"Game of Thrones" on HBO (spoilers)

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

Perhaps it would have been a good idea for Ned to bribe Littlefinger with a reward for his help rather then relying on Baelish keeping his promise to Catelyn. Or hell go to Janos Slynt directly and bribe him.

Bribing Littlefinger wouldn't help - Littlefinger wanted a certain outcome and he would do whatever was necessary to get it. Bribing Slynt would probably work, except that whatever Ned can pay, Littlefinger can pay more.

[Guardsman Bass]

Perhaps it would have been a good idea for Ned to bribe Littlefinger with a reward for his help rather then relying on Baelish keeping his promise to Catelyn. Or hell go to Janos Slynt directly and bribe him.

Bribing Littlefinger wouldn't help - Littlefinger wanted a certain outcome and he would do whatever was necessary to get it. Bribing Slynt would probably work, except that whatever Ned can pay, Littlefinger can pay more.

Littlefinger just doesn't particularly want Stannis on the throne (in the book - the television series doesn't get into that), since it would mean his likely dismissal and/or imprisonment. If Ned had been willing to play ball in seizing the regency, Littlefinger likely would have continued to work with him.

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

I think that what Littlefinger wanted was a civil war. If he thought that the Lannisters would risk war if Ned became regent and took Joffrey as an effective hostage, then he would have served Ned. But I think both the book and the series make it pretty clear that Littlefinger wanted to induce chaos and shake up the status quo in order to distract attention from himself and give himself more chances to rise in power and influence.

[Thanas]

Yeah. There is nobody who gained as much from the war as Littlefinger did. The guy now controls two great lordships, after all.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Yeah. There is nobody who gained as much from the war as Littlefinger did. The guy now controls two great lordships, after all.

Which two? I only remember Harrenhal.

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

Lord-Regent and Protector of the Vale. It's not a long jump to turn that into a permanent title of lordship. Hell, if he can't just proclaim it by fiat once he's eliminated any Vale lords opposed to him, he could, for example, marry Sansa to Robin -> Kill Robin (not hard) -> Proclaim that Sansa is in fact Sansa and not his bastard daughter (obviously, sort out the fact that she's suspected of regicide first) -> Marry her, and now he has two great lordships and a good claim on a third.

[Thanas]

Yeah. There is nobody who gained as much from the war as Littlefinger did. The guy now controls two great lordships, after all.

Which two? I only remember Harrenhal.

And Spoiler

Arryn's realm, the Eyre.

[Elfdart]

I just saw the most recent episode and I have a question about one of the minor characters. The greybearded lord who gets his fingers bit off by Robb's dire wolf -is he supposed to be a comical character? I ask because I had Dr Pepper shoot out of my nostrils when he crowed about how he was going to shove his sword up the Lannisters' "bunghole".


I gather that Robb let the spy go to give a false estimate to the Lannisters (Robb said he had 18,000 men; the spy said he had counted over 20,000 when he was caught). I take it that Robb either has more forces on the way (a difference between 18K and 20K doesn't seem like that big a deal, but maybe it is) OR he's hoping Tywin will infer that Robb's army is much bigger than it is and will go on the defensive, leaving Robb free to surprise attack the Sisterfucker who is besieging some place or another.

[Mr Bean]

I just saw the most recent episode and I have a question about one of the minor characters. The greybearded lord who gets his fingers bit off by Robb's dire wolf -is he supposed to be a comical character? I ask because I had Dr Pepper shoot out of my nostrils when he crowed about how he was going to shove his sword up the Lannisters' "bunghole".

The Great Jon is semi comedic, mostly he's there to demonstrated the difference between mannered and elegant southern Lord's and the northern Lord's who for the most part are a lot tough and rougher lot having to live with the constant threat of the cold, wildling raids and the general all around fun that comes from living in medieval Washington State. In fact aside from Lord Wyman Manderly (Who governs a major port city) most of the Northern Lord's are the people you expect to see in a Brawny aid, beards and all.

