Season 6 Book Readers Thread...It is Known (spoiler heavy)

Discussion in 'Game of Thrones (ASOIAF)' started by Cronk, Jun 3, 2015.

  1. Keef

    Keef Liked by Pierre Gasly
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    Actually meant that George would do it the unsatisfying way more likely than the show.
     
  2. Buff_Ruffnek

    Buff_Ruffnek Ph.D Bovine Flatulence
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    They still owe us for murking the One True King pissfully, though the last 2 episodes do bring the playing field back to a somewhat level though...


    Personally I want a Robert's Rebellion Movie or Mini Series, and see some goddamned Warhammer bludgeoning...
     
  3. Imurhuckleberry

    Imurhuckleberry Avid spectator of windmill warriors
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    http://www.theatlantic.com/entertai...ame-a-different-show/489305/?utm_source=atlfb

    [​IMG]

    The Atlantic

    Game of Thrones Finally Became a Different Show in Season Six

    As it’s moved beyond the George R.R. Martin novels, the series has evolved both for better and for worse.

    [​IMG]Well, that was more like it. Sunday night’sGame of Thrones finale, “The Winds of Winter,” was the best episode of the season—the best, perhaps, in a few seasons. It was packed full of major developments—bye, bye, Baelor; hello, Dany’s fleet—but still found the time for some quieter moments, such as Tyrion’s touching acceptance of the role of Hand of the Queen. I was out of town last week and thus unable to take my usual seat at our Game of Thronesroundtable. But I did have some closing thoughts about what the episode—and season six in general—told us about how the show has evolved.

    [​IMG]
    Game of Thrones: The Head That Wears the Crown


    Last season, viewers got a limited taste—principally in the storylines in the North—of how the show would be different once showrunners Benioff and Weiss ran out of material from George R.R. Martin’s novels and had to set out on their own. But it was this season in which that exception truly became the norm. Though Martin long ago supplied Benioff and Weiss with a general narrative blueprint of the major arcs of the story, they can no longer rely on the books scene by scene. Game of Thrones is truly their show now. And thanks to changes in pacing, character development, and plot streamlining, it’s also a markedly different show from the one we watched in seasons one through four—for the worse and, to some degree, for the better.

    Begin with the former. Although in the early going Game of Thrones had all the usual trappings of a sword-and-sorcery epic—the armored knights, the mysterious priestess, the creepy undead—thematically it bore more resemblance to a political or espionage thriller: John le Carre, but with dragons.

    The ill-fated Robb Stark put it well back in season three when he noted, “I’ve won every battle, yet somehow I’m losing the war.” The great warriors at the heads of noble houses displayed a profound tendency to find themselves dead—Ned Stark (and later his son Robb), Robert Baratheon (and later his brother Stannis)—or at the very least unmanned (Jaime Lannister). The strongest fighters who remain on the show at this point are not noble knights but cunning swords for hire (Bronn, Daario Naharis) or fallen giants who have been literally or figuratively raised from the dead (the brothers Clegane).

    has addressed this on Twitter, explaining “This is to avoid things like, say, Arya spending four episodes on a boat.” But there are plenty of ways around this problem—say, sending Varys off on his Dorne mission episodes earlier—without resorting to pointless time-bending.

    Which is all another long way of saying that over the last two seasons, Game of Throneshas become a different show from the one it was over the previous four: more careless in its plotting and motivation, hinging on major developments that are inadequately set up or explained, tending to favor dramatic shock over internal logic, and so on.

    But—and please read the rest before flaying me in comments—this was almost certainly inevitable. Why does Game of Throneslately feel as though it’s made up of crucial plot twists without all the details filled in precisely? Because that’s exactly what it is. For the show’s first four-plus seasons, Benioff and Weiss could pick and choose from the very best of Martin’s extensive plots and scenes and dialogue. Now, they are working off of a rudimentary blueprint—and unsurprisingly, it shows.

    Moreover, the question of whether Game of Thrones is as good as it used to be isn’t even the right question. A better question is: “Is it better than Martin’s relevant source material”? And here the answer is far less clear, and will remain so until Martin finishes his oeuvre—if in fact he ever does so. The author’s fourth novel and (especially) his fifth were sprawling messes, introducing new and frequently dull characters by the fistful and sending them on peregrinations across Westeros and Essos so pointless and interminable that it almost seemed as though they were trying to Google-Map the two continents, city by city and block by block. Even if Benioff and Weiss were still working from Martin’s direct text, it’s likely they’d have to alter much of it—as they already did a great deal last season.

