Game of Thrones as always lots of spoilers

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

Whoever wasn't happy with this last episode has no reason to continue watching.

Now, as a nerd book reader, maybe i juts have a better feel for the GoT world as a whole, though sometimes the differences confuse me.. and that might get worse now that the show is ahead of the books. But I agree that the pace has slowed and can see it boring some people who lack the knowledge to follow and anticipate what certain things mean.

 

[Jonb127]

I really like the show and thought the episode was good, but I have a big problem with the Arya scenes. She's a small girl who was stabbed in the gut multiple times and even had the knife turned in her stomach. The fact that she survived at all was hard to believe, but that she was able to easily just run and fight after a day of recovery at the hands of an actress was ridiculously absurd.

 

[RU4Real]

I really like the show and thought the episode was good, but I have a big problem with the Arya scenes. She's a small girl who was stabbed in the gut multiple times and even had the knife turned in her stomach. The fact that she survived at all was hard to believe, but that she was able to easily just run and fight after a day of recovery at the hands of an actress was ridiculously absurd.

Yes. In a television series featuring witches, zombies and dragons, this inconsistency is indeed very disturbing.

 

[Jonb127]

I'm not sure I get this? Sure there is a lot of things unrealistic about the show, but they are part of the world the show is about. They have explanations. There is no explanation for what happened to her. It's just really poor story telling.

 

[RU4Real]

I'm not sure I get this? Sure there is a lot of things unrealistic about the show, but they are part of the world the show is about. They have explanations. There is no explanation for what happened to her. It's just really poor story telling.

Or maybe the blade just didn't hit anything vital. It happens.

 

[Jonb127]

Definitely. 10 year old girls get stabbed 4 times in the stomach and the final one twisted in their gut, fall into a river, wander through the streets, hide in a actress' dressing room for a few hours, get stitched up, drink a bowl of soup and are ready to run full sprints, jump, slide and then defeat an assassin with no issue all the time...Listen, if you thought they did a good job with it that's fine. I thought it was really poorly done and was just disappointed.

 

[T2Kplus10]

Definitely. 10 year old girls get stabbed 4 times in the stomach and the final one twisted in their gut, fall into a river, wander through the streets, hide in a actress' dressing room for a few hours, get stitched up, drink a bowl of soup and are ready to run full sprints, jump, slide and then defeat an assassin with no issue all the time...Listen, if you thought they did a good job with it that's fine. I thought it was really poorly done and was just disappointed.

It's the nature of the TV format. Sure, would it have been more realistic for Arya is stay in bed for a month and 3-4 more episodes? Yeah. But how many people would have complained about the "slowness" of the storyline. Sometimes you just have to get to the point and the point was for Arya to get trained and go home.

 

[T2Kplus10]

Whoever wasn't happy with this last episode has no reason to continue watching.

Now, as a nerd book reader, maybe i juts have a better feel for the GoT world as a whole, though sometimes the differences confuse me.. and that might get worse now that the show is ahead of the books. But I agree that the pace has slowed and can see it boring some people who lack the knowledge to follow and anticipate what certain things mean.

I kind of laugh at people saying the pace of the TV show has slowed or is too slow. Check out the books for a comparison! And I mean the content of the books and speed of publication. Both are. abysmal.

 

[Jonb127]

I agree, but simply don't have her brutally stabbed 4 times if you want to do that. I just thought it was sloppy story telling.

 

[MoobyCow]

I kind of laugh at people saying the pace of the TV show has slowed or is too slow. Check out the books for a comparison! And I mean the content of the books and speed of publication. Both are. abysmal.

One of the things I really like about TV adaptations is that they can take their time, but this year is an odd combination of slow story telling and big leaps forward. I mean, if this was the end game for Arya, there is probably some stuff that has been shown over the last two seasons that could have been cut to devote a bit more time to the transition.

 

[RUJohnny99]

They could have done without last week's stabbing. Have her hide at the actress' house from the get go & have the waif find her there.

