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Game of Thrones 3.9 - "The Rains of Castamere" - Rate and discuss

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Not really. The truth is that he was a subject who followed the king's orders. Not so cut and dry, but Arya can't understand that. In her little world of honor, she thinks everyone should die or face whatever kind of punishment instead of doing something dishonorable (like her father did), even if they really had no choice. It's the same failure in understanding that lost her older brother the war and got him killed. Most people don't work like that. If he had killed the boy out of his own free will, that would have been one thing, but that's not what happened.
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Hard as it may be for you, the saying "don't kill the messenger," comes to mind. Be upset with the person who actually caused your problem (i.e. "sent the message"), not the person who had to carry out orders or else. I can understand her anger at Joffrey. He's the reason why her friend died, not the Hound. So far, out of his own free will, he's done more to help children than hurt them.
Really only a meaningful distinction if the Hound personally objected to what he did, but he didn't. He was fine with it, and wryly joked about murdering Mycah, both at the time and years later.
 
Budget wasn't involved in using Talisa rather than Jeyne. The producers simply felt it was better if Robb breaking the alliance with the Freys was an entirely free decision based on twue wuv rather than an issue of honor. If money had been an issue, they wouldn't have ended up featuring the character so prominently and making her a regular this year.
 
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Budget wasn't involved in using Talisa rather than Jeyne. The producers simply felt it was better if Robb breaking the alliance with the Freys was an entirely free decision based on twue wuv rather than an issue of honor and the result of a deception. If money had been an issue, they wouldn't have ended up featuring the character so prominently and making her a regular this year.
It is a lot cheaper for them not to have to build sets for the Westerling castle, feature the battle for it, etc. and it means that they don't have to give Cat stuff to do while he is gone.

A single actress is cheap. It isn't like they spent any time developing Talisa anyways. One conversation about where she came from doesn't a character make.

Robb has spent most of the last 2 seasons sitting around camp or sitting around Riverrun. If you don't think that was for budgetary reasons I really don't know what to tell you.
 
Of course the reason they haven't featured more battles and the like is budget. But the basic change in the relationship, from spur-of-the-moment sex to choosing true love over duty, was a decision made because Benioff and Weiss thought that was more dramatically interesting. Bryan Cogman has said so in interviews. They could still have kept the core of the character intact featuring her exactly as often as they did Talisa, in pretty much the same scenes, but they didn't want to. That's my point.
 
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I think it could have just as easily worked to keep the character's name but still have her go through the motions that Talissa did without delving too deeply into the Westerling side-story.
They even hinted slightly on-screen that she may have been delivering secret messages of Robb's movements to Tywin Lannister, which would have made more sense if she had, in fact, been a Westerling, banner men to the Lannisters. It certainly would have more sense than having some random nobody girl from Volantis just happening to fall for the King in the North. They could have played to that suspicion until the end without deviating too far from the final cut of the story line.
 
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well, it is still a possibility that they might reveal that next week, which is why I avoided speculating on that point in my previous posts. Might be good to wrap that bit in spoiler tags.
 
I've edited my posts as well, although the revelation in question isn't going to happen; the mods of Westeros.org have been told as much by reliable sources working on the show. Like the attempt to cast "Podrick Payne, sex god" as an intrigue-driven plot point rather than a juvenile gag, the theory gives the TV show too much credit.
 
Not really. The truth is that he was a subject who followed the king's orders. Not so cut and dry, but Arya can't understand that. In her little world of honor, she thinks everyone should die or face whatever kind of punishment instead of doing something dishonorable (like her father did), even if they really had no choice. It's the same failure in understanding that lost her older brother the war and got him killed. Most people don't work like that. If he had killed the boy out of his own free will, that would have been one thing, but that's not what happened.
...
Hard as it may be for you, the saying "don't kill the messenger," comes to mind. Be upset with the person who actually caused your problem (i.e. "sent the message"), not the person who had to carry out orders or else. I can understand her anger at Joffrey. He's the reason why her friend died, not the Hound. So far, out of his own free will, he's done more to help children than hurt them.
Really only a meaningful distinction if the Hound personally objected to what he did, but he didn't. He was fine with it, and wryly joked about murdering Mycah, both at the time and years later.

This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen defended.

Yeah he had no regrets at all and he mocks Arya for her feelings over him killing her friend. But she's supposed to not hate him because he was ordered to do it? Are we talking about robots here?
 
