I haven't read the books either, so I'm new to all of this. And it's by far one of my favorite TV series so far.

As for my favorite character I'd have to go with Tyrion cause Peter Dinklage is just an amazing actor. And Tyrion is just a bad ass intellectual.

I fucking cried when it's revealed that Theon kills the two boys (I forgot what the Stark boy's name was, and the other one was pretty minor). Cried like a bitch.

I also liked the whole thing with the black vagina monster that kills Renly(?), but I still don't understand what was going on with that. Some god thing.

The only real problem I have is that there's just so much shit to keep up with at once. And a lot of characters, too. Just hard to remember what's what sometimes. At least it is for me. I honestly have no idea what's going on with the Night's Watch right now or why they're that far up North.

Also, what the hell happened to Robert Baratheon's bastard son?

>>136
Gendry, the one who's with Arya at Harrenhall? He's still around I guess, they just haven't shown him in a while. Doesn't seem like he'll be too important which is a shame because I thought him being alive was a really interesting arc.

As for those boys being dead, you sure they aren't the orphans that were mentioned earlier in the episode? they were hinting at it quite strongly, they even name-dropped them in an earlier episode.

This season is very different from the books I hear, and a lot of stuff has been spoiled for me already. I won't ruin some of it, but it doesn't get a lot prettier from here on out.

There are 2 reasons to keep watching game of thrones

Tyrion and Brienne of motherfucking Tarth

>>143
Tyrion is up there. As is the ONION KNIGHT. He's probably the most sane and "pure" character thus far.

Tywin Lannister is the fucking MAN. He's the rarest type of villain: he clearly has dreams of conquest and bloodshed, but he's also honorable, intelligent, respects his enemies and doesn't underestimate them, and knows that excessive cruelty doesn't help. His scenes with Arya this season were gold.

I've heard mixed account of him. People reading the books complain he isn't being cruel enough and having read his backstory on a wiki, it does seem he was toned down.

However, I don't mind it. You're right about his character, a nice counterpart to Joffrey who has all the cruelty and no intelligence.

The Battle for Blackwater episode was amazing. Fucking Hound slashing people in half. Not to mention GRRM wrote the episode himself.

I'm glad they finally got around to showing some proper open war conflict, was beginning to think they were just going to have a character black out or some other sly scene change happen to skip past them for the whole series.

>>153
I didn't mind the fact that they skipped the bigger battles in the series, even if it was for budget reasons. The battles aren't that big of a part of the books, anyway. The consequences of the battles are, but the books are generally more dialogue- and character-driven than action-driven and when battles are described they are generally not very detailed. Incidently, dialogue and characters are exactly what I want from my tv-series.

My impression of the second season so far was that they changed many more things than they had too. Some things where changed in the first season, but generally those changes were understandable; taking away bits and pieces of exposition from all over in the book and telling them all at the same time with a sex scene going on in the background being one of the most common; and the scenes that were imagined specifically for the tv-series where good ones that added to the characters' personalities and made them more enjoyable. But when I watch season two I often find myself thinking "but... but... you could just as well have kept it exactly as it was in the book, you just changed this because you wanted to see if you could, bastards!"

I would probably rate this season slightly lower than the first one, but that's probably natural as I also rate the second book slightly lower than the first one (so it's unclear to me wether this is because I didn't like the changes made to the plot or not).

If Tyrion died I'm going to be fucking pissed.

Tyrion and Hound both had great moments. So did the Queen. Nicely written episode. GRRM definitely should write more of them.

Here's to waiting on the next season.

People that didn't like the changes thus far in the series from the books should be pleased with the news for next season. They are casting a lot of new characters from the books, including the Reeds (not sure if they should have been in this season or not).

Then we always have Ramsay to look forward to...

>>168

I heard it was going to be only the first half of the third book. Which means HBO has realized what a milk cow they've got here and are going to try to make this a lengthy franchise series along the lines of the Sopranos.


To be honest I think they screwed up the second season. I would not have minded waiting for a theatrical movie to give the battle of the blackwater justice. Oh well, it could have been a lot worse.

>>170
It could be by the time HBO gets to season five, the other books won't be out yet. So I guess they kind of just have to milk it until Martin writes his shit.

I feel like it's going to turn into an anime with a bunch of filler episodes.

>>171
God knows they have a lot of material to work with for "filler episodes". At that point, you can't blame them for trying to condense the series a bit. Really, they are in a quandry.

A. Stay true to the books, make the seasons less condensed and draw it out. They might do this to pace it out until the other books come out.

B. Condense it and stay the course as was the case with Season 2. This approach is useful for keeping ratings or viewers since overloading the series with too many characters and subplots is a good way to pushing the problem GoT already has: no one remembers anyone's names. There's enough characters as is for the average viewer.