 

[T2Kplus10]

One of the things I really like about TV adaptations is that they can take their time, but this year is an odd combination of slow story telling and big leaps forward. I mean, if this was the end game for Arya, there is probably some stuff that has been shown over the last two seasons that could have been cut to devote a bit more time to the transition.

Yes, this storyline could have been much shorter. But overall, I think the show has done an outstanding job with balancing pacing vs action.

 

[Crazed_RU]

Yes, this storyline could have been much shorter. But overall, I think the show has done an outstanding job with balancing pacing vs action.

I think the pacing only feels like it's moving slow because there are so many storylines just need to advance. Think of all of them from last night and then all the storylines that didn't even get touched. It's crazy how many there are.

 

[MoobyCow]

I think the pacing only feels like it's moving slow because there are so many storylines just need to advance. Think of all of them from last night and then all the storylines that didn't even get touched. It's crazy how many there are.

True, I was surprised when they said they only had about 15 episodes of material left. It certainly seems like they could have another 2 full seasons.

 

[koleszar]

I think they showed all that ass kicking Arya received to fool the audience into thinking she wasn't really learning anything and the Waif would totally out class her. Then in a surprise you find out the whole time she did learn and was just acting when she killed the Waif in the darkness.

If you didn't see all the ass kicking, her killing the Waif and fooling the Man of Many faces would be lost. This way you see she truly became a Man of many faces, she deceived the best of them and provided the Many Faced God with his tribute. She just didn't want to become a part of them and found her out by deceiving the Man of Many faces into trying to kill her.

 

[eceres]

I think they showed all that ass kicking Arya received to fool the audience into thinking she wasn't really learning anything and the Waif would totally out class her. Then in a surprise you find out the whole time she did learn and was just acting when she killed the Waif in the darkness.

If you didn't see all the ass kicking, her killing the Waif and fooling the Man of Many faces would be lost. This way you see she truly became a Man of many faces, she deceived the best of them and provided the Many Faced God with his tribute. She just didn't want to become a part of them and found her out by deceiving the Man of Many faces into trying to kill her.

The wait always had sight while Arya fight her. Darkness was distinctly her advantage. Not like they trained in the dark or blindfolded.

 

[willisneverrana43]

Definitely. 10 year old girls get stabbed 4 times in the stomach and the final one twisted in their gut, fall into a river, wander through the streets, hide in a actress' dressing room for a few hours, get stitched up, drink a bowl of soup and are ready to run full sprints, jump, slide and then defeat an assassin with no issue all the time...Listen, if you thought they did a good job with it that's fine. I thought it was really poorly done and was just disappointed.

This is funny. Don't forget that she was stabbed by a trained killer. Lazy writing is fair here.

 

[Crazed_RU]

The wait always had sight while Arya fight her. Darkness was distinctly her advantage. Not like they trained in the dark or blindfolded.

Yes their fighting was always either Arya blind, or they both being able to see. Never in prior fights were they both blind - advantage Arya. The next question is really where does she end up. Is it possible her storyline is done for this season? I think that is a strong possibility and that she turns up next season. Just like I think we have seen the last of Varys this season.

 

[RU4Real]

Milk of the Poppy is good stuff.

 

[scarleteagle]

One of the worst episodes to date. I'm OK with the pace but the whole Arya chase over the last 3 episodes has been terrible. The blackfish scene was an absolute waste. Slavers bay attack and danys return was also confused and stupid.

Actually, I forgot about the hound. He redeemed this episode.

 

[willisneverrana43]

It's the nature of the TV format. Sure, would it have been more realistic for Arya is stay in bed for a month and 3-4 more episodes? Yeah. But how many people would have complained about the "slowness" of the storyline. Sometimes you just have to get to the point and the point was for Arya to get trained and go home.

