Monday, May 4, 2015

Game of Thrones 5x04 Sons of the Harpy

By s. Monday, May 4, 2015 ,
We open and check in with Jorah who loads unconscious Tyrion on a boat. The lighting in this scene is worse than in most Stannis' scenes, so that's one hell of an accomplishment. Also there is no Genry rowing in the background, so opportunity missed?

On another boat, in a shameless but welcomed fan service Jaime asks one of the crew what is that island on the horizon. Turns out it's Tarth. Jaime has the most amazing "Brienne I miss you" look on his face. It's a shame that instead of thinking about him Brienne focuses on stupidity like wanting to avenge Renly.
Then Bronn and Jaime are talking and the conversation moves to Tyrion. Jaime says the next time he will see Tyrion he splits him in half. Jaime's character moving back and forth without any sense whatsoever continues.

In King's Landing during the council meeting Cersei sends Mace to Braavos and assigns Merryn Trant to go with him. Then she is talking to High Sparrow telling him there is a great sinner in their midst. Cersei is trying to use Sparrows as her weapon and she is even pretending to dislike wine in front of High Sparrow.

The Sparrows raid the brothel, among many other places, to rid the city of debauchery. Also Lancel arrests Loras for being gay. And hence Loras' sole characteristics in the show is finally used for something else than bare ass - and Dorne birthmark - in sex scenes.

Margaery is furious and demands that Tommen makes sure Loras is freed. Tommen goes to Cersei and she plays dumb. Tommen doesn't know what to do. I feel for him - his mother is a bitch and his wife is a smirking idiot. Also it's increasingly disturbing that the show aged Tommen just so that he could have a sex scene with Margaery yet they have him acting all innocent and essentially looking like a child.
Tommen goes to talk to the Sparrows but they deny him entry while the crowd gathered behind him calls him 'bastard'. Sweet Tommen decide to go away, depicting kindness and weakness. Then, clearly worried that Margaery will deny him access to her entry, he tries to calm her down but she walks away saying she wants to be with her family.

I really hope the Tyrells bite it. The way they are now are just sexual pawns for D&D. Loras primary (only?) characteristic is that he is gay. When it comes to Margaery they resorted her to control Tommen with sex. Not with kindness, interest or intelligence. No. For these writers the safest way to a man is through woman's vagina. I'm not sure who they are offending more with this. Although there was upcoming scene with Melisandre that suggested that sometimes boobs fail the mission.
But I cannot be mad too long because in the next scene Stannis is leaning on a railing like a goddamn male model. Unfortunately, his two psycho women are there with him.

Selyse is trash talking Jon and then Shireen as usual and Melisandre is spewing more psycho bullshit. I hate the fact that she is going with Stannis after he leaves the Wall. Stay away from him!I f Stannis takes out his mighty sword and slaughters them both I'd be more happy than if he was naked. Selyse is a constant threat to Shireen and the show butchered Melisandre to the point right now is just an equivalent of a psycho naked nymphomaniac nun.
Then Melisandre is exposing herself to Snow and practically molesting him. Jon doesn't want to do it with her and she throws 'you know nothing, Jon Snow' at him. Coming from woman who would rather do Jon than stannis this is really rich. Also - why? Carice van Houten is a talented actress yet season after season her performance is reduced to her showing her breasts and Melisandre comes off as evil, and there is no amount of Martin proclaiming otherwise that can rescue the perception that comes from watching the show. The last decent thing she did was saving Davos' life in finale to season 3

Then we get the most beautiful moment Stannis was handed so far and the finest acted out scene of the season - Stannis is sitting alone in his chamber and Shireen comes over. Stannis asks if she is lonely and Shireen responds she is bored. She asks Stannis if he is ashamed of her.
Stannis gets up and tells her how when she was born a Dornish trader came over to Dragonstone. Stannis got a doll for Shireen. He says he still remembers how she smiled when he put that doll in her cradle. It turned out that the doll was the source of greyscale. Stannis says the following:

"Everyone advised me to send you to the ruins of Valyria to live out your short life with the Stone Men before the sickness spread through the castle. I told them all to go to hell. I called in every maester on this side of the world. Every healer, every apothecary. They stopped the disease and saved your life. Because you did not belong across the world with the bloody Stone Men. You are the Princess Shireen of House Baratheon. 

