User blog comment:Gcheung28/Game of Thrones Season 4 Fan Brain/@comment-5014364-20140407185927


 * Note the wavy lines on Ice as it is

heated: Valyrian steel is described as

having wavy lines in it, similar to

real-life Damascus steel.


 * Note that this is the wolf-pelt sheath

that Theon carried for Ned in the first

episode of Season 1, from which he drew

Ice to behead the Night's Watch

deserter.


 * This is the first time the Dreadfort is

in the opening, because Theon's location

was only revealed at the end of Season

3.


 * In the books, only blacksmiths from

Qohor can reforge Valyrian steel...but

there are certainly more than three of

them. It was Tobho Mott, a

blacksmith from Qohor living in King's

Landing, who reforged Ice into two

swords in the books -- he even appeared

in Seasons 1 and 2, because Gendry was

his apprentice. Why change it to a

random blacksmith from Volantis? Was

the actor unable to return?


 * Note that in the Season 3 premiere,

Tyrion explained that he is by right the

heir to Casterly Rock because Kingsguard

members foreswear all right to

inheritance; but Tywin is so

disappointed in Tyrion or Cersei that he

will never let them inherit. He was

always disappointed that Jaime joined

the Kingsguard (normally a great honor).


 * This is actually the first time that

"The Doom of Valyria" has been

explicitly mentioned on screen -

explaining why there's no new Valyrian

steel. It was a Pompeii-like disaster

which, 400 years ago, obliterated the

Valyrian Freehold (this world's version

of the Roman Empire) and most Valyrian

dragons. The Targaryens were a Valyrian

family who escaped the Doom with the

world's last surviving dragons.

(Quaithe did briefly refer to "The Doom"

in Season 2, but didn't explain what she

meant).


 * The scene of Podrick identifying the

sigils of Dornish Houses as they

approach closely follows how this scene

played out in the books (in which

Podrick had to describe what they look

like, because the books don't have

illustrations!)


 * The banner with a gold quill on a green

and white checked background is House

Jordayne: an inside joke is that George

R.R. Martin felt indebted to Robert

Jordan (author of The Wheel of Time

series) for convincing publishers to

accept Martin's massive series, and in

gratitude he created "House Jordayne of

the Tor", ruled by Lord Trebor:

"Robert" spelled backwards. Their seat

is "The Tor", after Tor Books, Jordan's

publisher.


 * Bronn laments that he needs his own

sigil. In the books, Bronn actually DID

devise his own sigil when he was

knighted after the Battle of the

Blackwater, because all knights need a

sigil. He made a burning green chain on

a smoke grey field, because his role in

the battle was to hoist a large chain to

trap Stannis's fleet in the bay with the

wildfire. The chain element was cut for

budget reasons from the TV series, but

they still had Bronn play an important

role (simply lighting leaking wildfire

with a flaming arrow) for which he was

knighted -- is this a wink at fans that

Broon should have a sigil at this

point? Or is it a hint that his sigil

will be introduced in an upcoming

episode? (maybe with a flaming arrow

instead of a flaming chain?)


 * The prostitute who Ellaria chooses is

Marei, who has been a recurring

background character since the Season 2

premiere (though she was only named and

had dialogue in Season 3, when she had

sex with Podrick).


 * While this scene in the brothel wasn't

portrayed in the books, Oberyn does

mention to Tyrion that he intends to

visit a brothel, along with Ellaria, and

that they both enjoy having sex with men

or women. The Dornishmen are

descended from the Rhoynar, and

their culture is very different: their

culture has no stigma attached to

bastards or homosexual sex.

Many lords and ladies in Dorne are

openly bisexual, though it would be more

accurate to say pansexual, as they don't

really make much of a distinction.


 * Elia Martell and Rhaegar Targaryen have

only been briefly mentioned in past

seasons of the TV series, to avoid

overwhelming the audience with

information, but they do explain who

they are in the Blu-ray animated

featurettes. Rhaegar Targaryen was the

older brother of Daenerys, who died a

few months before she was born. The

"other woman" that Rhaegar took and

started a war over was Eddard Stark's

younger sister, Lyanna Stark.


 * Dragons will eat pretty much any animal

smaller than themselves, including

people and horses, but it is somewhat

implied that they prefer sheep - which

this scene seems to be referencing. The

ancient Valyrians were shepherds, who

first tamed dragons by feeding them

sheep. A few other dragons preferred

other foods (Grey Ghost preferred fish).

One Targaryen dragon was even named

"Sheepstealer", but was tamed by a young

Targaryen bastard girl who fed him sheep

every day.


 * While this was not directly shown

during the Red Wedding scenes in the

Season 3 finale when Robb Stark's corpse

was desecreated, Catelyn Stark's corpse

was desecreted by the Freys and Boltons

as well: House Tully funeral customs

are to set the corpse on a funeral boat

in the Trident River which flows past

their home, then set the boat on fire so

the ashes can return to the life-giving

waters. In mockery, the Freys stripped

Catelyn's corpse naked, and flung it

over the battlements into the river, to

rot like garbage.


 * Lemon cakes are, of course, Sansa's

favorite food.


 * The handmaiden snooping on Tyrion is

the same one from Season 2 who

discovered that Sansa had her first

period and could have

Joffrey's children.


 * The novels do not contain any romantic

jealousy by Shae of Tyrion and Sansa.

Shae knows its a sham marriage, and as a

prostitute, she doesn't really care

about Tyrion or that he has other women.

Tyrion is aware of this but is so

lonely that he likes to pretend Shae

really loves him.


