Uh hey you dropped your shadow-baby: decadently spoilery Game of Thrones thrad

[FreddyKnuckles]

Yeah I have a general understanding of who people are and what they're doing, but if you showed me a character's picture I couldn't give you their name. (for the most part)

[dieblucasdie]

You guys at least know which one Hot Pie is though right

[jess]

Yeah, one thing that's nice about the show is that you don't have to learn names because you have the visuals, whereas when you read a book, you need to keep it all straight. I know the main character's names and some of the side ones, but mostly I don't bother to try to learn them, so it just depends on the extent to which other characters use the names in clear ways.

[jebreject]

Coming to GoT cold must be similar to watching those first few seasons of the Wire for the first time.

I read a big chunk of the first book before the series, but yeah, I often feel like that when watching this show. I pretty much require recaps after watching to be able to sort through what actually happened most of the time. It gets easier with each episode, but my head was swimming for the first bit of each season.

[jebreject]

the fuck

[jebreject]

this show is just

i don't even

i

fuck

[dieblucasdie]

ha, yeah. For a while, at the beginning of the season, I thought they might decide to be total dicks and end the season with that scene.

The remaining episodes are:

2-08: The Prince of Winterfell
2-09: Blackwater
2-10: Valar Morghulis

Yessssss.

As lame as Dany's plot line is at this point (I AM THE MOTHER OF DRAGONS), I'm still interested to see how they'll do the House of the Undying. It'll be kinda tough to get all the prophecy stuff in visually without it becoming just straight-up spoilers, lol. I'd forgotten a lot of it, but when I re-listened to the audiobook, I realized that, yeah, most of that stuff is not even trippily symbolic like it seems; it's stuff that literally happens later.

[davy]

Maaaaan, I'm so behind.

[jebreject]

M was pretty convinced that the charred bodies were actually Brann and Rickon; I felt like they were probably the orphan boys, though it's clear Theon wants the people of Winterfell to believe it's the Stark children. But then it sort of started dawning on me that, fuck, if any show would mercilessly kill off two children--one of them being an important POV character--it's this one. My stomach sank. I still feel fucked up about it. I can't wait until next week.

(PS if anyone spoils me on any of this shit, I will beat on you like Jamie Lannister beat his long lost cousin.)

[elpollodiablo]

ha, yeah. For a while, at the beginning of the season, I thought they might decide to be total dicks and end the season with that scene.

The remaining episodes are:

2-08: The Prince of Winterfell
2-09: Blackwater
2-10: Valar Morghulis

Yessssss.

As lame as Dany's plot line is at this point (I AM THE MOTHER OF DRAGONS), I'm still interested to see how they'll do the House of the Undying. It'll be kinda tough to get all the prophecy stuff in visually without it becoming just straight-up spoilers, lol. I'd forgotten a lot of it, but when I re-listened to the audiobook, I realized that, yeah, most of that stuff is not even trippily symbolic like it seems; it's stuff that literally happens later.

Wow, only three left! I didn't realize they were sticking to the ten episode seasons. They've managed to do pretty damn well in terms of coverage! Although aren't we missing a ton of the stuff happening with Sam and Mormont? Or does that not really take off until the next book?

[YojimboMonkey]

I ain't gonna spoil shit but I know about sick feelings in your stomach jeb, that part in the books is what put me off finishing Clash of Kings for years. I never did get back to this series until after the first season of the TV show.

[dieblucasdie]

ha, yeah. For a while, at the beginning of the season, I thought they might decide to be total dicks and end the season with that scene.

The remaining episodes are:

2-08: The Prince of Winterfell
2-09: Blackwater
2-10: Valar Morghulis

Yessssss.

As lame as Dany's plot line is at this point (I AM THE MOTHER OF DRAGONS), I'm still interested to see how they'll do the House of the Undying. It'll be kinda tough to get all the prophecy stuff in visually without it becoming just straight-up spoilers, lol. I'd forgotten a lot of it, but when I re-listened to the audiobook, I realized that, yeah, most of that stuff is not even trippily symbolic like it seems; it's stuff that literally happens later.

Wow, only three left! I didn't realize they were sticking to the ten episode seasons. They've managed to do pretty damn well in terms of coverage! Although aren't we missing a ton of the stuff happening with Sam and Mormont? Or does that not really take off until the next book?

