Super quick reactions - ( Spoilers for the episode )

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( A spoiler from Book 3 )

How is my ASOIAF reread blog like a White Walker? It goes dormant for thousands of years (well, ok, many months!) only to pop up again when you least expect it. (It doesn't, however, horribly murder anyone so that's probably good!)

Anyway, I finally finished my fourth reread of A Game of Thrones, complete with copious notes and I've queued up posts for a long, long time, so hopefully I can get this thing functioning again so we can have a good discussion :D (Or any discussion!) As always, these are just my own opinions of what struck me as interesting in the chapters in question, and everyone is welcome to agree, disagree, call me insane or whatever.)

Also, just a reminder that it's a REREAD blog so I will talk about foreshadowing for things that happen later (just not in A Dance with Dragons because I haven't read that yet :D) And I will probably do some comparing of the first two books with the tv series, but the focus really is on the books.

And with that, my thoughts on the first two chapters, Bran I & Catelyn I.

Happy Memorial Day, fellow US-ians! My recap of "Game of Thrones" Episode 2.09 - Blackwater" is up. This week, Westeros held its own version of the traditional Memorial Day barbecue, with grilled lobster featured prominently on the menu, and Cersei decided to retell "The Lion King" as a treat for little Tommen.

Also, last night, I found out that Amazon has the mp3 version of the season 2 soundtrack available already even though the CD won't be released for a couple of weeks. I really love the music for the show, and season 2 has been even better in that regard. I'm particularly fond of the Ironborn "theme" that plays when ( Spoilers for What is Dead May Never Die ) Also, now I can listen to "The Rains of Castamere" whenever I want to. (And now I will admit that I am ueber nerdy and like to read the books to the soundtrack. I KNOW! SORRY!)

Although I have a feeling next week's episode will probably be a bit of a letdown compared to this one, I do get excited when I see a print description for ( Valar Morghulis )

BOOK SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

ALSO, I watched an audition for Vargo Hoat yesterday (which was AWESOME, by the way) ( Spoilers for A Storm of Swords )
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We had friends visiting this weekend who introduced me to the British version of "Veep", which is called "The Thick of It" and features the terrifying Malcolm Tucker who is HILARIOUS.

No spoilers just ... AMAZING! ( OK, one spoiler ... ) Wish GRRM could write EVERY episode!

My final word (for now) and then I'll shut up - OK, so I feel I have to backtrack a bit on my last two posts (which were more rants than posts) - despite my misgivings about how the TV adaptation of "Game of Thrones" is handling SOME of the characters (who happen to be a couple of my favorites, alas!) I am still liking about 75% of what they've done this season. ( General Season 2 thoughts - spoilers only for aired episodes )

That all just means that "Game of Thrones" is, for me, a very good show, just not the great one it might have been. And perhaps it can still achieve greatness (or have it thrust upon it ... err, sorry!) My wishlist for season 3 is that they work on the pacing a that they trust the characters, their actors and their audience to accept that sometimes good people do bad things and bad people do good things, and not let their love of certain characters (Robb Stark!) make them reduce other main characters to supporting actors.

Anyway, at least they seem to love one aspect of the story as much as I do: ( Spoilers for Episode 2.08 - The Prince of Winterfell )

I was looking for the YouTube link of that scene to send to a friend and my four-year-old - who is attracted to all things on YouTube - watched the two minutes with me (I let him, because, unusually for "Game of Thrones", there's nothing a four-year-old couldn't watch). I figured he'd get bored, but he was really into it and got mad when the scene ended, saying "I want more of those people on the river." Heh! YOU AND ME BOTH, KIDDO!!!

