Game of Thrones: Season 3 - The Thread

I'd watch the hell out of an"Adventures of Jon Snow" show. This season is going to be great.

I haven't read the books, what is the big reveal they gloss over? Just curious seeing nothing in this first episode seemed like an "oh shit" moment besides the giant just walking around.

There was no drop in quality in the 4th and 5th books. The 4th book was dealing with smaller scale stuff, but the story was still interesting. The 5th book, I seriously do not understand what people are talking about when they say "nothing happened". Did they even read the book? So many crazy reveals. One of the craziest I've ever read having to do with that one character who you thought was this, but he was really... you know (don't forget your name). Also, a lot of the pieces on the chess board were making their moves. You had new and viable players showing their competency. Also, you find out who the players behind the chess game really are and what their goals are. That book does more than enough to keep the series moving towards the end while staying intense and interesting.

Also, GRRM has said the 4th and 5th book will probably be fused for TV since they have overlapping timelines, but I'm guessing it'll be split in two as well.

The excerpts I've read from Winds of Winter have been great as well.

I don't want to say specifics. It's just that there was a certain reveal that was at the end of a particular thread in the book, but in this episode, that thread was replaced with another one that just starts out with a large part of what the reveal was all about.

@aegon: We'll have to agree to disagree then, because I found A Feast for Crows and A Dance of Dragons to fall in the classic fantasy novel trap of having the characters do a lot of things but have very little of it actually impact the plot. That's not to say I wasn't a fan of Cersei immediately running the kingdom into the ground or insane Theon Greyjoy, but then there's all of these chapters with Brienne and Sam that have no clear or immediate impact upon the story. For what it's worth, I do think the introduction of Aegon throws a nice wrench in the power dynamic, but his introduction just comes off as a deus ex machina to do just that. Don't get me wrong, they're still well written books but I'm really hoping that The Winds of Winter, whenever that comes out, starts to tie everything together in a meaningful way.

I think I like the tv series more, although I kind of read the books in sort of a whirlwind (all of them in a week and a half), so I don't remember a lot. I like the addition of the redheaded whore in the series, even though as far as I can remember she wasn't in the books (at least after they leave Winterfell), hope she sticks around to kind of 'fill in the blanks' around Littlefinger's plotline. Also kind of pissed that Tyrion's whore/girlfriend gets wacked at the end, although that reveal was so fucking crushing, the actress is really good.

Finding the cgi really great inn some scenes and terribly poor in others. Not that it plays a huge factor, and i do appreciate their effort. Good to see the show back again.

@aegon: Can't conur. Reading 4-5 was almost painful at points. 4 more so than 5. I wouldn't be surprised if the show ends after book 4 but I would be very disappointed if that is what happens. Mostly because it implies an ending that is unlikely to be the actual ending.

They kind of screwed themselves in Season 2 if I'm being completely honest. When the Reeds come in, and it is confirmed that they are coming in so there's no "ZOMG SPOILERZ" here, it won't be believable at all. After what happened in Season 2 to just have them pop up and go, "Hey Bran. We know your dad. We're friends. Sup?" after what happened with Theon is retarded. I even think the show runners know that it was stupid and that's why they're retconing them into the story now.

There are some niggling things that bug me but I'm already liking this season a lot more than the rush that was Season 2. The whole House of the Undying part last season was fucking terrible. They completely dropped the ball with that one and that was supposed to be a major part.

Yeah, House of the Undying was disappointing. I wanted to see Rhaegar and little Aegon.

Meh, I lost count of how many locations the first episode jumped to and this will be a constant problem with this series from here on out. If you have read book 4 and 5 you know it will get even worse. So, boring episode for me.

Did they also say they were splitting book 3 into two seasons? If so, I can see why. They absolutely will move the major plot point of the book to the next season for fear of losing viewers over the incessant and oppressive nihilism of the series.

Well, I'm glad Mad Men begins next week. Now if they'd only reduce the screen time for Don's creepy daughter and her creepy boyfriend ...

I don't have thoughts on the season premiere yet, just that I enjoyed it. I was having a good laugh at the smart comebacks everyone was throwing around, but around the 10th one I was like WHEN DID THIS SHOW TURN INTO A ZINGER SIMULATOR?

Super bummed that Strong Belwas will not be in the television adaptation.

Book spoilers within:

http://grrm.livejournal.com/319296.html#comments

I hope that at the end of season 7, they do a flash forward and we find out that her creepy boyfriend grew up to be a serial killer.

You're wrong about the ending, they've hinted at the RW in every interview with the writers about this season.

I hope Tormund warms up a little, he's so good humoured in the books, he was very cold in this first episode.

You've read the entire series, but you can't stand the show (because of things that the book series is equally guilty of)?

This season will undoubtedly be about kicking the Starks into the ground (the Red Wedding is confirmed to be this season during Episode 9 "The Rains of Castamere"), and next season will be about the inter-family implosion of the Lannisters. Stuff will move back and forth to accommodate those tones.

They pushed the Reeds back (and, in turn, the warging training) to give Bran something to do for the next season or two. In case you're blissfully unaware, Bran does fuck all until he reaches the Three-Eyed Crow.

The change wasn't about retconning a mistake they made. It was a conscious decision to spread out the content of his story so as to not bore audiences to death for several seasons.

I would have preferred it had I not read the books at all. Reading it doesn't mean I like it. Actually, I hate it.

And it makes it less believable. Do you, or anybody else, honestly expect me to believe that a kid that just watched his entire Hold die and is on the run from his head being on a spike would just happen along two strangers and trust them completely to join his motley group of misfits and Hodor? No. If it was a conscious decision, which I'm sure it was, it's a fucking stupid one.

And even when Bran does reach... that and the other thing he still kind of does fuck all to be quite frank. 5 books of pretty much fuck all. Let's face it, we all read and watch for Tyrion and Danny.

@tangoup: That seems like a colossal waste of time to spend on something you hate. Even now you're wasting time discussing a show you hate about a book you hate, why?

You read 5,000 pages in 10 days? Are you a supercomputer?

You are correct? Roz is not in the books. The Shae reveal in SoS is great, really everything regarding Joff's wedding, Tyrion's trial and the ramifications of each are some of my favorite moments of the series.

Bran spends a significant amount of his time studying bannermen, sigils and words. If you don't think that he's aware of his father's bannermen, you'd be pretty mistaken. More than that, I'm fairly certain that the books mention that Bran has previously spent a significant amount of time with the Reeds (when they were younger). He knows them, and more than that, Jojen's unique 'qualities' combined with Meera's tracking skills would certainly give them the ability to meet up with Bran.

I think Tyrion and Danny are fine, but they're hardly my favourite characters. The best part of ASOS, for me, was the Brienne/Jamie stuff. The best part of AFFC, for me, was the Kingsmoot. And the best part of ADWD, for me, was the Reek stuff. Not everyone reads these books for the Tyrion/Danny stuff.

Felt like GRRM overextended himself w/ books 4 and 5. The Pyke Island and Dorne stuffdid not grab me, and the unnamed character POV chapters felt burdensome at times, like "Ah shit, another one of these." Books 4 and 5 are good, but a drop in quality from the brilliant first 3 books of the series. I hope Winds of Winter has a tighter focus.

Man, I was holding out hope that they were just saving him for another episode. Now I'll never get to see that fantastic scene with him at the gates of Meereen play out in the show.

Yeah, that kind of sucks, SB was hilarious in the books. They'll probably have Daario do that scene if its included.

Dammit. This is sucking so hard.

Ehhhh, that might've been the first 'meh' episode of the series. The ending was cool (though not as cool as any other and ended right when things would've got interesting) and that old lady (Queen of Thorns?) and the red man seem like awesome characters, but most of the scenes were just OK. Alot of set-up I suppose.

Catlyn's story near the beginning was quite nice. Though the whole thing with the two youngins putting a knife to Osha's throat and then next thing you know they're happily tagging along dropping all this worg knowledge felt a bit rushed.

It's starting to get to the point where I'm wondering whether it's worth it to get the memories of what's in the books muddied by the mess in the show.

I'll be okay with the fact that there was no fool blasting "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" on his boombox if Ser Pounce appears down the line. Anyway, I think this episode went a little too fast; really enjoyed last week's relatively slow stroll along different character viewpoints and reminding me of where the show's strongest points are: scenes that would not be possible to see/know of since the books do not cover everyone's viewpoints and the verbal trade-offs among characters, both of which were fulfilled by this week's scene between Margaery and Joffrey. As a book reader, by not clearly knowing how these characters act outside others' viewpoints, these scenes are really interesting to see since I have no preconceptions beforehand. And so far, I am okay with what's been done.

@aiurflux: lot of people despise Dany and Tyrion was pretty weak-sauce in book 5. i'm actually getting kinda peeved at Dinklage's excessive screen time, damn fine of an actor he is.

so in some ways they're trying to hew back to the book's path but at the same time they're changing things in some undesirable ways (i.e. changing things for the sake of changing them and not in ways that improve it for TV). they already seem to be screwing up arya even more.

Knowing about his bannermen and having two people ambush him in the sticks when he's on the run for his life are two very different things. He never knew what they looked like in person, he only knew their name (going by how they did it in the show, which this IS about). And a name means nothing, it's just wind. I can say I'm Bill Clinton, doesn't mean I'm Bill Clinton. We just saw it happen and I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. Completely unbelievable. You mean to tell me you would trust two people, one of which just put a dagger to the throat of somebody that saved you and helped you escape? Really? They did the entire thing in passing too. "Oh, you're the Reed's. My father told me about you." Done. Wait... what?

