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Just wanted to talk about Daenerys arc for next season. Mainly because hers has been very different for the last two seasons. HBO has been very liberal in the amount of changes that they have made with the content, theme and focus of her arc. They get the broad macro events right ie frees unsullied, takes Yunkai; but everything else has been totally different. Anyway, predictions..

Might add some for other characters later on

* I think the actual climax of Danys arc will be her chaining her dragons and Drogons escape. This makes sense to me for a number of reasons. HBO say they only want to do 7-8 seasons. There is a lot of AFFC and ADWD material and will cut a lot of it there has to be some give. There are also only two chapters from Storm of Swords left to adapt, whilst other characters like Tyrion aren't even halfway and believe me Danys season 3 was very trimmed down. So the implication is that they want to get as much space as possible. Plus, her deciding to stay in Meereen just isn't dramatic enough to make a satisfying ending. Losing Drogon and chaining her dragons would be a huge cliffhanger. The series also has a habit of ending on big things to do with her dragons.

* Jorah being exiled is probably going to be less of a big deal than it is in the books and certainly not the climax of the show. Losing Drogon would definitely be more satisfying. Plus the show doesn't seem to be aiming for this anyway. Jorah had a very marginalized role in season 3 and in fact they actually gave him some of Barristans dialogue (to the detriment of both characters BTW). If you read Storm of Swords he is hugely prominent in Daenerys arc. Straight off the first chapter he kisses her and professes his love for her. Something which obviously does not happen in the show. This pisses her off and they have an ongoing conflict over this as Jorahs flaws come to the fore. His jealousy and his unwanted desire for Daenerys; all this brings Danys ire. Characters like Barristan and Daario all serve to illustrate this. Both of them cause problems between him and Dany and his suggestion to use the Unsullied causes thunderous arguments between them. This is all a build up to when Jorah is exiled. Its relevant because it stems from the problem that Jorah does not truly see Dany as his Queen and therefore thought it was okay to spy on her before he fell in love with her. None of this was in season 3. Logically, they are making less of a deal of this than GRRM does. Instead, the show introduced Daario as a major character with pretty much all the second half of Danys arc devoted to him and selling him to the audience as a badass. So Jorah being exiled isn't going to be a big deal for the show in season 4. It will happen, but be very brief, happen quite early and not as dramatic or heart rending an event for Daenerys (they seem to want to portray her as much more strong willed than that). The fact is that they have not set this up and basically cut all of Jorahs material from season 3.

* In addition to the above. It will be hard to sell another slave city being taken. It is very similar to what Dany did before. Seeing Dany as Queen would probably make more sense and things like children being eaten. Also, some characters like Barristan need to start fulfilling their roles. A confrontation over

* Frankly the show wants Emilia Clarke naked. They spent four episodes belaboring about Daario and all but had a giant arrow with main character pointing down at him. So one of the things that they might do is have their relationship be the central focus, her getting over Khal Drogo and swooning over him being badass as he beats the slavers for her; with her having sex again being a big deal. Then in the court of Meereen there will be the introduction of Hidzhar and the turmoil that creates (as per Dance with Dragons) between her and her lover. Even though they did change the actor, I think the amount of time dedicated to Daario in season 3 very clearly demonstrates what they want from next season with Daenerys.


Also, I think we might see Tyrion get told by Illyrio about Dany or Varys telling him instead to go for "Fire and Blood". The show likes to hint at where we are going; although killing Tywin is a big shock ender.

TBH I am definetly looking forward to this season for Jon, Tyrion and the whole Kings Landing arc with Tyrion. This very well could be the best season if they can pull off the pacing.

Just start a GoT thread mate, and keep it all there. You must have started 4 or 5 by now, as separate threads. Why not just start the dakkadakka GoT thread and put it all where it belongs?

Let us not forget Mr. Snow getting his upgrade position.

But I hope in the next books they finish that arc off. Because Dany's arc is quite boring. I for one believe gendry will become king.

