Game of Thrones (spoiler-free zone)
 

A few have suggested it, might as well test the waters. The idea is to give people who haven't read the books a safe place to talk about the show.

A few quick ground rules:

• No Spoilers!!!!! for upcoming episodes.
• Larger Song of Ice and Fire discussion should be limited to the other thread although I think a tiny bit of book delving to fill in holes should be okay (example of this would be talking about Catelyn and her treatment of the wolves in the novel, which was alluded to on TV but never really made clear...)
• Everything that happened that week is fair game once an episode airs. So if you don't watch on Sunday night, I'd stay outta here until you do...

Those wolves were BAMFers

I hereby reassign "BAMF" to mean "Barnyard Animals Mecca would ****".

Great idea. I'd like to ask something in a non-book context (though I have read them.) I have heard a couple of people I work with say they don't think the Dany story is very interesting, and while I agree that her character is a bit shallow as of two episodes, I think she serves an important function in the Westeros story lines. Unless some time is devoted to showing her as a real person, the conversation between Ned and Robert by the King's Road about her marriage would be fairly empty amid the other harsh actions of the Winterfell and King's Road episodes.

When Robert talks about killing her, it would have very little impact if she wasn't known. How much of a threat can she be? We've seen her and she has very little strength yet.

Anybody here finding her story uninteresting? Again, strictly from the context of the two episodes of the tv show that have aired.

Conversely, the same thing applies to Visaerys and Ser Jorah talking about Ser Jorah's exile. If we didn't know Ned Stark, his honor, and his way being the old way, the reason for exile might have seemed as empty as it did to Visaerys. Just shows how ill prepared Visaerys is to cross the sea and confront the Lords of the Seven Kingdoms.

They needed to make the horde look much bigger to show the significance of the events. The wedding, though cool, should have panned back to show tens of thousands of Dothraki (the book says 40,000 warriors in the khalasar alone, and uncounted women and children). It would go a long way to show why the marriage is so important and why the Westeros lords are still worried.

I think my problem with Dany early on (in print) was that it felt like a secondary story; it's off in this far corner of the world, and there's so much going on elsewhere. I just wanted Martin to get back to the interesting stuff on the other continent. There was also the whole Conan vibe to it, and initially that felt off to me in the middle of the medieval sword and sorcery stuff going on across the sea. The whole subplot seemed detached, although I knew rationally that it wasn't.

On the show though, they've made a point of emphasizing it and making it seem as important as everything else going on right from the very start. I'm fine with it.

cool idea. thanks!

Wasn't the King married to starks sister and she was murdered? Or have I got that wrong?

Yes. I think that would have helped for sure.

but it sounds like they have to have ships to croass the water to threaten the king. So, either they become master ship builders or conquer some people that already have boats or pardner with a people with boats.

Yeah that seemed really odd to me that they don't have any ships.

Good idea. :thumb:

Ned and Robert believe she was slain by Rhaegar Targaryen, who would have been the next king had Robert not taken the throne (Robert actually mentioned this in the episode last night, at least that it was Rhaegar who killed her).

They were not married. And I have some theories about what happened to Lyanna Stark and why, but I can't go into them in this thread...

This kid is doing a really good job of acting like a douche.

http://oi56.tinypic.com/qqvol0.jpg

He's a perfect Joffrey.

The kids are almost all perfect. The only one I don't like so far...Sansa.

Although they haven't shown much of the Stark boys yet.

Yeah but Jon and Robb are supposed to be 15 I think? Jon looks like he's 17-18 and Robb looks like he's 20.

I wasn't exactly blown away by Joffrey in that first scene with Tyrion, but in the Butcher-Boy scene and the punishment scene he blew it away.

IIRC Jon's 16 or 17 in the books, and Robb 14. It makes sense to have them a bit older in the show. Although part of what throws me with Sansa is how old she looks.

John and Robb both look like they are mid-20's which is a little distracting when they refer to their actual ages.

Or it could be that the Stark bloodline runs so far back in the north that the male children grow full beards at age 15 to combat the cold.

