rowe33
3881
Isn’t the camp follower just Jeyne We sterling in disguise? Still a change from the book but I don’t think they’ve changed the character completely.
I keep thinking that’s going to be her reveal; she’s nobility indeed.
Remember, Jeyne’s grandmother was probably the foreign Maegi who gave Cersei her prophecy. And what did the camp follower say her last name was last night? It sure sounded close to Maegi.
I’m going by the assumption that she is indeed Jeyne incognito. She’s definitely not who she says she is.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially if the New Girl ends up being an agent of Tywin Lannister.
Losing the Blackfish is a shame – in the books, the heroic & gay character was a good contrast to the effete & gay Renly. But since Renly was fleshed out a bit more in the series along with Loras, that contrast doesn’t need to be made so much.
All the other Tullys are secondary at best. Hoster and his “Tansy” stuff, Edmure’s tactical blunders… we’re not missing much by cutting that out.
I think we’ll still see them. They were referenced last week, we did see the Lightning Lord briefly last season, and they don’t really get any true “story time” until Storm of Swords anyway.
We’re going to need the Brotherhood, or else they have to cut out Lady Stoneheart altogether, and that’s just too big to cut. At the very least, Thoros of Myr has to be introduced.
They are not going to cut Stoneheart. Michele Fairley has been a success and the opportunity for this Dead Hand from the Grave to do great harm to the Freys – and great cathartic glee from viewers - is too appealing. Plus we don’t know where the Stoneheart story is all going at this stage, given that Brienne’s tale was not continued on ADwD.
My strong bet is they keep it.
Which is basically what I just said.
Does anyone know what the episode title refers to in the episode? I’m getting the feeling something got cut, because I can’t recall anyone referring to the old gods or the new gods.
So if they’re going to have Osha sleep with Theon (was that in the books?), why not just have her slit his throat while she’s there? Seems odd that she would kill a guard but not Theon.
Oh, I don’t think GRRM with an editor is a bad thing.
Just worried about Jon’s direction - and one way or the other that will be resolved this week. We’ll see.
rowe33
3890
I don’t get this either. There’s no reason not to kill him here. They’re obviously going to hunt her down anyways for taking the boys. Maybe some strange wildling code kept her from doing it - who knows?
Knowing what’s going to happen, it’s probably a good thing that she didn’t slit his throat. Theon gives up the chase for the boys partly out of desperation and partly because his heart just isn’t into killing his Stark semi-siblings. That doesn’t really explain Osha’s internal logic for not killing him right then, but who knows? Maybe she just wanted to put on some clothes and get the heck away? Maybe Theon really romanced her something fierce?
Maybe that guard is still outside, and maybe you don’t want to be in the hallway when that guard does a look-in on his charge and finds him lying in blood.
Doesn’t really matter.
Dave47
3893
We had already seen that there was at least one Ironborn guarding Theon, and Osha needed time to prepare Hodor, Bran, and Rickon to flee. Killing a guard at the exit is very different from beginning your escape attempt by murdering the most prominent of your castle’s occupiers.
The dumbest thing about the Theon and Osha scene was that Theon would fall asleep with her in the room to begin with. She’s a wildling, an unpredictable and untrustworthy woman who would happily stick you with any of the readily available sharp objects in the room while you were sleeping. Why would you not banish her the minute you were done with the sexy fun time? Even Theon isn’t that stupid.
Still, I’m willing to forgive a lot in exchange for seeing one of my favorite book series on television, and done so right in so many ways as well. My only real worry is that they are changing some stuff that seems petty now, but actually lays the groundwork for major character motivations later on, and that could prove sticky to write their way out of.
The Arya scenes last night were fantastic. I actually like that they’ve put her with Tywin Lannister, as they’ve had some really great scenes together. At one point last night it felt like the two characters were connecting, sharing a mutal respect for one another that transcended the fact that at least one of them knew the other was an enemy. It brought out a more human facet in both characters.
I don’t read the books so none of the departures bothered me (as far as I know) but I found the direction of action sequences was really lacking, the chase through the snowy tundra was confusing and dull, the dart to the neck was dumb and really off tone and the riot around Joffrey just felt so contained, there was a big huge corridor between the mob and the royals as if the extras had been told “don’t go past this point”.
I’m of two minds about the Tywin stuff.
Hear me out: I know it’s good TV, it appeals to me as well. But there was a real economy to the character of Tywin in the books - the positive aspects of his character and his respect and care for his family members were doled out by the teaspoon, and he was a frequently off-scene character casting a looming shadow.
That was part of what enabled him to be a bit like Michael Corleone at the end of the end of his development arc - the victim/perpetrator of an auto-humanity-dectomy, charismatic, imposing, oddly pitiable. The ambiguity of his cruelty towards Tyrion and others - “how much is he an embittered pessimistic leader/patriarch, and how much is he just a nasty asshole” - sort of evoked Siân Phillips’ Livia in I Claudius for me as well, another of my favourite villains.
“Developing his character” is well and good but it sort of necessarily makes decisions about just what sort of person he is that were left under a broody shadow in the novels.
It going to be weird filling in books 3-5 as whole seasons. Are there plans to combine the timelines.
Bran doesn’t have anything to do for pretty much the next few years until he turns into a tree. I assume that they are going to send Osha with bran to sub in for brother and sister. So what happens to Ricken then? Is he just going to take off by himself to cannibal ilse?
It will be interesting how they play the theon /bastard of bolton relationship. It seems like they missed the oppertunity to do the reek thing. Did theon come up with the idea of killing the millers kids and claiming it was the stark boys or was that reek?
I am pretty pleased that the Boltons are actually going to be included after all – I figured that the Iron Men were going to do double-duty somehow.
Yes, it was Ramsey/Reek who suggested killing the miller’s kids.
After re-watching the episode while awake, I think that Jon Snow’s little adventure with Ygritte is pre-planned by the Half-Hand. The other Rangers’ disappearance and the whole stupid idea of everyone else leaving the area so that Snow could execute her in private is too contrived – it’s either a plan or really, really bad writing.
Kadayi
3899
Chortles
Indeed. Interested to see how that plays out. I doubt Tywin is going to be pleased knowing there’s an assassin on the lose in Harrenhal.
Not too sure why people are wigging over the departures from the books. There was never much reason for Dany to goto the house of the undying in the story. She just went because she didn’t have anything better to do. Now she has motive. TV series is an adaptation not a faithful recreation. What people might accept on the page doesn’t necessarily work on the small screen.
I expect they will keep Osha and Rickon with Bran until they reach the wall, then split Osha off.
Gives some time for Bran to riff off of her and work on his greenseer abilities.
