HBO's Game of Thrones season 6 discussion thread- airing 4/24/16 (No book spoilers)

[woolfe9998]

So it sounds like then, outside of the threat of the NK, it's pretty much business as usual in Westeros and there's still going to be battles between kingdoms and families as they strive to reach more power and independence.

And possibly ripe for a spinoff.

Not sure which of the spinoff projects will get green lit, but it appears they've left themselves multiple options.

 

[dainthomas]

Even so, none of that made sense. Theon frees her, she announces that she is heading back to stake her claim in the Iron Islands. She shows up here at the council, much time later...proclaiming some sort of allegiance to Dany and her army....for what reason? LoL--she could have actually returned with her own fleet and you know, actually fought Uron, right? If nearly every other army can re-spawn for reasons, why couldn't Yara? Too unrealistic?

Oh right, but she had to go and restructure the Ironborn to longer be pirates and claim their own independence...but oh wait her dead queen is now dead and she's suddenly willing to go to war to defend a dead queen's...plans? wtf?

Dumb and Dumber were hoping you'd be so pissed about everything else going on you forgot about that.

 

[Homerboy]

So Bran was picked because of his "great story".
The story so great, he wasn't even in Season 5

 

[zinfamous]

So Bran was picked because of his "great story".
The story so great, he wasn't even in Season 5

I know. I mentioned that this morning in discussion around here, lol.

 

[Homerboy]

I know. I mentioned that this morning in discussion around here, lol.

Sorry missed it.

 

[Skel]

Bran allowed it because Bran is Sansa's brother, and she had a legitimate claim since the north used to be an independent kingdom.

They all used to be independent kingdoms until What's his name targaryen rode in with his Dragons and got everyone to bend the knee. The north isn't special, which is one of my issues with this ending. If anything the North are in charge. Them sitting out of the kingdom makes even less sense for them. Maybe if they chose someone not a Stark I might see it, but they didn't. The only reason this happened is the show people needed to give Sansa a happy ending. For a show that just because you're good doesn't mean you'll win, the show ended with everyone that was 'good' winning something.

 

[woolfe9998]

So with Bran, has no one questioned free will yet?

I thought about this one myself. One theory of prophecy being compatible with free will is that prophecy only represents the future if no one with knowledge of the prophecy acts to alter it. Notice that Bran never told anyone about his visions of the future, so only he could act to alter it. Yet he never did, well, anything, which guaranteed that whatever he saw would come true. Perhaps he operates on a principle of non-interference, or maybe he just wanted to be king, but given his personality, I think the former is more likely.

So the theory is that prophecy is no different than Hari Seldon in the Foundation series using understood rules of cause and effect to predict the future. Seldon doesn't reveal his conclusions about the future because the future he sees is what he wants and he knows that by revealing it, people can act to change it. In either scenario people act on freewill, it's just that their choices are predictable with the right degree of scientific sophistication (or magic). But by telling people the future, they're going to once again use their freewill to alter their actions if they don't like what they're being told.

 

[woolfe9998]

They all used to be independent kingdoms until What's his name targaryen rode in with his Dragons and got everyone to bend the knee. The north isn't special, which is one of my issues with this ending. If anything the North are in charge. Them sitting out of the kingdom makes even less sense for them. Maybe if they chose someone not a Stark I might see it, but they didn't. The only reason this happened is the show people needed to give Sansa a happy ending. For a show that just because you're good doesn't mean you'll win, the show ended with everyone that was 'good' winning something.

You mean all the "good" people who were left, right? The point being, they killed off 3/4's of the "good guys" in the course of the series, and made another mostly good character into a villain before killing her off at the end. And John, noblest of them all, is at least temporarily banished to the frozen wastes. The point being, I don't mind the happy ending for most of the remaining good characters. We've kind of earned it at this point. You can't look at a show that was so determined to demoralize and piss off its audience right up until the end and accuse it of caving to the cliched happy ending.

Given that the internet is in a uproar of people crapping all over GoT principally because John or Dany or both didn't get be the monarch, hearing criticism that this was too happy of an ending suggests to me that there was no way to end this which would be satisfying to a majority of viewers.

 

[dainthomas]

You mean all the "good" people who were left, right? The point being, they killed off 3/4's of the "good guys" in the course of the series, and made another mostly good character into a villain before killing her off at the end. And John, noblest of them all, is at least temporarily banished to the frozen wastes. The point being, I don't mind the happy ending for most of the remaining good characters. We've kind of earned it at this point. You can't look at a show that was so determined to demoralize and piss off its audience right up until the end and accuse it of caving to the cliched happy ending.

Given that the internet is in a uproar of people crapping all over GoT principally because John or Dany or both didn't get be the monarch, hearing criticism that this was too happy of an ending suggests to me that there was no way to end this which would be satisfying to a majority of viewers.

I was disappointed not to get at least a couple episodes of Max Level Dany going after Dorne before they got rid of her. Would've been cool to see if she could accomplish what Aegon the Conqueror couldn't.

 

[Starbuck1975]

The West of Westeros memes are glorious

 

[woolfe9998]

I was disappointed not to get at least a couple episodes of Max Level Dany going after Dorne before they got rid of her. Would've been cool to see if she could accomplish what Aegon the Conqueror couldn't.

Hehe, with Drogon, Dorn would have been ash. Might not have made for a very compelling narrative unless you just wanted more carnage like we saw in ep 5. If there's going to be war with Dorn and/or the Iron Islands, it's better for a spinoff where no one has a dragon.

 

[zinfamous]

Sorry missed it.

"around here" meant at work. Not the forums. My fault for still thinking that all of you people only exist in my head and only at the times that I will it.

