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

IMHO, recasting would be a disaster. Viewers need to be able to recognise her as Catelyn Stark without prompting. For that and other reasons, I think it's Michelle Fairley or GTFO.

 

Something occured to me the other day when I was pondering Game of Thrones instead of being productive. The Targaryens invaded Westeros with just three dragons, and took everything except for Dorne.

But Valyria, before it fell, had loads of dragons, right? So why didn't they conquer the Seven Kingdoms centuries earlier? Despite clearly being expansionst, they never went further west than Dragonstone. Did they just think Westeros was too much trouble to bother with? Or does it have some sort of anti-dragon defense (that wasn't functioning when Aegon showed up).

 

Tyrion asks himself the same question at one point.

 

The Valyrian Freehold was huge but I get the impression it was never very densely populated. Population and resource pressures are what drive serious attempts at foreign expansion, and I don't think they had any. I'll note that the cities we see in Essos seem to be rather wealthy. The weather is better by a good margin, and there is clearly lots of land to expand into, should one desire. Granted, Essos also has substantial deserts, but then you have vast areas like the Dothraki Sea which look ripe for cultivation, should anyone decide to bother. Westeros, by comparison, is crowded, dirty, poor, inhospitable.

The Doom of Valyria is what ultimately drove Targaryen expansion into Westeros.

 

I'd imagine they knew enough about what lurked North of the wall and decided it was smarter to keep an ocean between themselves and the White Walkers. Whether they knew this and never bothered to invade, or found this out because they USED TO control that area and were pushed out/fled last time the Walkers came South, hard to say. Either would explain them avoiding Westeros, though. Or maybe it was just bad timing, and when they were ready to expand there, things had started to fall apart at home and they contracted the empire as it fell apart?

That's my two cents, at least.

 

Lack of interest.

The Valyrians never really bothered to acquire substantial territories outside the Freehold. The various cities were colonial outposts. They never annexed Slaver's Bay, for instance, which is directly adjacent to the Freehold, even after fighting several wars with Old Ghis that caused the downfall of that empire.

 

It's plausible enough that the Freehold simply never got around to adding Westeros to its sphere of influence (which extended far beyond its formal territory) before the Doom. But given that Martin has drawn readers' attention to the fact via that line in the Tyrion chapter, I suspect a magical explanation that may be somewhat elucidated in the remaining books.

 

It's more than a bit silly to suggest that on the basis of one throwaway line Martin was hinting at some big future reveal. The last two books were bloated as hell, too, and I have serious doubts we should expect every line in them to represent much of consequence for the future volumes.

 

Except that these books, even the bloated ones, are full of seemingly throwaway references and moments that turn out to be hinting at future reveals large and small (I don't think and didn't suggest that this one would be any of great import). Is this one of them? Possibly not. But I'm not sure Martin would specifically highlight a bit of worldbuilding that looks like contrivance without having a reason for doing so. And since the series seems to be coming down to an opposition between the magic of the Others and the magic of dragons, I don't find it silly to speculate on the significance of the masters of the latter declining to extend their reach into lands troubled by the former.

 

Even WiC who released this immediately added that this is not an exhaustive list, just one they got their hands on. Why do people keep treating it as it is the complete list, even though that would make zero sense, unless they're only casting minor character + Doran, Yara Greyjoy will develop a multiple personality disorder and start playing her uncles' roles, Davos will spend a season talking to himself, and Peter Dinklage will play everyone he meets on his journey (minus Jorah)?

 

^Will you wind your neck in? I merely observed that there are no Iron Born characters in this list. The only person jumping to conclusions round here is you. Stop referring to these imaginary "people" who aren't posting here.

 

From Winter is Coming:

As many had speculated, it sounds like they're filming the Battle of Winterfell for season five, although I guess there may be other possibilities.

