In case anyone doesn't mind spoilers:

Game of Thrones leaks for season 7:


https://www.reddit.com/r/freefolk/comments/...awayforthelads/

The spoilers don't bother me, even if true, which they might not be. Much as I like the show, and I like it a lot, I'm more a fan of the often quite different books, which I take as gospel. I consider the show as something of an alternate historian's take on that time, people, and places. As such, events as depicted in season seven are unlikely to spoil the books for me...assuming Martin ever gets off his posterior and finishes them.

I wish he would finish them! And I really wish I could have access to them, I've never read them! He has said several times that whatever Hollywood does with his story, he is not going to let that influence what HE plans for it.

I just worry that - he has stepped away from writing for a long time. It is so much harder to go back after years like that, you lose that magic touch. I am just so afraid he will never finish. He is not exactly in the peak of health, you know?


Here is another:


https://moviepilot.com/p/game-of-thrones-se...-reddit/4132872

Can't resist---South Park joke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1oTKyzu_2w








BWAAHAA!!!

Khajiit would rather have the next book, but he will watch the new season. Honestly, last season was more enjoyable than previous seasons because this one had no idea what was going to happen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICmp2P-EmyE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owDwf0A9Oco

Heh, you'll have to forgive Khajiit, but he will not be playing those videos you linked mALX

That is why I wrote in the title of the thread that there would be spoilers here - in case they would bother anyone.

Oh! Khajiit just read the thread title on the main page and didn't notice the spoiler part! Sorry!

For a variety of reasons, I'm sure I will never see GoT on vid/TV. That said, it seems like an intriguing saga that I would likely enjoy. Are the books pretty good?

Khajiit likes the books a lot! The problem is the author doesn't seem interested in finishing the series.

Thanks, Khajiit! My focus is normally on the journey not the destination so that should be okay.

Well what is written so far is quite a journey, that's fo sho!

I am kind of that way, but not in stories = I like to have a tangible end (or at least tie up all loose ends; don't leave us with so many mysteries and never conclude them so we can know if our conjecture was right; etc).

I never saw an episode of Game of Thrones but I did collect some of the figures to make an Elder Scrolls type movie.
The Elder Scrolls Movie.

I'd finish this if only I had a proper video editing software.

This vid is amazing !!!!!!!!!!! You did an Awesome job making this, what a talent you have! Not just how you brought figurines to life; you should submit yourself as a voice actor, too! Really great job, just plain AWESOME!!!!!!

Thanks .

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lol, is mALX excited? Khajiit can not tell!

Let us celebrate by dropping our pants and underwear and let our floppy wieners flop in a way that'll make RR Martin proud .



Yeah South Park has basically ruined GoT for me .

Khajiit thought it was a good episode.

On the Game of Thrones front = I continue to be disappointed in the show this season. The acting is even beginning to fail; they have started just delivering lines at us instead of making us believe it.

This season they are cramming scenes together instead of weaving a story; not to mention impossible distances are crossed in minutes and everyone has some omnipotent knowledge of everything happening all over the universe despite it is medieval times. It has become ridiculous, and so "Hollywood" that it is falling just short of eye-rolling. I'd have to call this the worst season so far, imho.

Also, they are resorting to cheezy tricks like doing all their filming in darkened rooms so you are straining to see everything. How is it daylight for the scene of Jamie on his horse, but dark to see the fires the dragon just laid down against the night sky? Then back to Jamie in daylight on horseback, then back to the night shot of the flames? What is wrong with this picture?

They have totally suspended believability in this show to cram scenes at us; and it seems even the actors aren't feeling it anymore from their wooden delivering of their lines. That stilted meeting between Arya and Sansa? WTF?

I'm actually quite impressed that they've managed to keep the visual effects looking more or less consistent with previous seasons, despite a greatly reduced budget. They have a lot to cram into fewer episodes, so they're really hammering the pacing. It's kind of hit and miss as to whether it works or not.

I think the meeting between the Stark kids was done that way to show how distant they've become. Arya isn't a little girl who's happy to see her sister - she's been trained as an assassin, experienced a ton of bad times, and killed dozens of people. Her meeting with Jon will be the one that should be emotional, since she was closest to him as far as the Starks go.

Khajiit thought it was a good episode *shrugs*

Stuff is finally getting done.

Re: The Loot Train battle
It wasn't night time. It was frickin smoke, and lots of it! The sun did appear to be setting, hence the golden tinge on everything when the smoke was momentarily clear.

Re: Khajiit agrees with Haz that the meeting between Arya and Sansa was intentionally awkward.

I am having trouble understanding why they are having to work on a reduced budget; it makes no sense when the show is one of the most successful out there. Who reduced their budget, and why?

And they don't HAVE to force an end to the show in two seasons; they are choosing to. It is a successful show, if there is that much content remaining = why not extend it? And why are they giving us such short episodes and shortened seasons instead of the full episodes and seasons they gave us in the past?

So if they are cramming them, it is to save on cost and meet a deadline that none of us (fans of the show) really want them to meet. Cutting the quality of the show to ensure they keep making millions in profit is just going to harm the fanbase that is supporting their profit.

** not to mention that while they cut our quality of viewing; they managed to blow a wad on cameos of stars to "surprise a member of the cast on her Birthday" (while making another disjointed scene that did nothing to further the story).

That scene would have been fine and acceptable if it wasn't taking up room in an already crammed two seasons that they have set as their deadline ending of the show (seasons which are shorter than any previous seasons and with shorter episodes).

I'll use Breaking Bad as an example = we knew when we were reaching the last two seasons of that show, but they never once stinted on giving us the best possible performances/scenes; never crammed it up into disjointed scenes thrown at us in compressed episodes. It continued to be a chronologically occurring story that was riveting - it even got better as the last seasons played out; not cheapened.

I can't imagine any reason HBO would cut the budget of one of the highest watched shows of this decade.

I agree entirely, especially with Arya and Sansa's reunion after three years!!

One thing though I disagree on: teleportation. The simple answer is that a lot more time elapsed than it first appeared. This has been the case in the show all along which has eaten up much time than the novels. More than a month elapses in the very first episode of the series. By the end of Season 5 Myrcella Baratheon says that she had spent “years” living in Dorne, where she was sent towards the end of Season 2. Even in the fourth book, GRR Martin mentioned, "Some chapters cover a day, some only an hour; others might span a fortnight, a month, half a year." From this, you can tell that the narrative as presented in the books is not strictly sequential - some things take place simultaneously, and the gap between each episode can't be assumed to be the same either. How do we make the leap from the book to the show? Simple - the first season followed so closely to the first book that we can assume that timelines are depicted in a similar fashion.

Season 7 comes along and I don't think the writers are going to devote an entire episode of Jon on a boat to Winterfell, or Varys going to and fro Dorne. Not even the story can pickup on their arrival.

/snip

I don't know the specifics, it's just what I've heard.

I imagine it's more about budget allocation than anything else. The amount of scenes with dragons, whitewalkers and other cgi stuff will be increasing exponentially from previous seasons and that will be a huge chunk of money they need to remove from other scenes. The popularity of the show might also work against it, since the actors that were previously (more or less) unknown are now big stars with expensive contracts (some of the actors are on at least $1 million per episode). It's also likely that they're pooling the budget for a big finale.

HBO knows by now that people will continue to pay to watch whatever they churn out. They could have an entire episode that's just a still image of Emilia Clarke on the screen for 50 minutes and it'd still get millions of viewers.

FTFY

You guys would love this parody from Ashens.



{You posted to Forums....Forums betray you}.

This. And: I'd watch it, especially if there was a chance to see her nude and coming out of a fire! (I'm straight, but hey! It's Emilia Clarke nude coming out of a fire!!! )

I agree with some of the timelines being shortened; but when in the same episode they jump from showing Jamie leaving one Province to return to KL; and he has a caravan of their goods = and mysteriously the dragon killing weapon that Q was showing Cersei in KL last episode. Meanwhile Dany not only just learns of this; but manages mustering the Rohirrim Dothraki to the exact spot on the road he is at. We know how the dragons made it, but a whole army and their horses?

And then in the same scene where Dany just found out about it; they pan to the beach and Jon meeting Reek Theon; and Jon says Dany is gone. Next scene the Dothraki army is attacking Jamie. No scenes of an army preparing to leave.

And while the battle is taking place, Tyrion (who was just at that beach watching Theon and Jon's meeting = is suddenly right there at the battlefield just watching it all happen (when it is supposed to be happening down in the south) - and he can see so clearly that he is commenting on Jamie's thoughts before and after Jamie charging the dragon!

I understand cutting some time out because you can only show so much of someone on a ship; but to never see her and an army plus horses leaving the castle?