Yeah Jons the main character next season. Goes without saying. I am not sure if they are going to merge the Battle of the Wall with the attack on Castle Black and the death of Ygritte. IMO I would prefer for more to happen early in the series and be spread out. I don't want them to delay Ygrittes death and Tormunds attack (which I expected last season). Particularly since they're talking about adding the Magnar of Thenn and he may be joining them with extra troops. As I said before, pacing is going to be hugely important. I don't want what we had last season with a lot of episodes having not a lot happen.

The same goes for delaying the Purple Wedding so that they can introduce the Red Viper and have him interact with all of the cast.

IMO they need to be surging forward into the AFFC and ADWD material. I don't want them to drag out the second part of Storm of Swords. Some characters like Dany that simply isn't going to work without inventing a lot of material or re-purposing cut material from part 1 of Storm. Neither would be good.

 Totalwar1402 wrote:
Yeah Jons the main character next season. Goes without saying. I am not sure if they are going to merge the Battle of the Wall with the attack on Castle Black and the death of Ygritte. IMO I would prefer for more to happen early in the series and be spread out. I don't want them to delay Ygrittes death and Tormunds attack (which I expected last season). Particularly since they're talking about adding the Magnar of Thenn and he may be joining them with extra troops. As I said before, pacing is going to be hugely important. I don't want what we had last season with a lot of episodes having not a lot happen.

The death of Ygritte should be early to mid season 5 so we can have Snow dead by the end of season 5

 Hlaine Larkin mk2 wrote:

 Totalwar1402 wrote:
Yeah Jons the main character next season. Goes without saying. I am not sure if they are going to merge the Battle of the Wall with the attack on Castle Black and the death of Ygritte. IMO I would prefer for more to happen early in the series and be spread out. I don't want them to delay Ygrittes death and Tormunds attack (which I expected last season). Particularly since they're talking about adding the Magnar of Thenn and he may be joining them with extra troops. As I said before, pacing is going to be hugely important. I don't want what we had last season with a lot of episodes having not a lot happen.

The death of Ygritte should be early to mid season 5 so we can have Snow dead by the end of season 5

I don't think they will skip his spell as Lord Commander in season 5 entirely. It will certainly have a lot cut to reflect the fact that its unnecessarily long and they will definitely not leave that as a cliffhanger in the same why GRRM does. Its more likely to resemble what happens to Ned Stark with the creeping dread with his "death" as one of the cliffhangers of an episode; but not the entire season. We will definetly see the fallout of his death and his inevitable resurrection. For all we know, the Battle of Winterfell could end up involving a reincarnated Jon and they will not even contemplate skipping either of the big battles in the same way that GRRM did. Each series has tended to have a big climax and we saw with the Battle of the First Men that they tend to skip introductory fights. Because they cannot skip either of those battles if they involve big character deaths then at least one of them will have to be the finale of season 5. IMO it will without question be the Battle of Mereen. You have a battle involving Tyrion, crazy Ironborn, dragons, Barristan, the unsullied and possibly Dany showing up with a massive dothraki horde and Drogon. Plus with them doing the Battle of the Wall in season 4 it would be repetitive to focus on Stannis Bs efforts. There are some very strong and fan favourite characters in Meereen with the chance for a dragon battle. Obviously going to be one of the big battles. I mean GRRM has done more preview chapters for this fight than were in the Blackwater; to put it into perspective. It is on that scale.

You're not getting seasons 4 and 5 mixed up are you?

 Hlaine Larkin mk2 wrote:

 Totalwar1402 wrote:
Yeah Jons the main character next season. Goes without saying. I am not sure if they are going to merge the Battle of the Wall with the attack on Castle Black and the death of Ygritte. IMO I would prefer for more to happen early in the series and be spread out. I don't want them to delay Ygrittes death and Tormunds attack (which I expected last season). Particularly since they're talking about adding the Magnar of Thenn and he may be joining them with extra troops. As I said before, pacing is going to be hugely important. I don't want what we had last season with a lot of episodes having not a lot happen.

