Maximum Taco
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A castlist based on the HBO press release. Doesn't necessarily perfectly correlate with who will get main credits, nor an indication of how much screentime they'll get:
Main series regulars - Tyrion/Jaime/Cersei, Olenna/Margaery, Jon/Arya/Sansa, Littlefinger, Dany
Second tier of returning regulars - Varys, Ellaria, Bronn, Tommen, Sam/Melisandre/Davos/Stannis/Giantsbane, Theon/Roose/Ramsay, Brienne, Missandei/Jorah/Daario
New regulars - High Sparrow, Doran/Areo/Obara/Tyene/Nym/Myrcella/Trystane
Margaery was promoted from the second tier to the first tier, joining Olenna who is basically there just cuz of her Emmy history rather than her prominence on the show. Seems to show Margaery's significance to this season, esp given that the actual king (unlike Joffrey last season) is not up there with her.
It's so weird not seeing Bran/Isaac Hempstead Wright in the cast list.
I miss him already.
I hope everyone isn't like "Who's that guy?" when he comes back in season 6.
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I agree. I've seen people say that they would like to get all the episodes at ones. I don't agree at all. I want to have a week between each so that there's time between them for discussion and speculation.
Both approaches have merit.
I love the wait sometimes. But I don't deny that I always binge the season of House of Cards on a lazy Sunday and I love that Sunday.
This 4 episodes at once leak isn't at all appealing to me though. You just get ahead of everyone else, and then you get a 4 week long cliffhanger.
That could kill me.
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That is such a shame. I love spoilers, but reading review comments about specific storylines and analyzing every second of trailer footage is different from actual episodes being accessible weeks before they're aired. Part of the fun and frustration of GOT is having a week to discuss the episode and speculate about the future before we find out what happens next on the show.
These were probably the four episodes sent to reviewers, so I doubt 5-10 will leak. Has any show ever had its season finale leak more than a week before it airs? The biggest leak I can remember is that Wolverine movie which ended up doing OK at the box office despite being bad.
Movies get leaked a lot. You can find the critic screeners pretty easily for any movie that sends them out if you're so inclined. A lot of critics are unfortunately not very careful, usually the story is some lend them out to friends/family or the screener is "borrowed" by friends/family and ripped.
It happens a lot less with TV shows cause most TV shows don't screen their episodes beyond maybe the season premiere. I'm guessing you are right that some critic was either less then careful with their copies or deliberately uploaded them, and the leaked episodes are the screeners sent out.
The biggest leak I can remember (beyond this one) was actually a book, the 7th Harry Potter was leaked about a week ahead of it's release date IIRC. This is probably the easiest leak to pull off cause for a big release book stores get tonnes of copies in stock very early and books are rarely shrinkwrapped so it's easy for an employee to scan and upload them and be able to return the copy before anyone notices. I guess it doesn't happen very often cause few books carry as much hype as Harry Potter. Maybe the last ASOIAF will end up leaked as well though.
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Obviously, GRRM no longer values his books above fame. My biggest fear is that Brandon Sanderson will have to finish up the series like he did for Robert Jordan's series - Wheel of Time. Brandon will produce a better product than GRRM at this point but it will mean a delay in his epic series - Stormlight Archive. Although it woud be pretty awesome for Neal Stephenson and Joe Abercrombie to partner and give this series a fitting end.
GRRM has already said if he dies the books die with him.
Not sure if that was just him being pissed off because everyone was asking him to hurry the hell up and bringing up Jordan's recent death as he reason he should hurry the hell up. But if you follow his blog (yeah I don't care what he says, it's a friggin blog) he's very against other people writing his characters. Before the HBO show debuted he actually had his staff go around to fanfiction sites around the internet and ask the writers (read: teenagers) to cease and desist.
I don't think he'd ask Sanderson (or anyone) to finish his books. Personally my biggest fear is the books never get finished cause he's so protective of his characters. Atleast we'll get the TV ending though.
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Episode Leak!
Link to Spoiler Free News Story: http://gizmodo.com/nearly-half-of-game-of-thrones-season-5-just-leaked-1697305966
First four episodes were leaked by some no doubt unsavoury individuals. So anyone who's wary of spoilers should be extra careful for the next few weeks.