Yeah, Sam isn't a point-of-view character until Storm of Swords (IIRC the prologue is from the perspective of a redshirt at the Fist, and that's where that plot-line comes back in). Given that they went to the trouble to feature Gilly so prominently, we may see a take on some of that in the last couple episodes, though.

But yeah, Weiss and Benioff have said in interviews that it would be basically impossible for them to do more than 10 episodes a year, given their production schedule. The good news is that they're only tackling part of Storm of Swords for S3--I think we all know what THAT finale will be, fuuuuuck--so hopefully they'll have time for even more of the little character moments the show's become so good at, when they don't have to move the plot along quite as quickly.

I still hope Feast for Crows/Dance with Dragons is just one season, though. That shit would've been so fucking awesome condensed.

[elpollodiablo]

They've already spent more time on Rob's future wife than was ever spent on her in the books--I don't even remember the character's name, actually.

[dieblucasdie]

You might want to white that out for jebbie.

Yeah, that stuff isn't 100% successful, but I'm happy they at least attempted to make her a real character. It's interesting, since she's still alive and prisoner at the Crag as of ADWD; I've read some speculation that that may be where the Blackfish goes after he gives Jamie the slip at Riverrun. In any case, spending more time with her and Robb is going to make the thing that happens even more brutal.

[elpollodiablo]

There are some real problems of epistemology going on w/r/t this property; I can never keep straight what's fair game for discussion with whom.

Anyway it's kind of bumming me out to think that the Battle of the Blackwater is going to probably be covered through expository dialogue while we got several episodes of Robb and whatsherface making mooney eyes at one another. But them's breaks with TV, I guess.

[dieblucasdie]

Nah, they broke the bank on this one. Did you see the preview for next week? YES

[dieblucasdie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9WYMZUuNruA

YEAH

[jebreject]

I do appreciate the spoiler text.

I do understand that pieces need to be moved into place, but I can't say there was much in last night's episode to be excited about. I loved the Brienne and Jamie stuff, though, and all of the Tyrion scenes were excellent (particularly him and Varys getting closer--"Why are all the gods such vicious cunts? Where are the gods of tits and wine?"). Jon needs to stop being so fucking angsty too. I'm not sure which storyline I care less about, his or Dany's. Wait, no, it's definitely the latter, though the stuff with the warlock last week was pretty awesome.

[elpollodiablo]

Don't worry, the Danerys stuff picks up in three more seasons

[dieblucasdie]

I actually think the Dany stuff in Storm of Swords is pretty rad, on its own, and will make for some good TV. It's only problematic because it's still disconnected from the rest of the story. It's ADWD that's the real bullshit. And maybe since they're stretching SoS out over two seasons, they can burn through some of the ADWD stuff earlier so it seems less like feet-dragging.

And it's true that we're at a low point in the Jon plotline, but that shit gets live real quick.

[elpollodiablo]

I actually really liked Jon's scenes this week and last, but only because of Rose Leslie. She's great!

[jebreject]

Yeah, she's really good.

I'm going to have to read the damn books finally because I'm so tempted to read your spoiler text.

[dieblucasdie]

The things we whited out are pretty minor. And, you know, they've changed whatever-they're-calling-Jeyne-Westerling's plot line so much, they might not even be spoilers. Just being safe.

[elpollodiablo]

I'm a little confused as to why they changed Jenye to whatsherface--presumably because she'll just get it at the Red Wedding, maybe? Considering what little part Jenye has so far played in the aftermath, that seems like a decent bet.

[dieblucasdie]

I think it's also supposed to be in the service of making Robb a fully-fleshed out character, since he's off-stage in the books unless he's with Catelyn, since the kings aren't POV characters, and making that more of a must-wed-you-for-love thing instead of a horny-battle-crazed-teenager-with-his-father's-dumb-honor thing. You know, so Robb seems like a romantic idiot instead of just a fucking idiot.  

And I do think she may still play some role in the aftermath. Like I said, I think the Blackfish may be headed to bust her out of the Crag, and take her either to White Harbor or the Eerie, which, either way, crazytown.

I dunno if everyone knows this, but Martin's told the creators of the show what his plans are for the rest of the series, in some detail, in case he dies before he finishes the books, lol. So whenever the show raises a character's stature I'm wont to get speculative.