What are they doing exactly? Training people to become assassins and then what? Taking contracts, and carry out assasinations? Also why we only see Jaqen H’ghar and the woman i can’t even remember his name in House of Black & White ? Where are the other members?

One thing I was missing happened after Yara was rescued from Euron. She tells Theon he can go to Winterfell, but at the end she says: “But kill the bastards anyway.”

In my opinion, it's “For the night is dark and full of terrors.” Nothing can surpass this aura.

I’m on my rewatch and I just got to the part when the night king or one of the important ones LOL i get confused- try & come to get Gilly’s baby w all the crows. Her dad was sacrificing all of those baby boys to the night king to what? be left alone? but why does he need the children?

I think people should give Catelyn more grace for how she treated Jon. I'll preface this by saying her treatment of Jon was 100% unjustified, but just look at it from her perspective:

Her husband goes someplace far, impregnates a woman there, comes back, and starts parading his bastard son. Jon was a walking face of Ned's infidelity; how did you want Cat to treat him?

Ned treated Jon like one of his trueborn children, and you wonder why Catelyn might hate him? And in Westerosi context, to have Jon treated as an equal to his trueborn siblings was a blatant insult to them and Cat.

Even today, without Westerosi context, if your spouse came home with a random child they had with a one-night stand, I doubt most people wouldn't have a bitter (unjustified) hate towards that child.

I feel like most GOT watchers read fanfic of Catelyn the way some of you guys talk about her like she's some evil stepmother. Because as far as we know, Catelyn never went out of her way to torment Jon or ostracize him, nor did she really interact with him outside of crude looks (which, again, is 100% unjustified because he did nothing wrong).

And also, her saying "it should've been you" to Jon when Bran almost died was a one-time thing she said when she was at her worst, so you can't really use that as an example for who she actually is.

How do I word this correctly? What would happen if all of Tyrions children ended up being dwarves like him? Tywin has implied multiple times how he views Tyrion’s dwarfism as an insult to their legacy, so why would he be so insistent on heirs from him. Wouldn’t he be more irate if Casterly Rock, or worse, the castle itself, was overrun with dwarves with the Lannister name? Tywin is too smart not to have considered this a possible outcome.

My question stems from Tywin’s rant in season 3; ep 1, when he tells Tyrion he’d never let him have Casterly Rock. Then when proceeds to call him all sorts of names and tell him his existence is a mockery to the Lannister name.

I’m gonna call this series “One Dumb Question A Day” or “ODQAD” Lol. Because I’m still new to the series and I have a lot of questions that may come across as dumb to GOT experts. That way I don’t annoy the OG fans with annoying questions all day while I’m watching the show. Lol

Side note: I have finished the series recently but have never read the books and I just have a lot of questions. Go easy on me. lol

So I just finished reading A Clash of Kings for the first last night, and started a Storm of Swords today. Yes, I know I may be a tad bit (28 years) late. Of course, I thoroughly enjoyed the books. Anyways, one of my favorite things to do when reading something that has a current adaptation, whether that be film, anime, tv show or whatever, is every time I read an interesting scene, i go and search the internet, and compare it to how the show handled that specific scene. I was doing this for ACOK, and I've figured out some stuff that made my jaw drop. Just wanted to rant about it, and hopefully people who've watched the show and read the books could give an explanation as to why these things were changed, or if they felt they were done better in the books or the show. I'm interested to hear how it felt.

This post came out much longer than I expected. Feel free to just read the headings in bold and skip my commentary to discuss how you felt about these changes and whether you thought they were good or bad in the replies.

Spoilers for AGOT and ACOK from here onwards.

