Introductions

[Kira]

hey i made an account yesterday. ive read all the books and i love them all especially the third one

my favorite character is daenerys

i can't wait for the 6th book to come out

when is it coming out tho? :rofl:

hope ill have fun here

[Grand Moff Mithrandir]

Borat is from Kazakhstan.

The tuna know, the tuna know everything. It is known.

Hi I like to friends so westeros help for me too much! Welcome to me!

[honeyed chicken]

Hi, HC! =o)

And it's great having you as a friend. :cheers:

The tuna know, the tuna know everything. It is known.

Hi I like to friends so westeros help for me too much! Welcome to me!

Good morning my friends of Westeros!

Great to have you as a friend as well, KT I! :cheers:

Edited July 28, 2014 by honeyed chicken

[King Tyrion I]

The tuna know, the tuna know everything. It is known.

Hi I like to friends so westeros help for me too much! Welcome to me!

Hello, my friend. =o)

Of course, the tuna know. How could one possibly dispute that? Everybody with a sane mind?

Great to have you as a friend as well, KT I! :cheers:

Cheers to that!

[ByTor]

Hello from Maryland, USA.

6 weeks ago I knew Game of Thrones was a popular TV series based on some novels by a guy named George RR Martin. But I never watched the show, hadn't read the books, and couldn't have named a single Stark or Lannister if somebody held a gun to my head.

I was looking for something to read one day so I decided to see what all this Game of Thrones hype was about. I was hooked early on and reading ASOIAF has pretty much been my life for the past 20-something days. Yes, I finished all five books in under a month! Whether you want to chalk that up to my lack of having a life or the addictability (new word?) of the books is entirely up to you.

I went mostly internet free while I was reading because the stupid internet would have cut into my precious reading time and I wanted to avoid even the temptation to seek out spoilers. But I had a few questions when I finished the series. The google machine kept sending me here so I figured I might as well sign up.

Now I sped through the books in a 'page turner' sort of way. I'm definitely going to have to re-read them one day. I can't even tell you how many times I was like "Well, I'll just read one more chapter before I go to sleep" only to end up staying awake for a few more hours reading several more chapters. Just being a here a day or so has already shown me that I missed a ton of details in my haste to see what would happen next.

How long this new Game of Thrones kick will last is anybody's guess, but this is definitely my thing at the moment.

OK, now with all the boring stuff out of the way....

You'll have to bear with me here because I've waited almost a month to spit all this stuff out.

Top 10 Favorite Characters (in no order)

Sansa- Poor girl reminds me of myself when I was young, hopelessly naive, and even more hopelessly polite (even if our genders differ). Like my girl Sansa, I was totally unprepared when I first ventured out into the cruel, cruel world. Despite being a dreamer in a pretty craptastic world, Sansa manages to survive, often by utilizing her sweet old fashioned charms. While she's not my absolute favorite character, Sansa dying would probably piss me off more than anybody else at this point. This being ASOIAF, it's not likely to happen, but I'm still hoping against hope that she ends up with her 'perfect knight' one day. Maybe that Garland (?) Tyrell guy. Definitely not creepy douchebag Littlefinger.

Stannis- Wasn't a big fan of his at first. Possibly because I hated Melisandre in a 'boo the villain' kind of way. But Mel ain't all that bad (maybe) and Stannis just kind of snuck up on me to become possibly my favorite character of them all. I love his interactions with Davos (well, Stannis interacting with most anybody is gold, but especially Davos), realized he was hilarious at some point, and Big Stan saving the day at the Wall was just epic. Plus I consider him the true heir to the Iron Throne and, like Stannis, I've often felt like I was 'the afterthought.' All hail King Stannis~!

Eddard Stark- I'm typically not a big fan of the pure and noble hero types. It goes all the way back to being annoyed by Luke Skywalker as a wee lad. Yet I loved Ned in AGOT. It was cool to have the one pure hero going against all these tremendous 'villains.' I wanted Ned to get revenge on those Lannister punks, clean up the corrupt small council, and set things right so bad. Then he died. It was the first of many 'holy shit' moments and Ned's death, much as it pissed me off, was what really hooked me on the series. I'm still a Team Stark supporter.