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Princes/Kings can marry widows too, can't they? I think the issue with Marg was that her first husband was her second husband's treasonous uncle so it was better to pretend that first marriage never happened and give her the perk of virginity to offset the Tyrells' recent treason, and now her third husband is a child half her age. And Joffrey was only 13 at their betrothal, I think 14 at his death on their wedding day, if he'd been a "man grown" and she was the teen widow of a loyal lord, I don't think Tywin would let lack of virginity stop him from allying with the largest army in Westeros.
Lack of virginity might have just delayed the wedding a bit.
In the case of non-virginal widows, the King (or Lord) would likely want to wait a little while (probably half a year-a whole year) to make sure his prospective bride wasn't pregnant with the recently deceased man's child before the marriage.
This is similar to what Jaime says about Jeyne Westerling. They are happy to arrange a marriage for her, but the marriage needs to wait so there's no tongues wagging about any resultant child actually being the child of the dead man, in that case the dead man being the King in the North and the resultant child being his heir.
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Ashara doesn't have the silver hair, right?
I don't know that Howland would necessarily be trying to pass her off as a crannogwoman to his people. If the theory is true I'd think that the crannogmen would know that she's not one of them but since they're pretty secretive it seems to me that they'd be disinclined to spread the word.
That being said I agree with your point that it doesn't really add anything to the story.
Now I want to read the theory again because I can't recall specifically what sold me.
I think it has something to do with a quote from when Meera is talking about the KotLT buI'm not sure.
Ashara doesn't, she has dark hair, and I'm not sure about Allyria either. I actually have thought that the pale hair may be a male only trait amongst the Daynes. Since all the male Daynes we know do have silver hair (Edric, Darkstar and Ser Arthur.) But all of the ones we know about have violet eyes.
In regards to Howland passing Ashara off as a crannogwoman, in the book appendix Howland's wife is listed as "Jyana, of the crannogmen" probably because Jyana is not of a noble house and has no last name, which would not be a large issue for the hermetic crannogmen who probably wouldn't have a problem with their lord marrying a commoner. So while he might not be trying to pass her off as a crannogwoman to his own people, he is saying outwardly to the rest of the public that he is married to a crannogwoman.
Here's the theory I read: http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/89012-howland-reed-ashara-dayne-meera-jojen/
It's a ridiculously thin argument in my opinion, even though it is very lengthy. It tries to be another R + L = J, but in the end there's a lot of very compelling evidence for that theory, and this one has much much less.
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I remember reading that theory about Ashara being the mother of the Reed siblings and I think it makes sense. I guess my only question is why would that marriage have to be such a mystery? Why put out the word that she'd thrown herself into the sea?
I don't think it makes very much sense.
The theory as I read it seemed full of a lot of holes.
My big problems, in addition to your ones about why all the secrecy, are,
1) Why don't Meera and Jojen have any Dayne characteristics? By all accounts the Daynes traits are heavily hereditary with almost everyone having violet eyes, and many having silver hair.
2) How is Howland passing off the tall, strikingly beautiful Ashara with her violet eyes, as being a crannogwoman?
It seems very convoluted, and also unnecessary to the story. Not that everything has to be necessary to the story. But if GRRM invented such a convoluted mystery, you'd think it would be more important to the story. I mean R + L = J has less work put into it than this and has much further reaching implications.
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I'm rusty on Westerosi law, but is it possible to annul a marriage if it wasn't consummated?
Also, I enjoyed the Sansa chapter but I don't get why it's supposed to be controversial.
GRRM said in a Q&A that the High Septon can set aside a marriage done under the Faith of the Seven, that has not been comsummated, but one of the parties must request the annulment. There would obviously be considerable danger in Sansa making such a request with the Lannisters in control of King's Landing.
Not sure how it would be done for vows said under a Heart Tree. I assume the High Septon might be able to annul those too though. Maybe he'd require you to profess your changed faith?
The current High Septon/Sparrow might require proof of your claim as well. But since Sansa is a virgin, she might actually have that proof.
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Anyone else feel like if Tommen and Margery consummate their wedding it will mean Margaery is going to lose her trial? I just feel that losing her virginity (officially) would be a huge change from her character in the book and that it probably means she's not going to be around long enough for it to matter.
