Yeah, Roy Dotrice. The name didn’t ring any bell at first but when I heard his voice I was sure he was someone I should be able to pinpoint - took me right out of the book. Then I cheated: He had been Wesley Wyndam-Pryce’s father and Frederick Lantz from the B5 episode “The Fall of Night” . :smack:
I haven’t read much fan speculation other than in this thread, and this is the first I’ve heard about that theory.
Doesn’t ring true to me, because in the book, Jaqen seemed to be genuinely fooled into thinking Arya was a boy until he saw her at Harrenhall in girl’s clothes. Syrio would surely have known.
I think it was in this thread, way back, that people were speculating whether GOT took place on earth, or on some other planet, to account for the weird winters.
I am slowly rereading the series, and I just came across this passage in ASOS, in one of the Jon chapters:
“Maester Luwin had taught him his stars as a boy in Winterfell; he had learned the names of the twelve houses of heaven and the rulers of each; he could find the seven wanderers sacred to the Faith…”
So the sky of GOT seems to have the same 12 signs of the Zodiac and the same seven planets as Earth’s. Quite a coincidence, to say the least.
Edit: in case you didn’t know, the ancients counted seven planets (= wanderers, because their position against the background of the fixed stars changes from day to day, or even hour to hour), which is why we have seven days of the week: the five easily visible planets, the sun, and the moon. In many Romance languages, the names of the planets are very clearly seen in the names of the days of the week.
That’s an interesting thought. I always assumed Westeros’s world was in an entirely different star system, if only to liberate GRRM from even the least restrictive view of what the Solar System once was, or might someday be.
Martin has said multiple times that the reason for the weird weather is magical in nature. And I think, this is a wise choice; if he had opted for a “scientific” or natural explanation, the sticklers, that is us, would point out every little thing that was wrong with the cause-effect chain: no, the landmasses won’t look that way, even in the far future; no, an impact of a celestial object that could change the axis like the one of Uranus would do far too much damage for higher organisms to survive; no, even in a new, unprecedented warm period, continents would not vanish beneath the waves; etc.
Let’s not even start a discussion about cultures, languages and the apparent existence of a kind of magic that cannot be explained by some Clarke-ian advanced technology.
Besides, the idea “gosh, it’s really ‘our’ world” has been done far too often to be anything but an overused gimmick nowadays. Imo, of course.
Or, we could start discussions about any aspect of the story that interests us, and if you don’t want to contribute, don’t.
So the new episode…we finally get ten seconds of Sansa with the Hound, and it wasn’t enough. Syrio Forel was a badass, and I note the Faceless Man theory remains alive, as the episode did not show him dying either. Khal Drogo was also all kinds of awesome. Jason Momoa is doing a lot with a difficult role. The scene with the wight at the Wall was just as I pictured it…as Jon was looking around the empty chamber, I turned to my husband and said “I’m going to jump even though I know exactly what’s going to happen, right?”
Weren’t there supposed to be two of them? is this another “direwolves are hard” omission?
Two what? Wights?
Yes two wights. Jon burns one and Ghost kills the other, at least that’s how i seem to remember it.
I think there was just one and Ghost held it off for a second. Ghost wouldn’t be able to kill a wight I don’t think.
There were two wights, but only one was in the tower. The other one was down in the courtyard and killed four men before the NW managed to cut it into pieces small enough not to keep going. Ghost did attack the one in the tower, but it was Jon’s fire that actually killed it (and burned down the tower in the bargain).
You’re right, thanks. I knew there was a second wight and that ghost was supposed to be involved in the fight, i didn’t remember about the other deaths though.
I have to say that this wasn’t one of my favorite episodes. A lot of it felt rushed, or really stilted…and the change where Drogo fights one of his own freaking Blood Riders and gets the wound that will ultimately kill him was just bad. In the book he gets the wound fighting and killing first one Khal then a second one from a rival khalasar. That’s a ridiculous change IMHO.
-XT
We don’t know enough about the Dothraki for the change to be meaningful (unless you are familiar with the books). The problem is really that the show has compressed a lot of what happens with the Dothraki down to a few brief snippets so everything with that storyline is being done in the broadest of strokes.
Well, this is a thread that’s ‘based on knowledge of the books’, so we DO know that a Khal’s Blood Riders would never fight their leader, since they are supposed to die when he does (though in the book none of them actually die when Drogo dies, since they have all left by then…but the events leading up to his death are unusual to say the least).
-XT
I saw a theory that Westeros is the result of some serious continental shift. Plus, the people, geography and climate of the lands beyond the free cities could possibly be the Middle East.
Personally, I just think of it as a fantasy land, possibly not of this universe. Either way, I don’t think it’s crucial to the story.
That Syrio could have evaded the kingsguard, transformed into Jaqen H’ghar and was subsequently thrown in the dungeons kind of fits. Didn’t Jaqen at one point know Arya’s true identity before she had told anyone?
Loved this episode. A lot of things “clicked” more for me than when I read the book. Something about the visual medium just makes it so much more visceral and… I don’t know, memorable?
Sadly, I think my wife may be done with the show. 
The unrelenting bleakness that I love about the show/books finally became too much for her. My memories of the upcoming deaths of Drogo and Rhaego is foggy, but spoiler-hound that my wife is, she asked about them long ago, and all I remembered was a witch (maegi) did it, though I’d forgotten why or exactly how. When Mirri Maz Duur was revealed as said witch, my wife said, “If any act of mercy or kindness comes back to cause tragedy, this is not for me,” said she. “She saves this woman from rape and slavery, and then loses her husband and child for it… I just can’t watch.”
She said if I could offer her some kind of hope that there is some kind of victory for any of the “hero” characters in the next 3 books, maybe she could soldier on. But I was hard pressed to find any. 
Joffrey dying, Jaime losing a hand, & Cersei imprisoned were not enough to assuage her. Nor was Dany having dragons and becoming ruler over slaver’s bay. Nor Jon repelling the wildlings from the wall. I think those “victories” are about as good as it gets, as of AFFC. Am I missing any? Maybe ADWD will bring enough for her to continue… or not.
According to the ASOIAF wiki, Mago was a “rider” of Drogo’s khalasar, not a bloodrider. I thought the scene played fine, as a prelude to most of his people abandoning Drogo soon. A hint that all is not sunny and happy and loving Dany among the Dothraki. Remember, GRRM wrote this episode. If he thought this change was ok, I’m ok with it. And it was an awesome scene.
[QUOTE=gonzoron]
According to the ASOIAF wiki, Mago was a “rider” of Drogo’s khalasar, not a bloodrider. I thought the scene played fine, as a prelude to most of his people abandoning Drogo soon. A hint that all is not sunny and happy and loving Dany among the Dothraki. Remember, GRRM wrote this episode. If he thought this change was ok, I’m ok with it. And it was an awesome scene.
[/QUOTE]
YMMV, but to me it was a very discordant note. Drogo gets the wound that ultimately kills him from battle in which he single handedly defeats 2 enemy Khals is heroic. Getting the wound that kills him from infighting in his own khalasar changes the whole story IMHO.
I didn’t know that the rider he fought was just a rider though…when I was watching I thought it was one of his Bloodriders, which made it even worse and made even less sense.
-XT