 * The Thenns are NOT cannibals in the

books: they basically combined two

different groups of wildlings: The

Thenns are actually the most

sophisticated of the wildling clans,

they have their own lords (unlike the

other tribes) and are the only tribe

that knows how to forge metal of any

kind (the others just use swords looted

from dead Night's Watch rangers). They

can't forge iron but they can forge

copper - notice that they're wearing

basic interwoven copper plate armor,

which is still better than what the

other wildlings have. The [[Ice-river

clans]], in contrast, are considered

half-feral even by the other wildings,

and are indeed cannibals. So they

anachronistically combined the most

civilized of the wildlings with the

least civilized of the wildlings.


 * Janos Slynt helped Littlefinger betray

Ned Stark. In the books, he even

triumphantly held up Ned's severed head

for the crowd to see at his execution.

As you may recall, Tyrion banished him

to the Wall in the second episode of

Season 2, disgusted at his disloyalty

and because he followed orders to kill a

baby. Because of the Night's Watch

expedition north of the Wall, however,

we haven't seen Castle Black since

Season 1, so Janos wasn't reintroduced

until now.


 * The Mole's Town brothel was briefly

mentioned back in Season 1. It is the

closest town to the Wall, located in

the Gift (the stretch of land south

of the Wall which is technically not

part of "The North" but an independent

zone ruled directly by the Night's

Watch). Bran explained what the Gift

was last season. We will see more of

Mole's Town this season.


 * Maester Aemon is the younger son of

King Maekar, and older brother of King

Aegon V Targaryen. He didn't just

grow up in King's Landing: he grew up

in the royal court. He is

Daenerys's great-uncle.


 * In Jon's POV narration in the books, he

says that he could have just said that

he slept with Ygritte purely as a trick,

but feels he owes her more than that, so

he admits to his superiors that he had

sex with her out of love.


 * The brief scenes with Brienne and the

Tyrells are not in the books, but

acknowledge that Brienne and Margaery

served King Renly at the start of the

War of the Five Kings. Brienne beat up

Loras during the joust that [[Renly

Baratheon]] held back in episode 3 of

Season 2, "[[What is Dead May Never

Die]]". "King Renly" was using the

tournament to gather supporters, and

watched it with his new Queen, Margaery

Tyrell. Loras was not amused to be

beaten by a woman.
 * Because Westeros is in an alternate and

medieval world, they actually don't have

terms like "homosexual" or slang terms

like "gay", which are specific to our

time (100 years ago in our world "gay"

just meant "happy". The books do have gay characters but there isn't a social term for what they're doing. Thus the TV show has toyed around with various euphemisms like "sword-swallower" or "pillow-biter", that are sort of anachronistic.


 * Ser Preston Greenfield actually died in the books during the riot that occurred in Season 2. He wasn't shown dying during it in the TV series, so apparently he's still alive in this continuity.


 * This is the White Sword Tower, the tower within the Red Keep where the Kingsguard reside. As Joffrey explains the Book of Brothers records the deeds of all Kingsguard.  This also allowed the episode to sneak in some references to famous characters from the past:  Ser Arthur Dayne and Ser Duncan the Tall.  Dayne was hardly mentioned in the first three seasons and some of his actions were given to Barristan, but now they're mentioning that he did indeed exist.  He was considered the greatest swordsman and most honorable knight of his generation, spoken of reverently by all, including Barristan, Jaime, and even Ned Stark.  He died in a skirmish against forces led by Ned at the end of the war, which Ned barely survived due to greater numbers.


 * Ser Arthur Dayne's duel against the Smiling Knight was legendary. If Dayne was the greatest knight of his generation, the Smiling Knight was a complete psychopath, called the Gregor Clegane of his generation.  Their epic final duel was akin to the Batman and Joker of Westeros fighting to the death.


 * Ser Duncan the Tall, meanwhile, is actually one of the titular main characters from the "Tales of Dunk and Egg" prequel novellas, in which he had numerous adventures wandering the Seven Kingdoms with Maester Aemon's younger brother, Aegon V ("Egg"). HBO's production team has expressed interest in making prequel projects adapting the novellas about Ser Duncan, though only after the main series is finished.


 * Now that Joffrey's enemies are dead, the Riverlands have fallen into chaos, and Lannister soldiers are raiding, raping, and killing at will.


 * The TV series combined three of Gregor Clegan's underlings at Harrenhal and mixed them around a bit: the Tickler tortured people at Harrenhal, Polliver took Arya's sword, but it was Raff who killed Lommy.  In the books, both the Tickler and Polliver die at the inn, but the Tickler is the one Arya focuses on, repeatedly stabbing him in a frenzy while shouting the interrogation dialogue he used when he tortured innocent peasants ("''Is there gold in the village?!").  She kills Raff in a later book.  But because Polliver was combined with Raff in the TV series as one character, the TV series gives Polliver Raff's death.  This is VERY close to how Arya kills Raff, taunting him by making him repeat the exchange he had with Lommy before he killed him, but with roles reversed.  (The Tickler, meanwwhile, was killed earlier in the TV continuity by Jaqen).


 * This season will start emphasizing a point that was a bit cut for time in past seasons: the war has utterly gutted the Riverlands.  As a fertile border region they're sort of like the Low Countries, everything borders them and they get devastated in any major war.  For the past two years, Lannister raiding parties have been burning every farm and village held by the Starks and Tullys, while the Starks burned out farms occuppied by the Lannisters rather than let them fall into enemy hands.  Thus one of the major breadbasket regions of WEsteros was destroyed, right before a decade-long winter is about to begin.  Thus why the entire countryside appears to be burning in the wide shot as Arya and the Hound ride off at the end.