Boom.

There will be a battle and something shocking this episode.

I will be out of town next week and likely without a laptop. Please someone else post the weekly discussion thread.

"Jaime weighs his options; Cersei answers a request; Tyrion's plans bear fruit; Arya faces a new test."

Not watching live tonight, since me and my partner are overwhelmed with today's news. See you tomorrow.

Episode discussion

Wherein we have rulers proclamating things.

Daenerys proclaims that she's taking the entire horde to Westeros.
Tommen proclaims that church and crown are one.

Other stuff happens.

Episode discussion Thar be spoilers for the books in potential episode discussion.

Will Jon Snow turn into Brother Stoneheart?

1. I might have convinced my friend to read the books last night! Victory for book snobs!

2. I'm trying to convince myself that the show is now only related to books in name only, and that the shows are not canon. It's the only way to enjoy it.

3. Huzzah, no rape, only implied rape. O.o

4. The awesome scene between Brienne and Sansa.

Meryn fooking Trant was already a horrible person, but they spent two episodes building up his horribleness in typical GoT fashion: having him prey on and beat young girls.

Dany is a victim of the showrunners themselves. Do they hate her? Why are they denying her all her great moments of empowerment?

Cersei's walk scene, while important for her character, was soooooooooooo long. We didn't need to watch like 10 whole minutes of her getting called a w*slur while a bunch of peasants throw garbage at her and a nun yelled SHAME over and over again. (Also it was weirding me out that they used a body double and then tacked Leena's face over it, I was having uncanny valley twinges the whole time).

Sansa's storyline got butchered this season. She's a victim of the show runners AND Ramsey. In fact, I'm beginning to bet that D&D are Team Ramsey, the way that scary motherfucker manages to always get his way. Oh and let's not forget killing another show-only female character. How many women is that they've made up for the express purpose of victimizing and/or killing? No seriously, how many, I've lost count?

Arya is their favorite, so they haven't done too much to her storyline except apparently jumble it up because reasons? It's kind of sad that the only way they can show a female character being strong is to have her straight up murder people. (See also show!Brienne, who bears no resemblance to book!Brienne at this point.)

And of course they killed off Myrcella. The whole Dorne plot was shit. Jaime and Bronn go to Dorne. There's some terribly choreographed fighting. One of the Sand Snakes strips for Bronn in the most exploitative use of boobs on TV I've ever seen. Then all is forgiven and they leave with the princess and a hostage and then the princess dies which she would have done whether J&B had shown up at all so... it was a bust all around? But they got to show gratuitous boobs, so who cares about plot right?

They're clearly just doing it for the shock value. Stannis wouldn't do that.

Speaking of shock value, who wrote Ser Meryn's lines this episode? Pedobear?

Long story short: Some asshole was making fun of people getting triggered by sexual abuse. I called him an asshole and linked him to the actual definition of a trigger, because he seemed to have a tumblrinaction view of it.

Within 2 minutes, I received a ban notice and two mod messages. The first one was respectful. The second one...

This is a no-drama subreddit. If you are having issues with things that "trigger" you and feel the need to link people to the definition of such then this is not the subreddit for you. It's also probably not the show for you either, but that's none of my business.

Emphasis mine.

What. The. Actual. Fuck. "No drama" subreddit my ass. I also did not appreciate the mocking, condescending tone of the message and those fucking sarcastic quotation marks. I told both mods (respectfully) to shove it and leave the ban in place because I don't want to be part of a community where mocking victims of sexual abuse is okay, but calling someone out on it is not.

Do DB and Dave just love rape, is that it? Why do they feel the need to add it to the show at any opportunity, to show it on screen? Why is there no time to develop characters or plot but there's always time for another fucking rape scene? So done with this season, outside of the wall and stannis I don't think I have a good word to say about it. The sandsnakes have been turned into a slapstick joke, the sparrow storyline has just been used as a vehicle to work in more so-edgy homophobia, Cersei just seems passive rather than hubristic- I'm just not really feeling any of it.

Let's discuss the new series.

I'm pretty sure the only reason Loras is in this season at all is so that in episode 4 he could become the victim of homophobic violence. We can't have gay people on TV unless something awful happens to them!

And they managed to meet their titty quota in episode 4 via some more scenes of extreme violence against sex workers. How very titillating.

It's just ridiculous how many times Sansa and Brienne meet in the TV series. "Hey My Lady I'm here to rescue you." "Not now, I have to marry a bastard who loves to torture people." "Here again My Lady. I think you really need rescuing from this creep." "Sorry, I can't, I've got another wedding planned with another bastard who loves to torture people." "Oh Arya, I thought you were dead. Let me rescue you My Lady." "No thanks. Need to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Murder."

And they messed up one of my favourite scenes - where Jon commands that Slynt be taken to the top of the wall and hanged. And then he changes his mind and Slynt thinks he doesn't have the guts, but actually Jon just remembered his father's advice that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. In the show Jon just took him outside and chopped his head off. No suspense. No character-building.

Anyway, enough ranting for the moment.

So, it's almost that time of year again. Thrones season! For book readers, we are edging ever closer to the day where the story will be ruined for us by the show (although reports seem to indicate that this season won't delve much further past ADWD). For show watchers only, it's time once again to wonder if that character you've become emotionally invested in is going to kick the bucket before the season is through.

What has you most excited about Season 5?