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

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

Still, you'd think the fact that they happened at all would make people a little more wary. If someone once told me dragons fried thousands and zombies took out a bunch more, I'm not sure how well I'd sleep, no matter how gone they supposedly are.

8,000 years since anyone has seen a white walker. only 150 for dragons.

since they don't have seasons, what's a year?

like does their planet actually orbit a sun and shit?

my theory is that they do have normal seasons, but due to *magic happenings* (ie, supernatural mega long winters) their idea of summer and winter are different.

xxps Yeah I think the difference is that people knows dragons are real but are generally a bit too busy dealing with their own shit to worry about "rumoured" dragons which are like an unimaginable distance across the world from them, but the White Walkers are straight up mythological creatures to everyone except for the few people in the Night's Watch who've seen them since they returned.

but people south of the wall must know the walkers are back for real, right? we've seen a whole bunch of people see them for real by now...
and didn't Old Man Lannister mention them as an impending threat to the bisexual Prince when he was trying to get him on the Small Council?

my theory is that they do have normal seasons, but due to *magic happenings* (ie, supernatural mega long winters) their idea of summer and winter are different.

― ryan, Tuesday, April 29, 2014 4:27 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is my understanding, they have normal years with multi year periods alternating hot and cold, winter could be thought of as a very short ice age

xpost to myself
he doesn't mention walkers, just the wildling rebellion brewing; and dany's dragons in the east
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1o25dNp-Ds

but people south of the wall must know the walkers are back for real, right? we've seen a whole bunch of people see them for real by now...

The only people who've seen them now are in the Night's Watch, are Craster's offspring, or Wildlings.

the last several generations of dragons were small runts, you have to go back very very far for real dragons like dany has

Has the Nights Watch sounded the alarm to Kings Landing yet? Is there any awareness of the Walkers south of the wall? You'd think the really clued-in powerbrokers like Varys or Littlefinger or Tyrian might have at least heard the rumours

Tywin I mean

Didn't Tywin reference the Wilding army in his talk with Jaimie where he mentioned the dragons? Or am I just imagining that because it would make sense?

If we're going to get nerdy about how their world works... I always wonder- the maps for both this and LOTR look like they can't be much bigger than say south america or something. Maybe even that is too big. Is the rest of the planet(?) ever mentioned?

Tolkien makes multiple references to things that aren't on the maps - "the West" etc.

implying a much larger world beyond Middle Earth

xpost Yeah the Walkers have been mentioned in King's Landing least once, but the response from all quarters was essentially "Riiiiight, whatever you say buddy" before everyone got back to plotting and spying and having clandestine meetings and whatnot. Which tbf is not an unreasonable reaction to have in that situation given that this is pretty much tantamount to claiming to have been abducted by aliens irl

xxxxxpost
http://io9.com/5906300/5-scientific-explanations-for-game-of-thrones-messed-up-seasons

Has the Nights Watch sounded the alarm to Kings Landing yet? Is there any awareness of the Walkers south of the wall? You'd think the really clued-in powerbrokers like Varys or Littlefinger or Tyrian might have at least heard the rumours

― brio, Tuesday, April 29, 2014 1:41 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Tywin I mean

― brio, Tuesday, April 29, 2014 1:42 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Actually Tyrion was acting Hand when the NW sent a representative to KL to argue for reinforcements re: the impending Otherpocalypse. But yeah, everyone was more wrapped up in material and immediate concerns of internal KL politics.

xxpost iirc in LOTR the part of Middle-Earth that we see is meant to be approximately the size of Europe, with fuck-off huge spaces to the east that are never shown as well as the maps showing at least two more continents that are barely referred to at all even in The Silmarillion and all of the extended writings

wight btw

Essos is pretty big. and there are two other continents that are basically unknown.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4/Werthead/Maps/WorldofIceandFireNamesandScale_zps2aecc8fb.png

lol at 1000 islands

xpost yeah - I remember it being pretty well-established in Season 1 that nobody in the South took the Night's Watch particularly seriously, and stories from the Wildlings even less so... was just wondering if any of the more recent sightings had been factored in yet. I guess we as a TV audience see them more consistently than the characters in the show.

so is the whole series leading to all the humans eventually forming an uneasy alliance against the Walkers?

its leading to a) more murder and b) more boobs

Shakey otm.

More seriously, the only sightings of the Walkers have been North of the Wall, which they have yet to breach.

I forget if the KL people dismiss the NW's claims as fairy tales dressed up to get more funding.

Maybe the dragons will melt the snow zombies.

don't forget that maester aemon & sam sent all those scrolls to the various kings asking for help etc. Stannis got one too.

^^^this seems like the most predictable scenario but otoh really expensive can they even afford that much CGI? this is a show about medievel shit that has yet to stage an actual battle scene iirc.

xp

Tbh if "A Song of Ice and Fire" doesn't eventually lead to Daenaerys conquering Westeros before melting the White Walkers with her dragons the someone done fucked up

maester aemon has no fucking pull

Ah, right, ian. My bad.

For a story that gets a degree of kudos for being unpredictable the ending really is the most obvious thing.

Guys down south are clearly gonna continue pooh-poohing tales of the White Walkers until some really drastic shit goes down, which I agree might not be an ideal scenario for this show because as Shakey says, action is not the strong point here