Game of Thrones: Season Five: Episode One (Spoiler Warnings)

[douglascohen]

So as I've already said, we're taking things from episode to episode this season.  I'll be recording each episode but not watching it as it airs.  Afterward I'll be checking in on Facebook to learn whether there are spoilers for future books.  If the answer is yes or maybe then I stop watching until I read the next book

Comments

[douglascohen]

I think finding justification to have Gilly leave the Wall will prove a non-issue. And yeah, given that the last we saw of Sam he was down in Oldtown he obviously has an important role to play from the Wall. But if they cut out the maester subplot with Marwyn, it's anyone's guess what what might happen with Sam next.

[fixnwrtr]

From what I've heard, HBO has decided to change Sansa's character enough to let her be the synthesis of Lady Stoneheart and Alayne/Sansa, which was the reason for black dyed hair and the black clothing at the end of the last season. No, Lady Stoneheart. Sigh.

I noticed the omission of the valonqar in Cersei's story as well, which is part of her hatred and fear of Tyrion. I've always thought that it was Jaime who would kill her and not Tyrion. Nice to see I'm not alone with this.

With the whole Mance thing, I kept wondering how they were going to pull this off since Mance takes Rattlebones's place and wears his rattling bones armor, but what you've outlined here does make sense. I don't know how the Boltons are going to be able to cement their claim on Winterfell and get cooperation from the Stark allies without Jeyne Poole. That should be interesting to watch.

For my money, the episode was too short. I wanted more. ;-)

[douglascohen]

On the surface, the idea of combining Sansa and Stoneheart sounds god-awful to me, but maybe they'll find a way to make it work if they take things in that direction.

I doubt the Boltons cementing their claim on Winterfell will prove an issue without Jeyne. I'd imagine the showrunners will make things more chaotic from the jump or they'll simply gloss over the politics that GRRM likes to explore in such detail.

[ext_702215]

Huh. You may well be right about Mance, as that would certainly be one logical way for the show to go. But fwiw, until I just read your writeup, it never occurred to me that Mance was actually killed in that episode. I just assumed it was still an illusion and they killed some other random wildling...

[douglascohen]

Huh. *That* possibility really hadn't occurred to me, but I'm going to stick with my current line of thinking, because if Mance is still alive and he can't be sent to save Jeyne Poole/the false Arya that means they keep him at the Wall, where his presence wreaks havoc on the plot. I just don't see any around that, unless they want to create a false Arya for Ramsay to marry that we have no previous attachment to as viewers. If they go that route, I suppose it's possible they could bring back Mance, but I don't think they'll go that route when they're making a concerted effort to bring the amount of characters down.