And you are my daughter."
Shireen runs to Stannis and hugs him. He stands still until he puts his arms around her and hugs her back. I was just beside myself during that scene. We all knew Stannis loved his daughter just from the two lovely scenes - in season 3 him visiting her and in season 4 him reacting strongly to Selyse's suggestion that Shireen should be hit with a rod. But this is the new level. Also it's so tragic that the doll Stannis gave her caused her illness. Stupid Dorne!

I'm hoping with all of my heart that this is not one of those "let's make you all love the character so that when they are SAVAGELY MURDERED you are more devastated". There is so much talk about the possibility of either one of them crazy bitches burning Shireen alive or Stannis dying in the show this season - FUCK YOU BRIENNE - and I just hope they are all red herrings. Lord save them both.
Either way, just give Stephen an Emmy now.

My make up just got completely shot to shit. Waterproof my ass.

In Winterfell Sansa is paying her respects in the crypts. She lights a candle for her aunt Lyanna and the feather Robert Baratheon left in her hand in the series' very first episode falls on the ground. Damn, that is one enduring father. Anyways Sansa picks it up and Littlefinger approaches. They talk about Lyanna and Rhagear. Sansa says that Rhaegar raped Lyanna and Littlefinger throws her a curious look.
The whole Lyanna and Rheagar thing may just be the key to one of the series' most important things and that look from Littlefinger made me worried that they will give him the honor of revealing the truth. I hope it's not the case because that would be a travesty.

Littlefinger then tells Sansa to use Ramsay and fool him. Then he tells her he is leaving for King's Landing. All was left was a sign "LOL good luck Sansa don't get flayed". There is no defending of Littlefinger's plan. His whole reasoning is that Stannis will win the battle and grant Sansa Winterfell. But wouldn't it be better to wait with Sansa in the Vale until after Stannis actually battles Boltons and wins than throwing her to those psychos?
In Dorne Jaime and Bronn are bonding near fire. Jaime mentions that the best way to die is in the arms of the woman, which was probably another fan service. Then Dornish riders arrive and what follows is an amusing scene echoing Brienne and Jaime's journey when they were trying to conceal his identity. The conflict breaks out anyways and Bronn and Jaime kill the riders.

Next we meet Sand Snakes. Ellaria rides and speak with them - the three daughters of Oberyn - Obara, Nym and Tyene. Ellaria tells them that they can either do what Doran wants - peace - or choose her way - revenge. The Sand Snakes choose revenge and reveal the captain buried in the sand who told them he smuggled Jaime Lannister. Obara kills him by throwing a spear through his head.

We are getting this instead of Stoneheart?!
Jorah and Tyrion have a great scene on the boat where Tyrion guesses Jorah wants to win Daenerys' favor by bringing her a prisoner as famous as Tyrion. Tyrion taunts Jorah about working as a spy (remember when in season 1 Varys wanted to use Jorah to kill Dany and now he is seeking Dany to put her on throne? Don't look for logic, just have fun) and her finding out. Jorah punches Tyrion.

In Meereen Barristan is telling Dany of Rheagar. Yep, that's the show trying to catch up with 4 seasons lack of enough mentions of Rhaegar and Lyanna and now giving you two per week. It's a sweet scene and it also reeks of what I'm hoping Shireen/Stannis scene is not secretly reeking of - this character is good and noble, do you like him? Like him, because they are about to die a horrific death.
So in the ending of the episode we get Barristan and Grey Worm fighting Sons of the Harpy in a brutal and very exciting and well orchestrated sequence. They both take many down, but they are wounded and fall on the ground, presumably dead. Well in one case not even presumably, if you saw the promo for next episode.

It's a shame that's it for Barristan. I remember how excited everyone was at the end of season 3 premiere when Barristan joined Dany. The greatest fighter in Seven Kingdoms only got one fight scene in the end. As for the rest of the episode it's hard not to get frustrated with what the show includes and what it omits - hopefully though at least it still manages to surprise and those obvious red herrings and foreshadowing moments are not that obvious in the end.
Next week in Kill the Boy Stannis leaves Castle Black, Sansa sees Ramsay's true colors and Jorah and Tyrion encounter few surprises on their journey
PREVIOUS RECAPS FROM THE SEASON:


14 comments:

  1. Thankfully Olenna is coming back to KL. She's pretty much the only good character in Team Tyrell. Say, what do you think of the idea of them casting Ian McShane for the role of Randyll Tarly for Season 6?

