Scots Taffer on 4/6/2013 at 10:32
Quote Posted by faetal
I'm hooked either way, so he's doing something right, would just appreciate a conclusion to feel like one.
Uh, if you've been reading the books, welcome to the last 10+ years.
faetal on 4/6/2013 at 10:37
What's going to be interesting is seeing what happens when the TV show catches up with and overtakes the books. GRRM has apparently told Benioff & Weiss some of the major plot points, so it seems that they could diverge, which ought to be interesting, though I suppose if GRRM is involved with the show, then some of the decisions could invariably find themselves in the last book. By the sounds of it, he is at least trying to find a satisfying resolution to the various plot-lines, which is sorely needed given how cavalier he has been with allowing them to be as fragile as they are.
Don't get me wrong, I applaud the binning of the rules of story-telling and how you can never be sure at all if someone will succeed or fail just because they are a "hero" archetype - it's a large part of what makes the story so compelling, but if the conclusion is that everything runs itself into the dirt and nothing prevails, then I'm not sure how it will feel at the end.
[EDIT] Scots, yeah I read them all recently. I love them and I am happy to wait to find out, I just hope that the last 2 books (providing he sticks to there being 2) give some sort of closure. I don't even care if it's happy, sad, anger-inducing - just so long as it feels right within the logic of the system he's created.
[EDIT 2] (book spoiler) DDL - depending on the final resting place of Ned's corpse and how much progress The Others / White Walkers make and what the limit of decomposition is for their reanimation schtick, it isn't 100% out of the question.
PigLick on 4/6/2013 at 13:09
LOOK WHERE HIS HANDS ARE
faetal on 4/6/2013 at 13:45
Who watches TV in the middle of a field!?
To be fair, the book didn't prepare me for the abdomen stabbing sequence and it killed my mood for the ensuing 2-3 hours.
Should also be noted that in the book, Catelyn only kills Frey's grandson, a halfwit, not his wife. I think the TV show made the right call changing it though, gave Frey's indifference more gravitas.
I think on further hindsight, the most sinister part for me was Roose Bolton. I may be interpreting incorrectly, but it seems like he actually looked down at his hand intentionally so that Catelyn would look - he didn't make any attempt to stop her rolling up his sleeve and then gives her a cold little smirk afterwards. Such a psycho.
Dia on 4/6/2013 at 14:36
The first hint that something was amiss: when the doors were deliberately shut to the great hall and the musicians started playing what sounded like a dirge. The look of alarm on Catelyn's face and her sudden tension was almost palpable. And yeah, I had the same impression; Bolton was smirking and pretty much defying Catelyn to openly react. Definitely an omg moment when Catelyn lifted up Bolton's sleeve and saw the chainmail underneath. Even though I knew what was coming, I still sat there yelling, 'Run! Scream for your son to follow and just RUN!!!'
Aside from the whole stabbing scene, the second hardest scene for me to watch was the killing of Robb's wolf while Arya crouched and watched in horror. I was rather hoping they wouldn't include that.
faetal on 4/6/2013 at 15:44
The song that they were playing right before it kicks off was 'The Rains of Castamere', a Lannister victory song about the Lannisters destroying another house which had rebelled against them. The song is pretty well known in Westeros, so Catelyn's apprehension was likely linked to that. Basically, playing that song in that place at that time was a huge alarm bell, then Bolton notions to his arm resting on the table and lets Catelyn lift the sleeve and looks positively delighted at her sudden realisation of the situation. The killing of Grey Wind could have been a lot worse - you never see anything hit the wolf, it's left to your imagination mainly. They did kind of have to depict it though, for reasons which should become clear in the next episode.
faetal on 4/6/2013 at 16:03
The book seems to regularly hint at a large (as in 100+) pack of wolves roaming the area around the trident with a giant dire wolf at its head, so perhaps that might be picked back up later on.
Phatose on 4/6/2013 at 17:35
So, I was thinking about how this could possibly be worse.
Then it occurred to me that they could manage to pin it on Tyrion - they've done that before - and have Sansa kill him in his sleep, then have her executed for his murder. With no children, Jaime would technically become Tyrion's heir, putting both Casterly Rock and the North in the hands of the man Tywin wants as his heir anyway.
But that would be an amazingly bullshit move even by this show's standards.