The death of Ygritte should be early to mid season 5 so we can have Snow dead by the end of season 5

Wouldn't Snow be "dead" in season 6 or 7?

HBO is currently in contract with GRRM for 7 seasons.

3 and 4 are suppose to cover book 3 while season 5, 6 and 7 are suppose to cover will cover books 4 and 5.

That was HBO's plan about a year ago.

Has it changed?

I hope to see more air time for Boltons and Greyjoys, though I know that will not happen.

Bit disappointed how they made Roose and Ramsay look as well as screwing up what could have been a great showing with Roose and his cup bearer (Arya).

 Totalwar1402 wrote:
Yeah Jons the main character next season. Goes without saying. I am not sure if they are going to merge the Battle of the Wall with the attack on Castle Black and the death of Ygritte. IMO I would prefer for more to happen early in the series and be spread out. I don't want them to delay Ygrittes death and Tormunds attack (which I expected last season). Particularly since they're talking about adding the Magnar of Thenn and he may be joining them with extra troops. As I said before, pacing is going to be hugely important. I don't want what we had last season with a lot of episodes having not a lot happen.

The same goes for delaying the Purple Wedding so that they can introduce the Red Viper and have him interact with all of the cast.

IMO they need to be surging forward into the AFFC and ADWD material. I don't want them to drag out the second part of Storm of Swords. Some characters like Dany that simply isn't going to work without inventing a lot of material or re-purposing cut material from part 1 of Storm. Neither would be good.

Good because the purple wedding is my favorite part of the book.

I'd like to see everyone die, because at this point I'm tired of the lot of 'em, but I'd settle for them rushing through the whole Jon becomes watch master etc - I'm getting premonitions of it all going very slowly though...

 Piston Honda wrote:

 Hlaine Larkin mk2 wrote:

 Totalwar1402 wrote:
Yeah Jons the main character next season. Goes without saying. I am not sure if they are going to merge the Battle of the Wall with the attack on Castle Black and the death of Ygritte. IMO I would prefer for more to happen early in the series and be spread out. I don't want them to delay Ygrittes death and Tormunds attack (which I expected last season). Particularly since they're talking about adding the Magnar of Thenn and he may be joining them with extra troops. As I said before, pacing is going to be hugely important. I don't want what we had last season with a lot of episodes having not a lot happen.

The death of Ygritte should be early to mid season 5 so we can have Snow dead by the end of season 5

Wouldn't Snow be "dead" in season 6 or 7?

HBO is currently in contract with GRRM for 7 seasons.

3 and 4 are suppose to cover book 3 while season 5, 6 and 7 are suppose to cover will cover books 4 and 5.

That was HBO's plan about a year ago.

Has it changed?

I hope to see more air time for Boltons and Greyjoys, though I know that will not happen.

Bit disappointed how they made Roose and Ramsay look as well as screwing up what could have been a great showing with Roose and his cup bearer (Arya).

Season 4 & 5 will likely cover the rest of ASoS and the bulk of the key points of books 4 & 5, leaving seasons 6 - 7 (possibly 8 is rumored) for the final 2 novels.
Note that GRR has basically laid out to Dan & Dave how the rest of the series is to play out, so even if the books fall behind filming pace, the show will go ahead full steam as intended.

As for season 4, here's my prediction;
Episode 2 is heavily rumored to be the Purple Wedding and Jeoffry's big choke!

Episode 4 or 5: the attack on Castle Black by Ygrittes little band and end with her death.

Episode 8: Tyrion's trial by combat, Jorah leading the attack on Mereen through the sewers. (yes, they'll drag it out, because Tyrion's story necessitates it, and D&D will not risk losing Iain Glen by effectively having him out of the picture for pretty much and entire year's worth of episodes!)