 

I can assure you that these people (they really are people,I believe, not "people". OK, maybe theoretically they can be robots/software designed to post pretending to be ASOAIF fans, but it's unlikely...) really exist and are not imaginary. They may not be posting here, but they are sure posting on WinterisComing, Westeros.org and other major ASOAIF/GoT websites/forums. You must have missed the uproar about Arianne etc. not being in the casting call and people ranting about Arianne, the Ironborn etc. being cut, even though the original article on WiC pointed out immediately that this is not an exhaustive list.

And no, I'm not going to wind my neck in... whatever that may be.

 

Yes, I must have missed it because it wasn't on this thread and I'm only commenting in response to posts and discussions here. If people are ranting on the sites you name, then rant back at them on those sites, not at people on this one. I don't see any wild speculation here about multiple personalities, Tyrion travelling by himself etc, on this thread.

Sure, we've discussed the extent to which the next season will depart from the books, the involvement of the Ironborn and the axing or otherwise of their Kingsmoot but as far as I can see, the discussion has been measured and conducted with reference to evidence and the tidbits we know so far (Balon not being dead yet, Daario referring to capturing 93 ships etc.). And nobody is claiming to know or predict what will happen next season, just like nobody predicted the white walker turning Craster's son or the plot with the mutineers or The Hound and Brienne's duel, etc, etc. So even if the entire Ironborn plot is axed (and my own personal suggestion some pages back, if you'd actually read other posts, was that they'd kept Balon alive so as to do away with the Kingsmoot but would have him send Victarion after Danerys), it's hardly like they're unlikely to come up with new plots of their own to fill the gap.

So to come in and seize on one quote, without reference or context to the discussion surrounding, it and link it to a bunch of discussions on different websites involving different people, is frankly discourteous to the rest of the participants on this thread. Take out your frustration on the people on WIC or Westeros.org on them.

Ps - http://www.slang.org.uk/index.php?entryid=8294

 

Here's an audition tape to play Quentyn Martell. Fan made or the real deal and therefore an indication that Quentyn has made the cut? Ours is the Fury at Winter is Coming believes it's an unsolicited submission. Probably so.

 

The Emmy nominations have been announced and Game of Thrones scored 20 nominations, more than any other show:

Outstanding Drama Series
Outstanding Supporting Actress – Lena Headey
Outstanding Supporting Actor – Peter Dinklage
Outstanding Guest Actress – Diana Rigg
Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series – David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (“The Children”)
Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series – Neil Marshall (“The Watchers on the Wall”)
Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series - Nina Gold and Robert Sterne
Outstanding Music Composition For A Series (Original Dramatic Score) - Ramin Djawadi
Outstanding Art Direction For A Contemporary Or Fantasy Series (Single-Camera)
Outstanding Cinematography (2 nominations): Jonathan Freeman (“Two Swords”) and Anette Haellmigk (“The Lion and the Rose”)
Outstanding Costumes for a Series (“The Lion and the Rose”)
Outstanding Hairstyling for a Single-Camera Series (“The Lion and the Rose”)
Outstanding Makeup For A Single-Camera Series - Non-Prosthetic (“Oathkeeper”)
Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup For A Series, Miniseries, Movie Or A Special (“The Children”)
Outstanding Sound Editing For A Series (“The Watchers on the Wall”)
Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series – One Hour (“The Watchers on the Wall”)
Outstanding Special and Visual Effects
Outstanding Stunt Coordination For A Drama Series, Miniseries Or Movie
Outstanding Interactive Program – Game of Thrones Premiere : Facebook Live and Instagram

 

^^^ Thanks amazing. More so amazing to me is that network TV has been virtually shut out of Drama nominations with House of Cards and Orange is the New Black receiving a bunch as well.

 

Congratulations to Lena Headey for her first Emmy nomination!

This season will Peter Dinklage's best chance to win another Emmy.

 

if Headey and Dinklage are nominated for "best supporting", who do they think the leading actors are?

 

Actors are allowed to choose for themselves whether to submit in the lead or supporting categories. Sometimes members of large ensembles all submit as supporting; sometimes prominent actors choose supporting because they think they're more likely to win there.