alcasinoroyale
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Post by alcasinoroyale on Nov 5, 2016 23:39:19 GMT -5
Season 4 Episode 1 - Two SwordsRe-Watch Date: Wednesday November 9th, 2016. HBO Viewer's Guide Page: viewers-guide.hbo.com/game-of-thrones/season-4/episode-1Runtime: 58 minutes Release date: April 6th, 2014 Season Four Premiere.
Tyrion welcomes a guest to King's Landing. At Castle Black, Jon Snow finds himself unwelcome. Dany is pointed to Meereen, the mother of all slave cities. Arya runs into an old friend.
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dje
Rhaegal
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Post by dje on Nov 12, 2016 12:16:14 GMT -5
I love the opening of seeing Ice melted down, as much as I hate to see Ice destroyed, I think an extra valyrian steel sword will come in handy during the Long Night. Jaime refusing to put down his cloak was great. I liked the introduction of Prince Oberyn. My favorite part of the episode was Jon's "Trial", especially the shade he throws at Janos Slynt. Great opener!
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Envie
Vhagar
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Post by Envie on Nov 15, 2016 1:52:51 GMT -5
One of the things I love about Game of Thrones the show is their often cleverly done symbolism. This episode has a very big tie to it's title in it's opening and it's closing. While most of the episode is about new stories developing and new characters and new directions for everyone after the war, it's that cold open that just gets me every time. Silently watching as Ice is broken down and melted into two new swords. Without a word we see Tywin Lannister exert his show of power in one swift move that symbolically ends a "Dynasty" as Ice was held in the Stark family for many generations. But where there's despair for the Starks now, there's also hope. It comes at the close of the episode. Little Arya has taken revenge upon one of those who has done her (and indirectly her family) wrong. Polliver. Crossing paths with him and his goons was sweet karmic luck for Arya and we see the little assassin beginning to form here as she slashes Polliver's legs and then takes her time killing him - getting him to remember who she is "Maybe I'll pick my teeth with it" just before she puts Needle through his throat. This will become Arya's signature move in later kills as well ... trap her target, set it up and then kill him slowly making sure he knows who you are. She will later use this tactic with both Ser Meryn Trant and Lord Walder Frey. I love our little assassin. She's awesome. It ends the episode on a high note... Arya getting the horse she wanted and riding through a burned out countryside with Sandor, eating chicken and with Needle in her belt again, a smile on her face as the Stark theme soars. The title "Two Swords" was more about Ice and Needle than it was the two swords Tywin created out of Ice. It was about the end of one Stark legacy and the beginning of another. Bravo!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2016 23:50:06 GMT -5
I'm not out, I've just been busy lately. I plan to start S4 soon.
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konradsmith
Investigative Reporter
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Post by konradsmith on Nov 20, 2016 5:50:54 GMT -5
Oh Tywin. How I've missed you.
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konradsmith
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Post by konradsmith on Nov 20, 2016 6:13:16 GMT -5
Enter Pedro and Indira.
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konradsmith
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Post by konradsmith on Nov 20, 2016 6:31:10 GMT -5
"What's rung?" -Shae.
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konradsmith
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Post by konradsmith on Nov 20, 2016 6:52:57 GMT -5
The episode where Kit suddenly proved to be a good actor. Really it comes down to the part being written as too young previously and in s4 finally being written age-appropriately. But I was surprised all the same. I knew the guy must've had some chops because he did the lead in War Horse in London and apparently was a very good theater actor pre-GoT. But it wasn't until here when, in my mind, he proved he was more than just another Orlando Bloom pretty boy type in the making. Which I'm thankful for because Jon's only become more and more of a central character since, now outranking Tyrion for screentime for two seasons in a row. So thank God he has chops otherwise it would be painful to watch this show.
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konradsmith
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Post by konradsmith on Nov 20, 2016 7:13:03 GMT -5
What the fuck salami.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2016 8:53:57 GMT -5
The episode where Kit suddenly proved to be a good actor. Really it comes down to the part being written as too young previously and in s4 finally being written age-appropriately. But I was surprised all the same. I knew the guy must've had some chops because he did the lead in War Horse in London and apparently was a very good theater actor pre-GoT. But it wasn't until here when, in my mind, he proved he was more than just another Orlando Bloom pretty boy type in the making. Which I'm thankful for because Jon's only become more and more of a central character since, now outranking Tyrion for screentime for two seasons in a row. So thank God he has chops otherwise it would be painful to watch this show. I remember watching 4x01 for the very first time and thinking "where has this guy been before???" But to be fair, I think he already showed glimpses of it in S3. He was already better then than in the first two seasons.
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Envie
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Post by Envie on Nov 20, 2016 10:45:38 GMT -5
The episode where Kit suddenly proved to be a good actor. Really it comes down to the part being written as too young previously and in s4 finally being written age-appropriately. But I was surprised all the same. I knew the guy must've had some chops because he did the lead in War Horse in London and apparently was a very good theater actor pre-GoT. But it wasn't until here when, in my mind, he proved he was more than just another Orlando Bloom pretty boy type in the making. Which I'm thankful for because Jon's only become more and more of a central character since, now outranking Tyrion for screentime for two seasons in a row. So thank God he has chops otherwise it would be painful to watch this show. I remember watching 4x01 for the very first time and thinking "where has this guy been before???" But to be fair, I think he already showed glimpses of it in S3. He was already better then than in the first two seasons. That scene between Jon and Aliser Thorne, Ser Janos Slynt and Maester Aemon is one of the best we'd ever seen of a more mature Jon Snow. I guess falling in love, having sex for the first time and nearly getting killed by a wildling woman did the trick. I think I agree with konradsmith that they were writing Kit's material too young for him before. He has a baby-face and could pull off the surly young emo Jon well enough but is actually a mature adult man with more width of emotions that were being bottled into the straight out of teenager Jon Snow character. I don't think Kit knew what to do with that and caught some criticism for it. He also did mature a great deal in that first three years as an actor - same with Emilia for Daenerys. She was cast for a much younger part and trying to pull off the naive and innocent routine sometimes made her seem a little one-dimensional until she started ruling in Meereen and we got some more emotion from her.
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katjushka
Drogon
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Post by katjushka on Jan 7, 2017 9:16:10 GMT -5
This really is a great episode. It's been a while since I've seen Tywin so it was good to see him, Charles Dance is truly an artist. And Maester Aemon Such a brilliant scene between those four. Filled with brilliance this episode Oberyn, Jamie and his "Are you sure we're not related?" to Brienne, Tyrion waiting for Prince Doran, Dario and Grey worm battling who gets to ride with Dany and her putting them in their places, the subtle plotting in KL.. And of course, Fuck the king
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Post by Envie on Jan 7, 2017 21:16:15 GMT -5
This really is a great episode. It's been a while since I've seen Tywin so it was good to see him, Charles Dance is truly an artist. And Maester Aemon Such a brilliant scene between those four. Filled with brilliance this episode Oberyn, Jamie and his "Are you sure we're not related?" to Brienne, Tyrion waiting for Prince Doran, Dario and Grey worm battling who gets to ride with Dany and her putting them in their places, the subtle plotting in KL.. And of course, Fuck the king This opener episode for Season 4 really opened up a lot of characters in a broad way that made the story feel more epic and cinematic at this point. For me, it's Season 4 where the show seemed to find it's stride and write the material suited to the actors who portrayed the characters. As we talked about back in November - Jon's previous awkwardness is gone now and it's not entirely just because he's 'growing up' at the wall. The script and attitude for him were changed to better reflect Kit's acting I think. Perhaps too the actors (both he and Daenerys) were starting to feel more at ease with their character's personalities. Charles Dance as Tywin was such a huge presence on the screen ... he almost overwhelmed every other actor he was paired with but somehow made them better. Even Maisie did a fantastic job as Arya the cupbearer with him.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2017 19:12:18 GMT -5
I only started to be active in the fandom when Season 5 aired, so I'm really looking forward to sharing my opinion on Season 4, especially considering that I was a bit disappointed back then when I first watched it in 2014. I've made my peace with the season since then and I now think it is a good season, but sadly not quite on par with the others (except for S2... I think S4 is better than that). I realize that S4 is a fan favourite, at least amongst many members of our little community here, so I will probably be a bit of an outsider during the discussion of some of the episodes (particularly 403, 405, 406, 408 and 410 and to some extent 402). Just to make it clear: I'm not saying that any of these episodes were bad (they all get 7/10s and 8/10s), but I was expecting 