Very late to the party should I read the books or watch the series

To me the best possible ending would be little finger sitting on the throne and from all the chaos and the destruction of all the royal families he has done I would love for the ICE king to kill him on the iron throne and take over Westeros (I think this is a very dark ending but would be cool to see)

What kinda ending would you have preferred?

Basing ourselves in the show. The time is season 6 ep 10, daenerys is on her way to westeros with her huge army made of immaculates and dothrakis, with 3 dragons and a hand (tyrion) and advisers (missandei & varys) to conquer the iron throne. If at that specific moment you had the power to swap daenerys (so the common not so great ending of s8 does not happen) with any targaryen who as ever lived, Who would you pick and why ?

After finishing the series, I started to read the books to give me a better understanding of the whole series.

This quote in the book ACOK - ‘The man who kills his own blood is cursed forever in the sight of Gods and Men.

So is Tyrion cursed or stupid after he killed his father

Would there still be a war?

Just came here to say if you’re hesitant to read the books, just do it! I’m enjoying them so much. I’m only halfway through GoT, and tbh I haven’t watched the first seasons in years. But I’m loving the book. I know the series isn’t done, but I’m looking forward to getting a deep dive in to the characters and the history of the realm!

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Throughout the events leading up to and during the war, the Starks made decisions driven without any knowledge or experience, but instead simply out of confidence in their own abilities.

• When Jon Arryn is murdered and someone tries to kill Bran, the Starks head straight into Lannister territory, bringing two of their children along, convinced they can uncover the truth and win the king and kingdom to their side, despite seemingly very rarely ever leaving winterfell before the events of AGOT.
• Ned, Catelyn, and Sansa repeatedly make naïve assumptions about people, thinking they know them well enough to predict what they’ll do. Ned assumes Robert is the same man he used to know, Catelyn trusts Littlefinger and her sister Lysa to be loyal allies, and Sansa believes she can always count on the Lannisters because of her feelings for Joffrey. This constantly occurs, and it leads to several of the major problems the Starks get into.
• Catelyn captures Tyrion and, with barely any protection, drags him through dangerous territory to take him to Lysa, without knowing how her sister will react.
• When Ned discovers the truth about Cersei’s children, he doesn’t take a second to think what his next actions will lead to, he instead just tells Cersei he knows everything, basically forcing her to kill Robert.
• After Robert dies, Ned accepts the role of regent, turns down Renly’s offer of support, and counts on Littlefinger to get him an army, just because Littlefinger had a crush on Catelyn when they were young.
• Robb breaks his marriage vows, and Catelyn releases Jaime Lannister, both acting on impulse and gut feelings rather than logic.

There are countless smaller actions like the idea of questioning a royal armorer about a specific dagger without expecting anyone to find out, but i wont waste any more of your time. Blaming the fall of House Stark on any single person misses the bigger picture: every Stark acts impulsively, driven by assumptions rather than any kind of calculated plan. So blaming it on any one Stark is a waste of energy.

The Stark story is amazing because it reverts our expectations of main characters in fantasy, to always be right in their hubris. Instead they get punished each time they act like the gods are watching them with favoring eyes.

edit: tried to fix the image.

No hate to the actor but I was watching an interview of him addressing internet comments and one of them brought it up and honestly it was a good point.

Rewatching late season scenes of Samwell and pondering about what the in - lore reason could be because they do bring up the fact that he’s still pretty much the same with Randall commenting on my main man still being big boy after returning from the wall.

Pre night watch Samwell lived a comfortable life in a rich noble house but then goes through a complete change in lifestyle. He was at the Wall for quite a while, arguably the harshest environment and conditions in all of Westeros, should’ve had same rations as everyone else and did drills and whatever among stuff like adventuring beyond the wall. Most importantly however, he’s under extreme stress from the threat of the walkers and wildlings throughout the series, literally trying to fight for his life numerous times, scared for Ginny and his friends etc, surely this would at least affect his physique?

What was bro’s bulking plan at the Wall?

Edit: people are bringing up his role at the Wall was a steward which is a good point but whenever he wasn’t stewarding, he was hauling ass killing white walkers and stuff.

I’ve settled on a combination of raiding the maester’s share of the food as his steward, some weird thyroid issues going on and also him hiding some newly developed nasty Eddie Hall muscles underneath lol after reading the responses

Btw not sure why some people are getting so combative because I don’t think I worded the post in a way that makes this seem like a major issue. I’ve implied I’m completely aware the real reason is because it’s just a TV show, but the show does explicitly point out Sam’s lack of change meaning characters are aware of it so I just thought it’s something interesting to try come up with a lore reason for.

I’ve been thinking of reading the books are they worth it since George hasn’t even finished all of them yet and most likely never will

Do you read them in release order or is there a chronological order

\"We also got together with Maisie Williams for pizza and pasta, and talked about... Well, no, better not get into that\"

Robb marrying Talisa had nothing to do with Robb getting killed at the Red Wedding. He was a dead man regardless And I can explain why.

Now we can safely say that 1 of 2 things happened. Either 1 Tywin got to Frey before he made the pact with Rob and everything Frey did afterwards was all part of a trap or 2 Tywin got to Frey after the pact with Rob and Frey made a choice to betray Rob given all the land and titles Tywin promised him. Right we can all agree that 1 out of those 2 things that could've happened i mean what other option can there be

Now if its 1 Tywin got to Frey beforehand and it was all part of a trap obviously Robb marrying the Frey girl would've never changed anything anyway right

Now if its 2 the same outcome happens Robb marries the Frey girl Tywin gets word to Frey and offers Frey all that land and those titles and turns on Robb anyway.

