Game of Thrones #19 - Blackwater (spoilers)

[NewJeffCT]

epic show tonight. Maybe the best of the series so far? Great acting from Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Sophie Turner and Rory McCann.

Loved The Hound tonight - his face-off with Bronn, then his kicking ass, then him panicking & running, then telling Joff to fuck off, and then his encounter with Sansa at the end.

Loved the Rains of Castamere at the end.

[Liberal Veteran]

1. A very good episode.

Stannis pissed off the wrong family when he had Renly killed.

So many great lines. Everyone did an excellent job. Even Shae was good.

[Baitball Blogger]

5. I had to watch it with the volume down.

Are you referring to the Lannisters? The Lannisters were loyal to Renly? I thought they were loyal only to themselves.

[Liberal Veteran]

7. The Tyrells.

That was Loras Tyrell beside Tywin when he burst into the throne room.

Loras was none too happy when Renly died.

[Baitball Blogger]

8. Ahhh!

The lover. I didn't realize he had a following. I thought he was just a knight.

OH! I just made the connection. Loras Tyrell is the the guy they call flowery in the book.

[NewJeffCT]

13. He doesn't have a following

per se.

It's just that he is the second oldest son of one of the most powerful and wealthiest houses in Westeros, the Tyrells. His sister Margaery was the one married to Renly.

So, when you have Loras & Margaery on your side, you have everybody else associated with their house - thousands of knights and tens of thousands of soldiers overall, when you include all their bannermen and associated knights and men at arms.

[Baitball Blogger]

14. Understood.

[Behind the Aegis]

2. It was a fantastic episode. (SPOILER QUESTION)

I haven't read the series, so is he (and those who watched will know who I am asking about) dead?! Please say NO!

[CrawlingChaos]

3. Fear not

He is very much alive In the book his wound is far more disfiguring, btw.

Did you notice it was Sir Mandon Moore of the Kingsguard who dealt the blow? Loved Podrick Payne taking him out after!

This was indeed a fantastic episode!

[Ghost of Tom Joad]

9. I was wondering how they were going to handle Tyrion's disfigurement

apparently it won't be as bad as in the book.

[Behind the Aegis]

18. WHEW! I really like him!

I did notice...and it was fucking awesome! I also like the "dog" barking back!

[NewJeffCT]

4. Joff is still alive

I'm sure that's who you were asking about, right?

[Behind the Aegis]

17. You so bad!

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Can we assume that the son of the crabber is dead?

Used as cannon fodder by Stannis?

[NewJeffCT]

10. well, in the books

Davos has 7 sons and (swipe for spoilers) [font color=white]4 or 5 of them die on different boats in the Blackwater[/font]

So, I think you're probably right that his son died.

[Baitball Blogger]

12. Do you think Davos survived that?

[Duer 157099]

11. This season as a cake

[Chan790]

15. That's an awesome wedding cake...

it's a better reflection of next season in cake than this season in cake though.

[Marrah_G]

16. I love this series

I think Peter Dinklage who plays Tyrion is incredibly talented.

The books are WELL worth reading (or listening to) and continue to surprise me with all the twists and turns in the storyline.

[Ghost of Tom Joad]

19. I have to agree with you there

I was particularly surprised by some of the characters who turn up in Dance With Dragons as well as the events that occur, and who knows how long until book six comes out.

[NewJeffCT]

21. That's been the frustrating thing about the series

I read A Clash of Kings when it came out - I rarely buy hardcover books, but I bought that one way back in the late 90s. A Storm of Swords came out a few years later.

But, then it was 5 years for a A Feast for Crows and 6 years for Dance... when I picked up Feast when it came out, I had forgotten so much that many of the characters didn't even register in my memory.

I'm sure I'll have to re-read the entire series when Winds of Winter comes out in 2015 or 2016 or whenever (I'm hoping by 2014...) because I'll have forgotten a lot of the small details that make the books special - again.

Another frustration is that the first 3 books all had clear endings. Dance ended with a bunch of cliffhangers that will be out there for several years.

[Liberal Veteran]

22. It is like waiting for the next Wheel of Time book.

I never expected that to turn into 14 books, but they seemed to come out fairly regularly (and then the author died).

I hope GRRM has the books ready to go.

I don't know if it is the publisher or the author, but if you write a multi-volume story with 8000 characters branching off here and there, it would be nice to know they have the entire series in the bag.

[Chan790]

24. I don't think the waits will be as long now.

Apparently GRRM had about 1/3-1/2 of Winds of Winter written when Dance with Dragons went to press. Combined with his own comments on feeling pressured by encroaching mortality and the fact that the GoT producers made him give them a full-outline of the series including the ending in-case he croaked...I think he feels a fire under his butt to crank out the remainder.

It's not uncommon for writers to get bogged-down in the middle of a long epic...look at Stephen King and the Gunslinger series, it took him almost 30 years to write...with 18 months between the last two books and 2 years between book 5 and 6. He hasn't stopped writing back-story novels and plotting for the comic book since, filling in the holes. It's really daunting as a writer to look at something several thousand pages long and know you've got a few more to go...almost as much so as the blank-page that every writer dreads.

