Yeah, but... sometimes there's payback! Like, Joffrey died a horrible death just this season... Locke, Karl, Craster, Vyseris too.
Okay, then sometimes a Jaime or Theon happens where the guy you wanted dead suddenly turns into the guy you don't want dead any more. But that's even better...
hehe, the inner child wants A Song of Ice and Fire to have a somewhat happy ending... but the realist in me knows that isn't happening :P
are we ready to discuss things like Jon's possible parentage yet btw? i want to have a nice discussion on polycount about this stuff, but i think the tv only people will get all arsey about it =[
are we ready to discuss things like Jon's possible parentage yet btw? i want to have a nice discussion on polycount about this stuff, but i think the tv only people will get all arsey about it =[
We can always go for "Book Spoiler" warnings and maybe toss in some "Wild Speculation" disclaimers. Like this!
Indirect Book Spoiler:
Has the show covered anything regarding the promise Ned Stark made to his sister?
The show was very conscious about excluding all the flashbacks, dreams and prophecies that the TV fandom could use to predict plot turns and find explanations. It's probably also a decision about the storytelling, we don't really see any of these and everything happens in the now. If the writers want to reflect on the past, it's always told by dialogue from some character instead of actually showing it.
Back when Martin started to write the series, the internet was a curiosity - so he wasn't prepared for the joint effort of his fans to collectively analyze every single bit of information or hint. This resulted in more or less canon explanations for some of the major mysteries in the series and a lot of pretty valid theories for the things where the evidence isn't enough.
For example:
(book 5 spoilers)
- It's almost completely certain that Jon is the love child of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen, and Ned - despite being truthful to his wife - has decided to lie to everyone including Catelyn in order to protect him from Robert's wrath.
- The supposed Targaryen heir who's been raised by Lord Griffin is actually a fake, conceived by Varys and Illyrio; in fact he's most likely Illyrio's own son. It's unsure if he's been a backup plan in case the Vyseris + Drogo invasion has failed, or if it has always been the plan to put Illyrio's offspring on the Iron Throne...
- Some people think that Tyrion is the offpsring of the Mad King Aerys, who raped Tywin's wife; this could explain both his birth defect and Tywin's hate. It'd also make him another Targaryen and thus the third head of the dragon, along Dany and Jon.
- Later in book 5 the Freys and the Boltons are trying to consolidate their rule over the North, however there's a silent uprising - the North remembers, after all.
So the overweight Lord Manderly, while seemingly accepting their rule, has already began his vengeance - so he killed three lesser Freys who were his guests, and baked a large pie from them, which he fed to the Lords at Ramsay Bolton's wedding.
- The "three-eyed raven" appearing in Bran Stark's visions, is no other than the last Greenseer living with the Children of the Forest beyond the Wall. And he's actually Brynden Rivers, a last descendant of the Blackfyre line who were Targaryen bastards. This means that his motivations are ambiguous at best, and he may very well be trying to turn Bran into a major villain of the story.
The list could go on and on; if anyone's interested, most of the fan sites like westeros.org have detailed analysis on practically everything.
Also note that while Martin claims he doesn't read internet forums, he's still clearly aware that the collective efforts of the fandom have managed to solve most of the puzzles from the first 3-4 books, so he's been much more careful about the information he seeds in the later books. The TV series should catch up to book 5 in a year or two, so there's going to be a lot more room for speculation now.
Although, my current expectation is that Martin will finish book 6 before next spring and we'll have Winds of Winter in our hands in about a year
Martin is going to kill every single character off if he lives long enough to finish writing all the books. Spoilers, he wont because he is old and fast as shit.
Edit: As for flash backs, its already clear they are going to have them in Season 5. They cast a young Cersi and are looking to cast someone to be the old fortune teller.
Interesting... The showrunners have been avoiding that storytelling tool so far, despite the strong examples in the book, like Ned's visit to the Tower of Joy. Then again, Cersei's past is a pretty strong element of her motivations.
As for who's gonna live or die - neither the Walkers nor the Dragons have a place in the world of men. Both are extremely destructive and uncontrollable forces and humanity would be far better off without them. So anyone allied with ice or fire would probably have to die in the end...
I mean, a grown dragon is basically the equivalent of an unlimited supply of tactical nukes in this world. Aegon was able to destroy entire armies and strongholds (Harrenhaal) with a single creature. Dany is like a Soviet Union in the making, especially with her naive world view. As much as she's liked, her rule is probably the worst thing that could happen to Westeros.
Yes, there are the White Walkers, probably trying to make the world into a realm of undead servants and never ending winter. But another dynasty built on dragon fire would be like our Cold War, living under an eternal threat of destruction. So the best ending would be to get rid of both, and bring on an age without any supernatural forces. People like Ramsay or Joffrey are terrible as well, but their reign would at least die with them within a few decades...
God, every time someone gets red weddinged I wonder why I keep watching this show.
its like an abusive husband and im the wife that keeps going back to him thinking it will change.
Game of thrones is a story about an ever evolving world and the populations within it, not an individual characters triumph. As soon as you understand this the less frustrated you will be.
I really liked this episode. I could see how it could be boring if you don't care about the wall or those characters or whatever, but seeing large scale battles like that is rare, even in movies, and this was pretty well done. The episode looked REALLY expensive. And for once I'm happy about which
were pretty awesome. But overall it felt dragged out to me. Call me crazy, but when it comes to GoT I honestly enjoy dragged out beetle smashing conversations over dragged out sword fighting.
Hm, you know, this will sound weird, but i was actually a bit by this episode. Visually it was great and all, but somehow, after that shocking ep8, this just didn't really feel anything special...not for GoT anyway. Not bad ep by any means, guess i just expected something else. Don't get me wrong though, was still fun ep!
the huge freaking anker they dropped and swinged on the wall... Imagine being one of those wildlings and see that fucker come at you... Instant brown snow, 2 secs later replaced by red smear.
Lets keep it in spoiler tags but anyone wanna speculate on what goes down next week? I know with all the content they do have left its going to be one hell of an episode.
Simple Yes or No will suffice or longer spoiler tagged response.
Is everyone talking about Tyrion killing Shae and Tywin? I wonder if that will go down considering Shae isn't the vindictive gold grubbing character in the show. I guess that has to do with the fact that she's a combo of two characters from the books.
I hear next week's episode is going to cause people to lose their shit.
It's not going to be big-action, but yes. From a political perspective, the most significant event from the books is most likely going to happen next episode.
Simple Yes or No will suffice or longer spoiler tagged response.
Is everyone talking about Tyrion killing Shae and Tywin? I wonder if that will go down considering Shae isn't the vindictive gold grubbing character in the show. I guess that has to do with the fact that she's a combo of two characters from the books.
THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ THE BOOKS, DON'T READ THIS.
Seems like everyone is forgetting about Stannis. He comes in and saves the day at the wall. Epic battle incoming.
Simple Yes or No will suffice or longer spoiler tagged response.
Is everyone talking about Tyrion killing Shae and Tywin? I wonder if that will go down considering Shae isn't the vindictive gold grubbing character in the show. I guess that has to do with the fact that she's a combo of two characters from the books.
Shae was kind of ambiguously motivated in the books until that incident. They may have chosen to play that up for the show to get another sucker punch in.
Simple Yes or No will suffice or longer spoiler tagged response.
Is everyone talking about Tyrion killing Shae and Tywin? I wonder if that will go down considering Shae isn't the vindictive gold grubbing character in the show. I guess that has to do with the fact that she's a combo of two characters from the books.
I just realized
that the air date is Father's Day in the US. Bets that they did that on purpose?
HUGE BOOK SPOILER NEVER READ THIS:
I'm still going to be vague just in case: Aren't we due for the recently (not-quite) dead parent to make an appearance too?
My bet is that they'll close the episode on her reveal to maximize how much the internet explodes. They do seem to like that.
I haven't read all the books but I am not worried about the spoilers.
Book Spoiler Convo to follow:
Are we talking about the queen of the vale? Did she actually survive that fall? Sorry I know everyone else was keeping it vague but this is where I stopped reading.
Replies
"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
its like an abusive husband and im the wife that keeps going back to him thinking it will change.
