Game of Thrones (Contains spoilers)

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

For me, it would have been nice that Sansa didn't have to go through that trope to become a strong female character.

And it's vile that it feels like rape or assault on a female character and the character becomes strong afterwards is a trope

It's nice that she now has a reason to carry on. Knowledge that two of her siblings are still alive and out there.

You would have thought the feedback from last year where Cersei gets raped by Jamie would have made the writers be more tactful about the consideration of depicting distressing sex (that ends up looking highly like rape or is rape).
Maybe they thought the noise was being edgey. No, it was noise of disappointment and being ashamed.
---
Next two episodes feel like a storm of WTF is coming.
Up until now this season it's been nice. But a lot of set up.
Sandsnakes feel let down.
Then again, this is the first time I watched a season as it airs. I watched the first 4 in a binge fest. So I didn't notice if a character had a slow-burn of a story arc for a season where nothing much happened.
Maybe I am not alone, since no one was bothered to resurrect this thread until I did.

[Avistew]

I HATED what happened two episodes ago. I thought it was vile and I felt physically sick. It was less horrible than what does happen in the book, though.

I've been disappointed in this season. My main complain is that almsot every scene that featured Sanza from the beginning of the season I kept shouting at the screen YOU'RE ALREADY MARRIED!!! How do they just ignore that because it's convenient? It's not brought up or anything. They could have had someone Granting her a divorce or something, if they can make a bastard legit, they can probably do that it could have been explained in story but they didn't even bother.
Second thing: Where is Bran? I'm not really complaining, I was bored with a lot of his scenes in the past, but I'm wondering if he's gone Rickon's way and been kind of forgotten. I wonder if he'll come back for his big scene of making Theon see the light, although in the show he still remembers Theon Greyjoy so he doesn't need to be snapped out of it as much

I also found the Sand Snakes disappointing. They barely did anything, and showed no skill while doing it. Also, weren't they supposed to want Myrcella to become the Queen because she's older than Tommen? In the show they're trying to kill her instead, it just seems weird. And I was really hoping to see Oberron's daughter but I guess they cut her out the story. That's a shame. I really like his son and Myrcella though.

In the end, they changed a lot of things, but pretty much every change they've made I've nodded and thought "that makes sense" (caveats mentioned above). I've found the first few episodes boring, then big gross shocking event (I was expecting it but kinda hoped they would have changed it) and at some point I did consider not watching anymore, because it felt like if they only thing they could do to get attention was try to shock people as much as possible, that wasn't too good.

I decided to stick with it, though. My husband really enjoyed the latest episode, I still found it me. Kind of annoyed at the woman introduced just so that we can watch her die because she, a free folk, can't hurt white walkers that look like children even though they're a threat to her. I hate this trope so much. Why is it always a woman? I wish there were more men who can't hurt a child despite killing on a daily basis or women who wouldn't blink at the idea. This is just sending the message "it's against women's nature to kill children!" even though the female in question had been characterised as a badass up to that point AND she was a wildling, I mean come on, like wildlings wouldn't be used to children dying, most of the time when wildlings die the others shrug and don't really care, why would they care so much about children?

Other than that I thought the episode was okay. Not amazing but probably a bit better than the rest of the season so far. Stuff was actually happening for once.

[Elomin Sha]

Bran isn't going to be in this season which is a shame. I liked his story and we need more Hodor (lots of cheers when that is uttered again).
Was there as this much outrage at what happened to Sansa than in season one when Khal Drogo had his way with Daenerys when she was married against her will?

[Master Gunner]

I don't think there's much left to Bran's story in the books, so they're holding it off until next season or so (plus it ties heavily into the magical elements the show is trying to tone down on compared to the books). And yeah, the Sand Snakes were extremely disappointing.

As for Sansa's marriage, I think the implication is that because the marriage was never consummated, formally dissolving it is a technicality not worth screentime to cover.

And yes, there was outrage back in season one too, but the show wasn't the same phenomenon then as it is now, so the outrage didn't get as much attention. It was brought often up again after last season's Jamie/Cercei scene though.

[Avistew]

I think the main difference is that in the first two cases, the sex did happen, it just wasn't rape, and in the latest case, the rape did happen, but not to the same character. I'm speaking from a "compared to the books" point of view of course, but that means that Sansa is still a virgin in the books, way further down in the story, while the character in the show isn't. I honestly think it would be different if she hadn't been a virgin before that scene. Not hugely different, but a bit different.

