A Game of Thrones - TV Show Discussion Thread

[Guynemer]

Shut up, I'm trying to bait Guy.

Actually, don't bother. I'm done with this conversation.

Reading is fundamental.

[Krill]

Boo.

[Arrian]

I've read the first 3 books and am partway through 4 now.

Holy **** does this guy do baaaaaaaad things to his characters. Like, all of them. It's so over the top it's starting to seriously annoy me. I daren't actually care about/root for anybody.

-Arrian

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Just think of it as a literary game of survivor. You know which player is getting offed by the amount of coverage they get. BY the time you get around to liking a character in the book, lights out.

[Arrian]

I hate survivor and everything it stands for. Hrm. But I'm 3 1/4 books in! I'm invested now. Bastards.

-Arrian

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

[Nelson Laugh]

Ha Ha!

[/Nelson Laugh]

[Guynemer]

Wife just bought the books for me. Gonna dive into it sometime in the next week or two.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

And when you've done that, brush your teeth and start reading the books.

[Guynemer]

Well played.

[Sparrowhawk]

As someone enjoying this series mainly by reading about it here, I would appreciate it those of you with the means continued to update those of us without on how the latest episode was.....

/me

[OzzyKP]

Introduced some fat kid, Stark did lots of investigating, and his wife arrested the dwarf. Looks like things will get messy in the next one.

[Bosh]

And we get to see Bronn. Yay Bronn!

[Zoetstofzoetje]

As someone enjoying this series mainly by reading about it here, I would appreciate it those of you with the means continued to update those of us without on how the latest episode was.....

/me

latest episode:

Felicia stops by the Forrester mansion to see her mother, who tells her about Taylor and Nick's battle for custody of baby Jack. Stephanie feels that Taylor's drinking is not a reason by itself to take the baby away, but Felicia admits that she could see why Nick would be concerned. Stephanie agrees that Nick has a right to worry, but she also thinks that Nick and Brooke are going about this the wrong way, since taking Taylor's child from her won't help any of them. Changing the subject, Felicia asks about Eric. Stephanie explains that Eric is still living here, but she's not going to read too much into that. At the same time, she thinks that Eric, after years of waiting, has finally seen that she's capable of compassion, and she thinks that could bring about the miracle she's been hoping for that will keep Eric and the family together. Felicia seems surprised by her mother's reference to "compassion" and "miracles" and asks Stephanie what plan she has up her sleeve to keep Eric with the family.

[Supr49er]

really good episode last night.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

There are a number of things annoying me about this show.

Firstly, they've got a "What the **** is going on?" Man, played by Iain Glen. A "What the **** is going on?" Man is a character existing only as a plot device to patiently explain to the viewer what the **** is going on, in contrived dialogue with another character. Put bluntly, he's the fiction equivalent of a link to Wikipedia.

That appears to be all he's there for. We can be sure he won't die, at least not until Blonde Bint has been fully assimilated in the Ludicrous Barbarian Horde, because if he did die, the viewer would be left baffled.

"What the **** is going on?" Men were perfectly acceptable in fairy tales, where they'd pop up briefly as a "wise old man", impart a piece of crucial plot-advancing info, then bugger off again- but that's because fairy tales were designed to be told in ten minutes to an unsophisticated audience. In a massive fantasy opus, it's just lazy writing.

Secondly there's the Ludicrous Barbarian Horde. Real-life nomadic tribes are fascinating cultures with rich beliefs and iconographies- but if this bunch were depicted any more sketchily they'd be stick men. Blonde Bint is trying to learn their language, and it really wouldn't surprise me if the entire lexicon consisted of "horse", "foal", "pony", "saddle", "bridle" and "kill everything that doesn't have hooves".

The Ludicrous Barbarian Horde are a ravening plague, sweeping all civilisation before them, but three hours in and they've done nothing more than potter around grasslands, very slowly. In fur bikinis. And it's "horse" this, and "horse" that, and "horse off, you horsing horse!". I think we've got the "horse" motif unshakeably established by now, guys. Finally, in episode three, we get a glimpse of their religion in a couple of places, and what does it turn out to be? The Great Stallion. **** you.

I'm trying to think of a more one-dimensional people depicted on celluloid, and the only thing that comes close are the Arabs in "Team America: World Police".

Then you've got the barbarian leader, who is a cross between Ming the Merciless and Freddie Mercury's very wettest dream. He's there to look muscled and gay. Not to talk or act, clearly. His character arc, and that of Blonde Bint, is to show how cultural assimilation is achieved by having the lady go on top when shagging. In episode one he was brutally deflowering her like a doggy-style jackhammer, but by episode three they're dreamily snuggly-wuggly cuddly and just about to talk about feelings and kittens and ****. By episode five the arc will be completed by her violently buggering him with a strap-on while bellowing "I'M THE ****ING DADDY NOW, *****!!".

That whole Barbarian horde arc is rubbish. It's nowhere near as interesting as the game I'm now playing with Blonde Fop Incest Man, which is trying to guess when he'll attempt a new facial expression. He's three episodes in with the same fixed mask of smug nonchalence, and the suspense is now reaching Hitchcock levels. I can't rule out the possibility that he attempted a grimace while approaching the vinegar stroke with his sister in episode one, but I was wholly engrossed by boobs at the time.