Game of Thrones

S. Matthews said:
loved Dune both the first book (only one I have read so far) and Lynch's version... I really liked it(and my buddy keeps pushing me to watch the scifi stuff), but I did see the movie first so opposite to my LOTR experience. So yes you are right, it's up to the person and how they got introduced to the material.

You hit the nail on the head with GOT, it's one soap I'm willing to get hooked on (he had me at direwolf), and I wish I had not finished book five, but I have found the video game Skyrim is working as a nice stop gap solution for now(I really wish they made GOT and LOTR games using the exact same game engine though it's close enough for now).

P.s. My brother went for years without finishing return of the king (the book) because he just didn't want the journey to end!
Click to expand...

ROFL....so yes, I am playing Skyrim as well. I found it disconcerting at times the similarity of names between places in Skyrim and places in Game of Thrones. Like, the companions and the brave companions. Riverrun. Although I am taking a break from it ever since that arrow to the knee! :)
 
Rick Burnett said:
Although I am taking a break from it ever since that arrow to the knee! :)
Click to expand...

LOL... amazing! but yes it was the similarities that got me thinking about Game of thrones again...

I have a bad feeling about this... I'm scared we will have to wait for another four season's of the show before the next book comes, lets hope I'm horribly wrong about that!
 
Last edited:
Just saw this on youtube, its pretty awesome.


1ST VERSE:
On the real your boy is a hip hop playa
but for this joint here i'll play the role of kingslayer
see toe to toe blow for blow we can fight g
but word to jaime there are no other men like me
this industry is in a roughed up state
cats front so tough you called the bluff they fake
and we all know it too we just love to pretend
use my tongue as a sword slice em with the pointy end
and friends can turn to enemies in a eyeblink
mine click together firm like a maester's chain link
we got skills and yes we're so ill
our brotherhood was formed underneath a hollow hill
for real sh*t's so sad it's almost funny
y'all niggas littlefingers steady chasin after money
dummies i do it for the love like stark
and sit alone with my honor in a dungeon in the dark


CHORUS:
in this game of thrones it's eye for eye
there is no middle ground you either win or die
you gotta watch the cats who watch your back
you can get hit quick and man that's a fact
politics and bedfellows who's real who's fake
the surprise in your eyes when your man goes snake
it can happen to your fam or you all alone
we go big we go home we play this game of thrones


2ND VERSE:
lots of fake sh*t now a days the realm is a snake pit
no gravity you weightless not a chance to escape it
i take sh*t from no man and never compromise
tread water hold my head navigate the endless lies
there is hope though sure as the dragon flies
the energy i maximize while small folk are terrorized
but never mind see here house classic
high above the game at the wall in a basket
i'm not pretending there will be no happy ending
beats and rhymes blending to produce the red wedding.
do get it how these tracks can't scar me
you may have the better claim but me i have the bigger army
and like winter were coming so lets get sh*t clear
i give a what if you broke or a billionaire
under ground versus us you just can't compare
we give you joints like this and the 'Reynes of Castemere'.

(CHORUS)

3RD VERSE:
it's a travesty watch 'em turn tracks in tragedies
i don't live life lavishly successfully with the savagery
and avidly punctuate the premise with lead
the A.R. house stands strong the dragon has three heads
instead of spitting lies i use my imp like mind
and never back down i am the mountain that rhymes
i see the doubt in your eyes and feel the weakness in your person
you countin' the lines until i finish it for certain
hurtin' cause you just don't know who to trust
on this changing battlefield it's not you and i it's us
discuss the fact we just taken you higher
this one here is a true song of ice and fire
on this microphone i'm just doing my thing
boiling men while alive hip hop mad king
i do it for the love i do it for the art hip hop dire wolf
peace out omega Stark

(CHORUS)

credits at the youtube link http://youtu.be/kL7RWUva7ak
 
Those are pretty funny...I have to say though, I am not that in love with this series. I watch because my wife is still into it, and the production is nice to look at on a technical level, but I found the storytelling even more labored and unfocused this season. The only bright spot was the Battle of Blackwater episode, probably a series best, but it only highlighted what is wrong with the other episodes. It had a nicely focused narrative centered around one dilemma, not a scattershot handful of disparate plots vying for attention that mostly feel like set up for more interesting stuff, interesting stuff that never seems to come.
 
