[Book Spoilers] EP103 Discussion

[L’Age d’or]

His hat was ridiculous.

As ridiculous as Ilyn Payne.

I admit I did not recognize him till the Hound talked about his tongue :/ I was like who fuck does this farmer think he is staring down a Stark!

[snake]

Late to the discussion as usual.

Ok episode. IMO, the worst thus far.

Dislikes:

- The scene with Robert, the Kingslayer and Ser Barriston. Just felt wrong to me.

- Littlefinger. I don't like the actor who's playing him. He's nothing near what I thought Petyr should be.

- The Imp educating Jon at the Wall. I realize the need to cut down on characters but still put me off.

- Maester Aemon. Terrible casting and horrible writing. Not one thing remotely close to what it should be.

Likes:

- The Imp and Yoren scene. First time that I felt Dinklage caught the essence of the Imp.

- The Dothraki scenes are getting much better.

- Syrio Forel and Arya. Done extremely well.

- The Joffery actor is nailing the part.

- Sean Bean.

- Michelle Fairley.

- The actors playing the kids are doing well.

Looking forward to next week.

[Ser Kevan Raley]

I can understand her reason for being so upset and I won't argue that Ned doesn't know his daughter well enough to know what she'd appreciate or to realise that she's too old for a doll. It's still the sentiment that counted for me because for his part, he didn't have much of a choice in Lady's death and there wasn't a lot he could do to make up for it. A lot of dads are clueless about an appropriate gift for a child, so I put it down to that... that Ned is one of those dads. Doesn't mean he didn't care for his daughter. And while I understand why Sansa reacted as she did to it, I felt for Ned on seeing the expression on his face. I wonder if Sansa would have felt differently if she had caught that.

Sansa is a teenager - they're supposed to feel sorry for themselves and be egotistical - so I've decided to cut her some slack.

Mind you, had you asked me unspoiled, I wouldn't have said this. I remember being pissed at and annoyed by Sansa when I first read AGoT. Then I was not in a forgiving mode. I only got to be forgiving after I learned what happened to her. I'll also admit to that if I had been in Ned's shoes, I'd probably not have "gotten" Sansa either, but I would, like him, have "gotten" Arya.

[The Anti-Targ]

Not sure how this is much different than the book. What do we see that Makes Drogo a great Khal? He's pretty quiet in the book and, until quite a ways into it, he isn't with Dany other than when they are fucking. Just like the show, Dany spends most her time with Jorah on the road.

Drogo doesn't speak that much in the book, either. He'll crown Viserys soon. Then in the book he has a talkative (for him) stretch once they name the child the stallion who will mount the world. Then they'll take the village with the maegi and that's about all the Drogo action in the book.

It works fine in the book, because books are a different medium. For TV Drogo comes across like a dimwitted piece of furniture at this point. They should have had a scene by now which at least gives the audience more of a sense of Drogo as a complete person. They shoved in a whole extra scene between Jorah and one of the blood riders talking about the different merits of curved vs. straight blades. They could easily have made that conversation between Jorah and Drogo but had Drogo lead the conversation.

Perhaps they'll have Drogo string a few intelligent sentences together in Ep 4 or 5. But they need to get a little bit of momentum going with him to give us a reason to care about what ultimately happens. I'm kinda bored with the Dothraki story arc right now. And I think it was dumb to telegraph Jorah's duplicity so obviously.

[TerraPrime]

Perhaps they'll have Drogo string a few intelligent sentences together in Ep 4 or 5. But they need to get a little bit of momentum going with him to give us a reason to care about what ultimately happens. I'm kinda bored with the Dothraki story arc right now. And I think it was dumb to telegraph Jorah's duplicity so obviously.

I don't think non-readers will pick up on the duplicity yet. It's the dagger in act1, so to speak.

[Brewmaster]

But they need to get a little bit of momentum going with him to give us a reason to care about what ultimately happens.

Maybe, maybe not. I don't think the book gave us all that much reason to care about what happened to Drogo either. The main reason that its a factor is because of Dany's position, not because we care about Drogo. Dany has just become strong and then realizes that her position is very tenuous if Drogo dies. She may be forced to go back to Vaes Dothrak and be a crone, or be killed, and her child killed for sure to get the Stallion who mounts the world out of the picture.

Drogo himself, though? meh. As a reader are you ever really rooting for him to conquer the world? Do you really care if he lives or dies? I can't say that I ever did.

[TerraPrime]

I agree. I care about Drogo only in relation to Dany's position in the Khalasar. The first read-through it wasn't clear that Drogo is just there for the stud-ding, but once you go past book1, that's pretty clear. In a way, Drogo has to die so that Dany can continue her journey, else she'd still be under Drogo's thumb. So not spending a whole lot of time in developing screen-Drogo is okay with me.

[Kalbear]

I don't think non-readers will pick up on the duplicity yet. It's the dagger in act1, so to speak.

Many already have. And his duplicity is found out to us pretty quickly in the books (it's the impetus that causes Ned to resign his Hand), so it's not like it's moving that much forward.

[Ser Greguh]

Are people forgetting that Jorah's duplicity was revealed very early in the books? Varys mentions him by name when discussing the intelligence about Dany being preggers.

[IheartTesla]

Maybe I was reading too much into it, but there's a moment with Renly sort of in the background and he brushes back a piece of hair or something- that gesture to me seemed purposely effeminate/delicate. I think Renly has to be played fairly subtle- it's kind of subtle in the books and he's definitely not overtly effeminate. Hopefully there will be more hints in Renly's dress and mannerism as the show progresses.

Mack, this was what I was referring to, although it may be that we are seeing things we want to see. At any rate, I was a bit vague because even though this is a spoiler thread, you need the first three books to get a complete picture of Renly and I don't think everyone in this thread has read all the way to book 3.

Anyway, since that horse has bolted a bit, yeah, Renly.

[TerraPrime]

Hrm. Jaime also ran his hand through his hair.

I'll have to rewatch the Renly bit to be sure that it was not camp'ed up excessively, but the fact that I didn't really notice it makes me believe that it's not that obvious.

[vgz]

I was a late reader to the books. And, I am just finishing with Book 2. However, I find the Jon on the Wall arc so far not too interesting. As for Tierion giving advice to Jon, I found that somewhat a bit far-fetched for someone of Tierion's station and background. In fact in the books he seems to come off as very smart but devious and as most Lannister's self-serving. Someone answered my comment/question regarding whether he was bad, good, evil, smart etc and the answer seemed to be all three. I now see that that is true.

As for the Dany and Drogo arc, I am not too impressed by that either. In fact in Bk 2, some of the writing seemed to me to be rather (I do not want to say unbelievable, because it is a fantasy), but I have to say it did not "move" me to want to read more. As for the duplicity of Montmort, I did not catch that (as a non-reader) at the time when it was hinted at his being a spy. Intested to see where that becomes known to Dany.

I always want to read more of Arya. Hoping she comes upon her wolf and kicks "a*s".

Cierci, now that is another character I love to hate. How can she be so oblivious to how her son treats Sansa and others and if she does see it ignore it? Then, when it is time for her to send her own daughter to become bethrothed, she sends out almost all the guards she can to keep her safe. That shows you how really selfish, and yes, not balanced in her mind. Joeffry says that his mother told him it was not proper to "hit" his bethrothed/wife so what does he do, he has one of his knights do it.

Waiting for when all the "evil, crazies" get what's coming to them. Someone correct me if I am on the wrong track with my comments. As I said I am new to the books, but still enjoy the TV series.

[The Cheshire Cat]

Isn't Syrio supposed to talk like Jaquen? "A man sees..." "A man must..." etc.?

[Ser Greguh]

Isn't Syrio supposed to talk like Jaquen? "A man sees..." "A man must..." etc.?

No.

[Kat]

Thread continued here