The Iron Born are talented sailors!
Just watched this week’s episode this morning.
That was DEVASTATING. I cried. Poor Hodor.
I am enjoying the series. I liked Dany coming out of the fire. But read that George R. R. Martin did not perceive Dany to have this superpower more than once.
I think the series and the story written by Martin is diverging. It kind of bothers me. Martin is the creator. Others completing the story seems wrong. And let’s be real. Once you have seen the story to its completion on HBO, most will not read the books when /if they come out.
I, personally believe that Martin is bored or out of ideas to complete the story. HBO is doing that for him and paying him well. He is working on other books.
Sorry to see Hodor die. Made me mad at Bran. And there are what, two direwolves left? And Sansa is finally becoming a strong character rather than a weak, victimized one.
I can’t stand that little bit they show after the episode is over with D & D talking about it, as if it were all their ideas. Ugh.
I will happily read the books if Martin ever writes them. He is just very slow and has been since the beginning. I think the main bones of the story will be the same, but it will be a happy pleasure to read about small divergences like Ser Barristan Selmy still alive and returning to Westeros with Dany. Or so I imagine…
I am most concerned about what Martin is going to do with the Jon Hardinson subplot
GRRM knew what HBO was originally planning on a 7-year series, and that their schedules are fixed. If GRRM wanted to be the one controlling the story, he should have completed the books before the series covered the same material.
I hear that HBO might be looking at an 8th season now. If they do 8 seasons and 10 episodes a season, they have 25 remaining episodes to complete the stories of Dany, Jon, Sansa, Arya, Tyrion, Cersei, Jamie, etc. And along the way the battles of Winterfell, Westeros, and the white walkers all have to be finished as well. Liberties will be taken.
@Consolation - I hope the Jon/Griff storyline goes away as quickly as possible. Talk about stirring up the pot at then end!
I continue to have some hope that we will end up with the two actually good people, Dany and Jon, ruling together.
But I should have abandoned that hope when GRRM killed Ned Stark. B-)
And there is the fact that they are related…she is presumably his aunt?
Re: Ned Stark – It’s a story with kids in it. The parents have to die so that the kids are forced to make their own way in the world. (Ref: see Harry Potter and Bambi.)
Since the Ironborn section seems to have diverged significantly from the books, I’m wondering where Theon and Yara/Asha will take all those ships they managed to steal. Will they go visit Dany? There’s no Dragon Horn in the show it seems, but Dany does need ships. Also wondering how long it will take show-time for Euron to build more ships? Ships take a long time to build, and the Iron Islands seem pretty deforested.
I’ve read that they are planning on 13 more episodes after this season to be split between season’s 7 and 8.
Hodor 
I’ve read all the books and look forward to the next, but the divergence of the stories between them and the show doesn’t bother me. It didn’t/doesn’t bother me for Outlander or True Blood or the White Queen either, they’re just different.
I actually think it’s possible that Martin will nudge the books in the direction of the TV show and that their story will be the canon - not the books.
I’ll probably read the new books if and when they come out. I’ve read all the others. But if the new books are very different from the series, it will probably be hard for me to remember what happened where. IOW, did this happen in the book or the series? This will become more of an issue as years go by. I finished reading the books a year or two ago. They are very long books. I do want to go back and reread them all. ( Although my heart surgeon cousin did just that after he retired. More time to do it.)
I had a good chat with an electrician who came over who is a GoT fan and rereads the books often. He reminded me that there is one Jaime chapter in the last book, and at the end of it he runs into Brienne. She tells him something about Sansa and Jaime goes off with her. It seems she must be with the band of brothers and she’s just lured Jaime into a trap. I didn’t remember any of that!
There will be lots to rediscover when reading the books again.
I’m actually not that impressed with either of them, although I like the way that the story has allowed us to see their growth as people and potential leaders. (Well, they’ve both been actual leaders, but in both cases, it hasn’t gone particularly well.)
I don’t think either Dany or Jon can rule Westeros. Dany has an undisputable claim on the throne, but she can’t have any more children. Any stability her reign could create would end with her death. And even though we the audience are likely to find out at the end of this season that Jon has a claim, would Westeros accept it? All they would have is Howland Reed’s word or Bran’s.
Tyrion had better turn out to be a Targaryen.
By Targaryen standards, that makes them practically strangers. And they can’t have children anyway. But also by Targaryen custom, a man can have more than one wife. That’s a possible solution. Dany has the undisputed claim to the throne, Jon and Dany marry, and then Jon takes a second wife while still married to Dany. Would the children of his second wife be accepted as having a legitimate claim to rule after Dany and Jon?
It started out as being loosely based on the War of the Roses. York/Stark vs. Lancaster/Lannister. That ended finally with with a Lancaster affiliate marrying the eldest York daughter and founding the house of Tudor. So Sansa and somebody???
I don’t think it will be that literate though and I bet there will be some magical thing that makes Dany fertile again.
Aren’t Sansa and Tyrion already married – or formerly married or something?
Yes, that should be an interesting knot to untie. IF they untie it.
Seriously, with Sansa’s experience being engaged to Joffrey, sort of engaged to Loras/Willas Tyrell, married to Tyrion and then married to Ramsay, she should stay angrily single and rule as Queen of the North.
They never consummated their marriage did they?
That’s true.
“I don’t think either Dany or Jon can rule Westeros. Dany has an undisputable claim on the throne, but she can’t have any more children.”
@Marian I haven’t seen or read any proof that she can’t have more children. She has said, " These (the dragons) will be the only children I will ever have," but that doesnt mean she can’t have more children. What am I missing?