Game of Thrones 7.2 "Stormborn" (spoiler alert)

[NewJeffCT]

Daenerys has a surprise visitor; Jon faces a revolt; Tyrion draws up plans to conquer Westeros.

[NewJeffCT]

1. A few articles

fan favorite in trouble?
https://www.cnet.com/news/game-of-thrones-season-seven-algorithm-predicts-character-death/

getting you up to date:
http://www.newsweek.com/game-thrones-everything-you-need-know-episode-2-stormborn-tonight-640444

who they didn't want to get killed:
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/game-thrones-stars-reveal-characters-killed-off/story?id=48791367

[NewJeffCT]

2. For those who missed my post earlier this week

The Libertarian version of Game of Thrones

[herding cats]

3. Haha!!

That was funny! 😂

[Baitball Blogger]

5. "That's fucked up Arya."

[NewJeffCT]

4. Less than 30 minutes to go now

should be interesting - is the mysterious visitor to Dany going to be Melisandre?

[Baitball Blogger]

6. She's looking to fulfill some prophesy, isn't she?

[NewJeffCT]

7. Yes, I think she is

she first thought it was Stannis... then maybe Jon Snow? But, he exiled her.

[Solly Mack]

8. GOT is here.

[NewJeffCT]

9. Stormy day

at Dragonstone

[NewJeffCT]

10. Dany recalling the assassins sent against her

by Robert, but hired by Varys.

[politicat]

11. Varys for President. NT

[NewJeffCT]

12. Dany sends a raven to Jon Snow

asking him to visit her - and bend his knee to her

[Baitball Blogger]

15. Bending the knee, is probably going to be difficult to sell, isn't it?

[NewJeffCT]

13. Interesting plan from Tyrion

Tyrells and Martells to besiege King's Landing, while the Dothraki and Unsullied try to take Casterly Rock

[Baitball Blogger]

19. Who is holding Casterly Rock?

[NewJeffCT]

14. I guess Grey Worm

is not quite so unsullied anymore?

[Baitball Blogger]

17. Good to know he only got a partial.

[Baitball Blogger]

16. I am never going to eat chicken pot pie again!

[Cuthbert Allgood]

18. Love the cuts to new scenes

that relate to the prior. Nice direction.

[NewJeffCT]

20. Hot Pie

was a surprise

[Yavin4]

28. Looks like he's doing very well for himself.

Lesson here, keep your life goals simple in Westeros and you'll find peace and happiness.

[eShirl]

35. I'm hoping for a Hot Pie/ Inn At The Crossroads spinoff

[Yavin4]

37. They should make it a comedy.

All matter of hijinks happen at The Inn. "Oooohhh, that Hot Pie!"

[eShirl]

47. Newhart in Westeros

[Solly Mack]

21. I was hoping Arya would warg.

I'm glad she's going North.

If she doesn't meet up with Jon, maybe she'll kill Littlefinger.

[Baitball Blogger]

22. She doesn't even know she can warg, does she?

I think her Direwolf will come back to her. Just a problem showing weakness and submission infront of the pack.

[Solly Mack]

23. I was still hoping since the show has jumped ahead of the books.

She warged in the books and didn't know she was doing it. The cat in the room when she was blind...in the books.

In the books, her relationship with her Dire wolf has always been that of the warg with their familiar. Even though it was never plainly stated.

Same as the others, with the exception of Sansa - though we don't really know that the two of them didn't share a special bond. The hints given were the Dire wolf's name and how she was neat, clean, and pretty - like Sansa. Not rowdy or as adventurous as the rest of her siblings

I hope Nymeria fights for Arya at some point in the future. Maybe rip Cersei's throat out as revenge for the deaths of her siblings. Nymeria would know how they died - because the wargs know..and the Weirwood tree knows.

[Baitball Blogger]

24. Thank you for filling the blanks.

If Nymeria can warg with Arya, I wonder what she thinks about Arya's mental transformation?

[Solly Mack]

25. In the books, Jon knew - or suspected it and was told and Bran was told

aided by his dreams and Jojen.

The show hints at warging and the special bond between the heart tree and the Starks...the North. The Starks and their Dire wolves. And Bran does become the tree...in the books. The 3 eyed crow and the (current) last greenseer. From Targaryen to Stark. Because the bond between the two families goes beyond what the current crop of either know or understand....with the exception of Bran. (and Howland Reed, and possibly Meera. Most likely she knows.)

Brynden Rivers - the tree/greenseer Bran meets in the cave - was a Targaryen through his father, a bastard by birth but legitimized by his father. He went out on a mission with the Night's Watch and never came back. Much like Benjen Stark.

Ever wonder why Benjen wasn't taken like the other dead? Instead of becoming a wight, he kept his identity, so to speak. (in the show)

There's something different about them Starks...and Targaryens.

And Jon is both.

[Baitball Blogger]

26. Targaryens are Fire, and I imagine the Starks are Ice.

Winter is coming, and all that. So, I see how the mystical force may be strong with both.

[Solly Mack]

27. Ice could also mean the white walkers and fire as the best defense against the dead.

As well as the Starks and Targaryens - a theme carried out in sub-plots throughout the books.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

38. I'm sort of guessing that they aren't going there with her

especially this late in the show. The show is usually pretty good about planting seeds like this instead of just pulling it out at the last second. They will probably only focus on Bran and his warging abilities.

