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Lord of the Rings VS Game of Thrones

 
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Ay Mate



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PostPosted: 07/24/17 11:09 am    ::: Lord of the Rings VS Game of Thrones Reply Reply with quote

I loved the Lord of the Rings movies and the Hobbit movies (Hobbit not quite as much but still loved them). I recently started watching Game of Thrones on HBO, just finishing the first 2 seasons and about to start on season 3 tonight. All I ever hear from people is how incredible this show is, but after 2 full seasons, I'm like, it's ok but it isn't living up to all the hype. And it's certainly not better or even on par with the Lord of the Rings movies.

So what am I missing? Does GOT get sooooo much better in seasons 3 and beyond that it blows out those movies because at this point, I ain't seein' it.


justintyme



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PostPosted: 07/24/17 11:42 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

It is all about your preferences. LotR is the grandaddy of modern fantasy. Tolkien built an amazing world and told an intricate story with interesting characters. However, it was still based upon the general framework of the "Heroes Journey" that has been aroubd forever. It was a novel new take on it, which is why it is so well regarded but since then it has been recreated to varying degrees of success by different authors in different stories. The innocent young village children, who are inherently good, go on a long journey led by a powerful older mentor to battle the forces of evil, joining up with the beautiful warrior princess somewhere along the way, became an inescapable trope in fantasy.

George R.R. Martain subverted all those tropes. While there is a backdrop of world ending evil, most of the characters are morally grey. Heroes die and villains prosper. Some of the protagonists are actually terrible people. And who is "right" and who is "wrong" become a subjective mess. It is fantasy with a real dose of the insanity that was the War of the Roses mixed in. Along with Glen Cook's Black Company series, Martin has given rise to the new grimdark fantasy movement.

So the question comes down to how you like your stories. Do you want black and white good vs. evil with noble and optimistic characters, or do you like grey anti-heroes and conflicting agendas in an unforgiving world of political intrigue where the bad guys can, and often do, win? Personally, that is what draws me to Game of Thrones. I will always love LotR, but Martin took what Tolkien originated and gave it a dose of realism and grittiness that it was lacking.



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GlennMacGrady



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PostPosted: 07/29/17 6:34 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

justintyme wrote:
George R.R. Martain subverted all those tropes. While there is a backdrop of world ending evil, most of the characters are morally grey. Heroes die and villains prosper. Some of the protagonists are actually terrible people. And who is "right" and who is "wrong" become a subjective mess. It is fantasy with a real dose of the insanity that was the War of the Roses mixed in. Along with Glen Cook's Black Company series, Martin has given rise to the new grimdark fantasy movement.

So the question comes down to how you like your stories. Do you want black and white good vs. evil with noble and optimistic characters, or do you like grey anti-heroes and conflicting agendas in an unforgiving world of political intrigue where the bad guys can, and often do, win?


JIT eloquently describes the appeal of GOT.

After watching the first two episodes of Season 7, I realized that I had forgotten a lot of details even though I had binge-watched all six seasons just six or seven months ago. So, I just binge-watched the entire series again.

Although I knew the main story arcs and surprises, I got a lot more out of the second watching. It was easier to understand and follow the complex tapestry of characters, relationships, families, castles, sigils, plots, lords, ladies and whores. I also caught a lot of predictive dialogue lines I'm sure I missed the first time.

I was particularly surprised at how much of seasons 5 and 6 I had quickly forgotten. This was perhaps because the story arcs about Arya in the faceless god assassination temple and Bran being dragged through the snow to the three-eyed raven didn't hold my attention as much as many of the other story arcs.

The second-to-last episode in each season was uniformly the best, having the most action, violence and plot shocks. Those episodes are like the forest fires that allow new growth to flourish.

In GOT you may not know who is, who will remain, or who will become good, bad or ambiguous, but Cersei sums it up best:

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9t1Omi1jDuo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
cthskzfn



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PostPosted: 07/30/17 8:51 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT



Cersei's handling of the High Sparrow was one of my favorite acts of retribution.



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Ay Mate



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PostPosted: 08/02/17 7:51 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

cthskzfn wrote:
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT



Cersei's handling of the High Sparrow was one of my favorite acts of retribution.


For someone who is only nearly done season 4, can we please keep the spoiler alerts to yourself. Even when people type SPOILER ALERT 3 times in caps and then leave a few spaces, the reader is still going to read the spoiler alert. Mad


cthskzfn



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PostPosted: 08/02/17 7:37 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Ay Mate wrote:
cthskzfn wrote:
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT



Cersei's handling of the High Sparrow was one of my favorite acts of retribution.


For someone who is only nearly done season 4, can we please keep the spoiler alerts to yourself. Even when people type SPOILER ALERT 3 times in caps and then leave a few spaces, the reader is still going to read the spoiler alert. Mad


Sorry, but you need to exercise self-control. Smile

Besides, you'll forget about it by the time you get there...



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Ay Mate



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PostPosted: 08/03/17 9:37 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

cthskzfn wrote:
Ay Mate wrote:
cthskzfn wrote:
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT



Cersei's handling of the High Sparrow was one of my favorite acts of retribution.


