bardgal

Sure, a lot of people didn't buy the hanging tar babies - but to say the reason is that they didn't "look real" I feel is silly. Theon still killed two kids (in the story.) He didn't hang up fake props from the Westeros Weta Workshop™. That said, a lot of people think Bran & Rickon are really dead. I know, because I know them and they've told me. All I said in response to when they said, "ZOMFGWTF! Theon really killed BRAN AND RICKON????" was, "No one is safe. Period. We lost three main characters last season, Ned, King Robert, and Kahl Drogo." Thankfully, they took that as my answer, and have no idea this website exists. ;) I can't wait for them to call me the second they go back to Bran & Co in the last episode of the season... "But you said....." :cool4: Tywin has ZERO idea Arya Stark is his cup bearer. Seriously. Who told him? Littlefinger? No way. Littlefinger was at King's Landing when it happened, so he's partially responsible, and he'd not only look bad, but Tywin would wonder why the hell wasn't he told when it happened?? Littlefinger may have recognized her, but he's keeping his mouth shut for now (if he even knows Arya is missing.) Cersei? Again, no way. She was there too. Tyrion? Same. They all bear the blame of her getting misplaced, so finding her, before Tywin figures it out, or hears about it, would be better. Not much different than the books. So if no one told Tywin that Arya is missing, why on earth would he think she'd miraculously escaped custody and made it all the way to Harrenhall without being caught or getting dead? If he thought his family was that incompetent he might just call it a day and kill them all, die of shame, or jump off a cliff himself. Tywin will find out. But it's not going to be until he gets to King's Landing and figures it out himself. Why would D&D&GRRM rob Charles Dance of such an awesome discovery scene? Jon will be put into the same cell/pen as QH. They'll have their little chat, and QH will give him orders. All will be well. As for JonWarg, there is plenty of time for that. Everyone who finds out about him that first time in the books, never make it back to the Fist to tell anyone anyway. So there's no reason he can't begin to go through all that with Mance & Co. The outcome will be the same, and they save $$ on a CGI eagle this season. I haven't given up on that yet. At least that's what I think will happen... :D Most of the $$ this season was probably spent on the Blackwater, and HotU. Going to film on location in Iceland is actually saving them money.

Perhaps you haven't noticed, but not everyone thinks exactly like you. Just because someone disagrees with you, it's no reason to bully them on an online forum. I'm reading the books, and watching the show. I am not a purist, and am enjoying BOTH. FACT: There are things I like better in the show. Call BS all you like, it doesn't make it true. But by all means, stay in your little bubble.

I have no idea what your first language is, but your English is awesome. Your sentence structure is better than 70% of the population of native speakers. I totally know what you're talking about, and I too feel that way about many novels vs Films/TV. Anna Karenina comes to mind, along with LOTR (just couldn't finish them, and LOVE the films.) I am so excited about The Hobbit coming out with PJ at the helm, I can barely contain myself. I hadn't even heard of the books until I finished watching last season, and was so in that I couldn't wait an entire year to find out what happens. I'm now on book 4. I agree with you, I like a lot of the show characters much better than the book, probably because I saw the show first. I'm also very familiar with screenwriting, and the difficulty in adapting novels to film, that I understand and so far, have no problems with any of the changes. I too like Show Catelyn better. But I'm glad I also know Book Catelyn. I can only speak for myself, but I see the books as icing on my giant ASOIAF cake, and quite enjoy seeing how D&D&GRRM are working their way through the adaptation. The books are fascinating, and for me, has only made my show experience better.

According to the text, Juliet dies just short of her 14th birthday, and her mother, Lady Capulet says to her: Well, think of marriage now. Younger than you, Here in Verona, ladies of esteem Are made already mothers. By my count, I was your mother much upon these years That you are now a maid. So she had Juliet likely just after her 13th birthday.

Shouldn't we be meeting Podrick and Edmure soon?

