Yeah. My buddy Is all kind of wound up for tonight's episode.

Well that was f'ing terrible.

Stannis isn't the Mannis.

Dragon rider #1 Woohoo

Wow. My girlfriend may call it quits on the show after that.

So basically in the North, I am hoping for a Reign of Terror at this point. Let all the nobles answer to Madame Guillotine.

**** you, Stannis.

**** you.

The writers are basically making it so that there is no one for the audience to root for.

Stannis is a kinslayer twice over now. I don't think Davos will be following him any longer. He also did it in a front of a bunch of witnesses. That will not go over well with the other houses.

Jamie is still wrapped around Cercsi's finger. I thought we would get him on a much more heroic bent after we found out why he killed the Mad King but I guess not.

Everything Dany touches turns to crap and she is not fit to rule a keep out in the hinterlands much less seven kingdoms.

Tyrion's story is being subsumed by Dany which pretty much pushes him to side character.

Sansa seems to have chosen a life of misery by marrying Ramsay.

Tommen is spineless.

We basically have Brianne who hasn't been around much, Jon but he seems to want to stay at the wall, and Arya who is on another continent.

Seriously, that is one episode I will never watch again.
I literally, had my head in my hands during that entire Shireen sequence.

I just hope GRRM really does have a conclusion for all of this in mind. The show is so scattered at this point that it's getting hard to see how an all-encompassing finale is really going to work.

You forgot the White Walkers. They might be the side to root for.

Going with the all killed horribly option huh?

At this point if we can get Jon off Westoros it might be the best option.

But isn't he not really working too close with the show anymore? They are starting to go their own ways and will only continue to do so. I just hope the show doesn't lose it's luster because of it. I haven't read the books but I understand the latest one came across as dragging on and not accomplishing much.

This raises another question. If the show finishes within 3 years or so, the books won't be concluded by then. Do they continue getting written? And if so, do the shows spoil the books or do the books go their own way just for the sake of being different?

Yeah, the chance that he might pull a Robert Jordan and meander away from the plot is high.

One thing to not overlook in the heat of the arena battle: Jorah made skin-to-skin physical contact with Danerys...

Well, the Shireen part was awful. Just today I was gone for like 10 minutes (busy time of year for me) with my 15 month old daughter. When I had to go back, she gave me the "daddy don't go" look and cried when I left. It damn near killed me. That scene was tough. Well done but tough.

The wall was anticlimactic but whatever. Better than some shitty drama for the sake of drama.

The Dorne scene was meh. Seemed like filler.

Aryas scene was intriguing. Not the normal style for the 9th episode. But it is interesting what will happen.

Danys scene was interesting. As soon as the attack started I knew the dragons were in route. They didn't disappoint. Good scene. Jorah won the day and is going to die a horrible death of greyscale anyway LOL.

In other news, I'm all about fighting when it is a tactical battle. But what were those mother****ers thinking continuing the attack when napalm breath shows up? It would be like having a friendly fight with small arms then someone shows up with a ****ing f-16. I would have been the **** out of there for sure. I will say I thought they were going to kill the dragon and then Dany would get out and burn the city with the other 2.

Oh ****. Missed that. Interesting

Jesus Christ. That moved me to tears.

I could be wrong, but I was thinking it only matters if the scaled part touches.

I agree.

And isn't part of the thing about the Mother of Dragons that illness (as well as fire) doesn't affect her as much? That may be something I heard about from the books...

I wasn't really feeling the dragon scene. It started off cool then kind of cheesed out there at the end. I'm not sure how else they could have pulled that off if it indeed happened that way in the book, but it came across kind of silly in a Never Ending Story (awesome movie as a kid in '84) kind of way to me.

Then the show was way cooler than the book...for that scene anyway.

Stanis is off my Christmas list.

I actually think that scene was better in the book, or at least more impactful to me, maybe because I wasn't expecting it. But it was cooler in my mind's eye than it actually looked on screen. I agree with above, actually seeing a her fly off on the dragon looked a little bit cheesy. But still a good scene, it certainly rescued Dany's story arc in the book as it was a little boring up until that point.

I see what you did there

You have to give props to the TV crew. I think most book readers think the changes have made the TV version much better. The book went on and on about Stanis trekking through the snow. Deanery's dealing with politics in Mereen etc.

They still need to improve on showing the bad assness that were the Sand Snakes and the unsullied in the books.

