Masterpiece Mystery starts a new series tonight, The Escape Artist, with David Tenant.

Pretty good article here -

Last week’s Game of Thrones spent all of its time at the Wall, and though I tried as best I could to focus on the stunning visuals of the episode, my mind was still stuck in King’s Landing. Hell, it’s still stuck in King’s Landing. All because George R.R. Martin, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had built up Oberyn Martell as the hero that Westeros (and Tyrion Lannister) needed, only to have his head popped like a grape instead of allowing him to exact his revenge.

More so than with any previous death, even those of Ned and Robb Stark, fans were indignant: Was Martin simply being cruel? Was cruelty itself the point?

for what happens in the show. In the books Oberyn was not very likeable and didn't even have that much of a role, so you only cared about his death because of what it meant for Tyrion. It was the show that gave him more of a role and that made him not only a more likeable character but a more significant one.

In a way, I rather like it when a likeable character gets it. It's so much more interesting than every other movie or show that always makes the "hero" win in the end especially when you already know that before it even starts, so the only thing you wonder about is how the hero wins not whether or not they do or do it heroically.

One of the things that I liked about the Red Wedding was that not only did Robb get killed but that he walked into a trap and died in a way that wasn't the least bit heroic. Heroes always winning every battle and always doing the right thing are boring and predictable. Even if they do win in the end I'd prefer to see them get there by cheating or something so that they don't seem so bright and shiny in the end when they finally win. It's so much more real. Nobody is pure white or pure black. I much prefer characters that are some of both and change in how you feel about them sometimes even from one moment to the next.

they give Robb Stark more screen time, as well as Oberyn Martell, so people will feel the loss more since they've come to like both characters. In the books, Robb was never a POV character and was "off camera" for some of the big events in his life - him winning some battles in the West, but also falling in love & marrying Jeyne Westerling. He basically comes back in a Catelyn chapter to present his lady wife to his mother...

Sure, Robb was important because of him being king in the north, but it was always from Cat's POV that we learned about him.

Good guys lose in life. When we see that and feel the emotional sting from it, it should motivate us to be more vigilant in our fight for justice.

When the good guys always win, it gives us this false sense that justice is always served and we don't have to take any action.

Dedicated to making GoT fans feel better about tonight being the last episode for the year:

thanks for sharing!

Sweet!

is if they'd done Winterhold with the College of Winterhold balancing in the background. In a world of amazing structures, nothing is more stunning than the College, especially if you frame it with Azura's Shrine in the background.

is if they'd included someone of the non-city integral spots in the game such as Sky Haven, Throat of the World, Labrynthium and Helgen. They're not necessarily important to the Civil War, but they are integral to the Dragonborn. There's a reason, regardless who wins the civil war, the Kingsmoot remains unsettled. The Dragonborn is the Heir of Tiber Septim and Reman Cyrodiil who unites Skyrim...you, not Elisif or Ulfric, is ultimately the High King.

I think the Dragonborn, no matter what side, pushes the Thalmor out of Skyrim and becomes High King. If you think about it, it doesn't matter if you side with Ulfric or Tullius - they're both the same means to an end.

*thrum*

at the end of the last Tyrion chapter in the book?

It's kinda cheesy for TV. Unless it's some random Lannister soldier during the first Cersei chapter of AFFC.

On how they do it, I think. I hope they give us the rest of the dialogue at least.

Longest episode of the season. One of the things I love about HBO is that you can take as long as you need to tell your story, you're not locked into the rigid 46-minutes-and-change-to-the-second of the broadcast networks. This one will go 116 minutes, it says. Cool.

or spaced out when calculating the time.

corrected to 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Still 75 better than 46 or 66.

Can wait. I can't believe it's all over. GRRM said he wished HBO would let him make more ep's for each season because so much has to be left out or truncated.

Until now HBO has been very strict about keeping them at an hour.
They are so popular now, they have more power and get what they ask for.

I hope at least they'll let them do a 2 hour premiere & 2 hour season-ender.

but having a 2 hour opener & 2 hour final episode isn't going to hurt the series.

with an interesting screen name is posting about a Nosy Rattlehead coming soon.

You mean that audition tape for one of Oberyn's daughters or something else?

Nosy Rattlehead is an anagram for Lady Stoneheart.

somebody from Canada is saying "no" Stoneheart...

Fellow bookreaders would RIOT.

For chrissakes that's where Bieber came from.

and HBO GO hasn't started yet...

I was expecting that later...

