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

IIRC it's his destiny, otherwise they're being cagey about it. xp

xps taling to myself still: even like animated shorts telling us about the children of the forest and the first men, or whatever. like para-texts.

bran is stuck on the frodo "get from point A to point B" plotline.

bran is the one

the hippie kids' father will, i suspect, play a role in a future plot development.

yeah, I'm rolling with it, just wondering if I'd missed some stated motivation beyond the 3-eyed bird carlos castaneda visionquest

XXP OK, Morpheus.

i guess reading the books a lot of your understanding of their journey is contextual, coloured by the mythology that the show can only go so deep into. even so, without hitting the giant red spoiler button i think i can say that there is no real need for the total vagueness for the show's purposes. they could drop some more substantial hints about the general if not specific nature of what they will encounter without ruining anything.

xps: interspersing relevant flashbacks would have been a nice touch, like maybe start the episode with a cold-open flashback to the mountain killing elia martell in the same episode that oberyn recounts it to tyrion. parcel out the history much like good fantasy novels tend to do. big blocks of exposition just don't work for tv.

― ryan, Tuesday, April 29, 2014 12:32 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no way man. one of the great things about the books is the way the not-so-distant past is really... present... with all the characters and informs everything that happens, but you never actually "see" it, you just have to glean it from what the characters say and think. its actually some of the most skilled writing GRRM does. rhaegar targayen is the best character in the series and you barely know anything about him besides occasional asides and skimpy details. flashbacks would wreck that.

xpost damn it! now i'm so tempted to go read the wikipedia entry

Isn't there an intra-Kingsguard fight scene flashback somewhere in the books? I forget how it was set up...maybe a dream or vision.

rhaegar targayen is the best character in the series and you barely know anything about him besides occasional asides and skimpy details. flashbacks would wreck that.

totally agree! this is what motivates my complaints. he's barely present at all in the show and he hovers over everything in the books. how else to do that on tv?

yeah wish they wld work more of the allusionary over expositional approach in, theyve kinda gone lowest common denominator w the story telling, too bad

flashbacks don't have to be totally explicit and explanatory either.

Isn't there an intra-Kingsguard fight scene flashback somewhere in the books? I forget how it was set up...maybe a dream or vision.

It was Ned fever-dreaming after getting his leg stabbed through; also, I've read suggestions that he suffers from PTSD and that certain events trigger flashbacks to all that stuff.

the different storylines/groups of characters vary so wildly in quality, idk how it is in the books but everytime I see manc sam - 'samwell' is the worst name in a world of shit names - & Famed British Beauty gilly my heart sinks. amazing they can give bran a potentially cool power & make his crew the most consistently dull crew, want them to freeze to death & be done w/ it

otm

totally agree! this is what motivates my complaints. he's barely present at all in the show and he hovers over everything in the books. how else to do that on tv?

― ryan, Tuesday, April 29, 2014 12:47 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they could do it in the dialogue (like they do basically everything else). i think seeing him would be a huge mistake, he's much better as this tortured lurking presence

yeah you're probably right about that.

im not even a big "show don't tell pedant" im just not happy with how they're telling. too much of what is compelling is getting lost or incorporated slapdash.

don draper's backstory, for instance, would be MUCH better kept off screen.

it def follows the common progression of fantasy/scifi thing turned into action, except in this case it was turned into a thriller so im cool w it

also i dont like fantasy/scifi lol

don draper isnt even in this show dude

[SPOILERS] yet

Jon Hamm as Rhaegar

in a blond wig

the books are basically thrillers already though

like GRRM was a tv writer for a while and it shows

jon hamm as the voice of the littlest dragon

i didnt say jon hamm i said don draper

who is don draper tho when u really think abt it

don drogo

lol

xpost Oh shit, I literally had no idea what the Hound was doing with Arya, and I thought I was paying attention.

I had the Tyrells and the Martells all mixed up. Hilarious true story, bros.

they are easy to mix up. also the tullys and the tyrells.

Just wait until the aliens invade and you meet the Scullys. Oh shit, spoilers.

or when Aria makes it to Riverrun and meets the local childrens entertainers, the TeleTullys.

oh shit, spoilers.

that certainly spoiled my day

no way man. one of the great things about the books is the way the not-so-distant past is really... present... with all the characters and informs everything that happens, but you never actually "see" it, you just have to glean it from what the characters say and think. its actually some of the most skilled writing GRRM does. rhaegar targayen is the best character in the series and you barely know anything about him besides occasional asides and skimpy details. flashbacks would wreck that.

Think this is absolutely vital in this series, as it was with Harry Potter. Like, the focus is on the OMG EPIC world-changing events happening right now in the present, but a lot of the main characters are basically just vacuous vehicles for plot progression, the really interesting stuff happened 20 years ago between all their parents. It's a good way to play up the human interest side of the story, having these massive epochal events making and breaking kingdoms that are basically the end result of who fancied who, who were best mates and who got bullied etc. decades before the story even starts.

And I don't think the show provides anywhere near enough of this stuff. You're always on dangerous territory with terms like "world-building" and "backstory" when you're talking about epic fantasy, but idgaf about that side of things, the more Tolkien-y aspects or whatever. Just wish they'd give us more on the show about some of the shit that went down with the previous generation.

otm about Rhaegar Targaryen, who is only outdone as a spectral figure of awe and mystery by the crazily enigmatic "Ser Arthur Dayne", who I can't really remember the show mentioning at all but is like the biggest fucking Chekhov's Gun who gets mentioned repeatedly by numerous characters throughout all of the books (don't think this qualifies as a spoiler because there is basically no plot of note relating to this guy as yet, he's just someone whose name keeps coming up).

when the master dude saw the graffiti on the wall that said kill all masters, was i the only person who found it much easier to suspend disbelief about everyone speaking english than actually having english script on the wall?

the characters were just shown NOT speaking English in the scene prior

yeah I hate shit like this

also I was under the impression 99.9% of the population was illiterate

btw looking up these characters ont he wiki is perilous because of the terrrrible fan art that accompanies their entries

dayne was also present at a *certain important moment in the past* along with Ned and the hippie kids father, right? (can't remember the name right now)

So wait, in this world, did dragons and snow zombies and stuff happen so long ago that it makes sense no one is terribly concerned?

re: terrible fan art check out the night king entry

omg

So wait, in this world, did dragons and snow zombies and stuff happen so long ago that it makes sense no one is terribly concerned?

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, April 29, 2014 4:18 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

basically