Yeah...speaking of which, I guess I'll read some more chapters since my PC has it's summerly FUCKUP - for which he's named after all - I won't be playing any games...
Ok, I'm done. Took me longer because near the end I was like...I don't want this to end so I'll stall, but it didn't help much. Anyway. Spoiler Stannis was kinda obvious, the Prince of Dorne not so much, though I guess he was being quite reckless...but that whole arc developped much faster than Stannis marching on Winterfell. Theon (probably Asha) and Jeyne (Sansa) Poole got away though.
Bumping the thread due to the new season being out. What are people thinking about it so far? Personally I'm liking it, getting a healthy dose of Tyrion, though it seems like the challenge of telling so many different stories at once is beginning to show. A lot of characters get little to no screen time right now. I think they're dealing with it alright, but I wouldn't complain if we got a little more Daenerys in this next episode.
I did enjoy this TV series, now waiting for the new season to come out. The most enjoyable character of all was that shrimp, he made me laugh all the times he showed in the series.
New season is out, let the discussion commence! I like the first episode a lot, I've read the first four books and I'm finding that now I'm picking out any deviations from the books, there were quite a few in this episode, though only a couple that really bothered me. This episode was mostly just conversations and setting the ground for what's to come this season though, which I still enjoyed, especially the conversation between Tywin and Tyrion, which was gold. I'm guessing we'll our other characters in the next episode Arya, Bran and Jaime. I'll go into a bit about the books in this spoiler tag, but nothing that you wouldn't know from this episode. Spoiler First off, crazy excited about Qyhburn and Selmy showing up. I kind of wish there had been a way to disguise Selmy more, his reveal was huge in the books, but it's a lot harder to disguise someone when the actor is right in front of you I guess. My other big complaint was about Sansa's talk with Baelish, that was another huge reveal in the books that was squandered by the show. Kind of wish they had kept the nipple scene out though, of all the scenes to keep in, just ugh. Definitely looking forward to next week though, Arya's story is by far my favorite part of the third book, followed closely by Jaime's part, as much as I love Tyrion I don't think his gets too interesting until the end of the third book, which we won't even get to until season 4.
Qyburn had a pretty strange/different introduction in the TV show, didn't he? Good first episode, works nicely as set-up for what's to come. Can't wait for (BOOK SPOILERS): Spoiler Daenerys' Unsullied Army destroying the fuck out of Astapor.
Season 4 episode 1: That episode was pretty damn flat. Spoiler I know most of it was set up anyway, but the Danny scenes were damn painful to sit through. I guess she's finished most what she's done from the books, but I really hope her arc for the season isn't going to be "why won't my dragons behave?" Or even worse "blushy, blushy merc dude just gave me flowers.' Speaking of that guy, I can't help but notice that they changed actors for that role, and man does this guy look radically different than the previous one. I know things like this happen, but I kept waiting for Jazz from the Fresh Prince to show up and point out the change in a 4th wall breaking joke. Anyway, best thing about this episode was the Hound and Arya. They make quite the little team now. The Hound gets all the best lines this episode, I really liked ,"If any more words come falling out of your cunt mouth, I'm gonna have to eat every chicken in this room." I mean cunt is just so awkwardly shoved into that sentence that I admire the Hound going out of the way to insult Poviler just a bit more. Of course with the Poliver is standing in for the Tickler here, but I don't think it makes that much of a difference so it's all cool. The introduction to Obyrn was fine, don't have much to complain about there. Nor much of what happened in King's Landing. It was mostly just set up stuff that wasn't very exciting. Meanwhile John Snow pouts his way through all of his scenes, and it's pretty hilarious he has to mention he slept with a wildling. If he wasn't such a sadsack I'd say he was almost bragging, because that part of his story has nothing to do with anything important and there was no reason to bring it up. Overall, more like the Hound demanding all of the chickens and less Danny getting flowers please. Actually less Danny in general would be good.
I kind of loathed the first episode, I just really hate when this show has source material right in front of it and flat out ignores it and chooses to just make scenes that aren't as good instead. Spoiler I guess the first thing is the intro for Oberyn, or the Red Viper. One of the coolest characters in the book, instead of Tyrion and him meeting each other on horseback, and getting an in-depth discussion between the two of them we're force fed another random brothel scene. Most of that was a complete waste of screen time, and Tyrion's encounter with the Red Viper is instead made into a less than epic short conversation in an alley. Woo. Danny scenes were miserable, I don't know how the show can't keep on some of these actors. We're probably on like the fourth actor for the mountain at this point as well. Unfortunately Daario looks nothing like his previous incarnation, and neither of them look like they did in the book, so I'm not sure what they're doing on that front. These scenes were dull though, Jorah is the only really redeeming thing that Danny has going for her right now, unfortunately we didn't get much of Iain Glenn in this episode. Jamie coming back this early really screwed the timeline, so things just don't seem to make sense. I can't really go into much detail without dealing with spoilers, but they're making Cersei even more petty and nonsensical than she is in the books. She has loved Jamie all of her life and then she doesn't like him anymore because he "took to long". Ugh. The fitting of the hand was nice, and so was the conversation between Jamie and Tywin though. I don't remember Shay being nearly so annoying in the books either, but I think Tyrion was still having sex with her? I might be wrong, I don't think the underground tunnel system was ever established in the show though, which is how he kept meeting up with her in the books. Arya and the Hound scenes remain great, mainly because of the acting. The scene went significantly different in the books, and I'm not really sure where they're going with these two at this point. By all accounts that fight should have been one of their last chapters in book three, so I guess they're just going to have random adventures throughout this season? Not that I have too much of a problem with that, the Hound is one of my favorite characters, and the actor kills that role. So yeah, I'm probably going to be bothered by most of what happens this season, I hated the latter half of season 3, I only really see this going further downhill. I'm aware that the show is a separate entity and I should treat it as such, but it's hard not to be bothered when you see great scenes just get completely removed and replaced with more over the top nudity.
