Rant and Rave Without Repercussion 2 (Book Spoilers)

[Cas Stark]

I am really looking forward to the Book Battle of Winterfell, and am cracking up that people are trying to say this turn of events means it will be a huge disaster. Anyone who actually uses this show as a barometer for future events in book has to have their head examined. The shows have already deviated hugely from the source material that's been published for years, so suddenly D&D are going to be accurate more material that is as yet unpublished and according to GRRM not written in the first place?

I honestly don't know. It's true they hate Stannis and worked hard to destroy his character. It's also true that in reality, though they have butchered character and story, they still hit the big plot marks, all of the big plot marks until this year. And even this year, they're running 60/40 or better. Jon is stabbed, Sam/Gilly are in Oldtown, Dany is on the plain with the Dothraki, Arya is at HBW, Cersei and Marg are on trial.

So, the pink letter could be true, I have never believed Stannis was dead, only that he 'appeared' to be dead, and never believed he lost the battle of Winterfell let alone would die so early in Winds. But, it's possible he does. Since, although I know this is a minority view among the ranters and ravers, the author has gone a bit off the rails too.

[Nihlus]

Yeah, call her out on her bullshit at least. Or at least ask her what she's doing in the North, gather the info about Sansa, then tell her that while she's busy killing the last true Baratheon Sansa's one good chance at escape with all the Boltons busy mopping up is slipping away.

Brienne is so hopelessly confused in this show. As much as I hate Renly I'm kind of offended that they didn't transfer this character arc or motivation to Loras----the actual love of Renly's life. Ugh..... its so bad.....

Who? You mean that guy who runs around fucking anything with a dick and screwing up his family's plans by being the village idiot?

[Eucratides_Megas]

"I defeated your uncle Victarion and his Iron Fleet off Fair Isle, the first time your father crowned himself. I held Storm's End against the power of the Reach for a year, and took Dragonstone from the Targaryens. I smashed Mance Rayder at the Wall, though he had twenty times my numbers. Tell me, turncloak, what battles has the Bastard of Bolton ever won that I should fear him?"

"Well, he just set fire to a whole bunch of your shit."

"Damn. Go fetch my daughter. And some matches."

So, yeah, it's a good thing they didn't include that speech, just to have Stannis' army crippled and then destroyed by the Bastard of Bolton.

On the other hand, it's good to see that Stannis can survive a full head on cavalry charge, but cavalry can't survive a Stannis charge. He got to the motherfucking woods somehow.

That right there was the one moment of joy I had in this giant pile of shit. Stannis literally fighting to his last breath, and apparently surviving a battle where it seems both sides took some pretty horrific casualties. Is anyone else kind of feeling that the Bolton's victory seemed a little pyrrhic? Ramsay had one squire, and just two dudes accosted Stannis and then were beaten by a much older man with a leg wound.

[Montoo]

You've got a really good point there. Cut characters and storylines have the effect of rendierng other storylines inert or way more desperate than they'd otherwise be.

I'm now also building a nice big rage over the fact that I won't ever get to see a portly actor say the line "Mayhaps it was a blessing, had they lived they would grown up Freys."

Don't forget the Frey pies! :drool:

[R4W13Y]

To be fair, I'll take the Grey Worm/Missandei romance over Trystane & Myrcella's Young Luv anytime. The latter relationship made Twilight appear to be the height of sophistication.

Same, actually - and I've been one of GreyMiss' worst critics. My god, Trystane and Myrcella were painful and cringeworthy. GreyMiss was just boring, at least.

I am really looking forward to the Book Battle of Winterfell, and am cracking up that people are trying to say this turn of events means it will be a huge disaster. Anyone who actually uses this show as a barometer for future events in book has to have their head examined. The shows have already deviated hugely from the source material that's been published for years, so suddenly D&D are going to be accurate more material that is as yet unpublished and according to GRRM not written in the first place?

