(it’s chink, btw. Means a small crack or dent)
Part of the problem is that Martin nests important plot points in the middle of a 1,000 word description of the food or what someone was wearing.
Some of the unsullied think that Sansa is being whisked off to reunite with Arya. A guy at work thinks Dany will show up at the end of this season with her army and dragons to reclaim the crown, it’s adorable. They don’t realize that there are a few thousand pages of the equivalent of fantasy CSPAN to wade through.
I found that…disturbing.
I hope this description is original with you, because it’s spot-on perfect, and I intend to use it regularly. I’d much rather attribute it to “my close personal friend madmonk28, whom I’ve never met, came up with that” rather than “my close personal friend madmonk28, whom I’ve never met, repeated that on a messageboard we both frequent, although it’s not original with him and I’m not sure where it came from.”
I’m going to use it, too. Except I’ll say I came up with it. 
I don’t think you have to be 100 percent selfish to be considered evil. I think Littlefinger is selfish enough to pass the threshold.
In any case, I also believe that his concern for Sansa is more selfish than not.
It is indeed mine, or if I’ve stolen it, I’ve repeated it enough times that I think it’s mine. When you refer to me, could say, “my good friend, the eminent poster Madmonk28?” I’ve never been called eminent before.
He doesn’t just barely fall on the evil side, he waltzes right into it. There’s no redeeming him for the fate of Jeyne Poole.
Yes. Among others.
I’ve been re-reading Dragons and am noticing a difference in GRRM’s writing. The sympathetic female characters are written much better than the unsympathetic ones – Cersei, Lysa, Shae.
Book Cersei is especially vapid and one-dimensional. Her dialogue is trite, soap opera stuff. It’s a testament to the show’s writers and Lena Heady’s acting that the character is even mildly interesting. Show Cersei is smart; book Cersei is dumb and short-sighted.
Same with Shae, and Lysa – the scene where she arrives at Littlefinger’s place is almost a parody of a silly, horny woman. If there were a Real Housewives of Westeros, she’d fit right in.
But Sansa, Catelyn, Brienne, Arya, Margaery, Lady Olenna, even Melissandre – way different in Martin’s treatment of them.
Eh. The only (male) fantasy writer I know who can write female characters worth a damn is David Eddings, and I strongly suspect he either writes about his wife, or more likely lets his wife write herself in directly. Which would explain why he only has 2 female characters ever, repeated ad nauseam.
Fair’s fair : he also only has like 4 male characters. But all 6 are decent, so, whatever. It works in small doses :).
Completely agree, with the only caveat being that I don’t think show Cersei is all that smart, either. Clever in some ways, but not very smart. Tywin pretty much nailed it when he said she is not as smart as she thinks she is.
Uh… Jaime raping Cersei? What the hell? Or do I completely misremember that scene?
You’re not wrong. The way I remember it, Cersei was the insistent one. And wasn’t she menstruating and Jaime hesitated?
It’ll be interesting to see if the changes turn out to be significant – Cersei being reluctant and Jaime being at the wedding.
I’m not remembering Oberyn being a judge – just that he was Tyrion’s champion and The Mountain killed him. It’d be nice if Oberyn could hang around – even be on the small council – but that’s too big a change, probably.
Uh, he was a judge and he was in the small council.
I think if you read the Jaime/Cersei sex in the sept scene again, and consider that it was from Jaime’s point-of-view, it might seem a bit less consensual.
Seems like she was worried about the risk and then was overtaken by lust. Later she tries to fuck him in his kingsguard chambers. It seems unlikely she would do that if he straight up raped her like in the show.
For what it’s worth, I’d been wondering how they’d film that scene, which in my memory was Jaime raping Cersei practically on top of their dead son, and yes, she had her period. It may have been a “this is NOT the right time” sort of no, but it was still a clear “no,” as I recollect and as presented in the show.
From Jaime’s point-of-view, perhaps. We shall see.
A short piece about the scene. I must agree with the author: the change is both terrible and baffling.
And it IS a clear change. Not to excuse the former, but there’s a big difference between “No, not here, yesyesyes” and simple violent rape, which was all that was presented to viewers. I have no idea what the producers were thinking.