That is what is making it disjointed; they are cutting out some scenes that shouldn't have been cut, and covering it by a stupid cramming of Theon's arrival and Jon saying Dany "is gone." They didn't even show Dany coming to the decision that she was going to act; they jumped to her THERE from Jon advising her not to and her looking like she listened to him.

And if they are going to try to make Tyrion or Varys the mole in her camp who is telling everyone their plans; then they are negating everything that GRRM built about their characters through all the previous seasons.

I'm not the only one that is noticing all the character changes, this quote from "The Verge" magazine online agrees:



And, all ll I have to say about all the omnipotent knowledge in this show is = those darn Ravens must have bionic wings or a jet engine between their legs!

I'd watch that too,

BWAAHAA !!!! That was great!

Came across a most interesting longish YouTube video on why GoT Season 5 Dorne was decidedly sub par. This same channel has a number of other worthwhile discussions.

On a much smaller scale, Scholagladiatoria reviews the recent Arya - Brienne practice duel.

Ooh, while watching these I discovered this, GRRM's original outline for the books before finishing the first book!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC5BWmtvO4c

The first vid you linked (which is a two-parter) has some interesting info, but the guy making the vid is so slow at presenting it that it becomes irritating to listen to. Why he had to show us his outlines for the vid planning first and THEN re-go over them when he presented the quotes from the interviews??? (Why not just show the quote from the interviews and address it in one instance?) He was way too wordy and repetitive; which is too bad because the info he had is something I would like to hear; but probably hear by someone who can cut through all the drama and go right to the meat of the topic.

The second vid was excellent; extremely informative (but concise!!!) Nice one, very interesting!

I had intended to mention that the first video was long-winded and that the gist of it could be gleaned within its first several minutes. Me being me, it totally slipped my mind.

Interesting linked video. I've long known some sort of early ASOIAF synopsis existed, but never before encountered it.

Lol, I think that first guy liked to compartmentalize way too much; but if he had just kept all that to himself and used it as a silent guide for his own purposes it would have worked perfectly; because the meat of what he was showing was well worth learning. I have always felt like D&D's obsessive love of cameos was behind some of the worst side ventures the story took (that did nothing to further the story). They should never have been left unchecked, they need editing.

Oh, on that vid I linked - that was the first time I was able to hear what was in that synopsis too; and I was really surprised how much it strayed from the version the TV has. Makes me wonder if the books had that Arya love triangle in them, urk. (and since Sansa was hinting about Arya and Jon in this last episode, makes me wonder if D & D are going to try and insinuate it into the TV version now, urgh, yuk!).

Hmmmm!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0i3iz43NU8



Mmmmmmm!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw50mRyJ1IQ

While watching mALX linked videos I noticed a GoT / ASOIAF recommendation with the intriguing title "Why Game of Thrones Jumped the Shark (and why George R.R. Martin will never finish his series)". Fascinating food for thought, much of which I agree with at least in part.

I most def agree with everything he said regarding season 7 and what (D & D) are projecting as their ending for the series in the upcoming season 8. And I also have wondered if GRRM was hoping he would die before having to complete the books because then he would have gone out on a high note and as tragically as his characters in the story = with unfinished storylines.

But I also think that IF GRRM had written it, season 7 would not have been the most poorly written piece of "telling" crap ever produced out of Hollywood or ended up being the total shark jump that it was. I blame D & D for their cramming; their clumsy arrow pointing in their attempts at foreshadowing; at their "telling" instead of "showing" - at their total removal of any form of personality or good dialogue from any of the characters so they ended up just delivering trite lines and several that sounded like he was trying to make them catch-phrases = like how many times are we going to hear "I'll impregnate the bitch?" I was reminded of those cheesy sitcom shows where the characters look into the camera and say the same line every week to get the live audience's to cheer ("What you talkin' 'bout, Willis?").


All the characters in season 7 repeated lines from their past as if D & D were trying to say, "remember this?" = Yeah, we do remember when it was said originally; back when the story was being well written and well produced. By throwing the same line of dialogue in now, it is a cheesy attempt to wrap us into the same feelings we had about the story/character the first time those lines were said = and it is not working, because the build up of complete story is not behind the lines NOW, when they are just thrown out carelessly and for no reason but an attempt to manipulate the audience. I don't think D & D have any idea how bad they really are.

