With the Nights King being revealed last night, I guess you could look at it as the show officially going into new territory that isn't released in the books yet?
According to legend, the Night's King was originally a Lord Commander of the Night's Watch who found in the Haunted Forest a cold woman with bright blue eyes, seemingly a female White Walker. He took her to the other side of the Wall and declared himself "Night's King". For thirteen years the two ruled over the brothers of the Night's Watch, performing human sacrifices. The Free Folk rallied under the banner of a King-Beyond-the-Wall and marched against the Nightfort, which the Night's King had taken as his seat, defeating him with the aid of House Stark.[1]
I'm not a book purist at all but it seemed crazy how many things last night's episode changed from the book. Even if they were relatively minor. (I.E. Littlefinger's talk with Sansa wasn't quite so straight forward in the book.)
Yep. Bolton sent him to look for Bran and Rickon, and perhaps deal with Jon if he felt like a threat.
I don't necessarily have a problem with him being there so much as he seemingly warped there while the wildlings have been on the way for almost a season at this point.
The more I'm thinking about last night's episode, the more I like it (even if it was boring). I like the possibilities of what may happen with the shows changes & it gets you talking more about than just bran & crew heading up uninterrupted.
1. Is there any way past the wall other than climbing over it or using that tunnel the Night's Watch uses? Because if not, I'm too sure why it would be that hard to keep the wildlings on the other side, even if they had a 100,000-strong army. They made it look like climbing the wall would come with a pretty high mortality rate in itself, and then if you add some archers and deterrents at the top, it seems like a bad proposition for any invading army.
2. Why aren't other rulers offering up reinforcements for the wall? I get that people are distracted with their own issues (and that's part of the point), but isn't it in the best interest of all the rulers in Westeros not to have a huge wildling army running around? Especially for the Boltons, you just got control of the north, but you don't want to spare anyone to defend the wall (other than the evil secret agent sent to kill more Starks)?
largegarlic wrote:Some questions from a non-book-reader...
1. Is there any way past the wall other than climbing over it or using that tunnel the Night's Watch uses? Because if not, I'm too sure why it would be that hard to keep the wildlings on the other side, even if they had a 100,000-strong army. They made it look like climbing the wall would come with a pretty high mortality rate in itself, and then if you add some archers and deterrents at the top, it seems like a bad proposition for any invading army.
2. Why aren't other rulers offering up reinforcements for the wall? I get that people are distracted with their own issues (and that's part of the point), but isn't it in the best interest of all the rulers in Westeros not to have a huge wildling army running around? Especially for the Boltons, you just got control of the north, but you don't want to spare anyone to defend the wall (other than the evil secret agent sent to kill more Starks)?
1)
Spoiler:
At Castle Black they have tunnels to let the raiders get from one side to the other. Tunnels that one could get through with enough force.
2)
Spoiler:
Because they are too focused on themselves, you got it right there. No one south of the wall actually believes there is any threat. They see their problems as the most important, and don't give **** about the Wall. The Nights Watch is always asking for men, and people never really listen.
1. The Wall certainly offers a lot of protection... but with the kind of numbers disadvantage you are talking about, that only goes so far. And remember. they have another force on the other side of the wall that they are planning to hit them with from behind at the same time. 100 people isn't a lot to defend against 100k, even if most are on the wrong side of the wall. Granted, I don't think all of that 100k are fighters, but still.
2. Most people, especially those not in the North, feel like the threats beyond the wall are fairy tales. I'm also not sure if they are fully aware of just how large the wilding threat is... and if they do, they don't care.
One hole the show kind of left open in regards to the wall though was that giant door at the Nightfort or whatever that Sam/Bran go through. In the book there is a magical gate that only opens for members of the Night's Watch. I understand why they didn't include it as a talking gate is a bit out there, even for this show... but as it stands, they could just walk right through.
Yes, Sam says it is 'secret", but that hardly passes the eye test of what we saw in epsiode 3.10.
I'm halfway through feast for crows. You guys are killing my motivation to get through this and swords. Should I just cheat and wiki these two? I'm already skipping chapters in crows out of boredom.
Your best bet if you want to read them would have been to download A Ball of Beasts and read the combined story... it works much much better than the separate books as chapters from the 2 books seemed to flow together perfectly. The only downside to that is that it kind of spoils what Quentyn is up to, but that is hardly a reason not to do it.
As for the books themselves, they do have some interesting content, but there are a ton of travelouges that you have to sort through to get there. And the Iron Born, who largely bore the ever loving **** out of me.
Should you continue, be prepared to be frustrated when story lines do not advance even close to as far as you'd like... Apparently due to Martin's editor deciding that having every story thread end on a cliffhanger of some sorts was better than the book really having any true climax, but I digress.
slappybrown wrote:I'm halfway through feast for crows. You guys are killing my motivation to get through this and swords. Should I just cheat and wiki these two? I'm already skipping chapters in crows out of boredom.
Book 5 has less wheel spinning than Book 4. It's a bit easier to get through.
slappybrown wrote:I'm halfway through feast for crows. You guys are killing my motivation to get through this and swords. Should I just cheat and wiki these two? I'm already skipping chapters in crows out of boredom.
I skimmed the last 1/4 of the book. Tower of the hand is your friend.
slappybrown wrote:I'm halfway through feast for crows. You guys are killing my motivation to get through this and swords. Should I just cheat and wiki these two? I'm already skipping chapters in crows out of boredom.
Book 5 has less wheel spinning than Book 4. It's a bit easier to get through.
I'd rate Dance about as good as Clash. Storm of Swords is by far the best o the series so far. For as good as it was I think Feast for Crows sucks as bad on it's own.