Shouldn't we be meeting Poderick soon? Don't forget who the hairnet really comes from, so that can't happen until Margery Tyrell is in King's Landing, and Gran has a reason... Yes. In fact, everyone I know who hasn't read the books, has called me in the last 48 hours, screaming WTF WITH THE KIDS?????? So relax. They're going to reinforce that in the next two episodes with raven scrolls to everyone who cares about their deaths. The season will end with the four of them coming out of the Winterfell crypts and seeing a burning ruin. Followed by three short blasts at the Fist (or they might open with that next season, since they still need to find the cache of dragonglass.) See? This. Same here. You're forgetting the operative word in your post: MAD. Joffrey is batsh^ite crazy, it doesn't matter if he's underage. Cersei is also female, and females in Westeros do NOT assume power as a rule, so there is that too. ATTENTION MEN: INCOMING TMI. IF YOU GET QUEASY WITH "GIRLIE FUNCTIONS" PLEASE SKIP TO THE NEXT POST. My first time lasted two weeks, looked like Sansa's bed within an hour, and was full of clots. The pill eventually fixed that, thankfully.

It's a normal amount if you've been asleep for eight hours, and have normal to heavy periods. Actually there'd be a lot more if you have heavy periods. Apologies to the men - but life is a bloody business.

We've only seen A DRAGON twice this season in all of seven episodes, not counting the two-tails shot. I wouldn't call that frequent. We've seen CGI Dire Wolves more than we've seen CGI dragons who are even more expensive since they have to be designed out of thin air and have not even the slightest thing to "motion capture." Having said that, I hope we see something of the chain....

As a SAG actor, due to the ensemble nature of the show, I can tell you none of them will be submitted for Lead Actor by their management. There really aren't any Single Main Male or Female characters in the show. They also stand a better chance of winning in the supporting category, (and that has a LOT to do with it as well - which is why Tommy Lee Jones was submitted for Best Supporting Actor in the '94 Oscars for The Fugitive (and WON), even though he has as much or more screen time than Harrison Ford.)

Which makes her NORMAL.

