7th Station ~TV, movies, games~

[Zunu]

GoT:

Spoiler: show

The GoT universe actually provides a mechanism by which messaging could take place in near real time. A warg stationed at, say Eastwatch, could inhabit a bird to keep a watch over the group and then report back on what they see. Or if there were a warg in the group, they could warg into a bird back at the Eastwatch or Dragonstone and the bird could peck out a simple ouija board message. With magic on the rise you would think there that every side would be scouring their forces for naturally gifted warging individuals which would be a huge strategic advantage. Or at the very least, Jon Snow's side would, his having taken in the Free Folk and having seen warging in action. Beside that, it was stupid that he didn't take a larger force. This was a Hail Mary pass of a mission. The whole point of which was that capturing a wight was necessary to convince Cersei. It had to succeed, we were led to think. On top of which, Jon's death during the mission could jeopardize everything -- the Northern coalition, plus any chance that Dani would be motivated to help his people. So why not bring enough people to ensure its success? Then, at least, it would make some sense their encampment could hold off the army of the dead for a few days. Anyway, it seems clear that the Night King held his forces back on purpose. He must have the greensight or some comparable gift of prophecy and was able to foretell that Dani would bring her dragons. So he needed Jon's people to stay alive long enough for Dani to attempt a rescue, and then he was ready to strike Viserion down.

[Celedam]

GoT

Spoiler: show

Anyway, it seems clear that the Night King held his forces back on purpose. He must have the greensight or some comparable gift of prophecy and was able to foretell that Dani would bring her dragons. So he needed Jon's people to stay alive long enough for Dani to attempt a rescue, and then he was ready to strike Viserion down.

Yes, the fact that he had javelins prepared made that pretty clear. As far as we know, all other large, dangerous creatures beyond the Wall are flightless and therefore can be defeated by overwhelming them with wights, so the White Walkers would not normally need to carry javelins.

That still doesn't make a six-day stand-off any more plausible, however. Even if the Night King wanted to wait, even if he knew Daenerys was approaching and he started the battle right at that moment in order to force her and her dragons to engage without precaution, the simple logistics of keeping Jon's company alive on that islet for that long… *grumble* As a former Boy Scout with only limited training and experience, I know how difficult that would be. A real survivalist would probably say "No way, not without proper shelter, they should all be crippled by frostbite or dead from exposure, not just Thoros." So either they hand-waved that, or they hand-waved the travel times, or both. And I think that's sloppy writing/editing.

[esm]

GoT

Spoiler: show

Beside that, it was stupid that he didn't take a larger force. This was a Hail Mary pass of a mission. The whole point of which was that capturing a wight was necessary to convince Cersei. It had to succeed, we were led to think. On top of which, Jon's death during the mission could jeopardize everything -- the Northern coalition, plus any chance that Dani would be motivated to help his people. So why not bring enough people to ensure its success?

Maybe they thought they could find a stray one and just take that back? Or at least a small group that they can manage rather than the entire army.

I agree that it's quite stupid though, but there were so many points in the series where Jon could have died, such as when he just walked out beyond the wall alone to negotiate with Mance Rayder or more recently when he went to Dragonstone and repeatedly refused to bend the knee.

[Celedam]

GoT

Spoiler: show

The director of the episode has confirmed in an interview with Variety that they "hedge[d] it a little bit" for dramatic effect…

http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/game-of-thrones-season-7-episode-6-beyond-the-wall-timeline-director-1202534403/

(h/t Watchers on the Wall)

EDIT: After rewatching the episode, to check what the director says in that interview, a small correction to my earlier complaint: they do show Jon's company waking up from one sleep, the one during which Thoros died. But that's it. One sleep.

[Zunu]

GoT: Not a spoiler so...

The explanation just makes it worse. We knew we were fudging but we figured what the hell it didn't really matter. This isn't a show that has to meet a weekly deadline. They had plenty of time to work out the details to make them work in the world they designed. I've always been impressed reading about Pixar's creative process:

Candor could not be more crucial to our creative process. Why? Because early on, all of our movies suck. That’s a blunt assessment, I know, but I choose that phrasing because saying it in a softer way fails to convey how bad the first versions really are. I’m not trying to be modest or self-effacing. Pixar films are not good at first, and our job is to make them so–to go, as I say, “from suck to not-suck.”

Think about how easy it would be for a movie about talking toys to feel derivative, sappy, or overtly merchandise driven. Think about how off-putting a movie about rats preparing food could be, or how risky it must’ve seemed to start WALL-E with 39 dialogue-free minutes. We dare to attempt these stories, but we don’t get them right on the first pass. This is as it should be. Creativity has to start somewhere, and we are true believers in the power of bracing, candid feedback and the iterative process–reworking, reworking, and reworking again, until a flawed story finds its through line or a hollow character finds its soul.

