A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones Spoiler-Filled Discussion

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Out Of My Vulcan Mind, Apr 21, 2011.

  1. DalekJim

    DalekJim Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I remember there being a mere one chapter in the desert? And that chapter included Jorah Mormont giving an account of his tragic backstory so it was actually a good, interesting chapter.
     
  2. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

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    http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsideth...-downton-abbey-mad-men-bunheads-and-more.html

    I'm rooting for Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Peter Dinklage, and Michelle Fairley. Just being at least nominated would be an honor.

    Also LOL @ Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke being on the ballot.
     
    Last edited: Jun 12, 2013
  3. DalekJim

    DalekJim Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Charles Dance and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau have owned this season in the acting stakes.
     
  4. 3chordboy

    3chordboy Commander Red Shirt

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    indeed. CD is just the biggest badass on TV at the moment and I found myself shocked at how I ended up feeling sorry for the Jamie character as this season progressed. I ended up being disappointed when he didn't appear in an episode.
     
  5. DalekJim

    DalekJim Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Jaime's monologue about the truth behind the Mad King's death is my favourite scene from the whole show. Amazing acting.

    "By what right, does the wolf judge the lion?"
     
  6. Kegg

    Kegg Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I could swear there's more. There's definitely a couple before she gets to Qarth (and her time in Qarth involves a lot of trying to get stuff done that goes nowhere.)

    It's one of the two stories in A Clash of Kings that is clearly suffering from Martin's desire to expand the length of the novel series. The other one is Arya's.
    She's never had the choice. She could stay with Drogo in that tent, in a place of peace, and not have to worry about all the crazy shit she's endured - this is the first time the series really gives her that out. But she doesn't, and Drogo respects her for it.
    This feels as much a criticism as Martin as it does D&D, since he uses generic fantasy set dressing and has it lurk at the edges of his historical fiction imitation until he needs to call it up for a scene or two, and when he does it's a dragon or a giant or a zombie or something else typically not that unusual for the genre.
     
  7. DalekJim

    DalekJim Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I think Arya has the best chapters in that book, loved all of them. Only Dany's chapters felt kinda unnecessary but she only had a few so it didn't bother me much.
     
  8. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

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    Arya's chapters in ACOK were important because it introduced Jaqen H'ghar and Faceless Men.
     
  9. Kegg

    Kegg Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    ^
    Important, sure, but Arya's chapters also had plenty of traveloguing in that book, where it was her and her friends faffing around from location A to location B. As a rule travelogues are the weakest kind of chapter in ASOIAF.
     
  10. Out Of My Vulcan Mind

    Out Of My Vulcan Mind Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Pedro Pascal has been cast as the Red Viper, who will be making his debut in season four.
     
  11. DarthPipes

    DarthPipes Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Arya's Clash chapters are great. The show did not translate them very well though.
     
  12. Venardhi

    Venardhi Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Looks about right. Sad that Oberyn will be a one-season wonder though. Probably only see him in 3 or 4 episodes and his death won't have nearly the impact as if he were around this season.

    That is going to be an increasing problem as the series continues. Unless you start introducing these characters and giving them proper development early on, the deaths are just going to start seeming routine. "Oh, look at the guest star this season who will obviously die in episode 9"
     
  13. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

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    It's one of the disadvantages of the show, not being able to go in depth like the books, but I like the Season 4 will be having its own flavor with the new characters from Dorne. The Oberyn vs the Mountain fight should be epic.
     
  14. Venardhi

    Venardhi Vice Admiral Admiral

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    In depth would be nice, but what I'm talking about is laying groundwork. Cersei hasn't been fucking around, so that plot is going to have to start next season too and somehow make sense with Jaime already home, Lancel hasn't been around since the first season so he gets thrown out. We haven't met the Kettleblacks nor really seen much of Littlefinger or his intricate plots. Pretty much the whole next season is going to have to be just the goings-on in Kings Landing (and the various plots of the characters who call it home) to do any of it justice and get anywhere near the point of pushing into the AFFC material, and we haven't even met most of the Ironborn cast yet.

    This is why wasting screen time on torture scenes and invented subplots is so frustrating. The writers seem to want to leave a mark on the story by adding to it when they should instead be focusing on adapting as prudently, efficiently and effectively as possible.
     
  15. Ayelbourne

    Ayelbourne Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    She's been fucking Lancel since season one. That alone should be enough for Jaime.
     
