Game of Thrones Thread (Book Spoilers Allowed)

Use this thread to discuss your qualms with/criticism of the book series vs. the TV series. This way you can still discuss it and members who have not read the books or watched the TV series are at no risk of being spoiled of it in the opposite thread.

Also, you don't have to use spoiler tags here, because the implication is that this is a thread for people who have both read and watched.

Staff Edit:

Book Spoilers are allowed in this thread WITHOUT TAGS. If you haven't read the books--stay the fuck out of this thread!!

That's a VERY stupid title for this thread.

Also I think you're being a bit self-righteous but hey.

Ultimately this is prolly for the best so w/e

I didn't know what else to call it, and yeah.

I don't think I'm being self-righteous, and if I am, I apologize.

edIt: Feel free to make a new thread with a title you'd prefer and lock this one

Not worth it lol. Maybe I'll have Bacong change the title later.

The main thing is I just get annoyed by how show watchers turn vitriolic on ALL people that have read the books, as if we should be punished for having read books before the show was ever even in production. I know perpetual change posted a minor spoiler (and that was fuckin stupid of him) but still, the way that can turn all of us into being labeled "bookfags" or have people coming down on us as a group of ruiners and deathbringers is just sorta silly to me.

The thread title only annoyed me because it seemed passive aggressive, like you were reducing all the book readers do and say down to comparing the two, as if that seemed so arbitrary and laughable to you personally. Often that is not the case. We definitely discuss the show on its own merits too. So something like "Game of Thrones (TV) (Book Readers Ver.)" might work better.

Anyway, obviously I advocated a separate thread anyway, and it's best not to start that new thread with an argument lo, so yeah, w/e.

ROBB STARK FUCKING DIES.


oh my god that felt good.

So, Renly's death scene pretty much sucked. I really hope they handle the deaths of Robb, Catelyn, Joffrey, Tywin, Shae, Balon, Old Bear, Lysa Arryn, and Jon better.

The Tickler dying is the first change I'm legitimately pissed about. Why the fuck would you do that?

I think it's just cause the viewers have seen him. She can just kill Polliver next year, Polliver has needle, right?

Dunno who the second name is going to be, though, if that's the case as neither Weese nor Chiswyck have been introduced. I guess they could just be introduced at the start of the episode.

^assuming Arya's tickler badassery next year is why you're pissed.

lol watch them kill off Tywin

also this Tickler change means we won't get Arya screaming "IS THERE ANY GOLD IN THE VILLAGE?" while stabbing him to death.

oh yeah, hopefully they come up with something equally as badass, I mean, they can't get rid of that scene

yeah a change that essentially equates to a line of dialogue is nothing to get legitimately pissed off about.

the idea behind her choices, it seems to me, is not to make her make totally stupid picks like she does in the book (the tickler at least brings lots of harm upon other people, which she effectively ended).

i expect tywin will leave next ep and someone else at the camp will give her solid reason to be chosen in his stead.

after all, according to the synopsis she has a "surprise visitor" whoever that could be (bolton?)

I always thought part of the charm of her arc in the books is that she does make stupid picks. She is just a kid after all, so I like that her first couple picks were impulsive and short-sighted and then her last pick is finally a smart one.

I believe you're correct, yes. I think they just consolidated and are going to just ignore the whole Storm's End seige b/c it hasn't really been introduced as a locale and they can just pretend it never happened and that all of Renly's bannermen simply joined Stannis after Renly's assassination. Wasn't the siege of Storm's end b/c Stannis wanted Robert's bastard anyway? They haven't even introduced him yet so I don't see them going there in the show, at least not this season.

In a way, one thing I don't like about the show scrapping certain characters is that if someone is dropped like let's say Edric for example...you can then reasonably assume that GRRM signed off on that (or at least confirmed to the show-runners that he has no significant plans for the character in the future) which in turn kind of spoils things for readers b/c now you kind of expect Edric to not really matter down the line in the books.

I'm not sure that's especially true. I doubt they run all of their changes across Martin (for example, see them ruling out Meera/Jojen despite all readers knowing they're rather important, even if just so Rickon/Osha have a reason to go to Skaagos).

Plus, they've already done things (like killing Mago) that Martin's confirmed will come back to haunt them. At this point, with all the little changes everywhere this season, it seems very much like D&D's attitude is basically "we'll figure it out when the time comes."

