Like I've said before, I thought the whole Lord of Light thing was just a gimmick until Beric spoke after The Hound killed him. Hearing Thoros tell his story made me think, "Well goddamn, that's a pretty solid conversion story."
"You will make kings rise and fall." Dontcha just love cryptic soothsayer foreshadowing? Melisandre's quotes often tend to work out like a single digit on the Monkey's Paw curling.
Arya: You're a witch. You're going to hurt him!
Melisandre: I see a darkness in you. And in that darkness, eyes staring back at me. Brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes. Eyes you'll shut forever.
While that is decidedly less cryptic if you're taking that as clear foreshadowing of Arya's time in the House of Black and White, I've always taken it as a clear reference of the innate Stark children ability to warg; something that was completely cut from the show save for Bran, but I kinda assumed this was a meta reference to the show acknowledging that the other Stark children won't be gaining Bran-like abilities. That Arya's gonna completely shut off that ability in her quest for revenge.
Once more, I'm at a point in a movie/TV show where I have to remind myself that the actors weren't in any danger because of my crippling fear of heights. If they're immersive enough, I kinda forget that this is all fiction, and despite no one else being in real danger, neither am I. Any movie scene that shows a character standing on a steep ledge, especially if there's a POV shot from their perspective, makes me more uncomfortable than just about anything else in any other media can accomplish. Fuck everything about this climb LMAO.
And god*damn* the people on the continent of Westeros are built completely different. A 700+ foot climb on a sheer wall of ice without breaks? I'd have been heading back further north to find the White Walkers to make me one of 'em over that.
Fucking Iwan Rheon reached Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter levels of being uncomfortably convincing as a pure psychopathic sadist.
"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." God, Ramsay is even worse Mr. Blonde from Reservoir Dogs. Vic Vega had a time restraint with that cop, but not so much as to not enjoy the moment. Ramsay, however, has all the time in the world as far as he's concerned. Daddy's off with the Stark army, and he has the run of the Dreadfort now that Daddy's pleased with him for getting the Ironborn out of Winterfell and capturing Theon alive. He won't have to know about the "unspoiled" part until Daddy gets back.
"Not what, whom." I shouldn't laugh -- considering what's gonna happen to him -- but Edmure's completely oblivious look around to figure out why everyone's looking at him is still fucking hysterical.
"The laws of my first are about to compel your teeth." And there's the real Blackfish showing why he was such a respected/feared enemy, even at his age. "You recall that heroic engagement?" LMAO, the Blackfish brought some salt for the wounds he just gave Edmure while kicking him as he was down.
"You should, but you're here. Watching me fail at dinner." It's like the writers knew just how fucking depressing shit was about to get, so they threw in some perfect comedic moments. Now that he's recovering from his wound and the worst year of his life, sarcastic Jaime is back, baby!
"True, we don't tie ourselves into knots over a discreet bit of buggery, but brothers and sisters. Where I come from, that stain would be very difficult to wash out". Damn, the Queen of Thorns always knew when to drop the tactical negotiation nuke. And Tywin understood mutually assured destruction enough to lob his own tactical negotiation nuke right back.
Tyrion: It's hard to tell which of the four of us is getting the worst of this arrangement. Probably Sansa. Though Loras will certainly come to know a deep and singular misery.
Cersei: Father doesn't discriminate. We're all being shipped off to hell together.
I always enjoyed it when these two could speak openly to each other without the veiled threats or Cersei immediately dismissing whatever Tyrion says. Her even admitting that Tyrion's plan with the Wildfire is the only reason she, him, and the rest of the Lannisters in King's Landing are still alive was a surprising amount of deference toward Tyrion from her.
Tyrion having to be the one to break the news to Sansa was especially cruel for both him and her.
And now comes the best conversation between Littlefinger and Varys; as usual, the best was saved for last now that Littlefinger was leaving. The "chaos is a ladder" speech is one of the best encapsulations of who Petyr Baelish was as a person. And proves this episode's title was like "A Golden Crown": a double meaning.
Varys, referring to the Iron Throne: Ugly old thing, yet it has a certain appeal. The Lysa Arryn of chairs. Shame you had to settle for your second choice.
Varys is playing what he thinks is a fun little game of poke the deranged "King of the Ashes". And Varys quickly finds out the consequences of that game; Littlefinger's line about "providing a fresh new experience" for a friend who wanted to "experiment" with Ros was a disturbing echo of Varys' tale to Tyrion about the sorcerer who cut him. And it finally provokes Varys into a very uncharacteristic rebuttal.
Varys: I did what I did for the good of the Realm.
Littlefinger: The Realm? Do you know what the Realm is? It's the thousand blades of Aegon's enemies, a story we agree to tell each other over and over until we forget that it's a lie.
Varys: But what do we have left once we abandon the lie? Chaos. A gaping pit waiting to swallow us all.
Littlefinger: Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some are given a chance to climb, but they refuse. They cling to the Realm or the gods or love. Illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is.
