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I really liked this northern episode, mostly because I just hope that they are building Sansa's sweet revenge storyline against the Boltons. Please God, let this happen!

I'd like to think so, but I fear they're just going to stick her with the awful story of the character from the book. Plus, at some point Ramsay is going to do something horrible to the dog-handler's daughter, or whoever she was, and to his poor stepmother (I know she's Walder Frey's daughter, but she seems harmless enough) and I just don't want to see any of it. :(

I'm a bit scared fro Stannis too. At the moment, with Dany far away (and still young and uncertain) he does seem like the best chance for peace and stability in Westeros (if he can stop Melisandre setting fire to most of the population).

Also ... are the writers trying to suggest who could be the other Targaryens?

I'm hoping it's something to do with Jon other than that there are more Targaryens lurking out there. I don't think we need any more.

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At least they left out the book Roose line to Ramsey... 'Don't make me regret raping your mother"

Ugh. Boltons. Diiiiiiiieeeeeeee

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Oh God, really?

Yes, the story of Ramsay's mother was bad enough without that bit.

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Yeah really. It was something so outrageous that it stood out in a 1400 page book.

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Re Jorah getting Jon Connington's plot. I don't think they're skipping the rest of Jorahs plot. I think like they did with Gendry they're using similar characters rather than newbie and expanding the familiar characters role.

And it doesn't spell immediate doom. Jon Connington is still alive and functional in the books.

I can only think that Grayscale is a factor in the end game. When I went back to look up Jon Connington, I was struck by how Jorah and John wee similar in character description. Both are Westorosi Knights in digrace and exhile devoted to their Targaryen of choice and the return of Targ rule, both with a desire to restore their reputations. I can see why when culling characters the show decided to roll Jon Connington into Jorah. There's no way to tell what that means as the both Jon and Jorah were alive and ...er... Relatively well at the end of the last book (Jon Con has gray scale but it hasn't advanced much)

My primary take is that this lessens the chance of Jorah dying in the arena and may mean we'll see Dany invade Westeros sooner rather than whenever the hell it might ever take place. plac

Edited Date: 2015-05-11 06:38 pm (UTC)

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I think greyscale is what takes Dorne off the board, which is why they've kept it, so any J with it is alive until endgame.

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Hmm, maybe that's how GRRM plans to end the series? Everyone gets this horrid disease and dies.

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There was this sense that he was bringing in a plague to an already stressed situation.

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It would be a good way of killing off excess characters (though of course I don't regard Jorah as excess).

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I've kind of thought that endgame is almost (and metaphorically) a battle of 'gods' And the wise the characters make it the more the suernatural/metaphorical take over hence the encroaching winter, famine, and plague with the God of Fire/lord of light. White walkers army of the icy dead. Plus the Baavosi God of Death. And the Children of the Forest/old gods.

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Are the lord of light and the god of death different gods? I'm confused.

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I think mainly Dorne, as it would otherwise be the only one mostly unscathed from something.

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I keep wondering if there is a non book twist in the Dorne plot to take the place of a missing character.

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Merger with a Sand Snake?

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Princes related to Doran. In the books there are 3 -/Quentin, Trystane, and (in a way) Griff. In the show there's 1

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They could always introduce Prince Not Appearing In This Series later or merger them. Esepcially if Mrycella gets prophecy fulfilled.

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I'm wondering if they're merging 2 into 1 or even perhaps 3 into 1)

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I think Griff may not be appearing in this version.

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I could see Griff being excised... Or Trystane being Griff. It would take knowing martins grand plan to know which option is preferable for the show.

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Plotwise he appeares to be a way of introducing an epidemic and an army to Dorne, to take it out. Basil Expositionwise,, JC gives the reader Rhaegar backstory. The show can use Jorah to Basil or can show us using Bran. Griff's expendible if they can get to the same end with less cast.

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Re Jorah getting Jon Connington's plot. I don't think they're skipping the rest of Jorahs plot. I think like they did with Gendry they're using similar characters rather than newbie and expanding the familiar characters role.

That would make far more sense than introducing yet more new characters.

I hope you're right about Jorah. I know he'll end up dead, but I hoped he'd be around till near the end and Dany would at least care about him again (and yes, having just watched Chosen for the first time in years and feeling miserable about Spike's lonely, unloved-by-anyone death does not help).:(

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If it's any comfort Jon Connington didn't seem anywhere near death at the end of A Dance with Dragons. It's not necessarily a speedy disease.

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That is some comfort, though I won't like it if Jorah ends up all grey and stony-looking.

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beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com

Well, they did spend a lot of time last week explaining that Greyscale can be cured...? Jorah has to catch a break at some point.

Unlike the Boltons. Ewwwwwwwwsssh. Nuke the entire clan, mistresses and dog-slaves included, from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

The Valyria scene was gorgeous. And I really liked the Sam/Aemon and Sam/Stannis scenes, too. Ol' Aemon feeling sorry for his niece being the last Targaryen left seemed like foreshadowing something, didn't it? Though I'm a bit worried about how likeable they seem to be trying to make Stannis lately, I wouldn't be surprised if he'll be making some cold and cruel decisions pretty soon.