I'm watching a replay.

she was torn up in inside

Which was pretty unexpected. I thought I'd bawl my eyes out when the Hound died went, but the way it played out with him trying to anger her enough to kill him put me off feeling so sorry for him. I even felt unexpectedly sad for Varys when he realized he had to escape Kings Landing and lose his lofty position on the council. I never liked Varys much, but seeing him sitting there on the ship next to the box Tyrion was in looking so defeated and scared made me sad for him anyway.

In the books I felt so sad for the dragons when they were locked up... I can't help but think of them as pets like dogs... but the way it portrayed it in the show had me sobbing.

That moment when the dragons realize they were betrayed by their mom was heart wrenching.

Who was it at Tyrion's trial who betrayed him when they refused to back up Tyrion's claim that he was the one who won the battle that Joffrey took credit for?

Though he didn't actually refuse. He was cryptic as he usually is. Tyrion asked him if he remembered telling him that it was his own actions that really saved the city but he wouldn't be credited for it or remembered for it but that some would remember, and Varys answered that he remembered "everything". So, in effect he was saying to Tyrion that he did remember telling him that, but to everyone else it could mean whatever they wanted it to mean.

Varys and everyone else really had no choice but to testify against Tyrion at the the trial because they knew if they didn't the Lannisters (Tywin and Cercei) would have their heads off. That's basically why the trial was a sham.

On Edit: As for Dany, I wouldn't really call it betraying her dragons. It's more like she failed them by not training them (though she didn't know she even needed to) and had no other choice but to lock them up for every ones' safety as well as their own since running rampant and killing people for food would eventually have droves of people trying to kill them. Again, I see them more as dogs in that she had to lock them up, and they were upset by it and her leaving them. I always feel bad when I have to leave the house myself and leave the dog home alone... they always give that sad desperate face when you leave them as if you're never coming back. That's how I kind of saw that bit with the dragons in my mind except that this was a situation that she might not be coming back and that they might never get out. Ugh, that just tore me up.

Bloody seven hells! I wanted something else for the end!

That was fucking bullshit!!!

and no Lady Stoneheart... Great episode otherwise, but this is just completely pissing me off.

No truth about Tysha.

And I wanted Lady Stoneheart.

would be like The Empire Strikes Back ending before Vader revealed to Luke who his daddy was.

and the truth about her not being revealed via Jamie. With his anger over that, Tyrion has a clean break with Westeros.

It was what made Tyrion hate even Jaime. It was really what caused him to pull the trigger on Tywin, and it's why he spends about a 1/4 of his time on page in ADWD completely drunk.

for plot points, I don't see the big deal about Game of Thrones going back to Tyrion's story to Bronn & Shae about Tysha. I think they're trying to make Tyrion more heroic than he was in the books, or at least a lighter shade of grey. (i.e., no Symon Silvertongue to be quietly disposed of by Bronn...) Now, with Tyrion & Jamie having a friendly goodbye, and Tyrion also not revealing how Cersei, "she's been fucking Lancel and Osmund Kettleblack and probably Moon Boy for all I know" was also a disappointment. And, then Tyrion saying how, yes, he poisoned Jamie's vile son. For 10 years, I thought maybe Tyrion was in on the conspiracy to kill Joffrey - until we got A Dance with Dragons.

At least with Lady Stoneheart, they can still have a big "WTF" moment in season 5 if they have her revealed.

The show didn't make anything of the Tyrion/Tysha relationship and made the Tyrion/Shae relationship much bigger. It made more sense in the show to leave that out. I also didn't like it in the books that though Jamie released Tyrion saving his life Tyrion and Jamie parted badly over the Tysha thing which even in the books didn't seem to be such a big event in his life anyway. I liked it better in the show that they parted as they did.

Lady Stoneheart being left out though I would have liked to have her made an appearance this season I think was better not coming in this episode because there just wasn't time to lead up to it and have it make any sense.

I'm not even sure what the point was to having Brienne and Arya meet at all since nothing came of it. I'm guessing she continues on to the Erie and also meets Sansa.

Hell, at this point, I can't even tell if Lady Stoneheart will be in the show series at all.

wanted for herself... and successfully doing it.

I really expected her to give him the gift of mercy.

do you know who Lady Stoneheart is?

cold-blooded.

I wonder if there will be a time when I begin to lose faith in her.

I understood that part, but wasn't sure if you thought Arya was Lady Stoneheart because she was being cold blooded or not.

