Game of Thrones (Book Spoilers, Srsly, Monkey)

I was never a fan of Talisa and I downright resented the amount of time spent on her character, but even so, I really did not need to see a pregnant woman stabbed repeatedly in the stomach. That was harder for me to watch than even the Theon torture.

The whole thing was hard to watch, of course. It might have been more devastating if Robb hadn't been so dumb and arrogant all season and Catelyn had more than two lines every other episode and one monologue about Jon, but it still hurt to see that knife go in and watch as poor Cat had her whole life crumble around her. Damn, I'm going to miss Michelle Fairley.

I notice they changed Bolton's line to "The Lannisters send their regards" from "Jaime Lannister sends his regards." A wise choice, as I've seen too many Jaime-hating book fans on the web cling to this line as evidence that he MUST have helped plan the Red Wedding, he MUST have - even though that makes no logical sense.

For a good laugh, read the Red Wedding twitter feed, which is full of retweets of people complaining about the episode. I love that people are planning to cancel their subscriptions. But I bet that the ratings will grow ever higher.

The people who are mad at HBO/the show writers are especially funny.

A collection of reaction videos.

I liked the change of Cat taking Walder's wife as opposed to his simple son. It made it more visceral.

I have the nasty feeling Walder will die of old age in the books. There is SO much revenge that needs meeting out!

Maybe they'll kill Baylon Greyjoy next week as a sop.

What are the odds they'll follow up next week with Joffrey's wedding? I don't recall the weddings as being that far apart in the book. Pretty slim chances, I guess, because they'll want to deal with the fallout of the Red Wedding, but I would love to see the fan reaction from that one-two punch.

The purple wedding is in Crows, so at book pace it would be in Season 5. My guess is next season.

The purple wedding - if that is the fan nickname for Joffrey's wedding and not something else - is most definitely in Swords.

If they have Joffrey's wedding/death next week, it will definitely a bit of a balm to the wound of the Red Wedding, but unless they start Tyrion's Dance with Dragons plotline at the end of next season, he's going to be on trial for 10 episodes, and the Dornish characters haven't even shown up yet. I'm not sure how they're going to play this.

Joffrey's wedding is fifteen chapters past the Red Wedding in ASOS, and not a heck of a lot happens in the book between the two, but I agree that since they haven't even touched on Dorne, they're probably waiting for next season.

That's right. I burned through those two books so quick I lost track.

Anyway, I don't think they could do it justice next week and I would prefer the little shit to suffer even more than depicted in the book. Really you need Oberyn and an explanation of his feud with the Mountain. Penny and Grote would have to be there. There will also be time spent on Jon & Ygrette and I expect the reveal of Ramsey Bolton.

Yara was in the season preview video and hasn't been seen once so far this season...

I notice they changed Bolton's line to "The Lannisters send their regards" from "Jaime Lannister sends his regards." A wise choice, as I've seen too many Jaime-hating book fans on the web cling to this line as evidence that he MUST have helped plan the Red Wedding, he MUST have - even though that makes no logical sense.

Whaaaaaaaaaat? Aren't Jamie's sins numerous and great enough already?

The whole thing was hard to watch, of course. It might have been more devastating if Robb hadn't been so dumb and arrogant all season and Catelyn had more than two lines every other episode and one monologue about Jon, but it still hurt to see that knife go in and watch as poor Cat had her whole life crumble around her. Damn, I'm going to miss Michelle Fairley.

It's like they just realized right now "oh right, Catelyn is supposed to be smart" when Robb acknowledged that she was against the bad idea of letting Theon go. I'm kinda surprised too they didn't include the part about Robb wanting to legitimize Jon. Although I guess that would have led to renewed "mean ol' Catelyn" sentiments, but I just like to see acknowledgements that all the Stark siblings are close, which is harder to sense in the tv show. They should have had that conversation instead of the made-up folderol about Jon being sick and Catelyn being the downfall of everything because she couldn't love him.

As amusing as the outrage being directed at Weiss and Benioff is, I kinda . . . agree? It's not the killing off of Catelyn and Robb that I contest so much as after that, in the next books, things should have started wrapping up, instead of becoming ever more complicated and situating the Starks even further apart (I'm a big fan of Stark sibling reuniting, can you tell?). Dany and Tyrion should have met in the last book. I mean George created a monster. I really do think he should just let someone ghostwrite the rest of the books with him dictating the storyline, if he hasn't already.

I totally agree. GRRM has pulled the "character goes on a journey but never makes it to his/her intended destination" trick far too many times, and Tyrion just barely but never reaching Dany was just the worst. I knew he'd never actually reach Dany because no one ever gets anywhere they want to go in this damn series.

I wonder if they will bring back Beric and introduce Lady Stoneheart at the end of next week's episode instead of waiting until next season. I wouldn't mind seeing some dead Freys NOW and it would be a good cliffhanger.

queenofdenile wrote:I wonder if they will bring back Beric and introduce Lady Stoneheart at the end of next week's episode instead of waiting until next season. I wouldn't mind seeing some dead Freys NOW and it would be a good cliffhanger.

