Discuss spoilers for Games of Thrones here.

I was so surprised when died.

Serious discussion, I don't like last episode's changes from the books.

Haven't read the books, but going off of the most recent episode, I demand that I will not compromise on this issue.

Book spoilers!!!

This wasn't meant to be a serious topic ok.

Again book spoilers:

You know, it's weird. Out of the three shows I'm currently following (GoT, Arrow and Agents of SHIELD), Game of Thrones is currently actually the worst one. This was not at all what I was expecting this winter break.

I haven't seen the latest episode yet. I watch it with my brother and our schedules are rarely even aligning at the end of the semester, I'll probably get to it tomorrow. But I'd say I'm hearing much more fan criticism about the show this time around than other seasons. Still the critic's darling, but lots of fans who've read the books seem to be getting more disappointed for the first time, and even as a guy who hasn't read them, I've felt a little underwhelmed so far. Which is a shame since most consider the 3rd book to be the best.

Regarding the second episode (forgot to post this a week ago)...

Good. Now maybe people wont keep saying that game of thrones is the best show on television (aka pirating machines).

I think it has an easy time earning that title partly because most of its competition for "the best show on television" ends only a few weeks after GoT begins, and US TV doesn't tend to strive for high quality in the summer (there are exceptions), so it's pretty easy for it to take the title unclaimed. Things might turn out different if it premiered in the fall or winter.

Out of what airing American TV I'm watching, only Adventure Time and Orphan Black are beating it IMO, so it's still doing pretty good even with a slight quality drop.

Thought this week's episode was about as good as last weeks.

I dont watch the show but I want to know is Tyrone Lannister dead yet?

My favorite character in Game of Thrones is Robbery Garark.

Spoiler alert for those who haven't read the first four A Song of Ice and Fire books. Note that I refer to POV characters as main characters or narrators.

I finished reading George R.R. Martin's A Feast for Crows yesterday evening. I personally enjoyed the book very much; no less than the previous three. However, I know a number of readers who were dissatisfied with the book because of George R.R. Martin's choice to split what would have been a 1700-page book into two separate books, and leave out a few main characters for other characters to continue the story in their stead. It helped eliminate the bias of the events in Westeros, and gave readers a complete understanding of extremely important happenings in parts of Westeros that were only mentioned in the previous books such as Dorne, the Iron Islands, Braavos, and the Vale of Arryn.

In A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, and A Storm of Swords, there were six Stark main characters; Lord Eddard (Ned) Stark, Lady Catelyn (Cat), Jon Snow, Brandon (Bran) Stark, Sansa Stark, and Arya Stark. Seven, if you count Theon Greyjoy because he served as Ward of Winterfell for a decade. I did not, seeing as he ended up supporting his father Balon Greyjoy's second uprising and raided Winterfell, Deepwood Motte, Moat Cailin, and several other castles in the North. There were a grand total of two Lannister main characters; Tyrion Lannister in all three books, and Jaime Lannister in A Storm of Swords. There were no Florent, Baratheon, Tully, Redwyne, etc. main characters in the books either. If you count Davos Seaworth as a Baratheon, though he is not by blood, because of his unfaltering fealty towards Stannis, that makes one for House Baratheon.

In A Feast for Crows, there are a lot of other characters who weren't in the first three books. Eddard Stark had his head cut off by Ser Ilyn Payne on the steps of Baelor's Sept in King's Landing at the end of A Game of Thrones. Two books later, Robb and Catelyn Stark were murdered by the Freys at the Red Wedding, at the Twins. The Red Wedding was quite gruesome. In A Feast for Crows, there were only three Stark narrators; Jon Snow (although he was only in it in the beginning for a couple of chapters), Sansa Stark (who is referred to as Alayne Stone in her later chapters to hide from Cersei Lannister's searches for her), and Arya Stark (who is referred to as "Cat of the Canals" while in Braavos). By the way, because Catelyn Stark was resurrected by Beric Dondarrion three days after the Red Wedding, she is actually alive during the events in A Feast for Crows. There were still only two Lannisters in A Feast for Crows; Cersei Lannister, and Jaime Lannister (who had a complete personality change when Vargo Hoat cut off his sword hand). It was interesting to see things from Cersei's and Jaime's points of view, especially what they thought of each other. I quite enjoyed Cersei's plots to dethrone Margaery Tyrell and win the war. Jaime was also strangely likable during A Feast for Crows. Even though he had an incestuous relationship with his sister in the past, he's creeping up my list of favorite characters. He kept his oath not to take up arms against Houses Stark or Tully, instead he convinced the Freys to release Edmure Tully from captivity, and end the siege of Riverrun without actually killing anyone. It was also enjoyable to read about Brienne of Tarth's journey. (I'm still not sure whether to call her "Ser" because of her knighthood or "Lady" because of her high birth) Samwell Tarly's journey from Eastwatch-by-the-Sea to Oldtown was interesting as well. I do wish that he hadn't brought 102-year-old (Maester) Aemon Targaryen along; the frail old man died along the way. "Fire consumes, but cold preserves." -Maester Aemon (Targaryen).

