Newest trailer...GAH

[Frey Pies]

has anyone read the spoiler filled review of S5's first episodes?? sounds pretty awesome!! :)

I did- it does! Especially in the Den of Geek review :)

[aFeastForDragons]

To be honest... I'm glad the cut all the Ironborn stuff.

It was a long, boring, pointless storyline

You could say that about most of the POVs in AFFC/ADWD since most of them do a full circle before actually progressing.

I am confident the Greyjoy brothers are going to have a significant impact on the story. If one of them gets a dragon he will set Westeros on fire. If they get two dragons and work together they would set the world on fire. One is hot tempered brute looking for a glorious death, the other a madman who would climb a mountain of corpses just to look down.

Who knows though, I thought Dany was going to sail to Westeros and Robb was going to take back the North. Its not a happy story but sailing 100 ships to the other side of the world with a Dragon Horn just seems a bit much to not have a major impact on Dany's story.

[Ghosts Lunch]

To be honest... I'm glad the cut all the Ironborn stuff.

It was a long, boring, pointless storyline, made up only to let Daenerys have a fleet, with boring characters and even worse chapters.

I know, the kingsmoot was cool, but beyond that I couldn't rally find any "fun" in that plot.

Considering how many problems show watchers have to keep up with all the characters, I'd rather have a couple of minutes more of Tyrion or Jaime, to let them find the deepness they lost in S4 than two idiots fighting for the most useless crown of the known world (seriously... who cares about the Iron Islands?)

Same for Jaime and Brienne storylines in the Riverlands: what are they supposed to do?

Their chapters in AFFC were mostly world building, with little to none relevance to the story. Ok, the Blackfish is super cool, but I prefer a cool, invented plotline for Jaime in Dorne and Brienne in Winterfell, than a boring but accurate one with two cool scenes in the entire season!

Tbf I think Euron is set to be the primary villain after Night's King, there's an inference I gleaned from the Damp-hair POV chapter with "lot's of messed up stuff in there" (conventioners chose an Arianne POV read instead) that Euron is going to put down Damp-hairs little rebellion in a really creepy but kinda cool kind of way

Not to mention the Iron Fleet to Mereen is great, instead of whining glorified pirates like Theon moaning about his sister and people raiding the northern shoreline we see the Iron Islanders screw up them shield islands and make an audacious bid to attack Oldtown with the promise of more to come. Iron Fleet to Slavers Bay smashing the Slavers fleet besieging Dany is the best commentary on Iron Islander power projection I can think of (plus those monkeys were hilarious)

Kingsmoot has more to it than meets the eye, there's something intriguing about them western sunken islands and the civilisation they and the Seastone Chair belonged too

I am a little odd though, I enjoy the very very big game which is why I enjoy Brans POV chapters which lack action but paint the high plot picture, I enjoy these more than a moping Tyrion going on about where whores go over and over and Jorah whingeing about silver haired women over and over and Jaimie going on Kettleblack and Moonboy over and over and I ended up skipping Quentyns last POV chapter to get to the point which was he got set on fire trying to release the Dragons

That all said given they are aiming for 7-8 seasons I understand a lot of things are getting cut. Failing that they perhaps have to fully focus on Dorne in S5 and then fully focus on IB or Aegon in S6, eg one or the others

[Ghosts Lunch]

Yup- I have yet to meet anyone who isn't a super passionate fan of the books who cares even in the slightest for the Ironborn or Dorne. Also, there was an article in io9 recently about the show leaving out most of the pointless material in the books, which it seemed that most people in the comments, and me, agreed with. While I like the books, I feel that they are very flawed and plodding, and that the show has a great chance of making them more streamlined by cutting out the unnecessary material.

You could probably argue Damp-hair and maybe Victarion is pointless if he is really there to get Dany to Westeros via fleet

I don't think it can be said Euron is though

Hopefully they put Dorne aside in S6 and then focus what was the Dornish resources to the Ironborn and we get Euron into the mix

[Oathbreaker_89]

after seein sansa in the crypts of winterfell im thinkin more and more that her "traumatic event' mite be sumthn as simple as seein her dead brothers or ned starks graves in the crypts. jus a thought...I know when I hear "traumatic event" im thinkin rape or her killin someone or sumthn like that but maybe its sumthn as simple as an int. traumatic event when she sees their graves for the first time and breakdowns or sumthn. im jus assuming bran and rickons mock graves are there and even ned starks bones found there way to winterfell. this is GOT so I know it has to be more than that but its jus a thought.

