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

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CICKU1mWoAAfBly.jpg

nice day for back yard barbeque

:(

mom isn't gonna make it the cookout after all

she's hanging out in the woods

(sorry)

did this thread go there yet, good

Love this stuff
https://vimeo.com/132571771

also please note: no ice dragons

Maybe they used computers to erase them!!!

Pred ship?

Well just started watching this, up to S1E7. Pretty amazing! The villains are a bit OTT but they certainly inspire hate at a first glance. It's kind of like a soap opera with a lot more killing.

Daenerys is the main reason I'm watching, after seeing a clip of her with a couple dragons. Holy shit that episode where she eats the horse heart and then they dumb that molten gold onto her sniveling brother's head. I was getting sick of his shit. The Dothraki storyline is definitely my favorite.

I did enjoy Tyrion using his trial to tell as many off-color jokes as possible. Can see why Peter Dinklage is a fan favorite.

I did see the South Park before this, so every time the theme song starts I think back to that and LOL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjzC2DRgEo4

I started reading the books on vacation last week, I'm about halfway through Clash of Kings right now. Enjoying it, and it's fast reading because I know what's going to happen for the most part, but goddamn people are spot on about Martin's prose being painful reading.

The Dothraki storyline is definitely my favorite.

I think this makes you unique

dan m have you read genre fiction previously Y/N?

Yes, but not a whole lot. Most was probably Dragonlance type books in middle school.

http://www.livenation.com/artists/136195/rave-of-thrones

well he certainly puts the prose of dragonlance (not to mention wheel of time, shannara) to shame, no? GRRM is no jack vance-- he's not even my favorite active doorstop fantasy writer-- but IDG this notion that his writing is painfully bad

I prefer JiC's fake GRRM prose tbh

I haven't read the book but p much every excerpt I've seen is just head-smackingly painful, idk how people slog through 1000s of pages of that garbage

for the descriptions of boobs

agree it is both bad and above average for the genre

Hah.

you mean dragon eggs

I guess the badness kind of comes and goes in waves? idk, I'll be chugging along totally fine and then there'll be a series of passages that stop me in my tracks, then I can continue on like no big deal. Definitely better than Dragonlance, but that's just the majority of might & magic style fantasy stuff I've ever read.

GRRM's prose is totally fine and adequate, I mean he's not like "a stylist" or whatever, but I think that's probably good thing considering the vast bulk of this thing.

A lot of people here can slog through all sorts of comics, sitcoms, cartoons, films. Tough bastards.

to be fair there are not a lot of real prose stylists writing high fantasy (even vance only dabbled in that genre for 3 books)-- writers of that bent have tended more toward gray-area lit-fantasy (Wolfe, Crowley, Blaylock, etc)

I haven't read the book but p much every excerpt I've seen is just head-smackingly painful, idk how people slog through 1000s of pages of that garbage

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, July 15, 2015

hmm could it be the passages excerpted are typically the lolsiest?

no, there's all kinds of excerpts all over the net

it's just a story.

no, there's all kinds of excerpts all over the net

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, July 15, 2015 2:01 PM

seems like it would be easier/less time-consuming to read the books vs combing the net for excerpts but chacun à son goût and all that

it's not like this is some obscure piece of work, this is a cultural juggernaut that's all over the place, I don't have to go looking v hard for GoT stuff to be in my face

my opinion of him as a crap writer stands

i take it you haven't read Ready Player One

because seriously given what gets held up as "good" in genre work, GRRM is a titan.

moving goalposts here

why is fantasy writing so bad its def worse than scifi and like way worse than crime right

Pron opened the musty tome, releasing a cloud most foul. "Reminds me of a maiden I once knew," he muttered out loud. Ser Mud of the Bog people merely tilted his head in response. Pron signed. He is a fool, thought Pron, and deaf as an Earless Man. But as long as he held a sword and I am at risk, he remains my fool.

Pron sighed, setting down the book. "The maiden, she smelled terribly," Pron explained, more out of habit than in hopes of reaching the impenetrable Mud. "But not nearly as terribly as I did after a night draining seven flagons. I seem to recall waking in a barn, nestled in a pile of fresh dung. Or was it a pool of my own filth? No matter. It was nothing a warm bath could not remedy. But you wouldn't know about that, would you?" Ser Mud again offered no response. "I am speaking of course of baths, not bedding maidens." Pron paused. "Anyway, the book."

The book had not been opened in a hundred summers, at least, but Pron knew it held clues as to his own lineage. Men had fought and died for knowledge less valuable than what waited between its covers, and for once Pron felt fortunate for all those hours spent learning letters. In fact, were it not for whores and drink, reading would be his greatest love. While his brothers spent their days swinging swords and prodding at reluctant maidens, Pron spent his days and nights engrossed in books, learning of the world while worldly pleasures waited in the wings. Needless to say, he had spent much of his life making up for lost experiences, if not swordplay than most certainly prodding. Perhaps one day someone will write a book about me, thought Pron. Or several, even. Long ones. Really, really long ones. He ran a finger down the center of the page while Ser Mud picked wax out of his ear. Pron shuddered. If only this deaf fool beside me could read, he thought. When we return home I'd gift him several books of hygiene from the royal library.

As if on cue, Ser Mud swallowed whatever it was that stuck to the end of his forefinger. Pron stifled a gag and turned back to the book.

I wouldn't even read GOT cos I'm more into it as a TV show, it seems written well for TV. If I want a medieval fix I will read non-fiction/history.

Josh, which book is that from, ACOK?

ACOCK

My biggest issue with GRRM is that I really do admire his world building and huge family trees and all sorts of other little details that do eventually pay off, or at least reward attention. But at the same time, he has this distinctly by-the-word spin in place style. That may be why the shows work so well, because it really propels the pulpy plot forward, usually intelligently, jettisoning the unnecessary stuff while accenting just the right world-building details. Then again, my understanding is that things the show seems to be getting right may seem wrong to those familiar with the book, and of course, the show has had more than its fair share of unforced errors. Like, let's change this part ... (yay!) ... into THIS part! (boo!)

I finished the first season and the first couple of episodes of 2. WOW so crazy. The Queen Cersei is so amazingly evil. She's so mean to Tyrion in that one scene! Ahhh! So evil!

The King Joffrey is detestable too. They are both so great as villains, they really are. It is fun to see that the larger world of GOT is full of characters that will hopefully fuck them up. I get the feeling they are in over their heads but the Lannisters seem to have a knack for survival.

The Daenerys storyline has taken off even more than I thought it would. I was wondering if something would happen to Drogo and then just a few episodes later she is burning him and the sorceress who failed to save his life. She lost the power that he wielded but it is cool bc she is creating something of her own. With dragons.

The baby dragons scene at the end of season 1 was AWESOME. I am so psyched for the rest of the show.

http://history-behind-game-of-thrones.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/daenerys-dragon-birth.jpg

Loving your enthusiasms, keep posting. You're still some way off peak craziness/fuckedupness.

I have always loved pop fantasy it's easily my favorite genre. This show is some great stuff.

I do appreciate the two scheming advisers, they are very Shakespearean. The last episode I saw there was a scene with some people having sex on a chess board. Super writerly. That's the sense of humor this show has.

Cersei is very hard to read, her expression and reaction to anything comes across as perpetually dissatisfied. I get the feeling she has been doing this a long time, ruling in all but name while her husband was off hunting and whoring. She has powers but they are dependent on the whims of the murderous men around her, much like Daenerys.

Cersei makes me think of Hatshepsut (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatshepsut). Hers is a very interesting story. Queen pharaoah of Egypt for 22 years, married to her half brother, usurped the throne from her step-son and made him her military advisor.

Blowing through season 2. It isn't as good as season 1. I could do without the entire Qarth subplot, really. I liked her Daenerys character arc last season bc she was consistently dealt the most insane and/or horrible circumstances and then powered through on the force of her own will. This season is more kind of pointless, her commanding her tribe or her hosts or anybody in sight to do things for her, them to refuse, and her to quickly sentence them to a firey death from above in the unforeseen future.'

The newer characters and the cast of all the different parties vying for kingship is interesting but the heart of the show remains the cruel and always entertaining Lannisters.

Would watch a buddy cop spin-off with Tyrion and his bodyguard.

Ssn 2 is great but more for Kings Landing stuff
I was having trouble remembering back to when Dany's story was interesting

Don't worry, Dany's story picks up MASSIVELY in s3. Then nose dives a bit, but I still think most people underrate her as a character.

OTM that s1>s2, and that the best bits of s2 revolve around the Lannisters.

The Lannisters are the best house all round really, that's pretty much a fact.

Yes definitely.

Ok the end of season 2 was nice. I guess if you are holding off on showing the dragons until the last episode again you could do worse with a scene where they are all shooting fire through Daenerys and roasting her would-be captors.

The army of the undead....woah. They really nailed the sound when the undead king screeches there. Is it the dead who die beyond the wall that come back, or all of them? Cos there are a lot of corpses showing up all around...

I guess it is good to know they can be killed by fire. Probably should be placing all bets on the fire-proof woman with fire-breathing dragons. Still, Sansa said it best when she predicted Joffrey would survive, "The worst ones always do".