Game of Thrones!

[Totenkindly]

I think they've done wonderful things in improving Brienne's quest for the Stark daughters, a plot that I thought dragged for most of the books.

Before I started watching the show (and I haven't read the books), I remember people dishing up on the books at my gaming group and one guy was complaining about how one of the characters would go around from place to place and all she'd ask is, "Have you seen <so and so>?" and how stupid and repetitive it was. It was driving my friend nuts.

I intuited a bit ago that he was referring to Brienne searching for the Stark girls.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

It will be interesting how the show changes things up now that many of the big players from the first 3 seasons are 6 feet under.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Before I started watching the show (and I haven't read the books), I remember people dishing up on the books at my gaming group and one guy was complaining about how one of the characters would go around from place to place and all she'd ask is, "Have you seen <so and so>?" and how stupid and repetitive it was. It was driving my friend nuts.

I intuited a bit ago that he was referring to Brienne searching for the Stark girls.

I would wager that it's correct. It's pretty much what that's like. It's even worse because we already know where the Stark daughters are, and we know that one of them isn't even in Westeros. (they moved this forward a bit). It works a lot better to have her actually meet Arya, and Arya to refuse (which the show sold me on.)

 

[Totenkindly]

It will be interesting how the show changes things up now that many of the big players from the first 3 seasons are 6 feet under.

Oh, I wish I had mad vid-edit skills -- I'd recreate the entire ending to "Six Feet Under," just with Arya sailing off into the sunset (in lieu of Claire driving to NYC), interspersed with the various clips of characters dying and their death plates to the tune of Sia's "Breathe Me."

 

[Qre:us]

I think we should organize a protest over the best character shunned from the season finale:

Damn them!

PS. I meant Ser Pounce.

Which reminds me that the most horrible deaths for me, have been of the animals (Lady! Kal Drogo's horse!...and the babies being sacrificed)

Are they going east? Maybe.
I bet they run into Jorah, who is now a free agent.


It's not my favorite arc in the series at this point.
I don't think she's smart enough to just create a system off the cuff. She's an idealist, she focused on the way things SHOULD be versus being pragmatic about what CAN be done to make a flawed system better. Maybe she'll get better on that, the more she is challenged.

It will definitely be more interesting, to see how she fares without Jorah Mormont, as he was her tether to reason. She must also learn how to "tame" her dragons. I have a feeling that one of the dragons, the wayward one, will be key in the story. He (it?) will be a wildcard.

I think my boredom was due to the same thing you mentioned. There has been no challenge for Danaerys so far, as she "got" everything she has aimed to get, so far. So it was a bit predictable to watch. Now that she is seeing that things are not all that easy, clear-cut, right/wrong, and feeling the impact of the grays, along with not having Jorah by her side, hopefully things get more interesting for her arc.

Yeah, I don't even get what Davos is still there. That guy deserves a better king.

Davos is so loyal to the dudley idiot, Stannis. Melisandra (sp?) is playing Stannis like a fool, and Davos is hoping that he can be the voice of reason. Melisandra is looking for someone, leading them to the North as she has. And the glance she and Jon Snow exchanged, it looks like she found who she was truly looking for. Although she keeps stroking, erm...Stannis' ego....by calling him the king, the "one". Davos will hopefully become a key player, when Melisandra starts to really unravel her plan. Stannis is expendable to Melisandra, in the long run, I think, and Davos will foil that plan for her. Also, that little girl (Stannis' daughter) and Davos.

 

[Totenkindly]

Two decent interviews, one with Martin and one with Charles Dance.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/06/16/game-of-thrones-finale-martin/

http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/06/16/game-of-thrones-dinklage-dance-tywin-tyrion/

“I’m not one of these actors that tries to find the good in a character,” Dance added. “If a character is a sh–, he’s a sh–, and you play him full on as a sh– – don’t try and make him nice, you play him full on.”

I think that's one thing that made Tywin so good -- he was so unapologetic.

EDIT: Oh yes, and the power of denial at work:

http://www.hitfix.com/comedy/12-funniest-reactions-to-the-season-4-finale-of-game-of-thrones?hf_campaign=TvReferral&hf_medium=RssFeed&hf_source=Yahoo

 

[Beorn]

Lol

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

We did see a different kind of throne last night. I stole that from the EW article, though.

 

[Qre:us]

Two decent interviews, one with Martin and one with Charles Dance.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/06/16/game-of-thrones-finale-martin/

http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/06/16/game-of-thrones-dinklage-dance-tywin-tyrion/




I think that's one thing that made Tywin so good -- he was so unapologetic.

EDIT: Oh yes, and the power of denial at work:

http://www.hitfix.com/comedy/12-funniest-reactions-to-the-season-4-finale-of-game-of-thrones?hf_campaign=TvReferral&hf_medium=RssFeed&hf_source=Yahoo

Interesting.

I'm confused about George RR Martin's comment, that Tyrion was at a mental state where he was so hurt by Shae (get it), by Tywin (get it), and by Jamie (don't get it), and that was his mental state when he killed his father.

Why was he hurt by Jaime? Is this something I'm missing as a show watcher? But was mentioned in the books? What did Jaime do to him?

 

[Beorn]

Interesting.

I'm confused about George RR Martin's comment, that Tyrion was at a mental state where he was so hurt by Shae (get it), by Tywin (get it), and by Jamie (don't get it), and that was his mental state when he killed his father.