Can Tommen consummate his marriage?
Remember Book Tommen is currently 9.
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Also, I like that SweetRobin knows Harry is pretending to like him. Granted it probably comes from a place of jealousy regarding Sansa but it shows some awareness on his part. He's more than just a sickly rube, even if just barely.
Giving a lot of credit to Sweetrobin there.
I just assumed Lysa poisoned her son against Harry. Just like she terrified him of the outside world. I don't think Lysa wanted Sweetrobin to like anyone outside of her (and maybe her most loyal supporters like Vardis Egen), and Baelish. She definitely didn't want him all chummy with the kid who wasn't hers who was set to inherit the Eyrie, and looks and acts much more the lordling then poor Sweetrobin.
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I enjoyed the chapter well enough, but I can't help but feel somewhat disappointed. After all these years, and so much speculation about where Sansa is heading, it feels to me like she's still just doing what she's told. Littlefinger has her well in hand - there isn't even a hint about her feeling resentful about another marriage. I don't know - she will definitely be a social asset, but this chapter did nothing to reinforce her as coming into her own. Sansa may forever remain a puppet and never become a player in the game.
It's probably her first chapter in this book, and when we last left her Littlefinger had to pretty much walk her through his plan.
I know it's been years since we had a Sansa chapter, but it in book time it was been not nearly that long.
You might be expecting a little much from her so early. She's not going to go from naive pawn to magnificent bastard in one chapter.
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When did Tyrion want to get Sansa out of Kingslanding? I agree though that they did have a bit of a connection in the show.
I could be misremembering, but I believe he makes a remark about sending her to Casterly Rock after Joff's wedding.
Mainly to prevent Joffrey from tormenting her further.
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They probably could've gotten the one guy who actually committed the crime if the Prof hadn't gotten greedy and tried to get every guy in every frat in trouble.
Just goes to show that if you want justice, you need to be upfront about things. Also don't go changing your story every 6 seconds and broadcasting it.
"One guy raped me"
"Four guys raped me"
"Six guys raped me"
"One guy raped me, but a different guy from the one I originally said raped me"
Not trying to blame the victim here, but at the end even she has to realise she isn't a credible witness. She'd get ruined in court on cross examination.
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What-if: I'm going with your what-if MT about Robb and Myrcella being betroth instead of Sansa and Joffrey. That's what you meant right about the fanfiction?
Actually I don't see how that would change much. Sansa and Arya would still be going to KL but not Bran because he'd still be thrown. Robb would stay in WF to be the main Stark and his betrothal to Myrcella would be considered broken when Joff killed Ned.
Bran would definitely still get tossed, and thusly Arya and Sansa would still go to King's Landing. But other things could easily change.
I do think it's unlikely, but Myrcella could remain at Winterfell. If she does it would obviously give Robb a decent amount of leverage against the crown.
More likely is a change in Sansa's behavior. Since Sansa is not to be wed to Joffrey it's less likely he spends as much time with her, especially once they reach King's Landing. It's also less likely Cersei spends as much time with Sansa, and Sansa wouldn't trust her as much. Sansa is more likely to become more infatuated with Loras Tyrell and might forget about Joffrey entirely. This means she has much less of a reason (and possible less means) to betray Ned to Cersei (she only really warns Cersei because Ned wants to break off the engagement), and Ned can get the girls off to Winterfell much more easily. Ned probably still loses his head in this scenario, but it's because he refuses to recant his statement about Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen's bastardy, which is what he would do if he knew Sansa and Arya were safe.
Spoilers for ACOK/ASOS
If the girls are not in King's Landing, it's unlikely that Jaime ever escapes the Northern Army, and if Jaime is still in Robb's custody it's highly unlikely the Red Wedding happens. Tywin is not going to slaughter the Northerners until his son is safe.
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Can't tell if you're kidding with this whole bit, if it's illegal, how did he win a refereed match with it? You lost me there.
Ref was letting LaRusso get away with everything. Clearly the fix was in.
LaRusso steps out the ring in that fight (usually a free point for the other guy) without penalization even though he was warned against it previously. Also when the match is tied 2-2, Johnny Lawrence lands a clean, controlled (non full power) punch to LaRusso's head and is for some reason, not awarded the point, even though he should be, because head shots are legal in this tournament.
