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

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

the loras/renly romance is hinted at, but there is absolutely no chest shaving in the books.

don't understand why daenarys' child is a threat because of the dothraki, but going out and killing the dothraki king's son/wife wouldn't cause recriminations.

yeah that seemed dumb to me as well

danerys having a child will tie the dothraki ppl to Viserys's cause (the reclamation of the throne by the Targaeryens.) Don't see how any possible repercussions (by a people who are afraid to crossing the ocean) is any worse than the foreseen 'dothraki coming to burn our towns' scenario.

Oh man this is getting fantastic, time for tombot bullets

1. King Fat is like the SADDEST GUY I mean seriously between his first and last dialogue scenes in this ep the dude has basically the absolute worst life on the planet, all this motherfucker has for joy is booze and eats, and he's already the king so he can't even dream except of his own kingdom's dissolution, it is laid out, his life SUCKS

2. My main worry about this piece of teevee is that nothing bad happens for Dinklage. Never mind the character, SPOILERS I know his guy outlasts most of the rest END SPOILERS I just want our man in the small costumes to get through the whole series. I mean if I was a betting man Tyrion would be the eventual benevolent dictator and pops to some kinda westeros republic, but to do that right, P.D. needs to survive to be in his fifties, little men are high insurance, anxiety happens.

3. DUDE the monologue about five vs. one is GREAT. Oh shit now it's every man for himself in the seven kingdoms? What? Libertarianism happened and now you have to worry about everyone who's not a libertarian coming after number one with a halberd! This show just got political. LOL RON PAUL, tell me how you would deal with a horde of horse lords.

4. Carcetti is an extraordinarily unboring agent of wordy exposition. I'm excited to see where Prezbo and Marlo show up. There ought to be some room for black Wire alumni in all this, I mean, they did it for Thor.

tombot let me just say that it's a pleasure to see you and i'm glad you're on-board for this shit.

also re point 3, Robert is being fairly practical--of course if there's an invasion he can't have his lords fighting their own wars with one another--his lack of a unified military seems to be a big problem for him, so much that he seems to take it a personal defect.

to the daenarys/dothraki threat question:

If she bears an heir to the dothraki, that heir means a claim to ALL OF THE SHIT EVERYWHERE

If she is killed with her child, in the usual poisonous fashion, prior to the child's coming of age, then that represents WHOOPS OH WELL, try again with a real horse lady, stick to what you know.

Frankly the fact that she is alive and well overseas means little - the fact that she is bedding down with a high ranking army commander means that she may command terrifying leverage. It's all about risk, like a sixteen year picking up carpool rides versus a sixteen year old piloting a brand new Superleggera.

yeah loras/renly threw me for a loop though. nice touch

also re point 3, Robert is being fairly practical--of course if there's an invasion he can't have his lords fighting their own wars with one another--his lack of a unified military seems to be a big problem for him, so much that he seems to take it a personal defect.

Oh I don't disagree with his pragmatism. I'm just pointing out that his status and approach is due to the fact that he finds himself in charge of a libertarian wet dream, the "accidental democracy" where he's been put in charge only so far as he's not pissing off anybody else too much, and unification is beyond his imagination.

If he were clever instead of just being depressed all the time, he would encourage the Dothraki threat (maybe even fund it) because a clear and present foe would provide him the opportunity he needs to unify the kingdoms and prove his worth as an emperor.

I realize this is all already said and done in made-up books by a fat dork. Still.

I keep forgetting how O_O these books are: the breastfeeding weirdo prince, the horse beheading...

breasfeeding Prince Robert is one of the creeeeepiest and most unsettling things to me.

If he didn't turn that shit up to eleven his books wouldn't be an HBO money pit starring people who have starred in other real stuff

well yeah, but I guess getting caught up in the reading of it you forget how freaky-deaky it all is..I honestly dont think of the books like that, but they are

and it's pretty much "abandon all hope etc etc" for any horselovers from now on...kinda downhill from here