Game of Thrones -- TV ONLY

They felt show Cersei was such a departure from her book counterpart that they decided to call her Carol for the purposes of the essay.

tumblr person wrote:In the case of LOTR, it was clear that Peter Jackson, despite his changes, understood Tolkien’s vision

I can't get over how idiotic this disclaimer is, given that it comes from someone who is clearly capable of putting in the intellectual legwork to understand why it's bullshit were they so inclined.  But I guess they couldn't resist flaunting their ignorance of LOTR because of the name recognition factor.

But anyway, that was a well-written piece overall.  I don't agree with it 100% (which is to be expected) but they do a very good job of highlighting some of the ways in which the show is weaker than the novels.  I do really enjoy the show, but it's stuff like this that makes me think Avatar's status as best epic fantasy TV show ever might be safe (though it's not perfect either).

Mrs Figg wrote:they have simultaneous general opening here with Italian subtitles which are very annoying but I cant wait.

At least they're not dubbing it.

Bluebottle wrote:
https://twitter.com/GameOfThrones/status/586740736306978817/photo/1

Too bad HBO didn't make their stand alone streaming service available on Roku, otherwise I'd be watching the premiere legally on TV tomorrow night.

Eldorion wrote:

tumblr person wrote:In the case of LOTR, it was clear that Peter Jackson, despite his changes, understood Tolkien’s vision

I can't get over how idiotic this disclaimer is, given that it comes from someone who is clearly capable of putting in the intellectual legwork to understand why it's bullshit were they so inclined.  But I guess they couldn't resist flaunting their ignorance of LOTR because of the name recognition factor.

What's worse, people still laboring under this false premise or the fact that I still see people on the internet claiming that the extra stuff in the hobbit movies was taken from the appendices?

Well it was all done in the spirit of Tolkien, so that makes it alright.

"The spirit of Tolkien."

That phrase means absolutely nothing, now.

There was a several year stretch when that was the go-to argument in defense of the films. I think Boyens was the one who popularized it via the EE DVDs. But yeah, it's always been meaningless. The funniest part is that it cuts both ways and one of the only published anti-PJ manifestos (David Bratman's Summa Jacksonica) is almost entirely spirit-based in its argument.

So apparently the first four episodes of S5 got posted on torrent sites, which sounds like a press screener got loose, but there are rumors that the later episodes are being posted elsewhere (though that's probably BS).  I'm not watching them because I've never been the paranoid sort when it comes to spoilers -- I can wait to see the episodes legitimately and not freak out just because I might have heard about what's going to happen (I read the books after all) -- but I do hope that the details of the leaked episodes don't spread too far so people can avoid them if they want to.  I've always found it ironic that for all the (legitimate) complaining about spoilers from book readers it's the TV show and the blanket media coverage (and memes) it receives that spews spoilers all over the Internet as soon as new episodes air.

Yeah, I think I'll stay away from that too. Although I do prefer seeing television shows in my own time, and there are only a few I'm up for the week to week wait for, who would want a months wait on the first episode with new material. Meh. Not me at least.

Eldorion wrote:

tumblr person wrote:In the case of LOTR, it was clear that Peter Jackson, despite his changes, understood Tolkien’s vision

Ah, I think I saw that. But I've seen so many baseless statements like that at this point I think I've just come to disregard them. But it doesn't look all that good when you do such an indeapth criticism of one thing to give another with it's own inherent problems a free pass like that. Not that I doubt there are people out there who do find Peter Jacksons handling of Tolkiens work in his spirit. Or at least will claim to think so. But that particular statement wouldn't hold up to any form of scrutiny. Heck, the "Peter Jackson ... understood" part wouldn't even hold up to a casual look.

Not that I think it reflects too badly on what they've written. I think all their complaints about Game of Thrones come off as more than valid judged on their own merit. It's just odd.. When people could make the exact same type of criticism of Peter Jacksons work. Adaptationally if anything the two projects are beggining to resemble each other. (At least in moving into the "We know better than the author" area.)

And it's funny.

But don’t bother thinking about silly things like continuity or characterizations though because….

