Arriving In Westeros; or, I Just Started the Song of Ice And Fire Novels

[Odjn]

Originally Posted by Magus

I enjoyed the book but Martin's inability to have even a partial conclusion to things has chafed ever since the end of A Clash of Kings which while clearly a book in need of five more sequels has a clear climax. This book's climax appears to be set for the beginning of the next book ( the battle for Meereen with Daenarys leading Khal Jhoqo's Dothraki down on the Yunkai'i rear, with some Tyrion maneuvering to get the Second Sons on her side), which is kind of silly...Martin probably would have needed a mere 150 pages to bring this to a great conclusion, and if it couldn't be had by adding more to it due to length, vast swathes could have been cut from it. It is padded as hell (especially in regards to Theon. We get it Theon, Ramsay cut your dick off. We don't need to hear you talk about your state of affairs for entire chapters at a time).

THAT BEING SAID, I enjoyed it and it has certainly whet my appetite for the concluding volumes.

It's really that he does his best to not divulge any info about what we want to know about, i.e. Jon's parentage, the Others, the shit that happened at Summerhall, Mad Aerys' reign... even when other characters who know perfectly well what happened talk to other characters who want to know, like Jon asking Tormund about the wights or Barri offerring to tell Daeny all about her crazy ass dad, we get a shit excuse not to hear it. The most we learn out of this book is 1. Aegon isn't dead, 2. Some (but not a lot) about greenseers and the children, 3. Ashara's bastard by Neddie miscarried so it wasn't Jon, 4. Wylla was a ship captain's daughter who got Ned safely home from the Vale, 5. Giants are cool but they're going to die out just like unicorns and all the other cool stuff north of the Wall."

He seems to not have realized it's perfectly ok to answer some major question even partially if it's not the penultimate book or final book.

Oh well, maybe in five years.

[Magus]

Actually that wasn't a reference to Wylla, it was just one more rumor that exists about who Jon's mother is, a separate woman. Basically there are rumors it was Ashara Dayne, Wylla, the boat lady, etc.. The multitude of rumors are in and of themselves rather telling, since there seem to be way too many for any of them to be even close to the truth and were probably deliberately spread by Ned to disguise Jon's true parentage. Which we all know is...wait, do you want to hear fan theories or not? They are technically spoilers if they turn out to be true in the future.

As for Summerhall and other things in the background, Martin is going to cover those in the separate Dunk and Egg novellas. I think he wants to maintain the mysteries in the main series and slowly reveal stuff via the stories, much like he did with Bloodraven/Brynden Rivers, for instance

[Satan's Onion]

you guys

it's here

it's here!

And the first chapter's a Tyrion chapter, yesssss

[Solid Snake]

How did the show only score 13 Emmy nominations
I WANT THEIR HEADS ON PIKES

[Satan's Onion]

Aw, c'mon, Snake. One of 'em's for Peter Dinklage. Surely that means we could settle for cutting off their manhoods and feeding them to goats?

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by Satan's Onion

Aw, c'mon, Snake. One of 'em's for Peter Dinklage. Surely that means we could settle for cutting off their manhoods and feeding them to goats?

Dinklage definitely deserved the nom, but so did Sean Bean (for Best Dramatic Actor), Michelle Fairley (Actress) and Maisie Williams (Supporting Actress). I'm guessing Sean Bean got overlooked because of "Boromir 2.0" (nevermind the fact that Ned Stark is a far more nuanced character, sorry Tolkien) and...I really can't think of a good justification for leaving Catelyn or Arya out, really.

I stand behind my belief that Michelle deserved it more than Lena, BTW. Lena's performance was fine but I was really, really pleasantly surprised with Michelle, who gave some of the best nonverbal acting at certain moments throughout. I've never been a huge fan of Cat in the novels, but found myself really rooting for the show's interpretation of her, and Michelle was a huge reason why.

(I also found Michelle more attractive than Lena and Emilia, despite the fact that she's certainly older and less physically attractive, which made Littlefinger's obsession with her so believable.)

I could totally see Conleth Hill as deserving of a Supporting Actor nom, too. One of the best surprises for me in the series is how it completely reversed my preference for the advisers. In the books, I always gravitated towards Littlefinger and found Varys less intriguing by comparison. In the show, I found Hill's portrayal far more captivating, despite the fact that he was up against Aidan Gillen.

Aside from that, the nominations were by and large fine. 13 for a fantasy series isn't bad.

[Satan's Onion]

So...no goat-feeding?

I'll just...put away this knife, then.

[Magus]

Well in the realm of spoilers involving dick removal...

Is it a spoiler to say that in A Dance with Dragons Ramsay apparently decided this was the way to deal with Theon?

Yeah that's probably a major spoiler don't click it! DON'T CLICK IT--ah, look what you did to yourself!

EDIT: Yeah the chick who played Cersei (didn't she play Number Six in Battlestar Galactica?) wasn't very good. I felt they failed at translating Cersei's innate "hilarious and inept over-the-top villainy" to the screen. While they were attempting to make it feel more nuanced, it was just flat.

[Satan's Onion]

Y'know what? I personally don't even care that that was a spoiler, because that's the best fucking news I've read all day.



Couldn't have happened to a nicer shithead.

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by Magus

EDIT: Yeah the chick who played Cersei (didn't she play Number Six in Battlestar Galactica?) wasn't very good. I felt they failed at translating Cersei's innate "hilarious and inept over-the-top villainy" to the screen. While they were attempting to make it feel more nuanced, it was just flat.

Nah, she had no role in Battlestar Galactica, but she was Sarah Connor in that Terminator Chronicles TV show that was a thing for a season or two there.

Regarding Lena and her portrayal of Cersei, I just felt the directors didn't know whether to play her as sympathetic and tragic or downright unlikable, and so Cersei got stuck in a grey area of 'neither likable enough to love, nor truly sinister enough to love to hate.' The show's portrayal of Cersei led me to believe that her outplaying Ned in their 'Game of Thrones' subsequently said far more about Ned's stupidity than Cersei's cunning.