@aiurflux: He'd already seen him in a dream.

@aegon: I agree with you for the most part. However, many of the complaints aren't unwarranted. A Feast for Crows begins incredibly slow and does not really return to the pace of ASOS until around half way through. As much as I enjoyed Cersei's descent into madness, she had far too many chapters. Arya, the character in A Feast for Crows that the majority of the audience is most interested in, is featured far too little. And finally, half of the character list, arguably the more interesting half, is hardly even mentioned. It is painfully obvious A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons were meant to be one entire book, and I would have much preferred to read one three thousand page book in which the entire cast was present.

That said, A Feast for Crows is just as well written as the previous entries in ASOIF, and I still thoroughly enjoyed it. With all of the hate directed at A Feast for Crows I had read on the internet, I was expecting it to be terrible, but that certainly was not the case.The first three books are like a trilogy of their own, featuring a fairly complete narrative arch. A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons are building another narrative arch of their own, and this means a slow build. It just seems that many fans were looking for more books with an unrelenting pace like that in A Storm of Swords.

Was the Theon being tortured stuff from another book or does that happen in book 3?

@bocam: It's from A Dance with Dragons.

@aiurflux: The trust came from the foresight dream. There's still a severe lack of trust, and there's plenty of tension. Nothing seems like it doesn't fit.

Too much talk about the books here, we're not discussing the books the title of the thread is season 3 of the HBO series

I'm sorry what's going on here? Are you spoiling events from the books that we will see in the show in the future? Or things that the show left out and already moved on from? Kind of hard to follow this thread when everyone is spoiler tagging.

What exactly should be my criteria to be able to read your posts without having future episodes spoiled?!

Why is it, that every topic about the show, turns into a debate about the fucking books. It is getting old.

I guess them not killing Bran and co. and Jojen being able to calm Summer garnered them a bit of trust, as well as them meeting in the dream.

Looking at the scene with them walking again, Osha doesn't seem particularly pleased with their new company, so at least there's that. I would've like to have seen more of that tension.

@theht: Osha hates everything about this. She's also the only adult (I mean, it's a couple of children, a half-wit, and a couple wolves). She's the one who is supposed to reason this situation through, and she knows that this is a poor decision by any sense of logic. Bran is trusting his gut, like a preteen/teenager would do.

Have you ever seen the fury of book readers post-any Harry Potter release? People are passionate about their beloved properties, especially when they make medium transitions like this. If you've read the books, there's also very little else that you can comment on (since, in this particular case, the books are much further along than the show--we know what happens, and speculation on our part is only going to lead to spoilers).

Oh man, the Briene/Jamie dynamic is top notch. It gave me the same feeling as it did when I read it in the books. And the Tyrell scene with Sansa was perfect. I almost feel sorry for Cersei more now then I thought I could from the books, she is slowly losing grasp of her power-crazed son and she can't do anything about it.

Also what choice did Bran have? The Reed's ambushed them and were able to disarm Osha. They can't exactly run from them and Bran is still travelling North, not much the group can do if the Reeds want to tag along especially if Jojen can pacify Summer.

Yeah this thread is derailed there's no point in coming here after watching a new episode nobody's discussing the show man

Word, I think both are dope and for one of the greatest shows on TV people sure do have a lot of bad things to say about it. This thread should be about the show as if the books don't exist.

@benny: Yeah, there should be a separate spoiler thread for people who've read the books.

I'm not too put off with the Jojen stuff. There was a time jump between the meeting and the next scene, plus Bran had seen Jojen in his dream before. They had plenty of time to persuade Bran that they were loyal to him in between scenes.

It's interesting to see how they're cutting out parts of the book but it's still is on relatively the same track.

I'm interested in what people who haven't read the books think of season 3 so far. As someone who has read them it's been a bit of a disappointment and I'd go as far as to say episode 2 was downright boring. I read the books between seasons 2 and 3 though so I'm wondering if this is just a new perspective on the show or an objective statement of the quality of season 3 so far...

@gunslingernz: I havent read any of the books. I LOVED Season 1, Season 2 was great, Season 3 so far, is good. Its been a bit boring, but I know its all building up to something bigger.

Really seems like they're taking their sweet time to get to the good stuff this season. I think it's probably for the best that they're splitting it to account for GRRM's super slow writing, but the fact that they're putting the Theon stuff in this early makes the outlook for books 4 and 5 pretty grim considering that's one of the only seemingly important things that happens. Oh well. Dug the parts with Brienne and Jaime, those were some of my favorite chapters in the book.

Can we just a have a discussion about the TV show without everyone talking about the fucking books, I don't care that you know what happens, I have no idea and that makes the show so much better.