OK...haven't read the books. I've seen movies and crap where they are using dragon scales for armor and whatnot. I cannot tell you how disappointed I was at the ease with which Drogon could be hurt. a real WTF moment for me! really pissed me off. come ON! he's a frigging dragon man!

also...how cool would it have been if several harpys were holding Dany and Drogo just blasted the shit out of them! woulda been sofa king cool AND she'd be nude. missed opportunity.

also....Dany jumps on Drogo...he takes flight...and...they fly away! dammit! at least one fly by woulda been in order.


EDIT - is Drogo full sized now? or will he get bigger? asking you book readers. I ASS-U-ME he must not be full grown since spears pierce him so easily.....maybe he gets his big boy spear deflecting scales when his balls drop?

Young dragon. Very, very young dragon. At least that's what I'm hoping.

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that we won't be seeing any new shots of Dany naked, partially or otherwise. I think her contract was revised to reflect that after season 2 or 3 or something.


Yeah, found it.

You sound like a 12 year old.

Why because he wants to see Dany naked?

You sound like a girl. :D

Dragons can live like 200 years.

Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion are maybe 3 (?). They've got a lot of growing to do.

This prompted me to refresh my memory on the dragons, and yeah, you are absolutely right. A few facts (none of which apply to Drogon, who is obviously just a kid, in Dragon terms).

1. as someone else mentioned, Balarion's fire was so hot it melted towers of Harrenhal.

2. the one time the three dragons took to the skies together, they burned 4,000 enemy soldiers. Drogon couldn't even do like 50.

3. Balarion's teeth were the size of swords, and his jaws wide enough that he could eat a mammoth whole.

By contrast, Drogon's teeth definitely aren't swords. See pic below.

http://images.tvfanatic.com/iu/s--a7...rones-s5e9.jpg


One artist's image of Balarion, based on the description in teh books, makes him a bit bigger than Drogon. If you look carefully at the picture below, you'll notice tiny little Aegon the Conqueror on his back...

http://awoiaf.westeros.org/images/th...n_Balerion.jpg


Quite different from.

https://nypdecider.files.wordpress.c...0&h=350&crop=1

THIS! Kill em when they are young or else don't make an enemy of their riders.:)

Spears are a good weapon against scaled things. Long sharp point to find a space between scales and penetrate into the deep tissues.

I imagine if you managed to hit even a fully grown dragon with a siege weapon it will be in pretty rough shape. The flight and somewhat ranged attack with the fire is what makes them dangerous, on the ground there is more ways to kill them.

The Romans for example could fire a ballista pretty fast and accurately.

Yeah. If I were fighting a dragon it would be a Balista.

Not really much of a spoiler, but since they did this skin to skin contact, they could delve into this tidbit from the books:


Again, they may not go that deep into detail in the show, but they could.

That has actually been debunked by GRRM. Targaryens are not immune to fire. Dany surviving the pyre was due to a special circumstance (the birth of the dragons), not her fire immunity.

Otherwise, why would some hot metal have killed Viserys?

Also:

They said it was because her brother wasn't a real dragon (targaryian)

Viserys is definitely full Targaryen. Both his mother and his father were Targaryens. In fact, they were siblings. If he isn't a Targaryen, then neither are Rheagar or Dany.

I thought his mother was Elia Martel?

Either way, I think they meant that he didn't have the heart of a dragon or whatever. I'm just saying what was dead after his head went KONG.

Elia Martel was married to Rhaegar, who was Viserys' and Dany's older brother.

Viserys was a full on Targaryan, but Dany's immunity to the fire is not shared by all Targaryans, and may have been a one time thing for even Dany, though she is clearly less affected by heat than most people. Still not sure if she is completely immune to fire outside of the magical dragon birthing pyre.

I think it's pretty clear Dany is immune to fire. The first book she seems to crave the feel of extreme heat on her skin, and in the dragon birth loses all her hair but skin is fine. Nothing is ever said to imply any special protection because it was while dragons were being born. The fire was set by humans. Also didn't the baby dragons burn up a room full of bad guys that Dany was in at one point when they were trying to capture the dragons? It was in some tomb-like structure. I can't remember for sure if that required her to be immune.

now see....if they'da had Drogo blast the harpy punks that were holding her....and Dany of course....then we'd know for sure. woulda been cool as hell.

Drogo's dead, dude.

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php...isconceptions/

hahaha. yep. can't really shorten Drogons name can you.....

In the book, there was no Harpy attack, everything was going fine with the fights until Drogon suddenly showed up and started eating innocent people. Hizdar had the guards attack Drogon, Dany jumped down to try to stop them...

But the important difference, in my mind, is that Drogon tries to kill Dany. Dany gets a whip and manages to subdue him, then climbs on his back and flies away.

In the show, Drogon rescues Dany from death, in the book, Dany basically dominates and conquers Drogon, then uses him.

