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A Game of Thrones (Full of spoilers!)

Started by Sandra Craft, May 28, 2012, 10:48:05 AM

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Crow

Quote from: Ali on May 29, 2012, 05:25:07 PM
I keep stumbling over the above bolded.  Who is the other Targaryen?  Have I just not stumbled across him/her yet? 

Its in the second half of the 3rd book.
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AnimatedDirt

Love this show!  I am rewatching the first season as I'm keeping up with season 2.

It is a complicated story!

Sandra Craft

Quote from: AnimatedDirt on May 29, 2012, 06:21:33 PM
Love this show!  I am rewatching the first season as I'm keeping up with season 2.

It is a complicated story!

And they've gotten so many good actors involved.  I started watching mainly for Sean Bean and Peter Dinklage -- 2 actors I've been a fan of for a long time -- and when I found out Charles Dance was joining season 2 playing Tyrion's father, I nearly hyperventilated.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Sandra Craft

OK, that season finale was very satisfying -- touched bases with everyone and didn't leave so many loose ends that it was frustrating rather than tantalizing.  In no particular order:

Brienne putting down 3 armed rogues, finally wiping the smug look off Jaime's face and replacing it with a little respect.  Not quite sure how she planned to dig graves for those hanged women -- use her sword?  make Jaine dig with his hands?  (loved her ordering Jaime to stay, as if he were a dog)

Dany getting her dragons back.  I knew those dragons were going to toast the warlocks (or I guess just one warlock with a lot of copies) eventually, but I didn't expect it to be quite that cool.  I guess beautiful young women with fire-breathing dragons are inherently cool.  Also loved Jorah's bit about taking all the gold and jewels, finally bringing joy to the Dothraki's hearts.

And speaking of the joy of taking what's not yours, Theon's pirates.  I guess Theon's miserable old man was right about him being more Stark now than Greyjoy -- looking on death in battle as honorable and noble, esp. with an escape route ready to be taken, is a Stark attitude.  A Greyjoy, like any pirate, is just there to grab other people's stuff and take off.  Still, Theon's little "band of brothers" speech was a good one and it was nice of his lt. to let him finish before whacking him on the head.

Back to the Dothraki, I was surprised but very glad to see Drogo return, if only for a moment and in a vision.  That was a sweet scene between him and Dany, and I loved the look on Drogo's face when he realized she was going back to take care of the living people and dragons waiting for her.  A very convincing look of resignation and heartbreak.  I'm still annoyed, however, that the series chose to follow that sickening TV trope of rape victims falling in love with their rapists.  I understand the book played Dany and Drogo's first night together very differently and I do wish they'd kept that.

I was glad to see Tyrion's little friend apparently faithful to him but I can't help thinking it won't end well -- it just has a feeling of set up about it.  Like Robb Stark's marriage to his doctor friend, I'm glad a Stark is finally getting a little happiness in life but I can't believe it'll last. 

I might as well mention Sansa here.  As much as I dislike both her and the Hound, it makes no sense to me that she would stay in King's Landing rather than leave with him when she had the chance -- true she would have only gone home to a place in smoking ruins but at least she would have been with someone willing to protect her without taking advantage of her.  Now she's been offered a chance to escape by Littlefinger and, altho he's not nearly as trustworthy as the Hound where Sansa is concerned, it has to be better than remaining under Joffery's thumb.  For that matter I don't understand why Tyrion is choosing to stay either.  Because he's good at messing with bad people's heads?  He can do that anywhere.

Arya is the only one whose choice to stay when she's offered the chance of something better I can understand.  She has to find her mother and brother and, reluctantly, her sister.  Once she's satisfied herself that they're OK I imagine it would be right off to Bravos and apprenticeship among the Faceless Men so she can get the training she needs to bump off everyone on that growing list of hers.

I was very sorry to see Maister Luwen (?) die, I was hoping he'd last to the end of the series.  And poor Osha, Hodor, boys and wolves, walking north in hopes of safety while the White Walkers are marching south in hopes of who knows what.  What in the world do zombies need with conquest anyway?  Perhaps they're under the control of the King Beyond the Wall, whom I'm assuming is Benjen Stark.

And am I the only one who's sick of zombies?  Isn't their 15 minutes up yet?

I'm a little puzzled about why killing that other "crow" would cause the northern wildings to suddenly trust Jon Snow.  I don't understand what difference that's supposed to make.

It was inevitable that Bronn should lose his place when Tyrion lost his but I do hope he's still around.  He's a fun guy and Tyrion needs someone to puncture his sentimental bubble when he gets carried away with it.

That's all I've got right now.


Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Crow

BCE you have got some things spot on in what may happen in the next series (some wrong as well but not many). But I'm not going to tell you which because where is the fun in that and the TV series plays events out differently.
Retired member.

hismikeness

My wife and I watched an episode from Season 2 the other night. It had the previously on Game of Thrones opening, and I was like, I don't remember any of this!!

Then she told me that she watched two episodes after I fell asleep in my chair, so I have a few to catch up on.
No churches have free wifi because they don't want to compete with an invisible force that works.

When the alien invasion does indeed happen, if everyone would just go out into the streets & inexpertly play the flute, they'll just go. -@UncleDynamite

Sandra Craft

Quote from: Crow on June 07, 2012, 02:38:52 PM
But I'm not going to tell you which because where is the fun in that and the TV series plays events out differently.