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    1. McShane would be wonderful on the show in any capacity and role but I'm sure they are gonna be bringing less and less characters with each season,who knows if Tarly appears on the show at all..

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  2. Barristan. I legit had tears in my eyes. That rarely happens to me when I watch TV. (But it happens all the time in movies, weirdly enough)

    I'll take that fan service with Jaime staring at Tarth because that was brilliant. But you're right, Brienne should be thinking about Jaime instead of fucking Renly.

    LOL at the sign for Sansa. What you just said about Littlefinger waiting in the Vale makes 100000x more sense. If they knew Stannis was at Castle Black, Sansa could've written a raven to Jon herself proving that it really was her and Littlefinger wasn't bluffing. Then they could wait for Stannis to crush the Boltons, then mosey on up to Winterfell.

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    1. Really Sansa's storyline is such a mess, and let's not even comment on LF because he is like some supernatural entity of chaos at this point ^^

      Poor Barristan :/

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  3. this was honestly one of the worst episodes of the series imo

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    1. What did you dislike about it? I think it was really a huge departure from the books, with one or two scenes being faithful

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    2. -Don't like how Faith Militant is being portrayed
      -Don't like Cersei's motivations for arming Faith Militant
      -Sansa/Littlefinger scene was heavy-handed and dumb, LF's plan is stupid.
      -Jon/Melisandre....gratuitous nudity.
      -Sand Snakes and Ellaria were awful
      -Unsullied vs. Sons of Harpy fight was horribly choregraphed

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    3. I liked the final fight but that might have been just joy from seeing Barristan fight at last. I can definitely see the problems with other stuff you mentioned, especially Melisandre

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  4. That Stannis father of the millennium scene made it hard to focus on the rest of the episode tbh, it was everything I expected and more since it was actually longer than I thought it would be and the story with the doll was well thought and he was so damn beautiful even in that awful light. Personally, although it's not in the book, I always thought of Stannis as very repressed and unable to handle his feelings, very guarded rather than actually uncaring in general. So I don't think he's a cold person at the core, he just acts that way on the surface, like a defense mechanism but also because he was already an introverted, not really sociable boy and he never learned to feel openly or act like it. So to me this scene fit his character well. I liked that, to me, he seemed surprised/disturbed that his daughter would think he is ashamed of her and immediately he felt like clearing that up. Then I found it true to his character, that instead of telling her he's not ashamed or that he loves her or something like that, he told her a story that would explain how he feels in a clear manner but one that slowly eases into a state of emotional vulnerability instead of jumping into it directly. The acting was superb, I think it was by far one of the best acted scenes on this show. Maybe I'm already in way too deep but one of the things that I find most attractive/endearing about Stephen, as an actor and physically, is that I personally find his face/eyes and general body language to be very expressive and he did a lot of that in this scene. The way he looked at Shireen ,especially at the end when he told her she's Princess Shireen of House Baratheon, the intensity and determination in his eyes, it was great. And then when he told her she's his daughter, there was even like a crack in his voice and he looked so raw, I was in a total puddle by that point. The girl is also very good, she always seems to look at him like he's her hero and they are a lot alike in personality, it was impossible not to totally feel for her. It was so cute how her face progressively lit up as he spoke and she realized that her daddy, her hero, wasn't ashamed of her and actually really loved her. He made her entire life and it was obvious.
    Uuuuugh, I wish Stephen got more scenes and especially more scenes like this one, he could really get an award for it but he needs more screentime and meaty scenes.
    But of course I'm expecting this scene will come at a price and I'd so hate for Shireen to die, although preferable to Stannis of course. This season is such a struggle.
    My God, Selyse and Melisandre are becoming more and more obnoxious with every scene, I really could not with Selyse's comments, she needs a good slapping. Melisandre is totally ruined, that scene with Jon was just laughable and that can u feel my heart beat line, while he was holding her boob...really now, how did she even do that with a straight face, who comes up with these things? Stannis should really just make friends with Brienne and the Stark girls, win-win for everyone, he needs better women in his life.

