Game of Thrones!

[Totenkindly]

Game of Thrones spills over into real USA life via Twitter:

Rains of Castamere now playing at Eric Cantor campaign HQ.
— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) June 10, 2014

... but vere iz ze headcrusheen?

 

[Randomnity]

[MENTION=7]Jennifer[/MENTION], I'm impressed that you put that together as a pure show-watcher. I don't even remember LS being discussed in the show. And yeah, there is an ongoing heated debate on the topic but that seems to be the most popular theory.

I'm kinda cranky about the overt Sam-Gilly romance stuff. I kinda preferred how they did it in the book. I'm probably just blindly reacting to change, though.

 

[Qre:us]

[MENTION=7]I don't even remember LS being discussed in the show.

When Ned took Robert down to the crypt, to look forlornly at her statue. They had a pretty good convo about her.

 

[Randomnity]

oh yeah, that's true.

 

[Totenkindly]

My case was pretty much all intuitive/inductive at first, based on tone and feel of the conversations and the situation surrounding Jon, Ned's character, the fact the boy is still genetically a Stark, why Jon's life might have been in danger and such a ruse might have been necessary, etc. it was the puzzle arrangement that makes the most sense to me, and then I filled in the gaps after once I learned more detail.

GRRM is still prone to flipping things around, but he definitely set it up to be a good possibility.

 

[Udog]

[MENTION=7]Jennifer[/MENTION]:

Lena Headey has really grown on me as Cersei. I hated her during the first season, as she lacked book Cersei's fire and only had a single facial expression that involved arching her eyebrows. She's really come into the role, though. Even though she's still understated in comparison to the books, she does a great job with playing Cersei's underlying emotional motivations.

On Jon's Mother:

One of the commentaries mentioned that Sean Bean was told who Jon's mother is. How he plays the scene in the crypts as Robert confesses his love for Lyanna is very interesting.

Also, I don't buy the whole "it's too obvious" thing. It's only obvious because it's been repeatedly picked to death online... and everything fits perfectly. It actually started off very subtle in the books, with it slowly becoming more obvious as we dig deeper into the series.

PS: I did some exploration of my own, and now believe I know how the season will end. And if I'm right, it's going to be AMAZING.

 

[Totenkindly]

Udog, yes, I've been told Martin has told characters private info that their characters would know, to help them play those kinds of scenes. He doesn't tell them stuff that their characters wouldn't know, but yes... that would make sense. and I watched some scenes the second time after thinking about things, and I find them really interesting.

Note the scene where Jon says goodbye to Bran. Catelyn is hissy-fitting because of Jon's presence, while he is just trying to say goodbye to someone he loves, and Ned comes into the room and catches the end of it. That's where I was really starting to get ideas about everything, based on how Ned was acting. It really seemed to make sense... he could say nothing, he maintained his silence, although I think he was dying to alleviate Catelyn's hate for Jon and to validate Jon. His final words to Jon at the fork was all the validation he could reasonably provide.

I agree that Lena is good in the role (although I don't know the books). I don't like Cersei at all, but Lena has improved at it.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Udog, yes, I've been told Martin has told characters private info that their characters would know, to help them play those kinds of scenes. He doesn't tell them stuff that their characters wouldn't know, but yes... that would make sense. and I watched some scenes the second time after thinking about things, and I find them really interesting.

Note the scene where Jon says goodbye to Bran. Catelyn is hissy-fitting because of Jon's presence, while he is just trying to say goodbye to someone he loves, and Ned comes into the room and catches the end of it. That's where I was really starting to get ideas about everything, based on how Ned was acting. It really seemed to make sense... he could say nothing, he maintained his silence, although I think he was dying to alleviate Catelyn's hate for Jon and to validate Jon. His final words to Jon at the fork was all the validation he could reasonably provide.

It seems a basic theme of the first season that every time someone makes a reference to speaking with Jon about something one day....

I agree that Lena is good in the role (although I don't know the books). I don't like Cersei at all, but Lena has improved at it.

The scene where Robert and Ned eat lunch and discuss Danerys (the first time...not the Council meeting) and the subject of Jon's mother comes up is also played in a very interesting fashion. He doesn't really indicate any agreement with Robert's account of what happened. It almost looks like he's trying to avoid saying something...

 

[Totenkindly]

The scene where Robert and Ned eat lunch and discuss Danerys (the first time...not the Council meeting) and the subject of Jon's mother comes up is also played in a very interesting fashion. He doesn't really indicate any agreement with Robert's account of what happened. It almost looks like he's trying to avoid saying something...

Exactly. I think I talked about that a few days back in my first spoilers on this. It's really interesting to watch with this topic in mind.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Exactly. I think I talked about that a few days back in my first spoilers on this. It's really interesting to watch with this topic in mind.

Should that have been spoiler space? There is no confirmation of it in the books.

I thought the last episode worked better than Blackwater. Blackwater didn't feel as epic to me as it should have.. to the point where I was worried they were going to cut all that cool stuff atop the wall. This episode, though, delivered, and surpassed my expectations. I tend to feel like this show works best when it takes the time to focus more on one location, rather than moving things along slowly episode by episode. Not saying that I'd like all episodes to be one location only next season (that won't happen), but I'd like more longer scenes like the one with Arya and the Hound that closed the premiere.