In love and going to be married. She was killed by the previous king to Robert who they have called the mad king a few times already, which there will be a lot more on later to learn more about it.

Something else they didn't cover in the book that was early on was that Ned and Robert were raised essentially as brothers as wards to Jon Arryn. They were further linked with the relationship of the mentioned relationship above, which would have also linked two strong houses of Stark and Baratheon.

We're sort of treading on spoilery ground here, so should probably be careful. At this point in the story I think you're correct in that we (the readers and now viewers) believe it was Rhaegar that killed her. And I'm 99% sure Robert mentioned Rhaegar by name last night, when they were eating together and talking about the past.

Inferred then, but I don't think the trident and such has been mentioned yet.

Ahh, and yes I suppose I did say the king killed her, I should have said her death led to the rebellion against the king and the Targaryen's in general.

Me thinks this one is the product of incest & NOT the Kings son.

is this a spoiler?

I don't think anything about the Rebellion or the Battle of the Trident has been mentioned on the show yet.

I'd assume that stuff will begin to fill in once they reach King's Landing.

What rebellion? Battle of trident? Sounds like book stuff. You guys are going to have to do better in spoiler free zone.

That was precisely the point I was making.

You guys suck at not giving out spoilers. Not every comment by someone watching the show needs the input from the "experts" here.

Here are the new rules:

Before posting, asking yourself, "If I was watching the series and hadn't read the books yet, would I want to read what I'm about to say?"

If the answer is "maybe", play it safe and STFU.

if so, not full- reerun enough

It is backstory that may or may not be filled in depending on time.

There is a reason for that, but I am not sure if they will delve into it in the show, so I won't spoil it in this thread. I can PM the reason if you are just dying to know, but it's a fairly minor detail in the big picture.

No, they already talked about how they joined up and went off to war to win the crown, and how he helpd him win it, now help him keep it, and all that. That is the rebellion.

so he's King because they rebeled against the former King and overthrew him?

Yes. It will come out why they rebelled, but that's the gist of it. Daenarys and her brother are descendants of the king they deposed. That's why Robert was talking about having her killed in the last episode.

Viserys sold Dany to the Khal in the pilot so that he could use the Dothraki army to take the 7 kingdoms back from the usurpers.

does this mean nobody is going to tell me when the good :hump: scenes are?

:(

I think every episode would be a safe guess there, creepy uncle laz.

:LOL:


Hey wait!!! :harumph:

I've stayed out of these threads completely, as I'm actually in the middle of reading A Game of Thrones for the first time. (I actually didn't even know HBO was making this until recently.)

For those of you who HAVE read the books, can you tell me if they stay in the plot of the first book ONLY so far? I'd like to watch the show, but I'm nervous about spoiling something that's in the later books if I watch the show before reading those.

I can't think of anything. Pretty sure it's been book 1 almost right off the page so far.

Martin himself mentioned the title of the second book when he blogged about the season 2 renewal, so I think it's safe to assume they're sticking fairly close to the books.

The first three books went in a fairly chronological fashion so there is very little risk of seeing something written in Clash of Kings during this season. And given that there is plenty in the first book to fill up the first season, there is no real reason to wander beyond that.

It will get tricky with Feast For Crows and Dance with Dragons (books 4 and 5) because I think many events in the books will happen within the same timeline, instead of book 5 being after book 4 chronologically.

I love that he just keeps slapping him throughout the scene (not 100 times like in the video but the three slaps did the trick). And Tyrion proves to be quite ambidextrous delivering effective bitch slaps with either hand.

One of the clowns on CHUD coined the phrase lil' lord ****stick for Joffrey, and I'm stealing it henceforth.

i hope someone cuts joffrey's nuts off so he can't reproduce.

I'd love to have a few swings at the little one who sucks the penis myself. Man I hate that character....

I would chain both Sansa and him to the same cinder block and push them into the water.

Having just started the book, I still see him as Justin Beiber when I'm reading.

