Game of Thrones

[smeags]

I'm sure someone posted this at some point, but it was new to me, so I figured I'd share.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Krz-dyD-UQ

Jon and Dany ruling together in peace and harmony seems a little too much sunshine and rainbows for GoT.

i doubt its anything but peaceful. i would assume it would be during a winter battling white walkers. [spoiler]whose rulers may be starks. [/spoiler]

[QB Eagles]

Yes though Targs intermarry so I dunno.

If you want to see a cool video someone made - it is a dream sequence Ned had in the first book after he's stabbed in the streets.  The show decided not to do that sort of flashback (until this season) so it wasn't included.  This is book material so only watch with that understanding, but it's from book 1.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v9Mp8MzAjAY

Cool.

Show needs more Arthur Dayne fanboydom. The books make it clear he was Westeros' most elite fighter of recent decades. Also I wonder about the whereabouts of his awesome sword.

I get that he's old now, but I wish they had made Barristan Selmy's final battle more ridiculously over the top, with him chewing through dozens of dudes with ridiculous moves before succumbing. Normally I like when the show keeps things somewhat realistic, but when you amp up a guy's reputation that much, I want to see some crazy shtein. I'm not sure that he was any more impressive in his last battle than a shirtless Ramsay Snow was last season during that ill-conceived Yara subplot, and that's sad.

[Munson]

I really wish they had included the dream sequence in the show.

As for Dawn, I'm pretty sure Ned took it back to House Dayne, and so far no one has proven to be skilled enough to wield it as Sword of the Morning.

[QB Eagles]

As for Dawn, I'm pretty sure Ned took it back to House Dayne, and so far no one has proven to be skilled enough to wield it as Sword of the Morning.

Makes sense. Thanks.

[Munson]

As for Dawn, I'm pretty sure Ned took it back to House Dayne, and so far no one has proven to be skilled enough to wield it as Sword of the Morning.

Makes sense. Thanks.

I don't remember where I read it, might have been the World of Ice and Fire book that came out last year, but I definitely read somewhere that unlike most great houses and their ancestral swords, the Dayne's only let someone wield Dawn if they're a skilled enough warrior. Could just be a fan theory for all I know, but I know I read it.

Ned definitely brought it back to House Dayne though. I think that's where the rumors that Dayne's sister is Jon Snow's mom started in Westeros.

[QB Eagles]

Yeah I think I read that there were many Swords of the Morning in history, and that Arthur was not necessarily the best of them, just the best swordsman of recent vintage.

I liked the Youtube video but that doesn't mean that I think all that backstory should have been crammed into the show, especially in Season 1. Some of my friends have seen all the episodes and still have serious difficulty just figuring out who all the Starks and Lannisters are. That's one area where I'm fine with the show being the show and the books being the books. And the Histories & Lore part of the BluRay sets (also bootlegged on Youtube) filled in a lot of backstory for me before I read the books. The one flashback the show did, with Cersei and Maggy the Frog, was a fine scene but I don't know that it added anything all that crucial to understanding Cersei. I thought it would have been a neat flourish of writing if the girl with her was revealed to be Elia Martell though, particularly since Cersei asked Maggy when she would marry Rhaegar.

[QB Eagles]

Liked the ep. Can never go wrong with more Reek.

[Eagles_Legendz]

Main GoT sites seemed high on it too, but oddly I didn't like it as much.  Maybe my dislike for Ramsay impacted it.  Still like the Lannisters more so missing Cersei/Jaime drags it for me. 

Did love the beginning Dany scene and Tormund is awesome.

[Munson]

Loved this episode.

Having a semi-nerd out that we got to see the Smoking Sea and Valyria. Everything written or said within the world has said no one sails into the Smoking Sea and makes it out, so pretty crazy that Jorah and Tyrion made it. No idea what the farg Jorah having greyscale is going to mean for the story going forward. Was assuming he'd get back into Dany's good graces and been her Queensguard again, but now it looks like he'll be dying...

Dany's story getting interesting again. Not sure where marrying Lorak is going to go...

Lol, gotta admit I love it when Roose fargs with Ramsey just to give him a taste of his own medicine. The looks he gives Ramsey that is full of curiosity and contempt at the same time are great.

[Eagles_Legendz]

The guy who plays Roose is phenomenal.   Conveys quiet menace and intelligence well.  Ramsay is more annoying to me (not in a fun way like Joffrey was either), but Roose is great.

[QB Eagles]

The guy who plays Roose is phenomenal.   Conveys quiet menace and intelligence well.  Ramsay is more annoying to me (not in a fun way like Joffrey was either), but Roose is great.

TV Roose is one of my favorite characters for sure. He went from being "who the hell is this guy?" when I first saw him hanging out with Robb to a scene stealer every time. Whenever other characters are speaking to each other in the same room as Roose, I just try to imagine what Roose is thinking.

I feel that book Roose has a different feel, somewhat of a vampiric vibe. The TV guy took it in a slightly different direction that is still calculating and evil. The Roose is loose.

[smeags]

ramsey is annoying as farg. i think its by design. would love nothing more then to see reek stick a blade in ramsey's sack and before slicing his throat, say a few kind parting words as he kills that farger.

[QB Eagles]

Legendz: Do you suspect the show is getting all the way through what they're taking from Books 4 and 5 this season, or leaving some pieces for Season 6 (Greyjoys, for example)? [I realize many plots are different to the point where it's difficult to compare the books and show.]

Might be too early to tell, but we are at the halfway point now.

Side note: given how much they hyped the new characters, we've seen astonishingly little of the High Sparrow, Sand Snakes, and Doran. There's just not enough screen time to give proper due to this vast world of characters.

[Eagles_Legendz]

It seems like by the end of this season they will have completed books 4 & 5 (to the extent that they're sticking by them anyway).

Interviews suggested that Benioff & Weiss could really only fit either Dorne OR Iron Islands into the plot and they decided that Dorne was more integral so they sliced the Greyjoys.  I don't think it's the last we've seen of "Yara" but the entire tertiary plot in Feast for Crows pertaining the Greyjoys has been excised apparently, and I wouldn't expect to see it in future seasons.  If you go onto HBO's page for the show, where they detail the family tree, Victarion & Aeron (two of Theon's uncles in the books) aren't listed on there as existing, whereas Euron is.  So maybe we'll get Euron later, but I'm thinking almost all of the book equivalent of the Iron Islands has been tossed (which I'm in favor of, since I thought it was the worst part of the books, but people's mileage varies with that).

I think the faith militant has been, and will continue to be a central plot point this season, so I wouldn't be worried on that front.  This next episode is entitled "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken" (the house motto for the Martells) so I would expect a pretty good dosage of them.  I have confidence that Doran will be portrayed well.  I have less confidence in the Sand Snakes, especially after their introductory scene (I wasn't particularly interested in them in the books either, and their screen translation was even worse).  Hopefully that was just a poorly constructed scene which will be remedied going forward.

[QB Eagles]

I liked the casting choices for Doran and High Sparrow because I was already familiar with those actors, and my feeling is "so far, so good." Especially Pryce, who is just great in that role. I'm hoping the Sand Snakes are less cheesy when D&D and Bryan Cogman are writing their scenes.

Victarion was in the first season family tree, and then removed later. We've already seen an Aeron-like figure, but he was kind of a placeholder. Kind of funny when a nameless person who seems to have attributes of a book character is in the scene. Off the top of my head, we've also seen figures like Jeyne Poole and Maege Mormont at times.