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Elizabeth Sandifer

Elizabeth Sandifer created Eruditorum Press. She’s not really sure why she did that, and she apologizes for the inconvenience. She currently writes Last War in Albion, a history of the magical war between Alan Moore and Grant Morrison. She used to write TARDIS Eruditorum, a history of Britain told through the lens of a ropey sci-fi series. She also wrote Neoreaction a Basilisk, writes comics these days, and has ADHD so will probably just randomly write some other shit sooner or later. Support Elizabeth on Patreon.

20 Comments

  1. John
    May 10, 2015 @ 8:16 pm

    Roose is very much a poor man's Tywin, but I enjoy watching him all the same. I agree with you that Ramsay is just unwatchably unpleasant, although I rather enjoyed Sansa smirking at his discomfort at the impending birth of a half-brother.

    Reply

  2. encyclops
    May 10, 2015 @ 10:35 pm

    The boy is an egg.

    Also, "Missandrei" is probably your funniest typo yet.

    Jokes aside, we disagree on a lot. I mean, we're both enjoying Stannis and Tyrion, and agreeing that this is a low point for Dany in both the show and the books. But I think this was the point where I started speed-reading the Wall sections and really just about anything to do with Winterfell and the Greyjoys. This part of the story is all about Arya for me, and maybe to a lesser extent Cersei's somewhat tragic spiral.

    I hate to be one of the haters but I'm struggling to appreciate Sansa still. I can't tell if it's Sophie Turner or the character, but I keep waiting for her to surprise me and she never does, even a little bit.

    Meanwhile I'm finding Roose and Ramsay riveting; clearly they're both horrible people, and there's all sorts of tension for me in the way they're facing off. Plus Michael McElhatton's voice is like a cello or something, and Iwan Rheon looks pretty great naked, so there's that. So I find Ramsay very watchably unpleasant at the moment, though I think he's oddly mellow and I'm not sure the writers quite have a grip on the character.

    It's interesting how extended the parts are this time around. My sense is that we've been sticking with certain sections longer than we used to in earlier seasons; does your analysis bear that out? This episode alone, obviously, there are only six parts, which is surely unusual.

    I assume Jon's scene with Olly is to set up Olly betraying Jon.

    Reply

  3. Bob Dillon
    May 10, 2015 @ 10:37 pm

    Silly comment here:

    I was struck by the change inn the music (esp the closing credits). It strongly reminded me of the incidental music in Planescape: Torment. But I don't suppose anyone here is interested in old computer games.

    Bob Dillon

    Reply

  4. Katherine Sas
    May 11, 2015 @ 6:13 am

    So I thought going in that "Kill the Boy" would be a reference to Jon's decision of whether or not to kill Mance Rayder's son and the business with switching babies. It even seemed that way with his line about having to do something that half his men will hate. Do you think this was an oblique reference and the show will still work that in later? Or are we sidestepping that plot-line entirely?

    Reply

  5. John
    May 11, 2015 @ 7:33 am

    Mance doesn't have a son in the show.

    Reply

  6. Katherine Sas
    May 11, 2015 @ 8:00 am

    Not that we've seen, but that doesn't mean they couldn't introduce one. All they'd need is a baby – it's not like there needs to be a lot of time spent on characterization. Given the title, it seemed to me like they were heading in that direction.

    Reply

  7. Seeing_I
    May 11, 2015 @ 11:52 am

    There is no choir in the Game of Thrones theme. Discuss.

    Reply

  8. Alan Beirne
    May 11, 2015 @ 3:00 pm

    There is a choir in HBO's production card.

    Reply

  9. Elizabeth Sandifer
    May 11, 2015 @ 3:49 pm

    The production card is what that sentence refers to, yes. Because its presence at the start of every HBO program is very noticeable. 🙂

    Reply

  10. Elizabeth Sandifer
    May 11, 2015 @ 3:50 pm

    I recalled Aemon's line, so I always figured it was going to be about that. Pretty sure the baby swap is off the table.

    Reply

  11. phuzz
    May 11, 2015 @ 11:41 pm

    This was the episode which made it clear that certain characters and plots won't be on TV, most notably Mance (and his spearwives), and no (f)Aegon.

    Reply

  12. Toby Brown
    May 12, 2015 @ 4:10 am

    Danaerys in the dragon pit watching that man burn to death was, for me, the first time I'd really properly considered that quote about the gods flipping a coin when a Targ is born to see whether they're great or mad, and how that relates to Dany. She's made lot's of bad decisions, throwing the "great" part into question, but I don't think the question of "mad" had ever really come up for me. That scene just felt so close to her father's obsession with wildfire and Cersei watching the tower of the hand burn in the books, and now I'm interested to see how that progresses.

    Reply

  13. Toby Brown
    May 12, 2015 @ 4:13 am

    (I know this isn't the first time she's ordered a particularly gruesome death (Viserys comes immediately to mind, so I don't know whether maybe it's just my opinion on Dany that's changed, or this instance was particularly noticeable for various reasons.)

    Reply

  14. Seeing_I
    May 12, 2015 @ 6:42 am

    Oh, that swelling synth-vox thing. Not really a choir to my ear but I get you. I still always expect the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" tuba to play after it.

    Reply

  15. Aylwin
    May 12, 2015 @ 7:11 am

    For me it's always been "boom-ba-boo-ba-boom, boom-boom, wah-wah-wah, Woke up this mornin'…"

    Funny, because I was a keen Oz viewer before The Sopranos came along, but the intro just doesn't seem to have made the same impression.

    Reply

  16. Daru
    May 12, 2015 @ 11:18 pm

    Yes agree about Roose, but I do also prefer him to Ramsay who I could do with less of and does feel as Phil says like a "tedious obligation". I do love Sansa's reactions to him and just long for Sansa to bring him down somehow so he can be moved out of the plot.

    Reply

  17. Daru
    May 12, 2015 @ 11:25 pm

    "We are, at last, to the part of the season where Game of Thrones is finally freed up to do things that are interesting as opposed to necessary. A King's Landing-free episode marks the point where we are finally, in a sense, free of the season's opening, the first episode having been framed in terms of Cersei. This week the only Lannister is Tyrion, by now firmly enmeshed in Daenerys's plot.

    Without the South or Arya, we get an episode about the North – a thirty-five minute stretch of episode – with Daenerys wrapped around it."

    I really enjoyed this change in structure and the focus on the North, even with Ramsay present. I seriously really adored the trip through Valyria – the whole moment was beautifully filmed – and Drogon!

    "This structure also produces the most flagrant "Jon Snow is a Targaryen" acknowledgment yet as Maester Aemon talks about Daenerys being all alone in the world and the camera then pans to Jon entering the scene, which is absolutely hilarious."

    Brilliant moment – it to me really feels like the show is building to revealing this. I hope so.

    Reply

  18. Seeing_I
    June 15, 2015 @ 3:55 am

    Oddly, I enjoy the Ramsay scenes much more now that I've seen Iwan Rheon being charmingly doltish on "Vicious."

    Reply

  19. Seeing_I
    June 15, 2015 @ 3:57 am

    She didn't order Viserys' death though.

    Her feeding the (possibly innocent?) nobleman of Mereern to the dragons was pretty unpalatable (sorry) I have to say. Not the kind of behavior you want a character to indulge in if you want to keep them sympathetic.

    Reply

  20. encyclops
    June 15, 2015 @ 11:10 am

    I could be wrong, but I've been thinking of all the noblemen of Mereen as complicit in the slave trade. Which maybe doesn't earn them a fiery death but doesn't make them "innocent," at least for me. Dunno if that helps. 🙂

    Reply

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