I also think that events in the Iron Islands and Dorne definitely needed to be observed with main characters. George R.R. Martin did too, that's why there are chapters there. There were three new main characters in the Iron Islands; Aeron (Damphair) Greyjoy (who is sometimes referred to as "The Prophet" or "The Drowned Man"), Princess Asha Greyjoy (who is sometimes referred to as "The Kraken's Daughter"), and Prince Victarion Greyjoy (who is sometimes referred to as "The Iron Captain" or "The Reaver"). One of the reasons characters from the Iron Islands are in A Feast for Crows is because Euron Greyjoy acquired the horn Dragonbinder, which can allegedly control dragons, from Valyria. Equally important are the three narrators from Dorne; Areo Hotah (sometimes referred to as "The Captain of Guards"), Ser Arys Oakheart (sometimes referred to as "The Soiled Knight"), and Princess Arianne Martell (sometimes referred to as "The Queenmaker" or "The Princess in the Tower"). After the Red Viper's death by the hand of Ser Gregor Clegane, many Dornishmen expected to go to war with King's Landing. Princess Arianne Martell also attempted to give Princess Myrcella the Iron Throne, but failed when she was betrayed by one of her friends. I quite liked learning about both the history and current events of the Iron Islands and Dorne because there was very little Iron/Dornish history to be read in the first three books. (By the way, what's the demonym for the Iron Islands? My first guess would just be Iron, but I don't actually know)

All in all, A Feast for Crows was a perfectly fine book. A great book. An amazing book. The new characters added to the experience, and in no way took away from it. If anyone who is reading this has not yet read A Feast for Crows, don't even think about skipping it just because a couple of characters are missing from it. That's terrible thinking. Skipping an important book in a series because it's not exactly what you want it to be is like ignoring the entire 20th century because Abraham Lincoln died before it began.

TL;DR: A Feast for Crows is an excellent book, and you are completely and utterly wrong if you think it was lessened by the absence of a few main characters.

I started watching this show finally, almost done season 4. Haven't read the books.

(spoilers)
It's definitely entertaining. There are a lot of storylines that don't interest me at all (Gilly, the three-eyed raven, Theon) but the sheer amount of stuff going on usually makes up for it. The Lannisters are all pretty compelling, same with Jon, Daenerys, Brienne, grandma Tyrell, Arya and the Hound.

I just finished the episode where Oberyn fights the Mountain for Tyrion...

Man, I remember the Red Wedding being bad in the books, but my goat it really astounded me seeing some of my favorite characters die in such a horrific way onscreen. It was even worse seeing Grey Wind's head having been sewn onto Robb Stark's headless body.: Seriously, f*** you, Walder Frey.:

During that scene all of my thoughts were along the lines of, "F*** YOU YOU F****** F***" or "NOOOOO STOP IT YOU F****** D***BISCUIT" or "F****** FREYS:". The whole time I was screaming bloody murder and vowing to kill George R.R. Martin if Walder Frey and all his disgusting spawn: don't die by the end of the series. The North remembers.

On a somewhat lighter note, I saw this picture and now whenever I think of Brynden Tully I think this.

*ASOIAF book spoilers

Sort of spoilers VVVVVV

Finished A Dance With Dragons today. Took me ~3 months to read through all the books that are out so far, probably would've gone a little faster but I was away from home for a couple of weeks in July and there was testing and stuff in June.  (Also Skyrim)

I consumed upwards of 3 gallons of orange juice while reading that book. Sweet, sweet orange juice. I munched through tens of boxes of Triscuits as well. I've completely lost count of how much orange juice I've drunk since I started reading the series, but it's probably in the millions. Somewhere up there.

I was seriously not expecting the ending to that last chapter with Jon Snow. (I would also like to say that Wun Weg Wun Dar Wun (the giant) has the name that is my favorite in the entire series. Second is Xaro Xohan Daxos. Third is probably Hizdahr Lo whateverthef*** (I can't remember those Meereeneese names for my life)) Wun Weg Wun Dar Wun is so cool. He's like the Hodor of the Wall. I was again caught off guard with that last Daenerys chapter. When she left "Dragonstone" (heheh confusing the show watchers) I thought she was gonna die of thirst or something, or that Drogon would eat her. I have mixed feelings about the end to that chapter. Not sure how things are going to play out from there. Oh, and that epilogue was the s***. Varys being sneaky, a bunch of dead people, AND WIpotatoNTER TOO YO THAT'S LEGIT S*** JUST WENT DOWN!

Indeed, it is common knowledge that Jon Snow is the son of George D'Oyly Snow, but I have not been able to find the name of his mother even after a period of extensive research consisting of reading two Wikipedia articles. In cases of unknown parentage, it is usually the father that is unknown, but in this case it is the mother. Doesn't anybody else find this HIGHLY suspicious?

Australia is Ultros. And that is not a joke.

Jon Snow

i can't believe had with .

Wow this thread is really a cringefest on my part. I'm going to go hide now.