Game of Thrones

thumpingrug

Very much the calm before the storm.  Many characters coming to a peace with one another.  Interesting.

RandallFlagg

thumpingrug said:

Very much the calm before the storm.  Many characters coming to a pease with one another.  Interesting.

I reckon there will be some unexpected and shocking casualties in the Battle for Winterfell

darthed1981

RandallFlagg said:

thumpingrug said:

Very much the calm before the storm.  Many characters coming to a pease with one another.  Interesting.

I reckon there will be some unexpected and shocking casualties in the Battle for Winterfell

I thought I saw pretty clear signals that the following characters would not make it...

Brienne

Pod

Tormund

Jorah

I think we can also safely assume that Theon will die protecting Bran, Bran will end up merging with the Weir tree, and that the Wights will attack the crypt, in which case Gilly would be a likely casualty, protecting others.

It's going to be absolutely fucking epic!

stickyfiddle

Fantastic episode 2. Best in a very long time. 

I was honestly expecting them to lose a lot of the subtlety as the last season felt rushed and over-action-y, but loved every moment. 

Grumpyrocker

stickyfiddle said:

Fantastic episode 2. Best in a very long time. 

I was honestly expecting them to lose a lot of the subtlety as the last season felt rushed and over-action-y, but loved every moment. 

Great episode. Lots of lovely character moments. 

ToneControl

It's interesting me enough now to make me speculate: if the battle between the dead and Winterfell is episode 3, and the night king has a dragon, how can that battle take 4 episodes to conclude?

Perhaps

• the dead will lay siege for 2 episodes, whilst the night king flies to King's landing to destroy it, or marry Cersei. Surely she wants to be the Queen forever?
• As the battle appears lost, Arya kills the the night king in the godswood in episode 4, his army disintegrates, then they all fight mad Cersei
• The dead march on by, and head for King's Landing first (most interesting option I think, Northern forces chasing them)
• I will think of more, I am sure

munckee

I thought there would be more set pieces to tease you about the big one, like showing the fall of the Umbers. 

They made a big point earlier in GOT about walder fray guarding the neck and there being no way to get past. I thought they would have defended that rather than winterfell but how many other dead would they have accrued I guess. 

thumpingrug

I had to wonder if the crypt - with all the dead - was actually a safe place to be, and, I recon this battle will take place over 2 episodes followed by whoever survives them making a dash for Kings Landing for a much shorter battle with Cersei over the remaining 2 episodes.

ToneControl

thumpingrug said:

I had to wonder if the crypt - with all the dead - was actually a safe place to be, and, I recon this battle will take place over 2 episodes followed by whoever survives them making a dash for Kings Landing for a much shorter battle with Cersei over the remaining 2 episodes.

can the night king revive the long-dead?

ToneControl

munckee said:

I thought there would be more set pieces to tease you about the big one, like showing the fall of the Umbers. 

They made a big point earlier in GOT about walder fray guarding the neck and there being no way to get past. I thought they would have defended that rather than winterfell but how many other dead would they have accrued I guess. 

based on this map
http://viewers-guide.hbo.com/game-of-thrones/season-8/episode-2/map/location/69/winterfell

I'd guess that that the earlier army needed an alternative route to avoid the Lannisters, the main road seems to bypass that crossing entirely

thumpingrug

ToneControl said:

thumpingrug said:

I had to wonder if the crypt - with all the dead - was actually a safe place to be, and, I recon this battle will take place over 2 episodes followed by whoever survives them making a dash for Kings Landing for a much shorter battle with Cersei over the remaining 2 episodes.

can the night king revive the long-dead?

Its far from clear what the extent of his powers are.

thumpingrug

ToneControl

ToneControl said:

It's interesting me enough now to make me speculate: if the battle between the dead and Winterfell is episode 3, and the night king has a dragon, how can that battle take 4 episodes to conclude?

Perhaps

• the dead will lay siege for 2 episodes, whilst the night king flies to King's landing to destroy it, or marry Cersei. Surely she wants to be the Queen forever?
• As the battle appears lost, Arya kills the the night king in the godswood in episode 4, his army disintegrates, then they all fight mad Cersei
• The dead march on by, and head for King's Landing first (most interesting option I think, Northern forces chasing them)
• I will think of more, I am sure

episode 3 trailer indicates there is a battle next
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdkS4Xazz7Q

Headphones

If the big battle's against the walkers next episode, it's really only a spectacular diversion on the way to the real intrigue: who's going to get a rusty bum?

TimmyO

The next battle after this will be Jon v Dany I reckon 

fretmeister

ToneControl said:

thumpingrug said:

I had to wonder if the crypt - with all the dead - was actually a safe place to be, and, I recon this battle will take place over 2 episodes followed by whoever survives them making a dash for Kings Landing for a much shorter battle with Cersei over the remaining 2 episodes.

can the night king revive the long-dead?

Judging by the state of some of the undead - skeletons with only a few bits of skin and hair, and that the extreme cold would mean decomp would take decades I'm going to say yes.

But that would also ruin the story - after all there are more dead people than alive people and he could just revive a couple of million and swamp Winterfell.

I'm still half expecting Arya to take off a mask and reveal the Waif!

munckee

TimmyO said:

The next battle after this will be Jon v Dany I reckon 

Could be Dany goes rogue and Jon has to join the remainder of the north with cersei and defeat Dany and then he keeps the north cersei keeps the south.

RandallFlagg

munckee said:

TimmyO said:

The next battle after this will be Jon v Dany I reckon 

Could be Dany goes rogue and Jon has to join the remainder of the north with cersei and defeat Dany and then he keeps the north cersei keeps the south.

She certainly didn't seem overly happy with what Jon Snow had to say...(no spoiler)

Jalapeno

Think it'll blow over and Jon will agree to play 2nd fiddle.

Cols

boogieman said:

Cols said:

Jalapeno said:

I've pretty much given up on the books being finished in George's lifetime, job for a posthumous editor I think

GRRM has probably come to the conclusion that he is quite old and has more money than he could possibly spend in the rest of his days, and would prefer not to slave over a typewriter anymore.

Wouldn’t you think that, as a professional writer, he’d still want his work out there for the public to see? I know money probably isn’t a driver for him, but surely he wants his books read. 

One would have hoped so... but originally the series was meant to be a trilogy.  After it became a success GRRM seemed to change tack and extend the scope - a terrible cynic would suspect that he’d decided to spin it out for as much as he could get from it.  

The first three books came out at 2 year spacings.  The fourth book took another 5 years... and only dealt with half the characters.  GRRM’s explanation for this was that his final manuscript was so long it would have to be split into two books.  Nevertheless, the next book didn’t arrive for another 6 years.  That was back in 2011, and we’re still waiting for the next instalment.

Not that I’m ungrateful - it’s a epic saga he’s created, and I really enjoy reading it.  It just seems - based on lengthening spells beteeen books - that his motivation for writing the series is progressively declining.