That's my point, she sees herself as a major mover and shaker of Westeros but she's completely blind to the fact that the major factor in most of her decisions is her own baggage instead of her imagined political cunning. She seeks power obsessively but she's blind to the fact that she's her own worst enemy in that regard. If she had a trueborn Baratheon son, if she worked with Tywin and Tyrion instead of trying to build her own petty power blocs full of toadies, if she had forged an alliance with the Tyrells instead of driving them away, if she plays along with the marriage with Loras, if all of those things, if if if.

Those are all things she would do or have done if she was the masterful plotter she sees herself as. But she's not. It doesn't irritate me that she's got baggage, because who doesn't in Westeros? What gets me is that she's so damn blind to her own flaws while hyper-aware of everyone else's. She so lusts for blatant power that she completely ignores the fact that she's pissing away opportunity after opportunity to be an éminence grise.

 

Seeing LF and Varys interact is always fun. I like how they're both amoral bastards that basically see the trappings of power and honor as illusions not to be valued for themselves and how they take it in different directions. Littlefinger by being a completely selfish amoral bastard and Varys by trying to save the realm, or at the very least playing lip service to the idea saving it.

book three spoilers.

Spoiler

Ros is finally gone!The hate can end

Nice touch too, rolling Willas into Loras then making Tywin responsible for him joining the Kingsguard. It would have made no sense for the heir to join on his own.

Also: Tyrion and Cersei having a moment of solidarity and understanding?Hell is colder than the Wall right now...

Point on that.

Cersei's chance to work with either Lannister was a small one. Tywin refused to answer her calls and sent Tyrion instead and Tyrion also had his own toadies and generally kept his own counsel. The only time they really had any reason to work together was with the wildfire. The Age of the Yes-men only truly began after both men were gone so I can't hold this against her.

What exactly does she gain? The Tyrells are under the oppressive thumb of their matriarch. What power does she gain? She is being sold off again for the sake of the Lannisters. She becomes a lady again but unless she knows that she can play Loras -which is unlikely,and given her experiences with Robert you can understand why she doesn't want to play- she's going to end up running into the rose-scented wall that is Olenna Tyrell.

 

So this episode was great. Continue to be impressed by Sophie Turner as Sansa and whoever that guy playing Roose Bolton is.

Ramsay was more meh than I expected. Expected chilling psychopath, came off more cartoonishly evil.

Tyrion/Cersei and Littlefinger/Varys scenes continue to be mercurial and fucking spot on.

God but was Sam such a creepy fucker in the books? I'm sure he's meant to be foppish, but his smile makes him look like an axe-murdering rapist.

Jon was meh. Blah blah blah fuck wargs true wuv blah blah GIANTSBANE.

Robb's storyline is being REALLY well-written. If you haven't read the books, you have no fucking idea what's coming. But then, I suppose it IS one of the biggest whammies of the series.

Predictions for Bear and the Maiden Fair : Emilia Clarke continues to ball her way through the Free Cities with her two fanbois in shining armor. Kit Harrington continues to perpetuate his deception via gormless looks and pretending to fuck the actress who is his real life girlfriend (which I believe is known in the acting world as Cheating and He Better Not Get A Fucking Emmy For That). Tumblr and it's legion of Jaime/Brienne shippers goes apocalyptic the second the pit scene goes on.

 

Is it just me or is Littlefinger alot creepier than he is in the books? It's been a while since I read them but I never really cared for him one way or another in the books and I love Littlefinger in the series.

 

What, you mean in terms of actions or demeanor?Littlefinger is a creepy pseudo-pedophile in the books. I don't think that many of show!LF's actions are beyond him. That said, I noticed that Aidan Gillen seemed extra-slimy this episode. I noticed and I liked.

 

I love Aidan Gillen in the show. He's fucking fantastic as Littlefinger. I think it's the voice, like Alan Rickman's voice made Snape and Hans Gruber, Gillen's voice makes LF.

Also, just started re-reading the books after a couple of years going without. I stopped on number two so I have three whole new books to catch up on.

 

Spoiler

ROS IS DEAD!

REJOICE!

 

I liked her.

 

Worst episode of the season, IMO, despite being written by GRRM. I had high expectations, perhaps.

Also, Margaery would totally have a threesome with Tyrion and Sansa.

 

It was fine, IMO. It just felt like a stream of scenes rather than a connected episode.

 

I'm getting very sick of the Theon torture scenes. Other than that, a pretty average and uneventful episode.

 

Best scenes of this episode were Sansa, Jaime, and Tywin. Otherwise, it was a little boring, but set up a lot of the stuff necessary for the next two, which should be quite eventful...

 

"Sorry about the sapphires". *cue Rains of Castamere theme"

Jaime the badass.

Other than that...Joffrey is an idiot. There is a perfectly reasonable reason for not wanting the King's Hand to gather all the lords in his territory and it doesn't have anything to do with climbing stairs.

 

No Olenna. Thumbs down.

On a more serious note though... this episode was kind of like a soap opera. Jon and Ygritte, Osha and her 'Brunie' (however you spell it), Theon and those whores, Robb and Talisa, Tyrion and Shae, Sansa's convo with Margaery, Jaime and Brienne.

I liked it, and it's all necessary, to a certain degree, but I want to see some shit get fucked up. I'm waiting for the horror, and I can't wait to see the looks on my friends faces when 'the shit' goes down.

 

I think that was the point of this episode; We had some awesome events kick off in episode 5, we had character development in 6, and now in 7 we've had a whole bunch of filler and set-up - Kind of the point when you have 10 episodes to a season and so much to cram in; You want to save some things and make sure the build-up to some of the bigger game-changing events that take place in the book have a proper build-up.

It was a rather slow episode but I'm thankful for it, the people who are starting to get irritating are the people demanding action after a week with nothing serious happening. Are you people for real? You watch a show that has a plethora of stories, plots and sub-plots and all you want is more off-camera battles and/or executions? ... It's no wonder television is fucking dreadful these days.

Still, next week looks to make up for what has been a rather slow episode whilst also reminding us we only have 3 more episodes left, with a weeks break after episode 8 to let us stew.

 

I have no idea why there's so many complaints about this episode. I personally loved it. The best part about the series has been the details and that was exactly what we got here. The details make us like or hate the characters and makes their getting fucked up later so much more intense.

 

I'd watch a lot more soap-operas if they involved bears and dragons.

 

Bears of our Lives.

King's Landing.

All My Dragons.

 

I think it's because it was this season's GRRM episode and we were expecting a little more epicness from it, a la Blackwater. It's not that it's a bad episode - it just didn't live up to expectations.

 

I think it's also because we know that things are going to start going downhill from here. These are probably the last few episodes where things go right for the 'good' characters.