For someone who is only nearly done season 4, can we please keep the spoiler alerts to yourself. Even when people type SPOILER ALERT 3 times in caps and then leave a few spaces, the reader is still going to read the spoiler alert. Mad


Sorry, but you need to exercise self-control. Smile

Besides, you'll forget about it by the time you get there...


Lol. I won't forget. We just started season 6 already. And what started off as a kinda boring show in the first and second seasons (and one that I didn't even care if I watched season 3) has now turned into an obsession LOL.


cthskzfn



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PostPosted: 08/06/17 9:21 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Spoiler Alert.....


























Wink



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GlennMacGrady



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PostPosted: 08/07/17 11:27 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Maybe we should have an open/spoiler thread dedicated to season 7. There was a long thread for years here of that nature before I was watching.

Lots of action in 7-4.
cthskzfn



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PostPosted: 08/08/17 7:32 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

GlennMacGrady wrote:
Maybe we should have an open/spoiler thread dedicated to season 7. There was a long thread for years here of that nature before I was watching.

Lots of action in 7-4.



Agree. I was so enthralled, I didn't anticipate its end.



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Ay Mate



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PostPosted: 08/12/17 2:28 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

All caught up now. And yes, Cersei's revenge was pretty awesome to say the least.


GlennMacGrady



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PostPosted: 08/13/17 12:12 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

7-5 tonight.

Will Jaime's heavy hand and armor drag him down or will he get out of it? I think the outcome is predictable.
GlennMacGrady



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PostPosted: 08/16/17 1:40 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Couldn't resist watching the leaked episode 6 today instead of waiting until Sunday.

Deus ex machina upon deus ex machina, and a surprising shift in power. Well, once the predicate acts occurred I expected the shift, but I never foresaw the predicate acts.
justintyme



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PostPosted: 08/16/17 4:43 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

It's funny. The one army that doesn't seem to have the ability to teleport themselves is the army made up of the magical dead creatures of legend.

This season's pacing has been terrible. While I understand the desire to not get as bogged down as Martin's books were, they are flying through scenes of significant emotional and thematic weight with barely a blink. Knowing that it was the showrunners, not HBO, that put them on the 8 season (with 7 and 8 short seasons) limit, it confuses me. These seasons at least could have been made full seasons, even adding a 9th, and allowed them to find a reasonable pace.



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Ay Mate



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PostPosted: 08/16/17 5:07 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

I'll wait until Sunday to watch the new episode on HBO. Some people have integrity. Laughing


justintyme



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PostPosted: 08/16/17 5:23 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Ay Mate wrote:
I'll wait until Sunday to watch the new episode on HBO. Some people have integrity. Laughing

Laughing This one was HBO's own damn fault, so I have little sympathy for them.



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GlennMacGrady



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PostPosted: 08/16/17 5:32 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

justintyme wrote:
It's funny. The one army that doesn't seem to have the ability to teleport themselves is the army made up of the magical dead creatures of legend.

This season's pacing has been terrible. While I understand the desire to not get as bogged down as Martin's books were, they are flying through scenes of significant emotional and thematic weight with barely a blink. Knowing that it was the showrunners, not HBO, that put them on the 8 season (with 7 and 8 short seasons) limit, it confuses me. These seasons at least could have been made full seasons, even adding a 9th, and allowed them to find a reasonable pace.


I agree.

It's a funny thing about fantasy and surreal plots: one still expects them to have some sort of realistic internal consistency. Warping time and ignoring distance, and effectively engaging in teleportation, not only detracts from significant emotional and thematic development, but gets downright hokey. Still, the action sequences have been grand.

The leak was by HBO itself. They released episode 6 early in a couple of European countries and then couldn't retrieve it.
Ay Mate



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PostPosted: 08/16/17 5:34 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

justintyme wrote:
Ay Mate wrote:
I'll wait until Sunday to watch the new episode on HBO. Some people have integrity. Laughing

Laughing This one was HBO's own damn fault, so I have little sympathy for them.


I don't know. I didn't know anything about the leak other than they got leaked lol.


sambista



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PostPosted: 08/17/17 9:58 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

after sunday, can i come back and ask about a key part of the dialogue in epi 6? i've played it three times now, and i can't make heads or tails of what was said.



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Ay Mate



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PostPosted: 08/19/17 8:08 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

HBO in the early stages of creating a couple spin off series of Game of Thrones set in the same lands but with different characters and storylines.


cthskzfn



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PostPosted: 08/21/17 12:13 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

sambista wrote:
after sunday, can i come back and ask about a key part of the dialogue in epi 6? i've played it three times now, and i can't make heads or tails of what was said.


thank god for CC.



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sambista



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PostPosted: 08/21/17 7:25 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

cthskzfn wrote:
sambista wrote:
after sunday, can i come back and ask about a key part of the dialogue in epi 6? i've played it three times now, and i can't make heads or tails of what was said.


thank god for CC.


yeah, i thought the audio - the voices, as distinct from ambient sounds - in this episode was particularly bad. a lot of important things were said at what sounded like whispers or mumbling. i've watched this epi about six times now, and i'm still gleaning new dialogue. i did, btw, figure out what i couldn't hear before. it was fairly important.

wow. wish i could talk about what happened. GoT continues to surprise.



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