Not really. The truth is that he was a subject who followed the king's orders. Not so cut and dry, but Arya can't understand that. In her little world of honor, she thinks everyone should die or face whatever kind of punishment instead of doing something dishonorable (like her father did), even if they really had no choice. It's the same failure in understanding that lost her older brother the war and got him killed. Most people don't work like that. If he had killed the boy out of his own free will, that would have been one thing, but that's not what happened.
...
Hard as it may be for you, the saying "don't kill the messenger," comes to mind. Be upset with the person who actually caused your problem (i.e. "sent the message"), not the person who had to carry out orders or else. I can understand her anger at Joffrey. He's the reason why her friend died, not the Hound. So far, out of his own free will, he's done more to help children than hurt them.
Really only a meaningful distinction if the Hound personally objected to what he did, but he didn't. He was fine with it, and wryly joked about murdering Mycah, both at the time and years later.

I don't know that he's fine with it or not fine with it. He's a warrior and the subject of the "king." The distinction would be if he killed children after he left Joffrey and thought it was okay, which he hasn't done.

I'm not saying he's a great person, just that he's not the reason why her friend is dead. He's just not.


Not really. The truth is that he was a subject who followed the king's orders. Not so cut and dry, but Arya can't understand that. In her little world of honor, she thinks everyone should die or face whatever kind of punishment instead of doing something dishonorable (like her father did), even if they really had no choice. It's the same failure in understanding that lost her older brother the war and got him killed. Most people don't work like that. If he had killed the boy out of his own free will, that would have been one thing, but that's not what happened.
...
Hard as it may be for you, the saying "don't kill the messenger," comes to mind. Be upset with the person who actually caused your problem (i.e. "sent the message"), not the person who had to carry out orders or else. I can understand her anger at Joffrey. He's the reason why her friend died, not the Hound. So far, out of his own free will, he's done more to help children than hurt them.
Really only a meaningful distinction if the Hound personally objected to what he did, but he didn't. He was fine with it, and wryly joked about murdering Mycah, both at the time and years later.

This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen defended.

Yeah he had no regrets at all and he mocks Arya for her feelings over him killing her friend. But she's supposed to not hate him because he was ordered to do it? Are we talking about robots here?

It's not a defense. It is simply stating a fact.

And no, we're not talking about robots here. I didn't really take him answering her as mocking.
 
They've done Sandor a terrible disservice in the show. He is barely a character, much less one you can apply a morality to. It is best not to dwell on him too long.
 
The Hound killed the butcher's boy because of the Prince's orders. It was an evil act, but disobeying Joffrey might have meant his own death.

The only way Arya's friend could have been saved if Robert or Cersei had gone over Joffrey's head and ordered the Hound not to do it. Cersei didn't give a shit about the death, and Robert lets his son get away with everything.

I don't blame the Hound or Arya for hating him for the murder. The boy was doomed the moment Joffrey set his eyes on him.
 
Joffrey never ordered the Hound to kill Mycah. The Hound was order to find him. The killing was of his own accord. He's said on more than one occasion that he enjoys killing, and has shown no remorse for his actions. There is nothing to absolve him of his crimes.
 
There's no way Sandor's life would have been in danger if he'd declined to kill Mycah. Robert was the ultimate authority at that point, and despite his many moral failings he would hardly have had someone executed for declining to kill one child on the orders of another, or even on Cersei's orders, if any such orders were actually given. Sandor might have wound up dismissed from Joffrey's service, but it's not like no other occupations were available for a strong, skilled fighter. He killed Mycah because, at that point, he had no real moral compass, not because he was utterly without options.
 
I'll never get used to ASOIAF fans defending characters for child-killing, honestly (see also: Jaime).
They've done Sandor a terrible disservice in the show. He is barely a character, much less one you can apply a morality to. It is best not to dwell on him too long.
He's alright. The thing about the show is it has so many characters, some are going to be lost in the shuffle (and while Sandor is a fan favourite, he's not that big in terms of the actual amount of time he has in the books.) I'd say Sansa's been hurt a bit more.
 
The way I see it, Jaime has paid his penance for tossing Bran from the window. He has lost his hand, which was essential for his swordsmanship, his claim to fame. He, like Bran, is now a cripple. We can stop dwelling on that, and allow him to grow as a character.
 
Robert was the ultimate authority at that point...

Yeah, and after Cersei essentially sent him out for the slaughter, don't you think she and her dear son would remember the "dog" that tried to go over their heads. They'd surely have his just to make a point.

The Lannisters always pay their debts.
 
The way I see it, Jaime has paid his penance for tossing Bran from the window. He has lost his hand, which was essential for his swordsmanship, his claim to fame. He, like Bran, is now a cripple. We can stop dwelling on that, and allow him to grow as a character.

It would be justice if he was actually punished for his crime of attempted murder or if it had been Robb who have taken his hand.

No, Jaime lost his hand because he pissed off Locke instead of shutting up like should have after protecting Brienne.

Two totally unrelated events.
 
And, since the "Red God" seems to be real in this world and allowed Dog to win his fight with Dundarian, it could be metaphysically argued that he was judged "not guilty" of the crime - at least, as far as an in-world explanation is concerned.
 
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