I think people assume Martin is more involved than, according to himself (in several interviews) he really is.

There is definitely far more tinkering that the first season. Nothing has particularly annoyed me yet apart from the terrible portrayal of Gregor Clegane though but if Jojen and Meera don't appear that is the first indication of some quite severe re-writing

I'm now pretty sure Osha is being set up as a replacement for the Reeds (the last episode made it look like she knows about the Three Eyed Raven [wtf?]), which is not a bad idea unless their father turns out to be important after all.

The main reason I'm annoyed with that is Reed is the only person who knows what happened to Lyanna Stark. In the tv show she only serves the purpose of showing why Ned and Robert were so close but in the books she is repeatedly referred to. Either the producers know something we don't (i.e. Jon's parentage isn't a future arc) or they're ignoring Martin.

yeah Howland Reed's inevitable debut "on screen" seems to be one of the most highly anticipated moments in the series among book readers and I really feel like he's going to be vitally important to the series so I think it's definitely a mistake of the showrunners to diminish his role in advance.

The Reeds are very important, but luckily I do't think it'll be too hard to push them to season 3.

Either she gave Robb fake info, or she's gonna replace Jeyne Westerling, I'd say.

I got the sense she was pulling the ol' Cocktail bait and switch and Robb's gonna run into her later when he drops by to say hello to his Westerling bannermen.

Can anyone sum up the most crucial differences between the book and the TV series so far?

Books > Show

i think that covers it

I meant plot differences obviously, but I guess I'll buy all the books eventually either way.

Assuming she is taking the role of Jeyne Westerling, I'm actually also expecting her to take role of other Jeyne down the road too, ie, fake Arya.

Nah... I mean, the writers have already made some changes that don't really make sense, but this would be too far fetched. GRRM went to great lengths to emphasize how important it was that Jeyne Poole was from the North because otherwise nobody would have believed she was Arya. They can't simply put a random girl from Volantis in front of Bolton and claim it's Arya.

My theory is that Robb is going to get wounded at some point in the near future and this chick will end up treating him, leading to a cheesy love affair. The writers just needed a way to rid of the whole Westerling subplot, which would overcomplicate the TV show.

Don't get way everyone's freaking out over episode 5. I thought it was really average, and uneventful. Holy shit, I just had a deja vu of what season 4 is going to be like.

Joffery dies in season 4 so... no.

Season 5 on the other hand..... gonna be fuck ass boring

No way assuming you're talking about AFFC, I'm looking forward to the fucking Martells, Victarion Greyjoy, all of the Arya stuff, Oldtown, Jaime being a boss, and don't forget that it's extremely unlikely that we'll see it and ADWD split up, so there's all sorts of shit from that too.

Is your sword sharp, Jon Snow?

STABBY STABBY STAB STAB

I loved how Qhorin asked Jon like 3 or 4 times if his sword was sharp and Jon still didn't get what was going to happen.

so ummm, this episode


it's weird, cause I want to discuss the book differences, but I don't want to seem like I'm nitpicking. I mean I get it, but I still want to talk about it.

I'm just finding it quite funny that they realised they fucked up with the Mountain and he's just disappeared from Harrenhal

Thought that was the best episode so far, really.

But since it's so long since I've read the book, can someone inform me of the changes?

everything

stoked that ramsay is in though. although i have a feeling dagmer=ramsay which is fucking dumb

informative

He's right though. Nearly every scene from this episode had either major changes or was completely new.

Also, it was the best episode of the season, easily, I thought. Really dug it.

Jaqen Hagar (sp?) killing Amory Lorch with a fucking blow dart was pretty stupid IMO b/c all his kills are supposed to be stealthy. I guess if now the forces in the castle are on to the fact that there's a killer on the loose and the writers use that as a way to force Arya/Jaqen to make a move and escape the castle then it makes sense, but I liked it better that he's like a fucking ghost in the books. Even when he killed the Tickler last week and he's standing oh so conspicuously on the battlements looking down on his body I wanted to scream.

Also Dany is even more insufferable in the show than she is in the books.

Too many small (and big) changes to mention here. I suggest looking up certain characters or plot points on the ASOIAF wiki...that's how I've been refreshing my memory while watching the show.