7th Station ~TV, movies, games~

[wotakubrandon]

Spoiler: show

Oh my God what did Carl do now? Him and almost every other character being a fucking idiot is why I stopped watching. THEY KILLED ANDREA? Bull. She didn't even get to be a boss bitch.

[Nayoko-Kihara]

I don't think I explain it that well, but here you go.

Major spoilers below for others that haven't seen it.

Spoiler: show

The group had prepared for an attack, and as it was happening they were able to have a trap set off, shoot out a bunch of the attackers, have the rest run away, etc. Carl and Hershel (and I think his younger daughter and the baby) were hiding outside of the prison in the bushes, and a younger guy that was with the attackers came up on them. They stopped him, told him to hand over/put down his gun, etc. The kid was slowly coming forward and going down to drop his gun, and Carl just straight up shoots him dead.

Then he tells his dad he did what he had to do because the kid drew on them first, and he had just attacked them, etc.

The kid was kind of shady with the way he was putting his gun down, but it really just came off as him being scared to me, and then Carl took fifty steps backwards on my Like-o-Meter. Then at the end of the episode when they brought a bunch of survivors from Woodbury over to the prison to stay with them/become part of the group, Carl got all pissed off about it (he didn't say anything, just gave this look to his dad and stomped off).
----

I never liked Andrea at all, in any part of the show, so I can't say I'm going to miss her. Honestly, I'll miss Milton a lot more and he's only been around for one season. It was just the way they led up to her death that was annoying. As soon as she stops the first time to look over at Milton to make sure he isn't turning, you know she's going to die.

[Celedam]

Game of Thrones

Spoiler: show

Huge thumbs up for Sansa finally trying to do something.

But is she really? She would've been smarter to leave with the Hound when she had the chance, but she let her fear of him stop her. So now, instead, she's turned to Littlefinger for help. Granted, she doesn't even know that Littlefinger is a bad guy — she's clueless about what happens at court beyond her own tensions with Cersei and Joffrey — but she's still waiting for someone to tell her what to do.

I gotta wonder what happened to Ser Dontos' storyline from the book. (He's the drunk knight whom Sansa saved in S02E01.) That would help to clarify the relationship between Sansa and Littlefinger.

Tywin Lannister makes it easy to see where his children got their shitty attitudes and views on people, he seems like such a bitter old man all the time.

I'm going to play the devil's advocate and say, look at it from his point of view.

Tywin Lannister's utmost concern is for his family's legacy. His kind but weak father almost ruined the family in a single generation, to the point where other Westerlands houses sworn to the Lannisters were in open rebellion, and then he turned it all around again in a single generation. He doesn't want all of that to go to waste, and when he looks at his children, he sees that it's a very real possibility.

Jaime gave up his inheritance in order to join the Kingsguard. It hasn't been made clear in the show, but Tywin was furious with Jaime for doing that, partly because of what it meant for the family's legacy and partly because he thought Jaime just wanted to be a hero. (Tywin still doesn't know the real reason why Jaime did it, and it would make things worse if he did.) Then Jaime assassinated the Mad King, making him forever known, everywhere, as a king slayer and an oath breaker. (Again, Tywin still doesn't know the real reason why Jaime did it, and he doesn't care, either. It's all about the family's legacy.) Tywin had a glimmer of hope for Jaime when Jaime fled King's Landing and rejoined Tywin on the battlefield, but then Jaime almost immediately got himself captured by the Starks. And now the rumors of incest and Joffrey's illegitimacy? It just keeps getting worse with Jaime, as far as Tywin is concerned.

Cersei isn't much better. Tywin isn't a fool, he knows that Cersei is petty and cruel and not particularly gifted. He saw it throughout her childhood. But he also saw that she was ambitious, so he did everything he could to make her the queen and then establish Lannister control of the Iron Throne through her. The original plan was to marry her to Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, but the Mad King screwed him on that deal. He had a second chance with Robert Baratheon, but he got screwed again when Robert made Jon Arryn, not Tywin, his Hand. Tywin's last hope was that Cersei at least would be a good queen and produce a strong heir. Instead, Cersei is just as petty and cruel as ever, and she produced… Joffrey. By incest, no less, if the rumors are true, which jeopardizes their control. It just keeps getting worse with Cersei, as far as Tywin is concerned.

Finally, Tyrion. Tywin, in his own way, truly loved Tyrion's mother, so when she died giving birth to Tyrion, a part of Tywin died as well. He might have gotten over it eventually, except that Tyrion was born a dwarf. Remember that this is a medieval setting; they have no real understanding of genetics or birth defects, so dwarfism is seen as poor breeding and/or a curse from the gods. As such, Tyrion was a constant reminder to Tywin not only of how his beloved wife died but also that he, Tywin, was somehow responsible and Tyrion was his punishment. Okay, fine, life goes on. Tyrion started with that strike against him, but nevertheless, Tywin saw that he was gifted in ways that Jaime and Cersei were not. Tywin gave Tyrion chances to prove himself, and Tyrion did, but not without plenty of drinking and gambling and whoring along the way. Tywin is not wrong about that. It doesn't matter to him that it is Tyrion's way of coping with not being loved; Tywin believes that a proper Lannister can and should always do his duty without embarrassing the family. So Tywin sees Tyrion as not only physically defective but also morally defective, and he is not wrong.

