HBO's adaptation of Game of Thrones - Thread 2. There are a lot of nerds.

8 is better than 7

That too.

maybe in the sense of 'things happening'

These guys are perfect for Star Wars. Can’t wait for Jar Jar Bink’s heel turn.

― Mazzy Tsar (PBKR), Tuesday, May 14, 2019 8:36 AM (fifteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

already happened

let's go ahead and lump in 7 with 8 as the shit years

i for one am very happy this is on its last episode and will not be watching season one of any of the spin offs. let's see what survives.

I think it's 1-4, based on the first three books. 5-6, sorta but not quite based on and wrapping up GRRMs work, and 7-8 doing Benioff and Wise's ideas and turning into complete shit as a result.

i'm not sure how IMDB ratings play out over time, but the last two episodes are rated waaaaaaaay below the rest of the series.

I don't think Star Wars is reconsidering hiring these two, but I think this season is really hurting HBO. Who is excited for the prequels now? And their other idea, 'Confederate', was shot down right out of the gate.

i watched a dialogue scene between Cersei and Ned from S1. the conversation is taken largely from the novel, and the differences are really uh stark in terms of quality vs the dialogue in recent seasons. Lena Headey remains great but she had so much good material to work with in those early years, and it's been so long since Sean Bean was around it's easy to forget what a good central character he (briefly) made.

the spin offs

i am actually kind of excited about these, cautiously optimistic at least. there's a really rich universe to work with, and with D&D off doing star wars shit hopefully whoever is in charge will be enthusiastic about running a show that trillions of people watch

There were plenty of episodes in that middle stretch that did little to advance the plot OR any real character development and were just about moving the pieces around the board to where they eventually needed to be. Dany sentences a few peasants to death, Arya does some shadowboxing with another novice who may or may not be trying to kill her, etc.

Well considering Jane Goldman is in charge of the only spinoff with a pilot, I'm not optimistic myself

i am actually kind of excited about these

I’m sure that if the remaining books ever come out someone will redo the series “the right way”

perhaps on showtime lol

but I think this season is really hurting HBO.

this is crazy

i'm pretty much GoTted out at this point; could use a year or three to rest.

yeah, but that's pretty much the standard length of time between GoT seasons these days anyway

I’m sure that if the remaining books ever come out someone will redo the series “the right way”

oh for sure. the reboot of the entire series in 2035 or so seems inevitable

and, it will be better

i don't know why i made that prediction. let me rephrase

and, it might be better

overall, i think maybe...but the first several seasons of this series would be difficult to top.

it's true, but i'm sure that's what they said about battlestar galactica back in 1978, too

i don't have much confidence in anything getting in the next 50 years, except for the general quality of television entertainment

getting ^better^

with one of the heroes of OG Battlestar returning as a villain in the reincarnation i guess maybe we can look forward to Isaac Hempstead Wright playing The Mountain in the next version.

the only upside is that completely different creatives are handling the spinoffs

reboot should be anime

https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Ferikkain%2Ffiles%2F2017%2F10%2FScreenshot-17.jpg

https://pm1.narvii.com/6381/9cf7a527913db18663f9ce107888bd121f850e8b_hq.jpg

reboot idea: live action, but all the battle/dragon scenes are anime

The whole "subverting expectations" meme... I think everything revolves around this central problem. It feels like they treat every event like a cartoon that is about to cut to commercial break. Whether it is a huge moment or a small one in the midst of a battle, they prioritize misdirection over everything else. So you have a major narrative upset like Arya jumping out of nowhere to totally dismantle expectations and kill NK or you have a minor scene where someone gets stabbed or hopelessly surrounded and later they're fine/got away somehow off screen. There is no detail too small or large for them to not be absolutely compelled to trick the audience. I heard someone say they just want to pack the episode full of water cooler talk moments and don't really care if it makes sense because it can be explained away by offscreen events or characters "forgetting" something etc. Not exactly an original thought just a longwinded way of saying that for once I feel like the nerd masses are more right than ever with their current griping.

unfortunately a fuckload of tv relies on that kind trickery

i think the decline of the show is directly tied into accommodating the expectations of the bulk of the audience who came on board after the show was at its best.