 

[woolfe9998]

The West of Westeros memes are glorious

If there's nothing west of Westeros as some people are saying, doesn't that mean their world is flat? Perhaps that's actually mentioned in the books. Dunno.

 

[zinfamous]

If there's nothing west of Westeros as some people are saying, doesn't that mean their world is flat? Perhaps that's actually mentioned in the books. Dunno.

not really. Esos could still be west of Westeros....

 

[woolfe9998]

not really. Esos could still be west of Westeros....

I assume that is from the books as I can't recall it mentioned in the series. In any event, that would then seem the natural destination for Arya. But it doesn't preclude the world from being flat. The end of it might be west of Esos. It seems an implication given their fairly advanced shipbuilding that someone would have sailed in one direction and come back to where they started by now if the world was spherical.

 

[Homerboy]

I assume that is from the books as I can't recall it mentioned in the series. In any event, that would then seem the natural destination for Arya. But it doesn't preclude the world from being flat. The end of it might be west of Esos. It seems an implication given their fairly advanced shipbuilding that someone would have sailed in one direction and come back to where they started by now if the world was spherical.

These are the same idiot people that for 100s and 1000s of years have been living in the same buildings with little to no advancement in their technology. You WOULD think that somebody by now has "sailed west of Westeros". I mean doesn't Euron claim to have been all over the world? You'd think somebody as adventurous and daring as he would have sailed due west. Or the Iron Born for that matter who basically have nothing but ships. 1000s of years and nobody gave it a shot.

 

[zinfamous]

I assume that is from the books as I can't recall it mentioned in the series. In any event, that would then seem the natural destination for Arya. But it doesn't preclude the world from being flat. The end of it might be west of Esos. It seems an implication given their fairly advanced shipbuilding that someone would have sailed in one direction and come back to where they started by now if the world was spherical.

I have no idea as I will never read the books. I just mentioned what I mentioned because that is actually how globes work, lol.

 

[dainthomas]

Hehe, with Drogon, Dorn would have been ash. Might not have made for a very compelling narrative unless you just wanted more carnage like we saw in ep 5. If there's going to be war with Dorn and/or the Iron Islands, it's better for a spinoff where no one has a dragon.

Now I'm curious how Drogon ranks wrt Balerion. In the books it said his shadow could engulf entire towns. Not sure Drogon is quite that big.

 

[z1ggy]

Now I'm curious how Drogon ranks wrt Balerion. In the books it said his shadow could engulf entire towns. Not sure Drogon is quite that big.

Saw a video about this. Balerion was many times larger than Drogon. Drogon is about 10 years old at the time of last episode.... Balerion lived to be something like 200 years old.

 

[PlanetJosh]

So the Queen is wandering in the ruins alone with no Queen's guards. Well they can't have a guard or two or more with her when Jon shows up to embrace her. It would spoil the atmosphere for the audience.

Would any guards have prevented Jon from attacking her? No, but the guards probably would've killed him after he inflicted the fatal wound to the Queen. And you can't have angry fans, who are already angry anyway, complaining about Jon being offed by some illiterate hick guards.

 

[Homerboy]

Now I'm curious how Drogon ranks wrt Balerion. In the books it said his shadow could engulf entire towns. Not sure Drogon is quite that big.

The attempted conquest of Dorne was a game of cat and mouse. Not to mention they already had scorpions.

 

[zinfamous]

So the Queen is wandering in the ruins alone with no Queen's guards. Well they can't have a guard or two or more with her when Jon shows up to embrace her. It would spoil the atmosphere for the audience.

Would any guards have prevented Jon from attacking her? No, but the guards probably would've killed him. And you can't have angry fans, who are already angry anyway, complaining about Jon being offed by some illiterate hick guards.

technically, Drogon was there guarding the only entrance to get to her (presumably), and he probably would have eaten anyone not Jon, guards included?

 

[z1ggy]

So the Queen is wandering in the ruins alone with no Queen's guards. Well they can't have a guard or two or more with her when Jon shows up to embrace her. It would spoil the atmosphere for the audience.

Would any guards have prevented Jon from attacking her? No, but the guards probably would've killed him. And you can't have angry fans, who are already angry anyway, complaining about Jon being offed by some illiterate hick guards.

She kind of did have a guard? Drogon was immediately outside the keep. There's no other people alive in the city other than Unsullied, her, and Jonny boy. Tyrion is locked up. She doesn't know about Ayra.

Drogon would never suspect Jon would hurt her and thus lets him by. Unsullied are mindless killers but she probably didn't feel the need to have them around her constantly at that point, perhaps she just wanted to be alone as she finally go to sit on her throne that which she waited so long for.

 

[z1ggy]

Also, before I type out my next post regarding the whole Bran king thing, can somebody who is more knowledgeable tell me: Does Bran see all futures, or just THE future.

I ask because as time moves on I assume he can kind of time travel to the future and "check in on" how things would turn out. However I'm kind of assuming that decisions made in the present and past only give way to one outcome... and not that 1 choice could create endless futures (that would be too confusing).

Also when he time travels he is just there in "spirit" so to speak, he can't actually interact physically with the environment, right?

 

[Homerboy]

Also, before I type out my next post regarding the whole Bran king thing, can somebody who is more knowledgeable tell me: Does Bran see all futures, or just THE future.

I ask because as time moves on I assume he can kind of time travel to the future and "check in on" how things would turn out. However I'm kind of assuming that decisions made in the present and past only give way to one outcome... and not that 1 choice could create endless futures (that would be too confusing).

Also when he time travels he is just there in "spirit" so to speak, he can't actually interact physically with the environment, right?

He really doesn't see the future though. He sees the past.