how do you know its all leading up to something fantastic? for all you know its just going to take a dumb turn and spin out into dog shit like a lot of tv series. I like it myself but calling people out for not liking it is pretty stupid in itself. reminds me of people who read too much into inception or the matrix movies... 'you just don't get it man...'

I tried reading the first book, gave up after like 40 pages. It's too hard to read, 1000 different names get introduced etc...

I was just happy that the giant made it out of that white walker cluster fuck. He was kicking some major ass.

Ive read the books also CD and the last few episodes I was like - none of this shit happens in the books.

Quite understandable. Here's my suggestion to you; Try again. This time just read the story, and don't worry about tracking all the names, all the obsure references to 100 houses and history lessons, etc. Just enjoy the story. It's so engrossing that you'll literally tear through all five books as fast as you can.

But along the way you'll begin to notice that you in fact ARE starting to pick up on all that hard-to-absorb stuff. You'll remember that someone or an event was mentioned before, and at least some of the 'obscure' stuff will begin to sink in.

As I said, I'm at the tail end of my second read-through of all the existing books, and I'm picking up a veritable ton of things I missed the first time.

Wun-Wun is his name. Yes, in the books he just came through the wall peacefully after the battle with Mance Rayder's army. And he did kick ass. If they could find a Valeryan weapon big enough for him to use he would be unstoppable against the dead. ha

As for the series, hopefully the end-game will still be basically the same as the books, but they're taking so many alternate routes that it's fast becoming a completely separate thing.


Here's the latest news I could find on book six ---

Game of Thrones season 6: George RR Martin doing 'anything he can' to get new book The Winds of Winter out before next HBO series airs - News - Books - The Independent

Seems it won't be long now. Before the end of this year I would think, or hope.

Game of thrones is not an action movie. People looking for that should go watch mad max instead....

It is a terrific series of books covering some very interesting themes. What makes a good king? Is it the same thing that makes a good conquerer? A good swordsman? Are evil people actually better at ruling than innocent ones? Is it better to be feared or loved? What place does religion hold in a king's arsenal of tools? How should a king deal with allies and enemies?

The books (and show) ask and answer dozens of these questions. Those of you who say it is boring might enjoy it more if you watch it as a lesson in how to be a king.

How would you have handled Jora coming back?
Is Jon Snow doing the right thing with the wildlings?
If sacrificing his daughter would save the world should Stannis do it?
Should Bolton wait for Stannis or send out Ramsey to attack?
Is Ramsey's actions toward Sansa so different from Danerys and her new fiancée?

There are dozens more questions to consider. If you aren't considering them it should come as no surprise that you dislike the show. If you are considering them... have you become a better king, or perhaps even a better person, by reading/watching it? Probably.

Because every season follows the same pattern.

HBO shows are not designed to deliver weekly peaks like network shows. They take their time and give you something big to chew on here and there.

It's ok to not like it, but anyone who says nothing is happening isn't paying attention. I don't know if you said that or not, but there's so much going on in every scene, and nothing is wasted. The creators of this show have a lot of material from the books to distill down into an hour per week show, so I'm sure they choose carefully. It's anything but boring.

Further to: the books being hard to read. While it's true you at times get inundated with a wall of names, places, backstory and events, (all of which must have taken years to dream up, write, and keep track of) you also get to read some of the most richly-nuanced writing ever written in recent times. And I don't say that lightly, being as I'm a writer myself.

Here's just a small example (from book 5):

Martin doesn't just tell you that the sun is setting on a cold snowy forest. Rather he puts it this way:

Night was falling fast. The shafts of sunlight had vanished when the last thin slice of the sun was swallowed beneath the western woods. The pink snow drifts were going white again, the color leaching out of them as the world darkened. The evening sky had turned the faded grey of an old cloak that had been washed too many times, and the first shy stars were coming out.

Then, in an earlier part of the same book, he describes what night felt like during a sea voyage:

Only the brightest stars were visible, all to the west. A dull red glow lit the sky to the northeast, the color of a blood bruise. Tyrion had never seen a bigger moon. Monstrous, swollen, it looked as if it had swallowed the sun and woken with a fever. Its twin, floating on the sea beyond the ship, shimmered red with every wave.

