Okay so I guess I’ll fire up this thread since interest in the series is coming to a nice froth and we’re getting complaints in the original thread from folks who have and have not read the series. So we’ll split 'em up into the original, which should be plot-spoiler-free (but not episode-spoiler-free after the original air date) and this thread where you can go gonzo.
The thing about GRRM saying “Ned is the central character in this series” in the Making Of is probably a bit of a sly remark given that his death is a bit of an impact on nearly everything else that happens and of course GRRM doesn’t want to give anything away. Since it is kinda shocking.
To riff off the posts that launched this thread, I’d maintain that Ned really is the central character in Game of Thrones… for about half the book. Then Martin upends the neat plot apple cart the reader has been building in his or her mind. Which is what creates the “did I just read THAT WTF??” moment.
So I’m guessing they’ll do something similar, maybe extending it little further than in the book, leading viewers who haven’t read the book to believe that Ned is going to escape / get rescued.
Ned is as good as dead. An obvious appeal for Sean Bean in it’s not a long-term commitment like most series.
D&D have too much reverence for the source material for such a huge departure. I doubt GRRM would have blessed it either. A live Ned fucks up all ensuing storylines.
So now the original thread, which is already full of spoilers, is the non spoiler thread, and this new thread, is instantly full of spoilers. I dunno what you’re accomplishing here. The new thread should’ve been non-spoiler.
There’s a better shot of him from the side in the latest video, you can see half his face is scarred. He’s also holding his hound helm, it looks pretty cool
Doesn’t stop you from making a labeled non-spoiler thread. Although, since all promotional materials are spoilers for non-aired episodes, it doesn’t make sense to start a non-spoiler thread until there are aired episodes to discuss.
As for Ned, if he doesn’t meet his end, that’s a deviation that would destroy pretty much the entire series. As source material they’d have to basically throw out the rest of the books. I suppose they could do that, and they might retain new viewers, but I can’t think of a single fan of the books who would want to watch knowing that it would be so radically different.
IMHO, it’s best if you bugger off the thread then :) No huge deal, but it simply becomes unmanageable if we have to be careful of spoilers in a spoiler thread. The alternative is to make a thread for people who read only CoK, etc etc etc, but that way lies madness. If people want to discuss how some plot point change in the series might affect some related thing in book 5, for example, how the hell are they supposed to do that?
I’m not personally worried about spoilers. I’ve read the books several times. I just don’t understand why there are two spoiler threads now. There’s no way a person who hasn’t read the books could read that other thread and NOT know that Ned is killed. So we will now have one spoiler thread marked ‘spoilers’ and one unmarked. And presumably a third marked no spoilers. Well, whatever.
I don’t think Ros is going to be his permanent love interest(Shae is also cast), and I don’t think they’re redoing his back story. Littlefinger is going to have a newly created plotline wherein he deals with his brothels, and I think she will interact mainly on that plotline. This is good because Littlefinger is barely in the books at all past book one, and thus Aiden Gillen needs something to do.
