Maybe my favorite show on TV with Walking Dead, if it's not it's at least 1b. Either way I really just wanted to have a thread and a place to put this:



Now, discuss to your hearts content whether the second season went off the rails because they got too far away from their source material. The third season is going back to the book and is introducing 12 new characters, though, how can I keep track of all the new ones when we have so many others to follow? Either way, I heard Bill Simmons of ESPN say that his friend told him this of Game of Thrones, 'Come for the boobs, stay for the dragons.' I think that sums up the show quite nicely.

I started the first season, and stopped.

I am somewhat tired of book to tv, or book to movie adaptations and having them just not follow anything kind of source material at all.

Yes, I am looking at your Walking Dead.

With that said, I am going to wait til it goes to Netflix to finish the season since the books seem to be a lot better, and I just finished the last book a few weeks ago.

Well, the second seasons last two episodes were written by Martin himself and in reference to the Walking Dead the entire second season was written with Kirkman on the writing staff, I've heard a couple different interviews with him, notably on the Nerdist podcast where he sort of says that he likes the way the show has gone and that he's painted himself into a corner with the graphic novels and that he almost prefers the show.

I am right with Frank on this. I don't even know where to start here. I've read all 5 books twice, and I've suffered through the first season on hbo. I don't care how much RR is involved- it's still too off track for me compared to the books, and he'll even admit it. I watched a great interview on Sword & Laser that really summed it up for all you tv-only people, and that is who the series was made for. It's the "drive through" so to speak. That is why this is a "Game of Thrones" thread and not "A Song of Ice and Fire" thread...

"The third season is going back to the book and is introducing 12 new characters, though, how can I keep track of all the new ones when we have so many others to follow? "
ROFLMAO. You haven't even tried to read the first book, have you? The Index will become your new best friend.

"Either way, I heard Bill Simmons of ESPN say that his friend told him this of Game of Thrones, 'Come for the boobs, stay for the dragons.' I think that sums up the show quite nicely."
And this is why we can't have nice things. How do you even put ESPN in the same sentence as Game of Thrones. *sigh*

But on another note; Who IS Jon Snow's mom??

I've not tried to read the books, I want to, but I'm busy with other things. I'll make time eventually. You don't know Bill Simmons, he runs Grantland.com, it's where Pop Culture and Sports exist in the same world. A lot of fascinating articles. Don't knock it until you've seen his writing or listened to his podcast. Anyway, way off course here. The show is good, nothing (apparently) compared to the novels, but you just can't do that, it'd take years to get into and people don't have that kind of time and HBO doesn't have the money considering how much it must cost them already to produce this show.

I guess you'd rather see nothing related to the books at all? Who would do this more justice? Can you do this in a film format considering the length? Or is it just because they're strayed from the course that you're unhappy?

Yes. Exactly.

What makes me angry about it though is that RR needs to FINISH the book series first. Why can't they leave this alone and do Steven King's Dark Tower or something that is COMPLETE?? They never get it right anyway so why bother. They ruined Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth the same way.




Is that like calling a Nascar driver an athlete...? Is that where this kind of rubbish came about?? All I can ask is why? Can't sports be sports, books be books, and tv be tv???

No, it's pop culture essays and sports essays. Two things that people really, really, get into. Here's a fascinating article about a man with asperger's (autism) who has gone all over the country and 'stolen' piggyback rides from high school athletes and been banned in 5 states. It's the sort of thing you'd never hear of otherwise. An article about Spec Ops: The Line and why we play FPS games. This is not just sports as seen on ESPN, but something more substantive. I won't mention it again, we're so off topic.

I agree that maybe he should focus on finishing his next book, but I think he can do both fairly easily. The show only has 10-12 episodes per season and it's not like he writes every line. He'll be okay, it's worked for Walking Dead, though that's less epic than the Game of Thrones world.