Interesting. I can say that I did not believe all Targaryens were immune, just Dany. So apparently if you are carrying dragon eggs and you walk into fire you will not be burned (except for your hair) because of some magical protective thing. Oh, and Dany craves extreme heat and walks into near-boiling water not problem. But she's not immune. That's really stupid.

On the show, they made a point once when she was bathing that the water was incredibly hot, yet she was unaffected. It would seem she has some ability to withstand heat that isn't normal.

Excellent Post!

This week's episode was good but looked like amateur hour compared to last week. Lots to get wrapped up Sunday night.

An interesting read about the show runners' relationship with GRRRRRRR Martin.

http://uproxx.com/tv/2015/06/george-...wrunner-war/4/

Yeah, the way that the show has been going lately makes it seem like GRRM doesn't have much involvement anymore. Even changes that serve no purpose, like Mace Tyrell talking about "Maegor the Third" (there was only one Maegor, and he was so terrible that the name basically became taboo).

Obviously it isn't a big change, but it shows that they aren't really going to make much of an effort to keep to the details of the books consistent in the show.

No need for them to, especially if GRRM keeps putting along not finishing the story. It's not like they can take an 8 year hiatus from filming in hopes of him finishing the books.

There's a middle ground between waiting for GRRM to finish the books and just doing "whatever, because who cares anyway?"

Agreed, but to this point I don't have major qualms with how they've extended storylines, particularly considering the sheer amount of people/info they've not included. It's kind of nice in a way to not know exactly what's about to transpire, imho anyway...

I think it's pretty shitty if they are making huge changes before they need to. You can't "take back" Stannis burning his own daughter. If they had done that after running out of book content then okay.

It was all a dream.

Season finale tonight, so I'm preparing for the worst:

- Arya gets raped
- the entire city of Mereen contracts greyscale (along with the dragons)
- Stannis burns Davos at the stake just for fun
- Jon Snow is killed by a mean look from Olly
- and Ramsay beats Sansa to death with Theon's lost penis.

Here's the "previously on" for this week:

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1btOBSM9mrk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

That's a lot of time to spend on Benjen all the sudden...

It's not often that a literally LOL from reading on forums, but this was GOLD. Funny overall post, but this part = :clap:

This

I can't bring myself to care. I'm not reading the books.

Smart money says he's part of the army of the dead

What.

The.

****.

So, I ask again. Who am I supposed to be rooting for? Cause the likable people aren't winning.

Maybe if there was more Baelish.....

Sansa. Tirion.

I now feel like the entire wall story has been pointless.

Sansa seems to have taken a death leap. I guess if there was a whole bunch of snow she could of survived but with no food and no means of transportation if the jump didn't kill her she will be dead or hunted down soon.

I am sure that Tyrion will do a good job running Mereen because he is vastly more competent than Dany is. I am sure he is being set up as the Richelieu and Mazarin to Dany's Louis XIII.

I just assume Sansa is alive. I think they would have made more of a point is she committed suicide.

Welcome to the cliffhanger that has been out there for book readers for 4 years. The final book ends with that final scene at the wall. This is speculation based on the books, so I'll spoiler tag it, but honestly you know as much as we do at this point...

Can we read the spoiler thread yet or are there still some things resolved in the book that haven't been shown in the series?

I would say that, to my recollection, the BIG events that would be considered spoilers have all been revealed now (ending with Cersei's walk and Jon's situation). There are still a few plot points in the books that could possibly be played out in the show, but I can't recall any major events at this point that would be an "OMG I wish I hadn't known that!" rather than a "Huh - that's different than what I saw in the show" kind of deal. In terms of plotlines that are 1) reasonably intact and 2) played out in the books...

• The Old Town storyline exists in the books (albeit in a different order of events), so book readers will know some about what happens there.
• Blinded Arya happens in the books, again in a different point in the timeline.

I'd ask a couple other book readers to chime in since I'm pretty fuzzy on the books after a few years, but as I'd think you'd be safe as long as you're OK with reading speculation about what could possibly happen that is based on more detail (or different details) than were shown on TV, as well as lots of discussion about how the books were different than the show.

Thanks. So the main plot lines aren't drastically different than the books? I know some of the minor things have been altered but it sounds like the main things have at least ended in the same spot.

I guess sign me up for Team White Walker.

Just make sure the apocalypse is entertaining.

I'm on #teamWhiteWalker at this point, I believe in zombie darth maul.

I think so (though again, I'd wait for a couple others to confirm). There are MAJOR differences in the books, and a number of characters (one major one in particular) that haven't appeared in the show at all. However, I think the general feel is that they're just not a part of the show and won't ever be. No promises though.