Game of Thrones Thread

Commenters keep mentioning this, so okay, here's a thread.

A warning to anyone who hasn't watched the show yet: The reason people are mentioning this is because of a Major Spoiler Event.

So keep away, Spoiler-Avoiders.

I'll put up another post just above this one so that this isn't the only new thread.

George R. R. Martin wrote the script for this episode, and discusses why things happened as they did.

We all know how we wanted it to happen -- either by Arya's sword Needle, or perhaps even Sansa finally snapping and stabbing him to death with a dagger.

Instead, Martin deliberately avoided any satisfying death, because, of course, he hates his audience.

Well, because he hates his audience, and tries to avoid easy, you-knew-this-was-coming-and-wanted-it-to-come fan service.

Instead it's just another political murder, perpetrated by Who-knows-who, for who-knows-what-reason. It's smart to remind the audience that while they, as readers, have an agenda -- they'd like to see Vengeance -- other characters in the world don't give a crap about what happened to the Starks, but murder for their own convenience and ambitions.

He explains the historical inspiration for this latest murder:

I don’t know how it comes across in the show, because I haven’t actually seen it yet, but the poison that is used... is one that I introduce earlier in the books and its symptoms are similar to choking....

I think the intent of the murderer is not to have this become another Red Wedding—the Red Wedding was very clearly murder and butchery. I think the idea with [Redacted's] death was to make it look like an accident — someone’s out celebrating, they haven’t invented the Heimlich maneuver, so when someone gets food caught in his throat, it’s very serious.

I based it a little on the death of Eustace, the son of King Stephen of England. Stephen had usurped the crown from his cousin, the empress Maude, and they fought a long civil war and the anarchy and the war would be passed down to second generation, because Maude had a son and Henry and Stephen had a son. But Eustace choked to death at a feast. People are still debating a thousand of years later: Did he choke to death or was he poisoned? Because by removing Eustace, it brought about a peace that ended the English civil war. Eustace’s death was accepted [as accidental], and I think that’s what the murderers here were hoping for...

posted by Ace at 02:57 PM

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