The revelations about Maester Aemon didn't hit me anywhere near as hard as when Dany walked into Khal Drogo's burning funeral pyre to collect her baby dragons as they hatched. She is found with her hair and clothes burnt off, but otherwise unscathed. Nursing three baby dragons. As in, giving them the breast milk meant for her stillborn baby. Her men, who had up to that point refused to accept her as the new leader of the khalassar, promptly swear themselves over as bloodriders.
Hey, I don't mind if they wanna throw in some sexy-time! But having random naked ladies doing bad porno moaning while someone else randomly gives totally unrelated back story exposition is hilariously stupid. Add in the ridiculous "sex coaching" and it becomes legendarily stupid. I mean, he actually uttered the words "Play with her butt"! In the middle of his story about how he lost his true love!
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists
All joking aside, I see the reasoning. He's a brothel owner. If it was a gynaecologist discussing his love life with a nurse, it would be the same thing. He's not in the slightest bit aroused by whats going on. Its a deliberate disconnect. He's talking about real love while coaching them in fake love. Its meant to be ironic surely?
My sister-in-law asked me to come house sit next month, and oh by the way she has HBO on demand and suggested that I might want to curl up on the couch and have a marathon viewing. Now there's an offer I can't refuse!
She hasn't read the books, but has been enjoying each week's viewing. She did, however, have lots of questions for me on who is related to whom and why people are doing what they are doing.
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. ~ Albert Camus
I'm well into it, and still enjoying the story very much. I wish I had more time to read!
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
I'm a bit into book two as well, and I'm actually surprised that Danny's story is one I'm looking forward to quite a bit as I found her and her brother not all that interesting for a while. I also look forward to Jon's chapters and anything to do with the wall. I'm finding some of the political wrangling to be not quite so interesting, but on the whole, I've been really enjoying the series so far.
I've also started book 2, which I'm kicking myself for since the series isn't finished. I just despise getting started on books where the series isn't finished. Oh well. i'm going to try to go slowly. Yeah, right.
Spoiler:
Hidden text.
Yes, River, that scene was hair raising and shocking (Danaerys). But the pathos of the Targaryen at the wall having to hold back and do nothing and watch the world change and his kin cast down ..... for some reason, that one really got me. I'm weird, I guess!
Eru, I'm with you on Danaeris and finding her story interesting. I guess the author is going to do something with her, it's a compelling story. I find it more interesting than all the wars and marching about. I'm glad the author doesn't focus overly much on the battles, since I'm kind of the type to skim battle scenes.
I thought last nights' epi was pretty good. I am continuing to love Peter Dinklage as the imp. That was a good scene where he was talking the hill tribes out of killing him, and then a good scene between him and his father. His father you can see is starting to respect Tyrion in spite of hating the fact that he is a dwarf.
I guess for me, that pathos gets occluded by knowing that if Aemon had come forward then, he would have been killed (House Baratheon was intent on destroying House Targaryen) and, more importantly, an even more intense turn of events that begins at the end of the third book and follows in to the fourth. Serious knife-in-the-gut stuff.
As for Dany's continuing storyline...you'll see. It is awesome.
I'm enjoying this thread, but I'll have to stop visiting if there's stuff visible in plain text that can ruin something for me due to an accidental glance.
I think Alatar may have been referring to the last paragraph of your post about starting book 2, which does include some information about events involving Tyrion.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
Ellienor wrote:I'm putting them in white font. Is that not enough, Alatar? I'm sorry. I'll just stop putting them out there, on second thought.
Yeah, I've been putting them in white with a spoiler tag too. That's about all I can do, really. So I guess, since the only contribution I can make to this thread is as a reader of the books (no HBO, though I've been watching little clips as they appear on the website) I'll just buzz off.
Please, River, don't buzz off. I don't think enough of us can see the HBO episodes to make a viable discussion if that's to be the only topic. Why should we not discuss the books as well? And there's nothing wrong with white type. It's faintly visible on a beige background, but not (for me) enough so that I can read it without effort.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
Oh well. i'm going to try to go slowly. Yeah, right. 
I'll just stop putting them out there, on second thought.