Actually they're still dredging up material from Books 4 and 5, and more than likely going into the not-yet-released Book 6. So a lot of the situations will be GRRM's, even if some of the dialogue is not (and might suffer as a result, although I think overall they're doing pretty well). Yes, they strayed from the Dorne plot and Prince Doran, but they intend to wrap up the TV show within 15 episodes after this season. So no time for nuance, not much for careful building of so many plot lines. If there's a fault, it would be having to jump around between so many characters and locations. On the page it's not jarring, although you'll find yourself saying, "Well, f***, how long has it been since I read about (Insert Name Here)?" I think we're going to see more stories and characters come together. Actually, we'll have to, because we still haven't visited the Iron Islands. And Sam and Gilly headed to Oldtown.
If we don't get at least one major white walkers battle, south of the wall, I'm going to flip How slow is this undead army?
They can only go as far as the winter storm. Right now they're just waiting for the weather to pick up...
My friend sent me this email saying his cousin told him "a light bulb just turned on" - I'm sceptical he came up with this on his own though. Theory below. Spoiler The red lady, I reckon she is a Targaryan. So she pops up once Robert Baratheon dies, sides with Stannis, makes him change religion and burn everyone (same thing the mad king did) Makes Stannis kill his other brother Renley, then tells Stannis he'll win when clearly he won't, so basically she's taken out the whole Baratheon family as revenge for killing Rhaegar Targaryan, who obviously had Jon Snow with Lyanna Stark. Robert killed Rhaegerand eventually became king. So revenge for that too. So we know Rhaegar kidnapped Lyanna and took her, but we don't know why? Well how about because she was pregnant with Jon and he wanted to keep his baby safe. Robert's rebellion including Ned and other Northmen go to get her, she dies giving birth to Jon (her death is a mystery according to the books) Ned keeps Jon. Jon grows up, red lady wants to have babies with him, which isn't weird cause Targaryans were all related. Daenerys parents were brother and sister, so old ass red woman wants to make a Targaryan baby obviously but the Stark side in him is like "I can't I love someone" - Ygritte So all along, she can't give away her identity because she's a Targaryan and she'll be killed. She wants Jon to rise!! Holy *****, he's probably a dragon. Aldo, Ned and Howland Reed were the only ones who were there when Lyanna died. They were the only 2 that survived. Howland keeps the secret and Ned dies with it. Howland's kids by some crazy coincidence are travelling with Bran to the three eyed raven because they know Jon is the man and they need to save this world. It also makes sense that other Targaryans survived because we never see who gifted the dragon eggs to Danaerys at her wedding. Could they have come from the red lady? She was where Stannis lives when we first meet her - on Dragonstone - the former Targaryan home that Robert gave to Stannis when he became king. They say Danaerys was born during a huge storm while the family was on the run. Could that storm have been the White Walkers waking up because a dragon rider had just been born? Time to make their move "Winter is coming" and it's been so long since the last long winter. Very interesting theory.
True, but I was under the assuming that this was happening already with the terrible snow storm at Winterfell What I mean is that we've been hearing about them for so long yet they have so little depth in terms of character development. I'm afraid that there will just be some massive battle at the end of next season as if this were the walking dead. That would be incredibly lame
Haha pretty thought out. The problem I see is that it's based on a falsehood. Red Lady wasn't plotting for the failure of Stannis. Thus, she was shaken and losing confidence when she failed him and misinterpreted her visions. If she wasn't planning it, all the events that might link her become stretchessss.
Yes, but I see they are bashing it pretty hard on other sites. I really loved the first 4.5 seasons so hopefully it's just short term
I think the quality is about the same, but I'm not one to let some of these minor inconsistencies bother my viewing. I don't even notice most of them until I read this thread. Still one of only a couple shows that I have to watch distraction free. It also probably makes a big difference whether you read the books or not.
