Game of Thrones - HBO series

Is there a web page that explains the military campaigns? The reason I ask is because I see that Rob Stark is winning the war. I was just wondering how he is doing it.

Question for you all. Are the books worth reading? Or just watching the show good enough?

 

I am afraid of Martin craoking before the books finish!

Idiots, how on earth would the plot progress if Stark was kept alive. I am all for keeping Sean Bean in employment but there is a greater good to be served.

 

Exactly!

YEAH!!!!!

The books really help too

The books are amazing, but I'm a big book reader.

 

Sean Bean was the main objection the critic had for killing Ned off, but still idiotic seeing as it wasn't a surprise twist for the character. I wasn't a huge fan of Ned or Catherine Stark but Ned certainly more redeeming qualities than his wife in my opinion.

 

he got his start writing scripts for TV shows in Hollywood (several of which were very successful) all the way back in the 70's I believe, so he has a lot of practice with making long winded story lines work and juggling lots of characters.

 

So far there will be six books in the series? Will the 6th be the final book? I would buy them all but I wouldn't read them until the entire series was completed. I hate reading a book and then having to wait for the next one, I forget what the story was about.

 

there is supposed to be 7 total in the series with 5 out atm. there are so many things to wrap up though... a lot of people think it may take 8 books instead of 7. its will likely be at least another decades before the series is done (unless GR pumps out the next 2-3 like he was doing with the first books back in the 90's),.
just read the ones ut now and re read them when the next one comes out if you can remember the story.
this is an excellent ASoIAF forum for any who are interested.
http://asoiaf.westeros.org/

 

I saw an interview with him where he said it's supposed to be 7 books, but that he's not going to give himself a predetermined limit to tell the story, so if it takes 8 books, or 9 books, so be it. He's a really interesting guy actually. I watched an interview with him on Youtube, as well as the Comic Con panel about Game of Thrones with some of the actors/actresses from the show. The guy that played Drogo in an interesting dude, as well as the guy who plays Jaime.

 

The kid Jeoffery who plays also plays the commissioners son in the batman movies.

 

HBO has the plot for the remainder of the story in case he dies...

 

nice parody, http://warmingglow.uproxx.com/2012/...stephen-colbert-as-game-of-thrones-characters

 

SNL explanation for GoT success...

http://gawker.com/5902076/snl-explains-the-nudity-in-game-of-thrones?popular=true

 

I caught up on watching season 2 last night. Some of the episodes I found upsetting to watch, too many deviations and changes. I was actually arguing with the tv I was so upset. I want to say I won't continue watching it, but I am sure I will the series is still well done. It could have however been much better if they weren't rushing story lines and leaving out whole families and important events.

 

I'm watching the series and have read the first 3 books. Season 1 matched the book almost exactly, but some of the changes in season 2 are getting annoying. The story always leads to the same place as the book, but the series is taking some different routes to get there. Some of the changes seem so unnecessary, I'm not really sure of their purpose.

 

I agree with the last two posts, the way they've veered away from the book in the 2nd season is more annoying than it normally would be considering how fantastically they held to the book in season 1. My wife told me she read somewhere that people were complaining that the series wasn't doing a good job of identifying the characters, so perhaps they are smushing a lot of the different plot elements into the regular characters, whether those plots items originate or involve them in the book or not.

Honestly though, I'm at the point where I don't know what's going to happen next in the show even though I've read all the books.

 

----CONTAINS SPOILER----
[video=youtube;1kLSYTHQbm4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kLSYTHQbm4[/video]

 

I've started a Game of Thrones group here...
http://www.politicalforum.com/groups/game-thrones/

I think that the popularity of the series is going to continue to increase. The 3rd book is pivotal and will be broken up into two seasons. Personally I'd prefer if HBO would go ahead and greenlight 20 epis per season. I realize that they are probably pretty expensive to produce, but there are only 3 episodes left this season and it just feels to short...

 

I don't see what they gain by the changes and although there are a ton of tiny tweaks, it was major plot lines being changed that upset me.

