Well, I’m not going to limit my opinions to the first book. So I’ll say I found her actions there quite stupidly naive. But she has been getting a valuable education & might become a useful player…
I agree that Sansa is not evil; just understandably naive and caught in a horribly difficult situation which she didn’t have the experience to cope with. And she definitely wises up in the later books under the tutelage of Littlefinger. I think she is going to be a pretty important and active character in the later books.
And yes I found it strange that they made Cat so plain; I am pretty sure she was supposed to be quite beautiful in the books, beautiful enough for Littlefinger to be still in love with. And I don’t think Littlefinger was the kind of man who would stay in love with a plain woman…
Yes, in book 4 she’s definitely getting smarter. A day late and a dollar short, but still.
Yes. IIRC in the book what mad the scene heart-rending was that Nymeria didn’t understand why she was being driven away which would have made the separation so much more painful for Arya. In the show, it appears that Nymeria understands exactly what is going on and just needs a stone to get her going. I think they want to avoid piling on too much misery especially for the viewers who haven’t read the books. The poor dears don’t know what they are in for.
There’s pretty limited time to build up the wolves that belong to the Stark daughters, since they’re driven away/killed pretty quickly after being introduced. I suspect Jon’s Brans and Rickon’s wolves will get more screen time as the series progresses. Rickons wolf is pretty much more of a character then he is.
There was a bit of a discussion about this in the first thread. I think they should definitely have built up the relationship between the wolves and the children which would also have allowed new viewers more time to get to know the characters. I have seen several complaints that there were too many characters in the first episode and if you haven’t read the books it’s entirely legitimate. I would have stayed with the Starks for the entire first and perhaps even the full second episode and waited before introducing the Dany/Drogo subplot.
Anyone else hoping Nymeria shows up in a later book? (Not just as a rumor, either?)
–Agree that, on TV, the girls’ wolves didn’t get much “character development” because their roles were rather short.
My husband and I were talking last night about whether or not Nymeria would come back later in the series. I sure hope she does. Arya seems to see through her eyes in dreams sometimes, right? Like Bran does but less so?
It was Nymeria who dragged Cat’s corpse out of the river for Berric & Co. to find and raise.
Really? I didn’t remember that.
Do we know that for sure or is it just speculation?
I think Arya sees it in a dream.
No, the best result for herself would be to side with Joffrey. She tried to make everyone happy.
Yes, she experiences it as a dream and once she knows her mother is dead she stops trying to convince the Hound to take her back to the Twins to rescue Cat.
I don’t think Nymeria dragged Cat’s corpse out knowing that Beric would find it; I think that was more of a coincidence.
Wow. I had totally forgotten that.
I think we are pretty certain that Nymeria is the she-wolf leader of the rogue wolf pack that is terrorizing the riverlands in the later books. I think Arya will come back and from Braavos and hopefully reunite with her wolf. I also think she’s only temporarily blind.
I just finished the 4th book last night. I’m very interested in what the heck is happening with Bran and Rickon. We know Bran is on the other side of the wall, but where could Rickon and what’s-her-name possibly have gone to?
Also, why was Gendry hidden away as a smith’s apprentice? Robert had other known bastards. I forget if that explained in the books or not.
I think Robert had them all taken care of. Eric storm was doing well for himself too, if you recall.
Was he “hidden away”? I don’t think any of Robert’s bastards were officially recognized, so they wouldn’t have been hanging around the court. Which would have been a bad idea anyway, as Cersei certainly wouldn’t have had the forebearance that Cat had for Jon. I think it was more a case of “I’ll provide for him, but don’t let anyone know his parentage” on Robert’s part, as much for his own peace of mind as for Gendy’s safety. Also to keep the line of succession clear…Robert was the originator of a dynasty, and didn’t want things to fall into Targaryen-style succession confusion this early.
Robert was providing for all of his bastards, wasn’t he? Not just Gendy.
Edric Storm was officially recognized. Had to, his mother was a noblewoman. At least one other, Mya Stone, was ‘unofficially recognized.’ He even acted like a father towards her, at least til the war distracted him.
Most of the rest were probably like Gendry and Bara the prostitute’s daughter, he had someone more responsible (Jon Aryn, presumably) see that that were provided for, and forgot about them.
A few, like Bella the prostitute, he probably never even knew about.
Cersei did have a couple of them killed, from a serving woman somewhere in the Lannister territories.
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Odd that Mya got the bastard’s name without being officially recognized, though. Might be your mother can give you that on her own.
I hadn’t even heard of these books a month ago. When the series started to get some press I thought “these might be interesting”, since then I have read all 4 and I loved them…and as soon as I finished one book I picked up the next, which I hardly ever do with long series.
I fell for these books because I am a fan of medieval history and I think I was hooked from the moment I saw the names Stark and Lannister…very obviously based on the Yorks and Lancasters of the War of the Roses.
My pet peeve in medieval historical novels is characters that think like modern people, which is why I HATE it that they aged the younger characters…I realize that modern audiences find the idea of parents prostituting their 12 year old daughters distasteful but I prefer historical accuracy. And Catelyn’s objections to Nedd’s appointment as the King’s Hand didn’t fit, to me the whole point of the novel is that the characters were in a world where they didn’t have much “choice” in life, they are either pawns or players in The Game of Thrones and the way to survival was to become a player rather than a pawn.