Game of Thrones ALL BOOK SPOILERS (Up to Dance with Dragons)

I think they were brought up with both the old and the new ways. I mean, the girls had a Septa, but they all seem to pray to the old gods in some form or fashion through the series.

If Talisa was from the West Lands, I'd say sure. But are people from Volantis followers of the Seven?

(I don't feel super strong, etc. But hey a topic for discussion is fun!)
(And yeah, it was Karstark that threw me more than Robb, given his mothers religions, etc.)

Edit- looking at wiki's, etc. it seems Volantis is home to many religions, Lord of Light being the most noted because of it's large temple. So I guess it's possible she was a follower of the Seven.

I don't remember how much the end scene of season two deviates from the book, but I didn't really like the scene with Sam just kinda sitting there, surrounded by Wights and Others that were just ignoring him, for no particular reason. It gives the illusion of "plot immunity", which I find a stark (haha, pun!) deviation from the books, where a significant point, to me, is that A) you never know who's gonna get offed (though, to be fair, GRRM doesn't ever really kill off characters just for the heck of it, despite what some people think.) And B) people generally die if they find themselves in a situation where it makes sense for them to die. They don't die randomly 'out of spite', and they don't magically survive 'because the plot wants them to'.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it.

All I gotta say is...Don't mess with a woman that can control dragons with one word!!!!

Oh and...Zombie Apocalypse!

It is good to see the extras for Walking Dead getting work in the offseason.

Own the Iron Throne.

http://store.hbo.com/game-of-thrones...=SMM-HBO-00396

The question of the wedding scene and Robb's faith per Elio at Westeros.org

Quote:

Robb and Talisa: The wedding between Robb and Talisa is never depicted. Weirdly, they made it a marriage ceremony of the Faith. While all the Stark children were raised with both faiths, it’s clear some favor one over the other, and it’s very clear that Robb takes more to the old gods. Why they did not use that here, I do not know; it’s not as if Talisa worships the Seven, being from Volantis.

And if you don't know who Elio is, GRRM will call him to ask questions about characters if he can't remember little details like eye color. He and partner Linda are helping George write the Encylopedia of the series. So I'll yield to his answer here.

Ok, 'bout a week late, but was this not the best explosion ever?

Ah, I didn't know it was Linda who was really dissatisfied with the show! I need to watch their video recaps more often.

As long as GRRM still keeps writing the books, I honestly don't care what happens in the series. The books will always be the real story for me, and the show is just an attempt to capture it. It would be almost impossible for them to do it justice, and but I'll take the honest effort they're putting forth.

True Blood really helped me learn how to not only accept adaptations but also learn to really like them. After the first season the show started to really become it's own world and completely diverged from the books (much much more than GoT ever has and I think ever will). But after a while I think you had to look at it honestly and realize that you can enjoy both. And here's the shocking thing (sometimes, just sometimes the adaptation actually improves the story). I know it sounds sacrilegious, but sometimes streamlining a story is a good thing. The kicker for me, that finally allowed me to appreciate the TV world of True Blood. The fact that the author absolutely LOVED the show. That let me breathe and say, "it's ok, you can like it too."

Confession time: I hated the Qarth portion of ACOK. Hated it. Bored me to tears. I hated Xaro Xon Ducksauce, the character in the books. The only saving grace to the whole portion of the novel was the House of the Undying and I'll freely admit that my first read it didn't register much more than some acid trip like visuals. It wasn't until I started digging into ASOIAF that a lot of those visuals became significant. As I said prior in the thread, I think if they showed those visuals on the show it would give away too much and I think they want the RW as surprising as Ned's head.

I'll say it here. The show did a better job with Qarth. Martin isn't perfect and this was one portion of the story I think they actually improved and did a better job explaining the world and magic and dragons than they ever could with the snoozefest from the novels.

And I think some pruning of the slave cities portions of the later books is in order. Dany becomes tiresome (IMHO) in the books during this stretch and I believe we aren't supposed to feel that way. Snip, snip, Dave and Dan. Snip, snip. And Dorne, you better prove important pretty soon, or I see massive trimming in your future.

Also, while some of Arya's story in Harrenhal was a miss, I think streamlining it and not having changing allegiances was smart. And this isn't just because of the brilliant acting between Dance and Williams (who wouldn't want to see that), in some ways (some) I think the economy of the TV show made that portion of the story better. I found myself confused, first read through, trying to remember who was on whose side. I do wish though that we'd have Arya use different identities to set up her trip across the sea, but that may have been confusing to some non readers and I find it completely forgivable.

Yes, yes I love and completely obscessed with the books. I truely, truely love them. But watching those characters come to life onscreen every week, is also deeply rewarding.

Personally I love them both (book and show). Sure the books are intellectually more satisfying, the television show is more gutterally satisfying. If that makes sense.

On adaptations:

The reason Van Halen's cover of You Really Got Me(or Dancin in the Streets) is awesome isn't because it sounds like the original song. It's because you get to hear a good song through the filter of Van Halen. I've never liked cover songs where the artist just tries to make it sound exactly like the original. If I want that, I'll listen to the original. I look at book adaptations the same way. You are watching ASOIAF through a different filter. You can't expect a copy and my guess is if you got one it wouldn't be as satisfying. But sometimes a cover doesn't work because it's passed through the wrong filter: I'm looking at you Sheryl Crow and Sweet Child O' Mine.

(And for those who aren't Van Halen fan's, you can substitute it with any band that has done a successful cover song)

Dorne is pretty important, so I think it will come into it's own next year with the duel between the Mountain and the Viper. Then again, in the long run, the "Crispy Q" gambit didn't work out so much, so maybe they will prune that branch a little.

I agree with you on Harrenhal to a point. In the book it was massively confusing in terms of who held the castle and who didn't and who was going to betray who, but I don't think we're seeing Arya's character develop the way it should. We're not seeing her nightly littany of names (I'm glad Jaquen brought that up before faceshifting) and the rage that's building up in her. I hope next season with see that development during her time with the hound.

I'll admit it's been a long time since I read this book, so I remember very little of Qarth. I do agree that Dany gets pretty tedious as she goes through the slave cities liberating everyone and making everything worse somehow. I hope that does get steamlined. I remember dreading her chapters during that time period.

I think I'm most happy with (big shocker!) Tyrion's storyline. Dinklage does justice to the part, and the show spends enough time on him to get the main points across. I can't wait to see the reaction at the end of next season (or the season after that, if they're splitting Storm into two seasons).

I think the audience gets what's going on with Arya. I think her storyline was served pretty well.

I think highly of Elio and the work incredible amount of work he's pored into ASoIaF, but like someone said, he and Linda are just too close to the source material to be objective about the adaptation. There's some hits and misses with the TV show, but in the end it is excellent television, one of the best out there right now.

I agree with Mental Maiden, on a number of points, some scenes in the series actually worked better than in the books, such as Harrenhal and Qarth.

Other changes didn't make much sense( Rob marries a different girl, granted the same girl next door type)

The only parts I'm mixed on is Winterfall, while it got the essense of Theon's story, as well as Bran's. Cutting out the entire siege Rodrick had going on, it didn't really explain how Theon's twenty men defeated Rodrick's larger force, other than "we caught this one returning from Torrhen's Square "

I believe they call that a "hand wave" Tocharon.