Episode 9 for the Battle at the Wall & Tywin Lannister gakking 'not gold'
Considering that the 9th episode is always the season's super shocker, and how up to this point even in the books Tywin has been this 'untouchable' near god-like menace, his offing is going to be a massive shock for the non-book readers!
Plus it's a nice little bit of mirroring last season's Red Wedding which killed off the bulk of the Stark power, and now turning the tables with the main Lannister threat being bumped off.

Episode 10 thanks to the (almost certain) additional 12-15 minutes of air time can be used to do the whole Jon becoming Lord Commander, Varys & Illyrio sending Tyrion on his way to Dany, Arya making her way to the temple in Bravos to begin her training, Brienne & Pod getting captured by the remnants of the Brotherhood...
...end scene being the reveal of Lady Stoneheart!!!

I don't think Iain Glen is as important as Theons actor is to the show where they made a story to keep him in the story. He had very little to do in season 3 and there's no real justification to do more scenes explaining how Jorah gets to Volantis. They could explain how he becomes a drunken wreck after being exiled; but who'd want to see that. So I could see him being knocked out of the series early. I don't think they'll drag Danys arc out. We're talking two chapters here.

Plus, the bulk of Tyrions story takes place before he meets Jorah in ADWD. Most of which is dedicated to interaction with Illyrio, introducing Aegon, Jon Connington and whole undead thing on the river. So its not really necessary to postpone Jorahs exile so that he isn't gone while we wait for Tyrion. Hes a minor character who can be absent late season 4 and early season 5 pretty easily.

I say...
Gendry Becomes King.

Dany Dies from a first degree burn.

Jon Becomes Lord of Winterfel

Arya kills all the lannisters.

Joffery Dies from a poison from some weird amulet.

 Asherian Command wrote:
I say...
Gendry Becomes King.

Dany Dies from a first degree burn.

Jon Becomes Lord of Winterfel

Arya kills all the lannisters.

Joffery Dies from a poison from some weird amulet.

Dany is the God Empress of humanity; she cannot die or be defeated.

While we're at it - Jorah marries Cersei. She does like men who are "black bearded and fierce" and do what she tells them. Plus Jorah has an aweful habit of falling for the wrong woman as shown by lynesse and Dany; all women with gold and silver hair like a certain psycho queen whos conspicuously single.

 Totalwar1402 wrote:

 Asherian Command wrote:
I say...
Gendry Becomes King.

Dany Dies from a first degree burn.

Jon Becomes Lord of Winterfel

Arya kills all the lannisters.

Joffery Dies from a poison from some weird amulet.

Dany is the God Empress of humanity; she cannot die or be defeated.

While we're at it - Jorah marries Cersei. She does like men who are "black bearded and fierce" and do what she tells them. Plus Jorah has an aweful habit of falling for the wrong woman as shown by lynesse and Dany; all women with gold and silver hair like a certain psycho queen whos conspicuously single.

I could see that. But not dany. I don't like dany. Something just strikes me wrong about her.

 Asherian Command wrote:

 Totalwar1402 wrote:

 Asherian Command wrote:
I say...
Gendry Becomes King.

Dany Dies from a first degree burn.

Jon Becomes Lord of Winterfel

Arya kills all the lannisters.

Joffery Dies from a poison from some weird amulet.

Dany is the God Empress of humanity; she cannot die or be defeated.

While we're at it - Jorah marries Cersei. She does like men who are "black bearded and fierce" and do what she tells them. Plus Jorah has an aweful habit of falling for the wrong woman as shown by lynesse and Dany; all women with gold and silver hair like a certain psycho queen whos conspicuously single.

I could see that. But not dany. I don't like dany. Something just strikes me wrong about her.

Hell could you imagine if Jorah had one of Danys dragons (Rhaegal coz hes green )? Cersei would definetly go for that then. I mean her little bit of wisdom she gave to Sansa. I think hes much more easy to sway than Stannis and his horse. This applies for all of Danys dragonriders and their personal relationships. Aegon married his sisters because they were dragonriders and a woman did try to seduce him into setting his wives aside.

