rowe33
4081
Wow, not only that but the Reeds too…and the Blackfish…and of course Beric and Thoros! Also Stannis’ daughter but no mention of Patchface. Guess he’s not utterly critical to the plot.
The popular choice is obviously Maggie Smith, though I wonder if she’d be interested. I believe Downton films earlier in the year, so scheduling shouldn’t be too much of an issue. (And they have short seasons, anyway). And she’s been in the press about wanting to be written out soon. Though does that mean she doesn’t want to do TV anymore?
Or, we trust in the casting department.
This is rather unexpected. I thought for sure that since we hadn’t seen Stannis’ daughter and wife yet, they had been written out. Same with the Reeds.
We sorta see Stannis’ wife at the burning of the Seven. She’s next to him, and walks off with him, but no good look at her. And they were pretty clear that Stannis wants a son, but that totally leaves having a daughter.
The Reeds are surprising. It seemed like Osha would be the one to take Bran North, but with them there, it looks like Osha takes Rickon.
I wonder if this is one of those cases where GRRM told D&D that they would definitely need the Reeds for some important event. Or, the other case, that Osha and Rickon had to go to their hiding place for Davos’ story.
rowe33
4086
Well now this casting talk has me remembering that we only have one episode left, then a loooong wait for all the season 3 greatness. It’ll be interesting to see how they split everything between 3 and 4.
Screw the new season 3 people, I just want to see Belwas for the finale!
I think the show works best when it’s focusing on fascinating characters with interesting dialogue, and it’s awkward when it focuses on porn and faces being cut in half. I haven’t read the books, but if the descriptions are like that - I have to say I think that’s juvenile writing.
But the characters are interesting, even though someone like Tyrion is a bit over-the-top and “for effect” for my tastes.
I really like the more quiet moments between some of them, like the interplay between Cersei and Tyrion, Daenerys and Jorah - and the like.
Lots of good actors doing great parts.
The battle scene had a bad rhythm to it, and was clearly more than the budget could effectively deal with. I’d almost prefer not showing these battles at all. But the green explosion thingy was well done, I found.
Major Spoiler and ill be vague
Because of what Howland Reed might know.
To be honest, I have to believe season four is going to combine elements of books 3, 4 and 5. At this point, the plot lines are just going to run where they need to run. In short, the book people will start to get cognitive dissonance as they watch the show and try to neatly line things up (which would be a mistake).
Just scanning bits of the thread to avoid spoilers, but agree with this wholeheartedly. It all felt very awkward. The battle outside the gate looked like about 20 guys on the ground and 10 guys on the wall. I can’t believe they couldn’t CGI this up just a bit to give it some scale. Certainly some of the money spent on those ridiculous mannequins they used for the over the top cutting-in-half stuff could have been better spent.
Explosion was pretty cool.
Agree that the character stuff is the point of this show, and any time they try to do anything “big” it just comes off as looking cheap.
I thought the battle scene worked great, for what it was.
In my view, with a one hour episode, I don’t really need to see 10,000 extras(a computer generated cartoon) fighting. All those extras are no name, faceless entities taking time away from the characters I’m invested in. Who cares what sword guy #3555 is doing with siege guy #4235? I’ll never see or hear about either of them ever again.
On the other hand, I did want to see what Bronn/Joffrey/Tyrion/etc do. I want to see what this intense experience brings out in them. This battle scene did just that. Sure, we don’t see what Bronn did after fighting those guys, but I feel like I already saw enough of Bronn’s part in the battle that I got what I needed out of it in terms of character insight. I don’t need to follow him, or anyone else, step by step through the entire thing.
And I, for one, would have felt cheated if they didn’t have people getting hacked up. This is supposed to be brutal, medieval melee fighting. Someone’s going to get hacked, come on!
My fear is that Oberyn Martell is written out of the TV show, and this conversation is a preview of Bronn fighting the Mountain who Moves.
My personal belief is that we always forget Joffrey is the king and a schemer on his own right. GRRM never points the finger his way, but it makes a ton of sense for Joffrey to request that his annoying uncle not survive the battle.
Benhur
4094
But then how would Alexander Siddig play The Red Viper?
Kidding! I can’t believe they would leave out The Red Viper, whoever plays him, though I would like to see more Bronn than what’s in the books.
I’ll be intentionally vague.
There are some fan theories around what is a major plot point that kinda requires the input of a member of house Reed. So establishing those characters now would make sense.
FWIW the plot point is not resolved in the books yet.
Scuzz
4096
Why be vague about rumors and theories? This is a spoilers thread anyway.
Oh, we all have been lusting for Howland Reed to make an appearance. All those answers that he knows!!! But I’d think they could manage to work him in even if they didn’t add his kids to the show. He’s lord of Greywater Watch.
I have to say, George looks fairly svelte in the picture with that article.
At least compared with older photos of the guy. I also took some heart from one quote in there:
SI: Yes, your fans are known to be very… anxious. If you had to bet, which will happen first: Your next book is published? Or your Jets win a Super Bowl?
MARTIN: Probably my next book.
[B]SI:[/B] You sound defeated.
[B]MARTIN:[/B] I have to have the next book out in less than five years. And I think the Jets have taken a step back.
Hurrah! Book six out before 2017!
That would really suck. They are saying that Oberyn Martell has been cast so, there’s hope that’s not the case.
My personal belief is that we always forget Joffrey is the king and a schemer on his own right. GRRM never points the finger his way, but it makes a ton of sense for Joffrey to request that his annoying uncle not survive the battle.
I suppose Joffrey’s attempt on Bran would be consistent with that, although I think that particular piece of work is about the most subtle thing that Joffrey ever did on his own. Since he was crowned he generally will just shout “seize him and kill him” whenever he wants someone dead.
It’s been awhile since I’ve read ACOK, but I think it’s also difficult to exclude Baelish as someone that might have known a way to pull Moore’s strings to get him to kill Tyrion.