Davos Seaworth- The 'new Ned,' only an Onion Smuggler instead of the heir to a Great House. Stannis/Davos are probably my favorite duo in the series. Davos is our everyman hero.

Meera- She's not as in your face as Arya (who I like), Asha (who I'm not a big fan of) or Dany (who I loathe) but my girl Meera is as badass as any of them in her own quiet sort of way. Bran/Meera are the most adorable duo in the entire series. Frogwolf forever! Bran as weird tree man thing never!

"Kompetent" Kevan Lannister- Was an afterthought for the first three (?) books. If I thought of him at all, it was as "Tywin's boring lapdog." Then he turned down Cersei's offer, took a level in badass, and came back to become the best damned Hand in quite some time. Lannister or not, it feels like Westeros would have been alright with this guy running the show. I thought I had become numb to "shocking" swerves and characters getting killed off just because. Then Jon got stabbed and poor Kevan got offed by that jerk Varys. I'm sure it's been discussed a zillion times already but now I'm questioning the evil genius abilities of Tywin after learning more about Kevan. Perfect team/greatest power duo in Westeros history? Or did Kevan perhaps even carry Tywin? I'm more interested in the Kevster after death than I was for muchf of his life.

Qyburn- Yeah, he seems like a deranged mad scientist, and he's on the 'wrong side,' but he's just so darned interesting. Plus his rags to riches story reads like a bizarro world Davos Seaworth. From a disgraced maester hanging out with f'n Bloody Mummers to the pet of one of the most powerful women in Westeros within a few short chapters! This guy is climbing the social ladder. He also seems dangerously competent so far. Can't wait to see what this guy will come up with next.

Jaqen H'ghar- The chapter(s?) with him operating as Arya's assassin are among of my favorite in the entire series. Loved the coin- Valar Morghulis-face change. Even learning what he is hasn't taken all the mystery out of my man Jaqen.

The Old Bear- One of the more competent leaders in all of Westeros (or was he? After all, the Night Watch ain't what it used to be.....) and just an all around swell dude. He was good to Jon and his friends. I thought he was safe when jackass Chett's plan failed. Then poor Jeor Mormont falls at Craster's. Well played, GRRM. Well played, indeed. His death had some effect on me.

Jorah Mormont- I'm a fan of the whole Mormont clan. Poor Jorah. He gives Dany good council while getting in the occasional Stannis-level zinger, crawls through sewers of shit for his Queen, and promptly gets dismissed by The Golden Child because he wasn't sufficiently humbled.....or something. I look forward to reading more about this competent warrior with a berzerk button in the future.

Man, I like too many characters :laugh: but they're not all getting writeups. Also a fan of (in no order)....

Ser Barristan Selmy, Brienne of Tarth, Podrick f'n Payne, The Queen of Thorns!, Roose Bolton, Wyman Manderly, Maesters Aemon & Luwin, The Hound, Arch, Doran Martell, The Blackfish, Mance Rayder, Jon Snow

Meh, I could keep going, but that's already 24. 24 is more than enough.

Characters I've loved to hate (and mostly loved to read about!)

Ramsay!, Cersei, Joffrey, Viserys, Littlefinger, Varys, Sweetrobin (Sansa's ability to deal with this brat makes me love her even more), early Kingslayer, early Melisandre, Walder Frey, Lysa Arryn, Queen Selyse, Axell Florent, Jaros Slynt, Gregor Clegane, Ser Alliser Thorne

Characters I just hate

Dany Dany Dany- If anybody in this series is shitting gold, it's not Tywin, but Dany. I had her pegged as an author's pet halfway through the first book and I only feel stronger about that now. I'd be perfectly fine if she flew her stupid dragons beyond Qarth.....and never returned. Ever. Her chapters tend to bore me too, but mostly I just don't like the character.

Oberyn, Arianne and The Sand Snakes- Outside of Doran, Arch, and poor Quentyn, I'm not a big fan of the Dorishmen as a whole. Oberyn is the Poochie of the series and I was so glad when Gregor sent him back to his home planet (even if we still haven't got the epic Gregor vs. Sandor showdown I'm hoping for). The Sand Snakes play The Game about as well as Robert Arryn and the Arianne/Oakhart chapters were my some of my least favorite in the entire series.

