FIRST TIME WATCHING: GOT S3E1!!

I don't think Stannis was surprised that "he" had killed his brother. Stannis was facing the possibility he'd done it for nothing. He'd not had a chance to stop and think about it, as he had a war to prosecute.

Sinewmire

I’m late, so someone probably already said this, but the “Lord of the Rings” show was supposed to based on things in “The Silmarillion” by Tolkien. Might have been cancelled through, not sure.

Joe Mama

I have the same problem, I watch on HBO Nordic and I keep ketting ahead and having to pause for Nats stream to catch up,. My stream isn't speed up or anything and is playing in normal speed :s

Tyler - great point. Stannis, for all his faults, was the only one who seemed to actually get the big picture about what was happening.

Craig McIvor

I've read through most of the comments & no one else besides me seems to have this problem so I'm just asking: how can I sync up this reaction with my copy/stream because mine is always getting ahead if i dont pause the video every 10 seconds...which kind of ruins the experience of watching. I even tried playing both the reaction & my episode on different devices but it still doesnt sync up..any ideas?

Sascha

Maybe it's a stupid question, but doesn't the HBO app provide download option? That way you can avoid connection issues... Right?

Valar Dohaeris

Another point to this is the expectations created by the long drought between books. Martin has published one book in about 15 years, which have allowed the avid book reader to pour over every single word forwards, backwards and sideways, to analyze in excruciating detail and debate hotly on message boards for more than a decade... in that time a very definite set of expectations came into being as his work was 'deciphered'. Over the years that the show started, legions of book readers passed on those expectations to their fellow show watchers from the famous prediction that everyone knew was true to the more loosely suspected but passionately supported plot points. With Martin failing to deliver, the show-runners didn't have anything canon to live up to, nothing to drive the show, its budget, its scripting or its time table... so when they failed to live up to those pre-determined expectations and cut the show short with fewer episodes those last two seasons, it left the fans confused and disappointed. There is so much great about the show as a whole and plenty of quality moments throughout the final season (season 7 was great and is unfairly maligned in my opinion), you can't let the conclusion ruin it for you. I mean come on, it' snot like this is Battlestar Galactica or something, where the finale retroactively made the show unwatchable...

Ellis Hugh

Natalie, yours and Tyler’s view of how the series will end is a good discussion. I agree Breaking Bad was a great ending for a series. The series Lost was meant to run for two seasons but ended up chasing a longer storyline for ratings and dollars. Rest assured that GoT was created with a finite ending in mind and does deliver on it. There is a real divide on the ending of Thrones one how some plot lines were ended and, more so, how the it was executed. Production value of the final season was incredible and rivals that of blockbuster big screen productions. Two things to remember when evaluating the end of a series like GoT is that writing conclusion to a very layered and dense story tends not be as interesting as all the story development that went before – especially such a character development story as Thrones. It is “a journey is always more enjoyable than the destination” kind of thing. Add to that, the show runners waited almost two years to deliver the final season, leaving countless fans to spend too much time conjecturing on every possible way to how the show will end. Like unwrapping Christmas presents beforehand and negating any happy surprises. That is a recipe for disappointment. I have found, almost without exception, that reactors who watch the series for the first time after the final season aired (and I have seen a bunch), were not as critical of the ending as the fans who watched it all live. Binge watching really helps. So, be hopeful and not pessimistic.

Dar

Natalie, so loving your Thrones reactions! My only complaint is: Give me more! I enjoyed your review of season 2/preview of season 3 at the beginning of S3E1. Interesting to hear your opinions compared with Tyler. Tyler seems to be conflating our current worldviews, western culture, etc. with the harshness of the make-believe Thrones world. I agree with him that many characters are a-holes. The feudalism culture of the show is very realistic, although it runs counterintuitive to our modern society. I believe the one overriding word-building ingredient in the first 3 seasons of the show is how unforgiving and cruel this fictitious world is, and it all makes horrible sense in its own context. Tyrion’s speech at the blackwater is actually a look inside of how he sees the world. The important part of the speech is what he says right before the “let’s go kill them.” The entire line is: “Those are brave men knocking at our gate, let’s go kill them.” Tyrion knows that he has to inspire his men to be braver than their opposition, and that defeating them means killing them, there is no in between. Killing is an underlying theme of the episode. The Hound references killing, almost as a virtue, twice in the episode – once to Sansa and the other Bronn. It also shows Tyrion’s respect and understanding of his enemy. FYI…Episode 9 screenplay was written by book author George R.R. Martin. So, that line was very purposeful. It also reflects us as the viewer because we like certain things about both Stannis and Tyrion winning this battle, despite they are on opposite sides. Natalie, very perceptive of you to wonder how Winterfell was a smoldering ruin. I have watched plenty of reactions, and not many question the burning of Winterfell. It is important foreshadowing of the story to come.

