They’re not going to go beyond 10 mainly for production reasons. Making 10 episodes alone eats up most of the calendar year with pre-production, shooting and post. They’ve said going to even 12 would require > 1 year when it’s all said and done.
Book 3 is Seasons 4 and 5. Roughly. They’re not adhering to a strict rule of 1 book = 1 season. As we’ve seen, events will be shifted between books as need be. They’re adapting the entire story, not the books per se.
Books 4 and 5 will be melded together to keep the timeline in sync, and will probably make up Seasons 5 and 6. Odds are those also take two years. The obvious hope is that Book 6 will be out by Season 4, which gives GRRM two years to get Book 7 done in time. Sure, it sounds optimistic, but that’s what they’re aiming for.
Weak episode tonight (again). Looks like next week should be a good one, though.
Add the Halfhand to incompetent rangers.
Catelyn’s motivation for releasing Jaime was seriously undermined by the show’s edits. And so easily avoided.
Tywin comes off as scared of Robb. Changing Jeyne also weakens just how shrewd Tywin was since he manipulated that situation in the first place.
Cunt was apparently this episode’s buzzword.
Still looking forward to next episode. At least we got some Varys in this one.
Unless she is a spy and her real name is Jeyne.
Toohoo
4005
(episode 8 spoilers)
Does a clash of kings have more development on why the hell Catalyn would free Jaime Lannister? I don’t understand why she would do that, even in her grief, why would Jaime keep to his word? Because Brienne is with him? Surely if he has to go to King’s Landing anyway, one of Catalyn’s guards wouldn’t make a difference. It’s in interesting idea, i just can’t figure how it works logically. I guess maybe that was the point.
Book 2 spoilers incoming!
IIRC, Cat released Jamie after learning of Theon killing Bran and Rickon so know that she believes she is down a husband and 2 sons so she’s a bit more desperate to get what’s left of her family safe and close to her.
Yeah, I tend to think Catelyn should have been emphasizing ‘These idiots were going to kill him, giving you nothing in this war. At least I have sent him for a trade, giving you Arya and Sansa back.’
With as much as has been cut in the show, I was surprised to see the horn on the Fist of the First Men - maybe it is actually meaningful.
Cat hasn’t been misinformed yet about Bran and Rickon because they accelerated Theon’s story from the books, so her reasoning appears a lot weaker. She even mentions that she “has five children and only one of them is free” or something to that effect.
I was all over the place with this episode. One the one hand, I’m relieved to see that they’ll still play out the Jon/Qhorin fight at some point as it’s pivotal to Jon’s motivations for the rest of the story. I was also glad to see Bran and Rickcon back under the castle where they should be, but minus Jojen and Meera. While it’s possible the Crannogmen may appear later to help Bran and Rickon survive post-Winterfell, it looks more and more like they are casualties of the editing neccessary to keep the TV show storyline cohesive. It was also good to see the interplay between Brienne and Jaime, as that is instrumental in the events to come for both characters.
On the flip side, Arya escaping with Hotpie and Gendry by using Jaqen was a total departure (made neccessary by the change to the Harrenhall plotline) but omits one very important bit of Arya’s storyline from the books, the point at which she herself has to kill a guard to compelte the escape. Arya isn’t Arya without that particular bit of character development. In the same vein we have Catelyn, whose motivations for freeing Jaime seem somewhat foolish given that she herself lets us know she has no idea Bran and Rickon are dead. In the book she’s lost Ned, Bran and Rickon already, Winterfell has fallen, she fears Robb could be lost at any moment given his tenuous situation and she desperately wants her daughters back so she can hang onto some semblence of her former life. In the show it now looks more like Catelyn simply thinks she knows better than Robb or maybe Jaime has played her somehow, her justification for her actions is now far weaker than it was in the books. I don’t really understand why this is either, as it would have been a 30 second scene to show news arriving in Robb’s camp that Bran and Rickon were dead, and he and his mother’s grief over said news. The Talisa/Jeyne stuff doesn’t even bother me anymore, since it’s all moot in the end anyway. Even Dany’s manipulation of Jorah’s feelings for her this episode (which is something she took great pains NOT to do in the books) didn’t really faze me that much, as they’ve totally re-written her character and motivations already anyway.