Victarion, Euron and Balon Greyjoy- The Ironborn don't do a whole lot for me either despite all the Lovecraft references. I'm not all that intrigued by Euron the way I am by some of the other characters without a lot of screen time. Victarion is just a generic Viking stereotype and all I remember about Balon is that one conversation he had with Theon Turncloak.

Dolorous Edd- I was tired of his schtick by about the third time he showed up. I suppose he's there to provide comic relief. Too bad I don't find him the slightest bit amusing. There was no laughing with Dolorous Edd for me. Just lots and lots of eyerolling. Few things are worse than an unfunny comedian. Few characters annoy me more than Dolorous Eeyore Tollett.

Biggest Face Palm Moments

Zombie Catelyn Stark- I honestly thought the series jumped the shark here. I got over it in about five minutes, but yeah, this was a definite lowpoint.

"Aegon"- Characters coming back from 'death' in this series was played out a long time ago. This was supposed to be a big "OMG" moment, but I was more like "Yawn. What's next? Barristan Selmy is really Baelor the Blessed?" (Which wouldn't totally shock me at this point)

I'll probably take some heat for this (in only my second post!) but whatever.....Look, I devoured these books, but I'm honestly over these kind of twists at this point. It was great at first. I reckon the constant swerves are what helped make this series into a modern classic, but the 'shock' starts to wear off when almost everybody dies, and half the people still alive are secretly somebody else.

Edited July 30, 2014 by ByTor

[King Tyrion I]

Welcome, ByTor! :cheers:

[honeyed chicken]

Hello from Maryland, USA.

6 weeks ago I knew Game of Thrones was a popular TV series based on some novels by a guy named George RR Martin. But I never watched the show, hadn't read the books, and couldn't have named a single Stark or Lannister if somebody held a gun to my head.

Welcome ByTor! :cheers:

6 weeks - very impressive!!

Also impressive is that you figured out both the purpose of the spoiler and how to use it (I struggled with the thing at first).

You've almost summed up Westeros in a nutshell with your character list.

I like to think of George Martin (GRRM) as Tolkien by way of Bayonne, New Jersey - his fable has that NJ grit to it and Sansa is the guide to getting from there to Westeros ("I don't think we're in Middle Earth any more Toto").

There are lots of passionate Sansa fans here - and some who can't stand her. Myself? I'm more of an Arya fan. But I don't dislike Sansa at all. Plus she's our eyes on Littlefinger, who slimy as he is, is at the center of the plot (along with Varys).

I won't comment on all your comments, but you really have hit the highlights. Stannis gets lots of love, as does Davos. People have pretty much written off Ned, but Stark love and Catelyn love is strong.

Really interesting reading! You sum it up in very entertaining fashion - well done!

You do know you're not done reading, right? There's the Dunk & Egg stories and The Princess and The Queen (tPatQ) and a couple more prehistory short stories. You'll find most of westeros has read them. I have not, but I'm the outlier.

In my sig line below you'll find a link to an abbreviations thread - a long list of them. It may help you out puzzling through some things on the board.

and here's a few more links:

Forum Games

Forum games is for ASOIAF related gaming. That's where I mostly hang out.

And here's a thread about things a new person to Westeros might want to read. As you can see, I posted this a year ago when I was a noob and I got some good responses.

Recommended threads for a noob to read

Edited July 30, 2014 by honeyed chicken

[ByTor]

I like to think of George Martin (GRRM) as Tolkien by way of Bayonne, New Jersey - his fable has that NJ grit to it and Sansa is the guide to getting from there to Westeros ("I don't think we're in Middle Earth any more Toto").

You do know you're not done reading, right? There's the Dunk & Egg stories and The Princess and The Queen (tPatQ) and a couple more prehistory short stories. You'll find most of westeros has read them. I have not, but I'm the outlier.

In my sig line below you'll find a link to an abbreviations thread - a long list of them. It may help you out puzzling through some things on the board.

and here's a few more links:

Forum Games

Forum games is for ASOIAF related gaming. That's where I mostly hang out.

And here's a thread about things a new person to Westeros might want to read. As you can see, I posted this a year ago when I was a noob and I got some good responses.

