A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones Spoiler-Filled Discussion

I love Stannis, (I remember Maester Cressen commenting about how unloved he was as a boy, it's a touching moment) but yeah, his arc seems to have been building towards a tragic end for a long time now. Stannis has been lead to believe his sword is the Lightbringer and he is Azor Ahai, but we know that neither is true - the sword doesn't work the way it aught.

But yeah. Another great moment for me with Stannis is when Davos confronts him on the logic of his own rebellion against the Targaryens and he actually admits to having been deeply conflicted about it, to choose blood over honour. That for me tells volumes about Stannis - not even Ned seems to have had any regrets in fighting the Mad King. Stannis's honour is harsh, brittle, cold, unloved, but constant - much like the man himself.

Ah, season two. Hell, A Dance With Dragons (where Stannis HAD BETTER PLAY A BIG PART). Can't wait.

 

I think they were up there for a hot second..but it got taken down.

 

MTV's panel of GoT bloggers share their dream cast for season 2:

http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/06/28/game-of-thrones-season-two-dream-casting/

Love the pick of Davos, definitely some familiar faces there.

 

The only actor I know there is Christina Hendricks, who yes, would make a great Melisandre.

Gwendoline Christie though frankly doesn't look the part. Way too damn photogenic, even if she could play it well. Not that I have any ideas better than 'a young Robin Weigert' (i.e. Calamity Jane from Deadwood).

 

Christina Hendricks would be great as Mellisandre, but, even if she was available, she'd never agree to the nudity requirements (although I guess the producers might drop those requirements if that's what it took to sign her for the role).

I can't see Bonnie Wright as Ygritte at all, but then I've never seen her in anything other than the Potter films. Amy Acker would make a good Asha if she could pull off the accent.

 

No Season 2 for Camelot:

http://www.iftn.ie/news/?act1=record&only=1&aid=73&rid=4284041&tpl=archnews&force=1

Anyone off of there that might be interesting for GoT?

 

Eva Green for Melisandre and Joseph Fiennes for Roose Bolton or Mance Rayder.
The guy who played Arthur already had a part in Game Of Thrones, he was Waymar Royce in the pilot.

Joseph Fiennes has no luck with TV shows lately. First Flash Forward and now this ...

 

Eva Green is probably relieved that the show wasn't renewed since it'll give her the chance to fully capitalize on Dark Shadows to rejuvenate her feature film career.

 

So... I've currently got A Dance with Dragons in my hand right now (The library where I catalog just got our copies in.) But it'll be a little while yet before I read it. Still doing my re-read of the others (Joffrey just kicked the bucket in ASoS) and I doubt I'll be able to get through all of AFFC before the 12th.

One thing I will say right off the bat though, the maps have all been beautifully redrawn, AND we finally have an official map of the Free Cities and western Essos. Huzzah!

 

Hmmm, GRRM talked about 180 copies that slipped through Amazon.de error (one is hopefully making its way to me right now), but I guess the actual number is higher than that. People on westeros.org talked about Japanese Amazon also selling the book and about some small shops in Germany and Holland that are selling or intend to sell the book early.

Another thing - if you don't want to be spoiled about ADWD, don't go to IMDB's GOT board.

 

Well, this is normal, we always get our new books in a week or two beforehand, but we keep them in the processing area and don't put them out on the shelf until the actual release date.

 

Not liking what I am hearing in those books.

 

The comic book adaptation of A Game of Thrones launches in September. It's from Dynamite Entertainment, with Daniel Abraham scripting from the novel. Interior art is by Tommy Patterson and the variant covers are by Alex Ross and Mike Miller.

 

Wait... What are all those things around Ned? I don't think I've ever seen them on the show.

 

Wait, Sean Bean's in that picture? Where?

 

As a map nerd, this makes me happy. The maps in past books were decent enough, but I never felt that they conveyed information as well as I wanted them to.

 

I was one of the ones who managed to get a copy of A Dance with Dragons from Amazon.de. It arrived yesterday, and after a long, nausea-inducing day of reading, I've finished it. I won't, of course, offer so much as a hint of a spoiler here.

The new maps are beautiful, but if anything I find them less readable than the earlier ones because of the elaborate font. Still, others may disagree.

 

I just put in my pre-order for A Dance with Dragons, along with Ghost Story by Jim Butcher (which releases on July 26). It's gonna be a good month.

 

How about (not really a spoiler question) -- "Was it worth the wait?"

Or even a generic thumbs up / thumbs down?

Cheers,
-CM-

 

Sure. I know there are people out there who don't even want to see non-spoiler reviews, so I'll stick it behind a cut for those people, but again, there are no actual plot spoilers in the comments.

Spoiler: Non-spoiler comments on A Dance with Dragons

When I was asked the same question a couple days ago on another site, I wrote:

"I liked it a lot. The middle does drag a little, with some atmospheric world-building and set pieces that are very effective, but perhaps not worth inclusion in a book that's very long, and focuses on only half the characters to boot. (Some of what seems irrelevant may turn out to be important later, of course.) But the beginning is strong, with some real surprises, and the ending has even more, capped by what I regard as the best final chapter to date. The Winds of Winter seems likely to offer a return to the full-on action of Clash and Storm, and I'd say things are moving along at a good enough pace for the series to be finished, as planned, in two more long books. (I also hope that, now the agonies of resolving the five-year gap and the Feast/Dance split are behind us, the author will be able to manage a slightly faster pace of writing for those two books, but I'm not going to hold my breath.)"

If people really disliked the pace and style of Feast, they probably won't love Dance, which is mostly that book's rather-more-eventful other half. But if you disliked Feast because of the absence of particular characters, Dance may be more fun.

Personally, I loved it, and admire it more the more I think about it. But I also liked Feast, which had some excellent sequences and which I thought was the best book it could be under the circumstances.