Dear Diary

Published July 24, 2017 · Updated July 6, 2022

Some chunks for the Small Council –

I am loving the season so far. La-hu-ving. (Said in my internal Ace Ventura voice).

Episode 2 physically put me on the edge of my seat or emotionally took me to the cliff of disappointment…and yet, I was OK with the disappointments.

The opening scene with Daenerys and Varys hashing out an understanding was spot on. I felt uncomfortable for Varys for a fraction of a second when she had him dead to rights with past actions and decisions. True to form, he verbally flipped past events with “realm perspective” and it all seemed perfectly justified. Well played Varys.

Jon Snow disregarding the opinions of the northern lords and going to Dragonstone anyway demonstrates his most crucial objective and that is not to be King of the North. He is purely motivated by the impending fight for the living. Anyway, it sets up a not-so-welcome reunion with Melisandre and Davos.

Samwell Tarly’s removal of Jorah Mormont’s infected skin had the same level of visual nasty as last week’s poop/soup montage. Sam’s facial expression of doing an extremely unpleasant but necessary procedure was great. I laughed even as I tried to look away from the tv.

OMG! The Missandei and Grey Worm love scene. I was freaking out that we were about to see a CGI eunuch and wondered aloud if the world was ready for that. But no. I was at the cliff and was OK with the result. A friend asked why that scene was included. My answer is, I fear it bodes ill for the future of one of them and that scene makes us care more.

War Council at Dragonstone. Much is being made that 4 women, 2 eunuchs, and a dwarf were making decisions. I have a different take. Ellaria, Yara, and Olenna were all sass when they were tasked with the siege of Kingslanding. But when Tyrion saved the best for last, by describing the sack of Casterly Rock, they got on the same page immediately. Why? Because they had a “holy shit” moment. If Tyrion is willing and ready decimate the Rock, this is not a game of half measures. It is a brilliant strategy with dire, painful consequences for the Lannisters. He’s all in and they need to lock it up!

Arya and Nymeria. Again, I was super excited to see this much-anticipated reunion and all the future ass kicking that would come as a result. But no. Nymeria pulled a “NOT TODAY” and Arya wisely understood. My emotional cliff was avoided again.

Lastly, I want to address the exceptional speed of travel characters have between locations and sonic speed of ravens in the dead of winter. As a book reader, season 1 flowed in a linear time fashion and it was very, very similar to the book. It chronologically made sense. The following seasons, not-so-much and yes, I get it. It was a bit bothersome to me, but I got over it by at least season 3. For any viewer that was forced to watch daytime television in the 70’s (code for ‘Mom watched soap operas and I was a kid’) illogical jumps in time were commonplace. I just want GoT viewers to understand these head scratching moments are OK. This superior show NEEDS to move. If Nicky and Victor Newman’s kids grew up faster than I, then by golly a show with magic and dragons can take a few liberties.

Big D, Rog, Gene, a pleasure as always,

Stacey

PS – Yes, I am feeling shame for the Y and R reference. Wink to my fellow 70’s sufferers.

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