Ok - I posted this on the nitpick thread, but after reading this thread, I thought I should post it here too. Apologies for the repeat (if you've read that thread.) :) My friend (who hasn't read the books), turned to me at the end of the episode with a look of horror and said, "ARE THEY REALLY DEAD???" To which I responded, "Do you really want to know?" He hadn't even noticed the two kids at the farm. So yeah - there are going to be plenty of people who think what they're supposed to think at this point (that Theon really would kill the Stark boys.) As for the buildup to Blackwater - I think we'll get a TON of that next week. I hope so, anyway... and some talk about The Chain. I might be the only person who is fine with all the changes so far. Remember, the books are all written from different POVs of certain characters (in/out of their head), so a lot of action happens off-stage and is only described in exposition by other people, whereas we are getting to see some of those events in the show (Robb and Lying Lady Talisa.) There is also the difficulty of PLAYING a character's internal mental/emotional narrative. That somehow needs to be put into live action instead of happening inside their head, because you just can't shoot that. That's why a LOT of the things that are being changed are being changed the way they are. I'm not bothered with the changes so far, because I think they're going to work themselves out in the long run. Ones that come to mind: - Twyin & Arya: Next week (Ep 8) Roose Bolton could show up at Harrenhall. We've seen a preview of Tywin rushing out (to Kings Landing) to help with the Blackwater. I don't have a problem with he and Arya conversing because it reinforces just how smart Arya is which is paramount (she's already killed three people - Jaqen helped with two), and is about to kill another to escape Harrenhall. It gives Tywin a lot more dimension than he's given in the books, which will make what happens later, a lot better. Of course he speaks to her - she's the only other person at Harrenhall with a functioning brainstem. I did love the "My Lord" vs "Mi'lord" from Tywin, only to be cleverly schooled by wicked smart Arya with the, "My Mother taught me how to talk "proper" (which is the low-born way to say it), followed immediately by, "properly." oh. snap. I'm sorry, WHO is smarter than Tywin Lannister? Yeah... that would be Arya Stark. - Jon & Ygritte: I was worried until she got away from him last night. There's no reason that they haven't also caught Qhorin while we were watching Ygritte bait Jon. Establishing their relationship now, gives a lot more credence to what happens between them later. Otherwise, it might not be very plausible when she comes to his defense when her life isn't at stake. It also helps establish just how inexperienced Jon is with women, and how different Free Folk Females are from their south-of-the-wall counterparts. - Ghost's absence: I don't have a problem with this. He goes missing all the time in the books, and that's what they're establishing: "He's a Direwolf, not a pet." Ghost chooses to be with Jon, as do all the other living Stark Direwolves (Nymeria shadows Arya.) I do wish they'd do more of this in the series, but there's plenty of time. - Jamie & Alton: Alton says something to the effect of being a "distant" Lannister. By taking that into consideration with the rest of his tale, he is of low birth and that means not a REAL Lannister. I have no problem with Jamie killing him. We're already seeing the beginning of his arch with this scene, and everything he says to Alton, then his speech to Cat about all the conflicting oaths, and he saved the Seven Kingdoms when he killed Aerys, but no one can see that, so his bitterness is justified. Jamie doesn't know the future. He doesn't think he'll get caught, so his plan, at the time, is sound. He also knows he's running out of time - he's in a PEN (not a secure dungeon like the book), that could be breached by some drunken idiot with a burning desire to kill him at any moment (there must be bowmen in Robb's army.) Why wouldn't he do everything in his power to escape? To not do so, would be totally out of character. Having this scene also gives Cat more reason to let him go, otherwise he's going to get ripped up by the camp before Robb returns, and *POOF*, there goes her best way of getting her daughters back. Going forward, Cleos really was just dead weight in the Brienne/Jamie story line, which is why GRRM kills him off in the books. - Jamie confessing in front of Cat & Brienne: He did in the books, so I'm not understanding why people have a problem with this. Just because he's not drunk in the dungeons of Riverrun while doing so matters little in the long run. Cat letting Jamie go really has more to do with getting Arya and Sansa back, so her getting the news of Bran & Rickon AFTER releasing him gives her even more justification for her actions. I don't see Cat cutting off Jamie's hand, because that would mean Jamie and Brienne can't have their mutual ass-kicking scene later on when they're taken by The Brave Companions. That's a huge point for Jamie's character development about how he sees Brienne. I can't see how they skip that. Having Brienne escort Jamie alone reinforces just what a baddass she is. - Tyrion & Cersei: In the books Tyrion knows, and Cersei knows he knows. To play otherwise in the series would be to dumb-down one of these characters and be a gross disservice and insulting. Giving them that scene does three things: 1. It gives Cersei a bigger/better arch by making her more three dimensional than just being one-note evil. I think it's important to differentiate between the Joffrey degree of evil, and her. They are two different people. 2. It gave Tyrion that magic moment of wanting, needing, and instinctually going to comfort her, and discovering where the invisible CAUTION / DO NOT CROSS yellow tape was. In the book, he touches her, she recoils, and we know his hurt because that chapter is through his eyes. We don't have that internal luxury on film. 3. It gives more buildup to just how insane and evil Joffrey is, and that everyone with a functioning brainstem knows it. - Dany: They're giving her a LOT more to do than they did in CoK. Stealing the dragons gives another note to GIVE ME WHAT I NEED RIGHT NOW that is Dany's only objective in CoK, which is too repetitive and one-note for the TV series. They're also setting up The House of The Undying and a justifiable reason for Dragon Woop-Ass. - Robb & Lying Lady Talisa: In the book Robb's marriage comes as a shock. This way we see WHY, and we get to see more Robb. That is win-win for the show's ability to tell the narrative vs the books. - Bran, Rickon, & the Reeds: I'll bet we're not going to see Bran & Rickon again until the last episode (so many non-book peeps will believe they're dead, with everyone getting raven scrolls about Theon killing them to reinforce this), and this season will end with the four of them exiting the crypts of Winterfell (minus the Reeds), just like the book. Next season they can meet up with the Reeds, because they need to separate Bran and Rickon somehow, and need someone other than Hodor to look out for Bran. This way they give Osha more screen time before she disappears with Rickon, and the overall narrative stays the same. Things I am missing that I think are needed at some point: - The Reeds - Can wait for next season. - Ser Dontos for all the Sansa escape stuff - but there really is plenty of time for this, since it's very repetitive in the books, and could wait until next season. - The cache of Dragonglass at The Fist - since Jon has already gone north, they can wait for this until next season really, especially since it's more The Slayer's story than Jon's. - Weasel - how are they going to do Weasel soup? I'll miss that if it doesn't happen, but they could get the same outcome with other events. There are three main scenes I thought when I read the book that they HAD to have this season, and would spend $$ on: - The riot (which was only missing horses - which is fine, and impossible to film without hurting someone with horses in that space.) - The House of the Undying (she has reinforced this with her claim this season of "My dreams come true.") - The Battle of the Blackwater - just hope they don't skip Tyrion's chain. I still have faith.