House of the Undying scene in GoT S01E10 - disappointing
The House of the Undying chapter in the book, Clash of Kings is extremely creepy. In the series? Not so much. In defense of the producers, it probably would have required the budget of the entire second season to faithfully recreate the scene, but still, I was hoping to see this horrific chapter come to life- especially considering they saved it for the last episode.
Anyway, here is summary of the chapter for anyone who cares:
Dany goes to the House of the Undying seeking wisdom at about the halfway point in the book with dragons in tow (not captured). When she arrives, it is a small dilapidated shack overgrown with brush. Her entourage (whom remain alive in the book) urge her not to go, but of course she goes anyway. She is instructed that as she travels through the house, that she must travel alone and always choose the right-most door. Before she can enter, she must drink a disgusting draught served by a tiny little man that stood about knee high on her.
So she enters with Drogon and takes the right door in several identical looking rooms. The rooms begin to look stranger and stranger, but she continues to go to the right. Eventually she enters a long room with only doors on the left and many torches on the right wall. As she peers into some of the open doorways, she sees creepy stuff, like dwarves raping a woman and corpses feasting on food in a great hall. Eventually a huge golden door opens for her, but it's not on the right. Then the torches start to go out one by one, and at the last second she goes throught the last door on the left.
Here she encounters the creepy old guy who says she is going the wrong way. He tells her he will lead her to safety, but she instead chooses the right door. As she enters, the old guy morphs into some kind of wormlike slug and disintigrates. She continues on through more rooms and eventually enters a great hall full of people. They tell her she has passed the test and will now learn all of the secrets of dragons and her ancestors, but little Drogon flies to the door on the right and nudges it instructively. She figures out this is just another trick and continues on.
On she goes through a few more rooms until she reaches a dusty room full of corpse-like figures who seem to be alive despite not breathing or moving. There is also a corrupt pulsating heart hovering high above her in the air, giving off feint bursts of darkish indigo light. They impart some wisdom that she will be betrayed several times for several reasons. Then she hallucinates images of many of the people in her life who have died. Then the hallucinations start to grab at her. Drogon, in a panic, begins to furiously flap his wings, which awakens her from her hallucination to find that the corpses are fondling, licking, biting and attempting to eat her alive. Drogon flies up to the pulsating heart and destroys it with fire and claws, which causes the corpse people and room to go up in flames.
The magic is dispeled and she bursts out the single door in the room which leads directly outside. The creepy old guy is furious that she burned the house and killed the undying and he tries to stab her, but her entorage beats the crap out of him.
Oh well.
8 Comments
BoneRemakeseason finale pissed me off.
S2e9 was far more potent of a viewing.
I was left completely smashed. I wanted gold and I got pewter.
spoco2Well, from someone who hasn't read the books I thought it was a pretty awesome season finale.
So there
dystopianfuturetodayI still dug the second season despite numerous questionable changes from the book. I agree that 0209 was a highlight - that battle looked way better than I expected. If they don't get Dany's trip to Astopor right in the next season, I will be pissed, but it would be hard to fuck that scene up.
OrnthoronCaution: Spoilers galore.
I found the House of the Undying scene to have a fittingly creepy mood, even though it was changed a lot. The scene with Drogo seemed to me to be stolen directly from the Accepted tests that Aes Sedai novices go through in The Wheel of Time, but it was a powerful scene nonetheless. I think they missed an opportunity when Dany exited north of the wall to show her a glimpse of the dangers coming from the north. What I missed most compared to the book was the vision Dany has of Rhaegar playing the harp and talking to some woman about his son, which is an important scene for a certain popular fan theory.
What annoyed me most in this season was how the story of Jon Snow and Qhorin Halfhand played out. You didn't really get to see how Qhorin became an important mentor to Jon Snow. Even worse: It was not pointed out clear enough that Qhorin practically ordered Jon to kill him in order to be able to infiltrate the wildlings. Instead it looked like Jon just killed him out of self-defense.
But there were more things I liked than disliked. Theon's battle speech scene was hilarious, and they pulled off Jaqen's face-changing really well. I also liked Luwin's demise; it shocked me how he was just stabbed out of hand, even though I knew he would die. I fear it might be a bit cryptic to non-book readers why Winterfell was suddenly burned down, though. There was also some brilliant acting from Sophie Turner as Sansa when she learns she doesn't have to marry Joffrey after all.
All in all, I liked most of the changes in this season. Some of them even made the story better than in the book, at least for the TV medium.
kymbosFor a second series that was just inching along prior, the final two episodes finally gained some momentum, IMO. I was stoked with the last two episodes.
But explain something to me (and forgive my lack of names - I'll try to describe them).
The red-head guy who took Winterfell - he made a speech, the guy from the Office clocked him on the head, and the next thing the whole place has burned down. How does that work? Why didn't the 500 Starks outside bust in and stop them? What happened to the red-head? They couldn't burn down Winterfell and then hand him over and just wander off, surely? They'd have them on spikes in no time.
Also, Sansa is told by the Dog that he'll take her to Winterfell at the end of ep.9 - then in the finale he's just gone and she's still around. What?
Apart from that, on the whole, my only criticism as a noob is general pace. Some story lines are left unprogressed for ages, while we watch Rob slowly fall in love with someone. There are so many people we're attached to on cliff-hangers, spending half an episode setting up a romance between Rob and his ladyfriend is just redundant.
Otherwise, it's no Breaking Bad but I like it.
Ryjkyj>> ^kymbos:
For a second series that was just inching along prior, the final two episodes finally gained some momentum, IMO. I was stoked with the last two episodes.
But explain something to me (and forgive my lack of names - I'll try to describe them).
The red-head guy who took Winterfell - he made a speech, the guy from the Office clocked him on the head, and the next thing the whole place has burned down. How does that work? Why didn't the 500 Starks outside bust in and stop them? What happened to the red-head? They couldn't burn down Winterfell and then hand him over and just wander off, surely? They'd have them on spikes in no time.
Also, Sansa is told by the Dog that he'll take her to Winterfell at the end of ep.9 - then in the finale he's just gone and she's still around. What?
Apart from that, on the whole, my only criticism as a noob is general pace. Some story lines are left unprogressed for ages, while we watch Rob slowly fall in love with someone. There are so many people we're attached to on cliff-hangers, spending half an episode setting up a romance between Rob and his ladyfriend is just redundant.
Otherwise, it's no Breaking Bad but I like it.
That scene doesn't come off very well in the book either. I can't really tell you what happened in the book without spoiling it, suffice to say that a few more things happened between those two parts of the story. They handled it differently on the show than in the book, and I think they'll explain how it played out at the beginning of the next season. One note though: Robb did say in the show that any Ironborn except Theon could leave unharmed if they surrendered.
Sansa's story will also play out more, you're supposed to be confused.
As to the pace, that's just the way the books are written. It gets so bad that eventually, the two latest books take place simultaneously, with different characters. Book four: A Feast For Crows contains no Tyrion at all, you have to read through to the fifth book to find out what Tyrion was doing while the events of the fourth book were playing out. Weird huh? But I couldn't stop reading them.
kymbos@Ryjkyj - thanks. I should have known I wasn't so smart as to see through GoT plot lines.
The bastards have me looking forward to the next series even more now. Although I do think they probably could have done the first two seasons in, say, one season of 15 episodes.
lucky760*S02E10
Definitely would have enjoyed the scene you described.
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