Nevertheless, Tywin gave Tyrion one last chance, the biggest chance of all: he made Tyrion the Hand of the King during a time of war. That's arguably the most important position any man could have, and Tywin put only one condition on it: don't take that whooooore* to court. And what did Tyrion do? He took that whooooore to court. He defied his father. (Cersei caught the wrong whore, of course, but that's beside the point. Tyrion didn't deny it, so Cersei went ahead and told Tywin.) Even worse, he came to Tywin after the battle to demand gratitude and rewards. As far as Tywin is concerned, Tyrion did it all for Tyrion rather than for the family's legacy. As far as Tywin is concerned, Tyrion is still as selfish and self-indulgent as ever, and he is not wrong.

There is a saying: "Good, fast, cheap — pick two." In the Lannisters' case, it's more like "Grace, talent, ambition — pick two." Jaime has the grace and talent, but not the ambition. Cersei has the grace and ambition, but not the talent. And Tyrion has the talent and ambition, but not the grace. So Tywin looks at them, his children, and thinks all three of them are lacking some part of what is needed to carry on the family's legacy.

* "Whooooore…"

[youtube]f3ZhQeC0DNU[/youtube]

[youtube]vY1Jgx2FlCM[/youtube]

Ladies and gentlemen, Charles freakin' Dance.

[Nayoko-Kihara]

^

Spoiler: show

As far as Sansa goes, It felt like it was a step forward for her to actually go to someone and ask for help instead of just sitting around taking the abuse and, I imagine, feeling bad for herself. She finally took the first step, even if it's on the smaller side of a baby step. Not to mention that even something this small would've gotten her a big fat thumbs up with me regardless (at least a temporary one), because she was so far behind in my mind after passing up her opportunity with the Hound. Though I suppose with it being such a minimal action at this point, I should maybe give her more of a.. shakey, half-severed thumbs up.
---- ---- ---- ----

And with Tywin, I can just say I literally never took the time to consider things from that side. Bits of similar thoughts may have crossed my mind, but I regret not thinking about it longer because it does make much more sense - and he comes off as more sympathetic to me as a result. I still may not like him that much and he still might be a bitter old man, but at least I can understand why in a better way now.

Especially with Jaime. For example, I don't think I ever realized the impact of being labeled a king slayer. It was mentioned quite a bit, but it never seemed to have much of an effect outside of brief conversations explaining what he had done. Of course it's been quite a while since I've watched the first season, so maybe it's time for a little refresher course to get a better grasp on everything.

I also think I often forget the stigma that probably surrounds things like dwarfism in the setting of the story, which leads to me not weighing it heavily enough - and while I think some of Tyrion's actions shouldn't be that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things (or that some should have more weight than others), I can see where they would just add on to the disappointment/resentment as far as his father is concerned.


(I regret to say that I completely and totally forgot about them catching Tyrion's "whore" in season two, despite it not having been that long since watching it. It didn't even come up once as I was trying to remember things to do with him in previous seasons. I wonder if I forgot it because I was so happy they didn't catch the real girl..

- I'd probably be a little bitter if Joffrey was my grandchild too.)

[esm]

I was going to finally watch Game of Thrones, but lately I got addicted to Revenge.

[wotakubrandon]

That's what happened with me and Grey's Anatomy.

[erilaz]

On tonight's Modern Family:

CAM: It's a special soup called phở.
LILY: You told me not to say that word.

That nearly killed me.

[Starra]

I caught up with QI.

Now I don't know which British panel show to watch.

[wotakubrandon]

On tonight's Modern Family:

CAM: It's a special soup called phở.
LILY: You told me not to say that word.

That nearly killed me.

Modern Family has been especially hilarious this season. I wasn't so keen on new Lily but she's great.

[Nayoko-Kihara]

Watching Wednesday's episode of "American Idol" - this far in I'm still trying to get over the fact that Nicki Minaj went from being nothing but annoying to actually giving decent advice and criticism. She comes off as a little rough sometimes and still has annoying quirks, but regardless it's refreshing after the last panel with JLo and Steven Tyler where nobody wanted to say anything bad ever (still doesn't excuse that backhanded mistreatment of Haley Reinhart) and they were handing out standing ovations like easter candy.

Now just release music that I actually like and we might get somewhere with this.

- Second for most improved judge goes to Keith, who in the beginning barely said a word.
- All I hear from Mariah and Randy is "daaahling" and "in it to win it dawg!", so. No.
- Maybe next year, editing staff/producers, you can make it a little less obvious that you want a girl to win.