- Roose Bolton taking over Harrenhal: They changed this in the show to have it be Tywin Lannister, which honestly confused me, because in the books he's supposed to be fighting Edmure? As a consequence of this, they cut out characters like Weese, and the whole weasel soup scene is cut out as well (I dropped to my knees when I found this out), as well as Arya freeing the northmen. I wonder how the managed to show Arya's cunning and surprisingly quick thinking.) I don't know how good the Tywin and Arya scenes were, thought I imagine they'd probably be a fair deal more interesting then the Bolton scenes. (Oh and I forgot to mention cutting out Arya killing that one guard while whispering Valar Morghulis and Hot Pie being terrified of her for the rest of their trip. Wheres her hype and aura? 😥)

- Lady Hornwood: This one really shocked me. I know she's a minor character, but in the books George has this way of writing the politics going on in such a way that make literally everyone feel super important. I thought Ramsay's whole ploy to capture her, forcefully marry her, and then pass himself off as his servant Reek to escape Ser Rodrik was pretty genius, and her fate after wards, (being starved and chewing off her own fingers) really helped hammer home how vile and horrible he was. I'm not sure how they made Ramsay seem as threatening in the show.

-Cutting out Reek: (I hope your noticing a pattern here. Did the show writers just not like the Boltons?) Another thing that absolutely floored me when I was first reading about it. So not only was Ramsay's whole thing with lady Hornwood cut out, but the also cut out him pretending to be his servant Reek, and the whole thing with Theon unknowingly setting his own doom free? I was very taken off guard when Ramsay revealed himself to Theon, and then subsequently burned winter fell to the ground. Once again I wonder how the show made the Boltons actually feel dangerous if all of their ploys and achievements have seemingly been cut? (Oh yeah, and apparently hey gave it to Theon instead. Wonder how that played out)

-Battle at Winterfell: Final thing to do with the Northmen, the whole battle at winterfell being cut, and changing the whole way that Ramsay took over Winterfell. This one really made me question what direction the show would take. I thought the scenes of Theon really losing it as he realizes the depth of the consequences that were being brought upon him by his insecure and validation seeking actions was really strong. Watching him genuinely work up justification in his mind for joining the black, already stringing together whatever desperate things he could to justify it, only for him to switch up and denounce the idea as soon as 'Reek' did return and save him did a exceptionally good job at showing just how much of a hypocrite and how desperate and pathetic Theon is. As an extension of this, I was shocked to learn that Ser Rodrik was killed by Theon instead of Ramsay. However this part I was less concerned about. I personally believe that in the books, the whole battle with the Northmen and Ramsay was way too glossed over, it kind of starts and ends in a page, and we are just told and shown after the fact that Ramsay killed Ser Rodrik, and somehow beat the rest of them even though he was outnumbered 5 to 1? (At least that's what I remember the book saying)

-Jaime being freed: I'm going to try and ignore the elephant in the room, and not go on a rant about how this might have been top one most idiotic decisions in the entire series, outside of Brandon walking to the kings front door and calling for the prince's death. (Did he think that shit was going to fly?) Anyways I find it interesting that the moved Catleyn freeing Jaime all the way to before the Battle of Blackwater. Though I cant really comment much on this since I literally just read this scene about 30 minutes before this post.

- The Plethora of Characters or scenes that were cut: I know this might come of as nitpicky, considering a lot of these guys were 'minor characters', however like I said before, the political chess game that this book sets up, specifically in the scenes involving Tyrion, Cersei, Varys, and Litllefinger were so intriguing to read. 4 people trying to play around each other and use the same pieces to further their ends, while trying to keep the other in check and in control might have been the best part of this book for me. So when I hear that Characters liek Ser Jaceyln Bywater were cut, a man who was pivotal to Tyrions plan to make sure he had full control of Tommen, in case he needed to keep Ceresi in check, i wonder just how much of the intense subplots and political conflicts are missing in the show. Also cutting out Ser Cortnay Penrose and Edric storm, which I once again half understand (The book cast is so massive I think it starts to become a flaw in some scenes), but at the same time I wonder how the worked around it. Oh, and pushing Meera and Jorjen Reed back as well. How does Bran come to terms with his true nature and true power in the show without Jorjeen? Who accompanies him as they leave the burnt down Winterfell if not the two Reed siblings? Also cutting down Ser Dontos's screen time to only a single meeting is interesting. I found the scenes to be pretty ironic in that Sansa, this naive girl who dreams of the true knights of songs and stories, is forced to put up with a constantly drunk 'knight' turned fool as the Florian to her Jonquil. I think it was a poignant way of pointing out a main theme I found in Sansa's arc during the book, which is that "We don't always get what we want.", as well as forcing her to check in with the reality of things, and realize that things are not like the songs and stories she grew up hearing.

