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Game of Thrones


hrothgar

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Catelyn Stark's treatment of Jon Snow grates on modern sensibilities, but look at it from her (medieval) point of view. Snow is her husband's bastard son by some unknown woman, who may have ambitions of her own for her son. Lord Eddard treats him almost as well as one of his legitimate sons. Catelyn may well see Jon Snow as a threat to her children. IIRC, Jon is older than Robb, Catelyn's oldest. If Eddard were to "recognize" him, he would (I think, it's been a while since I've read the books) become the heir to Winterfell, supplanting Robb. Catelyn is a woman of her time. Small wonder she doesn't like Jon Snow, nor want him around.

 

HBO is doing a good job with this series, imo. The mass market is fickle though, so who knows?

 

In the books, Robb is actually slightly older. He was conceived prior to the rebellion against the Targaryens whereas Jon was (supposedly) conceived during the war. Actually what Catelyn says in the books is worse... the exact quote to Jon when he is saying goodbye to comatose Bran is "It should have been you" which is quite a bit worse than what she said on TV. They do have some backstory though that while bastards are common, they are not usually taken in and raised by the father.

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I'm trying not to read this thread for fear of TV spoilers if I haven't read the books. Are there spoilers in any of the posts related to the books in this thread? I understand if there is, but if there isn't I'd like to read this. If someone could answer this, thx.
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I'm trying not to read this thread for fear of TV spoilers if I haven't read the books. Are there spoilers in any of the posts related to the books in this thread? I understand if there is, but if there isn't I'd like to read this. If someone could answer this, thx.

 

There are spoilers in some of the posts in this thread.

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I'm trying not to read this thread for fear of TV spoilers if I haven't read the books. Are there spoilers in any of the posts related to the books in this thread? I understand if there is, but if there isn't I'd like to read this. If someone could answer this, thx.

 

 

Don't read Fluffy's posts, and don't highlight my posts. But you can click on the picture of Adam and me! :)

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Being a little behind, I watched the first episode last night. I am working on whether I will continue.

 

I woke up about 4 this morning thinking of the kid that got thrown off the cliff. As he was climbing up I mentioned to my wife that when I was ten or so I had climbed up something not as high but with similar footings and places to grab hold. I got high enough up so that when I couldn't find more footings higher up and couldn't find the ones I had come up on I figured I was in trouble. I calmed myself down, explored around, and got to the top. All in all, a useful experience with a couple of lessons: Look before you leap (or climb) and, if you get in a jam there may be a way out if you don't panic. It didn't go so well for this kid.

 

I don't much see the point of watching something unless you get involved with the characters. This is pretty brutal. I think that it is well done and I thought the early photography of riding through the snow was beautiful. Still, do I really want to watch ongoing (I presume it is ongoing) brutality? I have, by and large, led a very safe and quiet life. I intend my life to be such that the exceptions to the "by and large" are as few as possible. Whether I want to watch a series about a life that I gratefully do not lead, I dunno.

 

But I do think it is well acted, photographed and directed.

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Now that I remember, there are some characters that you know they have to die because of how the plot goes, but the way they die is completelly artificial, for example I remember the main character of the first book, (Stark?) he does something so stupid that could be considered suicide, and he is suposed to be smart. It made no sense to me, if you need the plot to kill someone, at least you should pay more attention to how you kill a main character.

 

I, too, found Martin made characters act out of character in order to advance the plot he wanted. Couldn't make it past the first book.

 

I might be tempted to watch the series at some point. I suspect having it screenplayed might eliminate Martin's writing weaknesses.

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@ those who red the books:

 

