Game of Thrones - series 5

[Thomas]

A trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDb4sJVK2wU

[NoSleep]

Doesn't look like it's got any colder than last season.

[mycroft]

Lots of hinting that Dragon-Woman will actually do stuff this season. I feel this will be a lie.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

It's a kind of Sunday afternoon version of the much gritter series Rosemary & Thyme.

[Paaaaul]

People are gonna be so disappointed when they find out that Winter is a boring old geezer who talks about the weather a lot

[NoSleep]

No sight of Stannis in there, unless he's one of the tiny figures in the Castle Black square or on top of that pyre of Melisandra's later on.

No sign of a flying Bran, either.

[Old Nehamkin]

I like the bits where the little cardboard buildings pop out of the ground. Will there be more of that?

[monolith]

Feel like a dip in form might be on the horizon, I can't possibly see how they can top the last two brilliant seasons.

[NoSleep]

It's what everyone's hoping for.

[Custard]

I hope there's plenty more incest rape

Or is it rape incest?

Anyway, more please!

[Mister Six]

No sight of Stannis in there, unless he's one of the tiny figures in the Castle Black square or on top of that pyre of Melisandra's later on.

No sign of a flying Bran, either.

Spoiler, obviously, hence the Spoiler text...

Spoiler alert

Bran is, from what I've heard, not in this season at all - largely due to the writers having used up all of his storylines from the books. Ordinarily I wouldn't put spoilers in these things, but I thought you might have your enjoyment affected, waiting for a character who's not going to show up for another year-and-a-bit.

[close]

[biggytitbo]

Can't wait to see what gratuitous female nudity this season has in store for me!

[BritishHobo]

The big news is that book six 'definitely' will not be out this year, which means the show is almost certainly now going to reach the ending first.

I'm always really torn on the Martin thing. On the one hand, I understand people's frustrations - if someone tells you a story and then fails to deliver, for now, on the pay-off, that's irritating. And this is that on a major scale. At the same time, the entitlement with which some people talk makes me wish a little bit that he'd just decide to never write another word about that universe just to irritate people.

As it is, and I've said this here before, I'm pretty content to just watch the story play out on-screen. I liked the books, but I much prefer the show's format. Much more variety in terms of points-of-view, since you're not trudging through agonizingly long focuses on one specific character at a time, and also far less unnecessary detail. I found when I reached the fifth book that I was constantly having to refer to the impressively detailed summaries on Tower of the Hand because minor events or characters kept flaring up as if I should've been intimately familiar with the full history of Westeros.

[BritishHobo]

For anyone hankering for information, I can officially confirm exciting new directions for some of your favourite characters and storylines; Daenerys considers possibly travelling to Westeros in order to claim the Iron Throne, while beyond the Wall white walkers begin to march South... I don't know about you fellas, but it certainly sounds like we'll be knocked for bloody six by these developments.

[Pit-Pat]

I heard that new characters get introduced but don't do anything, people walk/sail a long way and have the same conversations each time you see them and the already not inconsiderable torture, murder and rape are ramped up for the TV series.

[Pijlstaart]

I hope they get Benedict Cumberbatch in as like, an elf or a vampire or something. He could date Daenerys and the season could be the two of them acting all moody and talking about how they're trying to figure stuff out. I haven't heard much support for a spin-off series, Game of Thrones High School yet, but once GRRM dies they'll be looking for new writers from the most loyal fans, so that means the fan-ficcers. Just waiting for that traitor to pop his clogs so we can get our show back on track.

[BritishHobo]

According to a story that I can't be bothered to go and find again, Danny Dyer's auditioned three times to be on this show and (obviously) failed every time.

[phantom_power]

He "confirmed" this on Jonathan Ross last nigth

[Custard]

Tried for Game Of Thrones, got EastEnders

That'd be a good title for his autobiog

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

The awful actress from Hollyoaks and the odd cameo here and there has taken me out of the world a bit- but Danny Dyer would be even worse. I'm not sure whether it's because he can't act or whether it's because he's a cunt, but both seem like good enough singular reasons.

[mothman]

People are gonna be so disappointed when they find out that Winter is a boring old geezer who talks about the weather a lot

The Internet has failed me. Could I find that one British Gas privatisation "Tell Sid" advert where Sid, is finally, briefly, glimpsed as a figure shrouded in mist on a hillside? No, I could not.