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Well, they did spend a lot of time last week explaining that Greyscale can be cured...? Jorah has to catch a break at some point.

I dunno. This is GoT. I think he's probably doomed.

Unlike the Boltons. Ewwwwwwwwsssh. Nuke the entire clan, mistresses and dog-slaves included, from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Agreed, except for Lady Bolton, who seems harmless enough (and weirdly not that unhappy and scared-looking, given who she's married to).

Though I'm a bit worried about how likeable they seem to be trying to make Stannis lately, I wouldn't be surprised if he'll be making some cold and cruel decisions pretty soon.

Either that or the horrible Boltons are going to kill him. :(

Maybe Melisandre can make them spontaneously combust?

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And the spoiled can't really help re Stannis because Martin ended the last book on so many cliffhangers!

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That's...pretty evil, given there's no deadline for the next book coming out.

I know GRRM got (justifiably) really annoyed when people started saying that he should stop wasting time doing other things and just finish the books because he's getting old and isn't in great health and could drop dead any moment.

I do sorta, kinda understand how they feel, though.

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Honestly, I think that's why people are so annoyed with the wait. In sequence. He finished A Storm of Swords with Tyrion escaping the Red Keep and other Season 3 stuff. Then, several years later A Feast for Crows comes out, and Tyrion, Jon, and Dany aren't even in the book! And the book is full of Theons annoying uncles (not in the show), Sand Snakes, and Cersei unending stupid mean girl self pitying inner monologues that... Barely furthers the plot. And Arya was left with a cliffhanger.

Then ANOTHER 6 years to finally get Dany, Jon, and Tyrion to further the plot and Dany dithered the entire book lusting over Daario and dithering about the slave owners (most of which the show has now already done. We're 3/4 through her Dance plot in what took Martin 10 Years!). And then 1400 pages in, just as stuff was beginning to actually happen... Everything ended in cliffhangers. It was like he cut out the last act. I can't even tell what the hell was going on with Dany because it seemed almost hallucinatory (and may have been). Absolutely no one believes the ending of Jon's plot is what it looked like. No one. Tyrion, Jorah, and the nonexistent Penny were heading into battle. Up North the Stannis/Bolton battle was 'off screen' so you don't know what may have really happened, Arya got a climax to her story but it too is strange. Nothing much happened with Sansa and Jaime and Brienne head out to what looks like trouble but you don't know what happened. It felt like a book with no final act. Frustrating. And it's now been how many years? And how many more? I'm eager for the show to blow by the books. It's time to advance the damned plot, Martin.

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You know, the whole thing sounds so badly planned. At least JK Rowling wrote her whole saga relatively quickly.

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I just want Theon to kill the shit out of Ramsey. Then they can be nuked from space.

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That would be nice. Or maybe Dany can just set one of her dragons on them.

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ex_peasant441

Greyscale sounds like GRM having an equivalent to leprosy, so he is presumably more interested in a slow social exclusion rather than mass rapid death plague. This may or may not be comforting re Jorah.

I was really looking forward to Theon and Sansa having a reunion, cos I thought they might have some nice childhood memories. I was imagining a future in which they reunite, reminisce, organise the Bolton's overthrow together, and finally form a nice sexless marriage in which they both can recover from their horrible pasts and rule the North in benign and thoughtful fashion. I forgot she thinks he killed her brothers (does he know himself if he did or not?) so that was that scunnered then :(

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Greyscale sounds like GRM having an equivalent to leprosy, so he is presumably more interested in a slow social exclusion rather than mass rapid death plague. This may or may not be comforting re Jorah.

It's not really terribly comforting. I actually looked it up on the ASoIaF wiki, which confirmed that it's meant to be like leprosy, but that it's more virulent in adults than in children. Jorah's pretty doomed, and he's going to end up looking like a golem. :(

I knew he would die, I suppose. I just didn't think it would be that way.

As for Theon and Sansa, I don't think they'd have nice childhood memories particularly even if Theon hadn't tried to kill Bran and Rickon (he still thinks he did, btw, and so does Sansa). I had the impression Theon didn't spend much time with Sansa or Arya, and had a very low opinion of women anyway.

I suppose it could happen, though - way, way down the line.

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He knows he didn't murder them and they disappeared, though only Samwell Tarley and Gilly know that they're fine

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Does he know? I can't remember. I thought he still thought they were dead.

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lizziebuffy2008.livejournal.com

I am wondering if the hinting (or maybe we are all reading into it) about Jon being a Targaryen is a red herring or at the very least misinformation.

I love Jorah and hope, hope, hope, he gets cured, but I think there is no shot in hell, he will end up with Dany. I figure if Jon is not Targaryen that maybe he and Dany will end up together.

I so want Theon and Sansa to talk and figure out the truth about Bran and the other brother and then kill the effing Boltons!

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