    And so in place of Martin’s aimless wanderings, we get Benioff and Weiss’s reckless velocity. Say what you will about this season’s flaws—and obviously I have, at length—it moved. More than any season in a while (arguably more than any season, period) there has been an overwhelming sense of momentum from episode to episode. Whereas Martin seems farther from concluding his story after five books than he did after three, it’s clear that Benioff and Weiss are heading into the home stretch, with just two more, abbreviated seasons of the show planned. (I should note that they are almost certainly leaving millions of dollars on the table by not extending the franchise, a degree of restraint deserving of genuine admiration.)

    Which is why, to my mind, “The Winds of Winter” was not only a tremendously satisfying episode, but more importantly a paradigm for what Game of Thrones can be at its best moving forward: thrilling, vivid, and proceeding with determination toward its ultimate climax. This will probably entail further narrative corner-cutting and occasional lapses in logic. But so be it. If you weren’t stunned when Tommen went out the window, or moved when Dany made Tyrion her Hand, or thrilled at the sight of her finally(!) leading a fleet back toward Westeros, you’re made of sterner stuff than I.

    Game of Thrones may be a different show now, and in meaningful ways a less rich one. But it has an urgency that has been missing from the books (and sometimes the show, too) for a long while. I confess that I’m as excited about the next season as I have been in years.
     
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  4. Arrec Bardwin

    Arrec Bardwin La Araña Discoteca
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    Can't wait until Littlefinger dies an embarrassing death and all of his dicksuckers here shut the fuck up.

    "But but, Littlefinger is in the Vale so Dany will have a hard time taking it from him"

    Fuck that shit, Littlefinger is a pussy bitch that will make a tasty snack for Drogon.
     
  5. DirtBall

    DirtBall Who Cares?
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  6. Voodoo

    Voodoo Fan of: Notre Dame
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    One of my all time favorite video clips.
     
  7. bic

    bic the way out is through
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    With how quickly people have been able to go from place to place this season I assume the timeline is just ridiculous at this point. Euron was last seen in episode 5 wanting to build his fleet so from then to now it's probably been quite some time. I mean, Varys was in Sunspear and then on a ship with Dany leaving Meereen in the same episode.
     
    #5707 bic, Jul 1, 2016
    Last edited: Jul 1, 2016
  8. Fuzzy Zoeller

    Fuzzy Zoeller College football > NFL
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    I know. But that won't stop people from using "Brown people coming to white people land doesn't work in GOT, and it won't work here!!!!!!!!"
     
  9. Fudd

    Fudd I bring terror like Stephen King
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    God, Ser Vardis Egen was so fucking lame.
     
  10. Pawpride

    Pawpride Clemson

    You tell 'em Skeeter
     
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  11. NinjaRXA

    NinjaRXA Make Anime Great Again
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    Depends on the degree of assimilation imo. Western culture and Middle Eastern culture aren't exactly interchangeable.
     
  12. Fuzzy Zoeller

    Fuzzy Zoeller College football > NFL
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    I've never diagnosed someone as autistic over the Internet before, but there's a first time for everything.
     
  13. NinjaRXA

    NinjaRXA Make Anime Great Again
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  14. Krieger

    Krieger Pita Predator
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    pls god no
     
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  15. NinjaRXA

    NinjaRXA Make Anime Great Again
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  16. 34

    34 just gonna send it
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  17. NinjaRXA

    NinjaRXA Make Anime Great Again
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    [​IMG]

    Is it time for a season 7 thread?
     
  18. 34

    34 just gonna send it
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  19. NYGator

    NYGator Well-Known Member
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    Been binge watching Strike Back. So far had major Tywin, Davos, and Jorah sittings.
     
  20. coffee

    coffee Remember: Jedi is plural for Jedi
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    I'm listening to the "Peaceful Piano" Spotify playlist at work this morning, and the "Light of the Seven" song (haunting piano track from the finale) just came on. I got chills so hard I can barely control my mouse right now.