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

"A pair of threes: whore it up"

i tried playing the ccg based on game of thrones once; it was kind of tedious but intersting. i think once ya got the hang of it/bought enough good cards it could be fun.

okay, so i watched the first four episodes over the last couple days, never having read any of the books (i did like martin as a pop sci-fi and horror writer back in the 80s). pretty good, though very slow moving, thankfully light on faux-celtic swords & sorcery bullshit.

couple things:

1) i get that the dothraki are wide ranging barbarians who take tribute in the form of slaves from all over, and that their culture is therefore multiracial (to some extent). fine, but why are the people of the seven kingdoms so uniformly white? do the seven kingdoms form a closed society or one that hasn't traded much with the rest of the world? understand why winterfell, as a fortified outpost run by a single family, might be racially/culturally homogeneous, but i expected king's landing to be more cosmopolitan. do the books address this?

2) so, are people so politically moronic the books? i mean, everybody just seems to flat out announce their intentions when they first meet friends and even enemies. i get why ned, a somewhat slow-witted but basically noble soldier, might not get the nuances of political discretion, but the lannisters, supposedly these devious & sophisticated aristocrats, come across as total fucking idiots, never missing an opportunity to warn everybody around them that they're entirely self-centered and hostile towards any perceived competition.

anyway, it's okay so far, if a bit light on the wonder and creativity i go to fantasy for.

but the lannisters, supposedly these devious & sophisticated aristocrats, come across as total fucking idiots

well, the lannisters you've MET. cersei lannister is meant to be paranoid and shortsighted - she sees herself as a schemer, but all her machinations are transparent and predictable. jaime lannister's a career soldier who doesn't care about anything except fighting and banging his sister.

okay, that helps

I've totally been getting the impression that Jaime has designs on the throne.

Did Kat plan to bump into the Imp and have him arrested, or was it a spur of the moment thing?

just a coincidence

Yeah, that's what I thought. Despite a few unclear motivations etc I am really really enjoying this, by the way. People are saying it's slow, but I don't think so at all. I've found almost every scene so far to be compelling, and the production values are superb.

The time taken to introduce the characters and setup def pays off once the "game" really gets going

http://i52.tinypic.com/10y2wlk.gif

lol

I would like Carcetti to suddenly appear at my side to give me advice at times.

and then tell you he's untrustworthy

that gif is great!

excellent giffage

that gif reminds me of the nymag recaps (which have been great) where margaret lyons points out how creepy and rape-tinged almost every scene is

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/05/game_of_thrones_recap_a_newbie_1.html

she also makes one of my favorite character-based analogies, which is sansa:arya::becky:darlene

wau @ sansa:arya::becky:darlene

i love how it looks like he's being rolled into the shot!

I can't find a clip but imagine I'm posting, here, the scene from Dead and Loving It in which Dracula's diaphanous henchwomen are revealed to be rolled across the floor on a pull-board.

where are the dragons

why was jousting not any different from earth jousting

why is it not monster-fighting time yet

I do like this show but can't help but compare its pacing to that of Rome (which I loved so much).

Rome was awesome

^^^^ I miss Rome. Especially the hot older Julie Cooper looking lady.

I wish this had production values a little more like Rome's, but I guess that's kind of a dead-end considering how much Rome cost.

Julii Cooper iirc

xpost

totally nicked that from TWoP now that I think about it

god i kinda hated rome :( didn't watch anything beyond the first season.

robyn, a large part of game of thrones's appeal lies in that it is not overtly fantastical. so if you want dragons & elves & wizards & shit you might be a bit disappointed, espesh at first.

why was jousting not any different from earth jousting

― obliquity of the ecliptic (rrrobyn), Thursday, May 12, 2011 3:55 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark

they should've been riding big-ass dignified birds

hella joustin on a big ass dignified bird

sansa:arya::becky:darlene

yesssssssssssss!!!

I hadn't seen that NY Mag stuff - excited to read. Also, Ian otm re the fantastical elements and everyone except Ian otm regarding Rome. I have the boxset but haven't watched it since it aired originally. Keep meaning to.

read 'hella joustin' as a french name first time around.

lol

yeah what happened is that I rewatched the first ep w my brother, who hadn't yet watched GoT, and it's so good, and then as eps go on there are so many hints at 'other-worldly' things yet none have really shown themselves. I'd actually be cool w no dragons n stuff if I didn't feel incessantly taunted about there being dragons n stuff one day maybe if yr good.

I really like this idea of dragons + fantasy stuff being a part of the vernacular but not really present. It gives a sense not just of a world in its post-wonderous age (this kind of moment after all the heroes have died and this is what remains) but also an analogue to our own culture where these fairy tales and stories are always very prevalent tho clearly these things don't exist. And I imagine that in the War of the Roses era that GoT is based off, there was probably this real sense of magic just off in the corners of society (whether it's mermaid icons on seafaring maps or the Church going after benandanti for being witches). Obviously it's more real here in GoT (where there are remnants of these things -- in people's memories, or in the dragon eggs) than IRL, but still I like this sense of it being absent from the day to day politics that actually run shit.

srsly tho if I'd been the author's editor I would have at least wondered openly to him about jousting scene's relative normalcy.
but I do understand that it's tv and needs to be a bit more sustainable than Rome re budget etc.
xp

Obviously you're going to have to be very good this year so we can ALL have dragons, rrrobyn.

I was thinking along a similar line, yes! The half-forgetting or loss of magic is really interesting. maybe the lighting and line delivery just makes the supernatural lore stuff seem like taunting rather than just nostalgia or a yearning for faith or whatever it might be.
xp

hahaaa :)

finished the 2nd book yesterday, working on the third as we speak

damn!

most fucked up thing in series so far happens in book 3. enjoy!

oh good

i can't wait to hear what you think of storm of swords max. its the craziest book!!!

ya i was supposed to go out tonight with some friends but.... that might not happen

i cannot tell you how excited i was when i looked and there were TWO NEW MAPS in the front

TWO NEW MAPS!!

and the old maps had NEW DETAILS

ok just laughed out loud at that dude beheading his horse

was the loras/renly thing hinted at in the books? I don't remember the gay subtext at all. maybe an addition by HBO?

shit got real this week