Demiant

They'll prob just introduce Val an episode or two before Sam & Gilly set sail. :bang:

GRRT himself has stated that D&D could have aliens invade Westeros if they wanted to, so really if the show makes what I consider big changes to the story, I just don't consider it canon. :D

IIRC, Jaimie says it to Roose as he leaves and then at the RW, the person that kills Robb says something along the lines of "Jaimie Lannister sends his regards"... am I missing anything else?

Same, but I detest the fact that LF just reveals information to Varys so easily.

Yeah, I've accepted that the entire BwB seems to worship the Red God now... it's still a change for the worse from the books imo. :(

Fair enough, the TV BwB is being run differently and so would probably do what they did, but it still comes as a shock to the people that have read the books. They're still changing characters around for little to no reason and while I still love the series, if it carries down this road I'm not sure how long I'll keep watching, how long it'll take for them to change yet another character or storyline for no benefit to the point where I can't be bothered anymore. Shame because some aspects of the show are spot on and a some of the changes are positive, but recently it's not been the case. /endrant

How? Even if you don't take the books into consideration, there's no evidence from previous episodes that the BwB are very religious bar Thoros. I get why Edric Storm wasn't included in the show and why it'd be easier to use Gendry, I don't get why they'd change the beliefs and aspects of certain characters to serve that purpose.

True, but surely the decapitation of her father, hostage situation with her sister, and what she's about to see in regards to the RW is enough to make her lose faith in humanity? And btw, Maicie's interpretation of Arya is really spot-on, I can't wait to see her tackle the Faceless Men storyline.

What? Stop spouting shit, you asked why it was hard to understand and I gave you the reason. Of course it's seperate, or more accurately it's the same story but taking different turns to get to where it's going. I like some of the changes the TV show did (Tywin/Arya in S2) but this one just seems silly to me. I don't understand the constant need to change the characters.

Yeah they were, and even in the show they were planning on it. That's understandable, they're handing her over to her family whilst making a profit to keep their fight up, whereas they could have easily made more profit by ransoming her to the Lannisters, but they're not horrible people.

And that's the entire point, it's a different BwB to the one we know, hence the decision to hand Gendry over being hard to understand?

Yes, because in the books the BwB are the protectors of the innocent (in their own ways), they don't serve any king or religion. Is there proof in the books that anyone in the BwB bar Thoros (and maybe Beric) supports R'Hollor? The various kings and lords have their wars with little regard as to what happens to the smallfolk, and so the BwB and the smallfolk help each other. I don't buy that in the books the BwB would have given up Gendry for a second, Certainly not so willingly, anyway.

I'm not so bothered about TV Tyrion deviating a bit from book Tyrion, but I do find it interesting that they're trying to turn Cersei into a "nicer" person apparently. Maybe nicer isn't the best choice of words but certainly less of a villain, for the time being atleast. Shame because Cersei's tyranny is the only remotely interesting aspect of her character, though maybe that'll come into play from her grief after the RW? The Littlefinger scene at the end was all wrong though, just completely unlike the character to just reveal everything the way he did. And more so, the entire scene just made Varys look like an incompetent "spider" and Littlefinger like the master schemer, and whilst Littlefinger is an interesting character and a crafty puppet master, he has nothing on Varys. ;) Also, the QoT just seemed like a massive pushover in her scene with Tywin. I thought the last two episodes were great, but I feel a bit let down after "The Climb" and I hope GRRM picks things up with his episode next week.