Game of Thrones begins....

[viper37]

One more after that.

[Tamas]

Meh

[Berkut]

It is one more long season of 13 (rather then 10) episodes broken into two pieces, or two short seasons (one 7 episodes, the other 6).

[Tamas]

I thought I'd appreciate and enjoy the series more when it went past the books, but it's been the opposite.

[Grey Fox]

Why?

[Tamas]

I don't know.

[grumbler]

I've been very pleased with how the show has handled translating the books, and I think what you are seeing in the show is what Martin planned for his books, back when he wrote books.

[Sophie Scholl]

 

[Berkut]

I've been very pleased with how the show has handled translating the books, and I think what you are seeing in the show is what Martin planned for his books, back when he wrote books.

The show is it. I think we will be lucky if we get one more book.

[Berkut]

I thought the Arya/Frey scene was a little too obvious. Just a bit of "Lets wrap this storyline up in a pretty bow and call it a day". No real shock or twist or anything. You knew the instant the scene opened how it was going to end.

I think we will see more of this though  - plenty of loose ends that need wrapping up, and not all of it is really important enough to put much work into...

I did like the scene with Arya running into the boy Lannister soldiers. Nice to see some Lannister troops who are just normal people, and pretty much kids too boot, which shows that the war is dragging on and on.

Liked the interaction between Jon and Sansa. Nicely nuanced - they are not always going to agree, but setting them up as antagonistic to one another right off doesn't make much sense. However, they do have very different priorities.

Daeny - meh. She landed. Obvious staged drama. Formulaic.

Jaime/Cersei - not sure where this is going, or where it even *can* go. Their kids are dead, I don't even see why Jaime would even stick around. Is the head of the QueenRegent Guard now?

Samwell - this is the one storyline that I am actually curious about as far as where it is actually going to go....and his girlfriend certainly cleaned up nicely.

Overall, a solid start to the new half season. Nothing spectacular though.

[Habbaku]

The scenes with the Hound/Beric/Thoros and the Arya/Lannister squad were my favorite.

I think that's one of the things I've missed the most about the series that is otherwise shown in the books--the peeks at what life is like for the average schmuck mixed up in this. Sure, you have assholes like the Brave Companions and plenty of bad soldiers, but scenes between, say, Jaime and his men at the Siege of Riverrun from the books are sorely missed. I'm glad to see that they're not forgetting to inject that here and there even with the leadup to the end.

Having said that, I'm sure we'll get ten scenes of Gray Worm/Missandei romance garbage soon enough.

[viper37]

I thought the Arya/Frey scene was a little too obvious. Just a bit of "Lets wrap this storyline up in a pretty bow and call it a day". No real shock or twist or anything. You knew the instant the scene opened how it was going to end.

it was fun to see, just like many other scenes.  Had we done without it, there would have been complaints when someone mentionned the Freys weren't there anymore, so it has to be done on screen.  Same as Dany's landing.

I think they did away with the pointless stuff early on in this season, so it's cleared for the rest of the show.

[Josephus]

I'm not sure I quite understand how Arya does what she does. I though at first she stole some faces from the place she was at; but I guess not. So now she carries around a universal face mask that can become who she wants?

[viper37]

I'm not sure I quite understand how Arya does what she does. I though at first she stole some faces from the place she was at; but I guess not. So now she carries around a universal face mask that can become who she wants?

Minor spoiler, from last year's finale:
[spoiler]
she took Walder Frey's face after killing him last season, presumably.
[/spoiler]

[grumbler]

I'm not sure I quite understand how Arya does what she does. I though at first she stole some faces from the place she was at; but I guess not. So now she carries around a universal face mask that can become who she wants?

I think you have to chalk it up to your choice of magic, or divine intervention, just like for all the other Faceless Men.  I think that the fact that Arya is violating all of the tenets of the religion of the Many-faced God argues more for magic.