My friend's jaw was hanging wide open. She hadn't read the books.

Toqtamish said:

Oh, what great things you have missed!

Read the Bran chapter in book three where Meera relates the Tourney of the False Spring story to Bran. This tells a compeltely different story of the relationship between Rhaegar and Lyanna. Listen to some of the comments that the characters make, like when Dany saves the lamb woman from being raped and Jorah answers:

"You are your brother's sister, in truth."
"Viserys?” She did not understand.
"No,” he answered. "Rhaegar.”

And how does Dany see the Rhaegar/Lyanna issue:

Her brother Rhaegar had died for the woman he loved.

The popular story is that Rhaegar kidnapped Lyanna, at least the story that Robert spread and believes. But the truth, that remains to be seen. As well as the truth of some other characters. I think the thread "Obligatory Topics" in the Spoiler Space might shed some light ont his for you.

LetsGoRed said:

To tell the truth, when I read the books the first time I took everything at face value. It wasn't until after my mother-in-law read the first book and made some mentions about Lyanna "dying in blood" to mean death by childbirth and point out a few other things that I reread the series and discovered many secrets that I don't want to divulge in the non-spoiler space. So, by not showing some of these scenes, it makes it harder to divulge them later, since the key players (with the except of Howlan Reed) are all dead. Who else is going to give us the scene at the Tower of Joy? Sure, they can so some general flashbacks, and that might even be a plan at some point, to cover the early years of the rebellion, but will it add, or detract, from the main story to do an episode or two that is all flashbacks of characters no longer around.

Then again, when Dany is at the house of the Warlocks in the next season, we might get some insight into the truth of these matters.

bloodycelt said:

Yep. i got two incredulous phone calls shortly after ten last night. that's the scene that will hook them.

Great episode - the Twins looked freaking AWESOME!

Stag Lord said:

I thought it was quite well done, especially the actual moment of execution.

ktom said:

"B-B-B-Baby, you just ain't seen n-n-n-nothin' yet" <Power Chord>

I am still waiting for the look on my girlfriend's face, assuming she doesn't "Oh, he's gonna die at this episode, amiright?"

And I can still hear my sister screaming when she got to the page... "I _hate_ you for "making" me read this book!"

ktom said:

I do respond with that.

If people haven't seen, one of the best young sportswriter in the country (Bill Simmons, on ESPN - the Sports Guy) just launched a VERY interesting sub-website on ESPN called Grantland. A mix of sports, pop culture, and really good writers (not just sports writers, but books and TV and the such).

Anyways, this was on it: www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/364/regarding-the-crazy-thing-that-happened-on-last-night%E2%80%99s-game-of-thrones

It has people talking, that is for sure!!!

That was a good article. I particularly like:

"And so, all of a sudden, Game of Thrones actually is the thing that The Sopranos always toyed with becoming and Lost almost was: a truly unpredictable show."

longclaw said:

Its not unpredictable. You realize a pattern eventually

Yes, that winter is truly coming for the Starks

What I was really disappointed with was the battle of the Whispering Wood. I'm not talking about not seeing the battle itself - that wasn't even in the actual book. I'm talking about the strategy put down by Brynden, how they set the trap for Jaime and how they were banking on him being reckless and fearless.

The scene where Eddard lost his head was simply awesome.

Zsa said:

I agree. I was totally expecting Robb to tell Greatjon "Do you think I am an idiot? Of course I told him we are headed towards Tywin. We are really going after jaime". I dislike that the blackfish wasnt part of it, and that they didnt really explain his thought process or anything related to it.

Stag Lord said:

Stag Lord said:

Agreed on the Twins - very impressive.

Rings - thanks for that link - wasn't aware of that site - lots of good stuff there.

Zsa: I agree regarding the Whispering Wood. I didn't expect to see it; but, I felt like they really didn't build up enough drama for it within this episode. Why were Cat & Rodrick just waiting there? They could have been a bit more obvious about the armies splitting. Ideally, this could have made for a great cliffhanger (end the show showing Robb, a column of Lannister riders led by Jaime, and hearing the Umber's war horn sounding, followed by others, start the next episode with Cat). It's not that I need to see big battles/thousands of soldiers, - but they could have had Cat hearing the sounds of battle, and seen a little obscured battle through the trees

Fieras said:

They had just been discussing where they should strike, the arrival of the scout created an opportunity for deception. Robb, as the leader, took the initiative. You can't be seen explaining yourself to a man like The Greatjon. First you have to put him in his place, as all the other Lords are still watching Robb closely for weakness. As far as the Blackfish goes, I understand the showrunners' decision to delay his arrival on the show. In fact, as much as I love The Blackfish, I could see them cutting him from the series entirely. We need Edmure, we really don't need Blackfish. If he shows up at all in season two, I assume it will be to come to Riverrun when he hears that his brother is dying/dead.

Plot wise, can anyone give a really compelling argument for the Blackfish's existence?

Well.... *SPOILER ALERT*

otherwise, I don't know who you'd have holding Riverrun against Jaime in book 4 since Edmure is captured.

Syd said:

Well, he is a big part of the story line in my opinion. He is really THE brain behind Robb's war effort.

Spoiler:

And as Kennon mentioned, he is the last Tully standing in book 4, and the only one that has still eluded captivity. I don't know about you, but he seems like a pretty important character to me.

And the part about giving a compelling argument for the Blackfish's existence. The exact same thing could be said about a lot of other characters: Rickon, Osha, all those whores that have absolutely nothing to do with the plot and take away important minutes that could be used to develop other characters.

I never quite got the Blackfish cult. he is a relatively minor character in the books, until Feast. As his books bloat, HBO will need to make cuts to keep the series moving at the fast apce they hit. Blackie is a likely candidate to have his role reduced.

Greta link, rings.

If they planned on having him at a reduced role, they would have used him to escort Catelyn to the Eyrie, and then be a background character to show up a few episodes later in season 2.

The fact that they are waiting suggests HBO wants to get someone a bit more expensive and probably spend time introducing him as a season 2 headliner.

I don't think he was even IN Clash of Kings, was he?

Episode Nine held steady at the ratings with 2.7 million. Overall the night was down slightly when you add the 11;00 shwoing - but it pulled in 3.6 million - on a night the NBA FInals were being decided.

You'ld hope to see them hit 3 million intial views for teh fianle sudnay night. As it stands though, GoT is HBO's third best performing show this year (behind Boardwalk and True Blood) and lets hope they cna build on the momentum in Clash next spring.

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/06/is_game_of_thrones_considering.html One of the most hilarious things I've ever seen lol

Episode ten might be my new favorite this season. Was done really well, spot on to the books, some scenes from early book 2 as well. Cannot wait till season 2. Thank the gods for On Demand so I can watch season 1 over and over and over.

There are no men like me.

I hate the changes but episode 10 was amazing.