Game of Thrones

[Lumine]

One of my favourite episodes so far, that was a fantastic wedding!

[Lumine]

Ok, who actually did the killing?  We have:
Margaery-had access to the carafe of wine right before the symptoms start

Olenna-same as above, likely working together if either did it.  Also seems to have taken a jewel off of Sansa's necklace that was given to her by.....

Dontos (the drunk ex-knight)-gave Sansa the necklace, insisted she wear it often especially to "special" occasioans.  Then attempted to get Sansa to flee with him afterwords.

Sansa-she certainly has the motive

Tyrian-he certainly has the motive and had access

Cersei-she always goes off on how much she lover her children, but she, like everybody else, was getting sick of Joffrey's shenanigans.  Maybe she thinks Tommen will be a better King (for her to mold).  She did send possibly the only person that could have helped Joffrey (Grand Maester Pycelle) away right before the murder.

Tywin-he could have done it to protect the family name.  He too was sick of Joffrey's sh**t

Well, I believe next chapter should introduce another figure that is crucial to the conspiracy, but by rewatching the episode you can notice a good amount of clues in the dialogue.

[Lumine]

Well, that was an interesting episode... Spoilers for those who have read the books, mass crucifixion ("Fire and Blood!"), Littlefinger being Littlefinger and a good number of invented scenes from King's Landing that were quite amusing, xD

I actually liked the changes in the North storyline (although more sexual violence is probably not what the series needs right now), it does add a sense of uncertainty for book readers, and it was obvious that the series was bound to make major changes to several storylines at some point.

[Lumine]

Wait, so Daenerys is putting off her conquest of Westeros indefinitely?  Ugh, that storyline just seems like it's going nowhere (though of course it's fairly clear that her story is vital to however this series concludes).

Now you know how the majority of the book readers felt after book 3... It won't get any more interesting until the end of book 5.

Meh, they've never really done a good job with her storyline  since the end of season 1 (other than the episode where she takes Astapoor/gets the first group of unsullied).

In all fairness, the Daenerys storyline from the books was not really good (Her story in Game of Thrones was fantastic, but I hated her chapters from Clash of Kings, and the ones in Storm and Dance are either amusing or incredibly boring). Season 5 will have to change a lot of things in order to adapt Dance and Feast (and probably parts of Winds), so I hope they make a lot of drastic changes there.

[Lumine]

I must say, despite being eight minutes shorter and with a dissapointing couple of scenes (mostly involving the Dreadfort), this is one of the best episodes I've seen so far. Mace Tyrell, the Iron Bank, Oberyn/Varys and Tyrion's speech were awesome!

[Lumine]

Wait, so Daenerys is putting off her conquest of Westeros indefinitely?  Ugh, that storyline just seems like it's going nowhere (though of course it's fairly clear that her story is vital to however this series concludes).

Now you know how the majority of the book readers felt after book 3... It won't get any more interesting until the end of book 5.

Yup, I wish I had stopped reading after book 3 until RR finished the whole thing.

The second half of book five was pretty good, I thought.

It is pretty good, but since it lacks about two hundred pages (with what I guess is a lot of important developments), it's not as good as it could have been. The sad part about the gap between Storm of Swords and A Dance with Dragons (ten, twelve years or so?) is that Feast and Dragons still ended up as unfinished books.

[Lumine]

So about that fight...

It was pretty much like the books, but... I'm surprised at how I felt when it ended.

[Lumine]

Any thoughts on that battle? (Spoiler: other than some dissapointment at Stannis not showing up until Episode Ten)

[Lumine]

Yeah, I reccomend using white text everytime we want to post spoilers. If there's a show in which you certainly don't want spoilers, that's Game of Thrones.

[Lumine]

Oh, that makes sense, my bad.

It's neither the first nor the most important spoiler I've got anyway, so no big deal. Actually, maybe it's a good thing I got some, as it will make it easier to accept the death of characters I liked without suffering too much.

I don't know if this will make you feel any better, but most posters in this thread have no idea what they're talking about. The story has plenty of subtext and misdirection that many viewers don't catch.

Indeed, I decided to watch Season 1 again a few days ago (I originally watched it without reading the books) and I was quite surprised at the large amount of subtle references, alternate character interpretation and subplots that I missed.

[Lumine]

Just finished season 2. It's always gonna be a downer ending isn't it?

I'd say that one on the next finales is going to be more optimistic than the rest of them, but then again that's not saying much, xD

On an unrelated note, there an idea I wanted to discuss in this thread, if someone is interested. As of now I am still hosting a strategy game that might take some time, but my first option was always to host a grand strategy game based on Game of Thrones/ASOIAF. I even discussed it with some forum members a few months ago, but I never went through with it because I felt I would lack enough players.

In the case I were to host one of those in the future (or find someone to host it), would anybody be interested?

[Lumine]

I am interested in participating, Lumine. Let me know if you get any farther with the idea.

Great! My final exams for the semester are coming, so I will planify a potential game and then see if the time will allow me to host that and Balance of Power at the same time. (I also have to decide the setting, like Robert Baratheon's Rebellion, the War of the Five Kings or the rough scenario of a Feast for Crows+A Dance with Dragons.

On another note, and while I know that those who read the books will be dissapointed with some issues, I loved that finale! They are truly serious about killing people who are still alive in the books...

[Lumine]

Shameless propaganda: The game is up now and with several players, in case anybody else is interested!

[Lumine]

I can't wait for the Comic Con panel this year. Their panels are always awesome, though last year the questions were pretty rote. Hopefully that will be better this year.

Anyway, I used to post on asoiaf.westeros.org. Their book purists are really intense, but then again that community existed for book readers before the show existed.

Yeah, I often read the forum there and the amount of visceral hate some have for several aspects of the series is disturbing, to say the least...

PS: I still need a Renly for the game, in case anyone's interested.

[Lumine]

OMG Tywin. I can't believe what I just saw.

Yep. King's Landing is about to become a very nice place, xD