Does anyone else suspect that Jon snow is actually the son of Lyanna Stark. Too much of the history of the Rebellion doesnt make proper sense. Rhaegar apparently loved Lyanna Stark, despite being married to Elia of Dorne. After Brandon Stark and Rickard stark were murdered he "kidnapped" her. She was later found dead in a tower guarded by 3 members of the kingsguard, including their Lord Commander. Who dies to protect the corpse of a prisoner when your king is already dead? Moreover, Rhaegar was widely thought of as being honourable and a good man, so the story that he captured and raped Lyanna doesn't really seem likely. Not to mention that Eddard says he kept a promise to Lyanna for which he has "borne a heavy cost". It would just make sense if in the tower was the infant son of Lyanna and Rhaeger. It would explain the presence of the king's guard, and the abduction would be "protection" in case the Mad king decided to execute Lyanna aswell. Also, it would mean that Ned never actually broke his vows which seems more in keeping with his character anyway. Finally, alledgedly, Howland Reed is the only person on the show other than Lord stark who supposedly knows who Jon's Mother was, and it just happens that he is the only other survivor of the fight with the kingsguard to rescue Lyanna. I will therefore put forward the theory that Jon stark is the son of Rhaegar and Lyanna, and that Lyanna died in childbirth, but made Ned promise to hide Jon's identity in case Robert decided to execute any remaining heirs to the throne.

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Interesting theory. I don't think there's anything in the books that directly supports it (yet), but... "A Song of Ice and Fire". I think "ice" refers to House Stark, and "fire" to House Targaryen, and I've always felt that it will be Jon who dances with Daenerys later in the series (the fifth book, due out July 12th, is A Dance With Dragons).
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@ those who red the books:

 

Does anyone else suspect that Jon snow is actually the son of Lyanna Stark. Too much of the history of the Rebellion doesnt make proper sense. Rhaegar apparently loved Lyanna Stark, despite being married to Elia of Dorne. After Brandon Stark and Rickard stark were murdered he "kidnapped" her. She was later found dead in a tower guarded by 3 members of the kingsguard, including their Lord Commander. Who dies to protect the corpse of a prisoner when your king is already dead? Moreover, Rhaegar was widely thought of as being honourable and a good man, so the story that he captured and raped Lyanna doesn't really seem likely. Not to mention that Eddard says he kept a promise to Lyanna for which he has "borne a heavy cost". It would just make sense if in the tower was the infant son of Lyanna and Rhaeger. It would explain the presence of the king's guard, and the abduction would be "protection" in case the Mad king decided to execute Lyanna aswell. Also, it would mean that Ned never actually broke his vows which seems more in keeping with his character anyway. Finally, alledgedly, Howland Reed is the only person on the show other than Lord stark who supposedly knows who Jon's Mother was, and it just happens that he is the only other survivor of the fight with the kingsguard to rescue Lyanna. I will therefore put forward the theory that Jon stark is the son of Rhaegar and Lyanna, and that Lyanna died in childbirth, but made Ned promise to hide Jon's identity in case Robert decided to execute any remaining heirs to the throne.

 

This sounds very plausible

 

I had never considered this before, but it makes a LOT of sense

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This sounds very plausible

 

I had never considered this before, but it makes a LOT of sense

 

TBH, this is the MOST COMMON theory of his birth. And we have now made this a complete spoiler thread for those like Justin who haven't read the books. Of course, it doesn't state this in the books (yet)...

 

I take it none of you three debating this are regular readers of either westeros.org? Another useful place is towerofthehand.com

 

Westeros has a gathering of prophecies in the books, that are really interesting to re-read and speculate about.

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Last night exposed the first glaring weakness of the series...

The jousting looks mediocre at best.

 

In retrospect, I don't find this overly surprising.

(Its not like you have all sorts of knights / trained horses available)

 

Even so, I wish that they had been able to do better, maybe with some CGI enhancements.

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Is it better to watch the show or to read the book?

 

I think that the books are significantly better

 

(With this said and done, this is one of the best adaptations of a fantasy novel that I have seen)

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Is it better to watch the show or to read the book?

it's very rare for a book not to be better than its adaptation... i had high hopes for shogun, but it (while not absolutely *horrible*) couldn't compete... lonesome dove was nicely done though

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LOTR was pretty good. Yes, I realize liberties were taken. Still pretty good. The Dresden Files TV series (Syfy channel?) wasn't bad either. Been so long since I saw Shogun I don't remember how I felt about it.

That said, I haven't watched this series yet - I'm rereading the books at the moment.

 

And where the Hell is the Honor Harrington movie? :)

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Starting with Episode 7, HBO will have episodes a week early on HBOGo.

 

But you'll still have to wait a week between them! Sorry.

 

i watched the first 4 episodes last night under the impression that hbo had aired 5 episodes. completely broke my heart to learn i'd have to fiend for a whole week before my next fix.

 

 

emilia clarke

 

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