I finally knuckled down, caved into the pressure and bought the first book. I'm seriously impressed so far. Its much more detailed than I anticipated but also much more accessible than I imagined it would be. It'll be interesting to see in what ways it deviates from the first season of the tv show.
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Really? I never really thought that there were Alot of differences. There's the most obvious elephant in the room (age), but apart from that I thought they at least kept the characters' personalities and motivations the same.
Really? I never really thought that there were Alot of differences. There's the most obvious elephant in the room (age), but apart from that I thought they at least kept the characters' personalities and motivations the same.
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with littlefinger he seems much more conspiratorial and conniving in the books, and a lot quieter about it. i mean granted, im sure talking to whores was the only way they could show him conspiring and shit but some of the things in the show were just backwards as fuck, like his talk with cersei in the second season
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Well yeah they are kinda screwing him over in the second season, but the scheming aspect really is just an extension of what he did in the books? idekki
I thought the vast majority of things he did in the first season were pretty true to the book.
Really? I never really thought that there were Alot of differences. There's the most obvious elephant in the room (age), but apart from that I thought they at least kept the characters' personalities and motivations the same.
I am not too far in, it's a bit of a beast of a book.
but one of the first things I noticed was Catelyn pushing Ned into becoming the King's Hand.
Whereas in the show she seemed really against it.
She's also more outright about her hatred of Jon.
That's just one character though.
It's just really small details like that. They seem really minor, but they really do change the way you think about the characters.
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Oh yeah, completely forgot about Catelyn! The animosity was there, but they definitely toned it down to more subtle levels. Catelyn was all flipping her shit at Jon before he left for the wall, she was a lot more emotional than series!Catelyn, who was all stoic up in dat shit half the time
and honestly i think its an improvement to her character
Book Dany and Show Dany also give off very different vibes. I watched season one before I read the books and I just kinda got the impression she was waiting for those dragons to hatch so she could kill her rapist and fly home as fast as possible while burning everything in her way.
Book Dany's development is just....way different. Big things like Drogo not raping her, and Dany herself giving the order for her brother to walk behind everyone (rather than one of her riders deciding it after she walks away), leaping over the fire when she first gets the horse, etc.
Yeah I agree with Catelyn's changes in the series being an improvement. I really like series!Catelyn - she's just a tough as nails kind of chick. In the book her feelings get the better of her in a much different way than in the series and it doesn't endear me to her as much.
Sansa is another character they changed - she isn't quite so prissy and snarky in the books. Which I guess is what garners her a lot of unjust hate in the fandom, though truth be told I actually like that aspect of her when looking at her arc.
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Wasn't there that one scene in the series where Drogo's pummelling her from behind while she cries into a pillow?
idk if you'd consider that rape, but it holds pretty much the same meaning to me
in both the book and the season 1 she is initially unhappy with being Drogo's fucktoy until she learns to become someone he respects and then love happens
Just finished the book (finally), I can now go half a dozen pages back and read up on all the stuff . General, non-spoiler opinion: On the one side, a lot of stuff happens, but on the other - and I believe this was the case in most previous books as well - a lot of it feels like filler material, and buildup to other events. Of course, there are some pretty major events and such near the end of the book, just not stuff that the rest of the book seems to actually lead up to. Or that's just me. Basically what Aaron said:
I think the decision to split some of the material off to the next book kind of hurt. It sort of felt like the whole thing was building to a large number of confrontations that never really came, and large number of important characters' plotlines in the books end up with their fates completely uncertain.
cba to copypasta / quote stuff from here, so . I'm curious as to why GRRM has veered off of naming the chapters just for the characters they revolve around / the perspective is from, and goes to
more descriptive names about the role of said character in that chapter
. I liked it with Arya's chapters though, seeing as she's going
full-on MPD,
.
Also:
my name also rhymes with freak, sneak, weak, meek, etc
Personal predictions / thoughts:
* Jon: Returns in one form or another; possibly as a zombie like his mom, hungry for brains. Maybe as a tree or cabbage. Might be reunited with his bro in wtf is this hippie crap world.
* Bran: He that Seeth Everything. Probably won't return in the books as an actual person, but as an omnipotent being of... trees. Woe, for He shall Rustle Leaves at his Foes And Make Them Believe They're Hearing Shit.
