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

i don't want to know! but i will cross my fingers that they're killing off the entire daenerys storyline

This show has gotten farther and farther away from any fair comparisons with The Wire for a couple seasons at least. What drew me in during the first season was how the bureaucratic minutiae could ripple out into massive effects far away from the epicenter, but now, a lot of the cool consequential realpolitik has been replaced by generic high-level fantasy cliche. I did like Stannis and Jon's (and later Davos's) negotiations to legitimize Mopey McOpenMouth and offer him Wintefell, but even then it felt a little superficial and rote.

I guess Carcetti's wandering accent is to blame, really.

"...generic high-level fantasy cliche."

What are the main examples of this in your opinion?

Don't make me back up my internet assertions this early in the day!

all of the tywin stuff, which lasted for 3 seasons, counts as cool realpolitik, the meereen stuff that everyone hates (even i'm getting a little impatient and i'm a dany defender) is basically carcetti #struggles but with 3 dragons lol

ummm it is only early on the gomorrah that is the west coast leee you'll have to do better than that excuse-wise

Not enough sheeeeit

Which character storylines are near the end of Dance With Dragons and which still have a long way to go?

bran is already done hence his absence and sansa is done but now being repurposed. i think everyone else has enough book story for the rest of the season.

Dude I am on the West Coast, I wish the entire Eastern seaboard would get swallowed up into the Atlantic already!

I like the Meerene stuff, I wish it were expanded on!

I dunno, it all feels like boring cloak-and-dagger, betrayal for memeification's sake.

What makes Bran "done"?

That's like saying Brienne was "done" when she made it to King's Landing with Jaime, or similarly when Tyrion made it back there himself earlier in the show.

done as in, his plotline has not moved further in the published books than where it's at in the tv show

It's still spoiling things to talk about what is not going to happen fyi

OH, right

xpost

the question was asked and answered. As Spiralli pointed out, Sansa's story has been repurposed. Same could happen for Bran too, who knows?

i dunno man it's still a drag.

just think, first episode could be tyrion and dany until they (presumably) meet.

I was telling my wife that if the shows pace is indicative of anything, these two will finally meet in the second to last episode of the season..

i doubt they will meet this season

they'll just text

Certain characters are diverging widely from the books at this point.

The producers have also said that some characters won't be in this season at all and also that some plot lines will be going beyond the books, based on Martin's outlines (i.e. the show will now be 'spoiling' the books).

also a Veep crossover episode

^^ I'm ready for this

The show's political scheming was always my favourite part, but when you have frozen zombies and wizards there will necessarily be shaky attempts to juggle the tonal differences between "Giants attacking a wall to flee White Walkers" and "lady is pretty upset her lover was killed in a duel".

But it's still there, and I like that this season might be reorienting to that a bit outside of King's Landing. The Sansa stuff is potentially great, and I'm at the point where I assume any character that looks like they can outmaneuver someone won't (we need twists!) but in the case of Sansa v Littlefinger v Roose, it's very interesting. Roose is pretty canny but it's hard to tell just how good he is, but even if he's at his best he has that Edward I>Edward II problem of a good leader and strategic thinker being stuck with an absolute waste of a "son", which has the feel of epic, dynastic tragedy that is best when borne out of muddy political shenanigans.

I think the pace of the show is good overall, especially as it still gives time over to character backstory monologues that were the salvation of the first however many episodes of the first season. Regardless, this show theoretically only has 27 episodes left and I'm glad it's still taking its time rather than rushing headlong to resolve all the set up.

What was the point of the Gendry storyline? It was developing in a possibly intriguing political shake-up style direction then just got literally pushed out to sea and abandoned.

I had been wondering that, I've no idea where Gendry even is at this point.

Looking forward to shit kicking off at Winterfell. This whole thing is feeling increasingly like a Varys and Littlefinger chess game and I'm enjoying it a lot but could do with some action quite soon.

Feel like the Gendry and Brotherhood storylines fell down a memory hole at the exact same time.

hope Brienne doesn't fall in a similar hole. they've spent a good amount of time with her this season so i'm expecting some Tarth action.

the story about her and renly was kinda adorable and explained alot

I don't think it's quite inevitable but I'm worried/excited about favourite characters eventually fighting each other, like Brienne vs Davos. Kinda felt that way about Brienne vs Hound but generally so far it's been clear who the audience is rooting for.

What was the point of the Gendry storyline? It was developing in a possibly intriguing political shake-up style direction then just got literally pushed out to sea and abandoned.

― Evan, Thursday, April 30, 2015 11:56 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it m/l served its purpose, stannis wanted to kill davos over it but knew he'd need him once he realized he had to go north of the wall, that's about it. i wouldnt be surprised if he showed up in some small capacity

I figured he'd turn up as a blacksmith in some small northern town like Hotpie in that pub.

Hotpie was probably the single most pointless character who wasn't one of Bran's kru.

I kinda liked him. He hardly distracted the plot.

a lot of these "pointless" characters aren't really pointless, but serve to illustrate how major characters view themselves, treat others,are good/bad, etc.

https://twitter.com/joedempsie/status/479055824414076928

Well, at least I got to see a little actual Barristan Selmy action. That's all I'd wanted this whole time.

"Sand snakes" actors all seem kinda... shitty.

The most I've ever been taken out of a scene by bad acting. The staging and theatrics didn't help.

Well, at least I got to see a little actual Barristan Selmy action. That's all I'd wanted this whole time.

"Sand snakes" actors all seem kinda... shitty.
--Evan

guess ur not a whale rider fan your loss

haha

seriously though that entire scene was forced as shit

loved it, loved the whole ep, possibly the best of the season thus far

sand snakes are great little bit of hesitance to the line readings but that shouldn't really mess with people's enjoyment imo!

Heads and shoulders the best episode of the season

stannis' speech to his daughter had me tearing up a bit, not something that I'd ever really thought would happen on this show & especially bc of something stannis said!

After a little searching I found a bit of innernette that validates my reaction to the sand snakes scene. Looks like tsrobodo and I aren't alone:

http://www.reddit.com/r/gameofthrones/comments/34s5ri/s5e4_the_sand_snakes/

stannis speech made me think he's gonna die soon.

sand snakes scene and the fight scene were some mst3k type stuff. though i cant really complain too much, as i like it when the show embraces its own silliness.

but this season is a slog so far.

redditors lean toward hot takes tho, especially where stuff for teh nerds is involved

I'm sure that you guys just were rubbed the wrong way by the scene which is totally fine, of course, but for me it feels symptomatic (in a tangential way) of some people still not being quite able to take this show seriously and suspend disbelief w/o being shaken out of it by various things. perhaps it stems from the urge to memeify everything

(xp)

in the micro sense it could've been a bit better but the dornish (those related to oberyn anyhow) have been set up (even to non-book viewers) as kinda self serious and intense, it seems in keeping with what I would expect of them.