In the first two, the complaint is "why did you make it non-consensual?" but even then, the "non-consensual" part is toned down. Neither Khal Drogo nor Jaime is hurting their partner nor trying to. In this case it's "Why are you doing this to Sansa?!" and it's done in a sadistic way by one of the worst people in the story. There is a feeling of "she escaped Joffrey but it changed nothing" while her story in the books may be bleak, but she does escape from the horrible situation she was in, not to fall into a worse one (I mean her situation in the books isn't perfect but comparatively it's pretty good).

So to me it really wasn't "oh no, rape again". It was that it was Sansa. Ramsey has been torturing and raping people the whole time, and so have other characters. But Sansa symbolised the idea that some people can get out of it less damaged than others. She was the big contrast with Arya. And she became strong in the books too so it's not like this was needed for her character development.

I understand why they changed this specific arc. I would have been way more fine with it if they had bothered to explain the plothole part. I understand your explanation, Master Gunner, but they could have still acknowledged it somehow. Even if they did it by assuming she was now a widow or something. The way it played out, it looked to me like the writers completely forgot that part of the story for several episodes in a row and then never bothered to fix it.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

It was like Sansa repeated her arc again, but this time with rape and a lot more abuse.
Disgusting and disappointing.

It didn't shock me. It angered me.

I'm glad Theon betrayed her because I think it would have caused a bigger shit storm if it was a man that saved her.

[Elomin Sha]

I was annoyed at Theon, it was his second chance at doing something. Ramsey has done so much to him over the past two seasons, he had a chance at retribution.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

I think Theon will die in a redeeming way. I can't think of anything satisfying that can happen.
I can't see why he will stay alive much longer.

[Avistew]

When I saw that Theon scene, I thought he did go to the top tower but Ramsey was waiting there for him and he freaked out and spilled the beans. Then this episodes seems to imply he went to Ramsey directly and on purpose? Didn't get that at all from the previous episode.

[Master Gunner]

The Theon scene was a fake-out, Reek went straight to Ramsey. The tower he was to light a candle in is a uninhabited relic in serious disrepair.

It confused a lot of people, though. They could have shown the reveal better.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

Oh.

[Elomin Sha]

And last night episode happened.
There's going to be a lot of female fans wearing black today.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

I think he'll be resurrected

[ch3m1kal]

I think so too, especially as I'm pretty sure the shot of his eye looking distinctly pale blue was foreshadowing.

However this is one of the things that is the same in the books, so I may just be reading too much into that one shot.

The only thing I didn't like about this episode is that it seems they tried too hard to wrap up most of the story arcs in this season. It felt kind forced, and honestly left me wondering why some of this stuff didn't happen during the other episodes.

[Master Gunner]

I'm still wondering what the point of the whole Dorne storyline was.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

Dorne disappointed me. Because I recognized one of the Sand Snakes.
She was the whip. She was in a kids adventure drama series that was weird, but she was one of the few good things about the show. She was a really good martial artist and was the lead character. Disappointed that she didn't really get much chance to shine. None of them did except for the youngest who felt like she fell into a troupe.

[Avistew]

This season felt to me like they were taking their time in the first few episodes when things should have been faster, then rushing a few things in the last one that could have worked in previous ones.

Also looks like they decided to kill off a bunch of characters, some of which are still alive in the books. Not new, they've been doing that since the second season, but still.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

I felt a lot of apathy this seasons because I'm used to awful things happening on the show.

Hardhome and Marcella with Jamie were the only occasions where I reacted.

[Lord Chrusher]

With the tender scene between Marcella and Jamie I had the definite feeling that something bad was going to happen to her. I was surprised how quickly it happened.

I was a bit underwhelmed about Game of Thrones this season. I still want to see how it all turns out but I am less excited about it.

[Avistew]

My husband and I figured it out as soon as the kiss happened, and it was only confirmed with the sweet scenes between the two. We were both "she's going to die in his arms, isn't she?"

Looks to me they used this season to get rid of a bunch of characters and tie off some threads.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

Well... a lot of shit happened.

I am sad a lot of good Dorne characters got killed. I guess the show runners wants us to hope for Dorne's downfall now since any redeeming characters have gone. I guess, maybe the killing of the little Prince will push Jamie into more of a blood lust since Marcella's love of her life is also dead.

[Elomin Sha]

I am interested with what happened to the red woman.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

I took it as The Red Woman is actually really old, but uses magic to make herself look gorgeous. That scene either serves to show her power. To show a secret. Or to suggest that the faith in the motives of her god or her abilities is waning. She spent a lot of this episode looking much sadder.
Some people think that through this period of her belief being challenged, a great miracle will occur (John Snow's ressurection)

[Drendar]

Winter is coming, but Snow rises.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

You can suspect a significant end to an episode when the mother and her newborn being eaten alive by dogs isn't the last scene of the episode.

Ramsey definitely on a hitlist now.