So, from what little we know of Braavos it seems to be patterned off of Venice\Northern Italian city states. Be interesting to see what Arya does there.

I think her intention is to join the faceless assassins or whatever the "a man" was.

I agree with this.

OMG!

Spoiler free zone dude. GEEEZZ
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VioKqtOxm6...+not+sleep.gif

This has been a great thread and needs to remain spoiler/speculation free. Although there has been speculation about the direction of twists, the discussion of characters not introduced ****s this thread up IMO.

As far as internet speculation, just post the link with a short description so those folks who aren't interested in having ANY spoilers can continue in the thread.

This is similar to the a True Detective thread where reddidiots posted every innocuous and ridiculous picture in an attempt to tie in plot twists that never existed.

Funny thing this. I just started watching the series again from the beginning and I've now started believing the same thing myself after finishing the first 2 episodes. Many details about that situation never did add up (so much so that I even asked a vague question about it here a few months back). When searching for that post just now, I found the multiple posts with spoiler tags from yesterday that dealt with it (I avoided them myself earlier, but apparently they aren't blocked on searches, which is probably another reason to limit spoiler tag usage in this thread as much as possible). Anyway, I suspect you're right that book readers have more of a basis to speculate on that topic, but it seems to me that there are a few hints dropped throughout the show too.

This. I caved and stormed through books 1-3 in between seasons 2 and 3. Then while watching season 3 I finished books 4 and 5. Because of my lack of patience I sit with nowhere to go in this story and am left with many questions. That asshole needs to finish book 6 already!! If I were you, I'd sit back and enjoy the ride.

But to those who are saying reading the books would decrease enjoyment from the show, I say not really. There are some subtle differences in the two that make the show enjoyable to the book readers. They even drop little Easter eggs in there that only a book reader would get. For example: when little finger was telling Sansa about people dying, he said something along the lines of " men even die while sitting on their chamber pots" an obvious nod towards what was about to occur to Tywin. It gave me a bit of a chuckle.

I think the only way that reading the books decreases enjoyment is that basically nothing will surprise you. Any changes they made for TV have so far been cosmetic. Filler, for lack of a better word (specifically thinking of Locke and the extra stuff north of the wall early in the last season, as well as Brianne's current arc). It doesn't actually change anything that happens in any real way, just changes a little bit in terms of how.

Omg girl LMAOLMAO

The books and the show are different enough at this point that both are entertaining in their own right and fans would do well to experience both in whatever order they prefer. This is especially true starting with book 3 (Storm of Swords) which has been covered over the last two seasons. Seasons 1 and 2 were closer to books 1 and 2, but the show has diverged a lot from book 3 in the last two seasons.

Some things are better on the show. Tyrion's trial, the fight between the Hound and Brienne which I loved, but which was not in the books at all, etc., but some things are better in the books. For example, they changed Jon's story from book 3 in a LOT of ways, and I thought the book version was better.

To all fans of the show, I would say that it would be well worth it to read book 3, it is a great book. I'd recommend reading them all, but if you wanted to start with book 3, you could get away with that. It would be much harder to try to dive into books 4 and 5 just off watching the show to this point. Book 3 is the latest place you could start and have it still make sense to you what is happening (though there are still a few differences that might be confusing at the beginning of book 3 which I'd be happy to explain if requested by anyone who wants to start with reading book 3 without reading books 1 and 2).

I think show fans would enjoy book 3 a great deal, and there would be a few nice payoffs as there are some things with certain characters that the show has skipped over for some reason, and there are two events at the end of book 3 that have not been covered on the show yet (one of which may be written out of the show completely) which I think would provide a nice payoff for reading through it.

Just my two cents.

Realizing there is no GoT this week is one thing, realizing that that means True Blood takes it's place is another level of suck.

LMAO Seriously.

I can't believe I actually made it through 2 seasons of true blood.