Game of Thrones Season Five! No Spoilers Please!

No major issues with HBONow. The show appeared in the menu just after 6PM PST and I was able to stream it right away. There were two brief pauses of about a minute each about 30 minutes into the show.

 

So all we know about Anya Stark is a brief bit of exposition that she refused help when she was rescued?

 

Finally! The new season begins for me now, with SKY showing Best Of - Shows, Talkrounds and then three hours away actually the new episode.

 

There was also a pretty lengthy introduction that summarized the previous seasons along with a long tag for the next episode.

 

We know from last season that she's on her way to Braavos for what's likely to be assassin training.

 

Worked flawlessly for me. I watched it a couple hours after its "debut" and had zero problems...

I wouldn't be surprised if HBO gets REALLY nasty with folks who are illegally downloading the show this season. In the past, there wasn't an option for non-subscribers to watch the show as it airs and now there is. I bet they'll really be lowering the boom on those who don't opt to subscribe to HBONow.

 

Help me out guys. I've been watching since the beginning and the character"Lancel Lannister" has always been skinny as a rail. Now he's all bulked up looking like well a mini Hulk maybe. So is the same actor as in previous seasons? Because his face kinda looks the same.
Thanks

 

Yeah, it's the same actor. We haven't seen him since season 2.

The funny thing is, that character is supposed to have become haggard and prematurely aged after being injured in battle, in addition to becoming a penniless religious fanatic -- instead he looked like he'd hit the gym!

 

Yes. He's been busy in the weight room in the basement of the castle.

 

I couldn't stop myself, I had to watch all four episodes.

Without getting too spoilery -- they go WAY off book this season. The storylines for Jaime, Sansa, and Brienne are entirely different from what's in the books. And there are lots of other changes. Be prepared. They clearly decided books 4 & 5 were unfilmable as written, which is pretty reasonable.

 

UNFILMABLE??

 

Too many characters, too many locations, too many storylines that bog down and don't go anywhere.... lots of complaints about those two books from fans.

 

Oh, ok.
In one of those "On the red carpet" things, the topic of 'characters finally meeting each other' kinda got me excited.
But, DON'T tell us anymore until the episodes are aired.......
please.

 

Oh the fact that they are going off book sounds good to me. My wife will be really happy that I will stop telling her "pay attention, this part is important".

Yeah, books 4 and 5 take too much space exploring all those tertiary families that really do nothing to move the story along, even though it might be more realistic that they would try and improve themselves in real life. It would be impossible to film that and keep the story moving forward. After this season we are also likely to see the show jump ahead of the books if he doesn't get that next one published damn soon.

 

Haven't read the books, but I'm a big fan and I also like the idea of them going off the book.
For one thing it allows for more speculation and discussion that can't empirically be wrong via the book's script.
I was curious what has happened already that was not as the book went, for instance was Oberyn killed by the Mountain in the book? There is a sneak peek trailer of a band of warrior women who are out to get revenge for Oberyn's death (as shown in a trailer I saw before this past Sunday -so that's no spoiler), are they in the book or was his death just part of a writer's mechanism to bring some sword swinging babes into the mix?
Not knowing was part of what made watching Better Call Saul (and Breaking Bad of course) so much fun, that is not knowing exactly where the writers will steer the story. On that show the writers have well established fore shadowing with clues that can sometimes be a clever red herring or an obvious I told you so, to great effect. That show and this one have a lot in common on some levels but seem worlds apart of course.
I for one miss the Hound and wonder if he shows up again, I wonder what's going on with Bran way up north and miss Ygritte (I know she won't be back).
Oh yeah, what is up with that dude that Varys had in the box anyway?
Bronn is a great character and I definitely want to see Jorah get into some action.
Since the beginning of season 3 I have been wondering when we're gonna see some real dragon action and than just started thinking 'oh well, I guess we'll get some good ice zombie action anyway', well there's no excuse now.
I'm fairly content that regardless how much killer sword and sorcery action there actually is sandwiched between the Robert E. Howard (creator and writer of Conan novels) soap opera parts, at least they are making a dam fine sword and sorcery soap opera anyway.

 

Yes and yes. There are eight of the Sand Snakes (Oberyn's daughters with various women) in the novels.

 

With Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, are there any other examples of novels being adapted on-the-fly, before their source material is even completed?

 

It's going to be difficult for him to overcome death.

 

Yes please, consider that as a spoiler. It hasn't been shown in the episode(s) just aired, so I consider it a spoiler. So no discussion about trailers/teasers as I think there are quite a few who want to go into each episode unspoiled. Thank you.

 

Did we see him die?

 

While not novels, Japanese manga have been adopted on-the-fly by their anime counterparts for decades with the source material still not completed. Sometimes this creates an anime series that moves along independently and differently from the manga, and other times the anime follows the manga very closely, while interjecting side stories and other filler while waiting for the new manga installments to get released.

Sometimes the results are excellent, while other times they truly suck.

 

I was thinking earlier about the same basic idea, funny that I mention Conan because that was a few books, the author killed himself and years later Marvel scoops him up and I can't guess nor do I know how many tales have been spun with that character and his world. FWIW Howard put Conan in the Hyborian age, which is kind of the same trick used in GOT.

I for one like the idea of a long or longer stretch of this series than the books allow -if the series were not as good I would think different, what has been good about this story and it's world has made me want to read Martin's books.
Star Wars was basically taken straight from Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress film, and they say most stories are basically previous and well known formula elements that just get re-arranged by writers, so as long as the writers keep the story and characters alive in an entertaining way then it's all good.
With Walking Dead I just throw up my hands and give up with logic -the core crew in that show now is bound to repeat the ebb and flow of zombie mayhem and the human condition that tries to struggle with that.
I like it for some reason, but would have gotten the hell out of the woods about 3 seasons ago and headed for the less populated parts of the high country in New Mexico or something like that if I were in this show...
I realize that the setting is good for what does happen in the show and that it came from a comic book, but like I said I just forget about thinking too much with this one and I say go for it, lets take the zombie tour of the US for cryin' out loud.

 

OK.

 

Re: The Hound...

No, but as he said, "Unless there's a maester just over the hill, he's done for". I suppose they could have some mystic healer come along though they were in a remote area, but that would be a bit deux ex and would actually disappoint me. Not that I won't miss him too, but as they say, "all men must die". We didn't see Xaro Xhoan Daxos die either, but I'm assuming his food and water supply ran out long ago.

 

I always said, "Zero, Zero Duck Sauce".