Okay, then sometimes a Jaime or Theon happens where the guy you wanted dead suddenly turns into the guy you don't want dead any more. But that's even better...
are we ready to discuss things like Jon's possible parentage yet btw? i want to have a nice discussion on polycount about this stuff, but i think the tv only people will get all arsey about it =[
Indirect Book Spoiler:
Back when Martin started to write the series, the internet was a curiosity - so he wasn't prepared for the joint effort of his fans to collectively analyze every single bit of information or hint. This resulted in more or less canon explanations for some of the major mysteries in the series and a lot of pretty valid theories for the things where the evidence isn't enough.
For example:
(book 5 spoilers)
- The supposed Targaryen heir who's been raised by Lord Griffin is actually a fake, conceived by Varys and Illyrio; in fact he's most likely Illyrio's own son. It's unsure if he's been a backup plan in case the Vyseris + Drogo invasion has failed, or if it has always been the plan to put Illyrio's offspring on the Iron Throne...
- Some people think that Tyrion is the offpsring of the Mad King Aerys, who raped Tywin's wife; this could explain both his birth defect and Tywin's hate. It'd also make him another Targaryen and thus the third head of the dragon, along Dany and Jon.
- Later in book 5 the Freys and the Boltons are trying to consolidate their rule over the North, however there's a silent uprising - the North remembers, after all.
So the overweight Lord Manderly, while seemingly accepting their rule, has already began his vengeance - so he killed three lesser Freys who were his guests, and baked a large pie from them, which he fed to the Lords at Ramsay Bolton's wedding.
- The "three-eyed raven" appearing in Bran Stark's visions, is no other than the last Greenseer living with the Children of the Forest beyond the Wall. And he's actually Brynden Rivers, a last descendant of the Blackfyre line who were Targaryen bastards. This means that his motivations are ambiguous at best, and he may very well be trying to turn Bran into a major villain of the story.
The list could go on and on; if anyone's interested, most of the fan sites like westeros.org have detailed analysis on practically everything.
Also note that while Martin claims he doesn't read internet forums, he's still clearly aware that the collective efforts of the fandom have managed to solve most of the puzzles from the first 3-4 books, so he's been much more careful about the information he seeds in the later books. The TV series should catch up to book 5 in a year or two, so there's going to be a lot more room for speculation now.
Although, my current expectation is that Martin will finish book 6 before next spring and we'll have Winds of Winter in our hands in about a year
Edit: As for flash backs, its already clear they are going to have them in Season 5. They cast a young Cersi and are looking to cast someone to be the old fortune teller.
As for who's gonna live or die - neither the Walkers nor the Dragons have a place in the world of men. Both are extremely destructive and uncontrollable forces and humanity would be far better off without them. So anyone allied with ice or fire would probably have to die in the end...
Maybe that will be the final twist a happy ending. No one would see it coming.
Yes, there are the White Walkers, probably trying to make the world into a realm of undead servants and never ending winter. But another dynasty built on dragon fire would be like our Cold War, living under an eternal threat of destruction. So the best ending would be to get rid of both, and bring on an age without any supernatural forces. People like Ramsay or Joffrey are terrible as well, but their reign would at least die with them within a few decades...
You, good sir, just blew my fucking mind.
[ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI7Ll1utIjs[/ame]
Strangely - I KNEW I knew those teeth from somewhere, just couldn't figure it out. lol
Game of thrones is a story about an ever evolving world and the populations within it, not an individual characters triumph. As soon as you understand this the less frustrated you will be.
I believe the reason they wanted to focus on the wall for 1 episode was so that they could explode all the necessary stuff next week for the finale.
:icon60: Who needs ex-lax, when GOT has all the extra fibre your diet needs
I'm actually glad something happened for once, Jon's story was starting to get real tedious and rather boring.
as a book reader -
AAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA
And not just once.
Lets keep it in spoiler tags but anyone wanna speculate on what goes down next week? I know with all the content they do have left its going to be one hell of an episode.
It's not going to be big-action, but yes. From a political perspective, the most significant event from the books is most likely going to happen next episode.
THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ THE BOOKS, DON'T READ THIS.
but this is getting me excited, even though I ruined it for myself.
cant wait
Book spoiler territory:
I haven't read all the books but I am not worried about the spoilers.
Book Spoiler Convo to follow: