Why haven't any of you doll fuckers started a Game of Thrones topic?

[SonGohan]

I somehow managed to not watch any of season 3 until yesterday. I just had way too much shit going on. But last night I downloaded 9 episodes and just finished #9 today. I was surprised to read that somebody (was it Taiso or wasabi up there?) was impressed that they fit it a lot from a book into this season, because I felt things moved kind of slow this season, story-wise. I'm kind of bummed there's only one more episode of this season. I may just read the books to be done with it.

 

[Kiel]

You should read the books, they're excellent.

 

[evil wasabi]

 

[evil wasabi]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/09/justice/california-college-gunman/index.html

the comments section... lol

 

[Taiso]

Good episode.

As a season finale, weak as hell.

 

[Poonman]

Yea, these season finales ending with Denerys (on shit I don't care about) need to stop.

Fuck, Ramsay Bolton is a cunt, and I really wish the series had some payoff....looks like I'll have to wait a couple of years for it though.

 

[Taiso]

My problem with the finale is that as nice as it is to see Danaerys become the mother of the world across the Narrow Sea, there is no catharsis for the audience following events in Westeros.

It's unbelievable how badly they've botched Jon Snow. He is a pale shadow of the character you read about in the books. If the fourth season doesn't correct this, I may very well may not watch it after next year. So much of what made the third book special was seeing him come of age. It was truly mythic to see him evolve. If the TV show were wildly deviating from the books, this might not matter as much, but as the narrative and key events have been pretty spot on in every other respect, the only explanation for this is just bad plotting.

There was absolutely no payoff, no reward, for the audience to tune in after last week. They did nothing to make you feel any better about any of it.

At least with the end of the second season, you had a really cool type of 'oh shit' moment that you hadn't seen before with all of those zombies and white walkers. It felt like something different for the show, and surprisingly...it worked very well.

HBO really screwed it hard here. Like I said, a good episode. But you needed a MUCH stronger finale after what they showed last week.

 

[evil wasabi]

My problem with the finale is that as nice as it is to see Danaerys become the mother of the world across the Narrow Sea, there is no catharsis for the audience following events in Westeros.

It's unbelievable how badly they've botched Jon Snow. He is a pale shadow of the character you read about in the books. If the fourth season doesn't correct this, I may very well may not watch it after next year. So much of what made the third book special was seeing him come of age. It was truly mythic to see him evolve. If the TV show were wildly deviating from the books, this might not matter as much, but as the narrative and key events have been pretty spot on in every other respect, the only explanation for this is just bad plotting.

There was absolutely no payoff, no reward, for the audience to tune in after last week. They did nothing to make you feel any better about any of it.

At least with the end of the second season, you had a really cool type of 'oh shit' moment that you hadn't seen before with all of those zombies and white walkers. It felt like something different for the show, and surprisingly...it worked very well.

HBO really screwed it hard here. Like I said, a good episode. But you needed a MUCH stronger finale after what they showed last week.

Man, fucking Belwas. WTF dude.

Something you said last week was touched on tonight's episode, by Tywin. Robb didn't die because he sacrificed a shred of his honor, and neither did Ned. They died because they didn't put their house first. They put a part of themselves first. In Ned's case, it was his desire for justice. In Robb's it was his love interest.

 

[evil wasabi]

Another thought -

Spoiler:

The scene with Ygritt and Jon was probably to make the battle of the wall more cathartic. For some reason or another, I didn't feel like Jon and Ygritt had the same chemistry in this season as they did last season, and I remember them being a lot closer in the book than they got to be on the show. However, on the flipside, I know that Podrick is magic with the ladies - something that I never paid any attention to in the book, if it was really mentioned. But I guess that too is to make an unavoidable death meaningful. But that's wholly unnecessary. The most normal thing in life is to die without any catharsis. Making deaths all meaningful goes against the spirit of Martin's writing, which was to have an honest balance of the range of human emotions felt in life. At the same time, I imagine all the scripts pass his hands and get signed off on before going to production, so maybe this is what Martin wanted.