Exactly what I've been saying ad nauseam. To predict the books based on the show is pretty ludicrous at this point, considering all the major divergences and changes and character/location/plot butcherings.

[Follmann]

Great, now I'm picturing Brad Pitt as Steelshanks interrogating one of ShowBaratheon soldiers: "I'm in the Baratheon killing business, and cousin, business is a-booming"

I shouldn't find that funny but I've divorced myself completely from ShowBaratheons. BookBaratheons are my boys, plain and simple. They rode with their king to smash Mance Rayder with twenty times their number, they marched with him and the mountain clans to free Deepwood Motte, and they've got badasses like Ser Richard "Slayer" Horpe, a man who was too good at killing to get admitted to the kingsguard

Yeah, the men that were with him from the start, that didn't betray him for Renly, that didn't leave him when he lost almost everything at the Blackwater, that rode north of the Wall and now march through the north's winter. They are awesome. I really hope House Baratheon will survive, somehow.

[Dolorous Gabe]

To be fair, I'll take the Grey Worm/Missandei romance over Trystane & Myrcella's Young Luv anytime. The latter relationship made Twilight appear to be the height of sophistication.

That's actually a fair point. Not a good sign though that a new romance story is making a previous terrible romance story look almost interesting.

[Good Guy Garlan]

The stupidest thing about the Ides of Mash Potatoes™ is Thorne's involvement. Why the fuck did he open the gates in the first place if he was going to kill Jon anyway? Now he has to deal with dozens of pissed off Wildlings (and Wun Wun) on the wrong side of the Wall.

Now no one can say show!Thorne is better than the book version.

[bobbybuilderton]

I agree, especially about the trainwreck of season 6, holy shit. Just imagine, D&D unleashed with no source material to keep them in line, is like Ramsay without Roose.

David Benioff was his tutor, the first David, and David was never trained at writing. Dan is ferocious, I will grant you, but he swings that pen like a butcher hacking meat.

[Eucratides_Megas]

Who? You mean that guy who runs around fucking anything with a dick and screwing up his family's plans by being the village idiot?

Well Show Loras, is definitely that big a tool. They said "You're gay." Finn Jones might have asked "Well, what's my character motivation for this scene?" The D's answered "You're gay." Finn pressed, asking "So where do I stand on various family political issues?" The D;s repeated, "You're gay." "I'm just the Gay knight aren't I?" "Yep, and convenient target of invented fundamentalist outrage too." ".......Joy. Now where's my paycheck."

[bloodsteel bitterraven]

I was reading this interview the Sand Snake actresses gave to EW and it's quite interesting.

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/05/28/game-thrones-sand-snakes

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Did you watch the show before you got cast? And what was your casting process like? Keisha Castle-Hughes: I’m a massive fan of the show. I knew that this season there would be a call for brown actors, and I guess my people—if you will—were on that. So we just kept pushing and annoying [Thrones casting director] Nina Gold. She wasn’t that keen on casting out of Los Angeles, which is where I’m based. So I managed to send a tape by way of New Zealand, and then after that, I met with [showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss].

Jessica Henwick: Big fan of the show. I’ve seen every episode. Multiple times. Nina’s called me in for another role in the series, and then I met David and Dan for that. Then it was sort of like, “Oh, you’re good, but not quite right for that character. Would you be interested in auditioning for the Sand Snakes?” I wanted to play Nymeria. Originally, they were like, “We want a black actress,” so I couldn’t get in for it. Then they said, “Yeah, you can be Nymeria.”
Rosabell Laurenti Sellers: I had heard of the show. I started watching it after I got the part. I just met Nina in the office. It was just like a meeting, but not for this. Then she saw me and gave me the sides and said to self-tape for this part. So I sent the tape.