Batutta said:
Those are pretty funny...I have to say though, I am not that in love with this series. I watch because my wife is still into it, and the production is nice to look at on a technical level, but I found the storytelling even more labored and unfocused this season. The only bright spot was the Battle of Blackwater episode, probably a series best, but it only highlighted what is wrong with the other episodes. It had a nicely focused narrative centered around one dilemma, not a scattershot handful of disparate plots vying for attention that mostly feel like set up for more interesting stuff, interesting stuff that never seems to come.
Click to expand...

That's definitely true with this season. I'm hoping, though, that as they get closer to the zombie apocalypse or whatever's going on ("Winter is coming..."), that things focus a bit, and we get more pay-off in each episode than mere set-up. I'm still watching, enjoying, and honestly loving the show, but I do think there has been a lot less "meat" in each episode this season.

-JMT
 
Michael Traven said:
That's definitely true with this season. I'm hoping, though, that as they get closer to the zombie apocalypse or whatever's going on ("Winter is coming..."), that things focus a bit, and we get more pay-off in each episode than mere set-up. I'm still watching, enjoying, and honestly loving the show, but I do think there has been a lot less "meat" in each episode this season.

-JMT
Click to expand...


The problem is, the books are VERY long and they are changing the story. I've not finished this seasons episodes, but I've read all the books. Given this, I think it's just not going to be as cohesive as the books anymore. There is A LOT that happens, and certain big events are being left out or rewritten in ways that just don't make complete sense to the whole story.

Now, given Book 3 is THE BEST book in the series (in my opinion) I am hoping the next season gets back to the book story, and spreads out book 3 over season 3 and 4, because book 4 is really not that good in terms of action/story. It's almost all build up. And it would make a HORRIBLE season.
 
What I enjoy most is seeing how the story gets tailored and trimmed.

Great write up here http://io9.com/5915744/10-best-changes-game-of-thrones-made-to-a-clash-of-kings

Jaime Lannister may suffer the most — this man of action is kept prisoner for the entire book, with almost nothing to do. Season two of Game of Thrones makes a few clever tweaks to keep Jaime front and center — for one thing, Robb Stark brings Jaime along instead of leaving him locked up at Riverrun castle. That means some more great Robb-Jaime interactions
Click to expand...
 
sorry for the looong write up, but do have a couple of questions at the end.

had the chance to sit down and watch season 1 and 2 back to back(maybe too fast to notice or remember minor details and names of the minor families/characters), while i previously only watched the first episode and got bored of the show.

very minor quibble about lighting,
some of the interior scenes in the first few episodes had that daytime soap opera studio set hard overhead light on the characters hair in the dialogue or over the shoulder scenes. but overall, it might be the highest production show i have ever seen, so i'm a happy camper.

like others have mentioned, the story is not focused on anything, and the screen-time for each segment(subplot) is arbitrary at best. somethings don't develop as fast as they should or start too slow, and other times gaps in the timeline of days or month happen for no reason. sometimes there is a sense of urgency like for example when the first lanister was captured and they tried to free him within days? and other times when the second lanister was captured month over month have passed like it's nothing. or the city in the desert segment, started too slow and ended in minutes, act 1 was too long and then, problem, resolve, cut to next subplot in what seemed like minutes if not seconds...etc.

season 2 felt less coherent, and the subplots of more importance took much less screen-time. the introduction of the last kingdom or army was arbitrary and out of place.
- who was fighting the lanister grandfather before the north declared war, and where is that army now?
- the wall subplot was not covered enough, i thought the wall army was much bigger than the one group that we have seen, i thought john snow's group were just the new rookies of a much larger group or else they would not have been rookies if they are the only group. and it seems the city shown is only 3 or less days of walking from the wall, no one have seen or noticed the city before? and the un-dead army is formed by the dead people behind the wall, what people and how come the army at the wall did not notice people missing/dead
- what are the red witch's goals
- what happened to the sea people(the ones with the sister(with 30 ships), mad father), what were their goal before the north declared war, why did they build 30 ships, and what is the size of their army/how many men are in those ships, sometimes armies seems to come out of nowhere. and what is their current goal.

if someone can link a map picture and explain to me the different armies/kingdoms/sides,

the last two armies felt out of place without any foreshadowing(the one with the red witch and the brother, and the pregnancy development felt super fast and the shadow ghost thing disappeared after he was no longer needed? is it a one trick pony, can it be used to end any plot line at any time in the future), and the power levels and sizes of armies and kingdoms felt out of place, and why is the iron throne a high prize to any of the armies can theoretically invade the main kingdom. they don't seem to posses any type of power or money or strategic place in the map or resources.
 
