Boy. What dumbasses.

We can only conclude that people who write about entertainment in the mass media simply don't care about the viewer experience. Or rather, they don't care about OTHERS' viewing experience. These writers get to see movies and shows before the general public, and they delight in their opportunity to lord it over us plebeians.

A little over a year ago I engaged in a back-and-forth with a writer on a prominent platform who had breezily discussed the finer plot points of "Gone Girl." I hadn't seen the movie yet and had been making an effort to avoid spoiler information, even while my wife was reading the book. Then this twit spilled the beans in a column that was not strictly about "Gone Girl" and which did not carry spoiler warnings.

I sent an email that basically said, "Thanks for nothing. You really should warn people before giving away major plot information." The writer's reply amounted to, "Tough luck. The movie came out three months ago, anyone who's interested has seen it already so it doesn't matter if I talk about the plot now." My response was, "Well, no, the movie's not even out on Blu-ray yet, and most people will see it on the home market, so you've just ruined it for them." The writer's final reply was something like, "Well, I'm a journalist, and it's my responsibility to talk about what's current in the culture, so, bye."

I dunno, it's the internet age...I think any spoilers staying under wraps on anything for more than maybe a day is wishful thinking anymore. And yes, mankind and brick walls did not get along well this week, and it was glorious.

For tv my rule of thumb is usually no spoilers for a week. That gives people time to catch up on dvr watching and so on. After that I worry less about spoilers. Films a bit longer since as O-dot stated not everyone sees things right away. Normally spoilers don't bother me anyway, but someone spoiled the big plot point of Episode 7 on facebook just to be a dick before I'd seen the film which pissed me off to no end.
In the case of EW, they didn't even wait a day, and they blatantly flat out stated the spoiler right on the cover so as TC says, even if you're casually walking by you'll see it. It was a dick move. But also one likely done to gain attention and publicity, so in that case it worked because here we are talking about it. I suppose in this internet age magazines have to do something to try to get attention. I let my subscription to EW lapse years ago.

TC wrote:

if he is brought back by whomever, it would have relieved him of his vows, which were only until death. kind of brilliant.

Good call!

So ... what's he going to do now? Just walk the earth, meet people... get into adventures. Like Caine from "Kung Fu."

well, i guess we have the answer now.

RIP Osha. i liked her. but, another fucking fantastic episode. dany is amassing a ridiculous number of armies. she's well into six figures now, right? if she ever figures out how to get them all to westeros, all the bickering with religious folks is going to seem pretty silly, as they will all be royally fucked. given the pace of this show and that there may only be another what, 18 episodes?, i'm wondering if we'll ever get there. at least they sped up the journey to castle black for sansa's party. amazing scene.

There was so much win in this week's episode. I love how the marginalized are rising up to take the reigns of the kingdoms, both heroes and villains. This one really seemed to lay a foundation for everything else that's left to come in the narrative, although I'm sure there will be twists and surprises along the way.

jesus, i love the last episode. so much happening.

i love that arya is arya again. even though that kind of invalidates the endless episodes we have spent following a girl to the many-faced god, it didn't feel right watching her murder someone that she didn't want murdered for her own reasons. also, amusing that sam took his father's sword. now there is another valerian steel sword in play. jamie going to riverrun is bad. i mean, great for the character, as he's kind of a supporting character in king's landing, but what happened to cersei and jamie's unbridled passion, saying fuck the world, i'm staying here with you? now she's all, you have to go away? woman needs medication.

Reviewers were bitchy about this episode, complaining that nothing happened. Well shit, you can't have

Jon Snow coming back to life and Dany killing an entire khalasar in every installment

. Some episodes just exist to move the plot forward.

"nothing happened"???? LOL.

Quite a bit happened at King's Landing, not to mention getting Samwell's story, which was pretty great. Dani gets her dragon groove back. Yeah, not every GoT episode has huge explosions of violence. We're getting them quite a bit more frequently than we did in the early seasons.

As I'm not a die hard devoted GoT fan who lives and breathes it, I figure any episode where I can remember what actually happened must have a lot going on. I probably remember the most about this one than any other this season.

AV Club's prognosticators think this Sunday we'll get the

one-on-one fight between the Mountain and the Hound

.

Um,

Hound's been dead a while I think.

Alexhead wrote:Um,

Hound's been dead a while I think.

We never actually saw him die.

Alexhead wrote:

so he just pops up out of a season or so ago and tries to kick Zombie Mountain's ass?

I doubt it will actually happen, I think it's just fan wishful thinking. I'm just saying there's no reason it couldn't happen.

Alexhead wrote:

so he just pops up out of a season or so ago and tries to kick Zombie Mountain's ass?

i don't know under what circumstances they would be fighting, but everything i've heard says that the hound is not dead and we will see him again.

Yeah I don't see that particular fight being over just yet. Very weird non-kill shot for a supposed master assassin, I thought.