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GAME OF THRONES


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I don't think Djawadi is completely untalented or anything, but the scores he provides for the show are just on a different level than every other aspect of production.  Like we get all this expensive location shooting, perfect and seamless visual effects, great costumes and makeup, huge sets, the works.... and then cheap sounding synth music that drone away with un-memorable themes.  If any show on TV in the 2010s deserves the LOST approach of strong, catchy, memorable themes tied to characters, goals, and places, its GOT, but alas, it wasn't meant to be

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I think the simple fact is that the show-runners aren't particularly interested in having a complex and pro-active score. There might also be an issue of time; given how tight a schedule the production seems to be operating on, it might be that they need something that can be knocked out very quickly...

 

I very much disagree, though, that the themes are unmemorable. They're mostly so simple as to be easily memorable, but the vast majority of them seem to go completely unnoticed by most people.

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Djawadi seems to be more effective as a sci-fi composer with his work fitting like a glove on Westworld. His GoT scores are so synth-based they betray the style of the rest of the show. Couldn't his assignment to the show simply be that Jonathan Nolan couldn't get Hans, so they called up RCP to ask who was free?

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I will say that at first I had difficulty remembering music from the show, outside the obvious themes like that of the Lannisters, the Greyjoys, Danaerys and the main title

but while the show itself has sorta gone down in quality, I find the music becoming more interesting and Hardhome was definitely a standout

though that may just be because the context adds some weight to it (it being one of the few good moments from season 5)

But dont take my opinion that strongly, I cant even tell good synths from bad ones

 

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4 hours ago, BloodBoal said:

 

Definitely.

 

Though I'm not sure if we can totally blame him for the GOT score being heavy on synths: the producers probably don't allocate that much money to the music, and it's possible he would have used less synths, had he been given a bigger budget to work with.

 

Pure speculation, of course.

 

Some of Djawadi's other scores boast much better production values when it comes to synths and orchestra (ex. Pacific Rim), so I think it is very much a budgetary thing.

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  • 2 weeks later...

TBH I seen him as a less successful Orlando Bloom once the series ends. 

 

He can play his version of John Snow but I think that's it for him. 

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18 minutes ago, BloodBoal said:

I find Bloom to have a bit more charisma and to be a bit more talented than Harrington. Harrington just seems to have only one facial expression (but maybe that's the role that requires that...).

 

Harrington just plays the same thing in Pompeii from the few minutes I was subjected to it seems.

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3 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

Oh no...Sheeran...why....WHY?!

 

Apparently its cringetastic too?

 

He doesn't get brutally disembowelled on screen either 🙁

 

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10 minutes ago, BloodBoal said:

Oh, so Sheeran's is in the first episode, then? OK, I guess I'll skip this one.

 

TBH, the ground covered in this episode is probabky so minimal you could just watch the recap next week and be fine. 

 

7 minutes ago, Cerebral Cortex said:

 

Not yet, at least. 

 

Aye, I'd rather he wasn't in two episodes, thanks very much. 

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Just now, BloodBoal said:

 

Isn't that always the case when it comes to the first episode of each season of GOT? Basically it's just "Hey, look, the characters are back! And now they're going to remind you what they did last season and what they're planning to do for this season! Oh, look, it's already over! Bye!"

 

I had hoped this opening episode would be more dynamic, though, given this season is shorter than usual and we're getting closer to the climax of the story. Plus, weren't we promised the season would start off right away with a bang? More LIES! "Jon Snow is dead! 100% dead!" Yeah, right! Fuck you!

 

 

TWO episodes? WHAT? Fuck! So I'll only get to watch 5 episodes this season? Fuck!

 

Its going to be the same as every other season, except shorter. 

 

The final episode will be the usual end-cap with promises of a big explosive opening to season 8 before the inevitability dull first episode. 

 

I dont think he actually is in two of them. 

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1 minute ago, BloodBoal said:

 

Thank god!

 

 

But wait... What if... he is in fact Azor Ahai???

 

I'll burn my Game of Thrones boxsets and upload the video to YouTube. 

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Game of Thrones is like Cops or any other Reality Police car serial/doco: they follow the stories of three or four separate people, one is caught with possession of drugs, another drink-driving, and the other one has no registration plates. The three stories develop and build up to the moment of truth, showing you snippets teasing what happens next, but ultimately you've been duped; the ads interrupt and at the end of the whole half an hour, you've realised the episode you just watched was actually maybe ten minutes long stretched into thirty minutes! 

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Some nice character moments in this episode, but it sure would've been nice if the episode had started with Dany saying "Shall we begin" instead of ending there.  Felt like such a laid-back beginning to everything.  Nice character moments though.  Outside of the horror of Sheeran, that scene with Arya and the soldiers was actually really nice.  And The Hound's scene burying the man and his daughter was good too.