Amr Rahmy said:
sorry for the looong write up, but do have a couple of questions at the end.

had the chance to sit down and watch season 1 and 2 back to back(maybe too fast to notice or remember minor details and names of the minor families/characters), while i previously only watched the first episode and got bored of the show.

season 2 felt less coherent, and the subplots of more importance took much less screen-time. the introduction of the last kingdom or army was arbitrary and out of place.
- who was fighting the lanister grandfather before the north declared war, and where is that army now?
- the wall subplot was not covered enough, i thought the wall army was much bigger than the one group that we have seen, i thought john snow's group were just the new rookies of a much larger group or else they would not have been rookies if they are the only group. and it seems the city shown is only 3 or less days of walking from the wall, no one have seen or noticed the city before? and the un-dead army is formed by the dead people behind the wall, what people and how come the army at the wall did not notice people missing/dead
- what are the red witch's goals
- what happened to the sea people(the ones with the sister(with 30 ships), mad father), what were their goal before the north declared war, why did they build 30 ships, and what is the size of their army/how many men are in those ships, sometimes armies seems to come out of nowhere. and what is their current goal.

if someone can link a map picture and explain to me the different armies/kingdoms/sides,

the last two armies felt out of place without any foreshadowing(the one with the red witch and the brother, and the pregnancy development felt super fast and the shadow ghost thing disappeared after he was no longer needed? is it a one trick pony, can it be used to end any plot line at any time in the future), and the power levels and sizes of armies and kingdoms felt out of place, and why is the iron throne a high prize to any of the armies can theoretically invade the main kingdom. they don't seem to posses any type of power or money or strategic place in the map or resources.
Click to expand...


A couple of questions...

1) how did you see season 2? Since I don't think it has been released on BD... which is what I'm waiting for...

2) Have you read the books?

3) Have you read English History of the "War of the Roses", a series of battles and factionings among the English nobility with two main house vying for the Throne of England?

In any case, yes the stories become quite scattered as the various households are disrupted by war, changes of alliances, and the like. Since I've not seen Season 2, if it follows the book...

Jaime is the beloved Lanister son, and so that should explain the interest in freeing him from captivity. Tyrion is 'hated' and so that should explain why there's no real effort to free him.

The 'sea people' were lead by a lord who had attempted to take the throne in the 'backstory', and failed. His son, Theon Greyjoy was taken as a hostage into the Stark House. His sister Asha organizes an army to use the civil war to attempt claim the throne that her father's rebellion failed to achieve.

The 'wall army' was dwindling. From the books only 3 forts were maintained, and troop levels declining.

The 'Red Witch' assists the older Baratheon brother's claim to the throne for reasons which are not really 'clear' other than the promulgation of her brand of religion.

Throughout the first series there is the growing belief, despite many saying that it was all myth and old wives' tales, that beings who some how could 'animate the dead' were returning after centuries of absence. Many people took a studied 'ignorance' of the evidence that these beings 1) existed, and 2) moving towards and potentially beyond the wall into 'civilized' areas. If you recall one of the very first scenes in the first season, it involved a wall party encountering such a being, and one of the members deserting, and when captured, claimed to be running from the beings. He was executed anyway, and his message basically ignored.

Oh... and if you saw the original BD edition of the first season there was a head on a pole with a mask that resembled Bush the Younger, which caused some stir, and induced HBO to discontinue distribution of the disks until that was 'edited' out...

Having single stepped through the sequence with my now 'collectable' disk, the image was only briefly on the screen... sort of like looking for Sharon Stone's lack of undies in "Basic Instinct"(1992)...

The books do not follow nor should they be considered to be a fictionalization of the War of the Roses, but just those issues that were the engine for the 'real world' conflict, are seen in the books, such as dynastic succession, changing sides of allies depending on the current 'who's on top', as well as internal viciousness within the houses or current set of allies.
 
sorry about the names, i don't tend to remember all the character names.

watched it at a friend's, he had them DVRed, i don't get the channels he gets. i have a different subscription set top box.

no i have not read the books, of course.