[Stone Cold Bastard]

Nope, but it's expensive.

To look at it from D&D's perspective, they already have three crews, a multi million dollar production and a massive cast. They are increasing that even further this series with Hardhome, the Vale (expanded), more Mereen (meh, but needed for story I guess) and Dorne.

It's kinda hard for them to validate the need to slap on an extra few million in cost to HBO, who are already investing a gargantuan amount in production value.

I mean sure they get the money back, but companies love profit margins to be nice and wide.

Not really. It wouldn't be that expensive to cast at least Euron, and have some more Ironborn storytelling. If they can afford to show some of the Vale and cast a few characters there (ie Royce), they can at least do Euron.

And I'm incapable of seeing things from Benioff's and Weiss' perspective, seeing as so much of what they've done is completely perplexing and nonsensical.

[Stone Cold Bastard]

Regarding the Winterfell crypts...

I think Theon will be the one who will return Ned's bones to the Winterfell crypts, or ensure that they're returned. I think it will be one of the many things he does in his redemption arc.

[Arry Lannister]

I did- it does! Especially in the Den of Geek review :)

Uhmmm..... can I please have a link, Dear Ser! :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:

[Stone Cold Bastard]

Sorry for the third post in a row, but major spoilers here regarding the first episode of Season 5:

"But the Mother of Dragons is having a tough time with her "children," as the dragons remain caged up in an underground basement and one is still on the loose. Further, one of her elite Unsullied warrior-eunuchs gets killed by a gold-mask-wearing assassin, part of a new rebel group, The Harpies.

...

Anyone fond of the Wildlings – look away now, since the leader of the pack, Mance Rayder (Ciarán Hinds), burns to his death at Castle Black, refusing to kneel to the King of the North, Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane). Of course, it's Melisandre (Carice van Houten), priestess of the Lord of Light (and a pyromaniac witch), who gets to strike the match."

link

FFS, both Greyworm and Mance? I mean sure, this was rumoured and speculated upon, but this is getting really stupid. Yeah I know Greyworm was kind of a background character in ASOIAF, but he's still alive. But I'm really bothered by the fact that Mance is getting killed off. WTF! The sub plot of him undercover in Winterfell with the spear wives, wreaking havoc, was amazing.

So typical of these clowns. Benioff and Weiss should be shot into space.

[the silver queen]

Sorry for the third post in a row, but major spoilers here regarding the first episode of Season 5:

FFS, both Greyworm and Mance? I mean sure, this was rumoured and speculated upon, but this is getting really stupid. Yeah I know Greyworm was kind of a background character in ASOIAF, but he's still alive. But I'm really bothered by the fact that Mance is getting killed off. WTF! The sub plot of him undercover in Winterfell with the spear wives, wreaking havoc, was amazing.

So typical of these clowns. Benioff and Weiss should be shot into space.

Are we sure that they aren't doing the "fake Mance death - Lord of Bones switch" as in the books?

[Stone Cold Bastard]

Are we sure that they aren't doing the "fake Mance death - Lord of Bones switch" as in the books?

I hope so, but then again:

We do see Rattleshirt leading a bunch of Wildlings at Hardhome. :(

Unless they do the switch with another person.

But I have no confidence in D&D.

[Jack Bauer 24]

Sorry for the third post in a row, but major spoilers here regarding the first episode of Season 5:

"But the Mother of Dragons is having a tough time with her "children," as the dragons remain caged up in an underground basement and one is still on the loose. Further, one of her elite Unsullied warrior-eunuchs gets killed by a gold-mask-wearing assassin, part of a new rebel group, The Harpies.

...