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Over the weekend we watched a recap episode from Sky TV, it was like an hour long and spend 10 minutes recapping each of the six seasons, peppered with little interview bits from some cast members and random UK journalists and TV personalities.  It was kinda weird, the recapping of the early seasons it was like man, I remember all this completely, but when it recapped season 6 was when I actually had forgotten some stuff!  Man is it weird sometimes seeing how young some of the younger actors were in the older seasons; They've grown so much!

 

Then last night, we signed up for HBO Now again and had the season 6 finale on in the background while we were waiting for the season premiere to be available.  It still is a really well-done, effective episode, innit.  I liked rewatching it and realizing that the girl pouring wine at The Twins was Arya the whole time, seeing Old Town and The Citadel again for the first time, I had completely forgotten too that Cold Hands / Uncle Benjen Stark was in it, and the Sand Snake people too (the recap didn't really mention how Dorne had joined the Targaryen / Martell merger as well).  Another good scene was when Dany talks to Tyrion and makes him Hand To The Queen.  It was like the best acting she's done (not that she's ever going to be great at acting by any means), and Dinklage was just fantastic as always.


The season premiere was good!  I'll write about that next.

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9 minutes ago, Quintus said:

I've practical forgotten everything that happened in the last season. Might need to find a good recap myself.

 

Honestly, after watching the premiere last night, I don't think its actually necessary at all.  So much of what happened in the past is irrelevant because the characters are dead and only the current status of the living characters is what matters, and throughout the premiere all the characters tell you their current status in their scenes.  Cersei's first scene even features a giant map to help visualize the current situation everywhere!

 

If you want to watch the UK recap, its Game.of.Thrones.The.Story.So.Far.2017.720p.HDTV.x264-PLUTONiUM

 

https://www.cplproductions.co.uk/production/game-of-thrones-the-story-so-far/

 

http://www.asset1.net/show/game-of-thrones/gallery/story-so-far

 

 

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Game of Thrones 7x01 Dragonstone

 

This episode did its standard job of reminding you the current situation of all the various characters, having them state to others what their goals are for now, and also featured some interesting character developments throughout the episode as well.  Very good, if typical start to a new season!

 

Winterfell - I really like all the Jon/Sansa moments here.  Last season's finale kind of set up a growing discontent between these two, at least on Sansa's side, particularly as spurred on by Littlefinger, and this season premiere continued that strand nicely.  I like how you can honestly see both sides of the Karstark/whatever that other house was issue, and how Jon laid down his decision and Sansa later talked to him about it.  Littlefinger continues to push her one way of course, and you wonder what goals he's working on now, if any beyond simply wanting to marry Sansa and be the Lord of Winterfell.  I also really liked the scene where Jon gets the note informing him that Cersei is queen and wants him to go to King's Landing and bow down, etc, and his viewpoint is "they are 1000 miles south and won't come up here, I've seen the Night King and we need to prepare for that" while Sansa's is "I know what Cersei is capable of, she'll find a way to get what she wants".  I have a feeling by the end of the season, some action of Cersei will result in the North losing a battle against the Walkers they would have won otherwise, or something along those lines.

 

The Hound & The Brotherhood - These scenes were really nice!  I liked the character growth The Hound has gone through a lot, I hope he doesn't eventually die fighting The Mountain at some point!  The scene where he buried the family was just a really nice moment for him, but the scene where he sees the vision of the White Walkers marching past an arrowhead mountain was really well done and a good reminder of their looming presence!  Oh yea, that shot of the White Walker army marching through the snow with AT LEAST THREE giants was REALLY cool!

 

Arya  - I liked the scene where she is Walder Frey and poisons his whole family ultimately, but it DOES kinda set up this weird dynamics for this world: What I mean is, if a short girl like Arya can look and sound like a tall guy like Walder Frey, how have the Faceless Men not like, taken over the entire planet by now?  It seems like its a powerful enough magic they'd be able to literally get away with anything they wanted.  Oh well. Really liked the scene where she shares a meal with a small group of Lannister supporters, but I wonder what the next thing that would have been said after they laughed at her saying she wanted to kill the queen!  People on this forum make too big a deal of Ed Sheeran's role, he was fine.

 

Sam in Old Town - Kind of a funny montage of him cleaning chamber pots, etc, it probably went on for about a beat or two too long.  I was totally not expecting Jorah to be in Old Town at all, wasn't he supposed to be out looking for a cure?  I wonder what happened to him.  His grayscale has gotten really bad!  It's of course no surprise that Sam's role here is to find a source of dragonglass to tell Jon about, but I just hope that the raven he wrote makes it out since he is very likely going to get caught for being in the restricted section!

