Game of Thrones (HBO)

[Tom Foolery]

I don't remember seeing much of this in the books (after a few thousand pages and you tend to forget bits here and there), but this is probably pretty close.
http://screenrant.com/game-of-thrones-s ... s-oleanna/

Yeah, the Matriarch of the Tyrells was the mastermind behind it. Crafty old fussock, she is.

[anarky]

I'm behind by, um, how many seasons are there? But even I could tell you exactly what happened last night based on Facebook posts.

The best was by a friend I thought was so hardcore into it that he made you all look like amateurs. But he spoiled it, said "I wonder who's next," and subsequently posted something like "If you're reading the books, I'm just wondering to myself, so please don't spoil it!"

[jjreason]

I'm pretty much 100 percent sure I know who's next, unless it happened already offscreen & we'll get recapped later Shae the whore. Then I'm pretty sure I know who's next next Tywin on the shitter. Maybe they'll have him caught pulling the goalie or something so it's extra embarrassing for him.

[Tom Foolery]

I'm pretty much 100 percent sure I know who's next, unless it happened already offscreen & we'll get recapped later Shae the whore. Then I'm pretty sure I know who's next next Tywin on the shitter. Maybe they'll have him caught pulling the goalie or something so it's extra embarrassing for him.

I feel like those happen pretty close to each other. Also, both of those will likely happen towards the end of the "book"/season.

[Diabolical]

If memory serves, don't they happen at basically the same time (or within minutes of each other)?

[jjreason]

One being the result of the other? That sounds about right now that you mention it.

[anarky]

Eh, fuck it, I'll admit I was wrong. I re-watched the first episode, and, well, it was still shit. Sorry. But I kept going because the series gets such high praise. Episode 2 was okay, nothing spectacular--but a million times better than the first, and about on par with the weak first episodes most great HBO dramas get. So I went one more episode, and #3 got me properly interested. All said, I got through 4.5 episodes before HBO pulled it from OnDemand (though our very own JJL has informed me that HBO Go has more older episodes, so I'm going to try that).

Since everyone in the media is so spoiler-happy for this show (not to mention all the non-media types on FB and such), if I can't watch the episodes, I'm going to try the books again. Assuming everything goes in the same chronological order between the show and the books, I'm guessing I gave up about three pages before Tyrion, Daenerys, Jon, and Arya got interesting enough that I would've kept going just for those four.

And, no, I am under no illusion. Given that those three are good characters (maybe great, I'm not sure yet, but definitely leaning that way with Tyrion), I'm just going to assume they'll all be dead soon.

[anarky]

But, seriously, that first episode is one of the weakest starts I've ever seen to any show. Even watching it the second time, I kept thinking, "God, I fucking hate all these people. What is the appeal?" If I hadn't forced myself to watch the second episode just because so many people whose opinions I generally trust love it, I'd still be making incest jokes about it.

It's like HBO just took for granted that there'd be enough fans of the books to watch it, or something. Even the Holy HBO Trinity of Deadwood, Sopranos, and Boardwalk Empire had weak first episodes in comparison to the rest of the series, but there was just enough to make viewers catch the second episode, which were addictive like blue meth.

[jjreason]

The appeal is the twists & turns & the "holy fuck are you kidding me????" moments. I don't think I really care for any of the characters either, except for the ones I'm meant to care for. It's so carefully crafted to smack your emotions around, you can't believe it until the shocking stuff starts.

[Diabolical]

I was the same way with Breaking Bad. The first two episodes were pretty slow and boring. I didn't give a shit about any of the characters. But both BB and GoT had enough there to keep me watching, and before I knew it, I was loving every bit.

[Diabolical]

For those caught up on the current season.

[jjreason]

Happy Father's Day, motherfucker.

I expected them to his us over the head with a "You were NEVER my son" or something from Tywin - but they did a good job not drawing too much attention to that. Just in case it comes out later he's not really a Lannister, as I think someone here suspects.

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

Sweet shit, the finale was great. The fights (particularly Brienne vs. The Hound, and Hodor and crew vs. the skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts) were incredible. The Hound's death scene was supremely well done – I don't know where the Mountain's Hulk-out story is going, as I thought he died slowly in the books due to poison, but the wrong Clegane died, dammit! Some more crazy-ass game-changing going on finally. I think the only characters we didn't catch up with were Sansa and Littlefinger and Ramsay and Reek, but they did have relatively big story points a few weeks ago. This whole season was pretty amazing.

As for upcoming spoilers, I'm almost entirely in the clear. I know that Catelyn comes back from the dead. Someone called Lady Stoneheart comes along, and I don't know if she is Cat or related somehow or not at all. I didn't know of other deaths until I just looked at JJR's post and saw that Mance will die, but I forgot and thought he died a while ago, so whatever. I also know the theory about Jon's true parentage but that's still just a theory. Probably gonna keep purple text purple from here on out.

[Tom Foolery]

The Hound dying is a departure from the books. He's on that little island in the middle of the river monastery with a vow of silence planting potatoes or kumquats or whatever.

And the Mountain is supposedly the new King's Guard. Or the zombie version of him anyway. He hasn't taken off his helmet to confirm it.

Fuck. GRRM needs to write fuckin' faster goddamit.

[jjreason]

Catelyn Stark is Lady Stoneheart. The fights were great. I'm actually happy the pushed that episode past the hour, even if it was only by a few minutes. It didn't feel rushed at all and I really liked where they left all the plotlines. Seemed like a nice tidy end to the season.