Her path becomes a bit different than where she's been.

spoiler alert:
[font color=white]
that the Hound will get "reborn" like Beric Dondarrion and will end up fighting against the "reborn" Mountain. [/font]

I don't get the rumor that he somehow lived. In the book that guy from the Quiet Isle said he died and he buried him, and I don't see any reason why he'd lie about it.

as the Angry/Bitter Hound has been buried. The grave digger at the monastery is bigger than Brienne, has a scarf to cover his face and a wound that is similar to what The Hound had before. Plus, The Hound's horse was there as well.

I'll have to read it again. I just went with the story that he told to Brienne about staying with him until he died and burying him and had no reason to believe that he'd lie about that. I still don't see why he would.

I also don't see anything odd about the horse being there. And since he was always fine when the Hound was there, why was he acting up when they had Stranger (renamed Drifter)?

I don't know, I still think it's wishful thinking that the Hound is still alive. Even more so than believing that Benjen Stark is still alive.

The scarf wearing folk were the two unnamed guys that were with Brother Norbert when they first arrived on the island. The gravedigger was described as bigger than Brienne with a lame leg and a novice but wasn't wearing a scarf to cover his face and wasn't either of the scarf wearing brothers with Norbert who met them coming onto the island.

It's Elder Brother (that's the only name he has) who is not an old man but the head of the community and that used to be a knight that told Brienne that he was the one that found the Hound dying and gave him wine and bathed his forehead with river water until he passed away. He said the Hound had begged him to give him the gift of mercy but Elder Brother said he couldn't and didn't because of some vow that he would never kill anyone again. He told her that he died in his arms and that he buried him there with his helm on top of his grave that Biter found and wore while running around killing everyone in at least Saltpans though Elder Brother didn't know that it was Biter and just some demented killer.

Brienne had told Elder Brother that she was looking for the Hound because she was told that the Stark girl was with him, but she believes that girl to be Sansa. It's Elder Brother that tells her that it was Arya and not Sansa that the Hound had with him and that they seemed to be traveling together amicably since he was told the story of the two of them at the inn where the Hound got his death wounds, and Arya killed the kid with the crossbow and the big zit on the side of his nose (though in the show it was Arya who killed Polliver, and there was no kid with a big zit that she killed).

In the book not much at all is said of the gravedigger, and he doesn't seem any more significant than any of the other brothers they saw working at various tasks and when other brothers were given more significance in talking to the group, showing them around, showing them the horse and his renaming and how they tried to geld it but it bit off some other brother's ear and these people had names.

Other than the gravedigger being a big guy with a lame leg, he wasn't wearing any scarf, and nothing was said about his face being scared and how Brienne would know him. I'm also not seeing how the Hound could possibly have been back on his feet already if he'd been healed much less digging graves for the bodies that washed up on their shore by the time Brienne and her group arrived on the island. Elder Brother also told Brienne that he could show her is grave.

I still think it's just wishful thinking that the gravedigger is the Hound just because he's a big guy with a lame leg especially with his face not covered and the facial scarring that Brienne would have noticed and recognized to be him and when he made no attempt to hide his face from her or anyone in her group. And Podrick would definitely recognized him.

I'm also not seeing after a lifetime of anger and being a hardhearted killer that the Hound would suddenly become a quiet and meek gravedigger and a novice of the brothers.

unless Sandor is handling it - the monks can't even get near the thing without it kicking and biting. And yet, they somehow navigated the treacherous tidal flats leading to the island with it. By itself, probably a minor point, but with all of the other evidence, it's a solid point.

And, to quote myself from an earlier post on this subject:

As for the leader of the abbey, he's pretty clearly dissembling a bit. He repeatedly tells Brienne that "The Hound" and "the man you seek" are dead, but when asked point-blank if Sandor is dead, he replies with "He is at rest." He also knows way more about Sandor's personality and drives than is likely if their only interaction was the death scene he describes, and points out that by the time they met at the Trident, all Cleglane had left to live for was slaying his brother, and even that had been taken from him by Oberyn. Then, he tells her the story of his own circumstances as an angry violent warrior left for dead, starting with "When I died on the Trident", and talking about entering his second life naked.

eom

was dead.

In the books, Varys was blamed for helping Tyrion to escape.

that he'll replace Illyrio next season.

Hill is good in the role, and it would be tough to have him disappear for basically an entire season.

