Game of Thrones, Season 4
Apr. 21st, 2015 08:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroWe’ve almost caught up to the rest of the world! We finished the Season 4 DVDs only a couple of weeks after Season 5 premiered. And now we’ll fall another year behind, because I’m not shelling out the monthly fee for HBO-Now just to watch one show.
I would like to see more plotlines end with, “And then Arya stabbed a dude.” She totally should have put the Hound out of his misery, if for no other reason that he was on her list. (And while there’s a comic book level of “he could come back” going on, I’m pretty sure that was his swan song. Even if his brother is getting rebuilt as a flesh golem or death knight or something.)
Brienne actually surprises me in how not-amazing a fighter she is. Jethrien noted that she technically wins all of her fights (while failing at her goals, because very few of her goals can be achieved by stabbing somebody), but it seems that she takes a lot of lumps in doing so, and tends to have a harder time than others do. Compare the performance of “named” characters at the Wall versus her against various brigands. Or even her against the Hound—he’s not bad, but he’s presented as being just trained enough and just willing enough to fight dirty to beat a bunch of commoners. I feel like Brienne should be better than she is.
I was actually surprised by how few main characters died in the battle at the Wall in 4x09; I genuinely thought Sam and Ginny we going to bite it, and gave Jon Snow 50/50 odds at best. (Jon Snow who, to his credit, acknowledged that he was going into 4x10 with an utterly terrible plan, but that was the best he’d come up with.) The fact that Stannis showed up—which was telegraphed a season earlier but then quietly ignored—and it’s unlikely that any other named characters will die at the Wall for a while is, amusingly, a twist I didn’t see coming.
Speaking of terrible plans, when Ramsey went to open the dog cages during the Ironborn’s failed rescue attempt for Theon, Yara is holding an axe. She, for some unfathomable reason, does not throw this axe at the head of the unarmored and distracted-with-keys Ramsey. She probably could have greatly improved a lot of people’s lives by putting an axe in his head right there, and she totally had the opportunity. I cannot for the life of me understand why she didn’t.
Dany’s rapid rise of the past couple of seasons has finally stalled out as she discovers that ruling requires a completely different skillset (and more advisors than she’s willing or able to recruit) than conquering (which she apparently has some impressive skill at).
I have no idea where Tyrion is going to end up or what state Casterly Rock is going to end up in, but without Tyrion or Tywin in play at King’s Landing, Cersei is fucked. The Tyrells are going to own the place inside of a week.
And Jethrien tells me that Bran and Sansa have both run out of book, despite there being two more published books the TV show hasn’t yet covered (and will presumably be the majority of seasons 5 and 6), which means that the not-yet-published Book 6 will be partially spoiled by whatever happens to Sansa before it comes out. I, for one, hope she manages to get Littlefinger out the Moon Door.
Overall: I plan to keep watching, certainly.
I would like to see more plotlines end with, “And then Arya stabbed a dude.” She totally should have put the Hound out of his misery, if for no other reason that he was on her list. (And while there’s a comic book level of “he could come back” going on, I’m pretty sure that was his swan song. Even if his brother is getting rebuilt as a flesh golem or death knight or something.)
Brienne actually surprises me in how not-amazing a fighter she is. Jethrien noted that she technically wins all of her fights (while failing at her goals, because very few of her goals can be achieved by stabbing somebody), but it seems that she takes a lot of lumps in doing so, and tends to have a harder time than others do. Compare the performance of “named” characters at the Wall versus her against various brigands. Or even her against the Hound—he’s not bad, but he’s presented as being just trained enough and just willing enough to fight dirty to beat a bunch of commoners. I feel like Brienne should be better than she is.
I was actually surprised by how few main characters died in the battle at the Wall in 4x09; I genuinely thought Sam and Ginny we going to bite it, and gave Jon Snow 50/50 odds at best. (Jon Snow who, to his credit, acknowledged that he was going into 4x10 with an utterly terrible plan, but that was the best he’d come up with.) The fact that Stannis showed up—which was telegraphed a season earlier but then quietly ignored—and it’s unlikely that any other named characters will die at the Wall for a while is, amusingly, a twist I didn’t see coming.
Speaking of terrible plans, when Ramsey went to open the dog cages during the Ironborn’s failed rescue attempt for Theon, Yara is holding an axe. She, for some unfathomable reason, does not throw this axe at the head of the unarmored and distracted-with-keys Ramsey. She probably could have greatly improved a lot of people’s lives by putting an axe in his head right there, and she totally had the opportunity. I cannot for the life of me understand why she didn’t.
Dany’s rapid rise of the past couple of seasons has finally stalled out as she discovers that ruling requires a completely different skillset (and more advisors than she’s willing or able to recruit) than conquering (which she apparently has some impressive skill at).
I have no idea where Tyrion is going to end up or what state Casterly Rock is going to end up in, but without Tyrion or Tywin in play at King’s Landing, Cersei is fucked. The Tyrells are going to own the place inside of a week.
And Jethrien tells me that Bran and Sansa have both run out of book, despite there being two more published books the TV show hasn’t yet covered (and will presumably be the majority of seasons 5 and 6), which means that the not-yet-published Book 6 will be partially spoiled by whatever happens to Sansa before it comes out. I, for one, hope she manages to get Littlefinger out the Moon Door.
Overall: I plan to keep watching, certainly.