I hven't seen a huge drop off compared to the books, which IMO were simply not good after the first 3. GRRM clearly had a plan, and he wrote a masterpiece of a trilogy, that came out in the span of a few years. Then he had no clue what to do. That's why it's taken so damn long in between the books. He is trying to "expand" his world, when he really just needed to move forward with the core characters established in the original trilogy. The 3rd book came out in 2000, since then core characters like Sansa, Dany, Arya, and Tyrion have made little to no progress towards the endgame in the books. Instead we have spent a ton of time with the painfully dull Iron Islands side story, the more tolerable Dorne, and following every action Cersei made. We even got a section dedicated to Sam. I read the last 2 books out or respect to the first 3, but I did not enjoy them. The show has tried the best they can to compensate for the dull nature of the last 2 books, and I think they have done a decent job, although there has been a few missteps (Sansa/Ramsey, Dorne). They basically blew through 2 books in one season because there was so little usable material.
Interesting take on many theories. Look I think the greatest thing that GRRM did with his story was create such a dense world with so many interesting mysterious characters and then leave the story on cliffhangers. Leaving fans to come up with thousands of theories and put everything under a microscope to dissect every aspect of the story. I think there are some truths to alot of the theories, but the details get jumbled up a bit. A few things on this theory- (Also do we REALLY need to spoiler everything here anymore? Its all crackpot theory from this point on) -At least the show portrays the Red Woman as being 100% invested in Stannis. She led him to sack Kings Landing and there was every indication he should have succeeded unless she plotted with Tywin on the side to surprise attack Stannis at the last minute with the Tyrells. There is also every indication that Stannis should have been able to take the North from the Boltons. You heard Littlefinger say it himself that a betting man would have betted on Stannis. -Allerio (Danny & her bro's caretaker at the beginning of the story) was the one who gifted the petrified eggs. How he got them we don't know. We also know very little about Allerio's intentions with Danny & her brother & why he and Varys are so invested in the Targaryan restoration. Allerio is incredibly rich and successful living in Pentos. Why is this important to him? There are theories about Varys secretly being a Spoiler Blackfire which is a relative to the Targaryans . Which is why he shaves his head. -There is no indication that the Red Woman really has any idea who Jon Snow is or his importance until she gets to the Wall and sees him in the flames. However her wanting to have sex with him randomly is very interesting & may give credence to theories about wanting to create something with him using his blood. So obviously she knows something about his blood. I'm glad he didn't give it to her because, if the theories are right, the shadow baby that would have emerged would have been a pretty nasty demon child. We know now that she's hundreds of years old, and likely the babies she can produce are 100% black magic. I think the age reveal of Melissandre is one of the most interesting things the show has revealed to this point. It makes her character so much more important & where she's at in relation to Bloodraven & the White Walkers. I think we will will know by the end of the season more about her background and what she's really doing in the North.
This is basically a mash-up of lots of theories that have come-up throughout the years but it really doesn't make sense. Some of the theories are very likely to come true but not what OP is trying to say. Dobro did a great job above explaining why.
Book-wise, you're right that Book 4 and 5 were not as good as the first 3 and that GRRM probably got too bogged down in expanding the world and didn't advance the core plots quickly enough. You see that in the way some of the characters are just wandering forever (though I have a certain appreciation for the wandering for the sake of realism). I wouldn't say the last 2 books were so bad as you make out though. And the tightness is still there. The show does and should try to correct for some of the weakness in the storytelling and to make it more 'made for TV': cutting out much of the wandering, simplifying plotlines, combining characters to reduce the cast. These things needed to be done for the show and they've gone at it very expeditiously, especially in the later seasons. That process creates holes, and the show just kinda papers over the holes. The show is still pretty good, but I think they suffer a bit from the same editorial trap GRRM fell into -- a story too ambitious for their resources.
The Theory about Varys is interesting . . . interesting indeed Just finished listening/reading The Hedge Knight Rocket River
Yeah the show gives him an interesting spin where he's really just all in on the good of the realm, but the book gives much more questions about his true intentions. In the last book he does something that is more Littlefinger-esque than anything the Varys in the show would do. He's a great character to have though for the show because he can provide exposition to the audience and get information too and from our characters without us questioning it.