10/10s, especially considering the source material they were adapting, but sadly most of the key scenes didn't quite work for me. That being said, this season is still full of amazing moments and fantastic performances. It also has the best opener of any season: Two Swords. Here are some of the thoughts I had while watching it: The cold open with Tywin melting down Ice was the perfect way to start off the season that follows up on the events at the Red Wedding. It was fucking menacing. It starts off with a subtle version of the Stark theme, which then gets pushed away by a much louder variation of The Rains of Castamere. It breaks my heart and it is brilliant because all of this happens without any dialogue whatsoever. It is generally good to see an episode from a time when King's Landing was still the main focus of the show (it has gradually shifted to the North since then). So many characters interacted with each other in KL and thus it was always the overall highlight of the season during the first four seasons IMO, despite 3x09's climax being elsewhere. The addition of Oberyn and Ellaria in KL really reinforces this. By the way, I love the fact that they didn't beat around the bush and immediately established the fact that Oberyn Martell is bisexual. Too often bisexuals are sidelined on TV shows. Not here. The fact that he is an extremely interesting and well-portrayed character is also helpful. I think his introduction is one of my favourite moments of the show. The Sansa scene with Tyrion is probably one of Sophie's best acting moments. It is heartbreaking: "I lie awake all night [...] thinking about how they died." Sophie comes across as silly in interviews sometimes, but she is able of showing extraordinary emotional depths when the script allows it (despite her occasional rookie moments ofc). I didn't like the Dany scenes in this episode. They felt unfocused and unnecessary. It was a bit too much of "hey remember this? Remember that? Oh and we recast this guy and he's completely different now, which doesn't make any sense but who cares?" Splitting up ASOS into two seasons was generally the right move, but I think Dany's storyline suffered the most from this decision. Thenns. I fucking hate Thenns. The cannibalism thing could have been a bit subtler. It felt cartoonish. But that is just a minor nitpick. What worked extremely well in this episode was everything at Castle Black. I mean, Jon has always been one of my favourite characters and I defended Kit's acting during the first three seasons. He was one of the weaker actors back then for sure, but he was not awful as many argued. However, this was the first episode in which Kit was able to show off some chops. I remember watching this and thinking "YES. MORE OF THIS. YES." I think my wish came true. Kit was great in S4-S6. He also carries action-setpieces like no other. He doesn't get enough credit for those. But that's something for another episode. He also improved substentially when it comes to more nuanced dramatic moments as this episode proved. I love the humour in this episode by the way. It was subtle enough to not disctract from the drama but also genuinely funny. Some of the highlights: - When Thorne asked Maester Aemon how he could spot liars so well: "I grew up in King's Landing" - Olenna throwing away the necklace - Margaery's line about ending up with a string of dead sparrow heads around her neck (nice foreshadowing here, I wonder if it was intentional? ) - Everything the Hound said. - Showing Joffrey as a statue and then the real one in the exact same position. Speaking of Joffrey, I cannot believe I'm saying this but I kinda miss him. He was such a huuuge part of what made Game of Thrones what it is today. Unsullied viewers talked and ranted so much about him. This seems like a lifetime ago. Jack Gleeson, of course, was brilliant. What really set the seal on this episode was the final setpiece, though. D&D did a fantastic job at writing and directing it. The way how it slowly builds is classic Thrones. The humour was also much appreciated. And I will never forget Arya's face when she killed Polliver. How that expression of complete disdain slowly turned into delight at the sight of Polliver dying. It was scary as fuck, tbh. I'm not a fan of all the "Arya is a psycho"-arguments, but she is definitely a deeply traumatised kid who is on the verge of nihilism. And she definitely gets a kick out of brutally killing her enemies, which is very dark and disturbing. All in all, I really enjoyed this episode, but due to a few weaker moments, I give this a 9/10. It's still the best opener thus far, though.
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moiaf
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Post by moiaf on Jan 10, 2017 22:07:35 GMT -5
I watched it, so that's good. I wrote down a bunch of notes but it's late so they'll have to wait until tomorrow.
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