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

It's definitely true, FYI. Those sources are the same ones as with previous seasons, from what I've gathered from comments made by Sue.

 

Looks like one of Balon Greyjoy's brothers might be appearing. I wonder if they'll finally show us the Dragonhorn. Probably not, though, since the Horn of Winter was ignored...

 

The leaked casting features 3 boys, 2 of whom are one-off appearances. My reading is that one of them is a young Robert Baratheon and the other is probably Brandon Stark, Ned's older brother. The third boy, who doesn't seem to be confined to one appearance, is presumably Ned. Presumably these flashbacks will be in the course of Bran's greenseeing, rather than a conventional flashback like with Cersei at the start of this season.

 

^^^ Based on Littlefinger's conversation with Sansa, I suspect they're finally moving into explaining the events and motivations leading up to Robert's Rebellion, and as they relate to Jon Snow's true parentage.

As you say, they'll likely be using Bran's greenseeing as a vehicle to show that back-story. As anemic as this season has been (IMO), I really wish they had done more with this subplot (which is really one of the primary driving forces behind the entire story).

 

Here are rumours/spoilers for the last 3 episodes of this season. One is as likely as the other; your call as to whether to click. Some interesting developments lie ahead, if true:

http://winteriscoming.net/2015/05/27/rumors-for-episode-910/

 

I can't put much stock into IMDB pages. On the other hand, we apparently know the title of the final episode: "Mother's Mercy".

After "Mhysa" and "The Children" we once again get a season finale that pretends we will see Lady Stoneheart.

 

It certainly doesn't suit Dany's ADWD climax to name it that. Could be a reference to Cersei's walk of shame. Seeking the "mercy of the mother" by admitting her guilt and doing penance. I think they're avoiding Stoneheart at this point so as to avoid spoiling Jon's miraculous resurrection by similar means next season. A season ago it would have been foreshadowing, now it would just be repetitive.

 

I actually thought they'd have Jon "die" at the end of this season and then put Lady Stoneheart at the end to hint to TV fans how Jon might come back via the Red God.

 

I think they're avoiding Stoneheart because the character (and Dondarrion) were so poor in the novels. The judicious (i.e. very limited) portrayal of magic in the novels was badly undercut by these characters, and the result was rather...crap !

 

The judicious (i.e. very limited) portrayal of magic in the TV show is even more egregious. It makes sense in the books, because it is a world that has existed without magic for centuries since the last dragons died off. Now that they're back, magic should be slowly re-appearing. The resurgence of magic in the show has been markedly anemic and, IMO, defeats the purpose of one of the main plots.

 

I loved those parts.

 

Yeup. We're well past the time that magic should be coming back to the forefront. The way the show portrays it, magic is just subdued in general and it has nothing to with an overall resurgence of the mystical or primal forces behind it.

 

Dondarrion / Stoneheart would probably be less jarring if there had been a little more magic in the other plotlines. It wasn't exactly a gradual increase...

 

Okay who else was literally so mad at how they portrayed Sansa in the last episode that they almost felt like throwing up? No? Just me?

I was prepared for the wedding night. However after all the hints of her doing something sneaky in Winterfell to get rid of the Boltons, they destroyed it all in that one episode with her trusting Reek and getting her "Friend in the North" (who now apparently was the only one) killed off.
Instead of Alayne Stone learning how to play the game we get Second Season Sansa getting tortured by Dark Haired!Joffrey. I'm not impressed...
Also, at least in my eyes, there's now NO way for the show version of Theon to redeem himself. I can't remember a part in the book where Theon sold Jeyne Poole out like that.

 

We should definitely have had rumblings of "The Ghost in Winterfell" by now if "redemption" was at all on their minds. Just a few lines about people falling from the walls or dying in mysterious ways would have gone a long way to making the Winterfell plotline far more interesting.

 

I read an opinion somewhere that the reason they are not doing Stoneheart is because if show watchers saw Michelle Fairley appear at the cliffhanger of a season, they would expect her to be a very important character next year. In the books, she only appears in two short scenes, and knowledge of her activities is limited to rumor and innuendo. A TV show does not have the luxury of confining such a radical character to simply rumor - they have to show things, or they are forgotten.

 

The bigger issue with keeping her seems to be that they wanted to get the fuck out of the Riverlands this season. Edmure and the rest of that story thread seem to be forgotten. Jaime went in the opposite direction, and just about everyone else on the continent outside of Kings Landing went north. The question now remains. . . what does it mean for Brienne now that this enormous plot point in her story seems to have been removed. Is Sandor gone for good or will they find some other way to bring his story to a close? I would almost be excited at the prospects if they weren't so bad so consistently with their original material thus far.

 

Honesty I won't miss Sandor if he never comes back, and the BWB was pretty bad on the show anyways (similarly to Mance)
It's sad that GoT has such a bad track record with forgetting about characters though...is Gendry still rowing his boat somewhere in the narrow sea? Will we ever see Balon and Yara/Asha again?

 

^^^ I noticed in the last episode that Stannis mentioned leaches and how Robb and Joffrey were dead. Nothing about Balon and the third leach. Completely erased from existence...