We're seeing problems with Good people who are noble but not cunning, and we're seeing problems with Good people who are passionate but too headstrong. Good won't triumph just because it's good, it'll be because it manages to be as wise as a serpent, as peaceful as a dove, as resilient as steel, as flexible as the wind.

Oh, and I really liked this sentence, by the way. It's awesome.

 

[Nicodemus]

 

[Totenkindly]

Should that have been spoiler space? There is no confirmation of it in the books.

I didn't know if it was or not when I posted, and I also didn't want to "ruin the mystery" for others who might be thinking about it, if they wanted to try to figure it out for themselves. Just a courtesy.

I thought the last episode worked better than Blackwater. Blackwater didn't feel as epic to me as it should have.. to the point where I was worried they were going to cut all that cool stuff atop the wall. This episode, though, delivered, and surpassed my expectations. I tend to feel like this show works best when it takes the time to focus more on one location, rather than moving things along slowly episode by episode. Not saying that I'd like all episodes to be one location only next season (that won't happen), but I'd like more longer scenes like the one with Arya and the Hound that closed the premiere.

It depends on the threads they're dealing with, and I do think in some episodes they've done a really fine job with thematically tying together disparate but parallel narrative threads in an episode; but yeah, there is something to be said about focus. I admit it's pretty much the most I've been able to care about the Jon Snow storyline, despite liking his character.

(Note the jumping around is part of Martin's own book structure.)

Blackwater was pretty underwhelming to me, even as a non-book-reader. To me, it came across as a production/budget/time issue rather than how they wanted to handle it, I'm sure. But yeah -- a bunch of burning ships in the harbor, and what looked like a 25x25 yard with people fighting. Not particularly epic or frightening.

Oh, and I really liked this sentence, by the way. It's awesome.

Thanks, I was on a roll.... lol.

 

[Qre:us]

I also think it's the most likely turn of events. The love that brought down the seven kingdoms, resulting in the current state of affairs, will be its own saving grace. The product of that same love (Jon) will help reunite the kingdoms. Rather than petty in-fighting, they'll all ban together to defeat the White Walkers. And the true leader(s) will be exulted to the throne. There's poetic justice in it. Which makes it the likely angle.

I'm very interested in the reveal. How will it be revealed? Who else knows? My bet is on Varys, who is always going on about doing what's "best for the realm" and being a Targaryen himself. I think he knows of Jon's parentage. I think Bran may also "see" it as well. Unclear as to whether Littlefinger might know, but I don't think so.

^ put in spoiler tags. Thanks, Nico, I was speculating but might be revealing something that's not yet revealed.

 

[Totenkindly]

Only a few more days until the Season 4 66-minute finale.
Kind of crazy that I've already seen spoiler articles up about it.

 

[Daenera]

 

[Totenkindly]

Predictions for Season 4 finale:

1. Mance wants past the wall to escape the Walkers, so Jon makes a deal to let the wildings through if they help the Watch man the wall. It's time to integrate the wildings and the people of the North.
2. Stannis attacks King's Landing and Tyrion escapes in the confusion with Jaime's help (and maybe the Sand Snakes?) Davos helps the little girl with the dragon-scaled face escape.
3. Arya and Sansa never meet, despite everything. Arya convinces the Hound to take her to Braavos so she can learn how to kill shit even better.
4. Ser Jorah shows up somewhere in Westeros.
5. Reek gives Ramsay another sponge bath.
6. Littlefinger plots something else.
7. Bran meets the Walkers and wargs into something rotten.
8. Where's the last Stark kid? Rickon?
9. The Mountain dies. I don't know what that squire was wiping Oberyn's spear blades with, but I bet it was something nasty.
10. Varys' little birdies bring him much interesting, yet uncomfortable news.

 

[Nicodemus]

Davos helps the little girl with the dragon-scaled face escape.

She is Stannis' only child. What would she need to escape from?

 

[Totenkindly]

She is Stannis' only child. What would she need to escape from?

That Red Woman/Witch. It wasn't clear from the show whether she would just use her in some way or kill her for her blood.

As another idea for Stannis, he might decide to be responsible and protect the kingdom by taking his army to the Wall instead. There might have been a hint of that in the show in one episode, but I don't remember the words at this point.

....hmmmm.... just to throw a huge wrench into the narrative and send all the precariously balanced relationships toppling... what if Tywin were to die right about now?

That would be a gamechanger.

 

[Hive]

Fans of the A Song Of Ice And Fire novels and the TV adaptation A Game Of Thrones know that horses appear frequently in the series. Some people assume that when I wrote these books, I must have had at least a passing knowledge of horses, but the truth is that when I began, I’d never seen a horse in my life. In fact, I had absolutely no idea what horses even looked like.

I knew horses were animals of some kind, but beyond that, my entire conception of the way these animals actually looked was based on hearsay and my own speculation.

http://www.clickhole.com/blogpost/when-i-started-writing-game-thrones-i-didnt-know-w-292

 

[Totenkindly]

Best bit -- Brienne at 9:01, I want to just clip that snippet out and post it somewhere!

PS. No spoilers really (for Season 4 at least), it's all before Season 4 came out so they were careful.

EDIT: 10:35 -- omg, Cersei actually smiles.