And Tywin wasn't the king. Varys was just employed by the Lannisters because of his network of "whisperers" that he used to their benefit (and sometimes his own or that of Lannister foes). Because of his being of such use to the king whether it was Robert or the Lannisters Robert made him a member of the small council. He was always careful to ingratiate himself with whoever controlled the throne at whatever time. This was a huge step up for him seeing as he was never a lord but a child in Pentos who learned to make himself invaluable to others of high standing because of his spy network. Eventually he made it to the notice of Robert in some way, and he's served the realm ever since whoever was on the throne. However, he's always had his own ambitions that will likely come clear next season.

Tywin was the King's Hand, and because Tommen (an agreeable child) became king after Joffrey, basically, Tywin was the real ruler. The bells ring for dead kings as well as dead Hands. I'm pretty sure that the bells rang for Jon Arryn's death way back in the very beginning the the series. Jon Arryn was King Robert's Hand and Lysa's husband. Varys already knew that Tyrion had done something serious when he noticed blood on his face and asked him what he did when he first saw him, so he knew that Tyrion had probably killed someone, and that someone was important. When he heard the bells ring he knew Cercei or even Jamie might come after him especially because Jamie conspired with him to release Tyrion, so he decided he needed to flee with Tyrion rather than risk being blamed for Tywin's death. And he also likely knew that it was Tywin who Tyrion killed when he heard the bells since there was no reason for Tyrion to kill Tommen.

Though Cercei would be thrilled that Tywin is dead since it gives her free reign to rule for her son, she'd also be fit to be tied that someone released Tyrion and would be out for blood. Since Jamie can't let her know that he was involved, he might be compelled to blame Varys... and this also Varys knew when he realized that the bells meant that Tywin was dead.

The "priests" called Septons in the religion of the Seven (which is really one god with seven aspects though many people think of them as seven separate gods) will more than likely be showing up next season. So far, all we've seen of them is performing marriages.

I read all of the books in the month of June three years ago, and who can remember everything?????

I want to read them again but I literally spent the entire month of June just reading and can't do that again!

I've read them over and over again (on the fourth or fifth time now, about halfway through the fifth book).

I STILL forget a lot of stuff!

It helps me to remember things and connect the dots myself. I'll probably have to re-read all the books again just before the start of next season or forget a lot of stuff again. It's all so complicated with so much going on!

that included the High Sparrow...

Books:



TV show: Just some dude chilling in his little treehouse in the roots.

what was in the book than that scary looking picture. Bloodraven wasn't scary, or at least wasn't meant to look scary. He was also a very old member of the Night's Watch, so it was appropriate that he was dressed in black. The show did have him bound to the tree roots just not with the roots going through him... that we saw. Having a tree root growing through one of his eyes would have been too gross for anyone to focus on what he was saying anyway.

I assumed that Jojen would die this season, but how he did was really sad. I never really liked him in the show or in the books, but how Meera put him out of his misery was heartbreaking but for her (him I didn't much care about).

despite her non-appearance.

http://www.vulture.com/2014/06/game-of-thrones-lady-stoneheart-omission.html

and, I'm not happy, but I'm more upset about Jamie not revealing the truth about Tysha to Tyrion, and then Tyrion snapping back at him that Cersei was fooling around with Lancel Lannister (the book also said Moon Boy and Osmund Kettleblack... neither of whom were in the show, so maybe Bronn and Meryn Trant or Pycelle (ew)?)

Or, is that left as a cliff hangar?

And, is the writer suggesting that we'll never see Lady Stoneheart in the t.v. adaptation?

until they are buried or burned. And knowing Martin, he might work around that too, LOL.

it will start to cheapen the effect of the ones that do come back...

must have missed the last Jaime chapter in ADWD. She's very much alive.

we might see Lady Stoneheart next season. Why introduce the Brotherhood without Banners otherwise? And, they have no connection to Brienne otherwise - it was Lady Stoneheart that had the connection to Brienne through her oath.

Brienne was her model, her heart's desire, and it was just awesome, awesome
that the show did that.

she'll be pissed that Brienne let Arya slip through her fingers...

She's just gonna wander the countryside with Podrick forever? Are they gonna settle down on a farm and raise some kids?

Not a huge spoiler here, but there is a funny line in A Dance with Dragons when a sellsword asks Tyrion if he's any good with a sword, and then Tyrion responds, "No, but I'm murder with the crossbow."

Warning - mega spoilers at the link below if you have not read the books. Last theory is the craziest.

https://tv.yahoo.com/blogs/tv-news/best-craziest-game-of-thrones-fan-theories-song-of-ice-fire-231653233.html