chris_warrior

yep. according to his livejournal, GRRM is writing at a furious pace, so i hope he makes it. i think my continuing to watch the show, so as to not be spoiled in the books any further, will depend on whether or not Winds comes out before the season 6 premeire.

THIS. omg, all my friends who are screaming over what DnD did to Stannis, i just want to have them read the books again, since they obviously forgot the fact that this man was ALREADY a kinslayer (Renly), an attempted Kinslayer (Gendry), a fornicator who trifes in black magic/makes shadow babies and arranges the asassination of Kings (Kingslayer?), who has discarded his wife, taken the finger joints off a friend, threatened said loyal friend with death, got thousands killed on the Blackwater, and - oh yes - had dozens burned to death for religion. THIS IS NOT A KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR, people.

i have to agree. i actually had my boyfriend skip it when we first watched, and then when it became apparent that we needed to see where Arya loses her face, i let him go back. i mean... we already knew Arya was going to kill him... it reminded me of the Joffrey crossbow moments; enough already. *sigh*

um... shouldn't we start marking a new thread "Show Spoilers for Book Readers"? i'm fairly certain that we're all caught up now. and, in fact, i was rather enjoying wondering which of the brothers undertook "FTW" while seeing little Olly stab his mentor just broke my heart. we already have theoretically seen The Night King twice, we've seen the meeting of Dany and Tyrion. we've seen Stannis fail in his initial attack on Winterfell and the burning of Shireen - all things the books might have heralded, and may actually happen in WoW. *i*, a book reader, feel spoiled by watching parts of this season. my decision to keep watching the TV show is likely going to be more influenced by whether or not George (who by all accounts is writing furiously) manages to beat the Season 6 opener with a Winds of Winter publication date.

as far as what's likely to happen, if Jon and Bran don't conveniently miss each other at Craster's, i'm not sure how Bran getting north plays out with anything like the tenor of the books. and it may be that it won't, but it would be disappointing. i suspect something may happen to make Jon think Bran and Rickon are dead after all. Ghost should make it, since he's alive in the books, and they can't be that hard up to trim their CGI budget. i hope Bran wargs _someone_ to get them out of this; i half-hoped he'd warg Rast or the one drinking out of Mormont's skull; in that moment, i wanted *someone* to get stabbed. as far as things i liked about the ep, Brienne and Jaime and Pod are at the top of that list. only section i rewatched.

this.

that was my thought, and woe betide HBO if they miss a chance to show boobies. *wry look* and yet _i_ would miss that scene, short as it should be, because it really gives us a glimpse into how frustrated and alone Dany truly is, and explains a bit why she makes some fairly unwise personal space choices later on, especially feeling so betrayed by Jorah (and sending him away) and screwing a mercenary Captain.

unless it becomes unimportant that Dany uses her as a bedmate. far be it for HBO to ignore a chance to show a sexy side of a character? or was it Doreah? in either event, it's a tiny scene that shows a hugely frustrated side of Dany;'s character that i think leads her to do some rather unwise stuff in later books (be so hurt by Jorah's actions, crawl into bed with a mercenary, etc).

seconded. though i already posted about it, it bears repeating.