[NewJeffCT]

26. I'm hoping you're right

I think because he was a TV series writer before, he should know how to write under the pressure of a deadline.

Plus, he has also commented that he had a lot of trouble with Feast & Dance, so the last two books (can he wrap up all the plotlines in two books?) should be easier. Of course, the story and world are so complex now that he has to run everything by the guy that runs the westeros.org website to make sure he's not "breaking" any precedents or history he set in previous books

Of course, he had a lot of Dance written when Feast was finished, but then had to rewrite most of it.

The way I look at it:
2013 on HBO is Season 3, the first part of A Storm of Swords
2014 on HBO is Season 4, and wraps up A Storm of Swords and starts Feast/Dance. Hopefully, Winds is released by year-end 2014 - 3 1/2 years is not unreasonable.
2015 on HBO is Season 5, goes through most of Feast & part of Dance
2016 on HBO is Season 6, wraps up Feast & Dance, starts Winds of Winter
2017 on HBO is Season 7, the Winds of Winter - A Dream of Spring released at the end of 2017?
2018 on HBO is Season 8, wraps up Winds, starts A Dream of Spring
2019 on HBO is Season 9 - finishes the story, possibly goes 12 or 13 episodes.

[Iggo]

20. The Hound has a hell of a stroke, huh?

Was it two or three guys he chopped completely in half?

[Liberal Veteran]

23. That's because the people of Westeros are made of Jello.

[Chan790]

29. Well, he had to grow up holding his own against Ser Gregor. (This might be a minor spoiler.)

(I don't remember if they got to this in the show, it comes up pretty early in the books IIRC.)

His brother, "The Mountain that Rides" is an 8 1/2' tall 500# horse-decapitating jousting-lance-sharpening sadist...who set him on fire for the fun of it as a small boy, leaving him face-down in the fireplace to die. The very fact that Gregor is a knight is the reason Sandor Clegane refuses to be a knight; the only non-knight to ever serve the Kingsguard.

The Hound admits that his favorite thing is killing; there's someone he wants to kill more than anybody else alive. One could say it's his sole excuse for living...preparing for the day he can lop his brother in half. If your sole motivation in life was preparing to cleanly butcher a man the size of a full-grown bear into pieces, you'd have a hell of a stroke too.

[Baitball Blogger]

25. Just came across this synopsis of Game of Thrones.

It's over-editorialized, but, that's why I keep reading her column. Also, she brings in interesting perspectives.

However, she points something out in her synopsis that I hadn't realized. At the end of the battle, just as Tyrion gets slashed in the face, he looks on to see a charging army. He assumes it's Stannis. I thought it was Stannis. And that it was only seconds later that Tywinn''s army arrived to meet them. But the way that lainey explains it, the battle was already won when Tyrion gets slashed because it's Tywinn's army that arrives.

If so, can we assume that Tyrion will get exhalted praise for his leadership?

http://www.laineygossip.com/Articles/Details/23647/Game-Of-Thrones-Season-2-Episode-9-recap

[NewJeffCT]

27. I rewartched the show yesterday

in HD on a big screen TV instead of on my computer. The first charging group is Stannis' men - where Tyrion goes "Oh fuck me"

However, as he is passing out, he sees the horses charging and that is Tywin, Loras, etc on horse. I'm pretty sure he doesn't realize who they are, though. But, you can clearly see the antlered helm the guy on the white horse is wearing - if you know what to look for. Since they were mounted and took Stannis' forces from behind and by surprise, they routed them pretty easily. Unless prepared, men on foot rarely can stand up to charging knights on horses.

[Baitball Blogger]

28. Thanks NJC!

[ChazInAz]

30. I like Dinklage.

As an actor, myself, I was especially impressed by his performance in this episode. When giving his speech to rally the troops, he didn't do the obvious Lawrence Olivier "St. Crispin's Day" speech, but instead played Tyrion as pissing-his-chainmail frightened while trying to hide his fear. Then closing it with an offhand "There are brave men trying to knock in our gate. Let's go kill them." Absolutely brilliant performance.
I've seen him in a few other shows, and really like his style. For one thing, he plays his parts straight instead of going for the cute Billy Barty type little Munchkin. The guy has talent, and I expect to see some major awards for his work some day.

[OriginalGeek]

32. He's the only guy I ever saw play the same character

in both a British and American version of a film.

And he was great in both.

(Death at a Funeral)

[NewJeffCT]

34. well, he won an Emmy and a Golden Globe

last year for his portrayal of Tyrion. Those are as major as you can get outside of an Oscar.

[white_wolf]

31. Great episode.

I loved the childish exchange between the Tyrion and Joffery. Joffery: "Hound tell Pod to tell the Hand that the King is asking him a question." Tyrion: "Pod tell the Hound to tell the King that the Hand is busy trying to save his city." That whole scene made me laugh.

[MrSlayer]

33. All I know is that the Imp better not be dead.

I will not be a happy camper if such is the case. I hate the Lannisters except for him. The best character in a show full of great ones.

[Amaril]

35. One of the best lines of dialog ever.........

"Those are brave men knocking at our door. Let's go kill them!"