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

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?!?!

I was waiting to use that since I read the story yesterday. I knew GRRM would be productive now that his football season is over.

quick reminder to the unwary clicker, this is the spoiler thread
also i guess this is potentially a spoiler about a difference between the books and the tv show, so if that is something you are bothered about this is fair warning

all that being said...

i think i have mentioned before that a good friend of mine knows the actor who plays robb. the guy himself has said that he will be appearing in seasons - seasons plural - after season 3. SEASONS PLURAL. has someone (max?) seen an advance copy of season 3 to help corroborate?

I think it may be that Storm of Swords is broken into 2 seasons because it is so long.

i should have emphasized that this was seasons, plural

Red Wedding is slated to happen this season though...

so he's supposed to show up even in season 5? seems like a stretch...

i havent seen any of s3 but! maybe flashbacks?

or maybe like--he might be on contract for 5 seasons even if they dont play on using him?

i wondered about flashbacks. but why? or i guess they could zombie him, but again... i am hoping this was some kind of denial/big talk

supposedly red wedding is happening in the 9th ep of this season, much like they put the biggest moments from the past 2 seasons in the 9th ep? or at least they released the episode titles and the title of that one is 'the rains of castamere' so what else could it be really

Robb Zombie?

Aw cmon, I thought that was mildly clever!

no spoilers

My bad. ._.

But anyway, maybe that's the route they take instead of UnCat?

feels like way to big a shift away from the books imo.

ffs, xpost

Premier was pretty good overall.

things I liked:

-Tywin/Tyrion scene. So cold.
-Margaery Tyrell's PR stunt + playing Joffrey and Cersei against each other
-Glad they threw out the "Whitebeard" stuff and just let Barristan Selmy be himself.
-The giant looked pretty cool. More human-like than in the books, but just weird enough.
-The stuff with Danaerys and the Unsullied was great and played pretty much exactly as in the books.
-Dragon fishing. Those critters are so fucking cute. I want one.

things I did not care for:
-Weird, awkward cold opening.
-Mance Rayder introduction felt a tad off, especially Jon's justification for joining the wildlings.
-No mammoths (yet). I hope they don't save them for next season or omit them entirely. That would suck.
-No Strong Belwas ;_; He was such a colorful, over-the-top character in the books. I'll miss him.

I actively cannot wait for Robb to die. They've destroyed Catelyn's character & his. The showmakers seem to love taking the tropes subverted by GRRM and playing them straight.