I don't know what my real problem was with that scene. Maybe that Jon tried to defend himself, and explain himself, and I prefer no explanations in a good story. I prefer to imagine the other 50% of the story in my head without a director correct my thoughts to his interpretations of the art piece.

But I still think that they are saving the character growth of Jon for next season.

 

[Taiso]

My only legitimate problem with the scene between

Spoiler:

Jon and Ygrit is that she shot him three times? Why? Doesn't one shot just as plainly communicate her frustrations? Is there a difference between 'I'm so angry I will shoot an arrow at you' and 'I'm so angry I'll keep shooting arrows at you'?

Jon's reaction and explanation initially frustrated me but I later thought that it was appropriate. He never had to break up with anyone anymore, and he's young. Ygrit is the only love of his entire life, so of course he's going to be emotional and overexplain everything. If he'd have just stood there and said and done nothing and let the silence carry the emotion, that would have been far less believable. Maybe the Jon Snow of the books would have been more laconic at that point, but this version of Jon really DOES know nothing.

Probably the most clumsy sequence in the entire episode:

Spoiler:

When Sam crossed paths with Bran. It was clearly only in there to contrive a way to pass knowledge about the dragonglass to Bran and his crew. In the book, it was a far more useful and meaningful sequence.

And this is symptomatic of the problem I am developing with the narrative of the TV show (although I still really like it):

Spoiler:

Important shit, things that truly MATTER, like the problems in the north, are getting short shrift so we can have an essentially meaningless scene with Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey talking about getting Sansa pregnant when we, as an audience, ALREADY FUCKING KNOW IT MATTERS. It matters because we already had Tywin and Tyrion talking about it earlier in the very same episode. They criminally wasted valuable minutes in last night's episode. They shat the promise of the finale down their leg and then slipped in it and landed right on their faces.

Ultimately, I feel that if last night had been two hours of what we saw, it would at least have felt like the momentous occasion a finale is supposed to be. At least two hours of table setting would have felt a bit more momentous. But with an hour to go, and after the Red Wedding, the mission should have been to send the audience off in more than just a passive 'well, let's wait and see' mood. I am glad they didn't end the season with the Red Wedding, however. While shocking, it would have been too much.

 

[evil wasabi]

lol at the imagery of slipping in one's own shit.

My problem with the episode was really the ending. It wasn't in the book, and it seemed like an advertisement for Massengil.

 

[Comrade Porn King Mikhail]

Definitely a letdown. The only good banter came with Tywin and Tyrion discussing the importance of the house over an individual. I felt more should have been filled in on Melisandra's latest visions within the fire. I didn't expect the finale to live up to the last two years, or even last week, but it definitely felt like a midpoint from a Walking Dead season rather than a true finale that leave you gasping for nine months.

 

[Taiso]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/24-reasons-why-george-rr-martin-is-the-biggest-troll-in-lite

 

[LoneSage]

each season progressively gets weaker. or maybe it's that season 1 was something new to me, and now, two seasons later, the magic's worn off a bit.
that said, still had a good watch.
maybe the problem is, is that there's so much going on, it's hard to care about anyone. maybe this is why i don't give a shit about daenarys. it's so hard to care about her ambition when she's half a world away and all of her actions have no repercussions whatsoever.

the hound was my favorite character this season. i liked him from the start, but when he said FUCK THE QUEEN, that's when i knew he wasn't the hound any longer. to me, i think he's the most interesting character. what are his motivations now?

jaime's road to redemption, spilling his guts to brienne in the bathhouse, that was good. where does the man go from here? how has he fundamentally changed? has he?

i haven't read the books. i'd love to. i think the emotional weight when ygritte confronted jon and jon just tried to explain everything, that was tough, man.

what is the ultimate aim of this story, though? for all the kingdoms to unite against the white walkers? and then what?

i've listened to the ending credits music from the last episode for like ten minutes now.

PS griffith suffered worse than theon

 

[evil wasabi]

man... so much good stuff in this.

NSFW

has spoilers.

favorite parts:

"Imp Slap!"

and

"R+L=J. You guys who read the books know what I mean."

 

[Castor Troy]

I'm going to pass on the link since I haven't read the books.
Can't wait for the new episodes. It's going to be weird seeing different actors play Daario and "The Mountain".

 

[wyo]

Apparently, this will be the third actor to play Clegane. I didn't even notice the second with everything that's going on in the show.

 

[Taiso]

man... so much good stuff in this.

NSFW

has spoilers.

favorite parts:

"Imp Slap!"

and

"R+L=J. You guys who read the books know what I mean."

My favorites:

"A mopey bastard who knows nothing."

"Carl Drago"

"We hope the author doesn't eat himself to death before he finishes the series" (w/slow pan in on his beer gut)

"Lord Friend Zone"

 

[Comrade Porn King Mikhail]

Stephen King ended up being the current Twitter villain of the week for spoiling "The Lion and The Rose" episode ending. I can't wait until Dark Tower gets picked up for a series and someone immediately starts tweeting "hey Roland dies and Gilead burns in flames, enjoy the show!" (I dunno if that really happens, just kidding all you King fans). It would just be hilarious to see King's reaction.

On topic: loved the triangle of Joffrey, Tyrian, and Sansa. Likewise with The Hound, Arya, and the bald dude whose name I'm too lazy to look up. The detail in the dwarf costumes for the battle re-enactment was superb.

Spoiler:

Where the fuck are the food tasters? Seriously, in land full of constant power struggles, in the middle of a war of kings, and with a Dornish prince clearly looking for revenge, where are the poison testers?

 

[evil wasabi]

The episode left a lot of stuff out. It was clumsy and awkward.

Couple of things -
too much is shown of Ramsey Snow. The Reek segments are terrible. They should be insinuated, not shown.
The level of fear was fumbled in the wedding. Joffrey never told Sansa that he was going to still visit her chambers and torture her.

The show is feeling tired suddenly.

 

[Castor Troy]

Glad I decided to not read the books.
Seems like most book readers hate the show due to certain cutbacks, even though it's one of the most expensive shows ever filmed.
As a non-book reader, I think the season has been excellent so far. Can't wait to see where the season goes from here.

 

[Taiso]

Glad I decided to not read the books.
Seems like most book readers hate the show due to certain cutbacks, even though it's one of the most expensive shows ever filmed.
As a non-book reader, I think the season has been excellent so far. Can't wait to see where the season goes from here.

That's by no means a universal sentiment.

A Song of Ice and Fire is my favorite fantasy series written by a western author, second only to Berserk in my book, and I'm enjoying the show just fine.

It's not a perfect adaptation but I like it.

 

[Cylotron]

sure doesn't follow the book.. blah blah(then again, what book - film adaptation actually followed the book 100%?).

all I can say is I'm glad Joffrey is finally gone.

 

[Poonman]

You know whats really screwing up the show for me? My growing familiarity with the actors.

Surely an inevitable consequence of the shows success, but

Spoiler:

Joffreys death last Sunday had me thinking, Oh well....I guess Jack Gleeson can get his early retirement and pursue his academic aspirations or whatever

When just a year ago it could have been THE most cathartic bit of payoff I've ever seen or read in any piece of fiction. Ever.

 

[Taiso]

]

It feels like an organic event to me. It doesn't feel like Martin righting the scales or rewarding the fans. I don't think it's meant to be a carthatic event for the audience. I think it's meant to be karmic as it pertains to that world: there are a lot of people that wouldn't mind seeing this happen so that grown ups can run the kingdom and stop the continual embarrassments to the crown and everyone in service to it. It's just a consequence of the way Cercei raised him and the way he acted. That's why, even though it was satisfying, it doesn't feel like an obligatory payoff. It was the same in the books for me when I read it.

If I had to venture a guess, I'd say that Joe Average is probably very satisfied with this event. It's a miracle that a show like this even plays to huge audiences-most just want stale sitcoms and tired contemporary crime dramas. The success of shows like this and The Waling Dead is encouraging-it shows that there is an audience for this stuff when handled well enough to continually engage them. The show isn't necessarily written for discerning audiences that think about things on multiple levels, although Thrones stands up to that scrutiny generally better than The Walking Dead.