HBO: Game of Thrones (Song of Ice and Fire)

[Bammer]

It's crazy how polarized the reactions to that rabbit-eating scene have been. People either seem to be all about it or all against it.

Why the hell would Arya be riding around the Riverlands without a disguise on if she could, in theory, look like anyone else? Here's an idea (all speculation, but spoiler'd anyway):

Spoiler: show

This idea comes from the Talk The Thrones aftershow. One reason many people liked that scene (one reason why I highlighted it early, too) was because it demonstrated that there was a bit of human Arya underneath it all, that she wasn't just a killing machine bent on revenge. Wellllllll...if you were trying to infiltrate a band of Lanister soldiers so that you could, I dunno, kill one of them and steal their face so that you could easily get into King's Landing to kill the queen...wouldn't you act like an unassuming girl just trying to make it in the countryside to catch the soldiers off guard? That's still possible. One thing that makes it hard to believe: the Stark kids have never been presented as false to the audience before (as far as I can remember), so it'd be a huge shift for the show. We'll see.

I don't think you needed to spoiler that. Arya will clearly trot away on her horse from that campfire leaving a pile of dead Lanister soldiers behind. I just hope the face she borrows isn't from the aforementioned pudgy, balding, gingery looking turd.

[BurtReynolds]

The problem with that scene was that they went too strong and made them seem like choir boys or saints. We get it, there are nice guys in the world. No need to beat us over the head with it. Also Ed Sheeran. The camera lingered on him too much.

I expected one of them to say "I only have 3 days left until retirement!"

The intention behind it is great though.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[dimejinky99]

Sheeran deleted his twitter account last night cos of the backlash.

I mean he all but turned and winked into the camera. It was awful.

[Anders]

Don't see the big deal. I think the scene was fine.

[BurtReynolds]

It's not he end of the world

[ABNorman]

That was a B episode, I think. A lot of setup.

I hated the Arya/soldier scene. When I heard the singing, I thought "hmm, that sounds a bit modern", then they made a big deal of plastering Ed Sheeran's face in almost every shot of that scene, and it was really badly acted from everybody who wasn't Arya.

I was tucking into a chocolate as the Sam montage began, so that was great.

[Anders]

I was tucking into a chocolate as the Sam montage began, so that was great.

[stip]

not knowing who Ed sheeran was, nothing about how it was shot stood out in a jarring way.

[ABNorman]

not knowing who Ed sheeran was, nothing about how it was shot stood out in a jarring way.

These shots of Arya in particular struck me as an excuse to feature him as much as possible, especially since the Western world tends to interpret images left to right:



But my issue with that scene is only partly Sheeran - in general I thought it was badly acted.

[stip]

Oh I get it. I'm just saying if you didn't know who he was I don't know that they stood out in any particular way.

[epilogue]

I recognized him right away and said, "hey, that's that weirdo we saw on SNL who has that song that everyone loves." And then I completely forget about him and watched the scene. It took me out for a second. But no more so than when I recognize any person on a TV show. The scene was awesome. Arya for President!

[E.H. Ruddock]

I didn't recognize him until someone told me because I'm old and don't really keep up with who is popular with the kids these days.

[ABNorman]

I only recognised him because my partner did. But the scene was rubbish anyway.

[epilogue]

I didn't recognize him until someone told me because I'm old and don't really keep up with who is popular with the kids these days.

My wife didn't recognize him either. Until I reminded her that his name was Sturgill Simpson and that we saw him perform that body song on SNL. Imagine my surprise when the credits rolled and his name was absolutely not Sturgill Simpson.

[epilogue]

I can't keep up with this thread. Why did everyone hate that scene so much? Never mind. I'll read the thread.

[epilogue]

I guess this is also one of those instances with Cersei where I just prefer the arc the book had for her. At no point in the novels is Cersei ever a sympathetic character. She leans that way at times in the show and it infuriates me. So combining those two things just gets to me. But like I said, this is really just a narrative preference for me.

And this is one of the tremendous strengths of the show in general and Lena especially.

I'll be honest and admit my complaints with Sansa are simply that I like the book better. There are some passages from her time in King's landing where she's set up to be more of an anti-Cersei, a Queen to be loved, not feared. And it makes me nervous in the show here she says stuff like "I learned so much from her".

You're far more familiar with the books than I am, so I'll concede the Sansa points but I don't remember getting that impression from the book.

[Revelator]

All in all a great opening episode, but my God that forced Ed Sheeran scene....that was, without a doubt, the most cringeworthy scene I've seen on this show. Not jumping on the pop star bashing bandwagon either, it really was that awful. Something like that takes you right out of the fancy world the writers and show runners work so hard to create. WTF were they thinking? Still pumped for next week though and enjoying the fact that I genuinely have no clue how this all will turn out.

you are jumping on that bandwagon though. this isn't the first time they've used a singer/band to be the voice behind the songs in the realm of GoT, either.

Whatever, all I'm getting at was that the scene (to me) felt forced and unnecessary, before I read any of the social media lash back. I don't mind if they want to throw in a cameo from time to time a little less obvious, just saying this one didn't work. Aside from that one scene, I found the rest of the episode enjoyable.

[Chris_H_2]

i think there's a difference between being a part of a scene, and being the scene. that sheeran guy was the scene, mostly because he's so recognizable.

[epilogue]

Guys, wait, so the cameo was forced and unnecessary? Everyone hates it because of Ed? Or people really thought the scene itself was bad, that it was forced and unnecessary?