According to a story that I can't be bothered to go and find again, Danny Dyer's auditioned three times to be on this show and (obviously) failed every time.

Actually, he might have worked in Burn Gorman's role...

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

He would've made a lovely Sansa.

[mook]

it would have been worth it just to see what he made of tyrion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egdQfX8_8Fg&x-yt-ts=1422579428&x-yt-cl=85114404&feature=player_detailpage#t=44

[Gulftastic]

Lots of moaning on Youtbue about

Spoiler alert

Lady Stoneheart not appearing, and possibly Sansa getting her part. Does anyone else think it a good thing? Stoneheart wasn't that big a character to my recollection, and it gives Sansa something to do now they've moved beyond her book stuff.

[close]

[mothman]

I've never read the books, and I likely never will - not really my thing. Feel I should say that straight out.

But how long can the TV show go on? The usual(ish) seven seasons? The more-common-nowadays (if successful) ten seasons? Whatever happens it's likely that season 6 will have been and gone before book six appears. Given that GRRM seems from what I gather almost pathologically unwilling to progress his plot, introducing endless subplots and ancillary characters (who manages to have said storylines at best wholly ignored, at worst merged into those of existing ones), how much more will there be of characters literally spending two seasons walking somewhere?

And what of the cast? Presumably for many it's not their sole source of income - especially when for many minor roles they might get 5 minutes of screentime in a season. And for some they nay not expect better offers - how many dwarf actors EVER get to play a role like Tyrion? I doubt Peter Dinklage will be quitting anytime soon. But what of the younger actors whose careers are just starting and might hope to springboard to bigger things? Like it or not, Jon Sneugh (I just can't help Ygrittising his name) and Danaerys have always been central characters, with much emotional involvment in the audience. But now Kit Harrington and Emilia Clarke have Hollywood movie careers (I dunno how successful) - what happens if GoT gets in the way of that? I thought I read somewhere that Clarke was only willing to do one more season: they'd have to recast. Which comes with pitfalls.

[BritishHobo]

Word seems to be that the creators have definitively put season seven down as their end-date, but I don't know how true that actually is. Either way, I fear a big problem with this show, and potentially the books, is just how top-heavy the set-up is going to feel. If they're really going to round it out in the next couple of years, the change in pace will be pretty jarring, going from fucking glacial (as I mocked before, Daenerys and the white walkers have made seemingly negative progress, despite being major plot-points) to breakneck speed.

Lots of moaning on Youtbue about

Spoiler alert

Lady Stoneheart not appearing, and possibly Sansa getting her part. Does anyone else think it a good thing? Stoneheart wasn't that big a character to my recollection, and it gives Sansa something to do now they've moved beyond her book stuff.

[close]

The big thing with that is that it still remains to be seen what, if anything, it actually has to do with the overall plot. I'm most intrigued for the seventh book because I'm looking forward to finding out what was relevant and what wasn't. Are all of these plot strands going to end up necessary to the conclusion of things? I guess we'll see.

To delve into actual book spoilers

Spoiler alert

it would be nice to see Sansa getting some active stuff to do, and I suppose keeping it in the family means it's still pretty fitting as part of Brienne's storyline. But surely Sansa must have some other role to play as well, which is why she's still present in the books?

[close]

Who even knows at this point, it's all up in the air. The most interesting thing to me is that book-wankers and viewers are about to be in exactly the same position in terms of not knowing what happens next. We've had privileged status for far too long, but we're soon to be as clueless as the next sod. We'll all be on this agonizingly-paced ride together.

[Alberon]

Most of the next two books will be done by the end of season 6. So if Martin can get another volume out by the end of next year he'll stay largely ahead of the TV show for another year.

But that's mostly irrelevant as the last book in the series won't appear until 2023 at the earliest and the series will be done and gone by then (and probably the inevitable Dunk and Egg adaptation too).

As to the Danny Dyer story, surely he should have been playing Dany.

[Norton Canes]

Or  a Dyerwolf.

[Gulftastic]

Or  a Dyerwolf.

Bravo!!

[mjwilson]

Most of the next two books will be done by the end of season 6.

By all accounts, the next two books will be done by the end of this season.