That kid in the show somehow seems more like a 'cool' snob. Almost like a rich jock in HS. The Joffrey I get from the books is more of mean, bumbling shithead. There's nothing detached or callous about his snobbery like there is in the show - he's just a mean bully of a kid that hides behind his rank.

I honestly think the TV show gives him too much credit.

Can't bring myself to hate Sansa.

She's a snob, but she's been raised that way. I don't believe she's mean spirited or means ill, she just thinks the way she acts is the way a 'proper lady' should behave. I don't think she understood the gravity of the situation with Aria/Joffrey situation and is otherwise just something of a immature child that's trying to be what her mother and teacher expects her to be.

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to hate her, but to this point I just can't.

I'm on of the people who have read the book, I hate Sansa with a passion. I think it's very doubtful she was taught to lie to the king. She's a ****ing idiot.

On the show, the queen clearly knew she was just outside the room waiting to be called in. I have to assume she planted the forgot/didn't see story. Who knows what she promised her in return.

My TV reaction is the same as my book reaction: apathy.

Sansa is perhaps the least interesting character. Maybe because she's the most generic.

You never got angry at her?

Not really, no. I was mostly angry with George RR for making me read another chapter that I really didn't give a shit about.

It's sort of like my initial reaction to Dany. They're there. I wish I was reading about somebody else.

I can't really discuss Sansa too much because of possible spoilers, but I just can't believe that her not telling the truth to Robert in Ep2 didn't anger you at all.

My wife's reaction was, "that stupid little bitch deserves whatever she gets".

Zactly.

Hey dickwads, don't discuss the book in here. Kthx

mah bad

Nobody has 'discussed the book'. All I've done is discuss how my reaction to Sansa is the same with the show as it was with the book. Not even a smidgen of other information was presented.

:p

I'm not sure why anybody would expect her to do otherwise, after they'd established that she and Arya don't get along and that she's mooning after little lord ****stick and his royal family.

Hey, you basically forecast to the rest of us that she's a boring character. You were the one who made this thread.

Oh also theres a huge ****ing thread here also where you can discuss the book all you want. Just sayin'.

No I didn't. Anytime I'm talking in this thread I'm talking about whatever's happening on TV. Even if I mention something from the book, I'm talking concurrently with whatever's happening on TV (and I didn't actually mention anything from the book...).Yeah, thanks for pointing that out. It's not like I started both threads.

That's exactly why she angers me.

Reading the first book, about 1/4 of the way in, and watching episode 2 tonight. Great series so far, nice mixture of fantasy and politics.

Just wanted to drop a thanks for this thread, started reading the other thread as the series started, and noticed everyone read the books and was telling us what is going to happen.

I think she was essentially a scared kid at that point.

C'mon - every child you've ever known (yourself included) has gone with "I don't know..." whenever the truth was going to get their ass blistered or a friend in trouble.

I don't fault her for it. She was just being a scared, sheltered kid. There's nothing to like about her, but I've never found anything to loathe about her either.

This really is a discussion better saved till after Season 1 runs its course.

I wish this damn show was on every night. Waiting a week sucks.

I haven't read finished the book. In fact, I'm probably only about an episode or 2 ahead.

To this point, I can't come up with a reason to hate her. Obviously time will tell. I believe Tyrian Lannister is likely to be viewed much differently by the end of the season as well, but at this point he appears to be something of an evil little imp with a quick wit and that's the opinion I'm able to have of him.

This is like four-dimensional chess!

Me too. I'm hoping its only 1.

LMAO

Say 'what' again, mother****er!!!

ETA: Am I the only one who, every time I hear the name Sansa, wonders what a USB drive is doing in a fantasy drama? I am? Sorry. . .

LMAO

Awesome.....

No book talk in here. Talk about the book in the other thread.

I'm not too worried about someone spoiling something major in here. Common sense, and all. I don't think anyone's gonna just blurt out something really important.

On the other hand, the fact that people are freaking out about spoilers means they're digging the series... so that's cool.

I thought this was cool and weird. Two things I like crossing paths...lol Didn't know where else to put it. (in bold, at the end)

Who can argue with this?