This, of course, is not the nature of things. Any number of inventive and not so inventive things could have been changed to fix this silly problem. For instance, and this took all of 10 seconds to think of, Arya could have noticed the killer a split second earlier and done something to minimize the damage before she jumped off the bridge. Or something unexpected could have impeded the killer's aim at the last second. Or Arya could have actually learned something about how these two creepy killers operated over her seemingly endless time with them so that she could have noticed the killer coming at the last second and minimized the damage. Anything. Then we wouldn't have to wonder how she could have been slashed, stabbed twice with the knife twisted in her innards, and jumped off endless roofs to sustain almost no lasting damage to impede her multiple escapes.

But none of that, or any other of the myriad of better writing ideas, were done. Because the show is in decline. It just is.

 

[SirScarlet]

people being critical of GoT remind me of the threads where someone is criticizing the ankle bone on a super hottie

 

[miketd1]

Need more Tyrion.

 

[willisneverrana43]

people being critical of GoT remind me of the threads where someone is criticizing the ankle bone on a super hottie

After she turned 65.

 

[MoobyCow]

people being critical of GoT remind me of the threads where someone is criticizing the ankle bone on a super hottie

It's generally a great show, but a character shrugging off multiple stab wounds to the gut in a single day is a bit much for any show. It's just sloppy.

 

[T2Kplus10]

It's generally a great show, but a character shrugging off multiple stab wounds to the gut in a single day is a bit much for any show. It's just sloppy.

But it was a very small knife. Just caused a few flesh wounds. :)

 

[MoobyCow]

But it was a very small knife. Just caused a few flesh wounds. :)

 

[SirScarlet]

It's generally a great show, but a character shrugging off multiple stab wounds to the gut in a single day is a bit much for any show. It's just sloppy.

as someone said above, it's sloppy if it's a show that doesn't have dragons, witches, white-walkers, etc.

what's next, you're going to tell me that it's sloppy that jaime lannister not dying from an infection when his hand got chopped off and he was being dragged around in the woods?

come on guys. context and perspective are your collective friends here.

 

[MoobyCow]

as someone said above, it's sloppy if it's a show that doesn't have dragons, witches, white-walkers, etc.

what's next, you're going to tell me that it's sloppy that jaime lannister not dying from an infection when his hand got chopped off and he was being dragged around in the woods?

come on guys. context and perspective are your collective friends here.

Um, those are completely separate things. Dragons etc are part of the context of the show and the world that has been built. Hell, if she died and she came back the next day, that would also be part of the context. Getting stabbed multiple times and shrugging it off is not within the parameters of what else we've seen. It is simply lazy writing because they wanted to add some drama to the close of the previous show.

 

[mdh2003]

It's generally a great show, but a character shrugging off multiple stab wounds to the gut in a single day is a bit much for any show. It's just sloppy.

Maybe she's a DireWolverine.

tbh, even though he usually gets it right (if you're in trouble, you're dead), GRRM has had some head scratchers too, see: Cat and The Mountain. Plus, if John Snow's fate follows the show, chalk up another one.

 

[MoobyCow]

Maybe she's a DireWolverine.

tbh, even though he usually gets it right (if you're in trouble, you're dead), GRRM has had some head scratchers too, see: Cat and The Mountain. Plus, if John Snow's fate follows the show, chalk up another one.

No doubt, but those are consistent within the context of the world (people come back from the dead, though usually pretty worse for wear). They don't, or haven't, shrugged off massive internal damage after a bowl of soup. All they needed to do was add some indication of a passage of time, or have Arya manage to block most of the shots before launching herself off the bridge. Instead they focused on the twisting of the knife, to make sure we knew she was really hurt.

 

[SirScarlet]

Um, those are completely separate things. Dragons etc are part of the context of the show and the world that has been built. Hell, if she died and she came back the next day, that would also be part of the context. Getting stabbed multiple times and shrugging it off is not within the parameters of what else we've seen. It is simply lazy writing because they wanted to add some drama to the close of the previous show.

i see you conveniently left out the jamie / infection part?

