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

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.

in closing, I think things are accelerating now! jorah's presence is a wrinkle in tyrion's journey and not a detour. jaime in dorne is about to run into a lot of trouble. the faith militant are going buckwild in a single episode. the sons of the harpy attack was brutal and I don't think anyone expected them to move that fast or that boldly

agreed upthread, the dorne scenes have thus far been either uninteresting or unintentionally hilarious (re: sand snakes). the rest of the show does feel now to be moving toward something, which is a great improvement over the last few eps

I was a little annoyed with the ending faight scene as well in that, in my opinion, it would take at least that many experienced/trained fighters to overwhelm an elite group of unsullied, Grey Worm AND Selmy (even old man Selmy), and I'd prefer it require at least twice the amount of losers in masks with daggers. Even with them trapped in an alleyway. Sons of the Harpy were too formidable... feel like you'd need a much bigger swarm of them. Unsullied didn't even lock into any cool formations. Booooo.

it's a narrow passageway! in a city the unsullied are still learning the ins and outs of vs. an enemy with the element of surprise and the inspiration of fundamentalist rage

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

― slothroprhymes, Monday, May 4, 2015 8:25 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm taken out of it when in one scene the acting is fantastic (Stannis, Tyrion) and then in the next devolves into NCIS corniness (sand snakes). Hopefully their scenes improve! I'll remain hopeful.

Passageway wasn't that narrow, whatever.

It's just all those guys were so hyped throughout the series that I wanted them to be just a little more resilient vs. a gang of masked noobs with daggers.

obv. a Black Hawk Down scenario

yeah the unsullied/harpy flight was definitely lame given that it was supposed to be elite troops vs citizens. and worm and barry were just thrown away, no real narrative importance or dramatic impact. it was just, hey guess what these guys died.

i'm guessing the narrative importance is that Jorah is on his way back and Dani is down a couple of allies

Even down to inconsistencies like how awhile back one unsullied dude got his nipple sliced off without wincing but Grey Worm howled in pain when he was stabbed.

Sure that's a TOTALLY petty point but when you never see these guys in action (including Selmy) and they're constantly hyped you expect those character attributes to get validated clearly THEN you watch them get overwhelmed by the Harpy dudes and it's tragic etc. etc.

Please remember I know these are relatively minor gripes.

BTW I'm pretty sure Grey Worm at least lives on, given clues via the original season trailer and the "next on GoT" trailer.

Just speculation though, in case that sounded too spoilery.

I found it jarring how formidable the harpies were too. Like, unless it's revealed that they brought in ringer mercenaries from outside the city to wear their masks and kill dany's ppl, it's lame storytelling.

the harpies outnumbered them but they still all died.

It would have made more sense for the story if they resorted to more terrorism-style traps like a barrage of arrows/fire/oil or something. Why would a bunch of civilians with masks and daggers throw themselves at trained fighters in armor? Because masks and daggers is their "thing"? They acted like expendable henchmen instead of motivated terrorists with a cause.

OK I'm done nit picking now, promise.

The unsullied entered through a perpendicular passageway and were then capped in the middle by the harpy. Couldn't they have backed out of the same passage they entered from and taken the fight out in the open?

seems like brothels are the worst place to go in westeros these days.

the faith militant are legit scary.

they are only a background presence in the books -- i like them getting more attention in the show

idk why I watch this anymore tbh but I do appreciate them foregrounding religion more. for a show/series extrapolated from medieval history the prior lack of an explicit political role for religious institutions was a headscratcher. Ditto the economy although that's a little more understandable (no one wants to see a bunch of talking heads blathering about interest rates and trade agreements)

no one wants to see a bunch of talking heads blathering about interest rates and trade agreements

if they were disembodied and set on spikes, sure, why not?

lots has been made of the lannister's economic powers, and social classes, masters vs slaves, and etc. maybe finance is in the background, but economy is truly present in GoT.