HBO's adaptation of Game of Thrones - Thread 2. There are a lot of nerds.

The answer to all those questions is bad plotting.

the final season can have every individual story strand wind up by having grr martin appear and go '¯\_(ツ)_/¯'

The walkers are waiting for winter, I'd wager

Ah, good answer!

But what are they doing now? Playing cards? Catching up on summer reading?

I've wondered whether they think

they're watching a boring protracted drama about a mythical land called "medievel Europe"

"Why does everyone in this stupid show think the world is flat?!"

They bring winter with them! It is known!

"When is this Jesus guy gonna finally show up and murder everybody?"

I believe perhaps they can only travel with the weather? For instance, "winter is coming" and once it finally does they will be able to reach as far as it does. That was how I interpreted it.

However it all made more sense when they were like this elemental humanoid force of evil that was on its way to sweep in and overtake everything just like an actual blizzard, but in that episode last season where they were suddenly wearing clothes and showing facial expressions and emotions... that just kind of turned them into merely another competing clan looking to overthrow everything.

I said this last thread in case of deja vu.

The internet says there are wards in/near the wall (craster's keep, for example) that help keep the walkers away.

There are plenty of actual flaws in the show and then there are flaws in this thread

Like who tf wants the magic explained? That's dumb as hell. It's part of the chaotic unknowable atmosphere that makes this show compelling at all & lets you forgive contrivance

Smh feel like you guys have never read fantasy before 🤓

what do the zombies in walking dead do when they aren't attacking ppl? white walkers are just like medieval versions of them. they probably meander aimlessly in the snow and stare at bright shiny things and think, "ugghrhrhg?"

they do charity work to give something back

can we get back to being excited about Rickon reappearing?

are there any good recaps of this show anymore? ask the maester is on hiatus i guess, and max doesn't do em anymore

"josh in chicago" is a good DN for these posts, as in "now we've got Josh in Chicago with a question about this week's Game of Thrones, Josh you're on the line."

i think the established character i'd be happiest to never see again is ramsay bolton, dude is like the r-rated version of a saturday morning tv cartoon villain, coasting along for seasons on end without establishing any character traits beyond 'is evil'

it seems rather obvious to me that not many people know about the white walkers, which was the big 'oh no' of Jon Snow dying (for me at least), who is going to relay that information now?

Well Sam, obviously.

I have a feeling he's due for a bigger (lol sorry) role in the plot.

Also, any bets on what character Richard E Grant will be playing? I'm hoping Sam's father, but I'm prob wrong.

What's a DN? Is it something bad?

I only harp on the magic stuff because it seems so random, unexplained and, worst of all, sort of ignored. Like, there is magic shit happening all over the place, so it doesn't take much of a leap to believe in ice zombies or dragons, especially since magic or no, the latter clearly existed and terrorized the land, like, 50, 100 years before this takes place. Right? However long ago, they're fucking dragons. And of course there are giants and other creatures, too, and plenty of people have seen the dire wolves, which are of course nbd, except they are a big deal. And then there are warg people, but does anyone know about the warg people or are they stuff of legend, too? Are there dozens of warg people? Hundreds? I get that magic slowly coming back is a cool thing, but once that's been happening for years and years ... it's happened, right? It's not coming back, it's back.

Anyway, it's just so much happening at once in every direction at once, and yet the narrative seems permanently stalled in mundane power biz. I want an episode that is first person mock documentary interviews with various plebes and serfs and stuff, just to get out of this weird bubble of pretenders to the throne. Maybe they can save that for season 7.

(I don't really want that, btw. But I do wish this far along some of the show's mythology and rules were better explained. Because otherwise anything can just happen, like a giant talking fish could appear and challenge Jaime to a duel, and everyone will be all, well, who needs to explain it, in this world there are giant talking fish, nothing to see here, they're magic.)

Its been ages but I thought the idea was that people *did* believe in dragons and whitewalkers but that they were more the stuff of ancient history.

there is magic shit happening all over the place

not really?

The "ask the maester" column is available via the mailing list from theringer.com. it was posted yesterday.

Many xps

Cool, love ask the maester, thanks!

post Well, in Kings Landing they brought the Mountain back from the dead. In that other place there were those magic monks who tried to capture the Mother of Dragons. Wasn't Karl Drogo demonized by a demon? Arya Start has been magically blinded by magic people who were mentoring her. Red Witch was doing magic stuff with Stannis, a few people (like Cersai) have heard prophecies. Up north there is all sorts of magic shit, from White Walkers to Wargs to whatever is going on in that ... magic tree? Don't remember that part. And then of course there is the return of dragons, born of fire that did not kill the Mother of Dragons. And so on. More than enough to go around.

