Game of Thrones

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Fun fact: Most theories that you hear about Game of Thrones originated from book readers and were developed years before the show even came out. This one did not. It's brand new. Go figure.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I think it mostly developed because of how the Night King's facial features were slightly redesigned.

Spoiler

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And someone joked that he looked a little like Isaac Hempstead-Wright, which then snowballed into this theory.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Also, since you were complaining about it earlier, Dr. Insomniac, here's Preston's take on the whole "Rhaegar and Lyanna loved each other" bit and why he thinks it's most likely a Dan and Dave thing: https://youtu.be/wMg5Rne4LQc

It's around the 1:00:15 mark.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, I listened to it earlier. I agree with their sentiment that Littlefinger's death felt hollow and unearned. Instead of feeling like the Starks finally getting a victorious revenge on the man who brought them so much misery in the last seven years, it read more like D&D killing him off because they ran out of shit for Aidan Gillen to do. And they wanted to give another person for Arya to kill. There just hasn't been a villain death in a while that's gotten much emotion out of me. Compared to the ironic and bittersweet ways Tywin and Joffrey died, Walder and Ramsay dying last season were just cheap attempts to get a rise out of the audience. Like the show going "Hey, we finally killed that guy you hated! Clap!"

[Dr. Insomniac]

Preston explains how he would make Season 7 watchable.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I agree with some of his ideas, while others, despite being more logical, wouldn't really make for an engaging story-line. Like I'm down with his idea of Littlefinger convincing Sansa to retake the Riverlands, or Samwell actually studying at the Citadel while meeting up with one of the Sand Snakes, but his Arya story idea doesn't maje much sense since she never even met her uncle Edmure and she probably wouldn't care about rescuing him. Killing Illyn Payne would be a good enough motivation, but I have no clue why he would be given the responsibility to hold Casterly Rock, especially when he's a mute who can't possibly command or govern men, even if it's a relatively small group.

Of course in Preston's defense, much of his story ideas are in the wake of trying to deal with all of the writing fuck-ups that D&D made in the previous two seasons, so he doesn't have much of a choice in some cases.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Really? These ads want to convince me Euron has a chance of winning the throne? He has as much depth as a 90s DBZ villain, and is only here so Theon has a mini-boss to fight.

[Dr. Insomniac]

With a new trailer comes more Preston.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, who wants to take bets that somehow Bronn and Theon will arrive in Winterfell in the span of a single episode?

Also, knowing Dan and Dave this was clearly unintentional, but I couldn't help but laugh every time a character went bug-eyed at seeing Bran just creepily staring at them. I don't think that it was intended to be funny, though....

Oh, and speaking of stuff that was intended to be funny, Tyrion's line to Varys, "because you don't have balls," was so cringe-worthy. I legitimately feel bad for Peter Dinklage. He's a talented actor, but D&D haven't given him any genuinely interesting material to work with for the past few years. He's basically being wasted  at this point.

At any rate, the most surprising thing about this episode is how little really progressed story-wise. This season is only six episodes long and this show somehow still finds a way to make things feel dragged out.

[Peanutbutter]

First episode was okay, but nothing really happened other than Jon finding out R + J = him. Kind of hoping that fan theory that it's actually Danerys that was the lost love child is true because while I still like Jon I'm hoping it's not him who takes the Iron Throne at the end because it just doesn't fit his character arc.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Jon being the rightful heir is canon now. Having Dany be the secret love child between Raegar and Lyanna wouldn't make sense from a narrative standpoint since either way she's seen as the true successor the the Iron Throne. The whole point of revealing Jon's lineage is that it throws a complication into what at first seemed to be a simple matter. That doesn't actually mean that he will be sitting on the Iron Throne by the end of the series. It's just a plot device to create tension. It would actually surprise me if he ends up as King by the end of the series as it doesn't fit in line with GRRM's writing style as one of the themes of his books is how bloodlines are really kind of bull-shit when you get down to it. And while I would expect D&D to do something like that, GRRM himself still insists that he told them how the story-lines of the main characters would end and that they agreed to stick to that, so if nothing else, the broad strokes of where the story ends up will be what he intended. Keeping that in mind, I don't expect Jon or Dany to be rulers by the end of this. Both of their story-lines parallel each other and by the end Ice and Fire must have balanced roles, so it wouldn't make sense for one to be on top and the other below.

[Dr. Insomniac]

For how padded out that was, it's surprising there wasn't a scene between Jorah and the rest of House Mormont. He and Lyanna were in the same room, yet they don't share a word. And I'm not sure why D&D didn't send Bronn to Winterfell along with Jaime. Because Jerome Flynn and Lena Headey apparently have a clause in their contract saying they won't share any scenes together thanks to a bad falling out in real life, that means we'll get plenty of awkward scenes where Cersei sends Qyburn to order Bronn around, and Bronn sends Qyburn back to tell Cersei something. Or they could have killed Bronn off last season if they didn't know what to do with him.

Oh, and speaking of stuff that was intended to be funny, Tyrion's line to Varys, "because you don't have balls," was so cringe-worthy. I legitimately feel bad for Peter Dinklage. He's a talented actor, but D&D haven't given him any genuinely interesting material to work with for the past few years. He's basically being wasted  at this point.

The dialogue in the show went so downhill after season 4. It's either characters saying faux-inspirational quotes that will inevitably get printed on a t-shirt (a store I go to always has an "I drink and I know things." shirt on front display), or cock and ball jokes like all of Bronn's recent lines or Bad Pussy. Tyrion especially is a victim. Don't know why D&D have made him so stupid that he thinks appealing to Cersei's humanity is a valid strategy.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Also, gotta love how Preston called that there would he a lot of padding in the premiere, even when RTR questioned him on whether they would really do that with only 6 episodes left:

https://youtu.be/gZNzOA6D4I0

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

And with a new season of Game of Thrones, we also get treated to a new season of Preston breaking down why the fuck this writing makes no sense: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d3y9dH9ps4

[Dr. Insomniac]

Kinda makes Jon pardoning Ned Umber narratively meaningless if the kid was just going to die all for a jumpscare.

And nitpicking here, but unless Gendry is using magic, he shouldn't be making so many, if any, Dragonglass weapons in so short a time. Making obsidian swords is next to impossible with modern technology. Don't know how he's doing it with Westeros utilities.