6001

We all knew this was going to happen, but now it is happening and I can’t deal.

6002

While I agree, and I’m not a hater of the last two book like most, I have to concur with the sentiment that GRRM went off the rails in them - specifically by the introduction of so many ancillary plot elements that seem superfluous to the story as a whole and ultimately are there just so he can fill more thousand page books. I’m hoping the show cuts all of that, and just gets on with seeing the original storyline through to the end. Which is should, and indeed seems like, it’s doing. I don’t want the books spoiled either but GRRM had more than enough time to wrap this up.

6003

I don’t have HBO but I have watched pretty much every episode of the show. However, I really have no desire to keep watching as I know it will ruin the book experience for me. Thing is I know that when the show does wrap up there is no way I will be able to avoid the media frenzy that will follow. It will ruin the book experience. And while the first three books are pretty good I don’t think I could re-read books 4-5.

6004

My predictions for where this is going (without any research on the spoiled shows - just analysis of the released trailers, and what not:

The person replacing the Kettleblacks

is Olyvar. Which is why he got some precious screen time - he has to accuse both of the Tyrell children. Does Cersei seduce him first? Probably.

Sansa is betrothed to

Ramsey Snow. BUT, she is doing this as Littlefinger’s daughter Alayne - with a host of Vale knights at her command. Not the best play for Littlefinger, at face value.

I want to see a fan reaction video if, based on the above, Theon

saves Sansa from a rape by stabbing Ramsay in the back.

That lovable princess Shireen

is going to burn, burn, burn in the fires. Note that she has both king’s blood and dragon’s blood in her. She is a stone dragon. The prince who was promised can be born from her death.

Based on the preview for next week, the high priest

of the seven sure appears to be buggering something he is not supposed to. And then gets cast down for it. Opening the way for the introduction of the High Sparrow.

Other notes - I would have loved the reveal to Arya to have been her Dancing Master.

It is a damn shame we didn’t have a Hot Pie sighting at that Inn.

I honestly have no idea where Yarra shows back up in this storyline now . . .

6005

For me, Book 4 improved a great deal on the second read, and I think I’m close to re-reading Book 5 simply because I’m starting to fuzz-out on some of the details now that the show is moving into that same territory.

6006

Well, in the books she gets imprisoned by Stannis’ army and marched off to Winterfell, where she meets a nasty creature by the name of Reek, and doesn’t even recognize who her brother has become.

The Theon/Reek storyline was amazing in the books, only because you weren’t told who Reek was, and you assumed he was one of Ramsay’s playthings. (as he was before) and that Theon basically became Reek throughout the torture. Like Asha, you figure out how “reek” came to be, and that is what Theon actually is on your own in an “oh shit” moment that they didn’t end up doing in the series. Asha(Yara) and Theon have already met on the show in what seems to be end of the Greyjoy’s storyline in the show for now.

6007

Last year, the Free HBO weekend showed the entire series to date, and in one massive binge-watch, I got entirely caught up (had the first season on Blu-ray). So, figuring to save money, I didn’t sign up for HBO, figuring they’d do another series recap. And one binge-watch weekend later (did Daredevil when the free weekend was actually on), I’m all caught up to the first episode of this season.

Book four was where Martin let the events and characters spin entirely out of control, with way too many characters doing way too much pointless wandering. I figured I’d be equally disappointed by the back half of this (book five), but personally found that he was actually finally funneling the various threads together again as the plots necessarily begin to converge in time and space. I’m still afraid he is going to wake up one day and have a heart attack, or horrific diabetes, or suffer a stroke - old and obese combined with a pace that makes glaciers look fast does not fill me with confidence. But book five felt like he was reigning in his story to something that might actually, vaguely, be channeling towards an eventual conclusion. Lots of reigning in, admittedly.

So, $10 a month to keep up, or just wait a year and binge watch?

6008

Isn’t part of the fun of a tv phenomenon like GoT the water cooler aspect? For me, I’d rather watch it in realtime along with everyone else.

6009

To me, George R R Martin might as well be Robert Jordan 2.0. Jordan didn’t have a popular TV series based on Wheel of Time (and Martin doesn’t have a condition like Jordan did), but he did assure fans he would finish the series. I am having a hard time being optimistic that Martin will finish the books, and even if he does…I’m not sure I’ll want to read them. Reading some of the comments here about the show versus the books got me thinking. A friend of mine who is also a fan of the series (books and show) likened them to Fullmetal Alchemist vs Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I’m really excited to see what happens on the show, more than I’d like to admit because much of it is new, but once the story is ‘done’, I don’t think I could bring myself to read the books…even for nostalgia.

6010

I think he’ll finish it, lifespan permitting. But I tend to doubt he’ll have the sixth book finished in time for the entirety of next season to be filmed from it (maybe rough form for the latter chapters). The seventh? No way in hell. Maybe he’ll give them an outline to work from, and maybe work backwards from the ending so that it ends up the way he wants it, but beyond that? I sincerely doubt it.

