Who all is ready for the new season of GoT this Sunday? :)

Avanah

After the long wait, we finally get to start the new season.

Cleffy

I'm not gonna bother watching until it releases on video. No point buying a subscription to HBO just for GoT.

DKLond

No, it doesn't really suck - it's just not for me.

I greatly enjoyed the first season - but it's been a pretty steady decline ever since then.

I'm not really into the whole fascination with slaughtering protagonists left and right in the name of "realism". I think that's pretty silly, actually. Like a good concept that was taken way too far.

I mean, it was powerful at the end of season one - but once it's clear it's part of the whole mantra, it just gets tiresome and stupid for me.

Beyond that, I can't quite get behind the idea of a show so faithfully based on a beloved book - when it's been established that the writer can't finish the material in time. I mean, what the f**k?

Imagine if they did that with Lord of the Rings around Return of the King?

Clearly, it's now about money and nothing more.

Doesn't mean it's bad - it's just not my style. Too much emphasis on the spectacle and "glorious" violence.

DKLond

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

DKLond said:

I'm not really into the whole fascination with slaughtering protagonists left and right in the name of "realism".

Never read William Shakespeare then. Because it's 100x worse than Game of Thrones.

No, too many superfluous words for my tastes

I've seen a few movies, though. I'm not a huge fan of Shakespeare, but I don't think realism was ever part of that equation. Seems to me it was more like "poetic" tragedy.

Based on interviews with Martin, I understand that he kills people because that's what happened back then.

Which is a good point, except I think most writers realise that already. Personally, I don't think the formula works when you keep doing it - because it loses its effect and becomes a gimmick.

Honestly, I think he's just being sadistic at this point. Certainly the show runners are. Ridiculously over-the-top torture and death scenes, stabbing pregnant women and what not. To me, that's for another kind of audience than myself.

Also, I have to say I find it laughable that the pop-culture comic relief dwarf somehow always lives - despite being the first one killed in any realistic scenario.

I don't have to bring up how many ridiculous situations he somehow survived because he's "smart", do I?

Nah, not for me.

DKLond

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

Just couple example among many from Shakespeare:

Hamlet: everybody dies except two people! Shakespearee kills more characters than in the whole Game of Thrones, in less than three hours.

Titus Andronicus: A girl gets dragged in a forest by two guys and is brutally raped, and then they cut off her tongue and hands so she can never tell who did this to her. Her father finds out about the rape, figures out who the two guys are, murders them, bakes them into a pie and feeds it to their mother. Then, the father murders the daughter because she got raped. That makes the "Red Wedding" in Game of Thrones look like a "Carebears" episode.

Help me out here:

What's your point with this?

Shakespeare is not writing medieval low-fantasy stories with an emphasis on realism - and his writing is OBVIOUSLY about the poetry of words - and almost all his tales are deliberate tragedies, done for effect. It was meant for theater.

If that's what Martin is trying to do - he really needs to work on his presentation and start getting lyrical.

DKLond

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

My point is, Game of Thrones isn't that violent compared to many other fantasy works. And yes, Shakespeare is fantasy. Or just read the Conan books from Howard, too. Or the Elric series from Michael Moorcock.

Truth is, some people are able to take fantasy violence (and death), be it in books or movies, better than others. For instance, my mother is a huge thriller reader, yet she was never able to get to the end of "Bone Collector", while I had no problems with it.

Death, murder, rape and violence happens in Game of Thrones just like during periods of war in our real world, and that what makes the series more interesting than most of the "politically correct" crap we get served otherwise.

To each his own

I don't think you're getting what I'm saying.

I appreciate violence when I understand there's a good reason for it, and that I think it's a meaningful part of the story. For instance, I think one of the strongest scenes in cinema history is the opening war scene from Saving Private Ryan. That's because I understand the movie was trying to show real war with no holds barred. It was disturbing and it was shocking - but it was absolutely part of the story.

Also, I'm talking about protagonists - not random people getting killed. What Martin is doing is making you invest in his characters - and then slaughtering them for effect - because it's "real". Except when it comes to his favorite characters, of course.

I think that concept is good when it serves the story - and when it's handled right. Like the death at the end of the first season - where it had a profound impact. 

But, it loses its impact if it happens all the time - and if you go too over-the-top, it just gets silly. The same goes for shows like Walking Dead - where it becomes like a parody near the end.

It's almost like a trend these days.

But it's true, some people can't get enough of violence and rape - and they think it's cool and entertaining no matter what.

To each his own

cameltosis

As with all the previous series, I'll wait until season 6 is released on DVD before I watch it. 


I must admit, I started off not liking GoT. My ex watched it on TV when it first came out, but I think I only made it to episode 4 before giving up due to boredom. Its basically just a period drama interspersed with brief bits of fantasy. 

I've also read all of the books and this both helps and hinders my enjoyment of the series. It helps because it gives me stuff to look forwards to and a deeper connection to the characters, but hinders because you really notice that the TV series leaves out a lot of the interesting content (fights, battles, politics, schemes) in order to focus on the personal stuff - peoples feelings. 


Still, season 5 ended on a great note and as there are no books beyond it, we're now stepping into the unknown which is exciting!

Cleffy

So what you are saying is violent American Drama and Video games are the new Shakespeare since all the other nations would rather show sex than violence.

Avanah

Cleffy said:

So what you are saying is violent American Drama and Video games are the new Shakespeare since all the other nations would rather show sex than violence.

Who are you replying to?

Cleffy

Please wait until August to release spoilers. That's when the season is usually released on video.
I was replying to Captain Picard who said Shakespeare was violent.

filmoret

They are doing a piss poor job at covering content.  For example the last episode they spend 6 minutes of the episode just walking a naked woman down the road.  The whole time I'm thinking they need to cover some content and quit wasting my time with this crap.  They really need about 20 episodes a year and quit overdramatizing the nudity like its important to the story.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Avanah

blueturtle13 said:

I know what GoT is but I did not enjoy the books I did read (Only read the first two) So I have no desire to see the show. The overly sexual nature of the show is not appealing to me either.

How do you know the nature of the show if you have not watched it yet? Books? Throw them away, WATCH the Show and thank me later.

It's like me saying Kettles are not Black because I have not seen Black ones so it must be true.

I had your same mindset BEFORE I started watching it. Sex in GoT is maybe 5% of the series. The Story is Awesome.

filmoret

Woo Hoo......  John Snow is alive.

filmoret

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

filmoret said:

They are doing a piss poor job at covering content.  For example the last episode they spend 6 minutes of the episode just walking a naked woman down the road.  The whole time I'm thinking they need to cover some content and quit wasting my time with this crap.  They really need about 20 episodes a year and quit overdramatizing the nudity like its important to the story.

I don't know if you've read the books or not, but the "walk of shame" had to be long enough to make one feel the nightmare Cersei was going through.
I found it was just perfect in the series.

If you can't accept that, I'd suggest sticking to fast paced criminal series which tell one complete story every episode.

So far they are doing better this season.  But there's only 7 episodes left.  You cant really do crap with 7 episodes when they have 1k hours of content to cover.