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

jawn snuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

lol

'Bran tells a ghost story' in Mother episode

Dany exchanges gifts with a slave lord outside of Yunkai.

Maybe SHE'S the one who drops the deuce???

haw

i would guess the next episode is where the boltons have their proper coming out party as villains

well we have psycho ramsay revealed ahead of time and it'll be bolton's own men rather than the mummers that put the maiden in with the bear, so i think things have accelerated somewhat on that front

roose is pretty clearly shown to be Not A Good Guy in this last episode, when he lets jaime go

Yeah but even so, big diff between "Not A Good Guy Who's Out For Himself" and "Not A Good Guy Who Makes Cloaks From The Skins Of Small Children".

I'm looking forward to the Boltons coming to the fore as baddies-in-chief for the series.

I haven't read the books; are the practical aspects of winter coming addressed at all? Like are there any voices of reason going "hey maybe we should all be focusing on stockpiling food rather than fighting wars, since we won't be able to grow crops for years on end" ?

Or am I misunderstanding how seasons work in this fantasy world.

not really since most of the characters are aristocratic and it's not as much of an issue for them. the 4th book actually has a bit of a subtheme in it of examining the effects of the war on the common people of westeros, not sure if any of that is going to make it into the tv series though

there is a lot of frowning about crops being ruined and not being ready for winter, but it is on the superficial side

fortunately there is a long lasting supply of carefully preserved dead human flesh making its way south, under its own power incredibly, like a morbid ice cream truck of anthropophagy

that would be a good direction for the series to take as it draws to a close

also yeah it's sort of implied that the threat of the coming winter is the white walkers returning, not the climate. the adult characters in the show have lived through a couple 'normal' winters which apparently aren't that bad. there's even some descriptions in the book about e.g. how winterfell is built on top of a big hot spring and thus has a natural heating system that keeps it nice in the winter

there was a scene at the beginning of S2 where they officially announced the end of summer and how long of a winter could be endured in King's Landing given the amount of stockpiles they had

I haven't read the books; are the practical aspects of winter coming addressed at all? Like are there any voices of reason going "hey maybe we should all be focusing on stockpiling food rather than fighting wars, since we won't be able to grow crops for years on end" ?

Or am I misunderstanding how seasons work in this fantasy world.

i have a friend who couldnt get over this when she was reading it, she was like "winter is coming for YEARS and everyone is running around burning all the crops, they're all so fucked!"

iirc the thing is that any head wise enough to be more concerned by crops than crowns has been cut off by the end of book 2

also yeah it's sort of implied that the threat of the coming winter is the white walkers returning

― ciderpress, Thursday, May 9, 2013

huh? no one even believes in "white walkers"

i think cider is right, there is portent or superstition about winter and "winter is coming" that is not just meteorological, even if no one actually believes in the others specifically.

I haven't read the books; are the practical aspects of winter coming addressed at all? Like are there any voices of reason going "hey maybe we should all be focusing on stockpiling food rather than fighting wars, since we won't be able to grow crops for years on end" ?

Or am I misunderstanding how seasons work in this fantasy world.

i have a friend who couldnt get over this when she was reading it, she was like "winter is coming for YEARS and everyone is running around burning all the crops, they're all so fucked!"

― we're up all night to get (s1ocki), Thursday, May 9, 2013 10:36 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Spot on tbh. For a series which has made such a huge deal out of "like fantasy but REAL" to ignore this point would be a massive mis-step. Can only assume that this is going to become a major plot point in The Winds Of Winter, particularly given how fond GRRM seems to be of getting bogged down in tedious detail these days. But I suppose there's also always a chance that the economic, social and agricultural realities of a decades-long winter will get ignored and focus will instead be given to Daenaerys and the Dragons vs the White Walkers

I also agree that "Winter is coming" / the aura surrounding winter in these novels has always implied more than simply the risk of heavy snowfall.

also, there is too much ~symbolism~ with the seasons for the series to end in winter. something magical will happen and spring will arrive before shit gets too real i am sure, although i am sure there will be some food shortage drama at least alluded to along the way.

Heartbreakingly withered neeps

LOL. i suppose there are always olives growing somewhere, it'll be okay.

Spot on tbh. For a series which has made such a huge deal out of "like fantasy but REAL" to ignore this point would be a massive mis-step. Can only assume that this is going to become a major plot point in The Winds Of Winter, particularly given how fond GRRM seems to be of getting bogged down in tedious detail these days.

It's not ignored at all. House Tyrell controls the majority of the food supply in Westeros. The Crown is severely indebted to the point they have foreign debt-collectors after them, which would severely impact their ability to import food from elsewhere. Jaime advises peasants to try for one last harvest. There's a lot of talk about the Vale having a huge granary and basically untouched supplies. Etc.

I never bought into Jaime's redemption from the books -- for whatever reason, it felt superficial -- but I have to admit that NCW is making it real for me in a big way.

God damn, creeping closer to the RW. Wonder if Talisa was really writing to her mum.

Are we to assume Theon is now sans penis? He only lost a couple of fingers in the books right?

Heavily implied that he has been castrated in the later books iirc. In fact, probably slightly more than implied, he just never actually mentions it explicitly.

"reek, reek, my name is reek, rhyme with no dick"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTBBNVwz5Dc

yeah in the books i didn't really buy into jaime's arc until the end of book 4 when he threw cersei's plea for help into the fire, they're setting him up to be likable a lot earlier in the show though

Oh Sam, why didn't you take the knife with you?

Also, Daario doesn't look nearly as sleazy as he needs to be.

Sam and Gilly meet an older gentleman.

Bah, I thought this was going to be Benjen AKA Coldhands.

ha me too, but that is classic work by the summarizer there

tv show teaser-summary trolling is really becoming an artform before our eyes.

http://swan2swan.tumblr.com/post/50967460714/i-hope-the-fans-who-think-that-robb-needs-a

lol

Remind me: was Blackfish @ RW, only to slip away to take a piss in the books, too? I can't imagine GRRM would let something that trite happen.

no, he stayed to hold riverrun iirc?

Yeah, that's what I thought! I guess they just wanted BF there for the old lady lols?

sort of vaguely annoyed that changes like the death of talisa "spoil" the future of jeyne westerling in the books

i mean i never really bought the jeyne westerling is secretly pregnant/magic stuff, but

that kind of stuff will start happening a lot more i guess

pretty sure seasons after this one will deviate more and more towards a similar endgame as Martin's as they know the broad strokes of the story going forward and obv books 4 & 5 need some rewriting (and expecting season 4 to be m/l a tyrion-centric Law & Order: King's Landing thing after Joffrey kicks it around episode 3 or 4).

that was very well done i thot. very nice pacing of the moments right before things got stabby and nothing too heavy handed so that even tho you knew something was going to happen it was still given the chance to be shocking. i am cool with them trading the unconvincing speculation over jeyne for an awesome moment in the show. also a wee male heir is good for no one, this should all end with bran as a tree and a queen in the north.

really could've done with one more scene between daario, jorah and worm getting busy and then returning victorious. just a quick scene with some extras thrown together to show that some other people were involved. it was a little too brazen with the whole off-screen battle thing, close to self parody.

It wasn't very smooth, almost like a scene had been edited out.

Yeah that bit felt like a total cheat. Everything else in this episode tremendously well done, not just the RW. Bran discovering the extent of his powers had a real weight to it.

And Frey's introduction of his daughters/granddaughters was hilarious.