forever and a half to read through 22 pages of comments, but it can be done. and i agree with a lot of the criticism and praise due this episode. it would be cool to come up with some sort of poll; kind of wondering if some HBO exec wouldn't be interested... Check all of the following that apply: (1) 2.4 derivation from original text bothered me (specifics in comments) (2) 2.4 derivations from original text did not bother me. (3) 2.4 extensive violence bothered me. (4) 2.4 extensive violence did not bother me. (5) 2.4 screen time given to extreme violence would have been better spent elsewhere (specifics in comments) (6) 2.4 screen time given to (specific character in comments) would be better spent elsewhere. (7) member of the "We think the character of Ros isn't working" club. (8) member of the "We think the character of Jeyne/whoever she is this week isn't working" club. (9) member of the "We think you've softened LF too much club." (10) member of the "We know your budget is limited, but would it have killed you to show us the dragons?" club. (11) member of the "We know your budget is limited, but would it kill you to show us more battles?" club. (12) 2.4 changes in casting bothered me. (13) 2.4 changes in casting did not bother me. and so on... -- most of the plot changes from book to TV show did not bother me. wasting screen time on scenes that i found so distasteful i will almost certainly FF through them on any repeated viewing of the show bothered me. as i understood it, the Tyrell crew executes the PW because Sansa lets slip that Joffrey is an evil bastard, and she's talking about how he treats her, Sansa. the fact that he'd be willing to beat up whores (and no, i didn't find the scene non-canon, simply disgusting) possibly wouldn't bother them at all; plight of common folk, and all that. i too wondered why they showed us the Shadow meant to kill Renly and didn't end with the killing. i think it would have actually linked the 'baby' and the death in a concrete way. the creepiness of Mel was well done, and the scene was impressive. disliked the Quarth scene because i feel it made Dany seem (more than usual) an idget. she blustered and threatened and blew smoke (pun intended) and came off looking terrible. i don't remember having quite so bad an opinion of her after reading CoK, as viewing this season. i agree with some posters that i think i would have been fairly confused with how Stannis got to Renly, if i hadn't read the books. continue to like the Arya material and Robb material, though the torture sequences at Harrenhal being shown that way were awful. again, FF, for me. there's a lot of bad stuff coming down the pike (Theon, Ramsey, etc) and this episode has me wondering how awful it may get.

yes. and i kind of missed how he implied "Oh, and this particular one should encounter rough seas and accidentally drown." i think it pointed out that the character of Tyrion was somewhat honorable... but not above killing off people he thought deserved it.

the other reason i accept that they decided to show us that scene is that it really makes clear the moment that Stannis ends up "in bed" with R'hllor. so to speak. i always had an odd feeling we had missed the moment of his reluctant "conversion" when i was reading the books. if we take this scene as somewhat canon, it appears clear that he allows Mel free rein not only of his kingdom but of *him* because she promises him victory... and a son.

agreed. the visual idea behind that scene made the impact for me. the fact they had sex? meh. at least, as others have said, it explains the shadow son who will kill Renly.

i actually wondered when i heard this portion of his monologue if it was a (somewhat clunky IMHO) opportunity to introduce Qyburn... in a "remember that throw-away scene in Season 2, Episode @ where we mentioned a man who paid amazing money to cut up living people? well, here he is!" way. i liked the episode, but i also thought the sex scene in the brothel was blatantly gratuitous; i would have preferred more Jon and Sam or Arya. i loved Ghost; i think they did a good job CGI-ing him. i didn't mind the Bronn change or the fact that they're revealing Joffrey as the baby-killer (i actually think it fits well into his ordering a similar deed at Winterfell?). even the bloodrider being killed makes sense if there was an issue with the actor returning. and the Mel and Stannis episode actually made snort/chuckle, given what they did they did on Aerys' table. then, of course, i winced a bit, because they are seriously f*cking the continent of Westeros... literally and figuritively. in that way, i thought it was an effective visual. a littl eham-handed, perhaps, but it got the point across. Theon and the Captain's daughter? eh. Theon and his sister? eh. they're both in the book, and both kind of needed to 'get' the character of Theon, but honestly i really can't stand Theon (and he gets much worse as things go on) so my opinion of "eh" may be more personal than objective. Jacquen? awesome? Sallador? awesome. and obviously Tyrion and the council (including his explicit/added interaction with Varys and his trading jabs with his sister) was wonderful; Peter hits every nuance, and Lena and the guiy who pays Varys are both amazing. it's funny: when i read the King's Landing portions of the books, i rushed through because ICK to most of those characters. now i really want to know where Sansa is, and i want to see more of Tyrion and Cersei. Balish, though, i still want to smother with a pillow.