  16. CaptainCanada

    CaptainCanada Admiral Admiral

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    He appeared 3-4 times in season 2.
     
  17. DalekJim

    DalekJim Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Oberyn doesn't really do much until The Duel so it isn't a big deal. I just hope they do the fight justice. The most intense chapter in the entire series. I nearly had a panic attack reading it, I was so damn excited :rommie:.

    I really like the show but I agree the invented subplots are infuriating. It wasn't really a problem in Season 1, hell the added Littlefinger and Varys scenes were fucking awesome. Come Season 2 and 3 though, we have seemingly endless invented scenes in King's Landing.

    I'm rewatching the show now and the showrunners have a serious boner for Margaery Tyrell. An incredibly minor character in Books 2 and 3, yet is given an abundance of new scenes for the show which add absolutely fucking nothing and go over the same material. Worse, it's at the expense of important stuff that could be done with Stannis, Jon and Arya's plots, which always suffer from being rushed. We saw Maester Cressen, one of the most tragic characters in all of ASOIAF, be demoted in to to being a faceless extra... in favour of excruciating padding regarding the fucking Tyrells.

    At this point it's clear to me the showrunners only really care about King's Landing. All the plots outside of it get fucked with and have scenes trimmed all the time, while King's Landing always gets added scenes.

    The show cut Arya and Jon warging in to their wolves, yet gave us Pod being the master of fucking whores, and dead-end subplots with Ros. A character that isn't even in A Song of Ice and Fire.

    Jaqen was awesomely cast, but the plot was kinda butchered. Having Arya order The Tickler killed in Season 2 was one of the more retarded changes the show has given us. Arya killing him in A Storm of Swords is one of her key character moments.

    This adaptation is so schizophrenic. There are times when the showrunners go to excessive, beyond the call of duty effort to maintain the spirit of the books. And then there are other times where they make me wonder if they've even read them. Not having Arya and Jon warg is just... what? Why the fuck would anybody ever cut that? Even the dumb mass audience that would never dream of touching a book, who purely tune in for the blood and tits, would rather see Jon and Arya warg in to direwolves than added scenes like uh... Loras shaving Renly? Loras going on about how hyped he is for his dream wedding? Excruciatingly long scenes of the Queen of Thorn mentioning farts? Margaery openly wearing her motivations on her sleave?

    Seriously, fuck the Tyrells and fuck the showrunners' obsession with them. That screentime should have been given to setting up the Boltons properly. None of my casual viewing friends had any idea who Roose Bolton was pre-Red Wedding. That is a huge fuck-up. But the showrunners don't give a flying fuck about setting up characters in the North, Iron Islands, Beyond the Wall, Dragonstone, or any other non-King's Landing area. If Roose Bolton lived in King's Landing, he'd likely have had 16 hours worth of screentime before the Red Wedding.

    Rant over, before I head on to how much they've raped the character of Mance Rayder.
     
    Last edited: Jun 29, 2013
  18. sidious618

    sidious618 Admiral Admiral

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    I liked the Ros character and wished she stuck around. I thought it was good to see a prostitute's perspective which lessened some of the ickiness of the brothel scenes where it began to feel gratuitous.
     
  19. DalekJim

    DalekJim Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    She was a cynical excuse for more shots of tits, and nothing more. A staggering literary feat, reduced to Nuts magazine status. Thank you HBO.
     
  20. Anwar

    Anwar Admiral Admiral

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    I think they spent more time developing the Tyrells because the Tyrells stick around more, and frankly they DO play a major part in the series. In the books they're mostly a bunch of Ciphers, and that wouldn't work for the show.

    They didn't do anything to "set up" the Boltons more because they wanted to keep it a surprise that they'd turn traitor. It's also why they changed Roose's appearance from the books which would've been like him wearing a "Yeah, I'm evil" sign on him.

    As for the lack of warging for Arya and Jon, we already saw warging in Jon's story it just wasn't from him so we know the concept (which is also being shown with Bran). Arya's warging will be saved for season 4 for when she uses Nymeria to do...you know what. It'll be more dramatic that way.

    And honestly, there wasn't THAT much time wasted on Ros or Podrick. Folks need to get over how there are some new characters.

    PS: I like how they made Cersei and Tywin more 3-Dimensional, compared to the 1-D caricatures they are in the books (which would've been a waste of Lena Headey and Charles Dance).