Recommended threads for a noob to read

GRRM > Tolkein so, so much imo. It's probably sacrilege to bash Tolkein on a forum dedicated to a series of fantasy novels, but the LOTR series was such a chore for me to get through. I finished solely to say I had read it. There was no enjoyment outside of the Tom Bombadil chapters. Maybe it's because I'd already encountered the stuff Tolkein 'invented' a million times before, or maybe it's because he tends to spend 20 pages describing a single bloody tree. But yeah, I'm not a Tolkein/LOTR fan at all.

I came across a few confusing references to Dunk and Egg before I read your post :laugh:. tPatQ is new to me. Thanks for the info. I will be reading them.

Thanks for the warm welcome as well. Same goes to King Tyrion I :thumbsup:

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

PBT?

[Antiheld]

Hi there,

my name is Antiheld I am 24, I live in Germany and I am studying history, economics, political science and soon additionally ethics and philosophy for becoming a teacher.

I searched for a big German Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire-Community, but there was none. Therefore I decided to register here, so I could Talk about the franchise and additionally I can improve my english.

As a nerd I know a lot of fantasy/middle ages fans, as a Rock/Metal fan I know a lot of fantasy/middle ages fans and also as a history student I know a lot of fantasy/middle ages fans, you see I am surrounded by them but I am none of them. I never read fantasy books (Harry Potter was an exception) and seldomly whatch any fantasy series, films or anime. What I don't like about fantasy? To make it short here is is an excerpt of an interview with GRRM:

A major concern in A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones is power. Almost everybody – except maybe Daenerys, across the waters with her dragons – wields power badly.
Ruling is hard. This was maybe my answer to Tolkien, whom, as much as I admire him, I do quibble with. Lord of the Rings had a very medieval philosophy: that if the king was a good man, the land would prosper. We look at real history and it's not that simple. Tolkien can say that Aragorn became king and reigned for a hundred years, and he was wise and good. But Tolkien doesn't ask the question: What was Aragorn's tax policy? Did he maintain a standing army? What did he do in times of flood and famine? And what about all these orcs? By the end of the war, Sauron is gone but all of the orcs aren't gone – they're in the mountains. Did Aragorn pursue a policy of systematic genocide and kill them? Even the little baby orcs, in their little orc cradles?

Surely there also is other fantasy literature that does it like Game of Thrones and more realistic and does not cherish monarchy but a lot of mainstream fantasy and a lot of fans (and I know a lot of them) cherish the middle ages and the concept of monarchy. Even if you talk with them about it, they think it is a good concept if there is a good king. Especially as a German (who views himself on the political left) I have a huge problem with that and I think especially the Germans should not think that one unelected powerful leader is a good idea. Game of Thrones (I always call it Game of Thrones because I watched the series first) broke that for me and made fantasy watchable.

I am a huge movie and TV series nerd (and gaming also) and I watch a lot of movies and some series with my girlfriend. After Breaking Bad ended we began catching up with all the HBO series because many of the best series are HBO ones. We hesitated with GOT because we both don't like finatasy that much, But We did it anyway. That was in January. Now this year is the year we watched less films than any year before that, mainly we are on the fourth rerun of Game of Thrones. We now got the books (the editions where Book 3 and 5 are devided into 2 books), I am reading the second one and my girlfriend reads the second book of the third one. Additionally we read the first Collection (6 issues) of the comic and we even play the boardgame. We have a really nice Artwork of the Game of Thrones map over our couch and sometimes talk for hours about the universe. You see that it really caught us.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask :)

[Jon Weirgaryen]

I was going to write about elected leaders in ASOIAF and realised you have only been to book 2 and watching the show - it would be spoiling your reading experience if I did. No, there are a few other leaders that do even much better than Dany. Do you think they will get what they deserve?

Anyway, greetings form Germany: Welcome to the forum @Antiheld

Please be careful, the forum is full of spoilers and may ruin much of your experience if you don't finish reading the books first. My signature has a link to a combined reading effort of the last two books: it might be useful for your lady pretty soon and to you too, when you get there.

Cheerio!

