Game of Thrones

Skip wrote:

Well I guess if you have the free time it's not that quickly, but still. That's at least a couple hours a day unless you're just a really fast reader.

Call it 3,750 pages over 26 days. 144 pages a day. Eh, that's a fair average. Some days I didn't read at all, but on others I'd get hooked and soldier on for several hours like it was YA or something.

If I had school or a job I wouldn't be able to do it, but I finished the former a few days before starting to read and I'm unemployed. So yeah, unless I'm out with friends or something, I have lots of time to read.

Casa wrote:

Skip wrote:

Well I guess if you have the free time it's not that quickly, but still. That's at least a couple hours a day unless you're just a really fast reader.

Call it 3,750 pages over 26 days. 144 pages a day. Eh, that's a fair average. Some days I didn't read at all, but on others I'd get hooked and soldier on for several hours like it was YA or something.

If I had school or a job I wouldn't be able to do it, but I finished the former a few days before starting to read and I'm unemployed. So yeah, unless I'm out with friends or something, I have lots of time to read.

Ah well fair enough then, it is incredibly easy to get lost in this for hours. I do most of my reading at night before I go to sleep, and sometimes I've had hours and hours go past without realising it. (which I hate myself for when I have to get up for early lectures).

hey skip

skip


hey


hey

Good point.

This episode is objectively the best one this season.

I posted in the wrong topic.

How am I supposed to hate Tywin when they make him this awesome in the show.

Casa wrote:

So uh, I've been reading A Storm of Swords and I just finished Caetlyn VII.

Spoiler:

Just read what I assume it is you're referring to here. =(

Srs, don't read this if you don't know what we're talking about yet:

Yup that's it.

Seriously I've never gasped while reading before but... well, there you go.

if you read this you sorta ruin the best part of the book:

Yeah, took me completely by surprise.

Spoiler:

Re: A Feast For Crows

Kevan Lannister is awesome.

After how recently we were discussing this, I couldn't not post this:

http://www.forlackofabettercomic.com/?id=87

I am so psyched for Blackwater next week.

They really need to stop changing things. I can't help but think one of these little changes is going to blow up to become a major problem later.

I totally agree. I understand some changes, but they're making some pretty hefty revisions that screw with the cohesion of the story.

Here's a list of things that they changed that pissed me off:

- Talisa. Everything about her is bad. She's a character that doesn't exist from a family that doesn't exist from a completely inconsequential place doing a job she shouldn't be doing and taking screentime from better characters. There's a reason Robb's affair was offscreen in the books, because it's boring as shit.
- Removing Jojen and Meera.
- The fucking dragons being stolen. I was giving them the benefit of the doubt and hoping they'd go somewhere with it but all it's done is make TV Dany seem incompetent. It adds absolutely nothing beyond completely arbitrary melodrama since everyone knows Dany can't lose the dragons.
- Caetlyn's reasons for releasing Jaime are less justifiable in the show because she hasn't been led to believe Bran and Rickon are dead. They've done a lot of muddling about with Caetlyn's character come to think of it. In many cases, for the worse.
- Speaking of useless, they turned Jon into the worst ranger ever. Like, seriously. When he eventually has to kill Qhorin, all the emotion will be gone because all Jon's done is fuck up. They didn't spend any time developing the relationship between the two.
- Ghost seemingly abandoning his master. Seriously what happened to him? Who's betting he shows up out of the blue to wound Qhorin at a critical moment, allowing Jon to kill him?
- Shae seems far too genuine in her protectiveness of Sansa and her relationship with Tyrion considering she eventually sells them out.
- They're stealing all of Arya's kills. By the time she leaves Harrenhal in the books she's likely killed a dozen people.
- The complete lack of "Reek". A lot's been said about Bolton's bastard but you know, why remove/change the character in the first place? By giving all his lines and plans to Finch from The Office all they're doing is detracting from a much more important character.

I agree with all of those, but you missed out Arya's coup in Harrenhal giving Bolton the castle. If they don't get the castle on their own, it'll have taken a huge turn from the books.

Does anything really change by Bolton not getting Harrenhal though? Chances are they'll just have the Lannisters give it to him for his role in the Red Wedding.

Oh on the subject of Harrenhal, here's another thing: Where are the Bloody Mummers? Who is going to cut off Jaime's hand?

Well I just think having someone who isn't Roose Bolton will change how they're supposed to deal with Jamie. Surely Gregor Clegane will be a bit more respectful of him than Bolton. But yeah, everything outside of that isn't changed a whole lot. It'll probably just have Brinne cut his hand off in their duel or something like that.

edit: oh, oh, or the bear could bite it off.

So finally powered my way through A Feast For Crows. My god what a chore.

Admittedly, it got better after about the halfway mark (except for the Sam chapters, which remained snooze fests) but there's barely any flow to the book as it jaggedly bounces between the protagonists - half of whom you don't care about - and never lingers long enough to develop them in any significant way. Then the books abruptly ends just as things get interesting for all the characters I like.

Overall, I'd say it was decent but it was a miscalculation to try and release a story haphazardly carved from a half finished book. I can't imagine how frustrating it must have been for the fans having to wait five years for the sequel.

Lastly, Arya remains the best and I am adamant that each book's quality is directly proportional to the number of chapters she features in.

I'm currently 300 or so pages in ASoS. When does the big turning point that everyone always talks about happen? No spoilers, just an approximate chapter.

Chapter 51

I'm only at chapter 22. Need to read faster.

Also Samwell is garbage. I eyerolled through his first chapter and I'm very tempted to skip the second one and read the summary on the wiki.

Arya, Tyrion, Sansa (controversial, I guess?) and Jaime have the best chapters currently.

Don't listen to what anyone says, Sansa's great. It's somewhat lost in the show, but in the books she gives a unique perspective of the characters in King's Landing and helps develop them from the 3rd person. Plus her actions (or lack thereof) are much more understandable when you can see her thoughts.

First of all, your books have chapter numbers? What?

I don't mind Sansa, it's an interesting contrast to Tyrion's perspective, who remains the best character in the series. I didn't like Sansa at all in the first book, I thought she was a prat. But now I've grown to have sympathy for her position and all.

Arya generally has stuff going on in her chapters, that's why they're good. And she's having her own little adventure that's completely different to everyone else, for a while anyway.

Yeah Sam's chapters aren't the best, but the shit that happens in them is sort of important.

I thought Cat's chapters were pretty poor, I only really liked them because we get to see what Robb was up to through them. I guess seeing Renly through her was cool too.

Also when Jon actually does stuff, he's pretty cool too, but not as cool as Jamie.

Lord Skip wrote:

First of all, your books have chapter numbers? What?

Not mine, but I cross referenced it with the ASOIF wiki and it lists the chapter numbers as well in addition to Arya III/Jaime X/Sam MCIV.

Also, the POV character tier list (for me) from the first four books is something like this:

Tier 1:
Arya
Eddard
Tyrion

Tier 2:
Davos
Jaime
Theon
Brienne

Tier 3:
Bran
Sansa
Caetlyn

Tier Meh
Jon
Dany
Cersei

Tier Ugh
Sam
"new people"