Dar

Yes, Catelyn's mother, Minisa Tully died giving birth to her youngest son, Edmure. Joanna Lannister died giving birth to Tyrion and Queen Rhaella Targaryen died giving birth to Daenaerys. By the way, Tywin said "since I cannot prove that you are not my son". This is not just Tywin being his usual assholy self, although most of this is only in the books. At the time of Tyrion's birth, Tywin was serving in King's Landing as the hand of the King. (The Mad King, Aerys). It was a well-known secret around King's Landing that King Aerys had a crush on Lady Joanna, and that he even made an advance on her on his wedding night. Less than a year before Tyrion's birth she happened to be in King's Landing for a tournament.

Alan Kobb

No thanks. Don't need Natalie reacting to every random parody video of GoT. That one in particularly is way too long and NOT funny.

Edward Olson

Loved the recap with Tyler! My only issue was that towards the end (of the recap, that is,) I started to worry that you weren't going to have time for the full episode = P Next time maybe just tell us at the beginning that it *is* going to be another full reaction video - but there's going to be some chatting first = P Again, I loved it! Keep the commentary coming! Just maybe throw in a heads-up at the beginning. I kept checking the time-stamps for the first half hour, terrified that you weren't going to leave enough time to watch the whole episode = P So yeah. I loved the conversation with Tyler at the start; just warn us next time! = P

Guys, we're coming up on the time when it would be appropriate to watch GoT: The Musical, the Red Nose special that was put together by Coldplay and the cast. You guys have got to get on board with me to get Nat to include it in her reactions. In case you don't know what the GoT: The Musical is, this is from its wiki entry: Game of Thrones: The Musical is a twelve-minute sketch produced by the British rock band, Coldplay. It originally aired as part of a three-hour NBC special, bringing together different actors and musicians who used their talent to persuade people to donate to charity for Red Nose Day. The sketch features members from Coldplay participating with several actors from Game of Thrones in producing musical numbers, and is narrated by Liam Neeson. For those of you who haven't seen it, a quick Google will bring it up or you can check it out at the link below. Nat, if you happen to see this, please don't watch it yet, it is ABSOLUTELY worth including as a Reaction even though its less than 15 minutes long. Please, please consider it, it's brilliant, but don't watch it until the conclusion of season 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs7xO5P3Az4

Ellis Hugh

It wasn't that the show lasted too long. The problem is that they crammed 3 seasons worth of story into 13 episodes. It was incredibly rushed.

I did too but I started over and synced up fine.

MertzRocks

Agreed, I thought it was the best part of the speech. The people outside want to sack you and have heroic stories told of the war, we just want to survive. "Those are brave men knocking at our door."

sheriffjt

I love your season recaps with Tyler please keep doing them!

Jill Finlayson

To be honest, I'd say that you're better off watching the after show featurettes than the recaps... they never have spoilers and they deepen your understanding of the episode you just watched while its still fresh.

Ellis Hugh

Dyko - I'd certainly agree that books > show for the first 3-4 books/5 seasons or so... as one should expect given the limitations of a television show. I think the most recent book, about to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of its publishing, shows things simply getting away from Martin. Whatever flaws the television series might have, it still exceeds an unfinished book series, especially once one considers that there's a very good chance it may never be finished. One book in 15 years and counting...

Ellis Hugh

I just pause my copy after the HBO logo fades and resume when hers does.

Christopher French

The only way the show would have ended in a satisfying way is if George R.R. Martin had actually finished the books on time. He didn't, and we ended up getting the inevitable fan-fiction from the show's writers. No one to blame but George.

WackySwacky

This is the correct interpretation. Nat misses stuff and then comes up with fake criticisms that make us cringe sometimes.

WackySwacky

That's the start of the show. The Title Music comes in later in the episode.

Darryl Low

Anyone know where to start syncing this with the Amazon Prime version? It starts with a weird snowy scene with Sam instead of the intro animation, and I can't tell if that's in the "recap" portion or what.

Troy B.

I liked the "let's go kill them" line because it is deliberately not grand - it's Tyrion seeing the reality of the situation but with no attachment to the glory of it - unlike so many in this world. It's a very real moment.