Oh qod, that WOULD be some balm to the soul. They absolutely can't have Joffrey's wedding this season because then what would NEXT season build to? Argh, this story.

Book 3 is so nuts that I start losing track of who all gets killed in it. Does Littlefinger

Spoiler:

in Book 3? Or is that Book 4? Cripes.

It's in book 3. The end of book 3 has dead Joffrey, dead Tywin, Tyrion finding out the truth about his first wife, dead Lysa, and zombie Catelyn. That's a LOT, not even including Stannis getting to the Wall and Jon being chosen as Lord Commander. Which is why I would not mind some zombie Catelyn NOW. Off with ALL of the Freys' heads!

Every time I blink the image of Talisa being stabbed pops right back into my head and I shudder.

Also I can't be the only one who's just as upset over Grey Wind as I am over the humans. I really hope they don't include the images of what the Freys do to his and Robb's and Catelyn's bodies. I don't even need them to MENTION it but if they have to, I hope they don't show it.

I will be very very surprised if they don't. :( And I agree with you, I don't want to see it either.

That's easily the most horrific image in the series, as far as I'm concerned, and I really don't want to see it. I read somewhere today that they filmed it, though, so be prepared next week. (I think it might have been reddit, so take it with a grain of salt.)

I wonder if they'll try to finish book 3 next season; it's going to be bananas if they cram all that in ten episodes. I'd forgotten how action packed it is until I spent some time with the wiki today. They'll probably end up killing Joffrey off in episode five or something.

The creators have said they aren't totally adhering to the book chronology and they will have to do some slicing with FFC and ADD anyway.

Some characters' stories will have to be sped up just because they don't do much in the second half of the book. There's really not much left for Arya to do so I could see her starting her Braavos training mid-season, and since they've forced us to watch the Theon torture hour all season I can't see how we're NOT getting Reek next week. But I can see them stretching out Sansa's story for a whole season, as long as she's never the main focus of any episode.

I also imagine that Benioff & Weiss will write a fair amount of TV-only scenes between the Tyrells and the Martells. More Tyrells means more Diana Rigg, the Red Viper is a great character to write, and the two families hate each other as much as the Starks and Lannisters. Bring on the Dornish!

May have to spend some screen time with Joffrey being horrible. His MHC* rank may have dropped to like four or five.

*Most Hated Character.

The Dude wrote:The creators have said they aren't totally adhering to the book chronology and they will have to do some slicing with FFC and ADD anyway.

That should be splicing

That's easily the most horrific image in the series, as far as I'm concerned,

It is, but I guess I'm the sick bitch who thinks that's why they should show it or at least reference it. But especially on the show with it's more Lannister's are likable assholes take I want them to pay just as much as the Frey's and Bolton's. I want people saying Tywin should EAT IT HARD. I can't remember in the books I think Tywin was pissed off at how ugly the whole thing got (particularly the desecration of Robb's body), but you lie down with psychotic fuckers and you get those fleas. I legit prefer Roose to Tywin, Roose being all ice cold about it and owning that he has not one drop of humanity is why I enjoy him so much.

Robb being a smug shit about Talisa to the very end as anticipated made me care ever so slightly less about what happened to him and his. I mostly felt horrible for Arya and the Stark siblings, not for Cat/Robb themselves.

As far as what they'll cover in the last ep, I feel like the last shot has to be Zombie Cat, so yeah I'm thinking Beric and his merry band arrive at the aftermath and the light passes on to Cat. I also thought they'd have Mance attack the Wall with Stannis coming to the rescue, but that seems like way too much to cover in one episode.

OH and they did do the Jon/Bran are thisclose scene, SNIFF, that killed me so hard, obvs not as much as Arya/Cat/Robb, but damn those poor kids, they had just better reunite. Speaking of Bran I think that poor kid is going to be doing a lot of laying down acting once he turns into a tree, and I hope the series confirms my theory: BenJen IS Cold Hands!

I can't remember in the books I think Tywin was pissed off at how ugly the whole thing got (particularly the desecration of Robb's body), but you lie down with psychotic fuckers and you get those fleas.

I think/hope the show will include the bit where Tywin instructs Tyrion to knock up Sansa posthaste and Tyrion asks when she'll be most fertile, before or after she's told they murdered her mother and brother. I would hope a scene like that would hit home and bring on the "EAT IT HARD" comments about Tywin. But then people still haaaaaate Sansa for being stupid about Joffrey early on, so maybe not. :(

Yeah I mean I'm sure people will hate Tywin and be rooting for his downfall like they should, but right now I feel like I hear more about what badass he is, and how great it would be if he were running things. Like somehow Joffrey being the sociopathic little fuck he is had nothing to do with Tywin. RME.

I just actually read on Lainey that Robb Stark deserved to die because he let Walder talk to Talisa like that and Tywain would never.

I mean, I liked Book and TV Robb but even I thought he walked into his own death (they all did) but...really girl...Tywain?

Overall I think thought it is an attitude that is problematic in all of fandom. Sansa was like, 12 the first season, and had girlish like fantasies and had to grow up fast. Shes punished for that by fans more then Tywain Lannister who is a total power hungry bastard is because hes played by Charles Dance and gets good lines.