One thing I will admit I love- is the cast. I feel they did a great job, with everyone! I especially love the men of The Wall- all the black brothers were exactly how I pictured them as I read.
And that leads me again to my favorite topic- the heritage of Jon Snow. No good GOT discussion is without at least a speculation. I always thought it was Ned and Lady Ashara Dayne- even up to the 5th book, but then I found a fan site that really laid it all out (including the excerpts from the tv series) and found I am off by miles- but yet saw it all along. RR did admit there are going to be things in the series he did not put in the books. I guess a clever marketing ploy so readers will have to watch to get those facts. But about this..? I don't know. Regardless it's going to come to fruition in or around the last book. With what I've seen on that fan site I'm going to say Jon and Daenerys are closely related and their 'powers' with the dragons will save the world from the white walkers in the end. These books are really all about the children. TV is making it adult and I really don't like that. Another thing I got from the tv series was Renly being gay?!? A gay friend of mine introduced me to the books originally and he didn't even pick up on that until hbo!! It doesn't change anything for me, quite the contrary. But I still don't want to feel like I'm missing out on something pertinent if I don't watch the series.

This.

This pisses me off to no end. In the books it was NEVER even hinted that him nor Loras were ever gay. But nope, just because he called his little group the Rainbow Guard, that AUTOMATICALLY makes it gay. Because you know rainbow pride was totally around back then, and gay pride parades and rainbow floats were hella prevalent along the wall.

So because people need to label EVERYTHING, they make Loras and Renly kiss.

This..

This is why we cannot have nice things.

There is question of some crazy stuff in relation to Loras/Margaery/cousins/maids when Cersei is trying to frame her, which could lead you back around to Loras at least being bi- but I thought they leaned more towards implying incest than Loras' sexuality. I just always looked at his and Renly's relationship like a bromance.

From Wiki-
Loras Tyrell
Ser Loras Tyrell, nicknamed the Knight of Flowers, is the third and favorite son of Mace Tyrell. He is a young but highly skilled tourney knight and jouster. He is beloved by the crowds, and many young girls are infatuated with him. When Renly Baratheon claims himself king of the Seven Kingdoms in A Clash of Kings, Loras supports him and is made head of Renly's personal guard. After Renly's assassination, Loras is enraged with grief and kills three of the guards present at Renly's death. He erroneously blames Brienne of Tarth and Catelyn Stark for Renly's death and would have killed them too if they did not flee. In A Storm of Swords, he questions Brienne and finally decides that she is not the killer. When his sister Margaery is married to Joffrey Baratheon, he joins the Kingsguard. He volunteers to join the siege of Dragonstone in A Feast for Crows so Cersei Lannister will send military assistance to defend his native Highgarden from the Greyjoys. His decisive actions cause an unnecessary bloodbath but successfully capture Dragonstone. However, he is doused in boiling oil during the attack. Although he is horribly injured, he survives and has not succumbed to his wounds by the end of A Dance with Dragons. Loras Tyrell is portrayed by Finn Jones in the television adaptation of the novels. The adaptation openly depicts Loras and Renly Baratheon as lovers, an interaction obliquely addressed within the novels.[S 9][S 10]

S-9 The Citidel:So Spake Martin; "The Rainbow Guard isn't meant to symbolize Renly's sexuality. It was more of a culmination of several unrelated things, such as the fact that he'd already used white for the Kingsguard and black for the Night's Watch. A rainbow is seven colors combined together in one object - he compared it to a shamrock being a Irish Catholic symbol of the Holy Trinity, three parts which make up one thing. Plus it has seven colors and is tied to the Seven, plus worshipers of the Seven use prism rainbows in their temples.
And speaking of Renly and Loras...
George specifically stated "Yes, I did intend those characters to be gay." Not that we didn't already know that of course, but I don't believe it's ever been actually confirmed before.
All of this information came from a GOH reception party, which was specifically open to people who registered early and paid to be a "premium" member, so it was a really small gathering and a really great experience just to sit and listen to George talk for about two and a half hours straight."

S-10 Afterelton.com; "Renly is “gay in the books, too,” says George R.R. Martin, the author of the bestselling novels. But online chatter suggests that not every reader picked that fact up.
“I never meant to make it a mystery,” Martin says. “I like to handle things subtly. I couldn’t ever actually say, ‘such-and-such is gay,’ because, as I’m sure you know, the word wasn’t invented until the 60s. And I’m talking medieval times, and I’m not going to say, ‘so-and-so is gay.’ But I thought it was pretty clear in context.” "