^ I've got to agree with everything you say as far as changes go. Some books stuff Spoiler I'm assuming they're keeping the Hound around to spend more time with Arya to give her more of a plotline this season. We've entered the phase where they have to start adapting more than one book per season which means the timeline is going to get much messier. I'm okay with keeping the Hound around for now, but the other changes do bother bother me. Especially Cersei, she's enough of a mega bitch in the books. The TV show makes her look like a fucking cartoon bitch when she says Jaime took too long, not to mention it buttfucks his character development because in the books, he's the one that backs off the relationship. In general, I don't mind the changing the source material to make allowances for TV, but some of these changes seem really arbitrary, especially the changes to Obyrn. Also, this show has always been the hilarious master of sexposition and this first episode really keeps the tradition sadly alive. It's like whenever the writers can't think how to make the dialogue interesting, or they need to get some boring monologue in then you know titties are coming out and probably sex scene too. A lot of "adult" dramas do this, but I've never seen a show do it as consistently as GoT and once you notice it, it's hard not to laugh a bit at it before getting annoyed by it. About Shae in the books she was barely a character, just someone for Tyrion to be attached to. Spoiler The TV show has tried to flesh her out with mixed results. This episode she falls out of the stupid tree and hits every branch on the way down. It was a trainwreck for her characterization, because she's been pretty damn smart up to this point. Unless the girl version of blueballs is making her insane I don't know what the hell is going on with her character.
I find it to be a lazy crutch to use the nudity that way. The writers can't think of more interesting dialogue so throw in the boobs and hope no one notices. But if you want a show with equal opportunity nudity then check out Spartacus, everyone gets naked on that show.
I was also thinking about Sam. I'll leave out books spoilers but Spoiler Did the end of the last season show how he gets back to Castle Black? I don't remember him getting there, and as far as the books are concerned I'm damn near positive that he shouldn't be there yet. There's a very important part of the books that has been skipped over involving Sam and some other main characters.
Yeah he got back at the end of last season book spoilers!! Spoiler But they left out Coldhands taking them through the Nightfort, all we saw was Sam and Gilly walk up through that well, and then show Bran and the Reed's the way down. In the books after the Nightfort, Sam and Gilly just seem to arrive at Castle Black. With regards to the episode, I didn't mind most of the changes Spoiler Though Jaime coming back so early has definitely screwed up a lot of the time line, but I have a feeling they'll make him have a big part in the events to come, that he wasn't there for in the Books. My main gripe is the depiction of the Thenns as cannibals. None of the wildlings were particularly shown as evil, hard and brutal yes, but not bad as such, which is why Jon Snow's actions in the later books seem so morally justifiable. And yeah, Oberyn's intro was much better in the book, it seems that they just played the Dornish men coming off as a bit of comedy as they ride straight past the City Guard, and oh look, Oberyn has been here for days already har har har. However, it hasn't ruined the show for me, and I'm not particularly angered by any of it.
To be fair my dislike for the episode had nothing to do with changes from the books so much as it was poorly paced and flaccid with little to no life to it. It really felt like it was just going through the motions of setting up, because HUGE BOOKS SPOILER Spoiler this episode doesn't really matter. Everyone that hasn't read the books is going to flip their shit next week when Joffery dies and no one will even remember this episode.
I don't watch the TV series, but is there a thread dedicated to the books? Reading Dance of Dragons 2: After the feast. Got some stuff I reeeally wanna gush about.
When I did a search for Game of Thrones, this was the only thread that popped up so I don't think there's a dedicated thread for book readers.
Spoiler Astapor was the Unsullied city wasn't it? She has already conquered 2 out of the 3 major slave cities in slavers bay, so the only one left is Meereen. S4 ep 1 Spoiler The changes didn't really bother me at, as the "adapt the canon" ship has been long sitting at the bottom of Blackwater Bay. Spoiler I saw it as Obyrn's way of saying "fuck you" to the Lannisters. On top of the insult of Doran not attending the royal wedding and the 2nd brother taking his place, Obyrn then stood up the Lannister's welcome party.
Yeah that's probably how it was meant to be seen, and it did come across that way too, it's just that Spoiler It changes the politics of Dorne. Doran Martell is always known as overly cautious (and we obviously know why too), and Oberyn may be his own man and what not, but he still defers to Doran, and Doran would never let any suspicion fall on Dorne while the Lannister's are allied to Highgarden.
S4 Episode 2 Spoiler YESSSSSSSSSSSS ITTT HAPPENED I cannot contain my excitement over the actions that just took place. No character deserved to die more than him.