... actually most of BSG is fine (bill adama over ned stark), but there's a true blue "jump the shark" era toward the end. without any additional spoilers (and, btw, the one in my first comment is so achingly stupid, i doubt it will ruin much for you in the end), once jimi hendrix enters the picture, get ready for the poo poo train to arrive...
i'm not sure if you'll like it, to be honest. some of what works for me about it, for lack of a better way of putting it, is kinda military in nature? in the sense that it's all about complicated interweaving politics and people competing over resources and stuff like that
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follow th money over th buck stops herelostcosmonautAugust 9 2012, 18:19:38 UTC
when you describe GoT as Hobbesian, what are you referring to specifically? Season 1 (which is all I've seen so far) suggests that Ned is good because he's loyal to his king -- responsibility flows upward -- is that what you mean?
i take it back. i was being pretentious. "hobbesian" describes batman better than GOT, because the latter is as cynical about the need for paternalism/authoritarianism as it is about everything else. martin's sympathies definitely seem to lie with the subjugated for the most part (tyrion, jon, dany, bran) - and i know from trolling his lj that he's not personally conservative, but there's something about the show's pessimism that occasionally overshadows its insights, i guess. it also makes for exciting viewing, but sometimes i feel like i have to keep my own desire for horror and betrayal in check in a way that i don't when watching equally pessimistic shows like the wire or breaking bad. those shows always seem to have an urgency beneath the bad news (a critique of institutional failure on the wire, a critique of vigilante fantasy in breaking bad), whereas sometimes (though honestly not most of the time, to its credit) GOT feels unpleasant for the sake of being unpleasant.
game of thrones theme song over mad men theme songlostcosmonautAugust 9 2012, 22:22:36 UTC
ah, I see, well I will probably pick GoT up again @ some point, but it will have to wait until after Battlestar 3/4, Breaking Bad 5, Louie 3, and mebbe Treme 1, by which time all 600 characters will probably be strangers again (except for th dwarf). I hope you will still be on th Internet @ that point to offer perspective on our shared TV experiences
i'm actually now about 4/5th of the way through the first book (and done with both seasons of the show), and i'm fairly impressed with the tv translation? the only thing i feel like the show has really gotten wrong so far is the switch up regarding sansa and the hound (having littlefinger tell her the story of his scars instead of the book version which is one of my favorite parts so far). hell, i think i actually prefer sirio's death in the tv version, if only because i love the "not today" thing. that said, i now see what you were saying about the dothraki not being as racially weird as i thought initially (we chatted about this months ago). the dothraki storyline works better in the books. and certain characters are way more interesting in the books - sansa, littlefinger, dany, jon snow... in the latter two cases i think it may partially be the actors
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Ned is good because he's loyal to his kingthat's funny. he helped robert go to war against the previous king (dany's father), which is pretty unloyal. it's even murkier when you understand that robert and ned went to war against the previous king because the previous king's son (not viserys, who got gold poured on him, but an older one who died in the war) "kidnapped" ned's sister (lyanna, who died before the books/show started, too), whom robert was betrothed to, and it's unclear as to whether it was a kidnapping or an elopement. on top of that, the previous king was insane and wanted to burn... everything. jaime lannister is considered a villain (by most of the other characters, not necessarily the readers) for killing said king, because he took an oath to protect him, but the reason he killed him was because the king wanted to burn the city down
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reliable nerdratorlostcosmonautAugust 11 2012, 02:09:14 UTC
i'm sure you will excuse me for either not remembering half of th things in that first paragraph, or never knowing in th first place, because I didn't pay close enough attention to (or talked right over th dialogue of) Season 1, or because they didn't make those plot points crystal clear on first viewing
but yeah I didn't have much feeling for Ned
That part about th elopement is interesting, it would have been v. dramatic to show on TV
they definitely didn't make it clear in the show. i think it was all sorta rushed through sorta in the first episode and maybe a little later, but the ambiguity of the "kidnapping," as far as i can tell, was never revealed in the show. they might be saving it for later, though, as it is relevant to other parts of the plot, or it's hypothesized to be, anyway.
careful, methodical world-building over discovering characters have been angels all along.
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Billy also told me th ending sucked but I don't wanna hear it yet
--mza.
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... actually most of BSG is fine (bill adama over ned stark), but there's a true blue "jump the shark" era toward the end. without any additional spoilers (and, btw, the one in my first comment is so achingly stupid, i doubt it will ruin much for you in the end), once jimi hendrix enters the picture, get ready for the poo poo train to arrive...
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I will be prepared -- as I always am in matters of television -- for any shark-jumping
--mza.
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i found the first episode so ridiculously boring (and loooooooooooooooong) that i haven't been able to will myself to keep going.
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--mza.
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--mza.
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I hope you will still be on th Internet @ that point to offer perspective on our shared TV experiences
of course!
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1. all i really want out of the adaptation is that they show the moments i love from the books, which they never do.
2. the books are actually unfilmable and it was folly to think otherwise.
i will keep watching, though, and quietly weeping.
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but yeah I didn't have much feeling for Ned
That part about th elopement is interesting, it would have been v. dramatic to show on TV
--mza.
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