DaveSumm

Is the Alayne chapter still out there, now that Alayne II has replaced it? I can only find links to Martin's site, but the text is copyable, surely someone nabbed it...?

Dear wise folk of the forum: Does anyone know if the sample chapter on the app is Tyrion I or II? The app says I, but this site says it's II. And could someone confirm that these are the chapters that are released, or at least, are the actual text (I'm assuming Victarion's not from memory, but was actually recorded?) Victarian I: https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/r1v01/transcript_of_the_excerpt_from_the_victarion/ Alayne I: http://www.georgerrmartin.com/excerpt-from-the-winds-of-winter/ Arianne I: On the app Barristan I: On the app Theon: On the app Mercy: On the app Tyrion (I? II?) On the app And so Barry II, Tyrion (I? II?), Arianne II, are all chapters that have been read and so there's only second hand descriptions of, right? And that's all of them? ETA: or hold on, is this Arianne II? https://web.archive.org/web/20131028114918/http://www.georgerrmartin.com/excerpt-from-the-winds-of-winter/ ETA2: Nope, Arianne I again. The app version just has an additional bit at the beginning so I thought they were different chapters.

Is the board always going to have the banner advert along the bottom? It's currently rendering the mobile version somewhat obsolete. One half the width would be fine.

Don't know if it's connected, but I usually use Google to search this forum, but no results from the forum show up on a Google search anymore...?

I like the I like the new look, just a couple of things: Any idea when the October database might be up? I'm just not sure whether to bother reposting a few things or wait it out. And the mobile skin currently shunts everything over to the left hand side; weirdly on my iPhone, while it's loading it looks fine. Then fully loaded, it compresses to the left. Appreciate all your hard work though guys, I'm sure it's no fun having a bunch of complaints waiting after busting a gut updating the place.

My local bookstore only has the wrong version of Dreamsongs that doesn't have The Hedge Knight in, I went with Amazon. Dreamsongs 2, containing The Hedge Knight: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0553806580 Legends 2, containing The Sword Sword: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0345456440?pd=1 Warriors, containing The Mystery Knight: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0765320487

I think the first story is available as in ebook in Dreamsongs, but the other two aren't. The fourth will be published next year, and then a least a full year after that a collection of all four together, which I assume would be published as an ebook as well. Long wait though, so I'm afraid it's good old paper for now.

GOD I hope that doesn't happen. I won't watch it, and I'll have to religiously avoid spoilers including this place, until the books come out. Ugh.

Does anyone know if GRRM was as busy back when he wrote aSoS as he is now? This is still the benchmark that gives us hope for tWoW - he wrote the longest book in two years. He just seems to have a lot on at the moment.

Really needs pinning in bold at the top of all these discussions: The Others also known as the White Walkers: strange race of ice creatures who have fallen into myth in Westeros - it is of these that GRRM said "The Others are not dead. They are strange, beautiful… think, oh… the Sidhe made of ice, something like that… a different sort of life… inhuman, elegant, dangerous.' Wights: People who have died at the hands of, or possibly in proximity to, an Other or White Walker. They are re-animated corpses who appear to act at the Others behest, or sometimes just killing anything living. It is very confusing, firstly because they both have blue eyes and secondly because, well, wights and white walkers sound like they should be the same thing. I don't really understand the need to name them in such a confusing way to be honest.

Yes, Margaery's older than Joffrey but no-one's particularly fussed because the Highgarden(Tyrell)/Lannister alliance is so important. In the books, it's Roose's bastard from the dreadfort who burns Winterfell so I'm not sure whether that was what the implication was here. The House of the Undying is also populated by the undying, but we didn't see them. I imagine Pyat Pree's probably got some fire repelling spells up his sleeve, but this is dragon fire, which burns incredibly hot. Trumps his magic, apparently. I think the chains were Pyat Pree's magic, so when he burned they disintegrated. Not sure. Probably cos it made for a cool scene to be honest, or maybe they have some sort of Borg ethic where if they don't pose a threat they don't bother. Or maybe he thought one of the wights behind him would sort him out.

After Blackwater, I actually really learned a lesson in switching off the analytical/book reader part of my mind and just enjoying it. I'm really glad I did cos this episode was fantastic, the extra time really allowed for the scenes to breathe and not feel compressed or rushed. And sorry, but this is the most out of proportion I've ever seen the fans response on this site. SOOOOOOO many people saying the HoTU was poorly done. It's so strange, of all the things to get your hopes up about.......did everyone seriously think that it'd be the same as the book? Hey, here's some guy you've never heard of holding a baby.......here's four rat-dwarfs crawling over a naked chick......here's some wizards in a hall...... 99% of the viewers would feel utterly let down that a patchy season for her had ended with some messed up acid trip that made no sense whatsoever. Converting this stuff to TV isn't just about dropping plots, it ultimately is about simplifying stuff. Familiar faces, familiar locations........viewers are now left with hope that Dany might see that throne room for real, that her dragons are a serious force for her to use........it was a good way to end her season. And this end scene, with the army of wights, that every non-book reader reaction I've seen says it's awesome..........was awesome. Yes, the Other looked a little different. He looked awesome. Yes the army of wights looked like zombies. THE WIGHTS ARE ZOMBIES. Their description is identical, they're reanimated corpses. Sorry to be ranty, but when they announced this show we were all "cool, we can see a massive Other/Wights army attacking the fist!" Then we get it........and everyone whinges that they look TOO much like zombies!? These zombie creatures? Well I'm very satisfied. Ultimately, a Clash of Kings doesn't fit into ten episodes so stuff's been changed. The last two episodes really made up for any weaknesses and I'm fully confident that Season 3 and onward are going to be incredible.