Paul King

The problem isn't that there were too many seasons of GoT. The problem is that there weren't enough. They could have made 10 seasons and it would have played out better, and more believably. But that's just my opinion.

Christopher French

I support you skipping the recaps as well. Especially later on in the seasons. One recap in particular really pissed me off in Season 7.

Mike Ramirez

Agreed. It’s great hearing the overall reaction, interesting and also helps give a bit more context to the individual show reactions. I didn’t read the books, but did end up reading enough of the wikis and summaries over time to have some idea of what was cut and it mostly seems like the right choices. That said, in the summary reaction Nat and “Disembodied Voice of Tyler” mentioned they thought that it sounds like the show went one season too long. I think that part of the problem is that they cut it too short. Sounded like HBO was happy to give another season or 2 and they seem to have been bored and instead crammed everything into an even shorter season. Not the source of all (most?) of the trouble, but it compounded their weaknesses by not giving a chance to even try to explain the breaks in characters and dropped arcs. I think the show runners were pretty decent in decisions made in -adapting- and curating a very thoroughly fleshed out/deep world and narrative from the books into something that works in a show. But once they were down to just an outline to work from? Big problems with storytelling and ability to give any believable motivation to characters or events. I don’t like some of the narrative directions, but I can tolerate and even like characters doing things I wish they wouldn’t if you justify it with some development. For anyone that’s finished the show, I just discovered a fascinating take on the last season’s problems from Scientific American no less. ***do not read the actual article if you don’t want spoilers of the entire show run!*** “The Real Reason Fans Hate the Last Season of Game of Thrones”. “It’s not just bad storytelling—it’s because the storytelling style changed from sociological to psychological”.

RocktSurgeon

That's actually what zombies originally were, back in early Voodoo

Gavin Day

Worth noting, people in the south don't really believe there are Giants beyond the wall either

Balkyne

Now knowing you hate zombies: To give you some comfort these undead arent "Zombies" they are actually animated and controlled like puppets on a wire. So you can like the show even more now.

I vote keep watching the recaps. With your memory, Nat, without the recap, during the episode you will be confused more of who is who and what happened several episodes ago. The GoT show cut out many sub-stories and characters from the book series. If they did everything from the books, the show would have been 10 or 12 full seasons. I think they were smart to cut those extra bits and characters. The show did start to suffer once they went beyond the book material. Also it seems the TV showrunners had problems with the author, GRR Martin, toward the end. A few times Martin expressed being unhappy as the TV show started to diverge more and more from his works. He also may have been unhappy as the TV show revealed some long held secretes that he has not gotten to in the books.

Tranquil_Gnome

The White Walkers (referred to as the Others in the books) are the white beings made of ice. They are literally made of Ice. You see them in the series prologue and in the last episode of Season 2 riding the horses. The "zombies" are actually called Wights, the difference being that the Wights (in common fantasy terminology) are dead beings brought back that are controlled by someone (in this case the White Walkers), while regular zombies are just regular zombies and aren't controlled by anyone. Being honest, this series really requires you to do a bit of research in order to be fully understood. Reading the books is the best way, but you could actually just look up certain things / lore on the A Song of Ice and Fire wiki. The books > show so I highly recommend them regardless.

WackySwacky

That moment with Stannis you thought was "silly" where he mentions to Melisandre that he killed his brother- its possible I'm wrong but I've watched the show numerous times and I've never interpreted that line the way you did. I dont think hes surprised at all, he knew all about the magic and his involvement with Renly's death. I think he was emphasizing the fact that he murdered his brother and it didn't even get him the iron throne- so essentially he killed his brother for nothing. Just my interpretation.

My_Cousin_Mose

Season 7 gets way too much hate imo, and its dragged down by its association with season 8... in much the same way the entire series - which gave us six+ years of unbelievable genre-changing story arcs and moments - is drug down by its association with the final two seasons. Honestly, while there were a few plot decisions that were completely WTF, I believe the vast majority of the problems with the final seasons could have been fixed simply by giving us full seasons. We got 13 eps instead of the expected 20, and those seven hours could have gone a LONG way towards shoring up many of the weaker narrative issues...

Ellis Hugh

She does read them. Or at the very least they're relayed to her by someone. She mentions certain comments during the pre-episode discussion parts of these vids. If that's the only reason you're a patron though, then I think you may be in the wrong place for the wrong reasons.

Cultured Degenerate

Yeah I agree about these debriefs, it's great to hear her thoughts and also a casual chat with her BF feels like a mini hang out.