Man, that was a lot longer than I intended. Basically, I don’t HATE the TV version of the story, I just think it lacks depth in a few key places where it needed depth to make us feel the way were supposed to feel about main characters. Other than that the edits have actually made for a much better and tighter story, one which I think non-readers can follow a hell of a lot easier than if they tried to squeeze everything in from the books. It’s also BETTER in many places. I loved the Tywin-Arya scenes, I think we’re getting a much better Stanis-Davos relationship feel, Theon is benefitting from the simplification of his story, and I cannot get enough Tyrion and Bronn. They need to team up for a spinoff show where they share a castle with Jaime, “Two and a Halfman”.
I guess Tyrion’s chain is out? That sucks. I really liked that bit in the books.
Entertainment Weekly has and interview with D&D about the making of the Blackwater episode.
Nothing earth shattering in it, but some interesting behind-the-scenes details and at the very end there is an HBO Trailer for the episode.
Interesting tidbit:
“This whole story of Blackwater goes back to the first season because we were supposed to have that battle with Tyrion and we ended up not able to shoot it. And so we had him go down to friendly fire early.”
Interesting that the original Blackwater director had to drop out last second due to a family emergency. While Neil Marshall can be very up and down, he does have a lot of experience doing action on a budget.
It does suck that Alan Taylor got the Thor 2 gig. He’s easily the show’s best director. Enough they gave him the season premiere and finales this year, as well as a Consulting Producer title. They could bring back Tim Van Patten. There is a lot of unwarranted criticism for what he did last year. Yeah, his episodes were the “slowest”, but that’s because he had to introduce everything and everyone. In that light, he did a pretty good job.
rowe33
4014
The Mountain That Tips Over in a Stiff Wind…man, I can’t get over how much the new Mountain bothers me. He looked just like any other soldier sitting at the table in last night’s episode. His fight against the Viper is one of my favorite book moments and I can’t help but think what a huge letdown it’s going to be. This is supposed to be the strongest man in the entire realm, not just a tall guy who weighs 225 lbs. soaking wet.
I hope Tyrion’s chain still comes into play next week - it really seems like it might, given his intense research into defense techniques, etc. They already took away the wildfire idea from him so not having the chain would be a dramatic departure.
I’m bummed about Arya’s escape too…the whole way the 3rd name played out felt very wrong, then she doesn’t even have to kill a guard on the way out. This episode felt like a step backwards for her character.
I did like the little moment between Theon and Asha. I can’t wait for him to get his due at the hands of Ramsay though.
I doubt we’re going to see that fight. I have absolutely zero evidence or inside knowledge whatsoever, but I suspect we’ll see very little of Dorne, the Sand Snakes, the Red Viper, etc. The show already has a crapload of characters and locations, and my suspicion is that they will cut the whole thing out except for exposition.
I thought it was a pretty well-done scene. Arya thought that she was trading a murder for an escape, but instead she caused the deaths of several people (albeit no-name guards). I kind of miss the “Weasel Soup” thing too, but as an overall plot-arc and character development arc, I thought this worked very well.
She did not bklieve Jaime would keep to his word; however, she did believe that Tyrion would keep his. A shrewd bet, except that Tyrion was no longer Hand by the time Jaime finally arrived – and Sansa was no longer a Stark.
jason
4017
It isn’t simply trading a murder for an escape, she’s asking him for lives, because all the prisoners are likely to be killed eventually, and to keep the balance he has to take them.
I think we will. Given how I believe the third season will end, I think we will be introduced to Dorne and the various factions in season four. I wouldn’t be surprised if they introduce both the Viper and much of the beginning stuff from Feast in season four, as they start to blend timelines and such.
EDIT: Especially since we’ll have some character spots open up.
I don’t think that Jaqen really works that way; he’s not some mystical accountant of death.
He was specifically concerned with the consequences of denying the Red God/Lord of Light his due – the three of them were going to die in a fire, very specifically the Red God’s dominion – and for whatever reason, Jaqen felt it necessary to balance the books on that one, possibly because the Red God’s influence in Westros and/or through dragons is on the rise. [though as other have pointed out, he’s not killing his victims through fire, so… there’s that]
By contrast, I don’t think that Jaqen is particularly concerned with pissing off the god of prisoner executions. I think he killed the guards and pinned them up because it was the easiest way to get everyone out. Also: good television.
Assuming of course, that the entire reason for Jaqen being there from the very first was NOT to gain the trust of – and recruit – Arya Stark into the House of Black and White.