Back to the vid - I don't totally agree with him that GRRM could not have written a successful conclusion IF he had finished the books before his fame took off; but after this huge break from writing, I don't think he could achieve as quality an ending ever again. Regardless that he says he wouldn't be influenced by public opinion, I do think he would be. After all, he would want his success to continue; and fans are fickle. But I doubt very much he would ever pander to the fans to the extent D & D have so obviously done. And at least it would still be well written; though maybe not to the quality of the early chapters when he was so inspired.

Season 7 turned me off so badly that I am pretty sure my GoT addiction has been officially cured. Not sure if even GRRM could pull his story back from the damage D & D did to it. He really should have published those last two books before season 7; his audience may have lost all interest before he gets them out now.

Me, I've not seen any season seven episodes in full. Watching excerpts from a few of them at YouTube (as after-view reviews) was enough to convince me that the show has gone decidedly downhill, even though the first several such videos were either somewhat positive or at least not overly negative. As to Martin finishing the books, I sometimes wonder if, at this stage, he's deliberately holding off until GOT is dead and buried, so that his book sales have no competition. That, and maybe he figures people will, once some time has passed, want to know how the story really resolves itself.

That could be the reason he is holding off now; but wouldn't explain why he held off at the time he first stopped writing the rest of the story. He says "writer's block," but it hit right at the same time his fame blew wide open and he certainly never had any problem writing all those other shows he did in the aftermath. I think his inspiration for this story waned because he found the new (and much more productive/lucrative) venue for his talents that pushed him beyond any place that future books could ever achieve.

But all that aside = he should never have allowed D & D to ruin his efforts. He would have been much better off having the series suddenly dumped right at the end of the season that the books ended and have the world clambering for more (and like that vid said = imagining their own endings) than to have it get so bad that people are turning from it in disgust. D & D couldn't have done worse if they had set out to deliberately sabotage GRRM with season 7.

There was a noticeable decline in the quality of the show about the time they reached the end of the books - especially evident in the character development and dialogue of Tyrion. All his hugely intelligent and humorous dialogue suddenly sank down into belching and slurred speech. He went from the most charismatic character in the show to just being a sidekick to whomever he was with at the time.

Tyrion wasn't the only blatant change in the last few seasons since the books ended. The gray characters GRRM was famous for suddenly became all black and white with no depth and completely lacking emotionally evocative roles to inspire the audience to care about them.

The beginning seasons were richly subtle; there was never any overt arrows to point to the plot twists so they really came as a surprise when they happened (like the Red Wedding!!!).

In contrast; D & D are as subtle as a train wreck; going way too far one direction to try and make it a "surprise" when the story turns the other way. Example: the ridiculously unbelievable hatred they built up between Sansa and Arya just so they could "suddenly" surprise us when they work together to turn on Littlefinger. As soon as they took the sisters out of character and out of any believable sisterly relationship premise, it was so obvious they were going to do something that it was eye-rolling. They may as well have hung a giant red arrow with the words, "Watch This!!!" written on it.

D & D don't trust the audience to be intelligent enough to detect any subtle plot turns; so they feel they have to make blatant reversals to get the shock value. That is where GRRM excelled - he never doubted his audience could follow what was going on, so kept everything so natural that we were stunned when the plot turned suddenly. And he knew better than to completely flip characters around to the point where they are no longer recognizable as themselves.

Another flaw that really ate up film time without furthering any story lines was D & D's obsession with cameos of stars they personally want to showcase (that have nothing to do with the major plot at all) The Dorne storyline was a baby that GRRM planned to murder in the films because there was no room for it and it wasn't part of the major storyline. D & D wanted to showcase a star THEY loved, so drew out that whole Dorne storyline just to give her a starring role.

I won't get into all the belief-suspending Ninja Arya stuff; but I def agree with the vid about the Mary-Sue/Gary-Sue feel of the story since GRRM's influence waned.

I can say this: I have never been so in love with a series in the beginning seasons of the show; and have never been so severely disappointed in a show as I was in season 7. And once I get this turned off, I'm usually gone. I will probably force myself to watch season 8; but not looking forward to it with eager anticipation like I had been all the other seasons.

My son just got his Birthday present (that I'm pretty sure he ordered himself) = the coin Arya Stark used for passage to Bravos:




(the iron coin of the faceless man that you hand people and say, "Valar Morghulis" to gain any help you need).

That's cool!

Yeah, it is ... but ... what is he going to do with that? I don't think that is a collectible that will gain much value over time, lol.

Well obviously he's to go and join a death cult