Killjoy.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Ali

BCE - Great write up.  I agree with everything you said. 

Crow

Quote from: BooksCatsEtc on June 07, 2012, 05:19:38 AM
And am I the only one who's sick of zombies?  Isn't their 15 minutes up yet?

Not half, I don't get the fascination with them either.
Retired member.

Sandra Craft

OK, book readers, I have more general questions.

It embarrasses me a little that these are the issues that truly plague me about Arya, but they are:  I don't care if it happens in the series or not, but in the books is Arya ever reunited with her direwolf, and does she get her sword, Needle, back?

Also, I'm very curious about how people who've read the books feel about the actors now playing the roles.  I know when I read a novel I automatically form an imagine in my mind of the characters, not just how they look but how they sound and even move. 

So what's your opinion of some of the casting?  Is the actor living up to the image, falling short, or exceeding it?  If it's different from what you imagined, is that an improvement or just . . . different?  If the casting went far afield of the books description, is that a good thing or is it jarring?  And finally, has the transition from book to TV show affected how you feel about some of the characters?
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Ali

I am only through the second book so far, but so far Arya doesn't have her direwolf or her sword back.  I do suspect that she will be reunited with Nymeria though, because the book has made a lot of noise about fearless gangs of wolves terrorizing the nearby countryside, and she just happens to be fairly close to the area where she drove Nymeria away in the first book.  I suspect that Nymeria is leading the local wolf pack like some sort of wolf warrior princess.  :)

I started reading the books after I watched the first season of the show, so I already had it set in my mind that, for example, Arya looked and acted the way that Maisie Williams plays her.  So, I think that the casting is good, but I might have felt differently if I had read the books first.  Hard to say.  I will say that Tyrion is described as being pretty unattractive in the books (more so than just short statured) and as you know I think Peter Dinklage is dead sexy.  So that's a bit of a difference, but I love Peter Dinklage and I'm glad that he plays Tyrion. 

Sandra Craft

Quote from: Ali on June 08, 2012, 04:16:28 PM
I suspect that Nymeria is leading the local wolf pack like some sort of wolf warrior princess.  :)

I love this idea!

QuoteI will say that Tyrion is described as being pretty unattractive in the books (more so than just short statured) and as you know I think Peter Dinklage is dead sexy.  So that's a bit of a difference, but I love Peter Dinklage and I'm glad that he plays Tyrion. 

They say that's been the biggest shock of the show, how many people are finding Peter Dinklage dead sexy.  Of course, I've been on board with that for years, I even had a dream about him once (giving the lie to a movie Dinklage himself appeared in where his character claimed that no one dreams about dwaves).  I'm not sure anyone but Dinklage could have played this role so well, and I seem to remember reading that he was GRRM's own choice to play Tyrion.

In any case, I have a theory I'm working on about Margery, who now has the unpleasant job of becoming Joffrey's wife.  When that twist first came up I wasn't upset about it despite my fondness for Margery, and I've realized that's because I think that if anyone can ride herd on Joffery, it's probably her.

I see Margery as being an improved version of Cersai -- both are ambitious and determined, but Margery lacks the paranoia and self-absorbtion that causes the Queen Regent to make so many mistakes.  Also, I don't think Cersai is anywhere near as smart as she thinks she is, whereas Margery really is as sharp as a tack.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Crow

BCE your pretty good at this guessing game, your not quite right but you are very close, lets me just say Cersai and Margery are birds of a feather in more ways than one.

Arya got needle back. She always has wolf dreams like her brothers Bran and Jon but she isn't on the same continent so that reunion hasn't happened as of yet.

I watched the first series first then read all the books back to back. Its strange because as I started out reading the books my mental image was the same as the TV characters but quickly changed. I like the casting for the TV series and also like the characters that are in my head, they don't conflict at all except for Daenerys, the actress who plays her has more of a soft motherly quality and I just cant buy into her as the character, plus she looks too old (though that makes total sense of why they did that). I think Dinklage and the girl who plays Arya exceed in the roles, Dinklage has just made that character his own and does it fantastically whilst capturing the essence of the character perfectly even though the description couldn't be any more different. The actress who plays Brienne is better than what I thought, as is Melisandre and Davos. There are a few things I think the book does better in terms of characters but the series has some stronger points, Ned Stark being the perfect example, in the tv series he was very likable but in the book the character got on my tits.
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Sandra Craft

Quote from: Crow on June 10, 2012, 04:21:06 AM
Arya got needle back. She always has wolf dreams like her brothers Bran and Jon but she isn't on the same continent so that reunion hasn't happened as of yet.

re: Needle.  Yay! 

re: Nymeria.  At least I have hope.

QuoteThere are a few things I think the book does better in terms of characters but the series has some stronger points, Ned Stark being the perfect example, in the tv series he was very likable but in the book the character got on my tits.

Heh.

For my private amusement, I'm working on a dead pool -- guessing who dies when, how and by whose hand.  So far I haven't been guessing too well on that, since I had Maester Luwin living to the end of the series and Joffrey dying in the riot.

Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Crow

Quote from: BooksCatsEtc on June 10, 2012, 04:41:51 AM
For my private amusement, I'm working on a dead pool -- guessing who dies when, how and by whose hand.  So far I haven't been guessing too well on that, since I had Maester Luwin living to the end of the series and Joffrey dying in the riot.

What are your guesses?
Retired member.