Happy Game of Thrones day, fellow fans - political intrigue, zombies, direwolves and dragons!

[OracleInaCoracle]

I am so bloody excited. I have wiped the sky+ box so that I can store the episodes. I can't wait to see brienne and melissandre.

And robb with his kit off.

Or jon snow.

I don't remember the suckling babe?
Must go and hunt out book 2 for a re-reading

When theon offers to make asha his saltwife (ewwwww) she tells him that she has a husband and a suckling babe, the husband is the sea, and the babe is a dagger she keeps between her breasts.

Its referred to a few times.

I love asha. I pictured her taller and thinner. Harder. But I'm glad she's not too pretty though.

I've read the first two books, but we don't have Sky so not seen the series (noticed the other day our DVD hire shop has them though). Does the series ruin the books?

Jux, not at all. The casting and writing is really excellent.

Thanks. I'll borrow the dvds

Ok, so I'm nipping over here to ask a few question as someone who hasn't read the books yet but wants to know something - I'm not bothered about spoilers, quite like them TBH But don't want to spoil it for anyone on t'other thread.

Right then. At the end of last nights episode Jon follows the gross man who puts the baby down and leaves it. Is he hoping it will die or does he know it will get taken by something?
Is the something a wight or a white walker? What do they do with the babies -I hope they don't eat them but given the babyslaying last week anything's possible-

Craster marries his daughters (when they are "old enough") and leaves his sons out in the snow. It may be that he believes that nasty things will take them, it may be that he just doesn't want them. It's not made completely explicit. In the books it is described a bit like it is a human sacrifice, but we never really get any indication of whether the "white walkers" actually want babies or whether he has just made up his own superstition.

Aah so he might be leaving them out to die and the white walkers save them?
< naive hopeful>
But aren't they also his granddaughters?

Yep, he shags his daughters and granddaughters and whatever other women he can find.

If the white walkers get them its not to save them, could it be that the children of the forest take them?

The thing is, craster never gets attacked by the whites so I reckon its for the sacrifice sorry to say ...

it was definately an other/wight. he leaves his boys out for them, he has no use for them at all.

God, Craster makes my skin crawl!

They might raise them in a happy kind family based utopia.

I want to know more about these 'Others'. Are they really eeeeviiiiil or misunderstood? If I start reading will I find out more about them or is it something that might be resolved or explained in the unwritten books ATM? I have found a website that does chapter guides for the books and am struggling not to cheat and just read that.

They are sort of zombies, I really would recommend the books though. They are part of a very mystical story arc. Ultimately, out of all the baddies - joffrey, the boltons, balon... The others are by far, the worst imo.

They are sort of zombies, I really would recommend the books though. They are part of a very mystical story arc. Ultimately, out of all the baddies - joffrey, the boltons, balon... The others are by far, the worst imo.

No chance of a happy utopia for babies then twit

Well, this is GRRM I suppose, and stranger things do happen!

Well, this is GRRM I suppose, and stranger things do happen!

Asha/Yara looked nothing like I expected, but she was fantastic all the same. I'm glad they didn't make her too pretty too - not that there's anything wrong with pretty, but it can be a bit tedious in fantasy when all the women have to be extraordinarily beautiful stereotypes, one of the things I love about ASOIAF is that there's such a range of female characters: some beautiful, some ugly, some just ordinary, and how diverse and complex they are.

Speaking of which, when are we going to see Brienne? I can not wait!

We see Renly and Marjory next week, so I assume that we meet Brienne then, I agree wrt the characters being too pretty, or too handsome.

Asha/Yara?

Thinking about it, they probably have made some of the male characters better looking than the books would suggest. Tyrion was supposed to be hideously ugly (even before a certain unfortunate incident) as well as being a 'dwarf', whereas the actor who plays him is short but rather handsome. I can't imagine him any other way now though!

Jorah Mormont is probably too 'hot' as well...er, not that I'm complaining :)

Ive been nosing, and the reason they changed Asha's name was because of Osha.

I agree that the men are better-looking. they've made Jaime manlier, I pictured him as a bit like Legolas from the books, zero sex appeal. I love Jorah, although he isnt hairy enough. and is too fair.

Asha and Osha are never within 300 miles of each other, are they? Seems silly.

I'm not complaining either about the men being made more attractive!

I thought they got Jaime and Jorah pretty much spot on to how I imagined them, but tyrion is more attractive and Jon snow is just lovely.

If we meet Renly then yes we must meet Brienne. I can't remember much about Renly in book two before the bit when he dies and Brienne was there for that but memory rather hazy.

Somethings bugging me,

In th conversation between the man and the crying prostitute he said about a former prossie who wasnt making enough money who he sold to another man.
"he transformed her in ways that would occur to most men, and you know what occurs to most men!"

What did he mean