I don’t think the scene with the knife fight was that weak. Valaryian steel is really only supposed to be strong and not need sharpening, not give you magical powers of intense fighting. I’m not sure why this whole crastor problem was in the show in the first place though.
Razgon
5342
To make Brans journey more interesting I’d think.
There was an argument about this on the ASOIAF forums - Jon is pretty good, yes, but he’s not like Jaimie Lannister good. Kind of middling good, in the rankings but not near the top. Sure, he beat Quorin Halfhand, and it wasn’t like Quorin threw the fight, but even that was a close thing.
And compared to the best hired assassin in King’s Landing (as the conceit was), it’s going to be a pretty even match, especially in a confined space with a big ol’ bastard sword against twin daggers. I thought it was pitched right, it reminds us that Jon isn’t invincible.
It’s pitched like the old stories - the king is usually pretty handy with weapons, much better than average, but not the absolute best, he has the absolute best on his team (e.g. King Arthur compared to Sir Lancelot).
I either thought someone from the Night’s Watch was going to bail Jon out (a “well at least I have friends” twist) or Jon was going to do something truly underhanded and deal a wicked cool line way cooler than “How ya like that honor, Dr. Gottlieb? sunglasses”
Sunday’s episode was much better than last week’s. I was really excited for a second and thought the producers were going to throw the books away and have Dany sail to Westeros ASAP. Is she ever going to kick Jorah Mormont out of her entourage? I hope not, 'cause he’s pretty kickass in the show.
edit: Valyrian steel chat. Doesn’t Brienne fight off 2 dudes and GRRM chalks it up to how sweet Valyrian steel is? I think the book casts it as more than just slightly better than regular steel.
I assume they’re going to
[spoiler=]replace Tysha with Shae completely. So Jamie intercepts the ship, hands her over to Tywin. Tywin sends her to wherever whores go. Jamie reveals this to Tyrion when he frees him, prompting their break and subsequent crossbow antics.
It’ll make more sense on TV as well; I had to look up whether they mentioned Tysha in the past (in season 1, apparently?) Tyrion’s “where do whores go” refrain will seem less brain addled, since there’s a better likelihood of finding someone recently carted off than some commoner 10 years ago.[/spoiler]
The books cast the swords as precious heirlooms more than anything else. The steel holds an edge better than normal steel, and presumably lasts longer. Tyrion talks to the smith Tywin brought in to make the two swords, and he notes that there are a few thousand in circulation, but only a few hundred in Westros.
It may be that once the dragons bring magic back to the world, the swords will do something more than simply being hardier than the norm, but at this point in the story it’s just supposed to be a higher-quality metal.
I doubt it. They mentioned Tysha in a couple episodes in Season 1. I presume we’ll see those scenes in a “previously on…” prologue to an episode within a couple weeks.
Pod
5347
I’m always confused about what is and isn’t considered a spoiler in this thread. I hope no TV-show-only people read it :P
I’ve previously read a bunch of supporting evidence, I believe, for Tywin’s secret whoring. Namely that when Varys tells Tyion about the previous hand who had the secret whore tunnel built, he’s telling him about Tywin. I can’t remember much else though.
Personally it didn’t shock me that much: Tyrion is often described as being a lot like Tywin, but instead he keeps his whoring private to keep his name clean. I think he wants to keep his whoring secret for how he treated his father’s whore. Given how ruthless Tywin is in using people for his own gain I don’t see him having much of a problem with using a useless whore such as Shae, possibly after getting some information out of the. She was going to be killed wasn’t she?
“Wherever whores go.” Tyrion warned his father not to say that word. If I had not loosed, he would have seen my threats were empty. He would have taken the crossbow from my hands, as once he took Tysha from my arms. He was rising when I killed him. “I killed Shae too,” he confessed to Varys.
“You knew what she was.”
“I did. But I never knew what he was.”
Varys tittered. “And now you do.”
Shae always seemed concerned with wealth, so I’m not entirely surprised she went for the big Lannister or lied at Tyrion’s trial, especially if she was under threat of death.
Plus, there’s always the pure tinfoil theory about Shae being a plant via Bronn.
Or of Varys hustling her into the bedroom whilst Tywin was on the shitter (doing a poisoned poo?).
Tyrion already gave Shae a golden chain necklace with very large gold links. It was specifically shown to viewers last season.
Shae’s fate is sealed; it always was.
Is she ever going to kick Jorah Mormont out of her entourage? I hope not, 'cause he’s pretty kickass in the show.
I’m thinking not, because I don’t think they ever showed the “three treasons” prophecy. No reason to cut that unless you’re going to cut the treasons.
The books have hinted pretty heavily that Valyrian Steel
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This is the books spoiler thread! Stop with the tags!
I think that assuming that the show won’t “go there” is a bit naive. The show has gone there and taken lengths to go above and beyond going there.
Also, I loved that ending of the book, because the whole book is people shitting on Tyrion while he continues to be be dutiful and nice. The show has done a lot less to make it seem like people hate Tyrion. He is seen as basically a nobody and a fool by everyone in the Lannister family (save Jaime and Cersei). The revenge is too awesome. They both need to die.
Pod
5353
You mean the one with “(HBO)” in the title? :) (yes, the first post mentions spoilers, but how many people will read the first post of hundreds?)
ps: re: the Lysa exposition. Does anyone think this will change how the Moon door plays out? In the books she’s shoved out in part to shut her up. But they’ve already done that.
Plus, the TV show kind of trivialised it – I guess because “Jon Arryn” is a named mentioned in S1E1 and promptly forgotten about, whereas in the books it’s mentioned multiple times with regards to Ned and Robert. Also: The significance of Jon dying is that the entire realm basically went to war because the next Hand was too stupid in the resulting chaos. I felt like that should have been “highlighted” by the show, somehow, possibly with a “This entire war is down to your, comically evil Littlefinger!”.
There is a thread with “No Spoilers” in the title.
She’ll get shoved out. No way that Littlefinger puts up with that shizz for long.
Not quite; when Ned was investigating Jon’s death throughout the bulk of season one, trailing his actions step by step. So it wasn’t just the first episode.
Regarding Valyrian steel, IIRC the dagger that Littlefinger claims to have bet and lost to Tyrion (and subsequently used in Bran’s attempted murder) was made from it as well.
— Alan
Fans of theorized stuff like Dawn’s description kinda/sorta matching what’s been given for Azor Ahai’s sword. How Jon would end up wielding Arthur Dayne’s weapon beats me, though who knows what Ned did with it after the tower of Joy. And of course Howland Reed could’ve been keeping it ‘safe’ all these days, and shows up at the Wall after Melisandre pushes Jon back out of Ghost and tells him that Rhaegar was his true daddy, gives him Dawn, blah blah. Nah, too neat, too easy for GRRM.
olaf
5357
I am pretty sure that Jon is the child of Rhaegar and Lyanna.
Pod
5358
I really hope all of that Azor Ahai crap isn’t true. I hate prophecies. Lots of people on the net are completely invested in the idea though :(
I actually find it kind of funny that the internet is so super obsessed with seeing all the in-book prophecies fulfilled, especially considering the lengths GRRM goes to have characters denigrate the very idea of prophecies.
There IS no “Hand’s Chain” in the show. It was changed to a pin like clasp that Eddard, Tyrion and now Tywin, wears. In the books, they each wore the Hand’s Chain as the symbol of their office. In the show, it’s a chest pin-like thing; a badge.
Can’t use a badge as a ligature. That’s why Tyrion gave Shae the heavy gold chain last season. Her fate is sealed; it always was.