Anyone fond of the Wildlings look away now, since the leader of the pack, Mance Rayder (Ciarán Hinds), burns to his death at Castle Black, refusing to kneel to the King of the North, Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane). Of course, it's Melisandre (Carice van Houten), priestess of the Lord of Light (and a pyromaniac witch), who gets to strike the match."

link

FFS, both Greyworm and Mance? I mean sure, this was rumoured and speculated upon, but this is getting really stupid. Yeah I know Greyworm was kind of a background character in ASOIAF, but he's still alive. But I'm really bothered by the fact that Mance is getting killed off. WTF! The sub plot of him undercover in Winterfell with the spear wives, wreaking havoc, was amazing.

So typical of these clowns. Benioff and Weiss should be shot into space.

It's not Grey Worm in that scene. It's another Unsullied.

[Stone Cold Bastard]

"Say their names!

Euron, Victarion, Aeron, Mance, Bronn, Jaime, Brienne!

You Raped them, you Murdered, you Killed their plotlines!!!"

:lol:

And we can't forget cutting out the Battle of the Fist of the First Men (would it really have been that hard to have the NW fight a bunch of wights, and then have the survivors flee?), or portraying Qhorin as a grumpy old man who constantly belittled Jon, instead of the wise and reserved shaman-like leader who inspired Jon.

[Rippounet]

Yup- I have yet to meet anyone who isn't a super passionate fan of the books who cares even in the slightest for the Ironborn or Dorne.

I agree. It's still interesting they chose to show Dorne in the show and not the IB though... This seems to mean that

- Either Dorne was chosen because it was more original (considering there's already a show about Vikings on TV these days), or easier/cheaper to shoot.

- Either Dorne actually has a greater impact on the story than the IB, and D&D know that because of what Martin told them.

I'm not surprised the IB got cut out from the show. The "viking" touch always seemed a bit off for me. And since Dany has other means of getting ships...

But I wonder why is it that Dorne gets so much attention on the show (including a filming location in Spain). In the books, the IB seemed to have a greater potential impact on the story as a whole, while Dorne seemed linked to (F)Aegon. Since the show chose to focus on Dorne so much... Could it mean that it is way more important to the endgame than it seemed? Or did D&D rewrite the story so much that everything is changed? Hmmm... Anyway, I'm really curious to see exactly how things in Dorne will stand at the end of this season, because it might give us clues as to what is to come in the next book.

[TheMaesterPlan]

I agree. It's still interesting they chose to show Dorne in the show and not the IB though... This seems to mean that

- Either Dorne was chosen because it was more original (considering there's already a show about Vikings on TV these days), or easier/cheaper to shoot.

- Either Dorne actually has a greater impact on the story than the IB, and D&D know that because of what Martin told them.

Or they decided to do Dorne in the season immediately following the one where Oberyn Martell made such a ... um, splash. It makes sense to show the vengeful family of Hottie McHeadsquash* from Season 4 while he's still relatively fresh in the viewers' minds. I think they will still cover an abbreviated Ironborn story-- Euron-only-- in S6.

*this is literally what my mother called Oberyn at one point

[The Dragon has three heads]

...my apprehension grows...

[The Egg]

Victarion and Euron are ruthless, vicious killers. They are vicious killers who easily and regularly kill people. They are fearless. They are mean. They're badass. They fuck shit up. It's not that hard to give them bad ass shit to do in the show.

What are Jaime and Brienne supposed to do in the Riverlands?

In addition to getting captured/lured by Stoneheart and the Brotherhood, Jaime continues to change and distance himself from his past/Cersei while ending the war. The writers could easily give him stuff to do, while not potentially killing off Bronn (seeing as Benioff & Weiss might do this just for the hell of it). Why not delve deeper into the utter carnage, destruction and lawlessness of the Riverlands, to show the extent to which the War of the Five Kings and the Red Wedding fallout has severly impacted the Riverlands (a dark, burning landscape with refugees in flight, corpses in fields and on the roadside, destroyed homes and fields, hanging Frey and Lannister soldiers etc).

Furthermore, there's also the danger of Nymeria leading a huge pack of wolves which is also terrorizing the Riverlands. There is so much that Jaime and Brienne could get mixed up with.

