George is writing episode 9, which will be titled “Autumn Storms.” Seems likely. Of the unsullied, I wonder what percentage have heard about that already.
Since they seem to be splitting books in half, I would think they’d put the two weddings in different seasons. Can you imagine if they ended season 3 with the Red Wedding?
My speculation is that they’ll end next season with Lady Stoneheart’s appearance and save Joffrey’s wedding for the penultimate episode of the season after that. Another speculation: watching Dany running around free ungrateful slaves will be boring.
It’s better than watching her do absolutely nothing like most of this season and most of the seasons after that.
And even more preferable to reading about it. (I know many disagree, but the Dany parts of the books are the most torturous to endure.)
Jeez, I’ve read the book through once but I can’t keep all these character straight. I’ll be damned if I am going to slog through them again though.
Yeah, Dany has about two chapters worth of good stuff after Game of Thrones, and those are mostly not about her.
The actual Game of Thrones boardgame is pretty fun.
New members of the cast for season three introduce themselves. It’s a YouTube video.
I recognized just one but I squeeeeeed at that one – Diana Rigg as Lady Olenna Tyrell.
I’ve just finished a reread of “Storm of Swords,” and with the idea of splitting it between two seasons in mind… whoa, the script writers are going to have to really work at making next season satisfying. As in, minimizing the time spent on a lot of things, and either add or move stuff forward.
IMHO, that first 500 whatever pages – almost half the book – is DULL. Okay, there are a handful of exciting or interesting scenes: The battle between the Rangers and the Others, and Sam’s killing one with an obsidian weapon. The duel between Dondarian (sp?) and the Hound. The Wildlings scaling the Wall. The Tyrian/Sansa wedding. Daneyris’s buying the Unsullied/destroying that city. But each of those only takes up a dozen or so pages, and what else do we get? Hundreds of pages of various characters slogging around, or stewing mentally, or BOTH slogging and stewing. 
Looking at the ‘main’ characters:
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Rob is mainly offscreen. He makes a few strategic decisions (to be carried out off screen) and canoodles with his new wife.
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Catelyn mainly sits and stews: Over her dying father. Over whether Brienne will be able to get Jaime down to King’s Landing and traded for … who? Arya, I guess. She learns Sansa is married, so she doesn’t expect to get her back. Over the aftermath of Rob’s breaking his vow to marry a Frey girl.
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Stannis just grumps and stews on Dragonstone.
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Joffrey is utterly off screen.
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So is Cersei, basically.
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Jamie and Brienne slog down through the country, squabbling in a way that gets really tiresome. (Jaime: Yadda yadda yadds, wench. Brienne: My name is Brienne! Jaime: Yadda yadda yadds, wench. Brienne: My name is Brienne! and on and on.)
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Tyrian is recovering from his wounds, and being humiliated time after time by his father. Oh, yeah, and he gets married to
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Sansa, to her (utterly passive) displeasure and more humiliation for Tyrion, who seems to have fallen somewhat for her, though heaven knows why, since pretty much all Sansa does is stew over how bad her life is compared to what she’d dreamed of.
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Jon marches along with the Wildings from somewhere above the Wall to somewhere below the Wall, then escapes and trundles back north TO the Wall.
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Oh, and Sam and Gilly slog towards the Wall, seperately.
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Bran, Hodor and the Reed kids slowly trudge their way north towards the Wall, while Bran practices living in his wolf’s mind.
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Arya slogs around. And around. She heads for Riverrun. She gets captured by one group and slogs south. She gets taken by a second group and slogs…some direction. She falls in with a third group and slogs… well, it doesn’t matter. The point is, she doesn’t do any of the exciting, clever, active things she did in earlier books. She slogs along, dirty and hungry, and stews. She occasionally threatens to kill people or wants to join in battles, but she is dismissed as a kid and shoved aside.
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Rickon headed off with Osha for ??? and basically vanishes from sight.
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Danyris, well, she’s not my favorite character, but Martin actually advances her plot: she gets the Unsullied, and becomes the leader of a mob of freed slaves.
… And that’s pretty much it. IOW, that a hell of a lot of slogging around for the reader to slog through.
Worse is that some of the favorite characters (like Tyrion and Arya) stop doing the things that made them favorites. Tyrion has few witty lines and his schemes just fail or don’t even manage to get started, and Arya is shoved around by fate without really shoving back.
Of course THEN Jaime gets his hand chopped off, and the Red Wedding, and after that things move and move and move.
Somehow the writers are going to have to get the exciting stuff moved up, because while book readers hooked on a series WILL slog through a dull stretch, I don’t think a tv audience is anywhere near as forgiving. Saying “next series will be a doozy” won’t keep them tuning in.
I’m sure they’ll distribute some of the Theon/Reek material over the next several seasons, since I don’t think they want to put that actor on a two-year hiatus.
The character that plays Jojen, was he , Liam Neesons kid in love actually.
Declan
So I’m new to the whole Game of Thrones thing. I’ve watched all episodes from the first two seasons. Haven’t read any of the books.
If I -wanted- to read the books, but without spoiling future seasons of the TV show…what’s my best bet?
Read the first two books, then stop.
That’s probably the first time I’ve heard ASOS called dull. More happens in the first half of that book than in Clash, and more in the second half (which you excluded, I know) than the rest of the series combined. I don’t think the writers will have a single problem making the story lines interesting, contrasted with Dany in this past season.
I mean, the book starts out with a giant fucking army of zombies and undead bears attacking! You have the Hound chopping a guy nearly in half and a resurrection. You have people climbing an ice wall. Jaime and Brienne are some of the best chapters in the entire series! Dragon face melting!
I never got the impression that Tyrion fell for Sansa. Why did you think that?
“Fell for” is putting it strongly, but I think he did genuinely tried to do right by her as his wife. He definitely found her physically attractive and wanted to win her affections. He never fell for her the way he did for Shae though.
If falling for someone is finding them attractive and wanting to do right by them, then I’ve fallen in love on the majority of first dates I’ve ever had. I don’t think that’s a tenable position.
Oh, man…Diana Rigg as Olenna Tyrell! Not only can she poison her idiotic grandson-in-law, she can deliver a roundhouse kick that will pop the head right off a goldcloak’s neck!
And I don’t think Tyrion “fell for” Sansa so much as felt sorry for her. He was pretty much the only person besides her relatives who cared what she wanted or felt.
Several Emmy nominations again, most notable being Peter Dinklage again for Best Supporting Actor, and Outstanding Drama Series.
No, I think they describe her early on as being Bran’s age. This wiki for GoT says she’s nine.