Anyway in most karate tournaments you aren't allowed to strike at full power, you could seriously injure or kill someone that way; you need to land controlled pulled strikes (like the kind Johnny Lawrence hits LaRusso with which should've won him the trophy.) The Crane Kick was a reckless, full power strike directly to a kid's face. LaRusso could've broken Johnny's nose if he missed, heck he could've killed Johnny if he snapped his neck (also very possible.) This should've resulted in immediate disqualification, at the very least he shouldn't have gotten the winning point.
LaRusso's a cheating jerk.
Here's an article that explains it better: http://www.overthinkingit.com/2008/12/08/disqualify-daniel-larusso/
Obviously Miyagi knew about none of this or he probably would've committed ritual suicide. As Miyagi said "No bad student, only bad teacher." It's not your fault though Miyagi, Daniel-san is just a jerk.
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I love that once again the Karate Kid is interpreted so LaRusso isn't the hero. He's the worst guy in that movie.
He's a jerk who tries to steal someone else's girlfriend and then uses illegal crane kicks to win a tournament he shouldn't have been able to enter in the first place cause he isn't a black belt cause he started learning karate less than a month before the tournament started.
Miyagi is the hero cause he somehow trained a kid to win in less than a month against actual black belts, even though he trained a cheater.
Good work Community for getting it right.
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Nice to know they're keeping Dorne's egalitarian gender roles-and it may well be that the fact that an older sister can inherit before a younger brother is something that well be a plot point next season regarding Myrcella...
Well I think they'd have to. Myrcella doesn't really have anything to do in Dorne without the plot to crown her. And if they weren't going to do anything with Myrcella I don't know why they'd have bothered recasting her.
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Isn't this also the Book where Balon dies? I know his death is reported rather than seen, so it's hard to remember exactly when that happens. Of course, if GRRM had described Balon's death, he'd undoubtedly have taken 100 pages to do it!
No the only King to die in ACOK is Renly.
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I know that Nagga was a sea dragon but surely if there were sea dragons in Westeros then it wouldn't be out of the question that there were a few land dragons. When I think about mammoths, direwolves, and saber tooth cats still being found North of the Wall it makes me think that maybe ice dragons have been around for a similar amount of time? Maybe they didn't go through the same extinction period as their fiery counterparts?
Do we have any confirmation that Sea Dragons are actual dragons of the sea? Isn't it possible that they are unrelated to the species of dragon the Dragonlords of Valyria are known for and simply creatures that look like dragons and live in the sea? I'm thinking something like a leviathan?
In regards to the most recent chapter we're discussing, I'm frequently of the opinion that GRRM is sneaking things into the books so upon rereads we just yell at the pages when an opportunity comes about to avert the upcoming disasters. The one I'm pointing to here is the ultimately meaningless moment between Robb and Myrcella. It seems like such a throwaway line and has still ended up sparking a few fanfictions from the "happy ending" fanbase, desperate to save
Sansa from her terrible fate.
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Imagine a direwolf pet cemetery.
And it's just occurred to me that the Targs basically had a pet cemetery for their dragons in the red keep.
I hope the Others can't reanimate dragon bones.
I assume they'd be able to. I mean they ride dead horses don't they?
Don't know if they'd be able to do it with just the skeletons though. If they manage to get to a dragon that is freshly dead though...
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Any thoughts on who
the traitor on the council is?
My thoughts go right to Duncan, I mean Gared's up here looking for the North Grove and suddenly Britt (Whitehill soldier) shows up at the wall? Seems awfully convienient, especially since the Whitehills never professed to wrongdoing when they killed Gared's family, why would they send someone to the Wall for "keeping the peace"? It seems like an easy way for the Whitehills to look for the Grove as well. And I don't know about you guys, but I only ever told Duncan about the Grove. Also Duncan is Gwyn Whitehill's contact, how does he even have contact with her?
And then of course there's the Catelyn Stark reflex that has me suspecting Lady Forrester is doing it in a bid to try and protect or recover Ryon. She also tried to disperse the blame and accused Ser Royland and the maester when Rodrik told her he thought it was Duncan. Seems like a bit of a crafty move if she is the traitor. But the traitor also told the Whitehills that Rodrik is trying to rescue Ryon, which doesn't seem like something Lady Forrester would do (she might tell if Rodrik was thinking about killing Gryff though, to make sure he didn't so Ryon wouldn't be hurt.)
