I also took it as an analogy for show watchers/book readers. We tune in every week to understand why GRRM/the showrunners keep crushing beetles. We never get any closer to understanding, but we keep watching anyways.

I'm still mad that they didn't get an actual spider-man to play Spider-Man.

I imagine his role will be pretty similar to Meryn Trant. He has some lines every once in a while but his job is mostly just standing in the background.

I would love this, but if he quit Lost because he didn't like living in Hawaii, I doubt he will want to move to Spain.

Is it that high profile? Most of these are pretty minor characters other than Doran.

Yep, I think the fact that they aged him up means they're combining him with Quentyn. Makes sense to me.

The original article says it's not the full list so there's still a chance we will see them or that they were already cast. I wouldn't be surprised if Aeron gets cut, though.

If they are casting Yezzan already, I bet they are going to make a pretty big dent into books 4/5. I can see them delaying Sam's arrival in Oldtown until season 5 pretty easily though.

I'm guessing he will be replaced by/combined with the aged up Trystane. Unless his character ends up being a big part of the next two books, it would be a smart way to simplify things.

No way, they were clearly setting up Hot Pie as the mastermind behind the Frey Pies.

If the decide to move Brienne's encounter with Stoneheart up, which is seeming more and more likely, I think they could repurpose much of her travels into her search for Jamie next season.

I wonder if they will keep her around next season to help transition into the Dorne stuff.

In fairness Conan Stevens quit the show to be in the first Hobbit movie so I can understand why they didn't ask him back.

I agree. Having Littlefinger tell Sansa that he killed Joffery to avenge Cat in the scene before took a lot of the impact of the only Cat/your sister scene as well. I can't see many people being surprised that he pushed Lysa out the Mood Door when he just professed his undying love for her sister a few seconds ago.

They could still reuse a lot of those scenes next season during her search for Jamie. I can see them moving up the Stoneheart encounter simply because it will give her arc something interesting to end on.

I've never understood this argument because the moment that makes Stannis so awesome to us book readers hasn't happened on the show yet. He really just comes across as a cranky asshole in the books until the surprise of him showing up at the wall.

I remember reading an interview with Lena Headey saying that they purposely held off on any nude scenes for Cersei so the walk of shame would be more impactful and she hinted that it would be coming in season 5.

Sam?

I just wish they could have used some makeup tricks to make him look a little older. Maybe add a bunch of scars to show that he's been in lots of battles?

It sounded like it might have been dubbed by the guy who played him in season 2. That guy does a lot of the special effects characters on the show like the giant, white walkers, so it would make sense that he would be around to do the dubbing.