I gather that Robb let the spy go to give a false estimate to the Lannisters (Robb said he had 18,000 men; the spy said he had counted over 20,000 when he was caught). I take it that Robb either has more forces on the way (a difference between 18K and 20K doesn't seem like that big a deal, but maybe it is) OR he's hoping Tywin will infer that Robb's army is much bigger than it is and will go on the defensive, leaving Robb free to surprise attack the Sisterfucker who is besieging some place or another.

Everyone and his brother thinks he's an overconfident "boy" so he's letting the spy go because he A. He can't count, and B. To reinforce the idea that he is an overconfident boy who's charging to meet Lord Tywin and settle this.

[Stargate Nerd]

Perhaps it would have been a good idea for Ned to bribe Littlefinger with a reward for his help rather then relying on Baelish keeping his promise to Catelyn. Or hell go to Janos Slynt directly and bribe him.

Bribing Littlefinger wouldn't help - Littlefinger wanted a certain outcome and he would do whatever was necessary to get it. Bribing Slynt would probably work, except that whatever Ned can pay, Littlefinger can pay more.

Can he really? All he does is have the treasury funds that can be taken away from him any time. Ned as Hand of the King and Lord Protector on the other hand could reward him with any number of things.

Of course Eddy would expect everyone to do what's right because of honor and not bribery so its a moot point anyway.

[Kingmaker]

Well, Ned asked Littlefinger to bribe the goldcloaks for him, so he clearly isn't that averse to bribery. I think the bigger problem is that Littlefinger has too much interest in seeing the Seven Kingdoms thrown into civil war.
Spoiler

Also, it is worth noting that Littlefinger probably didn't expect Ned to be executed. I doubt he cared that much, but I think he (along with everyone else) expected Eddard Stark to be forced to take the black, thus neutralizing him as a political force.

[Vympel]

As I said before, I like Camelot because it's so bad that it's almost good.

Just saw the last episode. It was a pretty good season finale I reckon.

[Vympel]

Oh, re: Episode 9 of GoT, David Bradley (Argus Filch from Harry Potter) will be playing the "Late" Lord Frey.

[The Grim Squeaker]

Oh, re: Episode 9 of GoT, David Bradley (Argus Filch from Harry Potter) will be playing the "Late" Lord Frey.

Awesome! Hard to think of a more perfect actor for the cantankerous old snake .

I can't decode what's more annoyingly tantalizing, the wait until the next season will start, the fact that the next season will also only be 10 episodes long (Seriously HBO, why not 13?), the 2 episodes left, Martin's big breaks with fantasy convention over the next 2 episodes (you know who & what I mean ), or waiting until A Dance with Dragons comes out.
Oh, I know! Waiting until the book after ADWD comes out . (6-7 years going by an incremental and not exponential curve)

[Vympel]

I wonder how HBO plans to handle Martin's legendary tardiness. If he takes so bloody long to finish the next two books, the series will run out of book.

EDIT: and just watching The Borgias Episode 8 right now. Man, Juan's plan is hilariously bad. "LOL, cannons are no use on the open field!" .... wait ... what?! Can't wait to see what happens.

DOUBLE EDIT:



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

I wonder how HBO plans to handle Martin's legendary tardiness. If he takes so bloody long to finish the next two books, the series will run out of book.

According to Martin, he thinks that he'll be able to keep up, and if he can't, he's given outlines of books six and seven to HBO so that if they pass him, they pass him. From his history, I expect that he'll probably publish The Winds of Winter before that season comes around, but I expect that A Time For Wolves will be published after its respective season or remain unfinished at Martin's death.

Or HBO will cancel the show sometime before it becomes HBO's longest-running drama.

[Elfdart]

I wonder how HBO plans to handle Martin's legendary tardiness. If he takes so bloody long to finish the next two books, the series will run out of book.

EDIT: and just watching The Borgias Episode 8 right now. Man, Juan's plan is hilariously bad. "LOL, cannons are no use on the open field!" .... wait ... what?! Can't wait to see what happens.

