WTF was that shit?
At least we no longer have to sit through Robb & Cat’s retarded decisions. Killing the pregnant woman was too graphic for my taste.
I can’t figure out what else is left in the story? The wildlings are pretty much dead, Starks are finished…
Will it be Lannisters vs Dragon lady?
You know nothing Jon Snow ZeroBonus.
Rob was tangential character all the time. Remember, like in any good fantasy story it is good vs evil, and neither Lanistars nor Starks are good or evil
For those of us that have read all the books this could be a really interesting discussion, but I don’t want to spoil anything.
Can’t wait to see the rest of book 3 into next season. So much more awesomeness coming.
Can you guys please add *SPOILERS* to the title or something?
You should put a spoiler alert in the title…
But anyway, hopefully, there is a lot more story left. At this point, the TV show is about halfway through the book series. Besides the characters killing each other for the Iron Throne (game of thrones), the story is building up towards the return of the Others (snow zombies), and the resulting battle to defend Westeros. Also, some of the characters that you think are gone might appear later in the story for unexpected reasons. Let’s just say that magic/fantasy becomes more important later, and this coincides with return of dragons, snow zombies and wizards, and the return of magic is a prominent theme in broader story.
In addition, the characters who I think are most compelling or important have not been killed off (yet). If anything, for a TV show, there are still too many main characters and concurrent plots. Even without Robb (who was never a POV character in the books to begin with), there are still the Lannisters, Daenerys/dragons, Stannis/Mellisandre/Azor Ahai, Arya, Bran/Jojen/Meera, Theon, and Jon Snow, who I think will ultimately become the most important character (you can read about some very plausible theories on the internets).
The title states this thread is about Sunday’s episode. What did you guys think was going to be in here? Nothing’s been spoiled beyond that.
Edit: Upon further reflection, that was some pretty major stuff. Spoiler alert was definitely warrented.
Wow, that was a brutal episode. And whether he was a central or tangential character, Robb was mostly admirable. No one thought he would be a formidable military figure, yet he won virtually every miliitary engagement he took on. His father tricked, betrayed, and executed, his home burned and destroyed, the audience just had to hope that he could set things right. And then to die that way just makes the audience’s blood boil. It was good storytelling and emotional manipulaiton on the part of the authors/producers, but boy was it exhausting.
I’m enjoying this series, but that ep was definitely hard to sit through at the end. You cared about these characters and their story (apparently) ends. No justice for them, just “now it’s your turn to die horribly.” Perhaps it strikes at our fears that this is the way the world really is.
Funny, I logged in this morning thinking, “maybe I should ask about GOT today,” and this thread was already here.
Ohai did a nice job of whetting our appetite for what comes next, without giving away the show. I do like how this world makes you a little unsure about where the realm of science ends and how deep/powerful/possible is the magic/dragons/zombie stuff.
I appreciated Ohai’s remark about the number of plots for a TV show… I find it difficult to keep track of what’s going on between:
Court intrigues in King’s landing
Robb Stark’s War (well, that’s over now)
Dragons in the South
Theon and his remaining body parts
Melisandre and Stannis
Whitewalkers in the North and scared Wildlings
Wargin’ Bran
But it’s lots of fun anyway…
Dorne is in the south, which we no nothing about yet. But, fans of the books will appreciate, The Red Viper of Dorne comes to GoT next season.
Dragons are in the far, far east. Long ways away from the Iron Throne.
There are also plenty of characters we’ve yet to meet. It’ll probably be season five before we get to meet a couple of interesting Greyjoy characters.
We already saw the whitewalkers can be defeated using the Obsidian blade that Fatty Sam has.
Also I hope they don’t give them importance in the story. It takes away from the human aspect of the whole game. I’d rather see one family plot against another over some zombies coming in and killing everyone.
I haven’t read the books, but it is clear that Whitewalkers were asleep for 1000 years and few people believe they really exist. Same with dragons, by the way. The fact that dragons breathe fire and snow zombies are ice-people is probably relevant to the fire-and-ice theme.