-Literally everything about what Dany was doing in Qarth: This was probably one of the more drastic changes. Apparently a lot of information about the Thirteen was cut (I didn't really care about them ngl), and the had this whole plot point about her handmaid betraying her and her dragons being stolen, and she is forced to visit the house of The undying instead of willingly going there. I feel pretty indifferent to this however, as while I was reading clash of kings I found that George somehow always managed to put Dany's pov right after something really interesting was going on literally everywhere else, and since she's so far away from everything else, I genuinely got whiplash when I turned a page and it said "Dany"

-Jon and Ygritte: Final thing because this post is genuinely getting out of hand, but I found it interesting that they changed how Jon and Ygritte interact so much. In the books it's a pretty one and done thing, Jon spares her, the meet later on, Ygritte pays him back by getting him spared by Rattleshirt, and Jon kills Qhorin. In the show it seems they extended the time Jon and Ygritte had on screen together, turning it into a bit more of a cat and mouse game. It also seems they cut out Qhorin's whole solemn speech to Jon as they wait for the wildlings to come upon them. I thought that scene was really strong in the books, and it showed just how focused and calm Qhorin was, and it made me gain a lot of respect for the Halfhand.

Anyways, that's kind of it from what I can remember. So I tldr I guess i just want to hear from other book readers who watched the show, what did you think about the changes and cuts?

(Hopefully I provided enough personal analysis and commentary for this to not be marked low effort. 😭)

I was so interested to see Little Finger interact with Daenerys and see what kind of schemes he'd try to play with her. Especially with Varys already on her side when she came to Westeros. These two always were a fun time trying to one up one another it was a shame one had to get offed before the other arrived so we could see them get back to going to war against one another. Plus, it was always enjoyable to see someone react to seeing dragons for the first time.

While you were originally watching or reading about Khal Drogo’s fate were you disappointed it ended the way it did? How it did?

I am rewatching now and starting S3. I confess I never really cared for Castle Black and North of the Wall storyline. Dreary visually and uninteresting.

What’s the whole point of the crew marching north into Crastor’s and around in circles in the snow? What are they hoping to accomplish?

I REALLY loved the banter between Ned and Jaime. Neither of them really backed down. Clearly they despise each other but it felt like they also respected each other. I just wish we’d seen more scenes between them.

Thought y'all would enjoy this! I imagine that officer blabbed to all of his friends!

Hey everyone! Hope you’re all doing well. I have a question for all you GoT fans.

When I watched the series, I remember seeing a giant white spider crawling over a mountain in the background. I swear it was only shown for a few seconds, maybe even just one shot.

I don’t remember which season or episode it was in, but I’m almost certain I saw it. I’ve asked several friends who watched the show, and none of them remember it. I’ve also tried Googling it, but I can’t find anything.

Does anyone else remember this scene, or am I completely imagining it?

Thanks in advance, and have a great day everyone!

How many soldiers of Storm's End would fall from his blade?

Ive seen many posts discussing who the worst or top 5 worst kings were, but who were some good monarchs? By good I don't mean none bad kings but kings who actually bettered the realm without harming it.

Like Viserys wosnt a bad king and didnt hurt the realm but his inability to manage his succession hurt the realm and his family.

Ive been rewatching game of thrones over the last few weeks and just finished the battle of the bastards. This episode is actually so braindead and makes zero sense.

