I rewatched season 2 this week to get me back up to speed, and if you’ve got the DVDs laying around I’d recommend it. We left off with Stannis’ attack defeated at King’s Landing by a combined army of the Lannisters and Tyrells. Winterfell was burned by Theon, who escaped with his merry band of pirates. Osha escaped with the youngest Starks. Jon was captured up north by Mance Rayder. Tyrion was stripped of status by the return of Tywin. Daenerys was re-united with her dragons. Arya is wandering the countryside. Robb broke his promise to the Freys and got secretly married. The White Walkers are on the move.
We’ve fought over the spoil policy enough, we had a very workable system last year. These threads will act as though the books don’t exist. No comparisons, no speculation based on book knowledge, no “don’t get too attached to this character wink wink” hints, nothing. We’re discussing the TV show on its own merits in isolation. There will be other threads in which people can compare the TV show to the books and discuss all the aspects related to that. You can see moderator instructions to that extent in this post. If you feel that you need to argue the policy, take it to ATMB or the pit. These threads worked a whole lot better in year 2 with these policies than year 1 which was a constant bickering trainwreck. Please respect them.
Anyway, I’m excited. I thought season 2 wasn’t as good as season 1, but still better than pretty much on TV other than Breaking Bad. I hope the storyline north of the wall starts moving - all the scenes involving the night watch (except Yoren, who’s awesome) were the slow points of the season. Even worse on rewatch, since I knew they’d never amount to too much. But now events are set in motion, so hopefully it’ll get interesting quickly. And hopefully Dany gets back to Westeros soon enough - her story moved along at a snail’s pace for most of season 2.
To be clear, you don’t have to spoiler box anything from the TV show, both from the current episode under discussion or past episodes. That’s all fair game. So there ideally should be no spoiler boxes in this thread - you don’t need them to discuss the TV show, and you shouldn’t be discussing things outside the TV show.
That said, if people want to do weekly threads with book spoilers, that’s fine, I don’t care how you manage it, I only want these threads to run as smoothly as they did last year once we settled in. Although in the past, we’ve just had one big season-long book/TV discussion. Since (I assume) that discussion can span stuff covered by the entire books including what could happen in the show’s future, it does make more sense to have one long thread for it rather than individual episode threads, but whatever you guys want to do, that’s fine. After some initial griping last year, our TV-only episodic and anything-goes season long thread format did pretty well.
I don’t think giving up Theon and being let go themselves is an option anymore since they burned Winterfell. Seemed pretty clear to me that they were bugging out of there, they knocked out Theon since he wanted to die in a last stand. They’re going to drag him home, using the burning of Winterfell as cover.
Ah, yes, the ambiguity. Forgot that was an issue. It does seem kind of illogical that 20 men could burn winterfell under the watch of 500 siegers, but we’re not sure yet if that’s a plot hole or a plot point. Lord Bolton could be making a play of his own, he’s kind of a dick. Seems like a loyal dick so far though.
The guy who was serving as Robb’s right hand man in the war camps, who was always giving him status updates and stuff. He was the one who convinced Robb not to March north to retake Winterfell since he’d give up his gains in the south, and instead said he’d send his son’s army to retake it. He was the guy whose house is known for skinning people and torturing them.
Yes, his “bastard” specifically from the Dreadfort, not sure if that’s relevant. I think the force is supposed to be 500 men strong.
Of course they’re apparently gone too when Osha escapes, so they don’t seem to be interested in holding it. But it’s possible they burned it through some treachery ordered by Bolton.
I’m guessing they burnt it down, are going to blame it on the Iron Islands to start a war with them. Or it’s some sort of power grab. Rob is basically a king without a castle now.
I mentioned in the “off-season spoiler thread” that, IMO, just one, season-long, spoiler/book thread is best, since there typically isn’t enough traffic to warrant a weekly spoiler/book thread.
I’ll make the thread if no one else wants to. Like you, I just want to avoid situations where people make threads without checking to see what threads exist, don’t label them properly, and before you know it there’s five GoT threads, and it’s hard to tell which one is which.
I’m rewatching Season 2 also, in anticipation of tomorrow’s S3 premiere. All of Season 1 and Season 2 are available via HBO On Demand if that’s available on your cable service. And it’s all on HBO GO, too.
I am most excited about seeing where they pick things up north of the Wall, as that was a hell of an ending last season. And of course I’m looking forward to the dragons becoming (hopefully) more powerful.
Related to that, College Humor created some Coats of Arms for various internet sites:
The last one listed is very, very slightly Not Work Safe for a hidden cartoon penis. Like…it’s small, and you have to look for it, so overall I’d say you’re probably ok looking at it at work as long as someone isn’t literally right behind you staring at your monitor.