DOUBLE EDIT:



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Apparently neither he nor anyone else in charge of the Papal armies had experienced them before -certainly not like the ones the French had. I don't know how historically accurate that is, but it doesn't make Juan a complete imbecile. He had a plan that didn't work and called it off when it was obviously a dud and when his sister warned him. You'll notice that neither Rodrigo nor Cesare says "What a stupid idea!". Cesare seems to only care that he's not in command. Juan is a jackass, but he is at least smart enough to heed warnings from people who know more than he does. Which includes quite a few people.

[Setzer]

Ned Stark was probably upset that he had to ask Littlefinger to bribe the guards for him. He hadn't quite gotten corrupted (or pragmatic) enough to resort to bribing the guards directly.

[Thanas]

Apparently neither he nor anyone else in charge of the Papal armies had experienced them before -certainly not like the ones the French had. I don't know how historically accurate that is, but it doesn't make Juan a complete imbecile. He had a plan that didn't work and called it off when it was obviously a dud and when his sister warned him. You'll notice that neither Rodrigo nor Cesare says "What a stupid idea!". Cesare seems to only care that he's not in command. Juan is a jackass, but he is at least smart enough to heed warnings from people who know more than he does. Which includes quite a few people.

C'mon. Cesare warns his father several times and rolls his eyes at the plan.

Also, the fact that nobody else opposed the french in open field makes Juan a special kind of idiot. Especially since the whole of Italy was talking about the new french weapons.

[Vympel]

Apparently neither he nor anyone else in charge of the Papal armies had experienced them before -certainly not like the ones the French had. I don't know how historically accurate that is, but it doesn't make Juan a complete imbecile. He had a plan that didn't work and called it off when it was obviously a dud and when his sister warned him. You'll notice that neither Rodrigo nor Cesare says "What a stupid idea!". Cesare seems to only care that he's not in command. Juan is a jackass, but he is at least smart enough to heed warnings from people who know more than he does. Which includes quite a few people.

Yeah, I don't think he was somehow ahistorically moronic, but he was clearly incompetent in a believable fashion. His 'strategem' took no account for how much bigger the French army was - I loved it when they pointed out the French army had no left or right for him to flank around

[Mr Bean]

On another note, damn tonight's episode was perfect in every way but Shae... and that's only because how they are playing Shae is very.... odd to say the least.
However Tyrion's backstory, Bronn, Shae and Tyrion playing Backstorying drinking games (Gotta have to try that out some day) was good fun as well as getting Tyrion telling the story so well.
But hats off to Sean Bean, his last moments took less than four minutes but it felt like an entire hour.

[Jade Owl]

Yeah. There is nobody who gained as much from the war as Littlefinger did. The guy now controls two great lordships, after all.

Which two? I only remember Harrenhal.

Thanas is refereing to stuff that isn't revealed until book 3 IIRC. He shoulnd't be refering to it on the discussion about the TV show, at least without spoiler-tagging it.

[septesix]

They cut Tower of Joy, and Whispering Woods, and most of the fun banter between Walder Frey and Catelyn (although they did get the point across). I never really notice any of the cut bits before but all these really standout in this episode. Given WW was the last major engagement in GoT I think it's safe to say we will not be seeing any large army actions this season.

Also, Drogo's condition just seemed too sudden for me. That can't be the one of the worst cuts he had suffered. It looked so innocent!!

I can't quite place it, but this one just felt lacking in urgency to me, unlike the last few episodes. (Especially 5,6, and 7)

[Vympel]

Haven't seen the episode yet, but we can safely assume those "maybe Ned isn't really dead" rumours have been put to rest?

They cut Tower of Joy, and Whispering Woods, and most of the fun banter between Walder Frey and Catelyn (although they did get the point across). I never really notice any of the cut bits before but all these really standout in this episode. Given WW was the last major engagement in GoT I think it's safe to say we will not be seeing any large army actions this season.

Well, there was Whispering Woods and the subsequent attack on Jaime's leaderless three camps besieging Riverrun. Large army action is expensive as hell - it was a miracle that Rome got even a smidgen of it in the second season with their take on the Battle of Philippi.

[Vympel]

Also, Tower of Joy was a flashback/ dream. I'm not surprised it was cut.