Why was he hurt by Jaime? Is this something I'm missing as a show watcher? But was mentioned in the books? What did Jaime do to him?

Yes, it's because the book gives Tyrion a different reason for killing Tywin and Jaime plays a roll.

I was complaining about the difference in a spoiler above.

 

[Totenkindly]

^^ Yeah, it involves a revelation of a long-past event that Tyrion didn't know the truth of.

I read the scene in the book last night after the finale, and it definitely changes his attitude toward Jaime and refocuses things on Tywin. But Shae's character had also been changed a lot between book and show, and so it's possible that factored into the change as well.

 

[Stephano]

Quick question: Which book would be the continuation of season 4? I can't wait till April. Thx in advance.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Quick question: Which book would be the continuation of season 4? I can't wait till April. Thx in advance.

They've kind of jumbled everything up a bit. There's also a decent amount of stuff left with Jon Snow in the third book that they haven't covered yet.. it's pretty important, too.

Also, Book 4 takes place after the events of this season... but... so does the first half or three quarters of Book 5. They focus on different characters. I think Book 5 is a much, much better read than Book 4. The problem with book 4 is that most of the book is devoted to two characters, and most of their storylines are repetitive until the end of the book. The other stuff in Book 4 is actually quite good, it's just that the focus of the book is so uninteresting.

You could probably start Book 4. Read the first Cersei and Brienne chapter, decide if it interests you. If it doesn't, just skim or even skip those until about three quarters of the way through. The problem is that most of those chapters hit the same notes over and over, so it got kind of tedious to read. They showed signs of understanding the difficulty with those chapters in the way they handled Brienne on the show, so I'm not that worried about the next season.

 

[Totenkindly]

Nightmare Scenario:

HBO goes under.
Game of Thrones is canceled.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Nightmare Scenario:

HBO goes under.
Game of Thrones is canceled.

 

[Animal]

She should have killed the Hound. That would have been the nice thing to do.

I thought they were developing some affection for each other at some points, especially when she wanted to mend his wound and he opened up to her about some things in his past. It made me unhappy and uneasy that she didn't kill him. I am not sure I understand why? Was it supposed to be revenge for something? Is it because he wanted to fuck her pretty sister and not her? haha. I realize she wanted to kill him before, but killing him on her own.. would have been nicer. Leaving him to die like that was brutal.

 

[Stephano]

They've kind of jumbled everything up a bit. There's also a decent amount of stuff left with Jon Snow in the third book that they haven't covered yet.. it's pretty important, too.

Also, Book 4 takes place after the events of this season... but... so does the first half or three quarters of Book 5. They focus on different characters. I think Book 5 is a much, much better read than Book 4. The problem with book 4 is that most of the book is devoted to two characters, and most of their storylines are repetitive until the end of the book. The other stuff in Book 4 is actually quite good, it's just that the focus of the book is so uninteresting.

You could probably start Book 4. Read the first Cersei and Brienne chapter, decide if it interests you. If it doesn't, just skim or even skip those until about three quarters of the way through. The problem is that most of those chapters hit the same notes over and over, so it got kind of tedious to read. They showed signs of understanding the difficulty with those chapters in the way they handled Brienne on the show, so I'm not that worried about the next season.

Thank you a lot! I've just noticed that they split up the German translations into 2 books each. Book 4 would be book 7 in this case.

 

[Totenkindly]

Oh, I wanted to mention too -- that whole sequence of Tyrion's escape, when he goes to find his father ... they're playing variations of The Rains of Castamere in the background. It's just ironic. Lannister justice prevails once again, so to speak. They always pay their debts.

I thought they were developing some affection for each other at some points, especially when she wanted to mend his wound and he opened up to her about some things in his past. It made me unhappy and uneasy that she didn't kill him. I am not sure I understand why? Was it supposed to be revenge for something? Is it because he wanted to fuck her pretty sister and not her? haha. I realize she wanted to kill him before, but killing him on her own.. would have been nicer. Leaving him to die like that was brutal.

I have read a number of reviews today, as well as this thread, and no one is agreement on Arya's motives for her choices in that scene. I think that's pretty fascinating. Some think she is punishing him, some think she's showing kindness, some thinks there is affection, some think she's indifferent and it's a sign of her losing her humanity.

 

[Animal]

I have read a number of reviews today, as well as this thread, and no one is agreement on Arya's motives for her choices in that scene. I think that's pretty fascinating. Some think she is punishing him, some think she's showing kindness, some thinks there is affection, some think she's indifferent and it's a sign of her losing her humanity.

They think she was showing kindness? Why would someone think that???? He was begging her to kill him.

I didn't think she was indifferent, personally. If she was indifferent, she would have just done what he asked. It seemed to me that she did it to be cruel, the way she taunted him with it.

I wonder if she would have killed him if he wasn't goading her about her sister though. That was a stupid move on his part.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

They think she was showing kindness? Why would someone think that???? He was begging her to kill him.

I didn't think she was indifferent, personally. If she was indifferent, she would have just done what he asked. It seemed to me that she did it to be cruel, the way she taunted him with it.

That's what I thought.

I think Arya in the book is headed down a dark path. She's getting way too comfortable with killing people, and I think she's being used as a pawn for people with unsavory motives. Kind of like a child soldier, really.