Their show praising (top five show only moments is quite interesting too.

http://theculturalvacuum.tumblr.com/post/114061786659/a-book-snobs-top-5-got-scenes

4 and 2 are of my favourites of the show in it's entirety too.

Some hype too.

Eldorion wrote:

tumblr person wrote:In the case of LOTR, it was clear that Peter Jackson, despite his changes, understood Tolkien’s vision

But anyway, that was a well-written piece overall.  I don't agree with it 100% (which is to be expected) but they do a very good job of highlighting some of the ways in which the show is weaker than the novels.  I do really enjoy the show, but it's stuff like this that makes me think Avatar's status as best epic fantasy TV show ever might be safe (though it's not perfect either).

I've read the books, even if it has been a few years, and I could not get worked up much about the changes they were complaining about. It just didn't offer much emotional impact: kind of like arguing about LotR changes now. Sure, the show is "Weaker than the novels," but most of my complaints in that department relate to the highlighting of sexuality (which is one point they covered quite well with Oberyn's brother dwelling and Podrick's adventures) and the gratuity of violence (Oberyn's death, which they did not mind) as a stand-in for meaningful book scenes. The TV-show characters are still compelling and interesting, and that's enough.

I think I'll just not touch the "Avatar as best epic fantasy TV show ever" comment. Probably safer that way.

dun dun dundun dun dun dundun dun dun dududuuuuuuuu

duuuuu duuuuu dududuuuuuuu duuuuu dundun duuuuuuuuuuU!!!!

we've booked the auditorium tomorrow, stoked! we had plans of gathering some strings and play the tune.. but i don't think that'll happen.. cuz we haven't practiced.

Forest Shepherd wrote:I've read the books, even if it has been a few years, and I could not get worked up much about the changes they were complaining about. It just didn't offer much emotional impact: kind of like arguing about LotR changes now. Sure, the show is "Weaker than the novels," but most of my complaints in that department relate to the highlighting of sexuality (which is one point they covered quite well with Oberyn's brother dwelling and Podrick's adventures) and the gratuity of violence (Oberyn's death, which they did not mind) as a stand-in for meaningful book scenes. The TV-show characters are still compelling and interesting, and that's enough.

I think I'll just not touch the "Avatar as best epic fantasy TV show ever" comment. Probably safer that way.

I agree that the show does a lot of things very well on its own terms, but as with LOTR, it can sometimes be hard to avoid a lingering feeling of disappointment when a superior version is so close at hand. But I do really enjoy the show and think there's a possibility for it to improve on AFFC/ADWD.

I've enjoyed getting to talk about Avatar lately so I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on them, negative or otherwise. I promise I won't bite.

do you mean Avatar the film? it looked spectacular, but it was spectacularly boring.

No, Avatar the animated TV show. I wrote a big post about it a couple months ago.

http://www.hobbitmovieforum.com/t55p945-television-programmes#164936

Deeper and more compelling than SpongeBob Squarepants?

Heresy!
Burn them all!!

halfwise wrote:Deeper and more compelling than SpongeBob Squarepants?

Hard as it is to believe, I know. Avatar starts off a little rough, so I sometimes recommend the second season episode "Bitter Work" as a sampler for the skeptical.

Avatar is great! It's goofy at first yes, but the season 3 finale gives me chills every time I watch it, and Legend of Korra (the spin off) doesn't have the same amount of genuineness the first series did but it definitely digs deeper in terms of material (they took it off the air because it kind of blew past the Y7 rating {{{at least that's what I heard}}}})

Only an hour and a half to go for me! Season 5 here I come!

I liked S5E1, but I need to wait until I'm more awake (and not limited to my phone) to say much about it. Let it suffice for now to say that these week long waits will suck. Especially since they don't have room for all the plot lines in each episode.

I just finished watching it. I came away satisfied, but not particularly impressed or interested. The plot lines that it's laying the groundwork for are primarily the long drawn-out several-hundred page when-will-something-frickin'-happen?!? plots from the 4th and 5th books that were very frustrating, so it's hard to look forward with much anticipation.

Episode stuff:

WHOOP WHOOP!!!!!