Andeleisha

For those of you with timeline whiplash, this was bothering me too, so I put together a timeline for the show: http://www.fandomfollowing.com/how-much-time-has-passed-on-game-thrones/

Me too, Avaleigh! I hope they release it someday, or at least a copy leaks online. I adore Jennifer Ehle.

Woohoo, rewatch!! LETS ALL TELL SHIMPY WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO BE A BOOKWALKER FIVE YEARS AGO! So I watched episode 1 yesterday and (since I'm watching this with an eye towards shimpy's experience!) the thing I was reminded of was how EXCITED I was to see all these characters in the flesh for the first time. They were already familiar to me from the books, so seeing them on screen was like "oh hello, you're Catelyn!" On rewatch, this feeling especially struck me with the minor characters. (The major TV show characters have grown too much to feel new I guess?) I kept thinking "That's Rodrick!" or "That's Jory!" They all show up in these early episodes, and while I think the show does a better job of explaining their job titles in later episodes, certainly in the pilot recognizing them felt like easter eggs for book fans. shimpy, did you know that there is actually an UNAIRED pilot out there? They didn't like it so they re-wrote it and recast a few parts before they gave us the pilot we all know and love. Here's a link to an article about the unaired pilot! (Apologies if this has been linked before, my brain is a little mushy today.)

Hey, we're supposed to start our season 1 rewatch today! Anyone else going to watch along?

I've always liked the idea of Dany on Drogon, Jon on Viserion, and Aegon on Rhaegal. I like the symbolism of Jon getting a white dragon like his white wolf, calling back to his Stark roots, and Aegon gets the dragon named for his father. Also, on Mel's appearance -- remember that in the books, Mel is not canonically beautiful. Cressen describes her as "She was not beautiful. She was red, and terrible, and red."

Response to Impin's second spoiler box:

Joke about season 6 trailer: I can't wait for gotgifsandmusings and theculturalvacuum to do a write up on it :) On the topic of a full show re-watch: Since S6 premieres April 24th, if we wanted to give ourselves a week to watch each season, that means we'd need to start watching by March 20th. So I say we start after shimpy finishes the Winds chapters! Unless we're migrating over to Twitter or whatever to do live viewings, I think we can all fast forward through those scenes that gives us the creeps! :) For me the scenes in Craster's Keep in season 4 were the hardest to watch.

Hi shimpy, I know we've still got the Winds sample chapters for you to read, but I was wondering if you wanted to do a re-watch of the television show now that you've read the books? This is the time of year when I usually do a rewatch in preparation for the new season, so if you were interested, maybe we could extend the fun of this thread and all rewatch together? Season six airs on April 24h, so we've got plenty of time. I thought I'd bring it up early because I know not everyone enjoys/has the time to binge watch!

Oh god yes. I also had not thought about "damp hair" until this forum! I'd always pronounced in "Dam fair" in my head, because "the Damfair" sounds like a self-important religious title. Especially with the ph in there, I thought it was the name for the Drowned God's high priest. He's referred to so frequently as "the Damphair" it never occured to me that it could be descriptive. Who the hell names anyone THE Damp Hair?

Hahahahahahaha, oh Dev, that is a wonderful description. I can't even argue with your assessment, the guy is basically just a window into Doran, he doesn't have a whole lot of personality. But that didn't bother me at all, and I enjoyed his chapters precisely because it was presented in such an unbiased, factual way. I think that was stylistic choice to underline the discomfort of the revenge plot. Hotah's feelings don't invite the reader to become emotionally invested in the Dornish revenge, it has to stand on it's own merits. Fans obviously do invest in that plotline, but I personally feel like a lot of the emotional heft is driven by Arianne's perspective. "Likable" so perfectly captures what is great about the Davos POV. Don't get me wrong, Martin has written some of the most compelling and beautifully crafted character arcs I have ever encountered. Catelyn, Theon, Jaime....they are truly works of art. But they can be pretty uncomfortable to read. Davos is such a treat to read in the midst of all those bleak hopes. I'm probably one of like five people who loved Dance, and who loved it because of the Tyrion and Dany chapters. While I can see all the flaws that people complain about, the wheel-spinning Martin is doing here just works for me. Tyrion is so volatile and intense it reads like a roller coaster, and I'm a huge geek for administrative minutiae. (Why yes I AM a project manager!) I so empathize with Dany for feeling overwhelmed and beaten down, but I also spend the entire novel thinking about how to re-organize her government. These quirks make it so fun for me to sink in and really engage with the text. Which reminds me, shimpy, did you check out the Mereenese Blot essays on Dany? It's been linked here in the past but I don't know if you'd been spoiled enough yet :) Here's the link if you haven't: https://meereeneseblot.wordpress.com/2013/09/27/untangling-the-meereenese-knot-part-i-who-poisoned-the-locusts/ I'm sure you'd love it, this is one of the most well-known and respected metas out there, even GRRM himself has applauded it.

