Hasta La Ideas

As per usual, last night’s episode of “Game of Thrones” was so visually dark that you couldn’t see how much work the set designers put in. An example:

Here’s another. It’s so dark in this scene that you can’t even tell there’s a guard standing behind Jon Snow and Ser Davos:

You just know that the extra who played the guard told all of his friends and family to watch the show, then it aired and he was like “Goddammit.”

So here’s some things you may have caught and some you may have missed. This week’s episode started off on Dragonstone, where we now see why the castle’s throne was presumably sculpted from indigenous rock on-site:

Because there’s no way that they made it someplace else and then humped it up that crazy Great-Wall-of-China staircase. There doesn’t exactly seem to be a service entrance with freight.

As for Dragonstone’s throne itself, it doesn’t appear to be very comfortable.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about. This thing gives me lumbar AND popliteal support.”

In contrast, the Iron Throne Cersei sits on in the Red Keep has an ergonomic advantage I’d not noticed before: Armrests!

Well, maybe not proper armrests, but the throne’s original designer has at least placed the pommel of a sword on one side, so that stressed-out throne-sitters can squeeze it like a stress ball.

As for the Red Keep’s throne room, it’s much the same as last we saw it, but this time we can see they lay protective carpet down over the marble if a horse is going to walk on it. Probably a clause in the Lannister’s liability insurance agreement.

Inside the Red Keep we get a better look at Jaime’s golden hand. And we realize what a terrible materials choice heavy gold is for a prosthetic hand. I guarantee you his right elbow is killing him.

Cersei meets with a bank representative. And not only is she drinking during the meeting, she’s got two glasses for herself and none for the banker. She’s a lush and she’s selfish!

The stemware is fee-yancy.

Over on the high seas, we can see that Westeros does not have life preservers, but makes do with regular rope.

“I shouldn’t have shampooed my hair this morning. That was kind of a waste”

Over at the Citadel, Maester Nay-Say inspects Ser Jorah with this interesting telescoping device.

“I’m not going to lie. You look really, really gross.”

The Maester’s also got an interesting object in his study, behind him and to the right. I can’t decide if it’s a laundry rack, a loom or something you hang periodicals on.

Oh, I forgot to mention: Back at the Red Keep we got a better look at The Mountain’s whimsical helmet-mask. It’s kind of like Celtic Darth Vader with a Mohawk.

I thought it was similar to the other Lannisters’ helmet-masks, but in the medium shots you can see they’re kind of inconsistent.

This is a shot of the Lannister army marching on Highgarden, by the way. From this vantage point it’s not obvious what they’re doing…

…but from this perspective, you can see that they’ve designed their formation to look like a Space Invader, in order to sow terror.

Inside Olenna Tyrell’s chambers we see she’s got the most pimpish interior design feature of anyone’s crib in Westeros: Wall-to-wall carpeting!

She’s also got two of these enormous China-hutch cabinet-thingies in the corners. I do wonder what she stores in there.

Jaime, miffed that he’s given a chair without armrests, storms out of their meeting.

“Do you know how heavy this freaking hand is?”

Some other random things I noticed this episode. First off, this is how you vault a bridge that projects outwards at an angle to its foundation.

The eco-friendly Unsullied storm Casterly Rock using bamboo ladders. They’re sturdy and sustainable.

It’s presumably freezing up at Winterfell, but their armor makers like to work out-of-doors.

The dragon mural in Daenarys’ war room is pretty bad-ass.

Lastly, Dragonstone apparently has a long, winding back stairs too, where Danaerys asks Jon to meet her.

Jon: “Couldn’t we just have met upstairs?”

Jon: “That trip was so long and precarious I feel like I should have a freaking GoPro on my head.”

Daenarys: “It’s not even that chilly out here. You look like you’re wearing, like, an entire bear.”

Jon: “I get cold easily. May I ask you a question…”

“…why is your hair so complicated?”