But that’s HBO’s problem in the end. It’s like trying to get some analysis paralysis board gamers I know to play a little faster - the more you push, the slower they go.

6011

You know what I really miss from the books that isn’t in the show? All of the warging stuff in the books. The Stark kids having dreams of wolves, Ghost being a super badass, etc. That was a huge part of the books, the kids and their connection with their direwolves. Arya has dreams of Nymeria (who is still alive, murderin’ fools in the riverlands) a whole bunch while in Bravos, maybe we will see some of that, but I doubt it.

I would highly recommend reading the books if you haven’t, as they have an incredible depth that the show scratches the surface of.

6012

I said something similar about 150 pages back. It’s a common (and warranted) comparison.

6013

By the time the sixth book comes out the show will have made most of it superfluous.

6014

Well, Jordan and GRRM are both writers of epic fantasies. Jordan’s books were very sophomoric and trite though.

6015

I think it’s too late for book six to influence season six in any meaningful fashion. Scripts for next season are already probably through a couple drafts, and location scouting and casting is probably underway. This stuff takes time.

6016

But what of Jamie and Bronn?
Book shit

The character they are replacing in ADWD’s Dorne mission got GRRM’d something fierce. Since Book Jamie’s story ends riding off towards implied doom anyways and Show Bronn has basically been living on borrowed time, could it EVEN end well for either of them?

6017

But we don’t need to worry too much - both B&W and GRRM have said that B&W are privy to the essential resolutions that GRRM has in mind, and they’ve promised to carry them out in the event of the show outrunning the books. So while there’s going to be lots of stuff (like some of the “roadshows”) that isn’t in the books, the basic story is going to be the same.

Which of course is only a problem if you want to hold off watching the tv show from now, so as not to be spoiled, and you’re now in limbo not knowing how long GRRM’s going to take to finish the books. But #firstworldproblems and all that :)

6018

I’m struggling to see how the Sansa plotline makes any sense at all. Delivering Sansa to Bolton (instead of to Cersei) pretty much burns the bridge with Cersei. Up until this point, he had plausible deniability regarding Joffrey’s death and Sansa’s disappearance but that’s gone. The idea that Baelish wouldn’t know about Ramsay’s psychopathy also is hard to swallow.

If I was Roose Bolton, naturally I’d be thrilled that Sansa showed up on my doorstep. But, Petyr Baelish saying that this brings some type of alliance from the Vale? Uh, what? Petyr doesn’t control Robert Arryn since he left him with Lord Royce and the other lords of the Vale cannot stand Baelish. They only played nice with Baelish because he was a) married to Lysa and b) he had Robert Arryn as a hostage. Neither of those are true anymore. Royce effectively rules the Vale now. He’s going to rally the Vale to ally with Bolton? That’s a ludicrous claim and an admirable bluff - but Bolton isn’t stupid, why would he believe something like that.

Also, shouldn’t Baelish be a little concerned that Stannis isn’t on Dragonstone anymore? Everyone in KL seems to be stupid and doesn’t mention it but surely Baelish knows this.

So, I’m a little surprised that Roose Bolton doesn’t just execute Baelish on the spot. He’s completely untrustworthy and he has no allies. Baelish’s only piece to play was Sansa since leaving the Vale and now he is giving that up. You’d have to be insane to let Baelish send a message to Cersei Lannister. If you want to be left alone in the North then you don’t spit on King’s Landing.

Maybe there are some nuances that I’ve missed but I don’t get how Baelish’s moves make any sense to advance his agenda and I don’t see why Bolton would want to accommodate Baelish at all. Sure, take Sansa and marry her to Ramsay - but leaving Baelish alive seems like a mistake to me. Baelish’s last allies were Lannisters and Highgarden. The Vale isn’t going to care if you kill him and Cersei Lannister may actually thank you for it.

I’m disappointed about how much they’ve changed Varys into basically just comic relief for his scenes thus far this season. Varys is supposed to be a long term strategist of the first rank. He’s just sitting in the carriage doing nothing at all? Shouldn’t he at least be writing or reading? He’s not supposed to be on this continent at all but now they have put him here and they don’t know what to do with him.

Oh, and “Edd, fetch me a block” is just better than “Olly, get my sword.” Why change that piece of dialogue? Keeping the former is a good piece of fan service. I don’t understand that change at all other than some pinhead writer wanting to put his own thumbprint on someone else’s work.

6019

I don’t disagree with you on several points, but why should he care if he burns a bridge with Cersei or not? The lannisters are weaker, now, her uncle, her daughter-in-law, everyone around Cersei seems to recognize her power is slipping. I would think Bealish would see that too.

6020

But Baelish seemed to transfer at least some of his childhood affections for Cat to her daughter, so it still doesn’t make sense handing her over to the family that uses the symbol of a flayed body as their sigil.