I think it's been 150 years since dragons terrorized the land when the first book begins. So it's been some time, but not really that long, especially as far as this world go, when it's even unclear how old people are.

Most of that stuff is happening in isolation ... either in secrecy or in faraway places.

all of this magic is occurring in far flung locations OR has been witnessed by very few people. The prophecies or whatever, I mean they could be real. I don't know. Melisandre is 2 for 3 with her curse on the prospective rulers. That witch is 2 for 3 with Jaime and cersei's kids.

What poly said basically yeah

Wow, Ask the Maester stumped a lot. Fun watch, though.

Oh, wait, there's a column, too? I just saw his 10 minute live riff.

The old column was in Grantland... it looks like its moved for S6

http://us12.campaign-archive1.com/?u=9a393473748185dce76bf8339&id=00119d1332

(This should be the Ask the Maester column, weird Url aside)

DN is display name, by the way. Your "Josh in Chicago."

Ha, ok, I get it now. Anyway, this is funny, from the Maester column:

The Dothraki believe that a great khal (hm) will appear at Vaes Dothrak (hmm) to unite the khalasars (hmmm) under his (HMMMM) banner and go on to conquer the world.

Cool, love ask the maester, thanks!

post Well, in Kings Landing they brought the Mountain back from the dead. In that other place there were those magic monks who tried to capture the Mother of Dragons. Wasn't Karl Drogo demonized by a demon? Arya Start has been magically blinded by magic people who were mentoring her. Red Witch was doing magic stuff with Stannis, a few people (like Cersai) have heard prophecies. Up north there is all sorts of magic shit, from White Walkers to Wargs to whatever is going on in that ... magic tree? Don't remember that part. And then of course there is the return of dragons, born of fire that did not kill the Mother of Dragons. And so on. More than enough to go around.

I think it's been 150 years since dragons terrorized the land when the first book begins. So it's been some time, but not really that long, especially as far as this world go, when it's even unclear how old people are.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, April 27, 2016 7:24 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

bro -_-

they dont have twitter

Are all the ravens dead? There seems to be a lack of raven communication.

I recall someone being handed, and reading, a scroll at one point. Presumably raven-delivered?

There was a lot of wholesale raven slaughter last season, iirc. What annoyed me this episode (and which hasn't been mentioned); I really don't get why ice cold Roose Bolton is so into making his unreliable annoying nutjob son his heir. Obv he has no other sons but come on, the dude couldn't be relied on to make coffee and Roose just got his young new wife pregnant, so why not wait? It'd be cold and rational to do so.

imho it's quite a leap to say roose is "into" making ramsay his heir. but he knows the kid is desperate for legitimacy and willing to do any amount of dirty work to make it happen, so why not dangle it for now and see how things play out?

I don't know. Besides letting Sansa escape he's been doing a pretty good job as far as Roose is concerned.

Roose invoked his new Frey wife bearing him a son so I assume Ramsey is the only male in the line of succession.

Playing crusader kings 2 helps figure out who is in play for these inheritance shenanigans.

xp - yeah, he currently has no male heirs outside of Ramsey, which is why he made Ramsey a Bolton in the first place

CC is something that many/most predict will do bad things, but those bad things are as yet subtle, or abstract.

This is a pretty good analogy, in that climate change's effects aren't either of those things, but as long as they're far away and/or deniable...

I think it's been 150 years since dragons terrorized the land when the first book begins. So it's been some time, but not really that long, especially as far as this world go, when it's even unclear how old people are.

No one doesn't believe in dragons! Recieved wisdom is that they are extinct, though it seems like the existence of Dani's dragons is pretty widely accepted in both continents at this stage.

Somebody has mentioned there being no twitter, I was going to say there was no mass media. Not sure there is any organised media or postal service. So news presumably spreads by word of mouth and is probably not the most reliable or widespreadly known. Probably some degree of chinese whispers through populace too.
In the real world prior to postal service being established letters would be passed along between people going in the general direction. It could take 7 years for one to get to its destination though I think that specific one was Europe to Asia.
I assume they're using specific messengers in this and most things are on one landmass. I need to see a map.

There's two landmasses.

Ravens are the postal service. But you don't necessarily believe every Raven you receive, considering that everyone is basically trying to undermine everyone else.