He doesn't just say what happened, he makes you feel it and see it as if you were there. And that goes for basically every part of the story. You get to smell what the room or the swamp or the forest etc smells like, what the food tastes like, how it feels as the roar of a giant rumbles through you, etc.

You can tear through this story like it's a race to get to the finish, or you can stop once in a while and consider the words, the thought that went into the writing, and you'll begin to appreciate the sheer depth of this epic tale.

http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/i...0910115937.jpg

http://image.way2enjoy.com/pic/31/89...t-sorensen.jpg

Her real name is Birgitte Hjort Sørensen and she is from Denmark.

Margaery Tyrell, real name Natalie Dormer
 

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...f996a21905.jpg

Is she hot?

http://uberhumor.com/wp-content/uplo...06/iWr8wQu.gif

Or funny?

Margaery is fuckable!

http://www.koolnews.gr/wp-content/up...02/margery.jpg

http://i.imgism.com/wp-content/uploa...7/natdorm2.jpg

She's quite the busy little bee. Super talented.

And utterly fearless when it comes to sex/nude scenes.

Daenerys takes flight in 'The Dance of Dragons' and Stannis burns Shireen at the stake.
 

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http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/8045...=630&cdnnode=1




Winter is here and the finale is coming!

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Stannis Baratheon has lost a lot of fans after the latest episode of the show.

Did he have any fans? He's always been an asshole -- although I will admit they tried to show his softer side quite a bit this season. Probably for misdirection to pull the rug out from under us like they did last episode. I knew he would go through with it, because he's single-mindedly chasing his goal, and because Game of Thrones doesn't give a fuck. They'll burn a kid to death and laugh at you.

Good thing we don't care about the weather because we work indoors.. :thumbsup

Holeeeeee sheeeeeeit!!!!

Best season finale ever.

Have to agree, threw me for the loop at the cowards in the end scene.

Queen mom is a hot milf!!

Crasy stuff.

I have a feeling someone ain't dead.. When lady in red be near.

http://i2.mirror.co.uk/incoming/arti...of-Thrones.jpg

Is Jon Snow really dead? :helpme

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And Cersei's walk of shame. I enjoyed very much :glugglug

Bloody Sunday. The season 5 finale ended powerful and sad.

Fans will have to wait for few more months before HBO releases any details about Season 6.

See you next season.

some stuff to be happy and sad about, as usual. And the Cersei thing....mixed feelings about that. I hate that bitch, but that was tough to watch.

I agree with you there.

As for Cersei... I'm a little disappointed they used a body double...

She's no stranger to nude scenes, so I don't get why they used a double. Actually, I never understand when an actress does that because essentially everyone who sees the finished product has the idea they've seen you naked. Is it maybe just for on set comfort level? As far as most of the world is concerned, unless they read that article -- that was Lena Headey completely naked.

When Jessica Alba appeared nude in Machete, I found out later they used CGI trickery. All that tells me is she doesn't have the dedication to her craft to take her clothes off for a scene, but she's okay having everyone think she did. Even worse is the fact that it's not an actual nude scene. The vital parts are covered by her arm and hips.

Any actress should be able to show her tits and whatever else the scene calls for, or get the fuck out.

http://i.imgur.com/mEf9e0U.jpg

I was presuming that they may have used a body double because they would have had to take out all Lena's tattoos? I know that Emilia Clarke renegotiated her contract to have no more nude scenes.

She was pregnant when they filmed it... Body double and CGI to the rescue.

Aaah didn't know that. Thanks, Relentless! <3

The following is not in the books or the shows so it's not a spoiler... But here is my theory:

Jon Snow will be resurrected by Melisandre using the same methods thoros used to bring back berick dondarian. Snow is actually the son of Rhaegar Targaryian and Ned Stark's sister (making Danerys his aunt). Melisandre knew his men would mutiny so she led stanis to die vs the boltons and returns in time to resurrect Jon snow, which frees Jon from his oath because the watch oath is only until death. The lord of light favors targeryians not baratheons.