Hmm.. I wonder which role Henwick auditioned for. Were there any female characters around her age introduced this year? And they wanted a black actress? That's funny. :)

How would you describe your character?
​Sellers: I’m playing the youngest. She’s really kind of sneaky. They’re all fighters, obviously, and she has double daggers, and she’s very aggressive. But then she also has a seductive side to her. I think she’s discovering her sexuality and discovering the effect that that could have on people. So she’s playing around with that, and she also has the youngest-child complex. So she also has prove herself to her older sisters. So just show that she can fight too, and she can also, you know, participate.
Henwick: Oberyn’s my dad, my mother was the one who taught me the whip. So she was a fighter, and so that’s interesting. And that’s given her this idea of, she knows she doesn’t have to prove herself to anyone—because it’s like, I know my mom was kickass. I know my dad was a boss. She’s a little bit more reserved. Yeah, middle-child complex.
Castle-Hughes: From the books, the character of Obara hasn’t changed a lot, except for that I’m maybe half the size and age that she’s written in the books. She’s definitely her father’s daughter. She’s a warrior monk. She meditates a lot when she’s not killing people, and she is a little sometimes annoyed by her little sisters. They’re kind of pesky, but she is very…her belief in hierarchy is very…she respected that, and so, with her father’s death…and Obara doesn’t…her mother was a whore when she was a child, which is directly from the books, which we show on the show. Oberyn came to her when she was six and said, “You can choose your mother’s tears or the spear,” and she chose the spear and never looked back. She wields the same spear as Oberyn

Who has the coolest weapon?
All three: Me!
Castle-Hughes: I have the spear. So I think I’m the most like our father. So it’s the coolest.
Henwick: No. I think the whip is the coolest because we haven’t seen that on Game of Thrones before.
Sellers: We haven’t seen double daggers held by a girl either! I can really get close into people, fight really close up, which is cool.

What was your training like for the show?
Castle-Hughes: Rather intensive. As soon I got the part, we starting training. There’s a new stunt coordinator on this season, which will be really exciting, to see what he brings to all the different fight sequences. A lot of my training was in the martial arts of Wushu, and so a lot of that is just handling and footwork. It’s been about a maybe four and a half to five-month lead up to today, we’re shooting our big fight scene against [Jaime and Bronn] finally and using the weapons.
Henwick: Mine was quite similar. I found out I got the roll at about 6 p.m., and as soon as my agent called, I hung up, and then I had a call from production saying, “Can you fly to Belfast tomorrow to start training?” I had quite a few sessions in Belfast working with some Bulgarian guys. Upper body strength—that’s what you need for a whip—and coordination, and good timing. It’s a really scary weapon because you’re just as likely to injure yourself. I’ve whipped myself many times.
Sellers: I flew out to Belfast a few times for training as well, and then just found somebody [to] follow me with the daggers. I learned the choreography late after I started training. So I had to really catch up on that, and it’s really hard. I’ve never done any fight scenes. I’ve never done stage combat. It’s so hard because you have to put all the intention into it, but then make it fake. It’s so much fun.

So who was Prince Oberyn’s favorite?
Castle-Hughes: Obara.
Sellers: I was. Since I’m the daughter of his latest lover.
Castle-Hughes: But you have your mother still. I have nothing. You had an amazing mother. Obara had just…she only has him.
Henwick: Yeah, but he didn’t ditch my mother. My mother died.
Castle-Hughes: So did mine!
Henwick: Yeah, but he ditched her first.
Sellers: He was still in love with my mother though.
Castle-Hughes: It’s debatable, obviously. Let the fans decide. The fans know the truth.

Which of you is the most ruthless?
All: Obara!
Henwick: Obara doesn’t have a heart.
Castle-Hughes: She’s very violent, and the death of her father has taken her into a very dark place. She’s not dealing with it well, and the way that she deals with things is kills people.

It sounds like D&D came up with a completely different back story for all 3 of them, but they somehow all looked and sounded the same. Ridiculous.

[Cas Stark]

yeah having thorne involved was dumb, now there is nobody at the wall at all who either the audience knows or who is sympathetic except edd, who i doubt most viewers could pick out of a line up.

