Lord Lannister

They probably will. Why not? Star Wars has been putting butts in the seats for generations now over nostalgia for what once was despite diminishing quality. So not unreasonable for GoT to get the same treatment.

This is the show forum, so Edric never existed there. Gendry pretty much took his role. Though in the books he's still alive. He was mentioned in the character listings of one of the last two novels as being in the Free Cities after Davos helped him escape.

I'd say just watch the show if you want to know how it ended.

Sad thing is, when I saw Grey Worm kill the soldier who surrendered and later executing prisoners I immediately drew the parallel that he wasn't much different from the person who killed Missandei, that he obeyed orders without question no matter how horrible.

Bran's probably due for a trip to the Essos equivalent of Vegas for some gambling to get all the money they need for rebuilding and paying off their debt. Though to be fair, Cersei's the one who ran up that debt. That would be like expecting her to pay off the money Stannis borrowed.

You can make a case for that, but it's premature to state is as fact.

1) Season 4- Easily my favorite. It all flows so smoothly together it's hard to separate it into episodes rather than a solid 10 hour block. This was the level of quality the show should have been aspiring to. Sure they took some liberties(I don't mind Brienne fighting the Hound) but it made sense. 2) Season 1- The foundation the rest of the show is built on. Seeing Robert and Ned in action is always fun. 3) Season 6- This might raise some eyebrows for some, but I thought it was well handled. Sure they're going in their own direction from the books, but they looked to be handling it well here and telling a great story. 4) Season 2- One of the more "fun" seasons, seeing Tyrion and his antics in King's Landing never gets old. The glory days of the War of the 5 kings is great. 5) Season 3- Another well executed season, who can forget Catelyn's wail of agony at the Red Wedding? 6) Season 7- I'd note the gap from the last season and this one is rather large. I once described this season as twice the sex with half the foreplay. At the time I was willing to forgive this season for being rushed because of time constraints, but in retrospect it foreshadowed how season 8 would be handled. 7) Season 5- You can tell they were struggling here as their source material started to run out. Honestly, still irked about how Stannis got treated by the writers in this one. 8) Season 8- It's like they just.... stopped trying in terms of story writing. It's really a Shae because the cinematography and effects and directing were so perfect. It's like they built an epic and lifelike statue out of crap. As talented as that is, it's still.... crap.

I guess it's subjective in the end. To me the political maneuvering and interesting characters were what I enjoyed reading the most. Jon with the Others(Show failed us hugely there), Bran with Bloodraven, Melisandre and the other Red Priests, even Dany and her dragons in some ways, just seemed to be points where the story stalled to me. Even where many of the plot holes seem to lay. How much of our time is Qaithe going to be wasting ranting on about cryptic half truths(I swear she's just trying to make Dany trip over herself and distrust everyone around her, but that's another topic). I guess you can argue magic is "on the rise" but that's because it fell and they're trying to get a fraction of what they had back. Which is a trope in a lot of stories, so maybe that's why it's not really capturing my interest. All too often is just leaves the door open for some deus ex machina scenario that just makes you facepalm too. Though I guess you could say Bran doing something like that instead of just going to his happy place would've been way more satisfying than Arya just jumping out of nowhere. Though on that subject it still amazes me that Dany was the only one to question Bran "seeing Jon's ancestry in the trees." Maybe the books will give us something more.... magical. If we get them. I might have liked it if Drogon was shown laying a clutch of eggs or something at the end. Could symbolize that magic was in the world to stay again, instead of just seemed doomed to fade away again, as the show ending would suggest combined with what we know from the books.

Point taken, but it's their funeral if they want to risk that with this community.

Yeah so? Honestly the traditional fantasy elements are the weakest parts of the story. Magic is like a spice it should enhance the story not overpower it.

I mean really, what do you expect him to say on a blog that thousands of fans reading? He's not going to say he's barely touched it even if that's true. He's always working on it while being noncommittal about any details, though busy with other things. I guess the next summer bit is a solid detail you could say, but I wouldn't call that carved in stone by any means. Wouldn't even surprise me if that one got retconned or even edited out at some point. I'll believe in Winds Of Winter being nearly done when I see a release date on Amazon.

It meant a lot for the story. Just not Jon's character. The circumstances of Jon's birth, the keeping of the secret and how people react to it were driving forces for a lot of the characters and storylines.

I always found Littlefinger's story compelling. Certainly he's not going to ever go down as being the hero, but he tried that dueling Brandon and it backfired and ended with him being humiliated. So he makes lies his weapon. Lies that he pushes to propel himself higher and higher. That he slept with both Tully twins to make him look better than Brandon. That he always loved Lysa because her influence with her husband helped him rise first in the Vale then in King's Landing. He's the real Game of Thrones. Manipulating everyone into going against one another so he can profit. He probably hates the system as much as anyone in Westeros, but he's exploiting it's flaws to his advantage at every possible opportunity. Lord of Harrenhal, Lord Paramount of the Riverlands, Lord Protector of the Vale, he's amassing a lot of influence around himself and who knows what his real game is, if it's anything more complicated than a power play. As you say, it's a minor miracle he's still breathing. Varys may have said no one mourns the death of Spiders, but I'd say the same is true of Mockingbirds. He's building a tall tower, but one misstep and it will come crashing down hard.

Can't say I have any plans to be watching this show opening day. Maybe I'll change my mind, but I'll probably let the first season or so play out before I decide on giving it a chance or not.

Well if you want a story about the hidden prince coming into their throne, there's plenty out there. It's one of the most beaten tropes in the fantasy genre. Jon's story isn't defined by the fact that his grandfather was king. He accomplished everything he did without being raised in a royal court or knowing he had noble blood. He was just a bastard. But men followed him because he had the courage of his convictions, and was willing to do what was right. Saying all that spawned from his grandfather being a king is nonsense. I think his underlying theme was that birth doesn't matter.