[King Tyrion I]

Welcome to the boards, Antiheld! :cheers:

[Antiheld]

Spoiler (Knowledge of 2nd book and the complete series)

I dont think that many people get what they (morally) deserve. Some people get what they deserve logically, like both Robb Starks and Eddard Stark kind of deserved their deads (not morally, I rooted for them) because they made terrible strategic mistakes. Additionally the democracies do not always tend to be better just becuase they elect their leaders. For example what I know from the cities in Slavers bay they seem to be democratic but with slaves (kind of like ancient greece), for ending slavery there has to come Daenerys (she calls herself their queen), which means the monarch ended the slavery which was established in a system which is at least more democratic than a monarchy.

But I did not mean that monarchys always tend to to worse than democracies no matter what circumstances there are. Furthermore I meant that even kings which are not worse like the Mad King or Joffrey do not establish a Rainbow Wonderworld. In societys there are different opinions and different interests and sometimes 2 interests are the opposite of each other and in a monarchy automatically one of them is betrayed therefore monarchy always depends on the leaders opinion and your own one does not matter. On democracies (in theory, the reality get's much to complex) you have the chance to get others to also vote for your opinion and you have the same chance to get what you want. Until the point I am neither the flaws or the good things about democracies are really much mentioned.

My problems with other fantasy is not the absence of democracies but the gloryfication of monarchy. In human history you can see that also in monarchys mankind established new things and better things even better than in the old democracies. But monarchy (much like dictatorship) has some really bad things that are inherent in the system itself and the black and white view (Good king makes a good times for everybody and bad king a bad one) of many fantasy does deny does bad things and seing how some fantasy/middle ages fans get uncritical of those things (I do not think that any of the authors intended to to that with his audience) really bugs me.

Additionally much fiction tends to always have a black and white view of good and bad. And on this matter A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones is better than huge parts of fictional media. There is no eternal good and bad. First what it is good and bad depends on the person who judges it and second in all of us there is potential for both good and bad und nearly all people thend to make good and bad decisions in their lives and therefore they are not only good and not only bad.

[MustacheMan]

Hi there

I am MustacheMan, i live in italy, ended up here looking for a forum dedicated to Games of Thrones.

I'm 16, sorry for my english, but the italian school suck :( :( .

The only way to learn english in italy is self-taught :( .

In addition to this I am passionate about books and comics, especially the Song of Ice and Fire

The only Italian in the forum? xD

[King Tyrion I]

Benvenuto, MustacheMan. :cheers:

[MustacheMan]

Benvenuto, MustacheMan. :cheers:

Thank you, Grazie :cheers:

[Ser Lucious Left-Foot]

I have not took the time to introduce myself to you which is awfully rude, and I apologize profusely.

I'm Leonardo, 20, from the (occasionnally) great city of Paris, France. I've been a fan of ASOIAF for 5 or 6 years now, after my uncle introduced the fantasy series to me. I wasn't a big fantasy fan to begin with (though I've read LoTR plenty of times and I've played some MMORPG since middle school), but, well, ASOIAF is ASOIAF.

I'm a business school student, occasional writer for a french basketball website, aspiring comedian failure, a functionning alcoholic and a tattoo enthusiast.

Good morrow to you all.

[King Tyrion I]

I have not took the time to introduce myself to you which is awfully rude, and I apologize profusely.

I'm Leonardo, 20, from the (occasionnally) great city of Paris, France. I've been a fan of ASOIAF for 5 or 6 years now, after my uncle introduced the fantasy series to me. I wasn't a big fantasy fan to begin with (though I've read LoTR plenty of times and I've played some MMORPG since middle school), but, well, ASOIAF is ASOIAF.

I'm a business school student, occasional writer for a french basketball website, aspiring comedian failure, a functionning alcoholic and a tattoo enthusiast.

Good morrow to you all.

Bien venue, Leonardo! :cheers:

Edited August 8, 2014 by King Tyrion I

[SerDuncanTheSmall]

Hi there,

Been lurking on and off here for a while decided to say hi. Based in Brooklyn, and prefer the books to the show. Also a big Bernard Cornwell and Raymond E. Feist fan.

Look forward to getting to know everyone.

Cheers

[King Tyrion I]

Hi there,

Been lurking on and off here for a while decided to say hi. Based in Brooklyn, and prefer the books to the show. Also a big Bernard Cornwell and Raymond E. Feist fan.

Look forward to getting to know everyone.

Cheers

Welcome, Ser DuncanTheSmall, to the boards! :cheers: