Game of Thrones begins....

[Zoupa]

I'm not saying it's the worst thing I ever watched. I almost wish I hadn't read the books beforehand.

What bugs me is that I don't understand the changes made to the story. Why can't Jeyne Westerling just be Jeyne Westerling from the Crag and not some totally new character? Why is Shae this super rude bitch that somehow is prepared to kill to defend Sansa, while she was just a spoiled prostitute in the books?

Had I not read the books, I have to admit I'd probably consider the tv show cool and different from the norm, I guess.

[katmai]

Why i don't read

[Eddie Teach]

Why i don't read

I thought that was because you couldn't.

[katmai]

Why i don't read

I thought that was because you couldn't.

No that is the illiterate yokel carpetbagger.

[jimmy olsen]

I'm not saying it's the worst thing I ever watched. I almost wish I hadn't read the books beforehand.

What bugs me is that I don't understand the changes made to the story. Why can't Jeyne Westerling just be Jeyne Westerling from the Crag and not some totally new character?

She's obviously lying. That's exactly who she is.

[grumbler]

Heh. You just mentioned the best moments of character interaction in the entire series (two out of three anyway, Arya/Tywin being the third). Tyrion/Varys chats are widely praised by fans and the last episode's Yara/Theon dialogue was also considered extremely good.

Heh.  You'd really rather see Tyrion and Varys chit-chatting about how they love to play the game than see Danerys storm the House of the Undying?  TV is about pacing.  You can have character interactions and plot advancement, all in one episode.  The show has done it many times before.

[Jaron]

<-----childish fanboi #1

[grumbler]

I'm not saying it's the worst thing I ever watched. I almost wish I hadn't read the books beforehand.

What bugs me is that I don't understand the changes made to the story. Why can't Jeyne Westerling just be Jeyne Westerling from the Crag and not some totally new character? Why is Shae this super rude bitch that somehow is prepared to kill to defend Sansa, while she was just a spoiled prostitute in the books?

Had I not read the books, I have to admit I'd probably consider the tv show cool and different from the norm, I guess.

I'm willing to give them a pass on the changes until we see how they develop.  The new character of Talisa certainly simplifies the whole Robb love story (which tales place completely off-stage in the book, and never made a lot of sense anyway), and I am not sure she won't prove to be Jeyne Westerly after all.  Remember how she was so reluctant to go with Robb to the Crag (which he still hasn't done, apparently, even though he was just about to at the end of episode seven).

Changes to Shae make less sense, but then Tyrion is a far bigger character in the TV series than the books.  Maybe the producers just wanted him to have a more "worthy" love interest.

In sum, the changes to the story don't amount, yet, to anything I can really object to.  It is a different medium, requiring different rules.  We'll see how the trend develops, though.

[Solmyr]

Heh.  You'd really rather see Tyrion and Varys chit-chatting about how they love to play the game than see Danerys storm the House of the Undying?  TV is about pacing.  You can have character interactions and plot advancement, all in one episode.  The show has done it many times before.

You realize that in the books Daenerys has done fuck all at this point and the show actually gives her more action? And the House of the Undying is likely to be an event of season-ending significance, so I'm willing to wait.

As an aside, I'm perfectly willing to watch a show based entirely around Tyrion, Varys, and Bronn chatting.

[grumbler]

It's funny how out of touch grumbler is with this. It's like his complaints about the books - one wonders why he even watches the show/reads the books as he dislikes the things that are most liked by the fans. You could just as well complain that Babylon 5 has political plots and has spaceships and aliens in it.

It's funny how Marti actually doesn't have an intellectual answer to the questions I pose, and instead resorts to ad homs and his reliably silly analogies.

Note the difference between my specific arguments about the show, and Marti's vague arguments about my character.  That's the difference between intellectual rigor, and unintellectual faboi-ism.

[11B4V]

Babylon 5

Could never get into that show.

[grumbler]

You realize that in the books Daenerys has done fuck all at this point and the show actually gives her more action? And the House of the Undying is likely to be an event of season-ending significance, so I'm willing to wait.

This is a TV show - it need not, and indeed does not, follow the books slavishly.  Every character in the episode, bar Anya/Tyrwin and Jamie/Brienne, ends episode eight where they started it.  That's not good plot advancement.  I can understand the need to conserve resources to pay for the battle scenes, and would accept that as an excuse for a "treading water" episode, but I don't have to ignore the fact that it was a treading water episode.  I think that they could end the season around any one of a number of significant events.  There is nothing magical about the House of the Undying that makes it impossible to eliminate until the end of the season.

As an aside, I'm perfectly willing to watch a show based entirely around Tyrion, Varys, and Bronn chatting.

The Bronn chatting advances the story; it shows how ill-prepared Tyrion is to command the city in a siege.  The Varys/Tyrion chatting about King Joffrey advances the plot; it shows how scared and unprepared Joffrey is to be a leader.  The chitchat about how they love to play the game and that there are dragons but they aren't an issue yet doesn't advance the story, and could have been deleted in favor of actions elsewhere that did advance the story.

This is all just an intellectual argument, of course.  What has been filmed has been filmed.

[Jaron]

That's your problem, grumbler. Few men here can challenge your intellect one on one. It is like being Mike Tyson in the 80s and going to your local bar and asking "Anyone want to fight?".

Everyone would run to the door except Martinus - he would perhaps feebly attempt to beat you with his purse.

[11B4V]

That's your problem, grumbler. Few men here can challenge your intellect one on one. It is like being Mike Tyson in the 80s and going to your local bar and asking "Anyone want to fight?".

Everyone would run to the door except Martinus - he would perhaps feebly attempt to beat you with his purse.

Suck ass

[Jaron]

That's your problem, grumbler. Few men here can challenge your intellect one on one. It is like being Mike Tyson in the 80s and going to your local bar and asking "Anyone want to fight?".

Everyone would run to the door except Martinus - he would perhaps feebly attempt to beat you with his purse.

Suck ass

Plonker