Stanis has a depleted army and navy. The north is weak and divided and the Nights watch represents opportunity.
In the last episode Arya was pretty ruthless in the way she killed the guy at the fire. She is showing cunning the way she lifted the dagger off of the Hound with out him knowing it. I'm curious if we are seeing a fundamental change in Aryas character that will carry over into coming seasons.
That doesn't really answer his question, but it's a good summary of Reek-related events in the books. As for the scene being sort of an homage to Roots, it came off that way. That's one of the first things I thought of during that scene.
Well, I meant it to say, no, I don't think it's an homage to roots though I can see why people think that. I was providing context to the name "Reek" as reason why it wasn't.
I like how the Hound has asked her if she'd ever killed a man and she said "No, no 'man'" because she did kill a stable boy back in King's Landing when she was trying to escape. I don't think she'd directly killed anybody else in the show up until this last episode though she had in the books.
Yeah, I don't think it was necessarily intentional. Since Roots was such a huge miniseries, any scene like that will bring about memories of Roots for people who saw it.
Not in the manner in which she killed the man at the fire. The only other person she has killed in the series was the stable boy when she was trying to escape Kings Landing and there was nothing planned or premeditated about it. When she killed the man at the camp fire she looked and assessed the situation walked up and made a calculated decision to kill the man with out any hesitation. I don't think you can really give me an example of Arya being ruthless in the manner that she was at the fire. She had very bad men killed at Harrenhall by Jaqen H'ghar but she did not kill them herself.
I think Arya's killing the Frey guy was a substitute for another character she killed that wasn't featured prominently in the show. Spoiler The Tickler. The show bypassed how he appeared first in the books and IIRC, was only seen briefly at Harenhaal on the show.
That scene has yet to happen. Although the Tickler is dead I'm assuming that the scene in the inn will still happen as it is important to the story line.
Spoiler I'm referring more to the emotional meltdown she has and goes bat**** insane in killing a guy. If they do have that scene later, and they probably will, then she probably won't have the same emotional motivation. Since she can't really use the rage she built up for the tickler (because they didn't build it up on the show) they substituted her new hatred of the Freys.
Just posting to express my displeasure with the final episode. For the most part, it was a waste of an episode and the worst finale BY FAR of the 3 seasons. Doesn't change my opinion of the story overall, ....just disappointing how this season ended. I would post more, but don't wanna face the wrath of the spoiler police....
The show's producers cited the Red Wedding as the one scene that really made them want to do the show in the first place. It's no surprise that Episode 10 was to Episode 9 as "Robin Hood Prince of Thieves" was to "Dances With Wolves" for Kevin Costner. He was all "danced" out by the time he decided to be a non-British-accent blow-dried-hair Robin Hood.
Varys is the character I still can't quite figure out. Was he genuinely trying to get Shae to leave, or is he trying to set.her off?
Sometimes the events in the show and the books get a big jumbled together for me. I know in the books she killed the guard at Harrenhall when they were escaping, but I seem to recall Jaqen killing him in the show.
That's what I remember too. I remember her, Gendry, and Hot Pie waltzing right out of Harrenhal without having to kill anybody.
Not sure people didn't like this episode. I thought it was solid up until the cheesy "Mhysa" ending. As much as I like Maisie Williams as Arya. She is just so uncoordinated or she's just doesn't know how to pose. Arya is one of my favorite character and Maisie Williams just doesn't have that physicality in her movements. I mean she could act but she is having problem portraying the physical or tomboyish part properly. She's just so stiff with her stance.
Agreed. The very end was cheese but the rest was fine. Actually, most of the King's Landing stuff this episode was pretty strong. Who didn't like the small council scene and Tyrion interacting with Sansa before and after?
I always wondered if that's just how Maisie is interpreting this change of Arya. She definitely can act, the red wedding there was the part where you saw the brief moment of hope on her face...then it quickly washed into confusion in fear as she realized what was going on. She can act but yeah I get what you are saying. ...the stabbing was definitely stiff, she just stood awkwardly it just kinda stood out. Maybe it's by purpose like "I'm stabbing someone to death for the first time and not really sure what to do afterwards."
Well, it's not really her fault. She's young and this is her first acting. That blame should be directed at her director(s) and acting coaches. I might be nitpicking and expecting too much from her character because I expect her to grow up into some wicked sword welding damsel but might not be GRRM intention. My main nitpicking is that it seems like her arms and legs are like stuck together or something with her stance. She wasn't like that in season 1 when she was a lot younger.