 

Also, we both instantly recognized Jim Broadbent's voice right away, but wasn't quite sure it was actually him until there was a hot of him in profile.  I dunno if its the beard or what but he looked different than usual!  He seems to be a perfect addition to the cast.

 

Bran arrives at Castle Black - Nice scene with Edd, but I really have no idea what Bran's role is supposed to be this season yet.

 

Cersei & Jaime - I actually REALLY liked their scenes together.  Jaime so rightfully points out that Cersei has clearly not processed the death of Tommen and just wants to rule the world without thinking about it.  And ALSO rightfully points out that their is little point to setting up a dynasty with no heirs to inherit it!  I was reminded of last year's finale, when Walder Frey chums up with Jaime about how they are both Kingslayers, and Jaime clearly doesn't enjoy the conversation at all.  I wonder if it will ultimately be Jaime who kills Cersei.

 

I really enjoyed with  Euron Greyjoy showed up to pledge allegiance to Cersei!  He's such a charismatic character, and he got so shortchanged last season, I hope he plays a bigger role now. Also, their ships are BAD ASS looking!  I got the sense the "gift" he has in mind for Cersei is Tyrion's dead body, but I'm not really sure.

 

Oh I almost forgot, Cersei's first scene was kinda funny, how they put a giant map on the ground... it really helps visualize to the viewer the current status of basically all the plotlines and how much trouble Cersei is actually in.  However, I can't help but wonder:  Winter is here, right?  Isn't it going to start snowing in King's Landing soon?  That map is going to be covered in snow soon!

 

Daenerys arrives at Dragonstone - This was an incredibly well-done sequence!  I loved how it was dialogue-free until the end.  The way all the characters gave Dany space to take in everything herself first, and the little moment where Missandei holds Grey Worm back when he wants to be closer to her was really nice.  The CGI extensions and set designs here were all ace, and the dialogue Dany does have to end the episode was nice.

 

Bring on episode 2!

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1 minute ago, Jay said:

his viewpoint is "they are 1000 miles south and won't come up here, I've seen the Night King and we need to prepare for that" while Sansa's is "I know what Cersei is capable of, she'll find a way to get what she wants".  

 

Yes I think this is a good character dynamic too.  Both think the threat they personally know is more important than the one they don't.

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Right, exactly!  And they're both right, and they're both wrong!

 

It's kind of like the argument they had over whether to punish the Karstarks for their betrayal or not:  On the one hand, Jon is right that they need every man they can, while Sansa is right because to follow Ned's guidelines they should be punished.  But the thing is, the Karstarks only betrayed them to begin with when Robb followed Ned's guidelines and beheaded their patriarch!  Its all kinda interesting swirling dynamics.

 

 

 

BTW, I forgot to mention the new opening credits - no more Essos at all, and Old Town got added, and looked great!

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5 minutes ago, Jay said:

BTW, I forgot to mention the new opening credits - no more Essos at all

 

Thanks be to God! We only waited 6 full bloody seasons!

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What's not to like about Essos?

 

I'm sure its not the last we've seen of it either;  Not only do I think we'll see what Daario Naharis is up to in Mereen at some point, but I think Valyria will have some role to play in the endgame of the whole saga.

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Seven seasons in and the score continues to make this expensive show look like cheap 1990's fantasy series. Oh the magic of film music.

 

Karol

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Oh thanks, that reminded me of another point I wanted to make.

 

When we were rewatching the Season 6 finale, the music for the whole long Cersei opening was actually good.  But then later in the same episode, there was one of the biggest fails I can remember when watching the show.  It was when Bran has the vision that proves that Jon Snow is actually Ned's sister's daughter from that Targaryen Prince guy, the scene is emotional for Ned, the music is swelling, the transitions from baby Jon Snow to adult Jon Snow, the music is blaring now, and its frankly TERRIBLE music.  Just synthy BLAH.  It's like the pinnacle of emotion and legacy for these characters and the music couldn't have been more bland and obtrusive.  Shame this Djawadi guy can never be consistent through an entire project as he has moments of great writing (like the freaking Main Titles to the show, one of the best main title cues of all time)

 

And then in this new episode, the music at the end for Daenerys arriving at and then walking through Dragonstone, I noticed the music (hard no to, when there is no dialogue).  I actually noticed that it was a blend of the Targaryen theme, with bits of Dany's Theme too, which somewhat surprised me that I ever have been cognizant of those themes and what they represent.  I believe there was even a hint on the main title theme in the cue too, which is always interesting when that pops up.  All that being said, it was still disappointing because it was all so synthy instead of orchestral.  Why can't HBO increase the music budget!?

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It wasn't a bad episode. It wasn't terribly good either. Bit uneventful. My favourite section was involving The Hound. Winterfell and Arya segments were almost completely redundant. And the Cersei exposition scene was very unsubtle.

 

Karol

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