HBO adaptation of Game of Thrones - will this be just for nerds? (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

but i guess that was really mostly just sean bean

iron islands geordie is good value.

also like the few random irish dudes.

annoyed that some of the ppl from the free cities have funny pan-european accents and some of them just have english accents

i get super annoyed by the "fantasy land = generic UK at some unspecified point in non-history" cliche

just like ancient rome

always british

yeah, that too.

tbf in the books westeros feels like a pretty clear britain analogue

apart from the olives...

yeah, it starts off as britain and then grrm squishes a bit of france and spain/north africa on the bottom

it felt like he expanded the size of westeros as the books grew - first one was england, second was like england/france/spain, latter couple were 'generally europe-sized'

tbf in the books westeros feels like a pretty clear britain analogue

yeah, but it's a cliche of fantasy literature as much as it is of fantasy film & television.

now it's the size of South America apparently

He's stated that Westeros is the size of South America, room for plenty of diversity. Don't forget the vast swamplands in the middle which don't really have a clear analogue.

Oh xpost

basically the scale is just totally fucked up. the travel time between places is way way smaller than south america size would suggest

maybe they have super horses

'horse' is the westerosi word for light aircraft

i do wonder about scale and distance in westeros. it seems that information and even people travel fairly easily between king's landing and winterfell, but online sources put the distance between the two at some 1,500 miles, with another 600 miles north from winterfell to the wall. though a carrier pigeon could make that distance inside a week, 1,500 miles is some two month's journey on horseback, half a year's travel time for a mounted army.

Well the ravens are pretty close to magical, at least.

not everyone puts as much thought as Tolkien into these things

I skipped through Robb and his lady friend, AND skipped Jon Snow in Hoth.

If anyone has the most annoying accent in this show it's Jaqen.

not everyone puts as much thought as Tolkien into these things

― Number None, Tuesday, May 22, 2012 11:27 AM (58 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

def one of the winning qualities of GOT imho

i get super annoyed by the "fantasy land = generic UK at some unspecified point in non-history" cliche
― spextor vs bextor (contenderizer)

OTMFM. Just once I'd like a fantasy land where everyone speaks in thick Bronx accents

ay, look at dem fuckin dragons

wintuh's comin'

Kind of a terrible idea but It sort of worked in Last Temptation,

lol, i mean i get that that's what the genre's built on, what fantasy fans want. they want knights in shining armor and european-style castles and fire-haired maidens in green velvet dresses with vaguely celtic-y gold needlework around the collar - plus magic and dragons and all. nothing wrong with all that, but it does get a little old.

honestly, i find the praise for GoT's approach to the genre a little odd. seems to me that martin's stripped away the most interesting parts of the genre (mythic simplicity, the creative licence granted by magic, imaginative world-building) in favor of its most humdrum aspects (melodrama, faux-britishness).

antidote to all of this ^ is of course Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea

I pretty much stand aside when the conversation turns to how different ASoIaF is from all those other fantasy books (which a right-thinking individual need never consider reading). I know I'm not gonna change any minds on that front...

ive never read any of these fantasy books but i have seen a lot of the movies and contedizers delineation of GOTs violation of genre taboos is needless to say extremely wide right

well I'd hesitate to go so far as to say it's a ~deconstruction~ of the genre, but on of its quality that I really love is the way it's examining the inherent bullshit within the notions of honour and heroism in this world and, maybe, by extension, the genre as a whole. being really extreme but if the genre norm is Excalibur this is more interested in being Lancelot Du Lac.

xpost

i agree that GoT doesn't deconstruct the genre. to present a gritty, amoral alternative to the shining, golden heroes we find in the the most naively idealistic sort of fantasy fiction is certainly a valid approach, but it's hardly novel at this point.

also, i don't find the television series at all averse to traditional notions of honor, decency and heroism. the characters seem pretty clearly to break down into "good guy" and "bad guy" groups based on their possession of these qualities.

but varys basically broke it down to an extent when he talked to ned when he was jailed below the castle in season one.

So yeah this week's. Fuck BB King's House Of Undying, I'm tired of waiting for it. Don't care anymore.

omg yes @ this; driving me crazy.

would watch an entire season of Tyrion & Varys

the accents only really bugged me when like Renly and Stannis, brothers, have totally different regional accents

Next week's episode looks promising, at least!!

Written by Martin, directed by Neil Marshall of Dog Soldiers/The Descent. Should be a good 'un alright

Gettin' that Helm's Deep feelin'.

oh shit, i totally forgot it was Neil Marshall.

Written by Martin, directed by Neil Marshall of Dog Soldiers/The Descent. Should be a good 'un alright

!!!

I love Doomsday, it is such a batshit crazy movie.

omg yay didn't know that

http://www.drexel.edu/now/features/archive/2012/May/Vampires-Thrones-Hobbit/

The course, simply titled “A Game of Thrones,” will explore the differences and similarities between the first book in the series and the first season of the HBO series based on it. It will be offered through the Pennoni Honors College on Thursday afternoons from 2:00 to 4:50. It promises to be just as epic as the tale it focuses on.

omg I'm totally forwarding that to my father-in-law (he graduated from their engineering program)

Vampires-Thrones-Hobbits

Vampire thrones Hobbit, full story at 11.

Vampire Thrones for Hobbits, $9.99 one day only

Mixtape for after you get hardthroned