 Totalwar1402 wrote:
I don't think Iain Glen is as important as Theons actor is to the show where they made a story to keep him in the story. He had very little to do in season 3 and there's no real justification to do more scenes explaining how Jorah gets to Volantis. They could explain how he becomes a drunken wreck after being exiled; but who'd want to see that. So I could see him being knocked out of the series early. I don't think they'll drag Danys arc out. We're talking two chapters here.

Plus, the bulk of Tyrions story takes place before he meets Jorah in ADWD. Most of which is dedicated to interaction with Illyrio, introducing Aegon, Jon Connington and whole undead thing on the river. So its not really necessary to postpone Jorahs exile so that he isn't gone while we wait for Tyrion. Hes a minor character who can be absent late season 4 and early season 5 pretty easily.

Iain Glen was one of D&D's top must-haves when they originally cast the 1st season. They're not going to put themselves into a situation where they minimise his role to the point he might get caught up in another project and become unavailable.
Plus, I can't recall if it's Dan or Dave, but one of them admitted early on that Jorah is one of his favourite characters and that they've expanded his role because of that, and because they landed Iain for the role. You don't take an actor of that caliber and minimise them to barely 2 or 3 episodes of content.

A good portion of Tyrion's early ADWD's story is also pretty bland from an on-screen standpoint. Lots and lots of dialog, little to no action. That's one of the big reasons they've changed up a lot of Dany's story progression especially - it translated amazingly poorly on screen because it's simply too dialog-intensive with only a couple brief bouts of action.
They've even hinted at changing up Tyrion & Jorah's shared time together somewhat because overall it's so damn boring in the book. (despite Tyrion's constant japes at poor Jorah's expense!)
I'm honestly praying they simply drop Penny's character altogether! I don't think I can put up with seeing her whine & cry continuously, while occasionally trying to seduce Tyrion for 2, maybe 3 entire seasons!

Plus, remember that this is only season 4, mainly the last half of ASoS and the relevant bits of both AFFC's & ADWD's that fit into the timeline of the later half of book 3.
The re-taking of Mereen & Dany's return are likely going to wait until season 6, potentially even the 9th episode, and we really don't need more than 9 or so episodes of Dany epic-failing at playing queen in Mereen.
There've been more and more hints that the series will likely need 8 seasons to finish off, so there's no need to rush the limited bits of action we still have remaining that need to be spread out over at least 2 more seasons before book 6 stuff starts happening. (and who knows, maybe we'll even have book 6 in our hands by that point?!! )

I have heard that mentioned and that one of the devs liked Jorah in ADWD. However, they did marginalize the characters role in season 3 whe compared to the books and previous seasons. He might be physically in all episodes with Dany but only so he can loiter around in the background with the occasional word in. I am sure the actor would appreciate and prefer having less episodes and more to do in them. It would probably require a similar amount of screen-time and investment of time for the actor. They did add a scene where he speaks to Barristan I'll grant you but he does little else in the series. So its fairly indicative from that that he isn't going to be a big part of season 4.

Plus you're mentioning Danys arc being too full of dialogue and them speeding up the pace. That increases the odds of them trying to push forward to when Dany cages her dragons rather than more interaction to set up Jorahs exile so that feelings are already strained and high.

http://winteriscoming.net/2014/01/season-4-casting-notes-roundup/#more-31131

Looks like they've cast a shepherd and the actor has said its a scene where "the dragons are out of control". So we're definitely going into ADWD territory. They might leave this as a cliffhanger I guess. Personally I hope they show Danys reaction and her imprisoning her dragons. As well as Drogon fleeing.

Plus, they seem to have raised Daario's profile to being officially a member of the main cast rather than the likes of Brienne who are just guest characters. So yeah I think they are going to carry on playing up the characters role in Danys arc and creating more scenes for him.

http://winteriscoming.net/2014/01/season-5-huisman-signed-to-return-as-a-regular/