Jalyn

I think we got very used to characters in long running dramas like soaps doing awful, despicable things. (Cheating on your husband and not being sure who the father is is bad. Rigging a house to collapse and kill both parties? Worse.) The thing is, "back in the day" the story would have them pay for their moral lapses before we moved on to the next story arc where they could be reasonable people again. They rarely went to prison, but whatever they were doing would blow up in their face at some point and they'd either learn (probably temporarily) from that or go on with their scheming until it blew up on them in a new way. (Or, of course, it would turn out that they were possessed by Satan. I think my Days trauma is showing.) The only way that they wouldn't end up realizing that they were at fault for their situations was if they were irredeemably evil or painted as not actually responsible. Now, Sonny murders AJ, it blows up in his face and Michael is an ungrateful bastard for not getting the hell over it while Sonny says that if he had the chance he'd do it again. WTeverlovingF?

Side question, as long as I'm on AJ kick. Like I said, I missed alot of these years - was there ever a scene where AJ just mourned his brother? I've always head canoned it that AJ feels responsible for killing Jason Quartermaine and doesn't really recognize Jason Morgan as the same person, but I don't know if that was ever scripted or is just in my head.

Aren't you the one that says that if Michael tries to take Avery away from Sonny as some sort of revenge, he's no better than Sonny? ;) Also, I haven't watched the clip, but I rather doubt that the Quartermaines assaulted and threatened to murder Jason. Side note, I actually missed most of the original Michael custody drama in real time and have absorbed much of this through osmosis and youtube videos myself and can't watch the actual clips that Cattitude posted at the moment. Is this still during the period where both sides of the issue would be allowed to be seen objectively or are we already in the period where the mob is somehow made up of heroes that those hypocrites that don't murder people for money are unfairly judging?

That's brain damaged hitman. Cattitude, try searching for the scenes where Sonny hung AJ from a meat hook and forced him to sign over his parental rights to Michael by pouring booze over him and telling him that his entire family would believe it when he killed him and made it look like a drunk driving accident. I still want Michael to somehow find a copy of that tape. AJ told him about it, but seeing it should cement his Sonny hate for all time. Wrong AJ, unfortunately, but Show in my Head definitely has surveillance videos floating around somewhere. Then again, Show in my Head has AJ floating around somewhere - and not by Monica's contrivance this time because neither she nor AJ would allow Michael to go through so much pain without telling him.

I'm actually kind of hoping that Sonny will decide to use that recording as leverage to get Michael to not sign off on the illegal recording that Franco took in his home. It's a logical reason to free Carly on a technicality (seeing as I doubt that they'll throw both of them in prison and the recording is the only non-hearsay evidence against her.) It also allows the Sonny hate to be driven just a little bit deeper for Michael. I have to think that they mentioned needing Michael to sign off on it for a plot reason, otherwise they'd have just pretended that the recording was fine.

I don't have it exact, but it was better than that: "Don't call me Corinthos. Call me by my real name, the name my father gave me, the name I should have always had. Call me Michael Quartermaine."

There were other pieces to the plot other than delivering the poison though. Littlefinger set up Tyrion to be the patsy by getting Joffery to hire Penny and her brother in an obvious slight that would be likely to make him blow up and become the most obvious suspect. This both keeps suspicion from them and opens the Master of Coin position. We also don't know the full details of the plot at this point - there might still things that Littlefinger offered to sweeten the deal or did to set up the circumstances that we don't know about. I guess they handled losing the "Tyrion dumps the wine to try to protect his wife that he assumes is guilty" by losing the "assumes his wife is guilty" bit as well. Shame, I always liked that character bit. As much as Tyrion can be a complete ass about women, he had no issues trying to back Sansa's move as far as he could and having absolutely no issues with her having done it. It was almost reminiscent of Ned backing Catelyn taking Tyrion which I'm pretty sure is my favorite "relationship" moment in the entire series.

Stannis was the best of evil choices when it comes to the war of 5 kings for me. Of course, that's only because he actually went to the wall to try and save the damn kingdom he was determined to rule. He may not have gotten it at first but once Davos actually threw it in his face, he went. The show is flattening his character a lot and losing most of the nuance that makes him interesting. However, they also took away the first, and one of the worst, awful things that Book Stannis ever did by making him completely unaware of the Jaime/Cersei relationship until he heard from Ned.

Book wise, it was Gerard rather than Will that lived and ended up being executed by Ned. We hear about him a couple of time from other NW members. Both Benjen and Mormont mention him, though I'm not sure about anyone else. The mentions are just that he seemed stable and that they were shocked that he would desert and wondering what happened to Will and Royce. I can't think of any connections mentioned other than "he was our brother" - certainly not from any major character.

The only thing that Peter Dinklage has in common with Book Tyrion is his height. He's an awesome actor and can pull off the role but suggesting that he actually fits the physical description of the character described in the book is a hell of an insult, really.

Three real options: 1: Tyrion was wrong and the show runners aren't bothering with the red herring 2: Tyrion will realize it somehow during the trial period. I can't imagine another point where it could come up, really. Perhaps he figures it out in front of someone else and it's used as evidence? 3: They've completely forgotten about that thread and will let it drop.

Interesting little difference - Tyrion didn't dump out the cup while everyone was taking care of Joffery. I always loved that little detail just for sheer beautiful writing. While it made him look more guilty of the murder, the character had a perfectly reasonable and in character reason to do so. He assumed his wife had done it and wanted to protect her. Sensible, in character actions from everyone involved that move the plot forward. I'm sure you can do it without that and if it isn't going to be a plot point on both sides, you have to cut it. Otherwise anyone who isn't already in the know will assume Tyrion really did kill him.

I had forgotten that. I had assumed at the time that they made a logic mistake and didn't realize that they had actually just shown Ward trying to kill May after he should have been clear of the influence. That's what I get for handwaving away such things.

If they were looking for Dany's relation to Oberyn, it's overly complex, I would think. If they are just looking for all Oberyn's non-Dorne connections (and why he's pissed at each of them) I would think that it's overly simplistic. For instance, Jaime killed Aerys, Elia's father-in-law. Probably more importantly to Oberyn, he wasn't protecting Rhaegar's wife and children when they were murdered as the Kingsguard should have. (Hmmm, has Jaime ever talked about that or am I projecting him feeling guilty that he wasn't there to protect them as part of my personal whitewash of the character? After all, they weren't going to blow up Kingslanding.) Tywin is the Clegane's overlord and ultimately responsible for their actions (and someone that Oberyn is much more likely to care about than the Hound!) As a note, we have lost the other guilty party, right? (Wasn't that Amory Lorch?) If he gives a damn about Ned Stark, it's probably more about his support for Robert than being Lyanna's brother - no matter what he thinks or knows of R+L. Wait... Did Elia only have one kid according to the show? (Gregor "Killed Elia Martell and her baby" rather than "her children") Presumably that would mean that we'd lose Rhanerys?

Maybe best in the general books topic? Regardless, the Gentleman Bastard Series is completely different in tone and style than either GRRM or JRRT. * The world building, while deep, is done entirely differently and is done with a very light hand. Being a fan of both GRRM and JRRT, I find Lynch to be more enjoyable than either but less likely to cause me to spend time thinking about it when I'm not actually reading it. If you're looking for something closer to those two, you might try Rothfuss (if you haven't already) but I would highly suggest Lynch at some point. *(No specific book spoilers at all, for GoT, Lord of the Rings or the Gentleman Bastards, I just mention some vague overarching stuff that the Unsullied might not wish to see.)