OT: All things Game of Thrones thread (SPOILERS INSIDE)

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Captain Dave Poulin

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I certainly understand how hard the task they were given is. For that, i certainly give them slack.

HOWEVER, the show clearly lost the quality of writing starting in Season 5 and it's just been worse and worse. Again, understandably, tough situation for the writers and GRRM's inability to progress the novels screwed them... but at this point it's basically 2 shows. GRRM's story which is special, and the second half a mediocre extension of it

I understand exactly what you are saying, and normally I would be the first out of the gate to criticize something that falls flat - like "The Walking Dead" - or loses its quality or consistency or whatever. But the whole situation with this, the fact that the show passed the books and will have an ending before the books will ... it's just such a rocket to the nuts that the only way I can deal with it is to just relax my standards and accept it as it is and not even think about the books or about what could have been. I was going to stop watching the show, but to do that you'd have to basically avoid spoilers, and that's all but impossible.
 
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BringBackHakstol

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I understand exactly what you are saying, and normally I would be the first out of the gate to criticize something that falls flat - like "The Walking Dead" - or loses its quality or consistency or whatever. But the whole situation with this, the fact that the show passed the books and will have an ending before the books will ... it's just such a rocket to the nuts that the only way I can deal with it is to just relax my standards and accept it as it is and not even think about the books or about what could have been. I was going to stop watching the show, but to do that you'd have to basically avoid spoilers, and that's all but impossible.

Yeah absolutely, that's a fair outlook on it. I still enjoy it overall but i have to really shift my mentality to enjoy it. In seasons 6 and 7 i was getting so agitated at so much (most of all the horribleness of Dorne and Greyjoy plotlines), I was ruining it for myself.

I am so bitter how they defanged the Kingsmoot, Euron, etc - and basically put all of his characterization only into Ramsay . So much wasted potential that could have translated great to the screen.
 

Starat327

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The show clearly fell a step once they moved into a plotline that was 100% their own, but that's more of a testament to the books than a fault of the movies, in my opinion.

The books are just so beautifully written and handled that it's really hard to translate that to a large screen. There's too many things that people making TV shows and movies have to play for (ratings, awards, etc) whereas an author writing a series has less to worry about because his audience is mostly already captivated.

To your point, I've mostly treated this least 2 seasons as a "different story", or as though it's being told from a different characters perspective, one that ultimately is an accounting of the events, but one that isnt 100% accurate. I'll trust Old Georgey boy to give me the full accounting (whenever he finally gets around to it).
 

Lord Defect

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Yeah absolutely, that's a fair outlook on it. I still enjoy it overall but i have to really shift my mentality to enjoy it. In seasons 6 and 7 i was getting so agitated at so much (most of all the horribleness of Dorne and Greyjoy plotlines), I was ruining it for myself.

I am so bitter how they defanged the Kingsmoot, Euron, etc - and basically put all of his characterization only into Ramsay . So much wasted potential that could have translated great to the screen.
You also have to factor in that the story is so difficult that Martin has not finished it yet without a deadline. The show writers probably had to beg for the year off of filming so they could get it finished.
 

RonHextall27

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I think a lot of things can be contributed to the pressure to bring the tv story to a closing has meant that the pace and story telling have changed. They have been doing this series for almost 10 yrs. In a book setting that is fine, but I think having the size of cast, at different points in their careers, especially the younger ones, holding them in a role for that long was probably no small task. I'm sure when negotiating these actors all wanted to have a date when the show wrapped so that they could plan and move on in their careers. I've enjoyed it, it is as good as television gets these days. Imagine if we didn't have specialty channels the shit you would have to endure for entertainment.
 

gertbfrobe16

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like most series i've seen, the end is usually the worst part. after the build up of the story and characters, the ending is usually a let down and disappointment.
 
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captainpaxil

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I loved the first few seasons but the last two the pace has changed. Its great watching them but rewatching them is a bit lacking. Still excited for the final season
 
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TCTC

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like most series i've seen, the end is usually the worst part. after the build up of the story and characters, the ending is usually a let down and disappointment.
Yeah, very few series get it right or find the right moment to finish the story. The only two exceptions I can think of are The Wire and Breaking Bad.
 
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Young Sandwich

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Yeah, very few series get it right or find the right moment to finish the story. The only two exceptions I can think of are The Wire and Breaking Bad.
A recent one was that show Crashing on HBO with Pete Holmes. I know it was cancelled pretty late in the 3rd season, but the writers must have at least had an inkling it was coming because the finale wrapped things up perfectly. Worth a watch if you have HBO.
 

TCTC

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A recent one was that show Crashing on HBO with Pete Holmes. I know it was cancelled pretty late in the 3rd season, but the writers must have at least had an inkling it was coming because the finale wrapped things up perfectly. Worth a watch if you have HBO.
Never heard of it, but I'll check it out.

So it's basically the opposite of Deadwood. Deadwood pretty much ended without wrapping up anything.
 