* Dany: Will probably fuck herself into that Khalassar, then fuck over the siege of Mereen, although, like Astapor and the like, I don't think much attention will be paid on the city anymore. I do wonder who - and if at all - the other two dragon riders will become. Quentyn was farfetched, but that would've been all the moar awesome if he wasn't baked extra crispy. Victarion is a very likely candiate, with his magic horn of Doing Stuff, although I don't think it'd be in alliance with Dany. Of course, they share common enemies, but even then it'd be a fickle alliance.
* Tyrion: Dunno. Will find another pig and pwn at jousting, I'm sure. Or meet up with Dany and ride dragons and stuff, why not. Or get
.
* Arya: Will probably be reunited with people and play some role, but atm, it's wide open.
* Cthulhu: shall Rise once more, as the Stars will align in the next book, and then His Kingdom shall Cover the Earth
* White Walkers might attack, but then, I got the impression that Westeros was already largely fucked / weakened outside of those that won. Seriously, if Dany ever returns, half the people are dead from the war, the other half starved, and the rest killed / zombified. Someone make a SoIaF zombie game now.
* There might actually be a time gap of a couple of years; the war has settled down to a halt, being reduced to some fighting over Winterfell (unsuccessfully due to the weather) and some minor skirmishes here and there, if that. Would give the time for the dragons to grow and pwn stuff (and Dany to become legal, finally), for Bran to become a somewhat thicker tree, and uh. Who's left anyway? .
* I like the writeups / theories / seeing-through-stuff/remembering-prophecies-better-than-me about Jon and Dany (red star, drying seas, etc). Putting it like that makes it kinda obvious, . I did think Dany was having a miscarriage in that chapter though; iirc, it flowed heavier than normal, and she had a bad case of the shits after eating shitsberries. Also supporting that, instead of 'just' becoming fertile again, is that the book suggests it's been just a few months since last time, whereas the dragons were born quite a bit earlier (not sure about the timeframe, but I'd say two years?)
The Man said:
It's also speculated that
Jon's raven saying his full name may have been due to Bran warging it.
Honestly, after Bran's final chapter, I did wonder at all kinds of little things 'I wonder if Bran's involved / watching / making that leaf rustle ominously over thar', . Same at that point. GRRM did successfully manage to turn him into some sort of omnipresence.
While, at the same time, he's refrained from making people overly powerful / magic / epic; Red Priests(esses) use their powers - insofar as they have them (ohai shitting out shadow assassins) - sparingly, mainly staring in fire and making vague prophecies, although Moqquoro (whatever his name is)'s prophecies are quite a bit more useful than Melisandre's.
* I wonder what kind of creature Q...something made for Cersei. The Mountain, only better?
* I am a complete and utter idiot; never did it cross my mind that the bard and his women was Mance and his spearwives. But then, I'm not a very attentive reader, especially not when there's so much to process . But then, there's the internets. Thank you, internets.
Well, there's a lot more content in a billion times more words than is feasible in a ten-episode season. Also, you get inside peoples' heads and there's a lot of showing and a more leisurely delivery of in-world canon--and a lot less expository dialogue (although you do get a lot of trashy exposition as well). Also, taking more time to say something means that you can either a) make it boring as hell by saying the same thing in redundant ways or b) make it count and build layers that aren't immediately visible but that generate something that is (hopefully) effective. Like varnish, yah? Or pearls. I like pearls.
...it occurs to me that I just said exactly what Cthulu said, only in more words. I'm not sure if this defeats my point or helps it?
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it doesn't change the world or even have a major impact on stuff. At least, not yet. I mean sure, Cat rises from the dead to eat on brains, but what the fuck does she do other than speak incomprehensibly and sit in some cave being bitter about stuff?
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Beric Dondarrion, the other guy who was resurrected a bajillion times, was described as being mangled and visibly disfigured after his initial 6 deaths
But holy shit when Catelyn showed up resurrected by the end of the 2nd last book my head exploded
Beric Dondarrion, the other guy who was resurrected a bajillion times, was described as being mangled and visibly disfigured after his initial 6 deaths
He's visibly disfigured, but the wounds did close. It's not like Arya could see straight through his chest entry hole to exit hole from the thrust the Mountain killed him. He's got horrible wounds on both side but his body is still healing.
. General, non-spoiler opinion: On the one side, a lot of stuff happens, but on the other - and I believe this was the case in most previous books as well - a lot of it feels like filler material, and buildup to other events. Of course, there are some pretty major events and such near the end of the book, just not stuff that the rest of the book seems to actually lead up to. Or that's just me. Basically what Aaron said:
