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

breathless nerdlingers screencapping this like it's L O S T ffs

nerdlingers be nerdlingers

gbx i challenge u to an online match

dorfs only

JinC GRRM parody always funny

ice dragons traditionally breath electricity iirc via my old monster manual
god i wish i still had that. i think i have the pdfs somewhere

I love the mythology of Myth II but I never played the original

― 龜, Wednesday, June 3, 2015 10:22 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i loved myth II, i played the shit out it, i wanna play right now

― gbx, Wednesday, June 3, 2015 9:32 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If you get your hands on a disc you can install and play using the 1.8 updates here: http://tain.totalcodex.net/mythii

Just to check, we're discussing the possibility that Game Of Thrones, if it had an ice dragon, would be coy about it, y/n?

You serious? This is a series that introduced two very existential threats - an army of magical snow zombies and dragons - and has literally kept them either locked up or off-screen for the bulk of the show while people doof around in Dorne or talk tiddliwink politics. I'm curious to see if this past ep has backed the series into a corner. After such a massive display of force and unbeatable evil, how can they simply shift back to mundane political machinations and expect that to hold our attention? At the same time, you can't have a snow zombie dragon battle every episode, either. It's kind of Walking Dead syndrome, all or nothing, with "nothing" meaning people in a room - sometimes sitting, sometimes standing - glaring and talking and for god's sake, no blinking. Never blink! Anyway, this show has much better writing and acting than Walking Dead, so at least the talking is compelling, but in terms of big picture I have no idea what they're up to. Keeps it interesting, at least, even when (as has been this case most of this season) it has not been terribly interesting.

If you get your hands on a disc you can install and play using the 1.8 updates here: http://tain.totalcodex.net/mythii

― Evan, Thursday, June 4, 2015 12:11 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

I still have my original discs lol but no disc drive and I'm on yosemite?

Our hero GRRM the Warrior makes a good but also terrible case for the sexual violence in Game of Thrones:

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/06/03/george-rr-martin-thrones-violence-women?hootPostID=fd755821de73a6dbf75a0649e2b7bb1b

"I'm just the author and creator here. Who am I to argue with 8000 years of fictional history? Everything I've put in my books fake-happened already, so to excise or change it for the sake of contemporary sensitivities would be to do an injustice to fake historians everywhere. That women walked around with no tops on while fighting ice zombies and dragons let alone bearing the oppression of a stylized patriarchy where women are second-class citizens (except when they're not) is part of the fake historical record, and to re-write those female characters into more equitable scenarios would just not be right. You have noticed my fake attention to other fake details, such as fake food and fake geography and fake shadow cats roaming the forests? Well, multiply that by 1000 and you understand the task set before me. My hands are tied by the binds of fake truth."

He is kinda right, that it would be wrong to sanitize history. But if he wanted to show people on the margins of the power-structure, I feel like he could skip at least a couple of the rapes, include a non-noble character, and tell the same story.

LOL, sanitize history. That's why I said he made a good but terrible case. This is not the middle ages, this is his fantasy version of the middle ages. It is about fake people doing fake things. He can tell the story any way he wants to tell it, but the issue I and others have had is that the show has often relied on sexual violence as a lazy/shocking crutch rather than explore other, possibly better ways to convey the same horror/drama.

he seems very much not entirely serious about that

I agree. But. It's a fake history based on real history, as is most fantasy, and there's a clear tendency in fantasy to makeup the fake history by making men less like violent assholes. But there's countering that, and then there's using sexual violence as a crutch while still claiming to be countering that.

u guys just go ahead and write that fan fiction youre dying to already, except not itt

What is the fake history to real history ratio of this show?

60-60. Art can be like that!

If you get your hands on a disc you can install and play using the 1.8 updates here: http://tain.totalcodex.net/mythii

― Evan, Thursday, June 4, 2015 12:11 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

I still have my original discs lol but no disc drive and I'm on yosemite?

