HBO's adaptation of Game of Thrones - Thread 2. There are a lot of nerds.

So who will Arya kill by the end of the season? I'm putting my money on faceless douche.

hmm... where are you from again?

where do you think i'm from? if you're right, i'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on lineage/violence.

Normally I would have agreed with Matt DC: "it's not like anyone in Winterfell is going to fight much in the name of Ramsay Bolton when they could fight for even the lamest Stark or for that matter virtually anyone else". But that really seems to happen in the show. He straight up murdered a Frey woman as well, and we've heard no response from the Freys.

this is exactly it. there isn't really any sense of repercussion in the show. i don't mean that i want to see hours of people furiously moaning in taverns. just that there's no sense of support for the family powers. there seemed to be big support for frey killing the starks - and again no real repercussions. like wouldn't someone have done something about that if the starks were so popular? they must be barely popular at all to be murdered by one family at a wedding and for everyone to just basically shrug.

I guess you could argue that the institutions that once exercised control over everyone have been ripped to pieces - targarean (sp) rule for 300 some years exploded by Robert's rebellion then 3 new kings in a very short amount of time plus all the other heads of the houses finding ways to get killed from miscellaneous circumstances like the starks, whatsherface in the aerie, tywin, etc.

i thought brit. apologies if i got that wrong.

no worries - i'm irish - which significantly complicates the idea of monarchy v violence i guess :)

Indeed. Sorry for having got that wrong all these years!

this is exactly it. there isn't really any sense of repercussion in the show. i don't mean that i want to see hours of people furiously moaning in taverns. just that there's no sense of support for the family powers. there seemed to be big support for frey killing the starks - and again no real repercussions. like wouldn't someone have done something about that if the starks were so popular? they must be barely popular at all to be murdered by one family at a wedding and for everyone to just basically shrug.

― japanese mage (LocalGarda), 11. maj 2016 00:10 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, it's a weakness. And at risk of repeating myself too much: It's better in the books. The Theon chapters in book five deal with the Bolton army in Winterfell, and the intrigues, alliances and subterfuge among the disgruntled Northmen. There's also a bunch of stuff about the importance of dealing with every smaller house. For instance, in the books Smalljon Umber, who in this episode delivered Rickon to Ramsay, is killed at the Red Wedding, but his father the Greatjon survives, and is held hostage at the Twins. And therefore House Umber chooses to stay calm, to avoid Greatjons execution. Other houses are wiped out in the Red Wedding, or is stripped of their holdings by the new leaders. Really, the simple answer is that people don't avenge the Starks because the Starks already tried avenging and lost badly.

Can I just say, are all of you who seem to know every damn characters name and how to spell it, readers of the books. I cant keep all these people straight in my head!

for those who haven't noticed, ask the maester is back on uh whatever this thing is https://www.facebook.com/notes/the-ringer/ask-the-maester-rickons-return-rhaegars-rose-and-the-sword-of-the-morning/1709123589354091

Frederik B otm re: Northern Bannermen. My thing with the North is that it's tenuous, and Roose knew he was only holding onto his control there because a huge majority of the Stark bannermen armies were killed at the Red Wedding. Roose knew there was a long game to play (those armies will be replenished at some point in the future, after all), and Ramsay's mistake is thinking short term.

Can I just say, are all of you who seem to know every damn characters name and how to spell it, readers of the books. I cant keep all these people straight in my head!

lol Trayce me too, I can barely remember who the Baratheons were let alone two separate characters called Beric

There's a place near my parents' called Castle Drogo so I remember that one.

There's admittedly some spellchecking involved :)

Wait, are there two characters called Beric?

Didn't you even know that? pfft.

Actually there are three. I only know this because I searched the GOT wiki for 'Beric'. Two of them are 'not expected to appear in the series, being dead by the time it starts'.

Beric Dondarian, Beric Jeter, and Beric May.

Oh, right. Beric Dondarion, his father Beric Dondarion Sr, and his his cousin Beric Oscar Dondarion (or Bod! as he likes to call himself), son of his uncle Oscar Dondarion.

http://i.imgur.com/QRKxcFa.png

http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/34500000/sansa-and-joffrey-sansa-stark-34551621-610-342.jpg

I've made a huge mistake

Jon Snow leaves Castle Black to Charlie Brown music.

ok I didn't realise this was a thing
http://arrestedwesteros.com/

but it's a brilliant thing

http://67.media.tumblr.com/e3bc4634c12741b9be0e8af8de325aa9/tumblr_o6l8wsPNcj1qk2t5co2_r1_1280.jpg

ok i'll stop now

I don't read the original story but I remember the names well enough. But all the discussion probably helps.