So if you really think about it Robb was doomed and marrying the Frey girl doesn't change his fate

We’ve heard Warner Bros. wants a GoT movie, and then GRRM drops hints about discussions with Maisie… if we get an Arya movie, what’s should it be called?

One thing ive been wondering about is the kiss scene with Sansa and Petyr Baelish, i believe sansa was a teen in season 4, while baelish was in his thirties, thats already creepy as hell of baelish to kiss a teenage girl while he is a grown ass man, but second of all, Sansas actor helself looks young, like hella young, season 4 was recorded in 2013 (based off google) and sansas actor was 17, and Petyr's actor was 45, tf? maybe i calculated wrong but it still feels weird to me, even in a professional setting

Long time fan of the show. Loved it. Held off reading the books due to the series not being complete. Since GRRM probably won't be finishing then, figured I read them anyways. Anyone I should really pay attention to? Like huge differences from the show that are subtle yet so good they shouldn't be overlooked or undervalued?

Been maybe 6 months since I’ve seen any got/hotd shows and I have to say, i just miss them all

Catelyn killed House Stark. Prove me wrong. She undermined Robb, undersold Roslyn Frey, provoked Jaime into injuring Ned by kidnapping Tyrion, then freed Jaime Lannister causing the Karstarks to rebel. At every stage she acted irrationally and made panicked decisions that led to the downfall of House Stark.

...& assuming that he's not simply gay (in regards to my second sentence in the header)

I just finished season 5 and it was very obvious.

The plot armour for the characters were very noticeable, as well as the "just in time" moments, those were not nearly as prevelant in the early seasons.

Also so much of character asks question and then the reply is not an answer but a long story.

This stuff is super common but not for game of thrones

Still a good season though, but very noticeable. Kind of takes away the "anything can happen" lessons learnt from the first few seasons. A lot of plot holes or stuff that don't really add up in the grand scheme of things.

I’ve only watched the show once and I binged my way through it very recently. I have not read any of the books, and tbh I’m scared to because I’m dying for the satisfying ending just fear none of us are going to get.

My take on Catelyn: she’s a lioness mother who would die for her kids. I mean, she literally does die for her kids. However, schemes by Littlefinger and Varys aside… Catelyn and Ned had an agreement. She left King’s Landing to return to Winterfell and rally/maintain allies, meanwhile Ned was going to stay in KL and gather more intel on the patronage of Cersei’s children and logically/low-key/politically find a way to block their inheritance of the throne. Of course, Ned didn’t know that Robert was going to die. And I understand not wanting to fill Robert with angst on his deathbed, but I feel like Ned should have told him prior to his death. Robert knew Ned, and I feel like he trusted him enough to know that Ned wouldn’t make that shit up just to take power. Ned didn’t even want to leave Winterfell to be the Hand, but he did it because Robert was his friend and Robert was in need.

All that aside, Cat and Ned spoke and planned for Cateltn to lay low and return to her post at Winterfell to watch over Bran, Robb, and Rickon while Ned stayed in King’s Landing and gathered more info on the sly. They also agreed to put aside their knowledge that the Lannister’s were responsible for crippling Bran because they couldn’t prove it. But Catelyn let her emotions get the best of her and she captured Tyrion instead of creating some excuse when he called her out and keeping her head down. After Tyrion gets kidnapped, Cat never makes it back to Winterfell, Jamie throws a temper tantrum and attacks Ned, Ned ends up in the dungeon to pay for what his wife has done (even though he told her not to do jack shit!!!!!!), and ultimately admits his ‘treason’ to spare Sansa of witnessing his execution, and Joffrey, being the spoiled teenage cunt that he is, kills him anyway.

Obvi, once Ned is dead Robb retaliates. And I love that Robb is low-key fighting for Stannis because that’s who his father supported, but then once people start calling him “King in the North” he just rolls with it, creating an enemy out of Stannis.

Obviously things get more complicated from there, and I do want to watch again, but from my first take of the show (no books read) — I’m convinced things would’ve been more peaceful (aka a lot less bloodshed) if Catelyn just stuck to the plan that Ned and her agreed on, didn’t let her emotions (which were understandably high) get the best of her, and end up losing in her hostage situation which ultimately lead to Ned defending her, which “proved” treason and aggression towards the Lannisters, which ultimately got him killed.

I’ve heard people argue that Ned getting sent to the Wall wouldn’t have been a good move because he would’ve left or been able to escape to his Northern allies and I think that’s absolute bullshit. Are we all forgetting the first few scenes of the show where a Night’s Watchmen turns up at Winterfell absolutely traumatized after his squad gets merked by the White Walker General, and Ned kills him himself simply for abandoning his post??? Do we really think that if Ned was sent to the wall he would be like, “haha, yall thought!!!” Even though his entire personality is based on honor?

I have so many things to say. Let’s chat.

Extra: I had my partner read this post who watched it along with me (for him it was his second time), and he brought up an interesting point that I think is relevant. He points to the fact that Catelyn’s complete trust in Ned was pretty much shattered by Jon being Ned’s bastard. She later talks about this and admits that this is something she was never able to get over. He said that her damaged trust in Ned played a big role in her taking things into her own hands, and I do respect that as true. I don’t think that Catelyn is evil and I do respect her reasons for doing what she did, but at the end of the day she was no novice to the politics of this era and she definitely understood the gravity of the situation they were in and the consequences of the actions that she followed through with. I.E: her face when Tyrion won the trial by combat in the Vale.