lol. My wife and I we talking about this last night. In HOD and GOT it's never shown as anything other than a melted mess.

CharleyKerfeld said:

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Fire & Blood is like reading an encyclopedia written by a guy who loved gossip. I read it maybe 3-4 years ago, and other than 2-3 really important points about this time period, I barely remember anything that is going to happen moving forward. It was kind of a let down to read after how rich the first 5 books.

Positives

I really enjoyed this episode. Cole looked like a desperate American officer leading his soldiers through Vietnam between the leeches and the rain and the mud and the little booby traps along the way. Really captured the helplessness and misery of war, something that was sorely missed in the original series in most of the battles.

Aegon was magnificent for a 2nd episode in a row; his eagerness to kill that guy was fantastic. I will have to look that actor up, but to go from playing the petulant D-bag for the large majority of the show to this vengeful creature is a really impressive transformation.

It took me a full episode to realize that was really Dan Fogler as Lord Manderly - forever Hutch from Fanboys. Fantastic casting. The show gets some much overdue comic relief.

Negatives

Is George RR Martin having an affair with the actress who plays the witch at Harrenhahl? She has raced right past the White Worm as the instant-eye roll character for me in every single scene she's in.

Allicent, despite being forever bangable, straight up sucks, having no problem leaving any and all grandkids behind to GTFO.

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Think George isn't really involved in the show after season 1, what i read is the show runners are doing their own thing and basically ignoring his notes and guidance.
Which I feel is the main reason the quality of writing (dialogue and plot) feels lower

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Interesting, so far I feel the quality is higher this season than last season.

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I think it is too, even though I am still slow on remembering who everyone is. The first season is a notch above because of the guy playing Viserys, but they are doing a great job of showing the complexities of what ruling is, how to keep power, what happens when you get resistance that probably shouldn't be handled by sheer dragonfire alone, etc. If they had scrapped the Alys River's plot line, or at least only had either Daemon or Aemond have to endure it instead of both, I'd really have higher marks for it.

I've been trying to read Fire & Blood for the past 5 years. I wanted to read it before S1 came out. The book is incredibly boring and a chore to read since there isn't much of a storyline to follow. Once I realized that S1 of HOTD was only about 50 pages of the book, I decided I didn't really need to finish it since the show runners were having to fill in all of the "color" to create something worth watching.

I've read every other GRRM book and had a really hard time putting them down. I'm only about halfway through Fire & Blood after 5 years... I'm enjoying HOTD, but I rank it pretty far behind AKOTSK and GOT.

TexAg2001 said:

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I've been trying to read Fire & Blood for the past 5 years. I wanted to read it before S1 came out. The book is incredibly boring and a chore to read since there isn't much of a storyline to follow. Once I realized that S1 of HOTD was only about 50 pages of the book, I decided I didn't really need to finish it since the show runners were having to fill in all of the "color" to create something worth watching.

I've read every other GRRM book and had a really hard time putting them down. I'm only about halfway through Fire & Blood after 5 years... I'm enjoying HOTD, but I rank it pretty far behind AKOTSK and GOT.

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Yeah, it's a commitment. It's like reading a really long Wikipedia entry about something you sort of know about, but not really. I'd equate it to reading the Wikipedia of one of the older Star Wars comic book series that went on forever, except there is no art or dialogue. And since the book is 90% Targs, I really forgot who was who even over the course of 10 pages. There's only 2 things I know for sure are going to happen going forward on the show from the book. Everything else is up for grabs.

KidDoc said:

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Agree with most of ya'll- good season but the Cole storyline needs to die and the witch thing is just weird-- is she really a witch? Most of the storylines were a bit light on actual magic but she seems to have something different.

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Yes she is. Confirmed on the podcast.

CharleyKerfeld said:

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TexAg2001 said:

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I've been trying to read Fire & Blood for the past 5 years. I wanted to read it before S1 came out. The book is incredibly boring and a chore to read since there isn't much of a storyline to follow. Once I realized that S1 of HOTD was only about 50 pages of the book, I decided I didn't really need to finish it since the show runners were having to fill in all of the "color" to create something worth watching.

I've read every other GRRM book and had a really hard time putting them down. I'm only about halfway through Fire & Blood after 5 years... I'm enjoying HOTD, but I rank it pretty far behind AKOTSK and GOT.

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Yeah, it's a commitment. It's like reading a really long Wikipedia entry about something you sort of know about, but not really. I'd equate it to reading the Wikipedia of one of the older Star Wars comic book series that went on forever, except there is no art or dialogue. And since the book is 90% Targs, I really forgot who was who even over the course of 10 pages. There's only 2 things I know for sure are going to happen going forward on the show from the book. Everything else is up for grabs.

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Yeah, Fire & Blood is a chore to read. It's easier to just go to A Wiki of Ice and Fire and read everything about the Dance of the Dragons.

Harrenhal storylines are not going away anytime soon. Pretty important piece of land to control in Westeros

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Interesting, so far I feel the quality is higher this season than last season.

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agreed

tk for tu juan said:

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Pretty important piece of land to control in Westeros

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I wish that was highlighted more in the show. My show perception is the place is a dump and it's haunted/cursed. No one has held it long enough to use it strategically. Harrenhal feels like a white elephant to me.

zap said:

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tk for tu juan said:

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Pretty important piece of land to control in Westeros

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I wish that was highlighted more in the show. My show perception is the place is a dump and it's haunted/cursed. No one has held it long enough to use it strategically. Harrenhal feels like a white elephant to me.

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What would be helpful (though most may find it cheesy) is a location switch map when going to each of the places. I can't even remember where everything is except for Kings Landing, Flea Bottom, and Dragonstone.

Like a companion iPad/tablet app that shows where everyone is while watching the episode

The GoT series at least had that website that would update info based on which season and episode you where currently on

The Ex Officio Director said:

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Just need a good sex scene between Rhaenyra and Alicent. Lord knows those two have issues and getting it on in the sheets might just fix things between them.

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Going to take a loooong pause to ponder this as a possibility.

The intro for Season 3 with the additional drums is masterful. Season 1 & 2 may be the same (probably are), I don't know but I listed them all:

Season 3 intro



Season 2 intro



Season 1 intro



GoT Season 1 intro for good measure

I do enjoy this show, it's not as good as GOT, but I do like the multiple dragons. They're just awesome to watch. Gosh I wish they were real.

I'm seeing some chatter online that Daemon ends up being the night king but that can't be true because the night king came out from the children of the forest thousands of years before, before the Targaryen line even existed. So much weird stuff out there.

He is Ross from Friends. Which I said on the Season 1 thread. Lol

annie88 said:

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I do enjoy this show, it's not as good as GOT, but I do like the multiple dragons. They're just awesome to watch. Gosh I wish they were real.

I'm seeing some chatter online that Daemon ends up being the night king but that can't be true because the night king came out from the children of the forest thousands of years before, before the Targaryen line even existed. So much weird stuff out there.

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From what I have seen (theories and whathaveyou), the Knight King is a Stark transformed by the free folk/fairies/magics north of the wall.