David Spriggs

Does Nat actually read any of these comments? I've never seen her respond to anything, either here or in messages... When I signed up I was kind of hoping to occasionally interact with her, or at least see some interactions somewhere.

Ellis Hugh

I'm ready for season 3! Things are gonna start picking up!

Steven Hok

Also, Stannis is the one true King!

darby72

I don't know if you were referring to me or not, but I had definitely in a previous Patreon comment suggested that as the series goes on you should consider skipping the recaps. I'm glad you are now coming to that realization yourself, and I would reiterate that you should definitely NOT WATCH THEM! Also, on a slightly related note, your time stamp for when people who don't watch the recap is off because this is one of the rare episodes that has a cold open before the theme song, so people will miss you reacting to the whole scene with Sam being saved at the start, or will have trouble syncing their viewing up with that scene (I know I did).

darby72

I love season 8 and am surprised but satisfied with how they wrap. Can’t wait.

Amanda Sargent

The best way to describe seasons 7 and 8 (especially 8) would be like having a Michelin stared chef personally cook you a meal, but the only ingredients they're given are expired bags of snacks out of a vending machine. The cast and crew were beyond amazing for the last two seasons; there's nothing more they could have done. But the writing was twice run over dog shit.

Justin Credible

I'm digging the Nat/Tyler season recap/precap convos!

Erik Stevenson

Great call. I loved Black Sails but never got to finish it. Hope this lands in her cross hairs eventually

warcrimes

Stannis was upset because he thought that by killing his brother he would then be able to gain the throne. That was the sacrifice he was making. Now that he didn’t get the throne after having to do that, he is coming to grips over what he has done and didn’t get rewarded for his misdeeds as he had thought. So it was less about the fact that he killed him for a cause and more about he killed him for no reason at all. He is an “the ends justify the means” type of guys. Only when his ends aren’t justified by any means or lack of those means being fulfilled he finds regret as he is then a murderer and not one who advanced his cause justly for the throne and for the realm.

Ryan Pennington

You guys wondering what happened to Winterfell....why it was burning. Me: *biting my tongue* P.S. You get the same recaps we got when watching it come out on HBO. It's not giving you any more than we ever got.

A Vicarious View

Non sequitur: why is there not a single reaction video on YouTube to 127 hours? I need this. If you haven’t seen it Nat, just a suggestion.

Jai Nelson

Yeah, White Walkers are the magical creatures that can reanimate corpses. Wights are what they call the reanimated corpses.

A Vicarious View

You should definitely keep doing the season recaps with Tyler. It's nice to hear you have a back and forth conversation about the series As for the last few seasons, I wouldn't worry too much. You still got plenty of awesome seasons to go through. The last two seasons still have episodes of quality and spectacle. Even where it all ends is a satisfying conclusion. the problem lies in that it feels a bit rushed getting there. If they had just done full 10 episodes for seasons 7 and 8 (and maybe another season or half of one) they could have improved and fleshed out the journey of getting to said conclusion.

You probably didn't catch this since we haven't seen much of them together, but Jaime and Tyrion actually love each other. Jaime doesn't treat Tyrion with hate like Cersei and Tywin do.

Kevin Anand

idk swimming dragons makes sense to me. I grew up here in Australia and we have very large/fast lizards that are even faster swimmers. And im not talking bout crocs. The aborigines called them goanna's. I think the white name is water dragon/monitor.

Cripkie

I wholeheartedly agree with this. Black Sails forever <3

Matěj Macek

Thank you!!

Natalie Gold

He doesn’t want to be on camera

Natalie Gold

''Winter is coming'' and the dread of the White walkers comes with it. The people in power of Westeros would rather focus on relatively trivial things instead of addressing what could potentially wipe out mankind. The allegory of climate change is very purposeful here me thinks.

MrCAL

Tyler is somewhat correct. Yes, the guy on the undead horse is a White Walker. In the books they are just called "The Others". The walking guys technically aren't zombies. In an earlier episode Lord Commander Mormont referred to them as wights. The difference is almost meaningless. A zombie is an animated dead person. A wight is an animated dead person controlled by someone else, so the wights are controlled by the White Walkers. You and Tyler were talking about "sexposition". It's a combination of "sex" and "exposition". It was coined based on Game of Thrones to describe that technique of spicing up long talk scenes because GoT used it so much. Later in the series they downplayed it because of the criticism. Cersei got a warning about the wight that got into Castle Black and attacked Mormont, but not about the army of dead men and White Walkers. The ravens were meant for Castle Black to warn them.

