Reply With QuoteReally? I thought it was another embarrasing attempt at making an uninteresting character interesting with a boring and predictable monologue.Originally Posted by Jason Becker
His slide is going to be fantastic, and all the more awful. I love what Alfie Allen is doing with the role.
Really? I thought it was another embarrasing attempt at making an uninteresting character interesting with a boring and predictable monologue.
I didn't mind the sex between Stannis and the Red Priestess -- in fact I liked the way that Stannis was focused on the possibility of a son. As a stickler for the rules it would make sense for him to be obsessed with producing an heir... or at least more interested in the subject than he was in the books. Of course, any son that Melisandre gives him would be a bastard, but if a hot redhead is stripping down in front of you promising you a male heir, I think some latitude can be given.
Likewise, the scene between Theon and the captain's daughter was useful. I thought it was an informative scene in the books, and it seemed to translate well onto the screen. Certainly it establishes Theon as a spoiled cad... though we had seen that with the additions last season.
The stuff in the brothel was mostly over-the-top, I agree. However...
Littlefinger's monologue to the hooker wasn't too bad. The rest of the episode had been a bunch of plot-oriented scenes with new characters sputing off exposition, so I can see the appeal of stepping back and letting an established role do some character-driven stuff. It doesn't hurt that Gillen delivers the lines so well.
Now, the prostitute that he was lecturing -- I think I've lost the bubble on this one. Is that "Roz" from Winterfell? I know it was supposed to be the same girl that was being shown around in the previous episode (when the Goldcloaks killed the baby), but I thought that Roz arrived in the brothel last season and that this was a new girl. I didn't think that we had seen Roz at all this season. Help me, pedantic Qt3 omni-mind!
I don't recall her name, but it was the same prostitute that Theon had fun with and bade the sad farewell to in season 1 (with the parting flash on the wagon). She was also one of the two that Littlefinger told his sad Cate story to while coaching them on proper girl-on-girl technique.
Also, I agree that the sex does cross the line too often, making it awkward and uncomfortable viewing which I can now only watch when kids aren't around or HBO GO on PC.
My only complaint with the Roz and Littlefinger scene was that it seemed really out of character for a clever and ambitious whore to get all emotionally tied up in knots because another whore's bastard infant was killed. I think it would be upsetting, yes, but I just didn't expect the character that seemed world-wise enough to play on Tyrion's arrival in Winterfell, deflect Theon's bragging, and cheerfully leave to "follow the gold" to King's Landing would be incapacitated by sadness.
That said, I actually liked Littlefinger's morale-boosting pep talk.
I suppose that is why I thought it was supposed to be a different girl -- the Roz from season 1 didn't seem to be the type that would go all weepy over much of anything.
I suppose the point they are trying to make is how corrupt/decadent the South is compared to the North, even for whores... but it's not like we didn't get hours and hours of that last season.
No it was another excellent scene with a terrific actor playing one of my favorite characters from the books.
My mistake, then :)
Uhh she's not a "world wise" person. She's a prostitute who's spent her whole life in the north then goes to the big city of Kings Landing and is getting first hand experiences in the two very different worlds. I would think this would be totally obvious watching it.
Roz witnessed a baby's neck being sliced open right in front of her, a baby she no doubt took some care of. She's not heartless, and really one would have to be extremely heartless not to be emotionally traumatized by a scene like that.
I don't think anything is obvious about Roz other than her body. ;-)
I get the whole "welcome to the big leagues" aspect, but Roz isn't some babe in the woods. She isn't some runaway farmgirl that fell off the wagon and got swooped up by Littlefinger. She purposefully left Winterfell to go to King's Landing. Her character in season 1 is nothing like the weepy girl we saw in the last episode.
Uh, she's not in the books, right? I don't get the appeal of actually adding characters to the most character-heavy series I've read since... ever.
I can't wait for Jon Snow and Roz to hook up and fulfill the prophecy!
Was he not? I actually read aCoK first, way back when, and from a naive perspective I thought he was an anti-hero on the highway to hell, which is more sympathetic than, I dunno, Cersei or Joff or someone. I had the impression a certain amount of sympathy was intended, if only to give us room to facepalm and go "Oh, ffs, Theon..."
+1. It's one thing to toy with guys when you're a hot girl. It's another to watch a baby get murdered in front of you. Perspective, people.
Ros' existence in the series is to allow other characters to deliver long-winded monologues that further develop their characters. As such, she has no real character herself, but for the tv audience her scenes with Tyrion, Theon, Littlefinger, and Grand Maester Pucelle were important in helping establish who those characters are and what motivates them. Plus it gives HBO plenty of opportunites for gratuitous sex scenes.
And all at a low budget. Think of the thousands of dollars saved in production costs with Littlefinger's monologue.
Roz wasn't the new girl, she was the one showing the new girl around.
What is sorta weird is that I don't remember any remarkable scene where she becomes this "head of the house of whores," she's been there for several... months, at this point? She now seems like the Madam or something.
Bastards could be legitimized - the promise of a son is the best offer Stanis will get. His wife can't provide and killing her and marrying another is far more heinous than getting a bastard. Stanis' loyalty to his line is greater than to his wife - as is appropriate for the medieval setting.
I don't remember there being actual sex between the two in the books at all...it kind of bothers me how blatant it was in episode 2. Stannis' honor is legendary and he wouldn't compromise that by cheating on his wife...at least that's how I interpret his character. It seems very much against his personal code of morals/honor.
Don't read history backwards, modern morality is not medieval morality.
I don't think this has anything to do with modern morality. Everything Stannis does in the books makes his scene with Melisandre seem weird but I guess it segways nicely down the line at Storms End.
Some of you need to learn about the birds and the bees - for Melisandre to do a certain magical thing there kinda needs to be sex (at least, that's how I read it).
And Stanis needs an heir. Having honor and a mistress weren't mutually exclusive in medieval times AFAIK, more so when you consider Westeros doesn't have Christian morality hanging over its head.
Considering how Melisandre get pregnant and gives birth to the shadow Stannis assassin thingee, sex with Stannis is all but spelled out for you in the book.
--- Alan
Her dialogue regarding giving him a son cuts directly across his honor though. I highly doubt Stannis would publicly acknowledge and legitimize a bastard. So it didn't make much sense as an effective seduction technique on Melisandre's part.
Like I said upstream, I lean toward the interpretation that he's been sleeping with her since book 2, but I'd prefer I think the temptation to throw in another sex scene was too great.
You're in the spoiler thread.
Wrongy McWrongerson
Last edited by Pogo; 04-14-2012 at 07:38 PM.
Yeap, I was wrong, apologies.
Last edited by Pogo; 04-14-2012 at 07:37 PM.
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