vineyarddawg

Man, I'm glad Brandon came clean when he did. If this had gone on another year, he might have accidentally finished the A Song of Ice and Fire series for GRRM. (But glad everything was ok, too!)

Haven't posted in forever, coming back for this. Yeah, Brandon seemed very tired. The video had a very "We need to talk" vibe about it. Really hope Brandon is ok.

To be honest, I've given up on all of the motivations in the show really making complete sense all the time. There is literally no justification for what Littlefinger did to Sansa if he loves her as much as he clearly does in the books. We know he's incredibly well-informed about virtually every major lord and lady in all of the realm, and given his past history, I just don't see how it is plausible that he didn't know how messed up Ramsay would be. So since that's clearly not plausible, there no reasonable answer for why he would put Sansa in that position if he loved her as much as he claimed... even in his creepy "I loved your mother, too, you know" way. I think in the book, his actions will be much more in line with his motivations, but in the show we'll just have to accept that one of the smartest people in Westeros did one of the stupidest and most clueless things imaginable. (Either that, or he doesn't really care about Sansa and just wanted to use her as a pawn the way he used Ros in King's Landing... and that's an even less plausible explanation.) So, going with that reasoning, we've seen throughout the entire series that Littlefinger gets what he wants by using sex as his weapon to manipulate people. As horrible as this is going to sound, he probably intended for Sansa to get "broken in" (but not in a cruel way) by Ramsay, and then he'd swoop in and "rescue" her from him, earning Sansa's respect and love in the process. So he gets the North, and he gets Sansa, too. Yes, that sounds incredibly naive and foolish, but remember, we're suspending disbelief, because it's entirely impossible to believe that Littlefinger didn't know who Ramsay really was in the first place. Just my thoughts on the matter.

I have not seen any pictures that are spoilers on the HBO Go site, but there is a teaser/trailer thing that usually plays now before you watch a show. That's just a teaser, though, and doesn't really spoil anything. Actually, let me revise that: if you haven't watched anything about the series, then there are a lot of pictures that are mild spoilers for season 1 and 2. But you probably won't even realize what you're looking at in those pictures, so it probably won't be a big deal. If you've already seen seasons 1-5, then the pictures inside of the app for season 6 won't be a big deal. And yes, it's pretty easy to navigate to earlier seasons. In fact, the first time you bring up the series, the selector thing starts at season 1, episode 1. (At least, it did for me.)

(Obligatory response is obligatory in a GoT thread.)

... and nothing of value was lost...

Watching that scene in tonight's episode where the White Walkers are created, I couldn't help but think, "See, what ya got there is hemalurgy."

Looking like I won't be able to make it, unfortunately. My wife's having a big surgery on the Monday after the Con, so I'm going to be spending it with her and my son. (And she's not a "Con" kind of gal. )

I live in the area, and I'm really thinking about going. Well, I really want to go, but RL is setting up in such a way that I can't commit to going just yet. Also of note (but not Sanderson-related) is that one of the presenters this year, Gilbert Head, is a guy I've known most of my adult life. We're not besties or anything, but he's a good guy who knows his stuff. Gil will be talking about Fantasy and SciFi at the Hargrett Rare Books and Manuscripts collection at the University of Georgia, and he's just about the world's foremost expert on that kind of thing.

So you're asking how one discovers the Name of the Wind? I think there's a book for that. Oh, wait, wrong universe...

If Brandon (or GRRM) were feeling particularly cheeky during an interview, I'd love it if they turned the question around and asked the interviewer, "Well, if you die before this interview is finished, who would you like to finish your article after you're dead?"

Excellent work, sheep! Though I confess that I'd have been a little more moved if Lady Shallan had said something like, "Well, now tha' ya found me out, I'm a haf' ta take yer boots fer safekeepin'. Ya know, t'make sure ya don't spread my secret around."

I just saw this for the first time today. This is the greatest post the 17th Shard has ever seen (not including posts by Brandon and Peter).

Wow, so Brandon wasn't kidding, his rough drafts really are "very rough."

I smell an addition to the "Ultimate List of Questions for Brandon" coming...