was hoping they would do they thing where mance goes to winterfell to kidnap reek, but i guess not.... does sam and gilley get sent off eventually leading sam to run into arya?
The season's too short to have side-stuff like Mance parading through Westeros as a bard. I'm glad they didn't waste any time on that since it would mean something else would be cut. I like the foreshadowing they did for Cersei.
Re: K mf G I don't think it is totally out of the question that Mance survives and is used to rescue reek or whatever. Regarding Sam and Gilley (and Aemon), I feel like that whole story arc will either be scrapped or shifted to next season. Much of the Oldtown stuff is still not revealed and the journey would make for "filler" on the TV show. --- I'm pretty disappointed with the way Ser Loras is portrayed. Dude is supposed to be an amazing knight and most of his on-screen time is spent in bed. Also, how do you guys feel about the obvious allusion that Brienne and Podrick are about to interact with Sansa and Littlerfinger? I personally enjoyed her journey through the Saltpans and the inn at the crossroads but I guess that is scrapped. I feel like Sansa's storyline will differ from what will be in the book...
Agreed. I'm sure Sam going to Oldtown will happen, I'm guessing they'll keep the part about them stopping off in Braavos. Warning!!! Opinions about stuff that occurs in episodes 2-4: Spoiler I'm bummed that Dolorous Edd isn't John Snow's steward. I don't give a crap about this little kid. Edd is probably my favorite non-POV character in the books. Very surprised about Littlefinger arranging a marriage between Sansa and Ramsey Bolton. I'm guessing that Reek will end up saving her. Also, extremely surprised that Barristan Selmy might be dead. I'm guessing that Grey Worm will survive his wounds, but Selmy looked dead at the end of episode 4.
I'm pretty sure Sansa's story in the show is being merged with Fake Arya from the books. In other words, Littlefinger is on the way to Winterfell with her so she can marry Ramsey Bolton. That will be one more in the long line of marriages that makes Sansa very, very unhappy. But at least then Theon will get to save her at some point. I think the bit of them passing by Brienne and Pod was just for fun to show how close Brienne is to yet another Stark girl. Had she not been so busy brooding she might have had her head up to look for her (probably wouldn't have helped). I don't expect any real interaction of those two groups.
Yay book readers thread.. ok.. maybe I can have a discussion with yall about Varys involvement with Danny. Maybe I'm mistaken but it was kind of clear to me in the books that Varys was pro Targaryen (not necessarily for Danny but one of the Targaryens), however, in the movies they make it seem like Ser Jorah just happened to notice the wine guy trying to poison Danny. Did yall see that size of those dragons!!?
My only reservation with being confident about Sansa marrying Ramsey is the Littlefinger factor. Dude obviously cares about her and knows about the atrocities that the Boltons are capable of yet he leads her into this situation? I'm not totally buying it. There has to be a hidden plan that gets enacted before Ramsey even gets the chance to bed Sansa. Perhaps he knows that Stannis will march on Winterfell
Possibly he's marrying Sansa to him just to get her installed at Winterfell when he'll then work the other side of the fence with various Northmen (Manderleys?) to overthrow the Boltons? Then once the Boltons are out of the picture he reveals who Sansa is all along and marries her himself, thereby getting Winterfell in the process.
Eh, maybe? But what does Littlefinger get out of it? I know he was going to marry Sansa off in the books to help her regain Winterfell, but it's to a knight of the Vale. I'm not sure I see Littlefinger aligning himself with the Bolton's when they're clearly entrenched with the Lannisters.
Wild theory but.... Do the Bolton's know what Sansa looks like? Could they arrange a fake marriage with an impostor Sansa in order to screw the Boltons? All the while real Sansa is there under their noses, and they don't even know it. Having Theon/Reek there to witness their scheme would be an interesting dynamic. Also it would be more rewarding for a Stark to give payback to the red wedding vs. Stannis. Could also end up putting Littlefinger/the Vale at odds with Stannis for the North in future storylines. I dunno. Its crazy. I really have no idea where they are going to go with the North plot lines from the books. I'm excited about it though because any number of these theories seem alot more exciting than the stories in the books involving the North after the Boltons take over, and Stannis makes his way up there.