I am utterly baffled by the suggestions that Tyrion's chain would be too expensive to do. This is a show that has very frequent shots of living, breathing dragons, city landscapes, 700ft walls.......this is A CHAIN. I can only hope that it's being kept secret (from viewers) so that it's emergence from the Blackwater is more of a surprise. A Clash Of Kings is Tyrion's finest hour for me, and an ongoing source of frustration that his efforts are completely unrecognised despite the fact that he was a brilliant Hand. As it stands, when anyone in the future says his tenure was poor, the audience don't really have any evidence that it wasn't. A shame.

Re: Gregor casting. People are saying it's a hard role to cast, surely it isn't because he has so few lines? Casting call: ANY ABSOLUTE BEEFCAKE. May need to grunt and look angry through a visor every now and then. Wields a two handed great sword with one hand? Wears armour that most men couldn't move in? This guy didn't look capable of any of these things.

I really can't believe that Mormont knows the full extent of what Craster's doing. I'm gonna assume that he thought craster just left the sons out in the woods to die so they wouldn't pose a threat to him, but the idea that the Lord Commander of the Nights Watch knows about the Others and has done precisely squat about is just too ridiculous.

Let's face it, Osha and Luwin are clearly filling in for the Reeds already. I'd love to see them as much as anyone, but I can't think of a purpose past this season. Encouraging Bran's warging? Already happening, will probably be completely capable by the end of the season. Heading to 3EC? Well we know Bran escapes at the end of this season, where's he gonna go? So what's Meera and Jojen gonna say? Well done so far, keep warging and keep heading north? Nah. Reek on the other hand, is crucial to Theon's arc and I'd wager he'll be in Season 3, and Season 2 will end with Theon killing the kids and then a closing shot confirming that Bran and Rickon survived.

If in future episodes they play up a Cersei's informants then I'll retract that complaint, but to me at the moment it looks more like they're emphasising that Sansa is still a highborn lady and is very used to being waited on hand and foot. I can't think of any significant plot advance that happens as a result of Cersei's informers, the only one that springs to mind is that Tyrion provides it as a reason to employ Shae - which has already happened. It's not nearly as obvious as people here might have you think, basically: Catelyn observes that he spends more time talking to Loras than Margaery over dinner, he asks Loras to 'stay and pray' with him, and Loras is particularly devastated when he's killed.

Really don't understand all this talk of Cersei being too nice.......what show are you watching? She spoke gleefully about the possibility of Robb being killed in front of his sister and two young children! The only thing I can think that's being referred to is how upset she is at losing Myrcella: she loves her kids. It's her one redeeming feature (that, and her cheekbones).

Only downsides: Tommen's random northern accent (it seems they basically toss a coin when deciding whether a character should be northern or not, regardless of where this person lives or where they were raised), the fact that there are now three distinct pronunciations of Tyrell (Tie-RELL, Ta-RELL, TI-rel, don't really understand why they don't have consistent pronunciations on this show...) and Sansa randomly deciding she's gonna be a bitch to Shae (jeez, how about take the opportunity to have a conversation with someone who isn't trying to systematically eliminate your entire family?)... But these are minor quibbles. OBVIOUSLY Tyrion is fantastic, Bran fantastic, Arya fantastic.......yadayadayada. Really glad they kept faithful to Tyrion's chapters for the weeding out and subsequent shaving of Pycelle. And Margaery Tyrell is awesome, she's being prepared carefully for her later role as Cersei-esque "know-how-to-use-what-you-were-given" and plotting with Olenna (if she appears, hope she does).

Slightly off-topic terminology check: does 'White Walkers' encompass both Others and Wights, or does it only refer to one or the other? And yes, I'm astonished that anyone would complain about this because it wasn't in the book. We got to see an Other for Gods sake. I enjoyed the episode, you could still tell that the task of setting up new characters and plots was paramount, but at this rate I think they'll really be going full steam by next week. I'm still disappointed that we haven't seen a scene where only Davos and Stannis are present, to me this is the heart of that whole subplot: Davos walking that narrow line between truth and respect. I really would have loved it if Stannis had read the letter back to Davos alone, so Davos could raise his objection to the 'light of the lord' section (providing the real meat of their relationship and revealing his feelings about Mel at the same time). I have no problem with Ros, but I am a little disappointed with the crying scene simply because it portrays Littlefinger as just plain nasty. I wouldn't say book LF is nasty, he's just incredibly driven and ambitious. I can't see book LF sacrificing someone simply to make good on one investment (although he probably would for the prospect of long-term multi investments, or the potential to climb yet higher in the game of thrones).

I always pictured Craster as pretty clean......given that he has dozens of daughter/wife's waiting on him hand and foot. If I had to pick fault, it'd be that he didn't seem quite as begrudging of the NW as in the book, where you clearly get the impression that if it weren't for the Gods he keeps, he wouldn't even entertain housing them all at his house. All this direwolf talk.........not enough talk of how Drogon looked AMAZING. I literally couldn't pick fault with it, it was one of the most flawless bits of CG I've ever seen.