[SPOILERS] GoT Season 4 Ep 4 Discussion

I'm trying to get Josh to add in working spoiler BBCode once again as I'd like to regularly make threads like this, but I figure I might as well get started with episodic threads.


If you have not seen Season 4, Episode 4 "Oathkeeper" of the HBO Series Game of Thrones and you are sensitive to spoilers, please do not read past this point.





























So, I think for a mid-season episode, tonights episode was one of the best and most shocking that I've seen yet.

There's definitely a lot of adjustments being made, the book is no longer complete canon with minor adjustments, what we saw tonight were major modifications to the entire story.

What are your thoughts about what happened?

Due to being the first post I'll refrain from posting the most major spoiler, but I'm sure you guys all know what I'm talking about. For now though, I will say that I love that they took the time to go into detail on how the purple wedding occurred. Even in the books, you know what happened but its not necessarily told to you. With the TV show being notorious for confusing people, I think the heavy, heavy implication of who was involved in the murder and the confirmation by the few major characters was just great, and I'm happy they did that.

I also really like how Margerie's character is being shaped

 

First of all I have to say that I wish Natalie Dormer would sneak into my room for night time visits. Tommen is one lucky bastard.

Though back to the story in all honesty I'm actually pretty upset with some of the changes they made. A few work but most are WAY WAY away from the book canon and to me it seems more like a high budget fan fiction than an actual adaptation at this point.

I'm disappointed at the exclusion of Cold Hands. The Night Watch deserters catching both Ghost AND Summer(along with Bran and his gang) made me facepalm, Oathkeeper doesn't have the black blade with red ripples like it should. Hell it doesn't even look like RL Damascus steel. It's just a plain blade with a fancy hilt.


Now for the big big reveal in this episode. It was pretty cool, but to be honest I saw it coming. When I first read about Craster leaving his sons for the White Walkers I knew that they were most likely using their ice magic to make them into baby White Walkers. Another possibility was for a sacrifice to make their ice magic but most likely number 1.

Though that Ice Queen at the end was pretty awesome. Makes me wonder if she is the Night's Queen or a descendant of said queen.

Sorry if this seems more like a rant, but with some of the things D & D and the writers of the show have done, it makes me wonder if their main goal is to shit all over the book readers and if they make a great show along they way, then all the better.

 

I can agree on some of that. In the scene in tonights episode where you slowly see the white walker coming out of the snow I was actually hoping SO MUCH that it was Cold Hands. It seems like we won't see cold hands though (for non book readers, Cold Hands is a character that would've appeared around S3E8, you need not worry about spoilers as it is irrelevant now). The entire deal with the deserters still hanging around is bothering me, and Ghost being gone even more so, and then Summer and Bran's group being captured is just way too much for me to handle.

I do trust them to find a way to make it work with the story, but I definitely feel like this is so far off canon I don't even know what to expect with that arc anymore.

The big reveal is what really got me, yeah theres some changes where we're unsure of whats going on, but this part is actually something that the book readers have no knowledge over the TV watchers on. We've heard of the Land of Always Winter before, which is most likely what we saw tonight, but we can't even confirm that yet and other than some names and stories of the First Men, we don't actually know any specifics on this new..heirarchy of white walkers.

Definitely expected the baby part though.


All in all, what I have to say to tonights episode -

 

I had my fists in the air when I saw the white walker in the horse thinking it was cold hands, I'm really hoping they don't screw up the story. Dany's story has also been heavily modified and I just now realize it. But I still don't know what happened right now that doesn't happen in the books. Is it Bran getting caught or something else?

 

Bran originally never goes anywhere near Craster's
Jon originally isn't even told about Bran, as a promise made by Sam

Also, if you check the synopsis for last nights episode, you see this:


We basically met a legend o:

 

The scene were Margaery went into Tommen's room and gave him a boner.. priceless!

 

I still hate many of the changes they did and could make an entire thread devoted to how the show writers are basically telling the book readers to "go fuck themselves" with each passing episode but your post gets a like because I like Pod. In both the book and show, he's a good kid and if someone deserves a "happy ending" in this series(if that's even possible) then it's him. Good guy Pod.

They already screwed up almost everyone's story at this point.

That's the Night's King? That looked like a female White Walker to me. Thought that might have been the queen or something.

Pretty sure every straight guy watching gets a boner when they see Natalie Dormer. Tommen is one lucky bastard.

 

I do too...

 

we all know he did not really go to sleep after that

 

That was the night he hit puberty. The servants had a lot of sheet cleaning to do the next morning.

 

You get boners too? How the hell does that work?

 

I think they are going to introduce Cold Hands in the next episode, it's been a while since I read the books but I thought he liberated them from certain peril (I.E. the mutineers from the Nightswatch). I am actually quite happy with what the show has been doing to the original series, it gives you things he only hinted at in the book. Martin disclosed some of the major plot points to the directors in case anything happens to him. It makes it worth watching even if you read the books, even to just clear up some misconceptions.

- The book always hinted at some eerie kind of organization of the White Walkers, especially with the appearance of Cold Hands, I am glad that they are giving you an earlier look at how they are.

- For those of you who remember the last chapter in the 5th book, rewatch the wedding scene and you will truly know who killed the king.

 

You can actually hear it happening!

 

I may have to rewatch the scene but if I'm thinking of the right person I don't know how that could be the case.