[MyLittleFinger]

Same, actually - and I've been one of GreyMiss' worst critics. My god, Trystane and Myrcella were painful and cringeworthy. GreyMiss was just boring, at least.

Exactly what I've been saying ad nauseam. To predict the books based on the show is pretty ludicrous at this point, considering all the major divergences and changes and character/location/plot butcherings.

I'll defend this one.

I believe 1000000% more that two hot teenagers told they have to get married are sexually into each other enough to "fall in love." Over a Eunuch and the hottest woman on the show getting together because he...looked at her really intensely and used to be a slave too.

[R4W13Y]

How about Mel arriving at the Wall in no time flat with one of the lucky horses spared by Ramsey and his 20 good men! Gosh I'm starting to enjoy this

im convinced this mysterious meeting between D&D and GRRM was nothing more than two Renly fanboys with a good memory of The Tower of the Hand and nice fat check from HBO

Yup, this is what I think as well. They are also Tyrion/Ramsay/Cersei fanboys too :rolleyes:

That's actually a fair point. Not a good sign though that a new romance story is making a previous terrible romance story look almost interesting.

OMG your avatar :lmao:

Look at his stupid little potato face.

Well Show Loras, is definitely that big a tool. They said "You're gay." Finn Jones might have asked "Well, what's my character motivation for this scene?" The D's answered "You're gay." Finn pressed, asking "So where do I stand on various family political issues?" The D;s repeated, "You're gay." "I'm just the Gay knight aren't I?" "Yep, and convenient target of invented fundamentalist outrage too." ".......Joy. Now where's my paycheck."

I think I remember hearing something about Finn being kind of disappointed he wasn't allowed to be the nuanced Loras of the books, but I could be misremembering.

[Follmann]

Well Show Loras, is definitely that big a tool. They said "You're gay." Finn Jones might have asked "Well, what's my character motivation for this scene?" The D's answered "You're gay." Finn pressed, asking "So where do I stand on various family political issues?" The D;s repeated, "You're gay." "I'm just the Gay knight aren't I?" "Yep, and convenient target of invented fundamentalist outrage too." ".......Joy. Now where's my paycheck."

Considering they decided to delete this scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m1-xPObOLk

That seems about right.

[Cas Stark]

That interview is sad. I know they're actors, who often fake everything in such interviews, but they seem so bubbly and enthusiastic about the backgrounds of the daughters....almost none of which is in the show, the show and the writing really did a disservice to them, making them come off so poorly.

[Good Guy Garlan]

I'll defend this one.

I believe 1000000% more that two hot teenagers told they have to get married are sexually into each other enough to "fall in love." Over a Eunuch and the hottest woman on the show getting together because he...looked at her really intensely and used to be a slave too.

This. Give me Myrcella and Trystane every time over Eunuch Love (honestly that sounds like a VH1 reality show from 2008). And hey, at least Tryscella is canon

[Eucratides_Megas]

Yeah, the men that were with him from the start, that didn't betray him for Renly, that didn't leave him when he lost almost everything at the Blackwater, that rode north of the Wall and now march through the north's winter. They are awesome. I really hope House Baratheon will survive, somehow.

People don't note this enough, but Stannis seems to inspire a really hardcore loyalty in soldiers who have served with him long enough. He certainly fits the idea of a soldier's general, enduring every privation they do without complaint

[Dolorous Gabe]

OMG your avatar :lmao:

Look at his stupid little potato face.

I know, right?

I'd have had more respect for the sequence if they'd been true to it and had him go mental before stabbing Jon and shout out "FOR MAH POTATOES!". Maybe we should create a spoof version.

I'm not sure how long I can stand his face on my avatar though, the little shit!

[Cas Stark]

I know, right?

I'd have had more respect for the sequence if they'd been true to it and had him go mental before stabbing Jon and shout out "FOR MAH POTATOES!". Maybe we should create a spoof version.

I'm not sure how long I can stand his face on my avatar though, the little shit!

I hate him. I want him dead. First him, then Mel.