Game Of Thrones...

[Bicycle Bill]

Good golly, Miss Molly... it's only a freakin' TV show!!!   But the way people are carrying on about it you'd think it was more important than food, water, or oxygen itself.

-"BB"-

[BoSoxGal]

Without art - including the talking picture shows - life would be bleak, especially life in these times.

[RayThom]

Or... “Without Thrones, life itself would be impossible”: Monsantos (Merchant of Death)

[MajGenl.Meade]

I could be wrong about this but in 8/1 did anyone actually call anyone by name? I was expecting a few "Hi there, Sansa" and "Good on yer, Davos" greetings. (OK, I think Sam got a hello). Not having seen the bloody thing for many moons, I had a hard time remembering who was who (but that's a function of age too) and got tired of telling my wife such enlightening things as, "That's the geezer who Tyrion hung out with for the first 17 seasons - thingie. You know, him. That one" We need name badges (really big letters too).

It sucked that we got only 54 minutes for an already reduced number of episodes from 9 to 8. It played more like a "what happened last week" summary than a decently plotted reintroduction to characters and events. Yes, the later episodes expand to 80 minutes at the end so by that time I may have remember who's who.

[Bicycle Bill]

Without art - including the talking picture shows - life would be bleak, especially life in these times.

True enough, Ms. BSG.  Had Notre Dame been reduced to a pile of rubble by the recent fire, or should something happen to the Sistine Chapel and we lose Michaelangelo's work on the ceiling, or the Chrysler Building in NYC outlive its usefulness and be replaced with yet another steel-and-glass tower, or should a wildfire ravage Sequoia National Park or the 'supercaldera' underneath Yellowstone finally let go, would the world be a lesser place for the loss of the art, architecture, or natural beauty?  Of course it would.

But would the world come to a screeching halt if these things I outlined were to come to pass?  I don't think so.  And that's the same point I was trying to make about the hullabaloo about "Game of Thrones" or any of these other so-called "must-see" shows that come and go.

Not to mention that if we didn't have so many other distractions like TV shows, sports, quasi-celebrities like the Kartrashians, and our current obsession with social media, maybe we'd have more time to spend on the things that REALLY do matter (like a POTUS who is rapidly turning our country into the Kingdom of Id as fast as humanly possible) and we could make "these times" better times in which to live.

-"BB"-

[Econoline]

I'll just drop this here...

[Lord Jim]

Hail, hail, the gang's all here...

[MajGenl.Meade]

Yes but Dany got a couple of shocks eh? If I were Sansa or Jon (call me "the Real Heir") Snow, I'd watch my back.

[Long Run]

No spoilers, but that was an epic episode last night.

[BoSoxGal]

I broke down and subscribed to HBO last week; I'm watching the final episodes, but also bingeing the entire series again at the same time. This past weekend I spend bedridden with a terrible spring cold, so perfect for bingeing - it's so cool to watch the characters evolve and age over the seasons, and to be freshly reminded of the bonds between them as they face their final destinies.

And yes, last night was EPIC.

[Econoline]

Okay, I get it that the two groups, "GOT fans" and "MAGA hat wearers" probably have very VERY little overlap. But still...DOES HE HAVE TO FUCK UP *EVERYTHING* ?????

• Can Someone Please Explain the Basic Plot of Game of Thrones to Donald Trump?
  The president doesn't realize the Wall fails and the whole thing is an allegory for the looming threat of climate change.
  BY MATT MILLER | JAN 3, 2019
  
  On Wednesday, our adult president brought an actual picture of himself photoshopped on a Game of Thrones-type poster that misused the show's tagline "Winter Is Coming," to a meeting with his adult colleagues. That made it clear that neither Trump—nor whatever White House staffer is in charge of shitty meme creation—has even read the Wikipedia plot synopsis of Game of Thrones.
  
  It was bad enough the first (and the second) time he incorrectly used this meme. But now, in the fashion of some sort of FuckJerry post from Hell, he's once again leaned into the ill-conceived Game of Thrones meme, sharing on Instagram on Thursday a deranged photo of himself with the words "The Wall Is Coming" written in the signature Game of Thrones font.
  
  So, let's just begin with The Wall in Game of Thrones. Clearly, in his post, Trump is warning everyone that he's going to build his big beautiful wall. Someone, somewhere in his administration must be vaguely aware that there's a wall in Game of Thrones. Unfortunately, the Game of Thrones Wall represents humanity's desperate attempts to isolate itself from its own failures, and in the end of Season Seven, the wall inevitably fell, making everything very bad for the foolish humans.
  
