I can't get it here in Zambia, but when I go home for the summer, my daughter is going to give me the DVDs for Seasons two and three. I foresee some serious binge-watching.
"Live! Live! Live! Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!" - Auntie Mame
Agreed 100% - and very nice to get heroic arcs and hope for a change! Next week is going to be exceptional (and the good news is that HBO is submitting Ep10 for a host of award nominations, including writing, which bodes well for it).
IMO, the battle in Ep 09 outstripped Helm's Deep and the Pelennor. Not least because there was no shield and elephant surfing...
Mance's army attacks the wall. The undermanned Night's Watch holds for round one. This is the one in which Ygritte is killed, as well as a giant down in the gate tunnel. More spoiler: Stannis isn't there yet. Jon Snow hasn't been elected Lord Commander yet; the battle in the show is the one in which he unwittingly makes his case. End more spoiler.
I've been hitting the highlights on YouTube. I'll watch the full season when it's out on DVD.
One of the fun things about the show is you get to see the non-POV characters like the Red Viper from a more objective angle than in the books. And Pascal interpreted him in such a wonderful way. I knew his ultimate fate and I'm rather sad that such a fabulous character was only given a season. If only they could have written him into some prior seasons somehow...
Show-Sansa is much smarter than Book-Sansa. At this point in the books, she's still very much a pawn but in the show she's starting to play the game. Given that GRRM has told the showrunners where each character ends up when the game is over, I can only surmise that her revelation of her true identity to the delegation from the Vale is something that's going to happen in the books eventually and that it doesn't really change the ending to her story. It was a surprising change, but a good move on her part.
Looking forward to the reactions to Episode 10.
Edited to adjust spoiler tags.
Last edited by River on Wed Jun 11, 2014 8:37 pm, edited 3 times in total.
River, do you mind avoiding spoilers? I'm up to date in the TV series, but not the books and much of that post verges into spoiler territory for me. And yeah, I know I'm a bit anal about this, so I'm not claiming I'm being reasonable, just asking for some forbearance!
Thanks, River. It's only been a year or two since I read the books, but already a lot of the words and phrases in that post have the flavor of something I might have been acquainted with once in another life, but can't quite apprehend. The mind, it goes... (I blame children)
I was very careful to tag the spoiler in my post. If you looked under the tag, that's your fault. As for the parts that weren't blacked out, I'm not even sure where the "spoiler" was. If discussing subtle changes in characterization between an episode that aired two weeks ago and a book that got published ~10 years ago is that offensive to you I have to agree that you're being unreasonable.
River, maybe your spoiler tag doesn't cover up as much as you thought it did?
Mance's army attacks the wall. The undermanned Night's Watch holds for round one. This is the one in which Ygritte is killed, as well as a giant down in the gate tunnel.
That sounds pretty spoilerish to me.
When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.
It's only spoilerish if you're not up to date on the show. Alatar mentioned that he has seen every episode. I think Al is worried about book spoilers, not movie spoilers.
But perhaps we should put spoiler tags on everything substantive in this thread? Don't want anyone to stumble into this thread and accidentally have something ruined...
Personally I would expect Book Spoilers to be marked as such. I stay out of here until I'm up to date with the TV series. It didn't occur to me that River's spoiler was a Book Spoiler until I had glanced at it.