Lol Terra, you almost make me want to root for SanSan! Spoilers for TWOW Alayne preview chapter:

Also does anyone have those links to the early Unsullied threads that shimpy mentioned? I only joined end of season 3/beginning of season 4.

I always wonder how much the lack of editing is the author vs the publishing house. (I totally agree with you that this series suffers from bloat.) From a business perspective, why waste money and resources editing something when you know it will sell regardless? I wonder if that means they don't push as hard on the author as they might have otherwise.

So one of my favorite things to speculate about is the identity of the Faceless Men. Now, this might be entering crack theory territory, but to me, this was the thing that convinced me that Martin is telling a much, much deeper story than I thought. This thing has layers upon layers. I don't believe we talked about this paragraph during your read, shipmy, which is from AFFC: (Correct me if this has already been covered though!) A lot of these people sound awfully familiar, don't they? The thing I find most intriguing is the man with the stern face and pale eyes. That sounds like it could be Roose Bolton, and the idea of him having ties to the Faceless men just blows my mind! I think most people believe that the fat fellow is Illyrio, which could maybe make sense? Although geeze that would mean Illyrio has a finger in a ton of secret plots. Not clear if Varys is in on it too, although him having ties to the Faceless Men would explain a lot about his disguises in the Red Keep. I'd prefer to think the fat fellow is Marwyn (the Maester who taught Mirri Maz Duur and Qyburn, the one who Sam met who then immediately set off to find Dany). I just have a hard time seeing Varys in alliance with a guild that uses magic, although maybe it's just Illyrio and Varys doesn't know. I admit the physical description doesn't *quite* fit -- Marwyn is described as having a broken nose, not a hook nose, and I think the sourleaf he chews would turn his teeth red, not yellow, but still! The fierce eyes would fit Marwyn better than Illyrio, because Marwyn is described as looking more like a soldier than a Maester. The handsome man with the different colored beard -- I think Daario is the only character who is described as dying his beard more than once? I guess maybe the Faceless Men could have planted him there to keep an eye on Dany but that DEFINITELY in crack theory territory. The Lordling I think is Garlan Tyrell, but that's based on absolutely nothing, so. Later in Dance, (ch 64, the Ugly Girl) Arya serves at a council of Faceless Men, where they talk about assassinating someone -- they go around the room saying whether or not they know someone. I've wondered if the people know in common is supposed to be clue to help us figure out their identities but I've got nothing. There's another man at this gathering who is described as having pox marks on his face. Again, character who is described as having pock marks on his face? Bowen Marsh. Maybe Jon's assassination was a plot of the Faceless Men all along. Of course, Bowen Marsh the Faceless Man shouldn't be killing Jon, since he knows him. Maybe the Faceless Men trade faces with each other to infiltrate and then kill their targets, which means that the characters their playing aren't real people at all, just roles they play. Maybe Daario isn't Daario at all, but a succession of new and different Faceless Men spying on Dany. Paints Dany's affair with him in a whole new light.

Congratulations, shimpy! Although I'd exercise caution venturing out into the wilder Internet as there are still the sample Winds of Winter chapters out there :) What should we do next ?! Put together a list of the best meta essays? Dump everything we know about season six? The first teaser came out last week, shimpy, you could watch it now!