GAME OF THRONES

[Incanus 5,713]

BloodBoal, I'll never let hype and expectation cloud my judgement

Reserved realist then. Good to know.

[Brónach 1,301]

Yeah, but that's were the problem lies with season 2. The overall execution. The story is there, but it felt too much "all over the place". I know I've said it many times, but I'll say it again nonetheless: the editing was atrocious at times. I'd rather have a character storyline completely omitted for 2 episodes, so when we get back to it, we can have a good 15-20 minutes spent on it, rather than 2 minutes scenes of this storyline in each episode.

I've been thinking this, too. There should be like two or three different storylines at most in each episode.

However this problem is minimized if you see five episodes in a row like I prefer doing.

[Incanus 5,713]

If they had good old 24 episodes a season then 45 minute episodes with focus on certain characters would certainly work and the show would be all better for it I think.

[Brónach 1,301]

I don't think they need that many episodes, just reorganize the structure of the ones they have. Jumping around ten different places in a single episode is a mess. The order these events are shown becomes almost random and there isn't that much of a dramatic arc through the episode.

[Incanus 5,713]

Yup I agree but you can't deny it would be even better if they had a longer time to develop all the storylines.

[Brónach 1,301]

Yeah. Thankfully next it'll be 20 episodes for a single book. That can work.

[Quintus 5,399]

No it won't. We're getting ten episodes and ten only.

[Brónach 1,301]

Season three is the first half of Storm of Swords, season four the second half. Then seasons five and six will tell the events of Feast and Dance at the same time, chronologically.

[Quintus 5,399]

Benioff and Weiss also noted that they thought of Game of Thrones as an adaptation of the novel series as a whole, rather than of individual books, which gave them the liberty to move scenes back and forth across books according to the requirements of the screen adaptation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_of_Thrones_(season_3)

At the end of the day it's still ten episodes per season.

[Brónach 1,301]

It's still 20 episodes for A Storm of Swords. They're using the double of screentime for a book that they'd used before. People wanted a 12 episode season, but this is better. It'll be less compressed and breathe more.

[Jonesy 55]

I haven't read the books yet, but I agree with Chaac, next season should be 20 episodes. After watching the last episode of 2nd season, I need to read the books.

[Quintus 5,399]

We all agree on that, but that's not what Chaac was actually saying.

[KK 3,307]

Chasc is basically saying you're getting 20 episodes for 1 book contrary to the the 10 eps per book concept for the last 2 seasons.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Incanus 5,713]

Well duh!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Incanus 5,713]

Well that pretty much confirms what I have been thinking all along. Funny that there is a actually a "perv exec" on the set to maintain correct amount of boobage for the series.

[Quintus 5,399]

Hopefully the bigger it gets the more sway and control the director's will have, at least the regulars.

But that is just fucking pathetic.

[Wojo 2,453]

So they're just confirming what the SNL skit pointed out two months ago? They're slow.

[KK 3,307]

So they're just confirming what the SNL skit pointed out two months ago? They're slow.

What I'mmore surprised at it is how he got away with that blunt confession. Isn't he like legally obliged to cover that embarrassing excuse up with fluffy excuses of "realism" and all that crap?

[Datameister 2,037]

Assuming that article is true, it certainly matches up with what we were seeing up until fairly recently in the show.

I just watched the finale. Meh...for some reason, I'm still watching this show, so I guess they're doing something right. The acting certainly plays some role in it...as I've said before, it's delightful to see something in a genre somewhat similar to that of LOTR, but without the embarrassing cheesiness. I really like how this series takes a more realistic approach.

[Incanus 5,713]

Assuming that article is true, it certainly matches up with what we were seeing up until fairly recently in the show.

I just watched the finale. Meh...for some reason, I'm still watching this show, so I guess they're doing something right. The acting certainly plays some role in it...as I've said before, it's delightful to see something in a genre somewhat similar to that of LOTR, but without the embarrassing cheesiness. I really like how this series takes a more realistic approach.

Obviously you would think Iliad and Odyssey or Aineis as grand standing stuffiness then I take it.

[Datameister 2,037]

Depends on how they were translated, directed, and acted!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[pixie_twinkle 48]

Okay, so I've finally jumped on the bandwagon. My wife bought me the first 4 books for my birthday erlier this year and after reading the first two I realized we HAD to buy the blu ray. I'm halfway through book 3, and we're about to watch episode 10 of season 1 while eating homemade eggplant and meat lasagne and drinking Pinot Grigio. The books and TV show are both spectacularly fun! I hear books 4 and 5 are a bit less action-packed. Guess I'll find out soon enough.

[KK 3,307]

The 4th book is the least exciting with a lot more character driven scenes, but it falters compared to its predecessors (still a great book though). But the 5th book is fantastic stuff.

[Datameister 2,037]

Oh, this thread was better off without you! Why did you have to come back? Don't have you some piano transcription to do? You're good at that, but not at criticizing GoT. Leave it to the professionals, kiddo.

P.S.: This post is not meant to be taken seriously. The opinions and views expressed in the above commentary belong solely to BloodBoal's fingers who typed it and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of BloodBoal.

Unless I'm mistaken, I spent more time criticizing LOTR than GOT in that post...your fingers should read more carefully next time!

Now, if I wanted to criticize GOT, I would bring up how absurdly difficult it is to follow the storyline, and how amusing it is to read synopses of episodes I've watched and go, "Huh, so that's what happened." But I don't, so I won't.

[Incanus 5,713]

Oh, this thread was better off without you! Why did you have to come back? Don't have you some piano transcription to do? You're good at that, but not at criticizing GoT. Leave it to the professionals, kiddo.