But yeah, Missandei and Greyworm. Tyrell overkill. etc :bang:

Victarion and Euron are cool, yes.... but they are two more new characters, when show watchers had yet troubles in remembering who's who in S1 and the show is already introducing a whole new set with at least 5 new characters in this season. How many people who haven't read the books do you think were going to understand who they are and what they're up to, if they introduced them in this season? That the real problem with the show, much more than budget!

I wish we could trade some Greyworm love (-.-") for Lady Stoneheart, for Tysha, for a better Stannis and Dany, for a more book-accurate Jamie and Brienne storyline, for Victarion and Aegon, I really do. But the show is made for people who don't even know why Robb had himself killed, who forgot Nymeria and Lady, who never knew who the Greatjon is... and so the show must give them what they want, that is love stories, violence and awesome speeches, not a coherent world.

Back on Jaime: beside Lady Stoneheart, what was he going to do in the Riverlands that he can't do in Dorne?

I loved the things you mentioned, in the books, but I can understand if they want to make him do that in a place they have to introduce anyway, to merge storylines that can be merged (since Jaime's is mostly an inner monologue, it can be done almost everywere, given the right situation). And for Nymeria... I miss her, I miss her even in the books, I can't wait for Arya to go back to the Riverlands, but they didn't even mentioned her in the show since season five, then...

You could say that about most of the POVs in AFFC/ADWD since most of them do a full circle before actually progressing.

I am confident the Greyjoy brothers are going to have a significant impact on the story. If one of them gets a dragon he will set Westeros on fire. If they get two dragons and work together they would set the world on fire. One is hot tempered brute looking for a glorious death, the other a madman who would climb a mountain of corpses just to look down.

Who knows though, I thought Dany was going to sail to Westeros and Robb was going to take back the North. Its not a happy story but sailing 100 ships to the other side of the world with a Dragon Horn just seems a bit much to not have a major impact on Dany's story.

You're right, most of the AFFC/ADWD chapters were boring, except that, after all that time, they did progress.

Everything the Greyjoys managed to do, by now, is to reach Meereen with a fleet, which anyone can do in the show... if they're truly important in the story, they may be casted for next season (Balon must die, sooner or later, or the WotFK will never end), otherwise they can totally be cut.

I'm not saying I didn't want them in the show, I'm just saying that, given an amount of time they have for the show (and the fact that sex and love scenes are "mandatory" because HBO wants them), I'd much rather have them cut than Jaime's or Theon redempion arc, or Tyrion self-loathing, or Arya's training.

Not big enough to prevent them been merged with another character.

Varys maybe? HBO have done it before...

Im pretty sure Jorah is gonna take Quentyn's bullet as far as releasing the D's concerned. :cool4:

It seems Jorah's in the Daznak's scene, so he'll be burned by Drogon in the pit, if he has, but no Quentyn death for him.

Barristan, instead, can't be spotted anywhere, regardless how much you look at the pictures...

Tbf I think Euron is set to be the primary villain after Night's King, there's an inference I gleaned from the Damp-hair POV chapter with "lot's of messed up stuff in there" (conventioners chose an Arianne POV read instead) that Euron is going to put down Damp-hairs little rebellion in a really creepy but kinda cool kind of way

Not to mention the Iron Fleet to Mereen is great, instead of whining glorified pirates like Theon moaning about his sister and people raiding the northern shoreline we see the Iron Islanders screw up them shield islands and make an audacious bid to attack Oldtown with the promise of more to come. Iron Fleet to Slavers Bay smashing the Slavers fleet besieging Dany is the best commentary on Iron Islander power projection I can think of (plus those monkeys were hilarious)

Kingsmoot has more to it than meets the eye, there's something intriguing about them western sunken islands and the civilisation they and the Seastone Chair belonged too

I am a little odd though, I enjoy the very very big game which is why I enjoy Brans POV chapters which lack action but paint the high plot picture, I enjoy these more than a moping Tyrion going on about where whores go over and over and Jorah whingeing about silver haired women over and over and Jaimie going on Kettleblack and Moonboy over and over and I ended up skipping Quentyns last POV chapter to get to the point which was he got set on fire trying to release the Dragons

That all said given they are aiming for 7-8 seasons I understand a lot of things are getting cut. Failing that they perhaps have to fully focus on Dorne in S5 and then fully focus on IB or Aegon in S6, eg one or the others

You think Euron is set to be one of the primary villains, I think he's not going anywere... I understand you like Ironborns for the naval strength and the braveness they show, but it doesn't mean they have to be central in the story - only the horn says they will, but they didn't do anything to prove they're more than minor characters yet.