[Solly Mack]

41. Most likely. And the ability probably as no bearing on how things end, so the show doesn't need it.

As far as Arya is concerned, that is.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

45. Right

The Starks are intimated to all have some natural warging abilities. The books have way more time and space to explore things like this but, ultimately, Bran is the only character on the show who has been established to have those powers and he is being set up to having a pivotal role in the battle against the White Walkers because of those powers.

[blogslut]

29. Can I just say, on a personal note?

I hope Euron kills Yara and Ellaria and then a giant Kracken emerges from the sea and eats him too.

I hated the Iron Island storyline in the books. I hated what the show has done to the fascinating woman of Dorn. I want them all to go away.

[Solly Mack]

30. Poor Theon. More and more humiliation for him.

More self-loathing.

Better off dead but damned to forever be reminded of what a coward he really is.

I'm not displeased with Asha/Yara dying. Never liked her. Neither in the books or in the TV show. I don't like any of the Greyjoys.

I don't like Lord Tarly either.

Damn shame about the Sand Snakes but that they would die was never in question. To my thinking anyway. Cersei will see to it that the remainder die. No percentage to gain in allowing them live.

I want Cersei and Jaime to die brutal - yet wonderfully satisfying - deaths.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

39. Yara isn't dead (yet)

Theon may yet return to save her, especially if Dany takes KL in enough time. She *could* survive.

[Solly Mack]

42. That wasn't her body hanging from the ship? Because it was a woman, they had breast, and it looked

more like her than one of the Sand Snakes.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

43. It was one of the Sand Snakes I believe (the one with the whip)

n/t

[Solly Mack]

44. Oh, OK.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

46. I agree it was kind of hard to tell

It was a frenetic battle but IMHO they would've made a bigger deal of killing off Yara, who only looks to have been captured by Euron.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

31. Since I haven't read the books, sometimes the stories are hard to follow.

I did pretty well tonight, until the last battle. Can one of you knowledgeable folk explain who was fighting who?

I understood the bit about the guy (Theon) who had been tormented by an evil lord. I felt bad when he remembered what a coward he is.

Any details would help!

TIA.

[politicat]

32. Crazy asshole with the axe, holding it to Yara's neck? That's her uncle.

So... back last season? There's a scene of an old man being tossed off a rope bridge during a bad storm. The tossee was Yara and Theon's father. (Sorry not sorry, but not much mourning for him.) The tosser (in more ways than one) was Euron, who is the crazy asshole with the axe.

Also last season, Yara got || close to uniting the Iron Islands under her rule. But Euron messed up that, too. (Last season he was much, much skeezier.) Euron was the one who was drowned before being made king. (Lost opportunity, that.) Which is what prompted Yara and Theon to steal most of the Iron Fleet.

(Which is still an issue -- seriously, the Iron Islands don't HAVE enough trees for Euron's fleet, and even if they did, you can't make ships out of green wood, and there hasn't been enough time for it.) Much cleaned up, Euron spent last episode being snarky and charming and crazy at the other major snarky and crazy.

To be fair, I think Theon made the best possible decision there. Charging in would have just gotten them both killed, with nobody to tell Dany. Euron can't be negotiated with. Yara's in for a shitty time coming up -- she's valuable as Dany's Admiral, and Elaria's just fucked because Cersei's got the vengeance hots for her -- but Euron now has presents. (And the classical writer's problem of too competent, over-powered heroes has been try-fail cycled into submission.)

I still want to know how Euron knew where they were, and why Yara's fleet didn't have eyes up top. That was a too easy ambush.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

33. Thank you so much, my dear politicat!

That does help, quite a lot. What a mess!

[exboyfil]

34. My suspicion is that the ships are something Balon

has been working on for sometime (perhaps the men and materials helped by the invasion early in the story). He kept the information close to the vest (using forced labor would be a no/no in Westeros). I know Euron had the line after becoming king about building the fleet, but maybe that was for public consumption.

We don't know what allies Euron may have picked up along the way in his world travels. In the books he is heavily involved in magic. He may be as well here.

I don't think Yara is a very good open sea captain. Her skill set is more that of a marine. She may have a bunch of ships, but these are extensions of raiding party ships and troop transports. She does not have and does not know how to fight with capital ships on the sea.

[NewJeffCT]

36. I think most of the Ironborn

are good at being hit & run raiders. However, the image they showed on TV made it look like Euron's ship was a lot bigger

[Proud Liberal Dem]

40. Yara simply got caught with her pants (almost) down with Ellaria

Though it would seem that they all should have been a little more cautious, considering they know that their Uncle is out and about and they are vulnerable in any event, traveling around Westeros engaged in a declared war/invasion. Maybe they didn't know to expect Euron per se but they should have been a little more careful.

[politicat]

48. She's the captain/admiral. Not the lookout.

That's a crew position. Even the Romans, who sucked at naval battles (that battle last night was Roman naval strategy, which turns a water battle into a close quarters land skirmish), were smart enough to put a keen-eyed lad at the top of the mast keeping the top eye. I expect the Irn Fleet to be at least that good.

[Ron Obvious]

49. I'm sorry, I'm beginning to lose interest

Ever since the TV series ran past the books, the dialogue has been wooden, the plotlines stale and predictable.

I went back recently to the first few series and was blown away by how good they were. "Bad guys" followed predictable courses of self interest rather than being moustache-twirling Snideley Whiplash types just interested in being evil. The Dialogue is wooden and poorly written.

I'm sorry, but the show has lost it. Watch the first few series again if you don't believe me.