https://i.imgur.com/vW95qEp.jpg

the vast majority weren't even watching at the beginning. as it became more and more of a phenomenon, the kind of show referenced on late-night show monologues and with "Game of Thrones day at the ballpark!" promotional tie-ins, it inevitably got shittier as the writing and action reoriented itself toward the lowest common denominator viewer. kind of like the new star wars movies and the marvel movies and all that shit - they are reliably kind of entertaining and reliably not total failures. they are reliable Just Good Enoughs

but I think this season is really hurting HBO.

the at&t acquisition and re-prioritization of what shows get made probably hurt HBO a lot more!

but so far, they seem to be still releasing new stuff that I like. maybe they're just releasing things that were already in production? in any case, GoT has been an amazing cash cow and driver of subscriptions for the network and I have no idea how it could be hurting them, unless zero people subscribed just for GoT, watched absolutely no other content (that they'd continue the subscription in order to keep watching), and drop the subscription immediately when the series ends. if they wanted to be total dicks they'd have figured out how to stretch the season across another month to get the extra income!

the star wars people probably looked at D&D and accurately thought "wow, these guys know how to satisfy the target market"

well from an upper management level, sure

I'm pretty sure a bunch of people at Lucasfilm/Disney watch the show that tons of people watch and genuinely enjoy many parts of it

That's a pretty cynical theory Karl, even aside from the last Star Wars film being kind of amazing and also hated by the 'fans'.

I heard someone say they just want to pack the episode full of water cooler talk moments and don't really care if it makes sense because it can be explained away by offscreen events or characters "forgetting" something etc.

they're mostly writing for the GIFs at this point

That's a pretty cynical theory Karl

if it's wrong, it's not because of the cynicism that makes it wrong. i'm not sure how ed sheeran gets more screen time than missandei unless someone who is involved with running the show is mainly focused on mainstream appeal rather than what makes for a good show.

the main counterargument to all that is just that they could have continued this show for another few years, or at least had a full 10 episode season for both Seasons 7 and 8, and it would have been a cash cow.

...i'm making an ass out of myself by overexplaining an underbaked idea, but i'm not even saying it's "wrong" for showrunners to do mainstream bullshit like ed sheeran - it's just what it is. it got really popular, and this is what happens

The reason this season is hurting HBO is because they already planned a bunch of followups, based on the assumption that people would want more once this season is done. It's like Batman vs Superman. On it's own it made a shit ton of money, but it sat the studio up to lose a bunch on Justice League and have to shelve their long term plans.

I'll be surprised if they actually go ahead with more than one of the current three they're planning.

yeah, HBO develop a LOT of shows but hardly any of them make it to series

Like, what stage of development are they even at? Are there pilot scripts? Anything beyond casting/creatives announcements?

By all means complain about hacky writing but all this handwringing is getting so stupid.

I think it's 1-4, based on the first three books. 5-6, sorta but not quite based on and wrapping up GRRMs work, and 7-8 doing Benioff and Wise's ideas and turning into complete shit as a result.

Genuine question here, and maybe I've been really misunderstanding the timeline, but I keep seeing this repeated - so I gotta ask, where did the idea come from that GRRM has little to absolutely no input on the last two seasons come from? It's my understanding that he still gave them the general outline and ending for them to fill in the blanks and while I totally agree there's been a sharp drop-off in writing quality once they shifted off books, but I've always understood GRRM to be just as involved in these last two seasons as he always has been. It just seems weird that there's this consensus that Benioff and Wise have been like sneaking behind GRRM's back to finish the show.

if it's wrong, it's not because of the cynicism that makes it wrong. i'm not sure how ed sheeran gets more screen time than missandei unless someone who is involved with running the show is mainly focused on mainstream appeal rather than what makes for a good show.

Hrrm, bit of an exaggeration but maybe the people making it are big fans of Ed Sheeran?

There's some joke about the tastes of the showrunners here but I'm not sure where to take it

love to scoff about *mainstream appeal* when the show is insanely popular. they're basically the Ed Sheeran of swords-and-sorcery television shows!

xpost I thought he said he was stepping away from the show and its orbit to focus on writing the books?