THE GAME OF THRONES/ASOIAF SPOILER THREAD (WARNING: SPOILERS)

Mackenzie Crook as Ramsay Snow Bolton could actually be genius.

Theon isn't in book 3, but the producers are going to include him next year, so I assume we'll get Ramsay too.

More casting: http://winteriscoming.net/2012/07/season-three-casting-announced/

Looks like they recast Beric after all, though he's supposed to be all chewed up and unrecognizable in his reappearance in the books.

Surprised that they went with a well-known actress for Queen of Thorns who wasn't Maggie Smith or Judi Dench. I'd expected a no-name stage actress.

And this from the other thread:

also *sigh*...so many new bloody characters. A bunch need to die quickly.

had me lolling.

same

apparently Mance Rayder's not cast yet

Also - Tobias Menzies (Brutus from Rome) is Edmure!

From a few days ago:

Filming starts Friday night in Northern Ireland on the most famous scene of “Games of Thrones” — the Red Wedding.

And, according to a casting notice, the show is looking for amputees to act as extras in the bloody episode.

“Seeking LEG ONLY, MALE AMPUTEES,” reads the notice posted on an Irish casting Web site.

Interested actors are required to send “a clear description regarding where your limb is missing eg. at knee, at ankle, etc.”

Bring on the bodies.

I saw that. It's going to be the penultimate episode of the season. GRRM is doing one script, but not for that episode.

The Red Wedding takes pace about 2/3rds of the way through the book, no?

Well, the stuff in Slaver's Bay is probably going to be all over the place and the sheer amount of shit that follows the Red Wedding plus the need to set up stuff for AFFC/ADWD (Dorne's not even going to be in s3) and the need to flesh out more of the series mythos/~mysteries should make it work out I think.

Not looking forward to the Robb/Grey Wind Frankensteining. :\

Maybe for all the Dorne stuff, they can do like a spinoff, so we can get all the Swarthy Sexiness while we wait for the main stories to resume.

The Gashlycrumb Westerosi

nice!

And referring to my post the other day, more on the filming of, you know, THAT scene.

Maps!

http://io9.com/5954289/at-last-official-maps-of-george-rr-martins-lands-from-westeros-to-qarth

Time to update my gps.

Although knowing my gps it would keep telling me to make a left turn directly into The Wall.

http://www.windsofwinterrelease.com/can-asoiaf-be-finished-in-two-books/

Balon Swann and Obara’s Hunt for Darkstar
Sounds like a Yes/Dead collaboration.

that page is actually super useful, i won't have to reread all the books when the next one is finally out again

omg i dont remember any of that shit

I can't conceive of this guy finishing this stuff elegantly or within any of our lifetimes

Especially since he has been having emo meltdowns over the Jets.

I've enjoyed the series so far, but am reserving judgment until it's done because he'll either wrap it up with some kind of mindblowing ending that will tie together all the strands in a way you never saw coming, or he'll fail miserably and it will end as a nonsensical mess. Right now, either is fairly likely, but books 4 and 5 made me think he's drifting toward the latter option.

5 definitely an improvement on 4, in terms of not being mostly quite boring, but the narrative momentum remains incredibly slow compared to the first three.

huh, totally passed me by that it was supposedly jaqen who killed pate and then assumed his identity

Yeah, what? Don't even remember any hints that that had happened.

Yeah the description of the guy who kills pate is essentially identical to the description of jaqen's new identity in the last arya chapter in aCoK.

Baelor the Blessed, you need a long memory to keep up with this.

Who the eff is Pate.

Yeah, srsly though, I don't think anyone on ILX deciphered that connection, we are not supernerds or anything.

Who the eff is Pate.

Prologue of book 4 he is killed and lastish chapter of book 4 we see the faceless man whose taken his identity working subterfuge in the citadel.

/supernerd

Balon Swann and Obara’s Hunt for Darkstar

can't remember what any of these things are

huh, totally passed me by that it was supposedly jaqen who killed pate and then assumed his identity

yeah same with this

it's funny how everything on westeros sounds like it's heading towards a thrilling conclusion (except dorne, fuck those olive-eating shits) and everything that's not just makes me think OH GOD HE WROTE THAT AND HE IS GOING TO WRITE MORE OF THAT

I'm planning to re-read these. I have a feeling that there are lots of details that I kind of glossed over the first time that will seem much more relevant now that I've read all the books.

most of those are just inside jokes about football

he started in 1991.

he has less than a decade to finish them in less time than it took for the actual wars of the roses to happen

yeah every time i remember that dany is still puttering around in the boring eastern continent after FIVE BOOKS i get mad

http://duke.a-13.net/

the first time i read the series i was already mostly uninterested in her storyline by mid-book-2, there's literally only one Dany chapter in the series so far that's as exciting as the westeros stuff (the one where she fake-offers the dragon to the slave master and then torches him and steals the army)

find it hard to not process the "but see, getting rid of the slavers solved NOTHING" bullshit that followed as anything but horribly racist tbh

i liked dany's chapters in the first three books, i liked the mysterious east and her time in the house of prophecy and all that jazz, lots of westeros stuff was just bran the boring crying about how hes a cripple now

yeah i actually liked them more the 2nd time around but they still felt slower paced than the rest of the storylines, until books 4 and 5 when everything else slowed down too

anyone remember that blog post linked here a while ago about how the treatment of dany in the books was better because the scene where she had sex with the guy she'd been sold to was somehow 'not a rape' but in the tv show it was 'definitely a rape'

destroy nerd culture

Balon Swann and Obara’s Hunt for Darkstar

can't remember what any of these things are

huh, totally passed me by that it was supposedly jaqen who killed pate and then assumed his identity

yeah same with this

― Yorkshire lass born and bred, that's me, said Katriona's hologram. (thomp)

Balon is a Kingsguard, Obara I think is a Sand Snake, Darkstar is a Grateful Dead jam that tried to kill Myrcella.

find it hard to not process the "but see, getting rid of the slavers solved NOTHING" bullshit that followed as anything but horribly racist tbh
No, that's exactly why she stays to rule Meereen, after destroying Astapor and the city collapsing on itself. He enjoys writing about the learning to rule process so that's why we get that. Getting rid of the slavers did change things, but there was nothing there to replace the system - that's why that turned out badly. I really don't see him being pro-slavery. At all.

From the Who thread:

Clara is dating Robb Stark irl.

... but not for long!

Do the Freys know?

new sample chapter from winds of winter: http://georgerrmartin.com/if-sample.html

sweet illustration

Beyonce is Arianne Martell?!?!