Amph A Song of Ice and Fire Discussion Thread

Also Gilly's baby should be like 5 years old. It's not just travel. The whole timeline-- everything is nonsensical.

 

Most viewers have worked out the complicated equation that 5 show minutes ≠ 5 minutes of real time. Keep trying, you'll get there

Please clearly & definitively establish those 5 years. Off-screen matters like the age of actors doesn't count.

 

They reference years as having passed. Gilly's baby, at most, was born less than a year into the story. I'm not going to come up with specific script citations because **** that.

 

Ok. To me time & travel in a show/movie are trivial concerns. I also just watched Better Call Saul & quite liked it. The timeline of Mike & the age of his granddaughter as seen in Breaking Bad makes no sense. I couldn't care less. Each to their own.

 

Yeah, let's pretend that FTL existing in a medieval setting is the only problem.

 

I heard for the blu-ray they're releasing a Nitpickers Edition. Inserted will be all of the exciting travel montage scenes. Lots of horses galloping & boats sailing & people walking

 

Hoth to Bespin on a backup hyperdrive was 22 days, btw...

 

I know, but we had an explanation shortly after the time...

 

Darth Downunder, do you hope that in dying on this insipid hill that you'll get the hill named after you; or are you instead hoping for a public holiday in your name?

 

How did the Falcon get from the Hoth System to the Anoat System, before it even left for Bespin?

Then there's Palpatine leaving to get to Anakin while he's been left for dead on Mustafar. He's laying there burning alive on a lava bank. Palps has to get to his shuttle, take off, leave Coruscant, travel through hyperspace, get to the planet, land & locate & get to Anakin. He should've been a burnt husk by then. Plenty of such examples in the Saga. Dramatic convenience! No big deal (IMO).

No, & I didn't mean to kick the hornet's nest with my observation. I just had a sense of deja vu regarding other fantasy adaptations. Perhaps one I should've kept to myself

DD-Day does have a nice ring to it though

 

Don't forget homophobia. lol Loras is gay you guyz. It's his only defining trait!

(But it's okay because they turned a complex socio-political-religious movement into a bunch of bigoted caricatures.)

 

What, that any criticism of the show surely must be the work of 'bitter book purists'? Yeah, I think we got it.

 

I'm more of a fruity and refreshing book purist, to be quite honest... think more like Cointreau than Aperol...

And I still say nice things about the show at times.

 

Well, same here - I'm one of those boring nerds who buys things like The World of Fire and Ice.

 

When you think about it, it's a shame Robb didn't have one of those magic Turnip carts, he could have bypassed the Twins completely.

 

To give you an example of a show problem that is not based on comparison to the books and is not a point like travel times, the show has a real problem with torture. The show makers like to show extended scenes of graphic violence where one party is basically helpless and the other is slowly mutilating them. Sometimes, this is in-character, but merely excessive in its screen time (eg, by the fourth or fifth occurrence, we got the point of what was happening with Ramsay and Theon. There really was diminishing gains in showing us more and more). Sometimes, it seemed outside someone's modus operandi (Arya gouging out some man's eyes while he was still alive, instead of just stabbing him or slitting his throat like she always does). Sometimes, it veered off into the comically absurd (Varys actively torturing a guy he keeps hidden in his living room as a discussion piece?). Sometimes, it makes no sense for the character at all (Sansa Stark feeding someone to a pack of dogs, even though she's the daughter of a man whose introductory scene was teaching his children the importance of fairly administering justice and clean, "legal" executions.).

None of this is entertaining to watch. At worst, it's off-putting. At best, it's simply not very interesting from a dramatic or emotional standpoint. Why is this such a huge element of the show? Who likes this?

 

He should've given Ramsay command of the other army instead of Roose. With 20 good men Ramasy would've destroyed Tywin's army and then wiped it out completely the next day.

 

With not a willy spared the shears.

 

Great point by Wocky about Sansa, Ramsey and Ned, BTW.

 

What is the "problem" with the torture? It's an R-rated show depicting a brutal fantasy world where torture is employed. Just as a realistic depiction of Medieval Europe would. The mental & physical disintegration of Theon has paid off in spades in terms of that character.

Some other quick points:

You may not like it but the most heinous of a-holes in this world suffering harsh & brutal justice has been quite fitting at times. Perhaps Arya had planned on simply cutting Trant's throat. Then she saw him beating & planning to rape young girls, & it's implied that this was a long standing habit of his.

All Sansa did was place Ramsey in a room with his hounds. Should be no big deal right? As he said, they're loyal beasts. The fact that he starved them for a week so they could kill & maim other people is what created the torture.

I've heard this Ned Stark argument before. I find it baffling. Of course he was all procedure & nobility when executing someone for deserting the Night's Watch. Or various other crimes. How would he go if a criminal had say, slit his wife's throat & murdered his eldest son? Would he simply draw his sword & give him a clean death? Or a guy who beat & raped his daughter & then murdered his youngest son? Just a few procedural words uttered & off with his head? Ned wasn't a robot. He nearly crushed Littlefinger's throat for thinking he was disrespecting Cat by implying she was in a brothel. I'd have no trouble believing he'd opt for a far more brutal than usual death for such extreme violence against his family.

Given this is the biggest show in the world right now the answer is alot of people.

Your criticisms are valid, but they're just based on personal preference. They're not flaws in the show bcs it's deliberately designed to present these kinds of themes. It's like the people who said "who would want to watch a show about a guy who cooks meth which ruins the lives of thousands. Who kills people & constantly manipulates & lies to his own family?".
To them the answer is simple: if you don't like it, don't watch it.

 

No, it's "how can we make this story as wide ranging as possible", to which the answer is dumb it the **** down.