  On top of that, George R.R. Martin has explicitly stated that his series A Song of Ice and Fire (and its famous Wall!) is an allegory for the looming threat of climate change.
  

  • “There is—in a very broad sense—a certain parallel there,” Martin told the New York Times. “The people in Westeros are fighting their individual battles over power and status and wealth. And those are so distracting them that they’re ignoring the threat of ‘winter is coming,’ which has the potential to destroy all of them and to destroy their world.”
    
    He continued:

    We’re fighting over issues, important issues, mind you — foreign policy, domestic policy, civil rights, social responsibility, social justice. All of these things are important. But while we’re tearing ourselves apart over this and expending so much energy, there exists this threat of climate change, which, to my mind, is conclusively proved by most of the data and 99.9 percent of the scientific community. And it really has the potential to destroy our world. And we’re ignoring that while we worry about the next election and issues that people are concerned about, like jobs. Jobs are a very important issue, of course. All of these things are important issues. But none of them are important if, like, we’re dead and our cities are under the ocean. So really, climate change should be the number one priority for any politician who is capable of looking past the next election. But unfortunately, there are only a handful of those. We spend 10 times as much energy and thought and debate in the media discussing whether or not N.F.L. players should stand for the national anthem than this threat that’s going to destroy our world.

    
    In other words, in every fundamental way, Trump is as wrong about Game of Thrones as he is wrong about virtually everything else.

  It should be noted that I am not mad that Trump does not understand even the basic premise of a nerdy fantasy show I watch. I'm mad that no one on his team even bothers to quickly Google the show that they're using as a propaganda tool. This man and his administration are in command of the most powerful military in the world, yet they fail to even research a show about dragons before posting official White House messages. Folks, this is a meaningless post on Instagram and Donald Trump found a way to fuck even that up. What does that say about every other decision he's made?

[Gob]

A mate has offered me a box set of all the GOT series as a gift, (I've never seen one episode,) don't think I can be arsed though. I'm with Don Whillans on this.

Whillans liked to emphasise his working class credentials, and on lecture tours, enjoyed telling the story of being stormbound in a tent high in the Himalayas with Dougal Haston who had finished reading Lord of The Rings and passed him the book. Whillans read a few pages and remarked: "I'm not reading that crap, it's full of fooking fairies"!

[BoSoxGal]

I’m currently watching the series for the 3rd time; it’s fantastic and there are no fairies, Gob, so don’t let that prevent you from giving it a look. I pooh-poohed the hype myself until I saw how good it is - and like many British series, the episodes are high quality and few in number.

If you don’t want the box set, please feel free to send it to me!

[MajGenl.Meade]

"I'm not reading that crap, it's full of fooking fairies"!

I too was suspicious of Sam

[Econoline]

"I'm not reading that crap, it's full of fooking fairies"!

I too was suspicious of Sam

Me too. I liked his character much better in the movies.

[Lord Jim]

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!






















Cersei doesn't surrender....



Okay, not much of a spoiler....

[BoSoxGal]

Fuck Daenerys, she’s unfit to rule!



eta: Wow that fucking sucked! No spoilers, but I am heartbroken. Don’t even know that I care to watch the final episode.

eta: I’m getting angrier by the minute, truly. Some thoughts on misogyny in GOT: https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/05/06/opinio ... n-mantoan/ (Article obviously written before tonight’s putrid episode.)

[Lord Jim]

Fuck Daenerys, she’s unfit to rule!

Yeah, that was totally unexpected, seemingly completely out of character, and kind of depressing...

Wow that fucking sucked!

I was not at all happy with that plot turn either. Kind of a cheat on the audience after building her up as such a positive and appealing character for so long just to inexplicably and with no prior indication have her suddenly transform into a chip off the old block...

It really didn't seem to make any thematic sense or have any logical consistency with the whole development of the show. (I thought she was headed to make a beeline straight at Cersei and then.... )

From what I'm seeing in comments on the interwebs, our reaction to the episode is fairly typical...

I will watch the final episode, but I think now it's pretty obvious where this is likely headed...

Instead of a Targaryen/Stark alliance forged to preside over Westros, it's going to be The Reluctant King having to take down The Mad Queen...

[RayThom]

And what about his hand?

[Long Run]

it's going to be The Reluctant King having to take down The Mad Queen...

I am guessing that Arya will get to stick Needle into a different queen than the one she came to Westeros for.