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Also, as I mentioned I started rereading the books (one series that it is REALLY worth having a Kindle for!) and I was struck yet again by how much less of an arrogant jerk Ned Stark is in the book. When he gets to King's Landing, he's summoned into a meeting of the Council immediately and he ASKS the steward for a change of clothes and THANKS HIM instead of being all huffy at the mere idea of changing his clothes and antagonizing people just for the sake of being antagonizing. ( Spoilers? ) IT'S AMAZING!!! And it's one of the reasons I never thought Ned Stark was stupid in the books - he's not as wily as Varys or Littlefinger (who is?) but he is pretty good at keeping his own council. ( More spoilers? )

Aaaah, it's the little things! Suffice it to say that I'm definitely enjoying my (third? fourth?) reread of the book. Also, I'm thinking of reading A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons at the same time, so I can keep the POV structure of the other books (which is how I think Martin intended them to be read.)

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On a totally different note, my son is awesome. ( The Dauphin, being awesome )

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Lastly, I just bought this very low-tech milk frother because I used it at a friend's place (it's basically a pump with mesh in it) and it's SO AWESOME!!! I have to get some decaf coffee because I keep making myself capuccinos and I probably don't need all that caffeine!!

Happy Memorial Day weekend, US friends!! You can all wear white shoes now :D

Or why I should avoid watching the "Inside the Episode" things HBO does for "Game of Thrones." (I've only watched for the last two episodes because I've hoped the showrunners could sort of explain and make me understand what I thought were bad writing decisions or weird out-of-character moments.) So, anyway, I thought I was upset about what they said last week about Jaime ("monster who loves killing") Lannister but that is nothing compared to how annoyed I was by this week's episode.

Apparently, ( Spoilers for The Prince of Winterfell )

AARRRGH! That all made me so cross!! While the showrunners definitely seem to love the books, they apparently love a quite different series than I do! (Also, Jon Snow's lack of a father figure is something I apparently missed while reading as well. Because if there's one thing Jon DOESN'T lack for, it's father figures - Ned, Benjen, Lord Mormont, Qhorin Halfhand ...)

On the plus side, I forgot to mention how much I loved ( Spoilers for episode )

MAJOR BOOK SPOILERS!!!!

( Spoilers for Storm of Swords )

I actually got so mad I started reading the books again, just to confirm to myself that I hadn't imagined the good stuff that was in there. At least the TV series is giving me lots of great faces/voices for the characters, while I can still enjoy the characterizations that made me fall in love with the series in the first place. So I guess I will be reading A Dance with Dragons in July or so, just a year later than everyone else :D

(Um, sorry about the ranting, guys! I just needed to get it off my chest!)

No recap this week because I was sick all day yesterday but I did get to watch at an ungodly hour this morning.

As a general observation, I was hoping that "Game of Thrones" would be the fantasy equivalent of "The Wire" or "Deadwood" since I think the source material is rich in fascinating characters (and lots of suspense) but the show has been a lot more like a fantasy equivalent of "Rome" - brilliant production values and fantastic actors married to less-than-stellar writing. There are occasional scenes of brilliance and occasionally the performances are so great that one can overlook the inconsistencies in characterization or motivation, but a lot of the time, the writing is the weakest part of the show. Last season's invented-for-the-show scenes worked really well (for the most part - except for the Littlefinger monologue, bleah!) but a great deal of the new stuff this season just doesn't work. Where it does ( TV show spoilers ) it's because the ACTORS are so great, not because the writing is.

And even when things are changed in a believable way, the show manages to undercut that somehow.( Spoilers for the TV show )

MAJOR BOOK SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!!! DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU'VE ONLY WATCHED THE SHOW

( Book spoilers )

Sigh! Two more recaps and I'm done :D

Basically the episode title could have been referring to any number of individuals. ( Spoilers for the episode only ) And for those who have complained about changes to your favorite characters, I feel your pain, I really do!

My recap of Game of Thrones 2.06 - "The Old Gods and the New" is up. No ships for Dany! No hats for Jon! No love for Theon! And I would watch the Westerosi version of My Two Dads, starring Arya Stark, Tywin Lannister and Jaquen H'Ghar in a heartbeat!

( My own more random-y opinions! )

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While I was waiting for another installment of "Game of Thrones" I made the mistake of watching Brian de Palma's film of James Ellroy's novel about the notorious Black Dahlia case. ( The Black Dahlia )