P.S.: This post is not meant to be taken seriously. The opinions and views expressed in the above commentary belong solely to BloodBoal's fingers who typed it and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of BloodBoal.

Unless I'm mistaken, I spent more time criticizing LOTR than GOT in that post...your fingers should read more carefully next time!

Now, if I wanted to criticize GOT, I would bring up how absurdly difficult it is to follow the storyline, and how amusing it is to read synopses of episodes I've watched and go, "Huh, so that's what happened." But I don't, so I won't.

In all honesty I have often wondered how well people who have not read the novels can follow the myriad plots and characters in the series. Since you can't watch an episode casually and expect then to remember or understand fully what's going on. You have to pay attention a lot to names and places etc.

[Brónach 1,301]

I haven't read the books and I've been able to follow it.

And even without reading the books I can tell they don't have clear some priorities at the time of choosing what to put of screen.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Incanus 5,713]

[Quintus 5,399]

Ah, pop culture. It's great!

So I've been thinking about the messy second season today and it dawned on me that the producers really missed a shrewd trick with their structuring of the second season from the off: Quarth should have been jettisoned completely. In as far as the tv show goes, Quarth was nothing but filler, nothing came out of that arc other than Daenery's eventually came to place all of her trust in Jorah by the end of the season and go with his plan as laid out at the beginning of the season. Instead of showing her and her Khalasar traipsing across the desert the writers would've been smart to just forget the Quarth sidequest () and have her reaching the coast (where they could've invented some loosely related-to-Quarth drama, before resolving to go with Jorah at the end of the season. Simply put: they should have cut her character appearances in half and spent the time and money saved on North of The Wall sequences and - most importantly - the siege of King's Landing.

Ignoring the purists; it would've made for far tighter television, imo. Instead all we got with Daenery's by the end of S2 was some inconsequential bloat about her dragons being stolen and Jorah Mormont earned plenty of XP and levelled up. Even what was there of Quarth is, in hindsight, laughably bad: The Mother of Dragon's shows up at some mysterious yet exotic utopia governed by rich traders eccentric socialites - a place where we are lead to believe there are no troubles or poverty, little concern of the world outside of its gates (which are apparently impenetrable, for some reason), a veritable paradise on earth for a select few, by all accounts.

A couple of weeks later they're all dead and Daenery's checks out. And that's it.

To paraphrase Tolkien, who once told a movie exec whom was fretting about adapting LotR and the astronomical cost of filming not one, but two huge battles to, "just skip Helms Deep, then."

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Quintus 5,399]

They could've done the whole 'Daenery's learns' crap on the way to the coast and at whatever city or harbour town they arrive at when there.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Quintus 5,399]

Quarth-in-Half.

Better still: just have her queuing up at customs for the whole show in two minute increments.

[Brónach 1,301]

The should have had the House of the Undying better done through various episodes. And cut out the rest or Qarth. As in, the House of the Undyin is in the coast, there's maybe a little town. After it Dany reflects and basically they plan to assault a ship and take it by force. Which could be shot in the Davos' ship set with some convenient changes.

Or steal gold to pay mercenaries or end up conquering the town or... you know, if Dany isn't going to be a kid in the show, she should be more the future conquerer type of character who starts from nothing. And flesh better her motivations.

[Incanus 5,713]

Daenerys' slow growth to understanding what it is to be a ruler, not just claiming to be a monarch, but actually showing the qualities and making difficult choices is what is in center of her story. This story arc is slow plodding in any case but Qarth could have been handled differently. Her story was in the sidelines most of the season, we see glimpses of her with parched lips and furrowed brow in the desert and finally arriving at Qarth and it became into prominence too suddenly in the final episodes I think. Qarth was also characterized very quickly and obscurely leading viewers to wonder what kind of Shangri-la that place is, as we do not see anything but the rich merchants in this city. But in the end the storyline gets the job done, Dany getting a boat out of the miserable town.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Quintus 5,399]

"and Mormont, for the last time, STOP looking down my top."

"Forgive me Khaleesi, I was merely checking your boarding pass."

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Incanus 5,713]

A good if an unexpected choice. If truth be told I had given up on Brynden Tully's appearance in the show as he should have been introduced a good while ago. Nice to see him in the 3rd season.

[SF1_freeze 131]

I thought it was a brilliant choice to delay the introduction of the Tully's to season 3. Season 2 alone had so many new characters that non book readers had a hard time following every one.

Riverun and the Tully's had no place in the first two seasons or the whole show would have collapsed under all the different characters and factions. Of course purists won't agree but if hardcore book purists were the showrunners we wouldn't even have reached a third season. They wouldn't have the heart to change things like shorten or lenghten storylines which would result in boring and overcomplicated TV.

Let's be glad we have D&D who mostly did a fantastic job!

[Incanus 5,713]

You seem to think everything about the show is brilliant.

But yes I agree, keeping Riverun for season 3 was a good idea so as to keep the convoluted plot and myriad characters manageable.

[SF1_freeze 131]

You seem to think everything about the show is brilliant.

But yes I agree, keeping Riverun for season 3 was a good idea so as to keep the convoluted plot and myriad characters manageable.

Yeah i mostly do, it's a TV show of one of the best stories ever which is 90% true to the books. People get used to good stuff far too fast and start nitpicking. You can criticize even the best movies and shows on the planet, you just have to look hard enough (even if you love the stuff).

I'm a half glass full kind of person and that makes life far easier . But well, one of the reasons is that there is much more to talk and discuss when talking about things people don't like

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Incanus 5,713]

Quite spot on, again!

Where are my dragons!

[KK 3,307]

That was even better than the first one and once again quite accurate!

Littlefinger Dance Party!!!