Sponsored Content




Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups

NoVaMoMe 2024: 06/08/2024
Arlington, VA
Details to follow


Texas MoMe 2024: 10/18/2024-10/19/2024 Corsicana,TX
Contact Ben Had for info





















« IRS Inspector General: All the Cincinnati IRS Workers Refused to Say Who'd Ordered the Targeting; Compares Scandal to... Nixon's Abuses | Main | "High" »
June 03, 2013

Game of Thrones Fan Reaction Compilation

There was some unpleasantness on last night's Game of Thrones. If you've managed to avoid the publicity of it up until now, I won't spoil it for you.

Though it would be a bad time to get on the train -- the producers made the whole show in order to get to last night's episode; this was the chapter of the book that convinced them to buy the rights. They've spoken for years about just wanting to do the series right to get to this episode.

In other words: It's all downhill from here.

My take on the episode? Not very good, really. I know it's cliched to say the book did it better. As a general rule, the TV show has been as good as the book, and sometimes better in some ways.

But the book built up a great deal of oppressive foreboding, clearly letting the reader know something bad was coming. I remember when I finally figured out This isn't right and then had a feeling of dread for 40 or 50 pages, hoping I was wrong about it. I kept looking for reassuring hints that I was wrong; instead I got further confirmation that evil was abroad, and so the dread escalated.

The show chose, instead, to cut out virtually all the foreshadowing and hints that not all was well. Thus choosing brief shock over drawn-out suspense and dread.

Based on the video below, I see they got their shock reactions; but the shock only lasted, it seems, for about a minute. The slow-build dread of the book, with all its foreshadowing that a tragedy was coming, lasted, who knows, 30 minutes or so.

So to me it's very strange -- they did the whole show for this one moment, and then, rather than stretching that moment out for 30 or forty minutes, rather than savoring the dread and ominous portents of it all, they just blew it on a quickie shock.

It's a shame-- once I read this part of the book, I really did understand why the producers felt they should buy the rights just to do this one scene. It's a great scene. In the book, I mean.

Eh, the whole season -- The Season that Really Matters, in the eyes of the producers -- has been a let-down. The previous seasons they cared less about were better done.

Maybe they loved this season to death. Maybe the novelty of the show is gone. Maybe it was just a bad idea to split one book into two seasons -- if you've noticed this year's pacing is slow and that the show seems padded, that's because it is. It was a long and eventful book, don't get me wrong, but turning into two full seasons has resulted in it being more plodding and slow than the book (and the book itself was often plodding and slow).

Maybe they should have just done one long season of 14 episodes, rather than doing two seasons of ten episodes each.

Previous seasons benefited by streamlining and compressing Martin's breezy, all-the-time-in-the-world writing into a tight little machine. This season actually exacerbates his pacing problems. (Though I'm glad we didn't spend 400 pages with Arya on the road, as in the book.)

This event, by the way, is about 2/3rds of the way through the book. So next season, unless they poach a lot from books 4 and 5 (which they might), will wind up being even slower.


digg this
posted by Ace at 06:52 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
[/i][/b]andycanuck (2yu8s)[/s][/u]: "750-pound alligator seized from home near Buffalo, ..."

Ben Had: "Only 30 more years of these moronic statements ft ..."

2008 is calling: "Mahalia Jackson>>>>>>>>>>>Affimative Action Jackso ..."

BillyD: "[i]158 Mind you, a Moron claimed the car would sti ..."

Diogenes: "DEI in action, and that's a good thing! Posted by ..."

Piper: "Have we discussed KBJ and her gripe the 1sr amendm ..."

Commissar Hrothgar (hOUT3) ~ This year in Corsicana - [b]again[/b]! ~ [/i][/b][/u][/s]: "[i]257 Watching another Boeing United Airlines iss ..."

Loose Emergency Door Plug: "Return to Newark? I'd rather ditch. Posted by: D ..."

J. Random UA Flight: "[i]Return to Newark? I'd rather ditch. Posted by ..."

Diogenes: "Watching another Boeing United Airlines issue in r ..."

Truthbomb : "Watching another Boeing United Airlines issue in r ..."

Ciampino - on time: "About 43 minutes [b]SpaceX - Falcon 9 - Starlin ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64