I'm guessing they are going to unify some of the magic soon. I'm convinced that Daeny birthed dragons by stumbling onto the resurrection formula, with Khal Drogo being the royal blood. I could see Hodor being an imperfect resurrection.

i just reminded myself of what went down at the red wedding and i hadn't realised before that it was roose bolton who killed robb stark, i think in that period of the show i was struggling to tell apart the vast number of stern white men who haven't shaved for a while

There's a new excerpt of Winds of Winter released. From Dorne. It's a pretty fun reminder of how different that stuff is from the show (the POV character isn't on the show, the people she's seeking out aren't on the show) It's really not well written at all, though, as in, even worse than usual. Right? But it's a draft, so that's probably ok.

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/excerpt-from-the-winds-of-winter/

p weird that he is sharing drafts. is his confidence totally shot or something?

As far as I can tell, it's described as a 'sample' or an 'excerpt' rather than a draft - where are you getting that from, Frederik?

It replaces one (an excerpt from the next book) that's been up there for the last year, I think it's just something he does as the lowest possible level of "I haven't forgotten about this book".

http://imgur.com/IqaFJFh

That fight reminded me the silly Phantom Menace swordplay too.

That excerpt was rough. Reminds us why we're glad Dorne has been backgrounded on the TV show...

Why did everyone start calling Gregor Clegane/The Mountain by the name Robert Strong now?

I think in the books we don't actually know he's the mountain. is that right?

We don't ~officially~ know that the Mountain has been reanimated, but it's like the "Is Jon Snow really dead" cliffhanger.

I presume that Qyburn came up with a pseudonym because people knowing that he brought the Mountain back from the dead would freak them out.

Except didn't he/someone call him Clegane in the more recent ep? I guess it's more mysterious in the book, where you can't actually see a 7 foot, 300 pound killing machine.I love how people are predicting a Cleganebowl. That's funny. Just the word/concept.

they definitely called him Sir Gregor in the latest ep. but maybe just amongst Cersei/Jamie/Clyburn.

xpost poly that's correct. in the show it's always been explicit to the viewer and known to cersei's circle. to what extent any will or consciousness that could be called gregor clegane is left under the helmet is another matter.

So to help my addled brain Ive been doing some reading back of plot summaries and the like. Apparently in the books Balon was killed way back before the red wedding? I wonder why they waited so long in the show? It also raises hope that maybe zombiestark will happen after all.

tbh I was confused they brought up the entire pike islands kings moot business at this point. I thought that was something that was going to be kept out of the show to keep it simple. Maybe it's a bigger part of the plot? The "next week" previews already has Theon back on Pike but in the books I don't remember where he was left.

well dany's whole fleet and harbor got burned and a bunch of insane pirates who know their way around westeros could prove useful, is my guess why they didn't streamline the pike plot out entirely

Theon was last seen jumping off a Winterfell wall with Sansa in the books, IIRC.

in the books sansa and theon haven't met again since she split for king's landing in book 1. she's last seen off glad-handling with littlefinger in the vale. theon/reek is stuck in winterfell being theon/reek.

Theon was last seen jumping off a Winterfell wall with Sansa in the books, IIRC.

Except it's not actually Sansa in the books

At this point I think I'm just going to skip reading those books altogether. I tried once years ago but was quickly put off by the heavy handed prose. Maybe if GRRM actually finishes this I'll give it another go but at the moment it all seems very confusing. .

Oh right, it was the fake Sansa, right?

Fake Arya.

reading those book summaries is kind of hilarious

so the real Mance Rayder, not the fake executed one, helps rescue the fake Arya
ok dawg

fake Arya and Theon had escaped and were chilling (very literally) with Stannis in the woods at the end of book 5.

Yeah, and to make fake Mance Rayder even more fun, it's all explained through Theon's eyes, who don't know who Mance Rayder is, so I for instance managed to not get that was him at all...

i recall it being fairly clear that fauxMance was exactly who he was ... could have been context clues or another chapter idk

Oh, iirc Jon says that's what's going on. You're told Mance Rayder will go to Winterfell, and then somebody who looks like Mance Rayder shows up in Winterfell. I just missed it anyways.