A Game of Thrones - TV Show Discussion Thread

[rah]

I don't know. I was watching with my daughter (who has never read the books) and just from previous scenes she knew it was Stannis to the rescue before they showed him. Which made me wonder why they did the Obscure the hero bit to build up suspense. It was pretty obvious already.

And she commented that he's the only one of those striving for the crown to actually act like a king. So I don't think this took anything away from his status.

Yes, it was cool that they showed it from the air, but even what we saw wouldn't have stood up to 100 k warriors. IMHO.

[Guynemer]

Well, that's the thing. It isn't actually 100K warriors. It is 100K people--including kids, moms, elderly, etc. Not that the show has made that distinction.

[rah]

In those sky shots (i'll probably watch it again) makes it only look like Stannis had a few thousand troops. Even if only 25% of the 100k were troops that's still a lot to overcome in the short time that they made it look like. Yes, I know they're are budgets involved.

[regexcellent]

Stannis only had 4,000 troops, but they were largely armored knights and men at arms and of course they're led by Stannis.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Stannis, the master tactician, seems to have brought columns of cavalry to fight in forests as well as on permafrost where the horses can't graze. Though, I guess if you go through the books it's fair to say logistics aren't his strong suit anyway...

[rah]

I guess that was my point. 4 thousand horseman could not defeat 25K fighters in the woods. (assuming 1/4 of the 100k were warriors.)

[Felch]

The books make it clearer that the wildlings are more of a mob of refugees than an army. Their weapons are mostly wood and stone or old rusty bits of metal, they're starving, and they have nothing that resembles formal training. A well fed and trained force of knights crushes them as easily as ISIS routs the Iraqi army today.

[rah]

Calvary usually does horrible in heavy forest. Their main advantage is running people down. In the forest Calvary can't maintain speed and people can hide behind trees to avoid being run down and pick riders off as they pass. It doesn't take much discipline for that. (fear will be enough) But yes, the book did highlight the mob part but that great of a numbers advantage should have been sufficient in the woods that minimize the advantages that Calvary usually has.

[Lorizael]

The books make it clearer that the wildlings are more of a mob of refugees than an army. Their weapons are mostly wood and stone or old rusty bits of metal, they're starving, and they have nothing that resembles formal training. A well fed and trained force of knights crushes them as easily as ISIS routs the Iraqi army today.

In the finale, you can totally see the look on Mance's face when Stannis shows up. "Oh, a real army."

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

I think we lost some of the best characters there.

[rah]

You never know. Until you actually see them die, they're not necessarily dead. i.e. the mountain.
We don't see the hound actually die.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

It's probably safe to assume Charles Dance won't be back, which is a shame. He does play complete bastards so very well.

And top marks to the fight choreographers for the big Hound/She-Hulk *****slap. That was a proper brutal one.

[rah]

Yes, that fight was quite brutal.

[Dinner]

It was also a scene which wasn't in the books so the tv show writers had a free hand in coming up with the scene.

[regexcellent]

The books make it clearer that the wildlings are more of a mob of refugees than an army. Their weapons are mostly wood and stone or old rusty bits of metal, they're starving, and they have nothing that resembles formal training. A well fed and trained force of knights crushes them as easily as ISIS routs the Iraqi army today.

Yeah the book mentions heavy cavalry with lances on barded horses going up against men with sharpened wooden sticks.