Alan Kobb

The recaps with Tyler are welcome. Any true fan of GoT enjoys lively debate or conversation of the show. Is he camera shy? You should have him on camera for the recaps unless he was against it.

Obsolyeet

What I loved about the series is how they keep developing characters. You start hating/loving one, hear their story, and see things are more complex than just good/evil. A perspective we could all use more of nowadays.

You and Tyler mentioned shows that know when to end. A really great show that was obscured by game of thrones when it aired is Black Sails. First season is definitely the weakest but it really evolves into some of the greatest television writing and also knows not to milk its story

My Toasty Toast

In the books, Tyrion had lost half his face and his nose. They cant do it in the show to Peter Dinklage.

I totally had forgotten about creepy scorpion kid

Steve J

agreed, good intro for the season to bounce ideas around, but kind of awkward to talk to someone off camera for 20 minutes.

Steve J

I think Stannis stating: "i killed my brother", was more of a realisation that it was for nothing. He did not win the battle he was promised to win by Melisandre so in his mind the murder of Renly proved to be pointless, in a sense. (his guilt creeping in)

Kim Winkel

Ahhh A Storm of Swords. The best book by a long shot, and it has two full seasons devoted to it. I have my issues with the later seasons, but 1, 3 and 4 are my favorite. I was hopeful that they would do the same for books 4 and 5, but no. Those books get much less consideration, and the series suffers for it.

JediLounger

Stanis was upset after Blackwater, because he thought he killed his brother for nothing. The only reason he cared was because he lost. The nudity really got cut back as the series went along, especially with the main characters, because the actresses complained.

Matt Gwinn

Tyler sounded so disdainful when he talked about "throwing things in there just for the fans." HEY! The Mandalorian is 100% fan service! Do NOT mock that!

Jomero

I very much enjoy your recap/review with Tyler, keep it up! Maybe have him on camera sometime? At least as a bonus at the end of the whole series? haha ;-)

Daniel Gauvreau

Thanks Natie and thanks Tyler 😄! I really like this little exchange with Tyler, it makes me want to participate haha This episode was so good to watch! The escape of the Night's Watch, the tension between Tyrion and his family, the tension among the Starks, Stannis Baratheon/Ser Davos, Daenerys arriving in the new city, finally the serious stuff has started 😛 The moment between Tyrion and Tywin is one of the scenes that made me the most enraged of the show! Your reaction was touching 🥺 Unfortunately at the end of each reaction/episode, I'm left wanting more because it's so addictive and cool with you 😆 I'm so excited to see you react to the next episode! Well, as always Stay Golden and Be Safe you and Tyler! 💛

Calo Grsf

Oh cool I'm glad you started S3 this week! Looking forward to it :)

Quarty

Really like the recap, and brain stoming with Tyler Nat.. keep doing them.

R.BGames37

Please keep doing recaps with Tyler!

Nat the name of guy who died in winterfell you couldn't remember was maester luwin. Loved the intro with tyler gets my vote to continue with them 💛

Ian

Just wanna say thank you Nat for all you do on this Channel.

Curaitis

Love the debrief with Tyler. You guys are right on with some predictions and SOO off with others. I love it. Stay golden both of ya :)

Jai Nelson

exactly what I was thinking lmao

ISeeTrees ofGreen

Jaime: boring and not complex. Ohhhhh booyyyyyy.....

Derik Knutson

Sorry, but the HIMYM finale absolutely ruined the series for me. Different strokes for different folks tho :)

Natalie Gold

In just one sentence you charged against 2 of my favorite series, including finales, HIMYM and lost... :(

Valar Dohaeris

Im so Excited for this season..

R.BGames37

The thing with Tyrion's scar is that in the books, he loses his nose completely, all the flesh cut to the bone. They went for a more subtle approach in the series. That's why he has to look traumatized.

Bou _

Its so enjoyable watching these episodes back with someone!

Joshua McGreal

I decided to watch this right away after the season finale yesterday. Love the recap in the beginning. Glad that Tyler held off watching season 3. That way you two can watch it together. 😊 Off to cue up S3E1 on HBOMax. Have a great day! 😊 And until the next video, Stay Golden! 💛

Randee Carreno

The zombies are called wights, which are reanimated dead people. The leaders are White Walkers, we will learn about them later.

Scander Brik

Awesome to have Tyler back on board, and even more awesome that he held off watching the next season. Really interesting to hear you both re-capping the season.

Darryl Low

wasnt expecting this until next week what a lovely surprise , cheers nat 💛

Ian