Game of Thrones [SPOILERS]

[Ironwood]

That season finale was shit.

Joffrey should be dead.

You know, it occurs to me that the wee chap playing Joffrey is just doing an absolute sterling bang up job.  I fucking hate him.  We all fucking hate him.  We're meant to fucking hate him and not because of what he does, but because of how he is.  The actor really, really, really makes you want to punch him with every fucking utterance and look he comes out with.

I truly hope it's acting.   

[Arthur_Parker]

Considering nothing has happened since book 3 plot wise, its kinda hard for me to imagine that 2 more books will finish the series....

Yeah, there's been a lot of plot since book 3 just not with the characters I actually like, they either spend ages travelling or stay in one place dealing with mundane shit.  I think he reached the point of adding additional characters and I'm all, fucking kill this one already.

[K9]

That season finale was shit.

Joffrey should be dead.

You know, it occurs to me that the wee chap playing Joffrey is just doing an absolute sterling bang up job.  I fucking hate him.  We all fucking hate him.  We're meant to fucking hate him and not because of what he does, but because of how he is.  The actor really, really, really makes you want to punch him with every fucking utterance and look he comes out with.

I truly hope it's acting.   

Given how adorable he was in Batman Begins, I'd say so.

[Khaldun]

They could end next season with:


Then--just guessing, but here's what I think is roughly going to happen in Winds:

[Arthur_Parker]

[eldaec]

The key to the next 2 seasons not sucking is Dorne.

If they can make dorne work well and introduce Arianne and co next season so we care about them when shit gets real then they don't need to worry too much about feast and dance. Thingy Martell with the right casting could be as good as Tyrion or Varys.

Sure Brienne needs to be abridged, but that is easy to do. And I trust them not to have Tyrion whine too much. KL and the wall have solid plot lines, Arya and Bran have grown into their roles enough for the extended training montage to be watchable. Dany is irrelevant from here till season 6, but again, she can be abridged if they are brave enough.

I worry a little about the story in the vale, it might be the making of the two leads there or it might just suck.

[Merusk]

[eldaec]

As far as I'm concerned, what you just posted is good news (everyone).

[MediumHigh]

Well there is another issue, if HBO wants to treat Feast and Dance as the same book, they would technically have 3 seasons to end the plot instead of 2. Which would mean some issues like...

[Ironwood]

That's something easily, EASILY, dealt with.

[MediumHigh]

There was an easy way to end Cersei story at the end of Dance....and it didn't happen. So yeah... Cersei is going to round 7 most likely.

[Khaldun]

[Merusk]

There was an easy way to end Cersei story at the end of Dance....and it didn't happen. So yeah... Cersei is going to round 7 most likely.

Yep.  Plus "little brother" is absolutely Jamie, not Tyrion.  That's going to end his story, too, and he has much farther to go.

[eldaec]

Skipping Quentyn and possibly Victarion would be workable, but I don't think the story needs as much surgery as many seem to think.

They just need to take a critical eye on how many scenes people really need to happen on camera in each leg of the story. My only criticsm of feast is spending too long with the wrong people.

Davos, Manderley, Cersei, Arya, Jon, the other Jon, Val, Mance, the sparrows, Margery, Doran, Melisandre, Stannis, and in moderation Tyrion, Jamie, and Sam have interesting enough things to do.

I could have coped with less Bran, Quentyn, Arianne, Brienne, Theon, and Dany.

[Samwise]

There was an easy way to end Cersei story at the end of Dance....and it didn't happen. So yeah... Cersei is going to round 7 most likely.

Yep.  Plus "little brother" is absolutely Jamie, not Tyrion.  That's going to end his story, too, and he has much farther to go.

Doesn't the valonqar need to have hands, plural?   

[Arthur_Parker]

There was an easy way to end Cersei story at the end of Dance....and it didn't happen. So yeah... Cersei is going to round 7 most likely.

Yep.  Plus "little brother" is absolutely Jamie, not Tyrion.  That's going to end his story, too, and he has much farther to go.

Doesn't the valonqar need to have hands, plural?   

[Ironwood]

You either think on this way too much or have access to a pool of Nerds Arthur.

[Arthur_Parker]

I was rereading Feast on holiday and noticed.

[Samwise]

That's excellent.     Well spotted.

[Khaldun]

Quentyn absolutely needs to be ditched.

I think almost the whole of Tyrion's journey needs to be ditched. Griff needs ditching.

Brienne needs to do something besides wander around. Arya and the Hound can handle the job next season of showing how nasty and brutish Westeros has become--in fact, it fits Arya's arc much better.

Need something better to do for Jaime too besides go around resolving sieges, though I get how important it is to show that he's a good negotiator and thinker too.

An entire season of the Ramsay and Theon show will absolutely be awful.

An entire season of Dany stuck in Mereen (or stuck taking and then ruling Mereen) will blow.

