Am I the only one that felt abit weirded out by the magic part of the conversation between Harry and Barristan?

Felt it was abit out of character for both of them.

 

In defense of myself, Harry is a wizard. He would mention magic at least once or twice every now and again.

And it was more Ser Brenden indulging Harry's talk of magic. Ser Barristan had very little to say of it.

 

I don't have particularly strong feelings one way or the other for Aeryn but I'm curious if eventually she maybe a Tysha or Shae character who ends up betraying Harry. As some suggested a violent and immediate death for character development, I think this is another option.

 

I liked it. The Lannister cousins are plotting, as would be expected. I can see one of them as scheming to be Harry's wife and the other as his Bellatrix, a cruel and ruthless enforcer that he sends to deliver a nasty message when he's too busy. Aeryn is going in an interesting direction, personal healer/assassin/fanatic. This is random, but I'd like to see Harry dressed in a wolf's fur cloak when he arrives at Winterfell. Be a nice little message to the Starks, seeing Tywin's heir wearing dressed like that. Cersei would approve, if nothing else.

Just had a thought: what if Harry started training the Lannister women to be his personal attack lionesses? If word got out, then it would only imply that even Lannister women are deadly and not to be taken lightly.

 

What is this Lannister fanboyism? I thought the only likeable Lannister was Tyrion?

 

For every story, there is a syed. The Prince who was Promised just found theirs.

 

I dunno, Tywin is a real bastard, but I rather admire his devotion to family. If rather have him in my family than in someone else's.

 

I like Daven. And Tommen. And Myrcella. And Tywin. And Jaime can be entertaining.

 

Carrying on with this, I think that Harry will have to learn something of Tywin's familial duty while he's in Casterly Rock. Tywin is hard as nails partly because he has to, partly because he was always tough, and partly, I think, because he has been grieving for the loss of his wife since the day she died 30 or so years before (which is also an element the TV series brings out, I think). Harry is young and hard when he has to be, but I think he will evolve to be tougher in future.

Going back to the TV show, I think it has been able to do a bit more with Cersei than the books have as yet, in much the way that GRRM was able to humanise Jaime with his burgeoning relationship with Brienne when he revealed his motivation for killing Aerys the Mad (which was also well portrayed). You still don't like her, but you can understand her.

It's rather like how Mizuni-Sama's portrayal of Lord Voldemort in 'Prince of a Dark Kingdom' makes him still a villain, but one you grow to like, in spite of yourself.

 

I don't watch the Merlin TV show, sorry. I didn't think of King Arthur until I decided on twelve knights; I understood where most minds would go, thinking of a king with twelve knights, but as someone pointed out, that was a biblical reference. Twelve is the number of government, and one of several numbers of completion.

 

I'm slightly confused. I know Voldemort ends up being the big bad, but why? I am trying to think what reason he has to be evil in this story besides the plot says so.

I ask this since I am thinking how this can be done in a manner besides good vs evil.

 

Same reason the Others/the Great Other are the big bad of ASoIaF.

 

Because some people just like kicking puppies.

 

there are a lot of slants that you could take to rationalize the upcoming others/voldemort conflict. One being that the Others thrive on ice and in darkness and humanity in the sun and warmth. The Others really are crammed up in a relatively smallish part of the world & want to expand to new lands and bring ice and darkness. It really is as simple as that, Voldemort will fight for his new race's advantage and Harry will lead humanity against them.

 

Canon wise, we know very little of the Others... Just that they have some sort of relationship with the CotF.

Knowing GRRM, they aren't going to be your average cackling villain. According to him, they're Sidhe like and have some connection to the Starks.

It all depends on how Cxjenious chooses to add on what little we know of the Others and whether or not he wants to break their connection to the Starks.

 

To backtrack a bit...

We know it's possible to transfigure mechanical things: watches are mentioned. That said, Harry doesn't have a wand, so pointless discussion.

I liked Aeryn here, but I felt that the segment came on a bit strongly. I don't know if you're planning on having them hook up, but that section felt rather flirtatious, like a big authorial wink, "here's your OTP people!". Now obviously social circumstances prevent that, but they don't prevent hanky-panky on the crochet lawn, which that scene, to be, heavily signaled.

Which felt a bit weird, given that Harry is rather young still. Was it meant to feel flirty - thus following the "kids grow up fast in Westeros" line of reasoning, in which case okay - or was the flirty tone an accident? If the latter, perhaps something should be done to make it feel a bit more platonic.

 

If you look at some of the expanded materials (Green Ronin RPG, IIRC), the Starks (Brann the Builder and his ilk) defeated the original King of Winter (one of the Others) during the Long Night and claimed his title. So that just might be the connection.

 

It was my intention for it to be that way.

 

I'm pretty interested in Ser Barristan's opinion of Harry, especially after the little snippet you shared.

In Harry's conversation with Barristan, Harry says that twelve is a more magical number then seven. I can't imagine Barristan taking Harry seriously for a second, especially after Harry says that he came up with this himself. However Barristan was at the dragon pit when Aeryn was raped. He saw Harry's display of power. I think somewhere after the incident Harry mentions that he is grateful for how loyally Barristan has served despite Harry's outburst.