This is an interesting conversation.

Anyways, I forgot I posted in this thread long ago when I finished season 2. I've just started 3, and I won't bore you with my episode-by-episode commentary (I save that type of nonsense for the Shameless thread), but I'm interested to see where things are headed. Season 2 was a high-water mark so far, IMO, so if they kept that momentum up, then I'll be happy.

In regards to the above conversation, I think it's foolish altogether to put so much stock into what critics have to say. I got into GoT because my friends told me it was a soapy good time, and that did more to spark my interest than countless articles telling me that I needed to watch.

Same here.

I'm just waiting for Dany and Jon Snow to meet each other and be together at this point. The other stuff is nice, but that is really what I am looking forward to. I'm a huge fan of Kit and Clarke.

I'm pretty into them myself, honestly. I'm about that pairing.

I was also pleased to hear the showrunners say they have no intention of recasting Bran. I didn't expect them to, but it was a brief thought since they have recasted all the more tertiary child characters (Tommen, Myrcella). I wonder if they'll be able to get the kid playing Rickon back, as he's doing a lot of movies and is in that ridiculously fun-looking earthquake movie with The Rock this summer.

A lot of the criticism started after the Cersei/Jaime rape scene, which I do think was a horrible misstep, one that significantly lowered my interest in Jaime as a character. By the end of the season most critics seemed supportive enough again, at least of what they always like (rah rah Arya, Tyrion, The Hound, etc.). What it has never been cool to like (Jon's story), they continued to tut-tut.

I read a few reviews for the new season, but stopped when every one of them had to include, "They're moving away from the books and that's so good and shows how brilliant they are because the books are so complicated!!!"

I have never read the books but everyone I know that has are in lockstep agreement the later books are not as good and the 4th book in particular I think it is is the weakest of the lot. The critique is always the main characters in the series are mostly absent and you just have to muddle through this huge portion to get back to business. The TV show does not have that luxury in giving most of the cast the year off to focus on secondary characters people really aren't tuning in for, so they did fix it from almost every point of view possible that I can see.

First four episodes have already leaked....

First four episodes have already leaked....

I watched the first one. I won't discuss it in depth until after it airs but it was pretty good.

I'm thinking about viewing them too. HBO screws up yet again lol.

I'm fine with waiting, as nothing that's coming up is anything I look all that forward to seeing, to be honest. I did read up on them and I see that, much to my annoyance,

Loras is [!@#$%^&*] Olyver, which makes no sense, as the Tyrells are supposedly intelligent and Loras knows Olyver already betrayed him once. Some fans think this is so that Cersei can have him killed or imprisoned for being gay - if that's the case, it makes him even more stupid. The show has done an awful job with Loras, reducing him to another man's cock at every opportunity.

I don't think it's anything so serious. I'm not sure

Loras even knows Olyver spied on him, or cares - Loras has never struck me as the sharpest tool in the shed, frankly. Plus most of King's Landing now seems to know Olyver is one of Littlefinger's men as of last season, and they either are with him or not. I assume Loras is just there as a loyal customer.

I think Loras is a cute guy but he's always been a tertiary player at best. He has always come off as the most flighty and least strategic of the Tyrells to me, where the women have always ruled over the males, his father included. I can easily see him hopping back into bed with Olyver, thinking the family is already bulletproof since Margaery is wedding Tommen. It's the kind of dumb [!@#$%^&*] spoiled, foolish royals do on GOT all the time. Or maybe nothing bad will come of it and they're just [!@#$%^&*] because they can and they enjoy each other's company and Loras' money.

Plus, the actors look amazing naked together.

Temptation is the devil's work. All of you will pay, while I remain strong.

Edited April 12, 201510 yr by Bright Eyes

If Loras had been that blase about hiding who he was, the Tyrells would have cast him out long ago, heir or no heir, because he would have been a huge liability. It just feels cheap to me - over and over they've used his being gay to always bring problems on the family, mostly because the show tends to write Margaery and Olenna as always being clever and never making a mistake. And if Loras were that flighty and gullible I don't think they ever would have had him be the one to try to get Renly on their side. What would have stopped him from trolling for dick and alienating Renly?

It sends a bad message that the show has so little use for Loras that he only gets airtime when he's the idiotic token gay who can't keep it in his pants. He isn't a brother, or a knight, or anything. His only relevance is in his homosexuality dragging the family down.

Like it really would have killed HBO to retreat the Pit....I don't like how they make Dany so terrified of em...

Just watched episodes 3 and 4....lol what a trainwreck. Still though episode 3 def gave me one of my favorite scenes from book 5 adequately.

Edited April 13, 201510 yr by ThePrinceOfSunspear

I thought the premiere was pretty good. Cersei seems surprisingly upset Tywin is dead but I guess her problems with her father were not one dimensional, Not sure why we needed the flashback but the girl who played her did a good job. Everything else seems like setting stuff up, but Dany once again has the same old problems controlling her city and her dragons. I just never see where her story goes anywhere year after year. She just treads water with these incidental little problems that stall for time. Poor Brienne just missed another Stark girl, Stannis is still sort of a drip, and Tyrion is still traveling. I guess not much happened but they did bring us up to date on most of the characters.

The actress who played young Cersei was phenomenal. Absolutely killed it. It was like watching a younger Lena take on the role. The way she played the arrogance and confidence of a young lady who is absolutely sure of her place in the world was just too good.

I agree re a certain Tyrell. It gets worse and frankly it offends me. But I doubt it will will cause any uproar or backlash.