I honestly can’t remember where I left off since my memory keeps mixing with the show. I almost want to say that I got the the Battle of Blackwater bay but I don’t know for sure. I feel like I read where Tyrion got his nose chopped off, but I could have just read that as something that was different between the show and books. I’ll know for sure where I left off once I start reading that book.
I wish I could remember why I even stopped reading. I think I just didn’t own the second book until a while after I had read the first, and when I started reading it might have been when my living situation got annoying. I wish I had my kindle paperwhite back then.
Book!Robb is so much better than show!Robb. (Besides the smoking hot Richard Madden, ofc, there's a reason I'm a bannerman of Robb Stark Honour Posting in the great War of troutpost Groups currently going on on FB.)
In the books he's just so much less brash. Everything he does he considers carefully and constantly second guesses himself. Something was lost in translation too by how he's portrayed in the show--that is, you don't get to see that Catelyn actually is really smurfing smart, and conniving, and discerning. Motherly love wins out for her in the end, but she really was not a stupid character at all. Making Robb self-assured, stupid, reckless, made his clever moments feel a little less clever.
Also, the plot with Jeyne Westerling is SO much better than Talisa. Especially when it's likely that she was working for the Lannisters and there's possibility she drugged and raped Robb forcing his hand (a theory I've read in a couple places). I don't know. I appreciate the boy who's trying to do the right thing because he did the "wrong thing" (modern commentaries on sexuality aside) than the guy who just lets himself fall in love with this woman he doesn't know because???? reasons even though he knows he has a commitment to keep.
Agreed! Although Some of the artwork of book Robb with his long hair also looks pretty great.
Watching him step up and grow has been really good. Catelyn sets him on the path to being a good leader and he then walks it himself, it's excellent to see. Catelyn is definitely not an idiot and is wise counsel for Robb when he shows that vulnerability and uncertainty. Unlike many of the leaders in the series, he knows when to seek the wisdom of others but also when to challenge their views and have courage in their convictions.
I've just reached the Jeyne Westerling part. Bless her, she's so cute. God damn the hints about what's to come are really right there though. Tywin is so smurfing smug about it. Also wtf so Jeyne (and her hag of a mother) are descended from Maggy the Frog? As in the Valonqar Maggy the Frog? Jesus how had I never noticed that? I wonder if that's going to come into play later on, as she is still alive and I think Jaime meets her in Feast iirc.
I know it's silly to constantly be saying book!character is better than show!character, because that's almost always going to be the case, but I feel like book!Robb and show!Robb are just very different. I know part of that is because they wanted audiences to love him more and see him as a main character handsome savior to make the Red Wedding that much more impactful.
I'm actually curious if I'll get to a point where I prefer a show character to their book character*.
*outside of characters who were greatly expanded on, it's not fair to prefer show Pod, Bronn, Missandei when they're much bigger characters
I know it has already been said in here, but i always forget how young most of the characters are in the books.
I’ve ended up not having a ton of time for reading like I thought I would, so I’ve only really made it to the part where Jon is saying his goodbyes before leaving with Benjen for the Wall. I’m definitely seeing that most of the show characters feel like shadows of the book characters. Basically, everything Jinx has said about characters that I’ve read about so far, I agree with.
Just got to the point in the first book when Yoren rescues Arya.
Just wanna pour one out for ya boy. Baelor is one of the BEST episodes of the entire tv series. Ned seeing Arya, seeing Yoren and yelling "Baelor!" with only the hope he might hear him, might understand him. It's really a beautiful scene, and not at all surprising that GRRM wrote it--and it definitely has hints of the author going back and correcting his working 20 years later. And then Ned looking up moments before his death, hoping to see one last glimpse of his daughter, but she's not there. Is she gone? Was she hurt? Did Yoren find her? Is she safe? He'll never know.
BUT. Book!Yoren finds her without the help of Eddard Stark and saves her anyways, because it's the good and right thing to do. And Benjen is his brother, as much as Eddard Stark ever was, and Arya is his family because of that. You know.
For the record, I think that both mediums get it right, but tv definitely has the edge here. I just want to point out what a bad ass Yoren is.
Patchface is something else, yeah. I am enjoying how many people - House of the Undying, Patchface and the Ghost of High Heart - all straight up predict the Red Wedding but it still remained as a shock to me the first time I read it. Like, okay, this is all just weird creepy meaningless nonsense, whatever, let's move past it. And second time around you can see how it's all right there in front of you.