Still, as you say, if they're important, D&D can still focus on them next season.

And I'm incapable of seeing things from Benioff's and Weiss' perspective, seeing as so much of what they've done is completely perplexing and nonsensical.

With that I must agree. Lady Stoneheart, Tysha, Jaime's redemption arc... that was, most of all, a pity.

But still, given the crap I saw with other screen adaptations (The Hobbit, Harry Potter 4 to 8) I'm still happy of their work.

:lol:

And we can't forget cutting out the Battle of the Fist of the First Men (would it really have been that hard to have the NW fight a bunch of wights, and then have the survivors flee?), or portraying Qhorin as a grumpy old man who constantly belittled Jon, instead of the wise and reserved shaman-like leader who inspired Jon.

Oh, yes... I still fume for that scene, it would could been memorable!

[Ghosts Lunch]

You think Euron is set to be one of the primary villains, I think he's not going anywere... I understand you like Ironborns for the naval strength and the braveness they show, but it doesn't mean they have to be central in the story - only the horn says they will, but they didn't do anything to prove they're more than minor characters yet.

Still, as you say, if they're important, D&D can still focus on them next season.

With that I must agree. Lady Stoneheart, Tysha, Jaime's redemption arc... that was, most of all, a pity.

But still, given the crap I saw with other screen adaptations (The Hobbit, Harry Potter 4 to 8) I'm still happy of their work.

Oh, yes... I still fume for that scene, it would could been memorable!

Well there was also Moqorro's vision, and he is helping Victarion presumably to offset Euron.

I personally reckon Euron is tied up with HoU who will re-emerge as a major threat, there's a reason they are setting their sights on the Reach and Oldtwon in particular, they want to smash the anti-magic Maestars who are in direct opposition to HoU who glean their power from the presence of magic in the world

In terms of the practicalities of TV production, I could see the sense of rather than partial Dorne and partial IB, they have to choose, eg go full Dorne in S5 and then let that fall by the wayside and gully focus on IB in S6 as it combines with Dany's arc amongst others like Stannis/Theon etc

It's similar to how they can only have X amount of people in for practical cast budgeting reasons, in order to make way for all the new arrivals like Doran and Sand Snakes they have to do away with Tywin, Jojen etc and of course have given a complete hiatus to Bran, Meera and Hodor

As for D&D there have been some mistakes (Skeletons and Fireball CoTF) and I have some pet dissapointments which ultimately don't matter too much, but all in all most adaptions have been understandable. It's the deep adaption strategies that need to be questioned (constructively), eg lack of story fleshing out flashbacks, this is important for fleshing out backstory on a visual medium which requires more than just discussion references

[jbob]

....or portraying Qhorin as a grumpy old man who constantly belittled Jon, instead of the wise and reserved shaman-like leader who inspired Jon.

Ned, Mormont, Mance, Stannis, Aemon, possibly Howland Reed...

[Oathbreaker_89]

I think they chose Dorne and not the IB for the later plotlines in the show. I jus read 'The Princess in the tower' chapter from AFFC and that made me think more that im right. were still gonna get some IB story this year from asha at least...I herd shes in it. maybe they chose to focus on dorne this year and in S6 there gonna have more IB stuff. who knows. but the creators said they sat down with GRRM and they went over the major story arcs for the characters and how the series would end,so I trust whatever there doin. they read and love the books and know wat to leave in for the overall plot of the series. maybe not to a tee but for the most part. like wat reason do they need to have to actually show the battle at the fist?? wat would us seein the battle do for the actual plot of the series?? nothing. that's why the show didn't spend money to make it.