. . . I don’t give a crap about [spoilers] with this series because the fact that it has existed for so long implies to me that the show is supposed to be good even if you are spoiled . . .
Didn’t notice this earlier. Honestly, I would avoid further spoiling yourself via wikis from here on out. It’s an old series and everything, but I didn’t, for example, read about it on the web back in 2003-ish when I read through the extant series, and I’m glad I didn’t. Hopefully there are still some gigantic plot twists you haven’t spoiled (You can PM what you think you have spoiled if you want confirmation) that you oughtn’t cheat yourself of. Thinking “George, you magnificent bastard!” is one of the joys of these books.
Honestly, from my memory of GoT, KD isn’t much more than that by that point. But I do think you have to acknowledge that compared to her brother a grunting savage rapist who seems to quite like her is a step up.
He’s a touch more nuanced in the book. For instance, in a scene they probably couldn’t shoot because even HBO is going to shy away from something that explicit, their wedding night was not a specifically forceful affair and he went out of his way to…errr…stoke her enthusiasm about the arrangement. In a scene I’m kind of surprised they left out (unless I’ve totally forgotten it), I believe her wedding gift was a horse that she was quite enamored with, and she was authentically grateful for it. Even the whole bending her over and having his way every night wasn’t an entirely uncomfortable experience from her perspective, and some significant amount of her displeasure had as much to do with the fact that she was spending like thirty thousand hours a day in the saddle (where before she had been spending negative time riding a horse) and that apparently exacerbated the situation. He’s not a hero as far as I read by any stretch of the imagination, and getting sold to Conan for an army still sucks a lot, but, and this is important, the turning point in their relationship was not her learning to fuck good.
The horse is also in the book. And so is the slave/prostitute teaching her how to please Drogo - the series has been very faithful to the book although I agree that it moves fast and some things are far more nuanced in the book (I read the books after finishing the series and had several “Oh, that was what that scene meant” experiences… perhaps I’m just a bit slow, though).
Unless you’re the kind of person who has a harder time accepting people being nasty to animals than fellow humans (and if you are, I don’t want to talk to you) then you should accept that the books will make you angry… or put them down. It’s a pretty mean series with plenty of nasty people that don’t get their comeuppance.
Clay
3245
Here’s a cool YouTube video showing some of the CGI and blue/green screen work. Contains TV show spoilers, including the final episode, so don’t watch it if you haven’t seen the entire first season:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkptadiDABo
Athryn
3246
Asha gets a name change, and has been cast:
Gemma Whelan is going to be playing Yara Greyjoy.
I hope to hear news about the other Greyjoy castings. :D
Maniac
3247
Yaaaaarrrrrrrrrr!
Seriously, given she’s a minor character, they should have changed Osha’s name.
I actually avoid those greenscreen things now. The CG is good enough that I forget about it entirely, especially for period productions, and looking behind the curtain sort of ruins that.
Corelli
3249
Maybe I’m not 100% clear on your question, but if your fiction has to reinforce some metaphysical concept of justice or karma, then these books aren’t for you.
I am being vague to avoid spoiling a thing that I know that other people may not know, but if I didn’t know it then it would just be torture dealing with the show until it happened. This is kind of monstrously difficult to talk about. And, of course, what will happen here is they’ll flip the script on me in a bunch of episodes and not do that thing. But, okay, let’s put it this way - after I watched the events that I knew were going to happen in the second episode a few weeks ago, I needed to check what was going on in the present day with a particular character to see if I was down to continue, and I got the answer that I needed.
I think I’ve got the answer that I need, though. I’ll just try not to invest in the books. Maybe I’ll read them like a homework assignment.
For what it’s worth I don’t think GRRM’s universe is some sort of stygian pit of awful behavior and non-existent karma. I get that impression from my instincts about where the series will wind up, who’ll get what deserts, and also, as exhibit B, the “Dunk and Egg” stories, which take place in the same universe but are sort of self-contained with their own “sort of kind of happy endings.”
Unless you’re really extraordinarily sensitive - and you hang out on Qt3 with a bunch of wise-cracking meanies - you’re making this all out to be worse than it is. The books aren’t homework, they’re terrific fun.
Relax. Last I checked, this is the spoiler version of the Game of Thrones show thread. Not sure what the stance is on ADWD in this thread yet, but the other 4 books should be fair game.
Does anyone know why they changed her name?
Equis
3254
It sounds too much like Osha? Who was already introduced in the show.
But you have to remember your name!
olaf
3256
Kind of sounds like Osha and Arya I guess? Not a fan of changing the names but ultimately it does not bother me. Can not wait for this to pick back up again.
Oh. Well. Okay then. What I looked up, which I will note here to clear up my vagary, was what happened with Joffrey, because I wasn’t going to be able to take years of watching him be him without knowing there was some kind of payoff down the line somewhere.
Due to some…miscommunication with my DVR system, I ended up watching all the way through the ninth episode of the season last night (to another big reveal that I knew was going to happen on account of I skip ahead in books a bunch because I’m broken). I gotta say, I think I’m missing something, because the stuff with Conan is coming sort of out of left field fast and hard. I’m guessing that there’s a little more time spent with that in the books, because it seemed like he went from “It’s just a flesh wound” to “My poison nipple is murdering me” in, like, twenty minutes. Maybe I missed a scene somewhere.
roBurky
3258
It happens just as quickly in the book, except the wound isn’t a small cut but big and serious, even though Drogo still thinks its nothing. And you get a bit of narration about how it was being treated and so on before he falls off his horse, so it’s not a complete surprise when he falls ill. I know some non book readers had forgotten all about the wound when that happened on TV.
He used the phrase “much and more” in answer to a question. Words are wind, george!
I loved his point about what the internet does to plot point (I’m looking at you steel_wind, from the Dance with Dragons thread).