Jaime is the beloved Lanister son, and so that should explain the interest in freeing him from captivity. Tyrion is 'hated' and so that should explain why there's no real effort to free him.
Click to expand...

but what happened was the opposite, when Tyrion was kidnapped, it was known instantly and he was in the process of getting freed before he managed to get himself free. and the more beloved lanister by both his father and the crazy sister, they did not put that much effort into trying to free him as if their standings and family name was not important anymore.

but that was just an example of weird time compression on the show, sometimes multiple episodes would happen in one or 2 days and then an episode would span month of war for no reason. but the starks girl(arya?)'s storyline happens at regular pace(or slow), while the war front spanned month on end, and the main castle time spanned faster than aryia's story but slower than the war, meanwhile the desert girl story spanned less time than the castle's storyline. and the 'sea people''s story stopped at one point, then we were reminded of it at the end of the season. sometimes the characters in dialogues set a goal to go to someplace, the next episode they are transported(almost zapped) there and sometimes back again, while other characters struggle to go from point a to point b the entire season. and some characters disappear.

The 'sea people' were lead by a lord who had attempted to take the throne in the 'backstory', and failed. His son, Theon Greyjoy was taken as a hostage into the Stark House. His sister Asha organizes an army to use the civil war to attempt claim the throne that her father's rebellion failed to achieve.
Click to expand...

i got the back story, and the crazy father's goal, but the timing of the ready ships(all those years after the defeat) and the girl's own goal? or the brother's change of heart after arriving to winterfell from a 3d character to a stock 1d villain was a bit weird.
 
Last edited:
ok, i have read the link with the differences and additions from the tv show, the additions is what introduced most of the time spanning problems. so i believe the rest is also caused by the producers and writers of the show editing where the story-lines of 'behind the wall' and 'mother of the dragons' should have been put to cause the series climax. the rest of the stories 'in the iron throne', 'the war', 'arya's' take the much longer time-span.
 
Wasn't Tyrion captured before the war broke out?

Jamie was a war captive, plus at the time the lanisters had a great many things to deal with in comparison to before. To save him they most likely would have been wiped out at a trap set for them. I'm certain Tyrion and father lanister(name eludes me) even addressed this in the book and perhaps even the show though I'm not sure about that.

Now I have read all the books, but it's been a while, so who knows my memory could be way off. But yes they have compressed time moved stories merged characters but for the most part it's still one of the best adaptations I have ever seen.

Now the one issue I have with both the books and the shows is the mass of characters and locations to memorize or at least vaguely understand. The worst part is right as you think you've got it a new book starts and introduces a whole new whack of characters and places.

Though I have found after reading the book and then watching the show all is much more clear than it was before now.

If you love the world he has created I highly suggest reading the books, each one represents a season for the most part, and at the end is a breakdown of all the houses family members and their relations. Another rather useful thing is to look at a full map of westeros and perhaps easteros if you'd like as placing things in the world helps to make things more clear as well... In my mind the wall and westeros was far different than the reality(or should that be fiction?).

Ave a good one!
 
in season 2 the time was definitely manipulated, the entire 'behind the wall' story-line progressed only a few days(if that) while it was mentioned in the 'war' and ' inside iron throne' and the gap of 'mother of dragons' month have passed, and they all end in the final episode with the 'mother of dragons' and 'sea people' story-lines, there is no question about that, time was messed with.(but if it's for the sole purpose of the shows finale climax, that's a petty reason at best from the shows producers to confuse people.)

i would like to read another epic fantasy novel if you have a recommendation, but not game of thrones, i would like to enjoy it as a tv show. i would not like it otherwise.
 
Fair enough, honestly can't think of another fantasy series I liked as much as this that is not widely known (LOTR,Lion the witch and the wardrobe...). But I would highly recommend James clavells's Asian saga, especially shogun and tai pan just a fascinating read.

the time compression is the way it works to some extent in the books as well, to be fair it's because story wise incidents happen that affect the whole story in book two that they can't tell until book 6 due to the back and forth between people's story lines and some tend to progress to a much further along point than others... (just an exaggerated example)

changes will happen to apapt to a new medium ahs to happen, and yes unfortunatly most of the time they are not done for the right reason's, and creating artificial climaxes does bother me but it's better than some of the adaptations of my other favorite great novels.

Now as I said been a while since I read them but if I remember correctly some of the storyline had far less progression in the book than we got in the show... though I'm not sure, it just felt like they gave us a hint of everyone where that is by no means the case with the book.

potential spoiler............. or implication that could lead to an assumed spoiler



there is a character I have not seen for a good three books now, the reason I believe is due to story and what has been happening while we have not seen the person, and the fact that they had reached a point much closer to the series's climax than any other character... but that is just my guess.
 
I'm starting to think there was somebody with the last name Stark who was mean to George Martin as a child.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top