They don't just stop at good enough. They keep polishing it until it works the way it should. (At least, they did back in 2010. These days they might need to follow their own advice a little more.)

[Celedam]

"You're on the same side."

"I'm not looking for super friends."

It's here.

Unfortunately, the reviews are... mixed.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/78380

I finished it today. I can see why the reviews were mixed.

Here are the two biggest problems, in my opinion…

Spoiler: show

First, they tried to bring together not only the four main characters but also most of their supporting characters and several villains and then give all of them character moments, in only eight episodes. It doesn't work. Most of those moments end up being "Supporting Character B bumps into Supporting Character F in the hallway and says 'Wow, this is a crazy situation, isn't it?'", or some variation thereof. The Avengers movies (including Avengers 2.5, a.k.a. Civil War) worked fairly well because no matter what else happened, the rivalry between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark provided the core dynamic and everyone else orbited that. Nothing like that happened here.

Second, at this point in the overall story of the Marvel-on-Netflix series, there's no mystery left regarding the villains, the Hand. We see who the Hand's leaders are and we learn about their history and goals, and the whole thing turns out to be rather… pedestrian? vulgar? mundane? The Hand are much less intimidating without that mystery, yet they try to keep it up by constantly saying Very Portentous Things™, even when it makes no sense to do so. Even in the middle of the climactic battle when everyone knows everything and there are literally no more surprises to be had. That sort of melodrama doesn't work in a gritty, nuanced story about street-level heroes.

On the bright side…

Spoiler: show

There was some good setup for future interactions between the four main characters. In particular…

I haven't seen Iron Fist but at least judging from that trailer I think instead of a grand unified story I'd have preferred they just had gone with Matt+Jessica and Luke+IronFistGuy as two separate stories.

Then you would enjoy Episode 6. That's exactly what they did, at least for that episode, and it worked well. Matt and Jessica made a good investigative tag team, and I could see them getting a lot of mileage out the whole "working inside/outside the law" thing. Meanwhile, super-cool Luke made an excellent "big brother" for the orphaned, hot-headed Danny.

[Zunu]

^ I wound up watching Iron Fist. Danny comes off as a Chris Pratt who hasn't quite achieved his final form yet. It was fun, though. I saw The Defenders as well. It had its flaws for sure but I liked the four leads and enjoyed it overall.

[Celedam]

Game of Thrones S07E07 (27 Aug 2017)

Three blasts.

.
.
.

Anyhow, a look back…



…and that's it. See y'all in 2019!

Spoiler: show

Any bets on whether Tormund and Beric survived? I genuinely can't tell.

[esm]

Let me just take a minute to bitch about the haters who only hate on the show because they haven't seen it or have seen only a couple of episodes and never continued and somehow think they're too good to watch something everyone is watching.

Like, I don't know any haters who has actually watched it properly.

That is all.

On the season finale:

Spoiler: show

I loved the meeting scene. Awkward reunions and all. Euron just jumping in right away, etc.

Also Tyrion pouring a drink after he wasn't killed. Jaime knowing Cersei wouldn't kill him. All the subtle things that go on just when characters look at each other.

[Zunu]

GoT:

Spoiler: show

This was definitely a shakier season than we've previously seen as the writers ran out of plot and dialog to crib off of. It could be argued that GRR Martin is occasionally long-winded but what he doesn't do is have his characters make out of character small talk simply for the purpose of exposition. Even so, notwithstanding a bit of a clunky start, this episode really moved things along in thrilling fashion. The one thing that stood out to me as a false note was "Honest" Jon Snow unwilling to pledge neutrality re Cersei. How about first consulting the queen you just swore fealty to as to what she actually wanted you to do? Or even better, just keeping your mouth shut and let her respond as to what your role would be? Not that it mattered in the end, Cersei's word was useless and she was planning treachery regardless. As for the rest, I (for the most part) scrupulously avoided spoilers all season long, even the "next week on" segments, so I have no idea how much was leaked, but as for me, I was thoroughly surprised and delighted by all of the various plot twists. Even the in-hindsight-quite-predictable CGI heavy moment near the end. Much more viscerally enjoyable than the book-based theory floating around that Bran's journey weakened a magical seal. Visuals win over clunky exposition wins almost every time. Speaking of Bran, when I saw him sitting in that room next to Sansa I was like wait, what? What sense does that make? He's gonna go along with passing judgment on his own...(surprise!)...OOOH. That was fun how something totally didn't make sense until suddenly it totally made sense. Regarding Jaime, someone on reddit mentioned that after a long detour, Book Jaime has finally once-again entered the Game. Yeah, how about that.