Cersei's public shame Kingsmoot (won't happen this season, and I think they'll abandon the Greyjoys' storyline completely) Can't decide on a 3rd.
I expect them to continue change the show to the point that it will only be loosely based on the books. On the positive side I guess it means that it will be harder to tell what is a book spoiler since they barely follow the books in the first place. It may make for reasonably entertaining TV, but a pretty poor adaptation. Haven't watched the leaked episodes yet. It's kind of funny that they are in danger of catching and passing the books, and their solution is to condense things as much as possible and re-write half of it. Why have the flashback to Maggy the Frog without having the mention that Cersei will outlive all her children, that her little brother will kill her and that her friend who is with her will die, and then does soon after? Why waste so much time on Loras gay adventures? His only point on the show seems be token gay guy. What's the point of Grey Worm and Missandre's romance? They have so much to cut and these are what they use to replace book material with? Jon continues to be an incompetent on the show, who advances despite doing nothing to earn it. Littlefinger is in the safest place in the 7 kingdoms in the Vale and leaves... Some how Cersei knows that Jaime let Tyrion out... And her response is a mild scolding. Brienne is supposed to be the most knight like character around despite not being a knight, but in the show she is just a b****, and her scene with Pod didn't advance the story at all. It's just a shame that with the budget and cast they have they don't have better writers.
I'm not sure I get some of your takes on characters. Brienne is just a b****? Have you been watching the same show these past years? I know she was all despondent in this one episode this season but she's been chasing something for the entire shows running time that keeps getting snatched away from her. I don't think it makes her a b**** that she doesn't want Pod to hang around. And Cersei doesn't KNOW anything when it comes to Tyrion. She blames Tyrion for EVERYTHING. Remember when she was just as convinced that he was the one that killed Joffrey? I think the Loras stuff is going to take the place of some of the accusations of Maegery's bedroom tomfoolery. It worked better in the books because she was younger. She looks more of an age to be sleeping around a little in the show, so maybe instead they focus on Loras' butt-pirating.
That's how I usually feel watching the show. When they depart from the book, it's usually for the worse. I understand that part of it is the constraints they're under -- they don't have the space to tell as complicated a story -- but sometimes it seems they want to be different for the sake of being different, and not better.
Can't wait for Areo Hotah and Doran Martell to show up. Unfortunately if yall think the Mance storyline was needless filler then the Myrcella plotline is for sure out too. I thought it was a great little reveal that Mance was spared and replaced with Rattleshirt since he had the skillset to be a wild card like Oberyn, and kings blood is supposed to be special. I can already tell that I'm gonna hate the Mereen tv plots even more than the books. I'd love for them to get to the fighting pit asap, but you know that's gonna come at the end of the season if at all
From Pod's perspective she has been a b****. All he wants to do is help her, and he has no where else to go, and she treats him like crap. And she has treated him similarly the whole series, so it isn't like she was just having a bad day. She rarely resembles the idealistic, honorable, stubborn and naive character that she is in the books. Book_Brienne is the only character who lives up to Sansa's idealistic vision of knights and true chivalry, and she is a woman and not a knight. But they spent the whole scene focused on the not a knight part without spending nearly enough on her honor, chivalry and naivety, or even paranoia. With the "payoff" for the scene being that Sansa is rolling past in a carriage after Brienne has apparently given up looking Cersei accuses Jaime of letting Tyrion go, and he says yes, and she gives him a mild scolding and doesn't even bother to ask where Tyrion was going. Then for some reason Jaime's conversation is focused on Tywin's inheritance, even though he won't get any of it being a member of the King's Guard. The whole focus of Margeary's sex life in the books had nothing to do with her age, it has to do with her sleeping with someone while she was married to Tommen, which would make her guilty of the crimes of adultery and treason. The whole point of the story line is for Cersei to remove Margaery from being Queen, and it backfires because Cersei is really the one guilty of those crimes and more. Replacing it with Loras wouldn't really make any sense, especially given how every one seems to know he is gay in the show.