all know that ain't gonna happen. 

    The problem is us, not Russia.  Those crazy fucks are sitting on an ever shrinking economic island, have zero pull on the globe at large, and are rapidly killing themselves through alcohol poisoning, injecting gasoline into their veins, and falling off of tall buildings.  They're probably stunned their little stunt worked as well as it did.  Just like Osama was probably stunned he was able to pull off the largest terrorist attack in history with a few dumb fucks with box cutters because pilots didn't bother to lock the cockpit door.  If our country wasn't such a dysfunctional mess filled with easily led simpletons this "informational warfare" would have been a laughable joke.

     

     

    • Like 8
  16. 5 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

    6. He's the emperor and is above the law

    Not too far from the truth. 

    Our bitchass Congress has continually ceded power to the Executive for decades.  Turns out when politicians spend all their time campaigning and then after they've won, raising money for their next campaign while bending over to lick clean the assholes of the corporate masters they serve, they don't actually do their fucking jobs.  One of which is to be a check on the Executive. 

    Oh well.  I'm sure the next person in office totally won't follow in Trump, Obama, Bush, and Clinton's footsteps and will instead give up some of the unilateral power of the office.  This time it'll be different.  For sure. 

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