Dorne is a tricky thing to introduce--they either have to go all-in for that or leave it largely on the side.

[Arthur_Parker]

I don't really care, I never thought I'd see the Red Wedding, they can cancel it or drag it out till 2023.  

But I don't see the appeal in cutting massive chunks out of the story just to cut to the end, we don't know which bits are important.  Yeah it's extremely frustrating when the main plot line doesn't advance much with each book, but if GRRM ever finishes the series that disappears and instead we'll think of those books as just padded with crap.  Feast is the weakest and even that's not too bad, I quite enjoyed Dance on last read through.

[Khaldun]

I'm mostly saying this because I think the series has so far, on balance, been better than the books. So I really see it as an opportunity to do a better job on Feast and Dance, which really do need some tightening.

[proudft]

From the story so far, Quentyn could be replaced/removed as his only apparent purposes are

 

Both of these could be easily done through other means.  BUT, maybe there is some other reason he is in the story that we just don't know yet.  Though I am sort of at a loss as to what it could be.  Also, though, I am not nearly as down on books 4 & 5 as the rest of the internets.  I liked Quentyn ok, in a lawl, you loser kind of way.

[schild]

Naw, they couldn't kill the bitchking off yet.

They still have to intro all of Dorne and such.

Was expecting the intro of UnCat though.

Slave mosh pit was a lame ending compared to the last two seasons.

Slave mosh pit, heh.

I called it Game of Thrones: The National Geographic cut.

[schild]

On the topic of Joffrey.

I don't think it's acting. The guy has resting asshole face. It simply can't be fixed. He grew up to be a total twat.

It's a shame there's still like 10 actors I wish they'd just kill.

Can I just get a season of Tyrion being witty? Please? No? Fuck.

[eldaec]

Kind of intrigued to see if they can keep Tyrion as much fun as he is now given upcoming events.

A lot of people seem to object to his attitude from here. Personally given the circumstances I think he becomes more interesting. But I'm thinking Dinklage has a challenge carrying the audience with him.

[Samwise]

On the topic of Joffrey.

I don't think it's acting. The guy has resting asshole face. It simply can't be fixed. He grew up to be a total twat.

By all accounts the actor (Jack Gleeson) is a very nice guy in real life.  Also having just looked up some interviews with him he's apparently Irish.

[Arthur_Parker]

Heh, love that he toned down his accent for the interview.

[Tale]

absolutely needs to be ditched.

I predict they'll do it all and ditch nothing. Mainstream wants moar GoT.

[Cyrrex]

I think all the Lannisters were brilliantly cast.  Could there be a better Tywin, for example?  And while Tyrion in many ways does not resemble his book counterpart, there is no denying that Dinklage is brilliant.  I used to think that the kid doing Joffrey was a bit too much of a hateful asshole - but in retrospect, I am coming to understand that the show is actually doing a better job of showing how utterly insane he is.  Remember, he is the product of incest, and we already know that the Mad King was insane for the exact same reason. 

I don't get the Cersei hate even a little bit.  I fucking love Cersei.  She is the perfect amount of evil and not-as-smart-as-she-thinks. 

[eldaec]

I'm not sure we do know that about the mad king.

He was fine till he got himself held hostage. Then started seeking magic to defend himself, then went mad.

Some believe Varys poisoned Aerys or otherwise drove him mad in order to kick off this whole shooting match.

[Arthur_Parker]

What exactly happened at Summerhall and what the Lace Serpent Serala was up to at Duskendale might come up later, that's why all the slightly boring wandering about by Brienne might be important later.

[eldaec]

Yeah, there is a lot stuff that might be more integral than we know.

Based on what we've seen on screen so far they could have rolled littlefinger and varys into one character, until the other week Walder Frey and Roose Bolton were just filler. And even where characters are not critical to later events, you need at least a few people who are not a Chekov's Gun waiting to explode.

I strongly suspect Brienne is important, but I'm sure she doesn't need the same proportion of screen time that she got in the book.

[Cyrrex]

I'm not sure we do know that about the mad king.

He was fine till he got himself held hostage. Then started seeking magic to defend himself, then went mad.

Some believe Varys poisoned Aerys or otherwise drove him mad in order to kick off this whole shooting match.

It was either said explicity or implied that Targaryans prefer incest to keep the royal line from branching out too far.  There is the potential for madness in their blood.  Dany even worries about it herself at some point.  Don't forget her own brother was quite fucking bonkers as well.  While it isn't quite the same power as the theme of "oathbreaking is a bad fucking idea", it repeatedly comes up as something that the Gods will punish.

At any rate, I am pretty convinced that the idea that Joffrey is mad is to be credited to the fact that his incest happened.

[eldaec]

Oh the Targs certainly go in for incest and it certainly makes many of them mad from birth.

In the particular case of Aerys its simply not certain that this caused his madness, although it the generally accepted cause around Westeros. Most obvious point being that he is reported as not mad prior to the Defiance of Duskendale.