Review by Digital PhreakerBlockedParentSpoilers2024-05-16T21:42:02Z
Like I've said before, I thought the whole Lord of Light thing was just a gimmick until Beric spoke after The Hound killed him. Hearing Thoros tell his story made me think, "Well goddamn, that's a pretty solid conversion story."
"You will make kings rise and fall." Dontcha just love cryptic soothsayer foreshadowing? Melisandre's quotes often tend to work out like a single digit on the Monkey's Paw curling.
Arya: You're a witch. You're going to hurt him!
Melisandre: I see a darkness in you. And in that darkness, eyes staring back at me. Brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes. Eyes you'll shut forever.
While that is decidedly less cryptic if you're taking that as clear foreshadowing of Arya's time in the House of Black and White, I've always taken it as a clear reference of the innate Stark children ability to warg; something that was completely cut from the show save for Bran, but I kinda assumed this was a meta reference to the show acknowledging that the other Stark children won't be gaining Bran-like abilities. That Arya's gonna completely shut off that ability in her quest for revenge.
Once more, I'm at a point in a movie/TV show where I have to remind myself that the actors weren't in any danger because of my crippling fear of heights. If they're immersive enough, I kinda forget that this is all fiction, and despite no one else being in real danger, neither am I. Any movie scene that shows a character standing on a steep ledge, especially if there's a POV shot from their perspective, makes me more uncomfortable than just about anything else in any other media can accomplish. Fuck everything about this climb LMAO.
And god*damn* the people on the continent of Westeros are built completely different. A 700+ foot climb on a sheer wall of ice without breaks? I'd have been heading back further north to find the White Walkers to make me one of 'em over that.
Fucking Iwan Rheon reached Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter levels of being uncomfortably convincing as a pure psychopathic sadist.
"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." God, Ramsay is even worse Mr. Blonde from Reservoir Dogs. Vic Vega had a time restraint with that cop, but not so much as to not enjoy the moment. Ramsay, however, has all the time in the world as far as he's concerned. Daddy's off with the Stark army, and he has the run of the Dreadfort now that Daddy's pleased with him for getting the Ironborn out of Winterfell and capturing Theon alive. He won't have to know about the "unspoiled" part until Daddy gets back.
"Not what, whom." I shouldn't laugh -- considering what's gonna happen to him -- but Edmure's completely oblivious look around to figure out why everyone's looking at him is still fucking hysterical.
"The laws of my first are about to compel your teeth." And there's the real Blackfish showing why he was such a respected/feared enemy, even at his age. "You recall that heroic engagement?" LMAO, the Blackfish brought some salt for the wounds he just gave Edmure while kicking him as he was down.
"You should, but you're here. Watching me fail at dinner." It's like the writers knew just how fucking depressing shit was about to get, so they threw in some perfect comedic moments. Now that he's recovering from his wound and the worst year of his life, sarcastic Jaime is back, baby!
"True, we don't tie ourselves into knots over a discreet bit of buggery, but brothers and sisters. Where I come from, that stain would be very difficult to wash out". Damn, the Queen of Thorns always knew when to drop the tactical negotiation nuke. And Tywin understood mutually assured destruction enough to lob his own tactical negotiation nuke right back.
Tyrion: It's hard to tell which of the four of us is getting the worst of this arrangement. Probably Sansa. Though Loras will certainly come to know a deep and singular misery.
Cersei: Father doesn't discriminate. We're all being shipped off to hell together.
I always enjoyed it when these two could speak openly to each other without the veiled threats or Cersei immediately dismissing whatever Tyrion says. Her even admitting that Tyrion's plan with the Wildfire is the only reason she, him, and the rest of the Lannisters in King's Landing are still alive was a surprising amount of deference toward Tyrion from her.
Tyrion having to be the one to break the news to Sansa was especially cruel for both him and her.
And now comes the best conversation between Littlefinger and Varys; as usual, the best was saved for last now that Littlefinger was leaving. The "chaos is a ladder" speech is one of the best encapsulations of who Petyr Baelish was as a person. And proves this episode's title was like "A Golden Crown": a double meaning.
Varys, referring to the Iron Throne: Ugly old thing, yet it has a certain appeal. The Lysa Arryn of chairs. Shame you had to settle for your second choice.
Varys is playing what he thinks is a fun little game of poke the deranged "King of the Ashes". And Varys quickly finds out the consequences of that game; Littlefinger's line about "providing a fresh new experience" for a friend who wanted to "experiment" with Ros was a disturbing echo of Varys' tale to Tyrion about the sorcerer who cut him. And it finally provokes Varys into a very uncharacteristic rebuttal.
Varys: I did what I did for the good of the Realm.
Littlefinger: The Realm? Do you know what the Realm is? It's the thousand blades of Aegon's enemies, a story we agree to tell each other over and over until we forget that it's a lie.
Varys: But what do we have left once we abandon the lie? Chaos. A gaping pit waiting to swallow us all.
Littlefinger: Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some are given a chance to climb, but they refuse. They cling to the Realm or the gods or love. Illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is.