HBO adaptation of Game of Thrones - will this be just for nerds? (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

ok they definitely are

dragons more like b-52s

does that make Harrenhalll Dresden or Nagasaki

yes

So red wedding = wedding in Yemen or am I confused

going back a way just ruminating on how false this is -

for the largest part of human history, everyone agreed that a guy could be crucified and then come back to life three days later

I enjoyed this dumb article from a website I usually hate:

http://www.thebolditalic.com/articles/4734-game-of-thrones-lands-as-sf-neighborhoods

lol i was so distracted by the knee-jerk lol-religion mockery that i missed the totally insane largest part of human history assertion

well it's only 6,000 years right

although how 2,000 would qualify as most well I dunno

Biblical math.

Resurection myths are quite common, eg. Orpheus and Eurydice. Or Balder. People not believing Jesus did it does not mean they didn't believe it could have been done.

leaving aside theological questions I don't think 50% of the world population have been christian at any point over the past 2000 years, which in turn is <1% of the time there have been modern humans. I would definitely agree that people have believed all sorts of crazy crap over this period though, I'm just quibbling B-)

Again, that is not what I'm claiming. I'm claiming people would have believed it to be possible. There's a pretty important 'could' in my post.

And it might seem as if I'm stubborn and nitpicking, but my point is, that religions and myths existed in a worldview that was a lot less sceptical. Which is the worldview GoT takes up. So saying that Dragons have turned to 'myths' doesn't mean that people wouldn't be afraid of them anymore, and be perfectly convinced that they could come back.

from my quoting I thought it was clear I was only picking at yr supporting assertion. an 8th century dane/lannister serf has no good reason for believing in rhinos and giant squid but not unicorns and dragons. don't think bringing up the crucifixion helps this argument at all though, especially as miracles are by definition exceptional & require a background of scepticism & ideas of regularity to have any potency

It's not earth. It's a fictional world. Anything goes.

http://i.imgur.com/gXc9762.gif

are you guys actually arguing about how scared of dragons fictional peasants in a fantasy world might be?

yes

the fuck else would we be doing?!

just checking, carry on

Bro we are all scared of dragons one way or another

they're more scared of us tbh

wrt the dragons i think, and maybe book readers have a better sense of this, that perhaps there's a good reason that the powers that be would like to keep the dragons from being general knowledge in westeros. aren't many people still sympathetic to the targaryens? and given the current chaos, i can imagine if a blond person riding dragons shows up, they are gonna be pretty psyched about it. lannisters, et al, have every reason to pooh-pooh the idea that there are dragons out there.

I just had an image flash of Winnie the Pooh riding a gigantic dragon and enjoying a pot of honey.

scale of 1 to 10 how scared of dragons are the peasants

aren't many people still sympathetic to the targaryens?

not really no

People still like Rheagar, but the last monarch of their line was horrible and insane.

i could see smallfolk yearning for the power and relative stability of the targs as things get worse the same way neo-fascist and neo-stalinist ideologies have resurged

Not really clear from the books iirc. You hear both sides of the argument at different times from different sources (i.e. Viserys and the Lannisters). Thought the general impression was that, given what a fucking mess the country has got into by this stage of the story as a result of the civil war, many of the "smallfolk" were feeling pretty uncharitable towards the powers that be and are pining for the days of yore when the Targaryens were in charge and the harvest was going unburned, you could sleep safely in your houses etc. I may be misremembering or exaggerating this to some extent though

interesting

Aerys II Targaryen, popularly called the Mad King, is an unseen character in Game of Thrones. He is deceased when the events of the series begin. Liam Burke was cast to play him in flashback in Season 1,[1] but the scene was cut for time and pacing

trying to remember, has the show ever used any kind of flashback? peyote bran dreams don't count

Not really, unless you count the beginning of this season's premiere when we were subtly re-introduced to Ice while Tywin was melting it down.

+ would peasants be afraid of flashbacks if they had TV shows in westeros?

oh yeah, that's right about this season but that just seemed like a season-opening montage-y thing

probably a smart move to lay down a no flashbacks policy for the show I think, but then it's the book-learned fans who seem to think it would add something missing so i should maybe defer to them. don't really know what i'm missing in terms of backstory that could have been flashed back to

i think flashies would suck ass and im a bookbro so

if the show wants to keep to its house style, all flashbacks should be done as monologues to a naked whore

if anything knowing there's cool shit I'm missing out on just makes me want to read the books, which is OK by me

I'm good w/ naked monologues too though

The books are a lesson in diminishing returns.

ok naked monologues then

Kinda wish I was a bookbro before a showbro. Now I want to know what happens, but..not really.

Diminishing returns in the books is right so far, but at least part of that is due to how long the fans have to wait between publications. If he stops widening the scope and starts actually making a visible effort to resolve the story then he could probably have the whole thing wrapped in a couple of very exciting volumes. If this isn't his plan then idk

Would recommend the books to anyone, it's the easiest, most plot-driven read ever and tbh it's only a couple of books really, its not like trying to get into Wheel of Time of sthing. Though I imagine going to the books would be a v. different experience now that loads of the best twists and set-pieces have already been shown on TV.

Yeah I'm glad I read books 2 & 3 before they were televised. Storm of Swords is such a fun read.

Big up everyone who's read the books and keeps reminding us that this show is going to blow in a season or so.

not sure how you're getting that notion tbh. the issue with the books is structural and by nature the show isn't susceptible to it.

Hey, I enjoyed the next books - it didn't occur to me that people didn't until this thread.

i did too but i can imagine being pretty let down if i'd been waiting years

I read 3, 4, and 5 within a few months of each other and can confirm that 4 and 5 blow chunks