I could compile pages and pages of things that could be characterized as lazy writing in a fantasy show.

just appreciate the show for what it is.

 

[MoobyCow]

i see you conveniently left out the jamie / infection part?

I could compile pages and pages of things that could be characterized as lazy writing in a fantasy show.

just appreciate the show for what it is.

Not getting an infection <> being basically fully recovered from multiple stab wounds after a good nights sleep. I'm pretty sure that history is full of people who lost limbs and survived, even back before antibiotics etc. It's more akin to it growing back the next day.

I'm not complaining that she recovered (even though her chances of infection are at least at high as Jamie's). I'm complaining that it was after a good night's sleep.

 

[SirScarlet]

Not getting an infection <> being basically fully recovered from multiple stab wounds after a good nights sleep. I'm pretty sure that history is full of people who lost limbs and survived, even back before antibiotics etc. It's more akin to it growing back the next day.

I'm not complaining that she recovered (even though her chances of infection are at least at high as Jamie's). I'm complaining that it was after a good night's sleep.

fair enough.

I extend this to you

 

[soundcrib]

This is funny. Don't forget that she was stabbed by a trained killer. Lazy writing is fair here.

What kind of trained assassin is The Waif? Why didn't the Waif just slice Arya's throat?

 

[KevH]

I think they showed all that ass kicking Arya received to fool the audience into thinking she wasn't really learning anything and the Waif would totally out class her. Then in a surprise you find out the whole time she did learn and was just acting when she killed the Waif in the darkness.

If you didn't see all the ass kicking, her killing the Waif and fooling the Man of Many faces would be lost. This way you see she truly became a Man of many faces, she deceived the best of them and provided the Many Faced God with his tribute. She just didn't want to become a part of them and found her out by deceiving the Man of Many faces into trying to kill her.

I just feel cheated that we didn't get to see the final throw down between Arya and the waif.

 

[koleszar]

I just feel cheated that we didn't get to see the final throw down between Arya and the waif.

O I totally agree. They should have went Zero Dark Thirty and showed the fight in the dark. It was definitely a huge let down for me as well, not to see the Waif get it. Could have easily done a slash to the throat or something quick. Blackfish was another huge let down. They save the guy during the Red wedding for what? Just to have him give up his home without a fight. Weak very Weak.

 

[Abro1975]

O I totally agree. They should have went Zero Dark Thirty and showed the fight in the dark. It was definitely a huge let down for me as well, not to see the Waif get it. Could have easily done a slash to the throat or something quick. Blackfish was another huge let down. They save the guy during the Red wedding for what? Just to have him give up his home without a fight. Weak very Weak.

He did die in a sword fight, they just didn't show it.

 

[Scarlet Bri]

Not getting an infection <> being basically fully recovered from multiple stab wounds after a good nights sleep. I'm pretty sure that history is full of people who lost limbs and survived, even back before antibiotics etc. It's more akin to it growing back the next day.

I'm not complaining that she recovered (even though her chances of infection are at least at high as Jamie's). I'm complaining that it was after a good night's sleep.

They rarely give any context in the show as to the passage of time. I originally commented to my wife that Arya seemed to heal very quickly, but then I filled in the blanks and concluded maybe she had been sleeping there for a month. Lady Crane was shown reaching up to a top shelf to get more Milk of the Poppy. Maybe she had used all the stores she had in the medicine cabinet nursing her for a few weeks, and had to reach up to her backup supply. It's a fantasy drama not a reality show.

To soundcrib's point, I think the waif wanted her to suffer, despite instructions to give her a quick death. For not following instructions, in the end she paid the price in Arya's place.

Is it lazy writing for dramatic effect? of course! But I fill in the blanks myself. I notice it seems the fan service and lazy writing has increased since the show passed the source material.

 

[RU-AGK]

Milk of the Poppy is good stuff.

And the reason why she may have been in bed for several days healing and not just one as had been deposited as fact in this thread.