What I find unforgivable is thing like leaving out the Boltons and the Reeds (Meera and Jojen particularly). So help me if they do not have Jon meet back up with the Half-hand for their ending scene.

I wonder what Martin has to say about the changes.

 

I agree, I'm not even sure how they are going to proceed without the Reeds since the only reason they were heading beyond the wall was because the Reeds said that's where they had to go. They also helped to start Bran's further investigation of his worg talents.

Roose Bolten is in the show and he does mention Ramsay to Robb, but they completely changed the way that Ser Rodric got killed.

Also, I completely agree about the halfhand. The series is slowly becoming something almost unrecognizable from the books.

 

I think that the books just get to complex to follow faithfully. The first book is pretty linear and only follows a limited number of characters. By the time you get to the 4th and 5th books you're getting into more than a dozen different ongoing plot lines with probably close to 20 main characters and a hundred or more minor ones. It'd be impossible to cover all of that in a 60 minute tv show. I do hope they begin adding more episodes to each season to make a better effort at doing so. Either way, the show is awesome. I just read the most recently released book and found myself visualizing all of the characters as they were in the show. That's pretty incredible considering I began reading the series years before the show came out.

 

I get a little lost sometimes....who were the two burnt bodies hung on ropes in the last episode (#17)....that Theon Greyjoy had killed?

 

They're supposed to be the two youngest Stark boys.

 

In the book you're supposed to think they are, there wasn't any foreshadowing in the book till after Theon had displayed the heads. But in the book Bran and Rickon are also traveling with their cousins, Jojen and Meera Reed, who had been at Winterfell prior to Theon even taking it. They are sticking to the overall storyline, but they are also making a great case for why this series needs to be made with a few more episodes to each season than they are now.

I do agree that after the 1st book, the plot gets pretty intricate and without the ablility to fill up pages with descriptions and nuance on screen like you can in a book does hinder the depth they can feasibly go. I think if they added 3-4 more episodes per season, they could really flesh out the story a lot more. However, you also have to think about how they like to end each episode on a cliffhanger, and those don't always happen on the same timeline in the book, so they have to shift things around.

 

I agree. No tv show will ever be able to cover an entire series of books; especially a series of 6+ books of 800+ pages with hundreds of characters. I think they've done a great job of "dumbing" down the novels while still keeping the spirit and core story line intact. I read a lot, and its been at least five years since I read the second one. I've found myself enjoying the tv series and finding little missing from the books; probably because I've forgotten many of the little side twists and only remember the larger story arcs. This makes the series more enjoyable. The tv series coincides with my fuzzier memory of the novel, which is perfect. I'm sure rereading that second book right now would irk me a bit.

 

As Ignoranceisbliss stated there are so many story lines to remember, which is the reason I went back and read them all when Dance of Dragons came out. Even so I still second guess myself at times when watching the show.

Arya in the show is the cup bearer to Tywin at Haranhall?? I don't recall this happening. It should be Roose Bolton, the leech enthusiast, to my recollection. I am glad I'm wrong about the Boltons, I was wondering how they were going to handle Theon's future.

I like Meera and Jojen, plus their family and their secrete bogs are instrumental in the story, I am upset they left them out. Although I think that Rob might have gone to the bogs at his end of the last episode. Taking Meera and Jojen out is a mistake in my opinion, as you said you miss the development of Bran's abilities.

The dragons are never kidnapped. I am a little upset that they haven't had the guy from qarth crying all of time like he did in the book, and that they are killing off Dany's entourage. I don't recall her hand servant or the other blood-rider dying in qarth.

One add in I like is the development of Jayne, Rob Stark's lady. In the story she is not mentioned much and just thrown in there. It does make me wonder why when they are leaving so much out that they are adding so much of Rob in, but I guess its so things will hit harder.

I am retaining some faith that although they had Jon and Ygritte run off together that Jon will meet back up with the Half-hand before stating his next venture.

Sorry if anyone got a spoiler from my list. I did try to be vague enough so that I do not give away anything to the viewers that haven't read the books.