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CanadianFlyer88

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the last 3 or 4 that i read i found excruciating in parts.... wheel of time

i think shadow rising, winters heart,
i think it was winters heart where only 2 days in the story occurred.... or maybe it was the previous one..... or both

point - i wouldn't miss jordan;s writing

he was clearly extending the story to stretch the profits
Jordan always wanted a 12 book series.

It wasn't so much trying to get more money as he likely ran out of material. :laugh:

I appreciated Sanderson finishing the series. He got Mat soooooo wrong in the first book, but was professional enough to make the necessary changes to get him right enough for the last two.
 
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CanadianFlyer88

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That is one of the most overrated things I have ever read. If you consider how much praise it gets, and how far it falls short of deserving it, I would give it about a score of around 50% on the Dan Brown Scoring Scale. I will explain.

Everyone was reading "Da Vinci Code" and a lot of people told me to read it. It is garbage. Total garbage. This is well-known. As a matter of hype vs deserving praise, Dan Brown would be either 100% or 0% - I'm terrible at math, but you see what I mean - it's the biggest divergence between the hype it got and the hype it deserved. (The only other book I can think of which deserves the kind of derision Dan Brown deserves is "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," [and even typing that out makes me want to puke hydrochloric acid] but because it is less mainstream than Dan Brown, the hype was more limited - "Wicked," which the play is based on, is similar in the sense that it is terrible, but the book had limited hype.)

That Rothfuss series is one of these strange cases in fantasy where it isn't badly written from a stylistic perspective, but the decision-making of the author is so ... I don't even know how to explain it. The only thing I can say is that it baffles me how so many people can be so excited by it - it's just not very good on any level, as a story, while not being written terribly. That's why I say it's a 50% on the Dan Brown Scoring Scale - it's not terrible writing, but the story itself is just so ****ing meh. And the protagonist is almost totally unlikable.

Definitely don't start it until you see that the third book is out - it's not worth waiting for.
The Name of the Wind was a high quality debut. Wise Man's Fear was straight up trash.

Plus Rothfuss got Martin syndrome and started riding his popularity into other endeavours. Who knows when he will finish this series? Will the third book even be readable?

Martin and Rothfuss killed my desire to start a series before its finished. I broke my promise to myself not to start another one when I started reading Sanderson's epic. He's a workhorse, so I am confident enough he won't have decade long gaps between books.
 
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CanadianFlyer88

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This show has managed to kill all my enthusiasm. I would have been shocked to hear that after season 4

These writers simply suck without george's material
They have done as good an adaptation as they could. It's George's own fault for not giving them direct source material.

They should have stretched it to 10 seasons; the last 2 have felt especially rushed.
 

Captain Dave Poulin

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The Name of the Wind was a high quality debut. Wise Man's Fear was straight up trash.

Plus Rothfuss got Martin syndrome and started riding his popularity into other endeavours. Who knows when he will finish this series? Will the third book even be readable?

Martin and Rothfuss killed my desire to start a series before its finished. I broke my promise to myself not to start another one when I started reading Sanderson's epic. He's a workhorse, so I am confident enough he won't have decade long gaps between books.

I am too, but I'm still waiting a while longer - my memory is too poor and I don't want to have to start them all over again every time a new one comes out. I have more than enough to occupy myself in the meantime.

Funny thing, I bought the first book in that series in hardback when it came out, but held off reading it - when I got back from Thailand, it was one of the random books I found in the piles of stuff my parents saved when they moved.

EDIT: Forgot to say, "NotW" was no good lol. It was average at very best and nowhere near deserving the hype it had, and has.
 
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CanadianFlyer88

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I am too, but I'm still waiting a while longer - my memory is too poor and I don't want to have to start them all over again every time a new one comes out. I have more than enough to occupy myself in the meantime.

Funny thing, I bought the first book in that series in hardback when it came out, but held off reading it - when I got back from Thailand, it was one of the random books I found in the piles of stuff my parents saved when they moved.

EDIT: Forgot to say, "NotW" was no good lol. It was average at very best and nowhere near deserving the hype it had, and has.
I read Way of Kings twice because I read too much in between that and the second. It's been an enjoyable series so far.

It's done now, but read the Malazan Book of the Fallen. 10 monster novels, but highly enjoyable and a great build up and ending. Haven't read anything like it before or since.
 

Captain Dave Poulin

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I read Way of Kings twice because I read too much in between that and the second. It's been an enjoyable series so far.

It's done now, but read the Malazan Book of the Fallen. 10 monster novels, but highly enjoyable and a great build up and ending. Haven't read anything like it before or since.

I just read those last summer for the first time. I loved them, for the most part, but found them frustrating at times. I did appreciate

... the fact that Cutter and Apsilar found their way back to each other in the end.
 
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Young Sandwich

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Yeah, it's great. It's a real shame they cancelled it so early. But there will be a movie on HBO this year to finally finish the story.
That's what prompted me to move it up the list and finally watch it. Also this:

tumblr_m50ba976gc1qazkdco1_500.gif
 
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