Game of Thrones (Season 6)

[number8]

Also, I was expecting Jon's letter to end with "Anyway please respond. XOXO, Ramsay."

[Mara]

It's a wonder none of them ever drunkenly fell backwards while fucking and knocked over those torches.

Yeah, maybe soaking the sawdust floor with kerosene wasn't the best idea, either.

Good episode. Huisman's accent was all over the place but his facial hair was on point as always, so.

[number8]

Yeah, maybe soaking the sawdust floor with kerosene wasn't the best idea, either.

I think the oil was from the bowl she tipped over.

[number8]

This was by far my favorite part of the episode:

[Spinal]

I think the oil was from the bowl she tipped over.

I was wondering if Jorah and Daario had a hand in prepping the trap. But, if so, they didn't really make it explicit and I'm not sure how they would have accessed the area anyway.

Also, I'm wondering if anyone is going to notice that Meryn Trant hasn't been filling out his timesheet.

[Spinal]

And it was fairly easy to anticipate this week's big death. The most dangerous thing you can do in Westeros is to complete your narrative arc

[[ETM]]

Ramsay's body count of people who underestimate him when they clearly should know better grows yet again. Right now even if he dies a death ten times as horrible as all of those on the show put together, it still wouldn't make up for what I keep feeling is ruining the entire season for me.

EDIT: Also, Daenerys carpet-bombs another ancient culture with dragon-democracy... Her party trick is taking her way too far.

[Grouchy]

It is fairly funny how he's a late comer to the show yet he surpasses almost everyone else's body count. But I don't see how his killing spree could "ruin" the season for you. I liked Osha a great deal too but they are obviously building his villainy to absurd levels for his battle against Jon Snow.

[[ETM]]

His whole story is just way, WAY dumber than anything Martin himself had written. I don't think building him up as a villain is needed at all, and hasn't been in quite a while. I fully expected the writers to off a few characters in the Vale plot line this week, and the way they're going, I'm surprised many of those alive are still standing right now. Now, I never complained about any of the stuff Martin wrote way back, but it irks me now that they're obviously making it up as they go (and no, I don't think Martin went into anything but the broad main story plot points for the rest of the story) as the slaughter gets dumber and dumber and increasingly pointless. I love the GoT writeup on The Verge (of all places) in their weekly fantasy game post, because they nailed it when it comes to Ramsay: http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/16/11...f-the-stranger

[

Show Spoiler

The Game of Game of Thrones is a fantasy game based on a fantasy show, but we're not the only Double Fantasy in town. It's come to our attention that a thinly-written fan-made character, built on the most indulgent impulses of the worst corner of internet fandom, seems to have made it into the cut of season six of Game of Thrones that HBO decided to air. How this error has gotten through unchecked is mystifying to all of us here at GOGOT; even more mystifying is how this character ended up on our draft, of all things. But since it would be too complicated to remove him from the game at this point, the best we can do is apologize and tell you the truth:

Ramsay Bolton is a Mary Sue.

Ramsay is:

A bastard turned legitimate son
Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North (fine, fine, +25)
Tactical military expert
Weakens Stannis' entire army with "20 good men"
Torturer
Rapist
Bow and arrow user
Murderer with 100 percent success rate
Effective letter-writer (+10)
Dog owner
Worst fucking Game of Thrones character yet

Last week, I optimistically guessed that Osha would finally be the one to end Ramsay, creating a nice poetic triangle between her, Ramsay, and her former tormentor Theon. I didn't yet know about the true nature of the Ramsay character, but it's clear now that the amateur enthusiast who conceived him and edited him seamlessly into this otherwise super normal show has no interest in poetry. Alas, Osha tried, but she could not out-stab the all-consuming power of the violent fanboy imagination run amok. That's +40 for Ramsay, though I'm tempted to dock him -5 for that horrifically wasteful apple-peeling technique.

]

[Mara]

I want Sansa to kill him.

Barring that, Brienne should take him out.

[[ETM]]

I want Sansa to kill him.

Barring that, Brienne should take him out.

This is a good list/.

[Spinal]

I don't mind the fact that it was Ramsay who did it. I just feel like her character deserved a better send-off. It was a fairly unimaginative and unsatisfying resolution to a character that we have come to know as wily and tenacious.

I didn't mind the Daenerys scene. We've been told over and over that the Dothraki only follow strength. I thought it was an effective way for her to prove herself. Having it happen in the heart of the capital was a sufficient escalation for me from the season 1 finale.

[Spinal]

I want Sansa to kill him.

Barring that, Brienne should take him out.

One of those seems fairly likely, although part of me would really love to see the Twitter meltdown if it ended up being Podrick.

[number8]

Who better to kill a guy who likes to chop dicks off than the guy with the biggest dick of them all.