Her tits definitely weren't that big in 300.

^^ This is what I think, too, though I didn't think through the "watch oath only until death" part. Smartness! I heard that in Book 6 we're supposed to find out more info about Jon Snow's mom. I guess that means we'll finally know if he's Dragon or Stag (I still have a nagging back-of-my-head theory he might be one of Bobby B's bastards just from his looks).

Fans have been crying and bitching and whining all over the web (but not so much here) about the final three episodes of this season. Sansa's rape (that wasn't actually shown, only the sound), the burning of Shireen (um, no actual child was harmed in the making of this episode), and now the killing of Jon Snow by the cowards of the Night's Watch. It makes me want to scream at them; people, this isn't Disney, it's HBO. And Martin's writing is edgy to begin with.

If it happened in the story, then that's how it happened. People complain because the early episodes are "too slow", "too boring", then when things really heat up they bitch because it's too intense. Seriously, where's a crossbow when I need one?

And people need to keep in mind that not all is always as it seems. As Stewart (Relentless) has pointed out, it may be that someone isn't quite dead after all. I guess we'll see next season. I'm sensing that book six isn't all that far off now, if comments floating around the web can be believed. Martin's been dicking around with a lot of other stuff in recent years, a lot of co-writes with other authors on other books, etc. People are really grumbling that it's time he sat his fat ass down and wrote more GOT.

You mean, like this - Write like the Wind by Paul and Storm



I must admit... I wish he did write a bit faster, too :)

I'm not sure what I think about this.. They threw one of the hottest chicks in the show over the railing..


Oh and JSnow... he was one of my untouchable's, next they'll kill the fucking dwarf..

Emotionally traumatized after last episode....

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http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/wp-co...Sansa-Jump.gif

I was wondering, how did Sansa and Theon survive that massive jump?

There was massive snow built up on the ground below.

You know they used a green screen for the walk of shame in the final episode.. that wasn't her body walking naked...

weird

THICK SNOW.... they landed in it

The Sansa rape was unnecessary. It did zero to move the story forward. We already knew Ramsey is terrible. We already knew Sansa is able to endure terrible hardships. We already knew Reek was broken. If that scene was deleted entirely the show would have gotten exactly the same messages across in just as impactful a manner. I believe the show would have been better if Reek took action during that scene rather than when he did later with the stable master's daughter. If they weren't going to have him take action then, they didn't need that scene at all... and it did cost them viewers. Much worse happens to Ramsey's wife in the books (though it isn't Sansa) but a book needs to be more graphic to be jarring for a reader. A visual medium like a tv show needs much less to drive emotional discourse.

The burning of the princess on the other hand was a pivotal plot point in the story. It was the moment Stanis finally chose between his loyalties and his ambitions. He chose wrong and paid the price. It was especially interesting that his choice is what cost him since his army (which was willing to follow him into battle against a much larger entrenched foe) abandoned him because of what he did.

Violence in a story is like magic in a story... Too much of it and it becomes silly. That Sansa scene would be like having a wizard in a floppy hat show up to start throwing lightning bolts at the dothraki. It was just meh... and they included it to juice viewership but ended up losing a chunk of their audience... making much the same mistake Stannis made by burning his own daughter. Their ambitions for ratings won out over their loyalties to story quality.

Awesome vid. :thumbsup

As to him writing faster, he's had a bunch of years now since his last one of the series of books. Much more than enough time, by a few years in fact. Other than some loud grumbling by idiots his true fans have been quite patient from my perspective. I know I have. But it's past time, and I'd wager Martin himself knows it.

I hope to see book six out within the next 6-10 months. You know, before the HBO series overtakes him.

Correct. If the books are any sort of guage here anyway. This occured in book 5, a little differently than in this episode mind you, but same premise. The walls of Winterfell are described as being 100 feet high, the snows had been coming down for weeks, the drifts below the walls were deep.

I'm with you in presuming Sansa survives it. I couldn't care less what happens to Theon. :D

(but I suspect he lives as well. Martin is notorious for turning villains into heroes, and vice-versa)