    Lol Littlefinger and Sansa scenes are so entertaining to me, I can't help it, he's so creepy but Aidan plays him in this endearing, troll-ish way and I can't hate, I even enjoy the creepster stares, thank God Sophie doesn't look that young cause in the book it's creepy in a disturbing way. I totally laughed when he kissed her, it was the best, I'm so amused and somehow Sansa seemed to be looking at him way too ...I don't even know, hope she's just playing but whatever, still better fanfic than the certain abuse she's going to get from Ramsay. And hey, Baelish stans for the Mannis so it's all good, even if they made him seem totally dumb by implying he has no clue of how Ramsay is, it's so out of character.

    RIP Barristan, he was awesome, smart, useful and hot, shall be missed! I guess Loras is next now

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    1. I love your analysis of this scene! So beautifully written and on point. It was indeed one of the finest moments on the show to date and Stephen and Kerry were so wonderful and there was so much subtlety in their acting - Kerry smiling when he was telling her of her being an infant and then the tears in her eyes when he said so proudly that she is his daughter was so beautiful. And Stephen showed such vulnerability while at the same time being strong and not breaking down over the story of how she fell ill. It was just so beautiful!

      I hate whenever either Melisandre or Selyse is near Stannis. They make him so miserable.I really hope nothing happens to Stannis and Shireen, it would be so cruel if it did they both had such miserable lives and deserve to have some happiness at last.

      I think Stannis would behead Littlefinger at the first chance he has and I'd so love if it happened ^^

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    2. Phew, I'm glad you didn't think my elaborate analysis(and obsessive rant) was crazy or something, I get a kick out of analyzing and discussing at length, it gets the best of me sometimes.
      Stephen and Kerry are absolutely perfect in their roles and also in the way they relate on screen, they can both do subtle and use their face/eyes/body to express things and fill the scene with more than just the dialogue and when both actors do that in the scene it's a total win. Even in the books I feel that, minus his absolute emotional repression and awkwardness, especially after Ned's death, Stannis is one of the best equipped to be the father of a girl in that world, because he seems to be a little less sexist(he's still somewhat sexist but for the standard of that world he's less so than most, not all but most). Also, I think Shireen's personality and intellect reflect the kind of parent Stannis is and she is actually the best suited to be a future Queen, out of the youngsters. So the scene in today's episode was a very good addition and a realistic, true to character one, at least the way I see him, could have used one in the books as well. Now they really are the best, he'd be a good King and he has a very good heir, even if she's a girl, and he sees her as his heir without a problem.
      I better not even start again with Stephen cause I still cannot with generally everything that was his face in that scene and just in general. I'm sure with the new episode and Stannis in a fur cloak with that beard, I'll have a lot to say.

      Lol I really have a fantasy playing over and over in my head, of Stannis catapulting both Melisandre and Selyse over the Wall, they're just so horrible on the show, Selyse is especially vile! Oh man, you're totally right, it would be so horrible for anything to happen to those two sweethearts after they were both forced to go through mostly unhappy times, they deserve to at least be there at the end, at least see the finish line if not cross it too.

      I want Littlefinger to keep trolling til the end of time, especially if he's on Team Stannis so he's not an immediate threat to him, he's too entertaining on the show to let him go.

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    3. Comparing to other men in the books Stannis is practically a feminist ^^ I really hope nothing happens to them. They must have some good people survive this mess and having Jon or Dany rule in the end is just too obvious. Put Shireen on that throne!

      Oh God that cloak was so amazing ^^

      Selyse managed to be unpleasant even only when she appeared for about half of minute in new episode :/

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  5. (It' Canyu again in case my only surviving comment is Anonymous)

    I'd say it's the weakest episode so far, but still a good and an enjoyable one.

    I let go of Barristan completely after his talk with Daenerys. Boy was that obvious.

    Don't they kill Stannis! If Melisande comes with him he is supposed to win, right? Otherwise what will the crazy nymphomaniac do? Get a vision about Daenerys' dragons and go help her so she could use Tyrion's lust to serve her god?

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    1. Well they will show you what Melisandre does this season :) She is such a badly written character on the show, though.

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