The maester should be serving Rodrik faithfully since he is still officially the Lord in Ironrath, but I don't know too much about him, so I can't trust him fully. After all maesters are people, despite their vows.
Ser Royland is really the only one I trust completely. He's just way too hotheaded to be hiding something IMO, and he seems willing to go to his death if Rodrik commanded him to fight the Whitehill garrison, and he keeps egging Rodrik on to do so. He could be under Whitehill orders to do that and give them an excuse to wipe House Forrester out, but if that was the case he could just attack one of them and say that Rodrik ordered it. There's no need to wait for an actual order from Rodrik, he could just lie.
Ugh, it's driving me crazy. Hopefully Rodrik is smart and we get a chance to pull a Tyrion Lannister gambit on all four of them. Tell them all different stories like Tyrion did when he wanted to marry off Myrcella and see which one shakes out to find the mole.
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Halfway through chapter 3, and honestly I think I'm sick of this game now.
The Forresters don't get any wins, no matter what 'choices' you make, so why am I bothering? I just played through the scene with Griff, and it was completely on rails. I made every choice to say I wasn't going to allow him to do what he wanted, and he did it anyway.
I've switched it off. Might go back to it if someone can tell me that I can actually make a blind bit of difference to this parade of misery.
You should've known that as soon as Ramsay showed up in the first episode.
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I think Aegon in the books is in Griffin's castle, preparing for his war; someone correct me if that's wrong. I thought he was heading to the Baratheon Castle to take that first, but I may be remembering the details wrong. It's been a while since I read the last book.
I don't think he'll go Dragonstone, which, is an Island after having crossed an ocean to get to Westeros, but it's possible.
You are correct, at the end of ADWD Aegon and the Golden Company are at Griffin's Roost, the seat of House Connington and their next target is Storm's End as Aegon announces that he will lead the attack himself.
There's no way Aegon would go for Dragonstone. While it would be symbolic to take the ancient stronghold of the Targaryens, it is an entirely useless stronghold when it comes to conquering the Kingdoms by army, which is what Aegon has and is planning to do. Even Robert captured all of the Kingdoms before turning his gaze to Dragonstone during the rebellion. Aegon would break his army against even a token garrison at Dragonstone, and after he took it, he'd have no army, no navy and only a rock in the middle of the sea.
It smacks more of a move that Daenerys (who seems to be trying to be the Conqueror reborn) would make, as opposed to Aegon who has been councelled on the subtleties of warfare, and knows that it is not a smart move. Fortunately Dany also has Dragons and a navy so it is a much more reasonable move for her to consider. Also, unlike Aegon, who already has a foothold in the Kingdoms at Griffin's Roost (and possibly now Storm's End) Dany still needs one, and Dragonstone could make a passible one as opposed to striking directly for King's Landing.
Storm's End is strategically is a much better target for Aegon, a castle that is known to be easily defended (by land and sea) and that is in close proximity to King's Landing by foot/horse. And while it isn't Dragonstone, it is still a great castle and the seat of his enemies, House Baratheon. Both Stannis and Tommen should theoretically rankle at having it taken when by right's it should belong to them.
The Winds Of Winter: Book 6 Will Arrive...Someday
in A Song Of Ice And Fire
· Edited by Maximum Taco
I think he has big events planned out and he tries to build towards them, but he doesn't plan out anything inbetween those big events, he just tries to write his way there.
Like the first big event was Ned's Death, then the Battle of the Blackwater, then the Red Wedding and now the Battle of Meereen. But he has no clue what to put in the middle. That was fine at first, because the big events happened every book. Ned died in AGOT, Blackwater happened in ACOK and the Red Wedding happened in ASOS. It was easy to fill in those little gaps because he knew where everyone needs to be during the big events.
But the Red Wedding and the Battle of Meereen have 2 whole books inbetween them, and that's why it feels like nothing is happening. He just couldn't find a way to put the Battle for Meereen in the giant book that would've been AFFC/ADWD (hence the infamous Meereenese Knot) and therefore it just dragged because there's two whole books of what is essentially filler between his big events.