they could do a "previously on" where they either show barristen's dismissal from the kingsguard or the quote where someone said that they were hoping barristen was going to show up to join their cause.

5/29/2012 7:51:30 PM

Personally I think they could let the audience know who he is while still making it interesting. Throw in some dialogue in Kings Landing about how Dany needs to be killed, then cut to them revealing its Barristan. Let them think he is there to assassinate her or something. It could work.

5/29/2012 8:03:36 PM

^^Yeah, but the issue isn't making the audience recognize Barristan from so long ago. The issue is that in the books it's sort of supposed to be somewhat of a twist when it's revealed that Arstan Whitebeard is Barristan. But it's going to be difficult for them to do that in the show, even though Barristan hasn't been in for an entire season. Someone will notice. Maybe they'll mask his face or something with the beard? That'd be weird, though.

Like ^ said, I think it could work without the surprise aspect of it, just have the audience wonder what the hell Barristan is doing with her.

5/29/2012 8:19:38 PM

Really psyched about the Reeds, I like them a lot.

I can guarantee you that my wife, for whatever that's worth, won't recognize Selmy when he pops up with a Santa Claus beard.

5/29/2012 8:22:08 PM

Judging from the last few pages of the TV thread, people are going to lose their shit when they find out how little credit Tyrion gets for essentially saving the city. Not as pissed as they will be about the RW near the end of the third season, but pissed nonetheless. It'll all come full circle when he kills Tywin, though.

[Edited on May 30, 2012 at 11:46 AM. Reason : S]

5/30/2012 11:44:52 AM

Tyrion kills Tywin????? I haven't read that far!

I think a lot of people are going to lose their shit when Mormont betrays Dany as well.

5/30/2012 11:50:19 AM

The moral of the story is that the story is prone to making one lose their shit...repeatedly.

5/30/2012 11:54:58 AM

Quote :

"Tyrion kills Tywin????? I haven't read that far! "

sigh...

5/30/2012 12:07:05 PM

I was being facetious. Unless you were complaining about me making a joke about spoilers....

5/30/2012 1:20:23 PM

Quote :

"I think a lot of people are going to lose their shit when Mormont betrays Dany as well."

Well they already know that he was [at least originally] working for Robert. I remember at some point in the first season, Robert sent Mormont a pardon for his spying on her.

5/30/2012 1:37:41 PM

^ yeah. The few episodes of S1 I saw put it tigether for me that Jorah was playing both sides.

5/30/2012 6:08:06 PM

Yeah, I liked Jorah at first but he turned out to be a petty, jealous, unnecessarily distrustful scumbag.

In the show, he looks just like an older Matt Berninger of The National:






[Edited on May 30, 2012 at 6:40 PM. Reason : s]

5/30/2012 6:37:52 PM

The National did "The Rains of Castamere" in the credits this week btw.

5/30/2012 7:41:25 PM

yep. I looked it up as soon as the credits started rolling because I thought that was his voice but it just threw me off. Loved it.

5/30/2012 7:49:23 PM

Reading the books has been the best decision I could have possibly made in regards to this book and these stories.

After reading ahead and now falling back on the TV series I get left with feelings of both disappointment and excitement. Disappointment because the show wasn't able to do certain things with the story (acceptable, not faulting it for that) and excitement because I'm even through with ASOS and I know there is so much more to come. And the world within the text, by GRRM and my mind both, is so much more detailed and come to life.

6/4/2012 3:03:38 PM

The best part about the books that the show has completely cast aside is the insane amount of hidden details, red herrings, prophecies, dreams that he provides that lead to all the fun discussions on who Jon's father is, who actually has magic powers and who is a fraud, which characters are actually in disguise/not who they say we are(this part is done magnificently due to the POV style of the books and can't be carried out as well on the show of course), etc.

These are the things the show has to cut out and not explore but those are the items that keep the books extra interesting imo.

I still love and enjoy both but that is the biggest difference in the two mediums and it's also why the books are better imo. (In other words I think reading then watching is the way to go)

6/4/2012 5:18:51 PM

Okay...sigh...just finished reading ADWD today.

when the heck is TWoW (famously known as TWW or T-Dub) coming out?

6/4/2012 5:29:34 PM

george said he's writing, but refuses to make any predictions. i think he had 200-300 pages left over from adwd plus whatever he's written recently. however, he's got another dunk and egg novella and a companion guide that are higher priorities iirc.

it sounds like his biggest stumbling block is behind him, so i would think the last two books will take less time than affc and adwd, but who knows.

also, i don't see how he wraps everything up in two books.

6/4/2012 8:32:19 PM

Yeah...without leaving some things to hang.

Still wondering what's going on with Gendry, Sam, Brienne, Jaime, Beric & Thoros....

6/4/2012 9:17:42 PM

He will die first. 5 years until the next book, at least.

6/4/2012 10:35:55 PM

^^beric died when he resurrected catelyn.

6/4/2012 10:57:03 PM

First season of the show was basically perfect, but the second season failed pretty miserably in several regards: the Jon Snow/Halfhand storyline was totally butchered (that's probably been the only change in the series so far that I truly cannot understand the purpose behind; the way it's handled in the books is so much more intense and moving and just plain fucking cool, and they could've developed the Ygritte stuff later), the Dany/Qarth storyline was even more boring than it was in the books, and they made Stannis a whole lot more one-dimensional and almost villainous than he is in the books.

I will say, though, that I think Theon is more interesting in the show than it is in the books. His men's betrayal of him definitely could've been handled better, but his storyline to this point has been more interesting in the show than it was in the books. And they've done a stellar job with Tyrion all season. All in all, the show is still excellent (one of the very best on TV) and I have high hopes for the third season, but they've gotta start doing a better job with certain major characters.

6/4/2012 11:11:21 PM

frankly i couldn't care less how badly they stray away from the book. maybe the show will give me some of the satisfaction that GRRM has deprived me as a reader.

6/5/2012 3:42:17 AM

Will Red Wedding be the end of Season 3 or into Season 4?

6/5/2012 6:00:18 AM

Late Season 3 is my guess. Based on the fact that Martin writes 1 episode per season and he wrote Ned's death and Blackwater I am assuming he is writing the Red Wedding episode as well. It has already been confirmed that he is writing the 7th or 8th episode next season entitled "Autumn Storms" so my guess is that it will be in that episode.

6/5/2012 7:43:22 AM

grrm wrote "the pointy end" in s1, not "baelor"

6/5/2012 8:59:22 AM

ahh good catch. That makes a little more sense since I kind of felt like the Red Wedding would be later than the 7th or the 8th. I do definitely think it will end up in Season 3 and not Season 4 though.

6/5/2012 9:14:02 AM

i want to know why stannis' sword wasn't glowing during the blackwater episode.

6/5/2012 9:54:46 AM

That ice dude looks nothing like Benjen Stark.

6/5/2012 10:36:14 PM

I don't think it's supposed to...

6/6/2012 7:42:27 AM

^^ Fail.

6/6/2012 8:01:31 AM

hahahaha at the last three comments.

6/6/2012 9:10:34 AM

btw, did anybody else catch on the season finale where Jaqen asked Arya if she wanted to serve the Lord of Light? What was that about?

6/6/2012 10:28:55 AM

^He said a bunch of shit to her about the Red God, which I don't recall being in the books at all, but I didn't hear him say anything about the Lord of Light. Is the Red God the same thing as the Lord of Light? I was wondering that myself. I'd assume so, but not positive. It'd be an interesting change if they had the Faceless Men as followers of R'hllor.

6/6/2012 10:53:43 AM

I do believe the Red God and the Lord of Light are one in the same.

6/6/2012 10:57:21 AM

I think they are taking it that direction in an attempt to not confuse the tv audience with too many different gods to keep track of.

6/6/2012 10:57:39 AM

Okay, so after seeing the clarification on the other thread, I now understand the difference between the wights and Others.

Still, I'm wagering that Coldhands is Benjen.

6/6/2012 11:36:30 AM

Coldhands is the one that helps Bran/Hodor/Reeds?

6/6/2012 12:05:28 PM

^yeah, cold hands is who helped bran, hodor, jojen, and meera.

i don't think benjen is coldhands just because i feel like bran would recognize him or at least question whether or not he was his uncle. the child of the forest also says he had been killed long ago. furthermore, he knew about the hidden passage under the wall which seemed like one of those things that had long been forgotten.

i think him being the night king is more likely/plausible.

[Edited on June 6, 2012 at 12:35 PM. Reason : ]

6/6/2012 12:33:29 PM

^I thought Sam knew about it? When he encountered Bran & company, wasn't he the one that opened the door for them using the magic words?

6/6/2012 1:32:24 PM

sam opened it, but it looks like coldhands led him to it

http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/A_Storm_of_Swords-Chapter_56

6/6/2012 1:44:24 PM

Night's King is where my money is as well.

6/6/2012 2:22:42 PM

just reached the Red Wedding. holy shit.

6/11/2012 3:17:26 PM

6/11/2012 3:27:39 PM

So uh... when's the next book comin out?

6/11/2012 5:06:32 PM

I'm going to be generous and guess late 2014. At this point it's a good test of whether he really cares about finishing the series or not. He has as more people than he ever dreamed of buying the books and wanting more of the story. If he ever cared about pushing through and finishing the series, now is the time to do it.

It's unfortunately very possible (for the fans that is) that he is in no rush at this point in his life and is just enjoying the popularity of the show and is more interested in Dunk&Egg and some of the other side-projects associated with his world as opposed to what the majority of the fans want.

Books 1 thru 3 for me are still awesome. I hope he finishes the series but I haven't had as much fun reading in a long time as I did back when I read those first 3 books.

[Edited on June 11, 2012 at 6:17 PM. Reason : ]

6/11/2012 6:15:43 PM

should I rush into the forth book once i finish ASOS? Or should I take a break on a high note for some of the other things on my queue?

6/11/2012 8:14:54 PM

hard to say. Don't get me wrong: I still really enjoy both of the next two books. The first 3 are just on another level to me.

6/11/2012 8:27:34 PM

^agreed. while reading adwd i thought it was fantastic but as i got closer and closer to the end i realized that the book was just going to end with a bunch of buildup which took it down a few notches.

6/11/2012 9:21:41 PM

Here is a nice interview with GRRM.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tWg7LPq4nE&feature=g-all-u

He's old. Please don't die b4 you finish ASoIaF? kthanx

6/22/2012 1:38:41 PM