If Martin wasn't infamous for lengthy books accompanied by even lengthier lulls between his books, there wouldn't really be a problem. It's possible he could die before finishing the books too.

>>170
>I heard it was going to be only the first half of the third book. Which means HBO has realized what a milk cow they've got here
Yeah... Or they just realized that the third book is so long that there's no way they could fit all the important stuff happening in it in one 10-hour long season. Seriously, most publishers split the book into two parts (some split it into four), with both of them being more or less equal in size to A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings.

There's literally no other reasonable way to handle A Storm of Swords than to split it into two seasons.

>>175

Still not complaining. I'm thinking they might combine the 4th and 5th books too. They seem to be fairly simultaneous.

>>137
Cool portrait.

One thing that gets on my nerves is the portrayal of Jaime Lannister. The man's the closest thing the series has to a hero. Having him kill Clytos Frey in the show is just nonsense. Plus the bit with the mummer and the thief could have been grand comedy and they were one of the shining moments of Tyrion's genius.

>>176
>I'm thinking they might combine the 4th and 5th books too. They seem to be fairly simultaneous.
That is what they have said they'll do so far.

>>176
>One thing that gets on my nerves is the portrayal of Jaime Lannister.
Are you sure we're thinking of the same Jaime? Because the Jaime I know isn't interested in doing the right thing, he's only interested in getting wealth and power himself. Sure, he'll say that it was a good thing he killed the king he was sworn to protect but it was actually just an attempt by him to take the throne for himself, and that is essentially the only thing he's done so far that can be considered heroic.

>>179

One of the cool things about the series is it forces people to pick their own heroes out of a cast of morally ambiguous and dangerous fellows.

So this is pretty much the conclusion I've come to about Jaime and the Lannisters in general. Aside from Cersei (Joffrey's 13 for shits sake)* they really don't seem to kill anybody without a reason or methodology behind it. And unlike the northerners/river lords/brotherhood, they don't get on some stupid moral high horse when they do it.


Also Jaime's story become more clear during the 3rd and 4th seasons. Joining the kingsguard at 15 so he can be with his sister, not realizing the sacrifices it meant; no lands, no inheritance, no marriage. Then getting shitted on by mad king Aerys almost daily, and Cersei never marries Rhaegar, so she's nowhere near Kings Landing. His appointment to the kingsguard results in Tywin resigning as Hand in fury as it removes Jaime from the line of inheritance as well as destroying his betrothal to Lysa Tully. (Imagine!) This sets the stage for the wars of the Usurper (the years Tywin reigned as hand were the most peaceful decades the realm had known), Tywin as Hand would probably have tipped the scales of the war had he not been feuding with Aerys over the appointment. Also mad king Aerys wanted to burn down kings landing. Where did you think all those jars of wildfire came from? The plan was to wait until the rebel armies entered the city, and then burn the place to the ground, with everyone in it. Of course the rest is nothing to be proud about. Poor poor Elia.

I guess my beef is that the episode where he kills his cousin can't be painted in any good light, pretty jarring in a series where moral ambiguity is the rule and most of his actions are justified if you think about them. But the plot change was probably necessary given that the majority of the tv audience wouldn't actually give a damn that he killed mad king Aerys.


*the tv series made everyone older so they could show some 13 yo Dany titties

>>183
>One of the cool things about the series is it forces people to pick their own heroes out of a cast of morally ambiguous and dangerous fellows.
I know, I have read the books. Jaime is, however, portrayed more or less as an ambigiously evil persona during the first few books and starts to act like a good guy after his head becomes shaved. The fact that he performs yet another evil act amongst countless others at this time in the story does not seem to go against his character and the way he does it does not seem to go against the characteristics of his house either.

I watched all of season 1 in one go, and have been following season 2 with every new episode.

And it breaks my heart that I sometimes lose track of characters. Because it's a superbly well-done show, the type I deeply want to see more of. I don't have the time to rewatch season 1, so I'm just trying to keep up.

After every episode I end up stomping around not knowing what to do with myself, because it was just too fucking short. Can't remember the last time I've felt that way about something. I could easily see most episodes being successfully stretched to ~2 hr standalone movies. It's really impressive.

Not really good discussion, just gushing. Excited to see tonight's episode. But didn't realize until a bit ago that it's the last episode of the season. Pretty fucking unacceptable.

I got season 1 on blu-ray. Loved it, would be buying the episodes of season 2 if I could but even though I have money HBO won't let me give it to them, so I've been watching it for free instead. Anyhow, last two episodes have been some hot shit. Very much enjoying the show.

It kinda feels like HBO were completely off my radar, and now I'm following three shows that I absolutely love (Dexter, GoT, Ricky Gervais Show) and I'm wondering why HBO suddenly are good.

Wait didn't they make the Pacific and Band of Brothers too?

>>191
That's how I feel. I've got to give HBO credit for pretty much delivering a movie every Sunday, though they're criminally short episodes.

As for last night's finale, I thought it was alright. Didn't like them cutting out Ramsay Bolton for the season and Him killing Robb's men and burning down Winterfell. That was probably my biggest complaint. Other than that, it was much what I expected, though the Others scene outdid my expectations. Didn't think they would go all out and cgi one for us.

Theon was great as usual, even with the plot changes. Loved that speech.

>>192
HBO has always been good. But yes, Band of Brothers and Pacific come from them. So did Deadwood (a good western series), The Wire, The Sopranos, Carnivale, and Six Feet Under, and a ton of others. I'm looking forward to Newsroom personally.

Maybe you're thinking of AMC? Because they kind of just started having award winning shows a few years ago with Breaking Bad and Mad Men along with The Killing and The Walking Dead. All of which are pretty good (I personally love The Killing the most), though I lost interest in Walking Dead.

Saging cause it has nothing to do with GoT. Well, except after the season finale shit looks to be getting real. But, this is GoT we're talking about. They'll belabor the getting real.

SAGE has been used.

>>195
That part didn't even make sense. I can live with most of the aberrations from the books, but that change left open a massive plot hole. It was supposed to be a Northern army outside the gates ready to retake Winterfell, not burn it to the ground and kill everybody. It goes from the Ironmen knocking out Theon and presumably surrendering or escaping like Robb was predicting, but when Bran comes out of the crypts the place is in ashes for some reason? The Maester just says they "burned it" down before they left, but why would the Ironmen do that if they were surrendering anyway? And where did the 500 strong army of Stark soldiers go? Are we supposed to believe they sacked their own capital, or let the Ironmen destroy it on their way out, and then just disappeared? Bizarre.

>>251

I haven't read the books, but that part didn't sit well with me either. There was no explanation as to why it was done or even who did it.

I have to wonder how they're going to handle some of the changes they've made to the source material

If the Reeds are going to be making an appearance in the 3rd season anyway I wonder why they even bothered to wait to introduce them. Eventually Osha and Rickon are going to have to split from Bran and Hodor on the way to the Wall. It's not going to make as much sense if they just jump right in and split them apart without building up the trust they've developed in the book.

Also it's gonna be kind of awkward when Tyrion marries Sansa now that they've decided to make Shae her handmaiden. I mean Shae seemed cool with him just getting Sansa preggo but if she thinks she's got to be right outside door when they do it and help deliver the baby that's got to create some tension.

And how is Jamie getting dragged to Harrenthal by the Bloody Mummers going to go over when it's still supposed to be a Lannister stronghold in the show? Arya never released the prisoners to retake the city like in the book. Are they just gonna ignore the part where the Mummers switched sides? Did they even introduce the Mummers in the show?

>>251
My guess is that they tried to make it a mysterious point for the viewers, though they didn't spell it out well enough. They did say Ramsay was sent to Winterfell however, at least according to Roose. I think they intended to pin it on him in an ambiguous way. Thought a viewer could barely catch it so either way, whether it was Ramsay or the ironmen, it was stupid. What sucks is they may not even introduce him next season, he isn't cast at least as far as we know. Meaning by the time the Bastard really comes into the story, it won't make much sense at all.

>>254
As far as Shae, they really screwed up her characterization in the show. How is she supposed to betray Tyrion when they made it so painfully obvious to viewers that she loves him in show-lore? . And with regards to Jaime, I don't think it's that big of a deal, they can just as easily introduce the Mummers as some random merc group that catches the Kingslayer, cuts off his hand because of being derpy mercs, then get their debt payed by the Lannisters when Tywin finds out. What I'm most worried about is if they change Brienne too much like they did in the last episode, making her as ruthless as they did. They could very well have her cut off the hand in the fight Jaime has with her, to me that's the most likely possibility and I will be none too pleased with that.

>>195
She looks like a Dany tranny in that pic

SAGE has been used.

>>256
Most likely it was Ramsey but seeing as they cut the whole Ramsey, a character that has only been spoken about up to that point and never shown, diguising himself as his servant, Reek, a character that we also have never seen up to that point to trick both the northmen and the ironmen to let him into winterfell was cut (most likely because that would have been impossible to convey without confusing the fuck out of the people who have never read the books and still fit it into one 10 hour long season with plenty of other plots going on at the same time) they decided to introduce him as the northman that betrayed his king in the opening of season 3.

It might also have been related to cutting the part where Arya frees the northmen from Harrenhall's dungeons and then hide her true identity from Roose Bolton. It would likely be impossible to convey why he's a threat and the average person that haven't the read the books would be like "why is she hiding her identity from her brother's bannerman? Wouldn't it be smarter to just tell him to bring her to Robb?"

What I'm getting at is that this way they can introduse a new villain early in the third season, rather than shoehorn him in at the end of season 2 with either no explanation for who he is or with too much/an overly confusing explanation.

>>275


The whole reek thing will probably be dealt with via flashback.

We're now nearly half way through season 3. I've been absolutely loving it, the only thing I can really complain about was the ending song for episode 3. My favorite arc so far definitely has to be Daenerys; to be fair, it's hard to top all that she's done this season, not to mention I have a thing for benevolent yet ruthless women. Jon Snow's is second, but some more needs to happen with it. I'm also starting to really like the Brotherhood Without Banners.

>>324
This is just a guess, but I think Roose as Reek is supposed to be the guy who freed Theon and then brought him back. I'm kind of hoping it's supposed to be Roose's method of breaking Theon's will to escape and to just psychologically torture him, thereby making him the new Reek.

>>408
Even though Paul Kaye was the last person I imagined as Thoros of Myr in my head, I gotta say I quite like what they're doing with him and the Brotherhood.

I'm gonna have to bring back >>148's dick riding of Tywin; he's not a character I'd say I love, but I admire him exactly as much as I despise him. This fucking guy is a greedy sociopath with a single-minded goal who is not only completely aware of what that makes him, but actually uses it to get the greatest advantage he could possibly achieve in a given situation. Not to mention (as previously stated), he's someone who knows what the right amount of cruelty is needed/deserved for the specific slight against him. In short, he's now officially one of my (very exclusive) bottom-fantasies.

  I seriously could not resist posting this.

>>418
I could totally get down with Tywin if it wasn't for how much of a complete shit-head he is to his son.
>wahhhh I spawned a dwarf
>waaaahhh My wife died giving birth, which I am going to blame on the actual child which makes no sense whatsoever.
The only one of his kids who is worth a damn he treats like absolute crap just because his own penis and enjoyment of life shriveled up when his wife died. He's like Stannis in his coldness in the nethers.

I really came to root for stannis through reading the books, and how much people on the internet went on and on about him, fat lot of fucking good that did me.

I actually completely understand most of the changes they made in the series from the books, many for budget reasons (like the little use of Giants and DireWolves, and then things like characters they merged, or fluffed because there's so many in the book, and the way they did MArgery's character, and Shay I think they did just to keep the book-fans on their feet, so they won't know everything that's going to happen, and I think that's smart.
except for no Dany breast-feeding Dragons, that's fucking dumb, I thought HBO would have the balls to do it.
>>171
GRRM told the writers how the books end in case he dies. You can't accuse them of "milking" a series that consists of over 4 thousand pages SO FAR.
>>176
Yeah, they're going to HAVE to do books 4 and 5 simultanious, which will be hard, imagine the uproar of trying to do a season without Tyrion and Dany, I was fucking pissed when I started reading the book and realized they weren't in it!!
>>179
I haven't seen any problem with Jaime's portrayal. He's the same douche that they make to hate and then try and redeem. Yeah, he's got this fucked up "code" but he crippled a kid so he could fuck his sister, that will never wash with me, no matter how nice he is, even if he manages to "save" any of the Stark girls
>>256
My prediction for Shae is that She'll be sent off to the Ayre with Sansa, rather then killed, which bugs me, becuas I know they don't want the audience to turn from Tyrion, but I thought it added a whole other ruthless layer to his character that killing Tywin alone wont achieve. They're just trying to make something nice for him since he spends the whole rest of the series as it stands being jerked around and shit on. I was really upset how he spends the whole fucking 5th book on a stupid wild goose-chase. There's some hope for him at the end when he hooks up with those sell-swords and starts signing his name Lord of Casterly Rock, but Jesus, take forever.

  POOOOOOODDDDDDDRRRRRRRIIIIIICCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

>>550

Are you kidding me, none of that shit's gonna happen. It's gonna be The Wall Part 2.

>>551
Stannis brought the motherfucking pain, THAT's what happened.

He just routed the leader. He didn't defeat the army. The camp you saw them in was an advance post used for communication. As stated by John Snow, Mance Rayder is the only thing really keeping the different clans from fighting each other, so Stannis came in and captured him.
At least that's as best as I can recall.

This series of GoT has been boring as fuck. I'm sorry, but it has. Jaime and Bronn have been the best part, and they've been in two quick fights total.

>>689

Worst season ever. Spartacus was better than GoT. Even with incredible cheesiness, and somehow more dicks, it was better.