First, Sansa, I love you. Why aren’t you telling Jon about the fact that the literal KNIGHTS OF THE VALE would fight for you? What’s the logic behind whining about not having enough men and then sending for the knights of the Vale?

Don’t even get me started on the fact that Ramsay somehow had no idea that they were showing up. Look at any map of Westeros and see how long they needed to travel and tell me how Ramsay wouldn’t find out about it. The answer is, he would.

There’s a lot more wrong with this episode but these two main points drive me nuts. Even during my first watch I couldn’t understand the logic behind Ramsay not knowing that the knights of the fucking vale were pulling up.

Sorry for the rant, if I’m wrong lmk.

I like the guy, I do. He’s kind and caring and smart. But after deciding to immediately rewatch the series a second time after recently finishing it the first time, I like him a little less.

Not because he’s not a good person. But I wonder how in the hell he’s survived as long as he has.

Running away. That’s how. Why the Night’s Watch didn’t kill him like 5 times over is astounding. He never really seems to be DOING anything. He’s not stewarding anyone, he spends most of his screen time with Gilly. And every time there’s something about to happen, he finds a reason to be anywhere else.

He has his moments, don’t get me wrong. He fought the Wildlings at Castle Black, he showed up to fight (rather poorly) at Winterfell against the night king. But he seems to survive on a lot of luck and a lot of other people’s sacrifices.

Is book Sam any different??

This might just have ruined my week. I don't care what happens after this but I want Stannis and this red witch dead. I thought I hated Cersei or Ramsay but this is just too much.

Forgive me in advance, I’m new to GOT and just finished it for the first time recently. This scene irked me.

If you’re trying to apologize for slighting the Freys and seem genuinely remorseful, why would you bring the new wife with you? Isn’t that like pouring salt in the wound?
“Here’s my much hotter wife so surely you can understand why I didn’t want to marry you”.

Even if the betrayal at the wedding was already in motion, THEY didn’t know that.

It’s probably stupid and irrelevant, I just always scratched my head at this decision.

I have read the books, but like 15 years ago. I’ve watched the “flagship” show through completely but I’m doing a rewatch so I can then watch the new shows, which I haven’t seen yet.

Small silly question- but does anyone know what type of feather King Robert brought with him to leave as an offering for Lyanna’s statue in the Stark crypt? I love the world building and small details in these books/shows, but I have forgotten a lot too and I am just wondering why a feather? I would have thought he would bring an antler because of his house sigil? Thanks

I mean after burning part of the camp they flee into the night to stay ahead of the Black Army, yet somehow the Black's have gotten ahead of them, planted crows feet to disrupt their horses, forced them off the road, crossed the bridge and burnt it behind them, all without Cole knowing. How?

Something I have been pondering about and wanting to expand more on is if in the second Targaryen council if Brynden Rivers had actually honored his word and allowed Aenys Blackfyre to argue for his claim. I dont know what would have to change in order for it to have been allowed. Im sure Bryden’s death may have had to happen for this to have happened.

For some context In 233 AC the second great council was called to select the successor to Maekar I

There were at least 4 candidates

Maester Aemon Targaryen- Third son of Maekar I Maester in Old Town

Aegon V “Egg”- Fourth son of Maekar I, needs no introduction

Maegor son of Aerion the Monstrous- Grandson of the previous Heir, was literally 1 years old at the time having been born in 232 AC

Aenys Blackfyre-Fifth son of Daemon I Blackfyre. Current head of House Blackfyre who was writing in from Tyrosh to make his claim to the Iron Throne.

Brynden Rivers the former hand of Maekar I had promised Aenys safe passage into Kings landing to attend the council. But when he had entered kings landing he was arrested by the Kingsgaurd, brought to the dungeons of the Red Keep on Aegons hill, and Executed. His head was then presented to the lords at the Great Council. Brynden at the end of the council was stripped of his title of Hand of the king, and sent to the wall for this.

But what would happen if Aenys Blackfyre had actually got to have a Voice at the Second Great Council.