The North is effectively undefended now. No one really takes the wall seriously, because the wildlings are thought to be the primary threat and can be more or less handled by a skeleton crew. However, a whitewalker army would be a major threat. The main power centre (Winterfell) has been decimated, the family who runs it and knows how the North works nearly exterminated. This, happening at a time when there are greater and greater threats from the far North. I can see how this might set things up for a major crisis. It also may make for someone with some dragons extra powerful, since those might be needed for attacking whitewalkers…
This is purely my opinion as there isn’t much more about the whitewalkers to date, but I think you’re going to be sorely disappointed. The name of the saga is A Song of Ice and Fire. Not the Starks vs. Lannisters.
That’s not to say there won’t be political intrigue aplenty, but ultimately I’m pretty sure Winter is Coming.
I finished the last book while watching the Indy 500. I really don’t want to spoil anything for those who have not read the books. As Ohai pointed out, I think the mystery of Azor Ahai (Melisandre, who is one for three with her leaches, predicts that Stannis is the reincarnation of this person) is a big lingering issue in the books. He also hinted about the background of Jon Snow. The books really highlight that it’s all a bunch of gossip and the reader does not (yet) know. I’ll be pissed if he turns out to be a Targaryan (one of the big theories), since he doesn’t look Targaryan at all. I feel like the story about Sansa will be more interesting than the story about Arya in the near-term. Sansa’s still hanging out with the Lannisters and Littlefinger, while Arya won’t really have much of a plan now that her mother and brother are dead.
There’s a lot of legs to the story of the Starks and the Lannisters. They’ll get to the whitewalkers, but it’ll take some time.
SPOILERS unless you’ve read all the books!
It’s my belief the popular theory of Jon Snow is true. The Lyanna/Rheagar storyline fits too well. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s Azor Ahai reborn. I still think that’s Dany. But, the dragon has three heads. Dany, Aegon, and Jon Snow. Just my belief. But, when things seem to make too much sense, George RR Martin has a habit of throwing a monkey wrench into things.
Edit: and Arya is going to be a pivotal character. With her being a Faceless Man now? No, she’s going to kick some ass.
Again, SPOILERS.
Not really though. Who’s left? Rickon? I guess he could rise up and battle Tommen, but I seriously doubt it. Tyrion is going to join Dany, Jaime is a good guy now, Cersei’s fate is pre-determined…no, by the end of book 5 there is no more Starks vs Lannisters. They’ve got other stuff to worry about.
Thanks for the SPOILERs alert. I decided to skip those posts… let’s see how I hold up over time… 
^^I meant in the TV show (trying to not give away what’s happened in the books!). In the TV show, there’s still Jaime/Cersei/Joffrey/Tommen/Marcella Lannister and Bran/Rickon/Sansa/Arya Stark + Jon Snow.
^And good call Bchad, there be spoilers there.
The primary difference between the books and TV show is that the books have much more information about the back story of the realm, which gives rise to the political conflicts that we observe in the TV show. Of particular importance are the history of the Targaeryn dynasty and the motivations for Robert’s rebellion. Only one in six books in the series is called “Game of Thrones”, while this is the title of the whole TV show. So, we get the impression that the TV show is about the power struggle. However, the power struggle is only one element in the book series.
The “Song of Ice and Fire”, of course, can be interpreted in many ways. “Ice”, for instance, could refer to the Starks or the Others. “Fire” could be a reference to the Targaeryns (dragons) or to the “prince that was promised”, who is supposed to have a fire sword and can defeat the Others (again - details that are emphasized in the books but just briefly mentioned in the TV series).
Since the story needs to be adapted to the medium of delivery, it is understandable that the writers decided to focus on the singular aspect of political struggle. It would just be too confusing to adapt the books 100% to TV. Since TV is good at focusing on one theme at a time, subsequent seasons will probably shift towards the impending conflict with the Others, especially now that the War of 5 Kings is winding down.
It’s always a bummer to see movies/shows cut out some of your favorite characters, or worse, make them suck. Faramir in LoTR is a great example. I’m not too happy about Tormund in GoT either.
But, it’d be impossible to capture the scope of the books in a TV show. There are already so many characters those that haven’t read the books are having trouble keeping everything straight.