― 龜, Thursday, June 4, 2015 8:09 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If you can get get it installed with an external drive you should be alright. I run on Yosemite too.

the only remarkable thing about game of thrones is that it's a true-to-the-grittiness-and-nihilism-of-real-history fantasy series. quite literally the only remarkable thing. without the dark violence it's just dragonlance w/ zombies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanderlust_%28Dragonlance_novel%29 <-- Dragonlance with zombies

lol ok, so without dark violence it's just dragonlance w/out kender

If you get your hands on a disc you can install and play using the 1.8 updates here: http://tain.totalcodex.net/mythii

― Evan, Thursday, June 4, 2015 12:11 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

I still have my original discs lol but no disc drive and I'm on yosemite?

― 龜, Thursday, June 4, 2015 8:09 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If you can get get it installed with an external drive you should be alright. I run on Yosemite too.

― Evan, Thursday, June 4, 2015 10:47 AM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Sorry I should mention that you only need the disc to install iirc. I know for sure you don't need it to run the game itself beyond that.

imo the big thing that sets it apart from the genre norms is its focus on politics economics and so forth which is also very gritty dark and lurid, so the violence is of a piece with that

plus the violence itself is more realistic than some hero narrative show where nobody just gets knifed in the back, regardless of era

Jacqueline Carey also does pretty deep political intrigue in her fantasy, only instead of "gritty realism" her trappings are "increasingly uncomfortable BDSM" (at least that's how Kushiel's Dart felt, never read the sequels)

politics sure economics eh not so sure about that

xp

After such a massive display of force and unbeatable evil, how can they simply shift back to mundane political machinations and expect that to hold our attention?

Because we've been watching these characters for five seasons and we're invested in them now?

It's been established virtually from the start that most of the characters are fundamentally petty-minded and fiddling with the apocalypse round the corner, I'm not sure this episode changes much from that point of view. Of the main political players, Stannis is the only one who really seems to get it, but then again some of the Wildlings didn't seem to get it until this episode.

Stannis is no different. He only assisted castle black due to the red priest lady influence. Otherwise he's still just trying to establish himself as king.

No, duty

I'm disappointed in everyone's lack of long-game ambitions. Clearly Stannis should be angling to become zombie snow king of the north.

he has the crazy-ass red-haired sorcerer mistress pedigree...

I feel like there should be more magic in the show. If the people of Westeros know that magic is real, there would be a huge subculture who were all about that magic. They would easily be more powerful than the Sparrows. Plus, can't they bring people back to life? Seems like the family in power would capture some people who could bring their loved ones back to life.

i think there have been indications that there wasn't much magic for a long time (coinciding with all the dragons dying) and now it's slowly beginning to reappear

yup

economics eh not so sure about that

are you saying violence isn't tied into economics on this show or in general? because it 100 percent is in both...

after 5 seasons I have no idea how the economy in Westeros works apart from there being a bank that loaned the Lannisters a bunch of money. and the Lannisters have a goldmine that is empty.

tyrells have the food

I read a blog that described the outlines of how Littlefinger embezzled from KL but it turned out pretty boring.

after 5 seasons I have no idea how the economy in Westeros works apart from there being a bank that loaned the Lannisters a bunch of money. and the Lannisters have a goldmine that is empty.

I thought we clearly established it as a boobs & murder based economy

No Boobs For Oil!

lol

It's a murderers market right now.

the economic elements havent really been fleshed out to the extent im assuming they are in the books but the point is an economy exists in a way it doesnt in say the lord of the rings

I don't think the show has pretenses of being enlightening wrt history/reality, the economic & religious elements just suspend disbelief a little. what sets the show apart is its storytelling, esp the big moments it builds towards which make things necessarily contrived. it's easy not to notice that this backward, beleaguered & enchanted world has inexplicably produced characters who are, with their secularism, haircuts & worldly fearlessness, not very different from us. the lack of difference comes I suppose from imagining people like yourself reacting to the setting rather than imagining how the setting might shape people. the idea of gritty realism is anachronistic & I can see why it might be jarring to have essentially modern characters committing medieval atrocities.

Plus dragons and snow zombies, don't forget them!

I often wake up and wonder, hmm, how would I handle dragons and snow zombies? I think they would be very scary.

try to get them to fight each other def

i think wolf hall does a really good job of contrasting a modern sensibility w/ a tudor sensibility

yeah i'm reading it now it's great