As suggested by bouv in the off-season thread: Valar Hiatus: The Game of Thrones offseason thread - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Let the Westerosian backstabbing, sexposition, swordplay and magic begin!
And just so everyone is clear, like the off-season thread, EVERYTHING from the books is fair game, not just the books up until this season.
God, I can’t wait to see the reactions of the non-spoiler thread to The Red Wedding. It’ll be episode 9, and titled “The Reins of Castemere.”
I know they played the song over the credits of Blackwater last year, and had Bronn briefly sing it before at the pub and someone called it “The Lannister Song,” but I think it needs to get brought up once or twice more so people really know why it’s a VERY BAD SIGN when that song starts to play.
Of course, even if they don’t notice it’s a bad sign, it’ll be like 30 seconds later when shit hits the fan, so…yeah.
Is this season covering the entire third book?
No.
I don’t think we’ll get Jon’s election, Joffrey’s wedding, Tyrion’s trial, or Tywin’s death this year. The last episode is titled Mhysa, which is Gischari or Valyrian for “mother.” So we’ll end with Dany freeing the slaves at Yunkai. It’s possible they’re also going to have it refer to Catelyn.
I better see Robb with a wolf head and Cat thrown naked in the river.
I’m sad there’s no Strong Belwas.
I’m guessing, since they aren’t going to hide who Whitebeard really is, they he’ll be the champion to fight for Dany instead of Belwas.
Which means we probably won’t get any shitting.
I’m looking forward to the show runners improving Danerys’ story line. It was still humming along in book three, but because of the short run of just 10 episodes, they’ll really be trimming the fat.
Arya’s story line won’t get really interesting until season four, because I doubt she gets her sword back and stabs the torturer this season. They’re going to have a tough time justifying her revenge by season four. The torture scene is season two was so brief, I’d think they’d have to have a flashback just so the audience remembers who the guy was.
Two wedding assassinations are going to change the pop culture view of weddings for awhile. I wonder if there are any TV-only Thrones fans naively planning a GoTs-style wedding. Joffrey probably won’t happen until season four though, I suppose.
Dany’s story should be closer to the books this season, I think. She doesn’t do much in book 2 (or 5), but book 1 and 3 have enough to translate to the screen. I think it’ll be fine.
The Tickler is already dead anyway. He’s the first name that Arya gave Jaqen. I’m looking forward to her story this season. She gets nabs by the Brotherhood Without Banners and sees, among other things, the Hound fight Beric Dondarrion.
Arya’s storyline was already supposed to be interesting. Her trip to the war ravaged countryside with the mountains men is some of the best parts of the series, and taking out the Tickler was right up there too.
*Her story as it appears in Storm of Swords. She gets dragged to three or four different places without any resolution to the “will she get home” storyline that has been the focus since she saw her father executed. I’m good and proper spoiled now, but recalling my mindset when I was reading book three, I think the non-book reading TV audience has a reasonable expectation that the “get to Winterfell” storyline will see some progress and some sort of resolution. Instead, it’s an aimless and bleak tour of the wartime – which is fine and totally fitting with the themes of the series – but it’s a hell of a dose of nihilistic hopelessness that I think the TV fans don’t expect. I think a lot of the viewership *thinks *they had their eyes opened with Ned’s execution, but then reverted right back to the heroic tropes GRRM purposefully rejects. They think Rob’s the chosen son who’ll right the wrongs, Arya will go through tribulations but make it back to her mother, etc. This season’s plot lines are going to test the audience’s appetite for bleak, cynical storytelling.
Gah, I hate to do this, but shouldn’t the thread title include “book”, so that people know before reading too far that there will be book spoilers in this thread?
As it stands, unless we’ve read the other thread(s), we might think “open spoilers” refers only to the current TV episode.
As opposed to what, a thread for speculation about the current tv episode? Is this an actual concern of yours or is this a hypothetical problem?
It’s the first line of the 2nd post.
And the second line of that post contains two words that even HBO publicists are trying to avoid using.
It’s an actual concern. I started reading (skimming) and scrolling, thinking the thread was limited to season three of the show.
On the other hand, I can’t think of a thread title that’s not unwieldy. 
Maybe “Game of Thrones - open spoilers S3 and Book 3”?
I don’t know why people get so worked up about this…just put something like “includes book spoilers” in the title so the people who start on page 37 instead of page 1 are aware.
We’ve been doing this for three years now, there is a spoiler thread and a no spoiler thread. It’s not that fucking complicated.
Saying that Robb and Catelyn are murdered in episode 9 would be fine under either interpretation though, right? Isn’t an “open spoilers S3 and Book 3” thread the exact same as all the weekly threads added together?
You’re right. :smack:
The actors and actresses on what to expect for their characters… and a short word from GRRM: http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2013/03/29/game-of-thrones-season-3-raises-the-stakes/?hpt=hp_c3
Melisandre’s wizard sleeve, heh.
Speaking of “heh”, I really hope we get at least one out of Walder Frey.