reading A Game of Thrones, plus links and stuff

[destina]

For those of you wondering if you should change your passwords, Mashable has a list of major sites and whether or not they were compromised by Heartbleed.

For those of you who were wondering if last night's Hawaii Five-0 was as slashtastic as the previews made it appear, it was. It was like fanfic. Literally. It was like old-school Starsky and

Comments

[darlulu]

Thanks for linking to the site that listed the major sites and whether they were affected by heartbleed. It was very helpful. Do you happen to know if livejournal was compromised?

[destina]

Don't know - no special tech knowledge, just good Google-fu. :)

[unbidden_truth]

I think I read the first three books in the series and then the wait b/t books kind of got ridiculous (and then I found out the next book had maybe half the characters I was interested in reading about) and so I didn't keep up (also I always kind of felt conflicted about the series tbh). But yeah, the first season of the show was kept pretty true to the books---though like you mentioned there were parts I liked better in the novels and vice versa.

Littlefinger is way more interesting in the books, I agree and also agree with all the problematic elements of it. Actually when I heard it was being made into a tv show----I wonder how a lot of it would translated onto screen.

Funny thing is, I liked Jon in the beginning of the books, because he had one of my favorite trope set ups and then yeah...and so true on the Bran chapters.

I had heard that they were talking the show in a slightly different direction and now I'm a little curious on how that turns out since I didn't continue watching with S2...

[destina]

It's kind of nice, starting to read when there's already five books...and I would like to think he's writing faster, knowing that the HBO show is catching up to him. *g* Especially now that it's been renewed for six seasons. I'm sure it will diverge more though because of it. I'll be curious to see how that develops, as a reader.

[kathyh]

I've just started reading Book 5, which is quite interesting as I read all the other books before the tv series began. Seeing which tv characters exactly match the ones in my head (Tyrion, Daenerys, Sansa, Arya, Joffrey) against the ones that don't (Jon mainly) is quite fascinating. Some I find more interesting on tv (Catelyn, Cersei) and some I find work better in the books (Jon, boring, but less boring than on tv). I am generally in awe of how well cast the tv series is and how well it catches the flavour of the books.

However, dude, WTF, she is 13 in the book, and she gets pregnant before she's even 14

One of GRRM's sources for the series is the Wars of the Roses and that's exactly what happened to Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII. Skeevy, but unfortunately the kind of thing that could happen to women in the real Middle Ages as opposed to the fantasy one.

It was like old-school Starsky and Hutch, it was that ridiculous.

Nothing could possibly be as slashtastic as old-school Starsky and Hutch :)

[destina]

Yes, hm. As you know (I think?), that period of history is one of my major avocational interests, but. History is history; fantasy is something else. I get that there is a market for stories that cleave to this model, but I also like to believe, sometimes, that we can write things that sort of dump the parts of history that are skeevy instead of embracing it. I mean, this is a different world. Its summers are long and its winters are longer, so how is this the thing he keeps from that period of history on a different planet? I'm not even saying it doesn't make for a compelling story, but Dany would still be compelling if she was 19. It all sort of ties in to my issues with 'there are no people of color in those times in England so why would there be in fantasy' and 'well obviously women were raped a lot in those times in England so of course they get violated often in fantasy' arguments also, which I find incredibly annoying when applied to fiction. (Not saying you are annoying AT ALL - just that arguments which run along those

[nestra]

Along those same lines, I just saw this, in which the writer of Noah says that since it's a myth, race doesn't matter, so that's why everyone in the movie is white.

[destina]

...well, that is a new level of WTF, and I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but.

[killabeez]

I actually started to write another comment to this post which I deleted because, boring. But the one character who kept me reading the books WAY longer than I would have otherwise is Samwell Tarly. That's thanks to (in not small part) the fact that he reminds me 110% of our friend who died of a brain tumor in 2011. So, I confess, at some point I will catch up on this show (and maybe even the books) just to see what happens with Sam. All this by way of saying, please tell me/post if good stuff happens with Sam? The show is still probably another season out from the point I read to, but I might start watching again in a season or so.

/random

[destina]

A three-point reply:
1. Nothing you post could ever, EVER be boring to me.
2. You and your Sams! :D
3. I fast forwarded through Sam's parts until really late in the game last season, because there was a long, long, long arc about some woman and her baby and then there were frozen zombies and Sam killed one, which was momentarily interesting to me (because I thought they couldn't be killed), but then it was long again and there was snow and trees and my eyes glazed over. But now he is back at the Wall and with Jon and everything is great again (not a fan of storylines in the frozen north, nope). Long story short: I will keep an eye on your Sam for you. :)

[killabeez]

Meh, I actually hate GRRM (and these books) which may or may not be obvious. Still, I made it halfway through book 5 just to find out what happened to [certain characters I will not name because spoilers] before I lost momentum. But, yes. #2.

[destina]

Wow, I didn't know you hated GRRM, but now I'm curious as to why. You know, I had a lot of issues with the first season of the show. I think I talked to you about them back then - how none of the women are powerful in their own right, and how they are all just pawns of the men. That has improved quite a lot, particularly with Dany and Margaery etc, but it seems like every episode, something sends me into a frothing rage. Even tonight's episode did it; I may never be unscarred from that moment. IDEK.

[vaznetti]

I remain hopeful that Jon will stop being boring to me, but I've read all five books and it hasn't happened yet. Like you say, at least there are tons of other characters! Unfortunately he shares a lot of scenes with Sam, who I really do like (a lot better in the books than in the show, in the books it's clear that he's totally amazing), so I have to read about him anyway. I guess in the books it helps that he's 14 or 16 or something, so at least that explains a bit of why he is the way he is. But still boring.

(Also, the thing about Margaret Beaufort getting pregnant so young is that IIRC it actually was really unusual -- the norm was to wait a few years before the couple actually started to have sex -- and everyone thought her husband was a dick for getting her pregnant so young. And of course because she was so young the first time she never became pregnant again.)

[destina]

Hi! :) I'm pretty relieved that it's not just me, re Jon Snow. This is one of those cases where I'd be glad if the book went a totally different direction. I also wonder how much of it is due to the actor in the part, on the show itself. He is...not very good. He has one facial expression. That contributes to his boringness factor. *g*