[amberlita]

Ramsay's body count of people who underestimate him when they clearly should know better grows yet again. Right now even if he dies a death ten times as horrible as all of those on the show put together, it still wouldn't make up for what I keep feeling is ruining the entire season for me.

EDIT: Also, Daenerys carpet-bombs another ancient culture with dragon-democracy... Her party trick is taking her way too far.

I know it's not new to Dany's story, but there's still something that I found really really unsettling about the image of a bunch of brown people bowing down to a white leader offering their subservience.

[Spinal]

Who better to kill a guy who likes to chop dicks off than the guy with the biggest dick of them all.

You may find this hard to believe, but this is the first time in my life I've considered this question.

[Grouchy]

I don't get that write up. Isn't a Mary Sue basically a writer surrogate or an idealized hero? Rey from Star Wars is a Mary Sue. Ramsay is a sadistic monster. I don't think the bulk of the Game of Thrones audience is rooting for him at all. He's hated as much as Joffrey Baratheon was.

What I found problematic about the Daenerys scene was how unusually cheap it was for the show. Shots didn't match each other physically. Once the first torch falls to the ground everything afterwards is directed and edited like shit. You don't know where Daenerys or the twentysomething Dothrakis are standing at any given moment, the same shots are used at least three times... it has the production values of an old Roger Corman flick.

[[ETM]]

I don't get that write up. Isn't a Mary Sue basically a writer surrogate or an idealized hero?

If you're meaning to create an idealized hero, yes. Ramsay is the sadistic, torture-porn-loving writer's "hero".

Also, his needs to stop:

Rey from Star Wars is a Mary Sue.

[Grouchy]

Well, dude, I'm sorry, I re-read the Wikipedia article about the term and Rey is the definition of a Mary Sue. Ramsay is something else entirely. Even if you love the character 'cause he's "badass" he has no heroic qualities whatsoever. Even his cunning and intelligence in choosing when to betray and fuck up others couldn't properly be described as virtues.

[[ETM]]

I don't think you get it at all, but it's midnight and it's been a long day.

[Grouchy]

Mary Sue: idealized and seemingly perfect fictional character, a young or low-rank person who saves the day through unrealistic abilities.



or



?

[Spinal]

I'm curious to read how Martin treats the character of Ramsay differently in the upcoming book. I feel like, in the streamlining for the series, the character has probably taken on more 'weight' than he probably should. As an instrument for Theon's downfall, he made perfect sense. But, as characterized in the show, it's really hard for me to imagine any satisfaction in his defeat because he's basically just a guy with a serious mental problem. It's hard to imagine he truly has any serious political ambitions. And, unlike other 'villains' on the show, he doesn't really have a compelling duality or depth of character. Heck, even Joffrey could be maddening in the way that he found a way to project leadership and authority in certain situations.

The problem with Ramsay is that he is not tied to any sort of ideology or cause. That's what makes Cersei a good character. That's what makes Tywin a good character. Even Walder Frey. I don't really get that with Ramsay.

[Ezee E]

I think Ramsay was great in the position he was in before he killed his father. A spoiled son of a Lord that basically could do whatever the heck he wanted, no matter the perception it gave.

As a leader, he could certainly terrify someone that's not in a high rank, I guess, if he had the respect of the Army. I figure any other high-ranking individual wouldn't give him an ounce of respect and just have him killed off immediately.

But he's still one of the most vile characters on TV, so I look forward to how he ends.

[[ETM]]

Mary Sue: idealized and seemingly perfect fictional character[COLOR=#252525][FONT=sans-serif], a young or low-rank person who saves the day through unrealistic abilities.

OR, if you have a sadistic streak, your "Mary Sue" would be an unrealistically vile, un-redeemable character who is too over-the-top even for the ott world he inhabits?
The guys on The Verge are running a fantasy game, and Ramsay takes all fun out of it because there's a huge imbalance.

[Grouchy]

*shrug* I got where you were coming from, I really did, but I don't see it. We've seen comparable acts of cruelty from other characters in the show. The difference is that those other characters (Roose Bolton, Stannis, even Daenerys) have other interests in life - ruling the land, for one. Ramsay is just a sociopath. His interest in being a ruler seems secondary to the amount of people he can hurt in the meantime.

But when you make the specific accusation that George R. R. Martin is acting like a teenager infatuated with violence because he created an exceedingly violent character... I just don't see it. He also created Jorah Mormont who is basically a hopeless romantic. It's like those "oh, oh, oh, the show doesn't like women because Sansa doesn't fight back" people. Well, you have Arya for that. Sansa is a different character.

I really don't see the problem if the main antagonist this season is a sociopath instead of a calculating general like Tywinn. It contributes to the variety of dramatic situations in the show.