HBO's adaptation of Game of Thrones - Thread 2. There are a lot of nerds.

Maisie Williams isn't going to starve for roles.

maintain the same audience engagement?

hey I'm mystified as to how they've managed it for this long! Keeping the cast not as much of an issue when ppl are regularly killed off or recast left and right. Stringing the story out is super-easy obviously, just keep sending people on journeys.

xp

i think someone like liam cunningham has earned himself some pretty nice avuncular gent roles going forward. also maybe some roles as euro villains that Rade Serbedzija would have taken ten years ago.

Don't see how this show could continue indefinitely or why anyone would think that.

Because many people don't follow all the inside-baseball stuff, and also because many people who are watching the shows have likely never even read the books, let alone followed all the writing the books drama, etc.? I think it's a relatively new phenomenon to announce how many seasons of a show there will be, certainly in line with the nu-wave of quality TV post-Sopranos. I imagine lots of people only know a show is ending when they announce it's the final season.

xpost

I go in and out of Walking Dead but I'm curious about how long that'll last because there's potentially a lot of seasons to go but I doubt the audience will stay long enough for a proper conclusion

I think when I was watching the Walking Dead or at following the thread we talked about this a bit, right? That the show really has only a couple of ways to "end," either with everyone dead or a cure (both sort of unsatisfying) so I can see them dragging it on as long as they can and then ... I don't know, rebooting it from the beginning? Then again, no one really likes/watches the spin-off, right?

i like the spin-off.

But at large? I thought the ratings were considered disappointing?

The plan at the beginning was to have 7 seasons (probably since there will be 7 books). Don't see how this show could continue indefinitely or why anyone would think that.

Haven't they said that they've only got about 13 episodes left after this current season and so we could be looking at two final shortened seasons?

Imagine that might change though if viewing figures remain high (although HBO so maybe not).

Natalie Dormer should at least get a boost from "attractive woman seen briefly on-screen" to "romcom lead's kooky best friend." Although she deserves more!

part of the attraction of the show is the idea that it is going somewhere and then you can stop. without the promise of resolution they'll lose a _lot_ of the audience.

hey I'm mystified as to how they've managed it for this long! Keeping the cast not as much of an issue when ppl are regularly killed off or recast left and right. Stringing the story out is super-easy obviously, just keep sending people on journeys.

xp

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 31 May 2016 21:18

No way would it be easy. There's no reason to believe it would go well after Martin's book storylines had finished. You could conceivably start new storylines after the main ending (like a sequel) or entirely change the existing plots but both would be huge gambles that a lot of people would resent. Audiences are very easy to lose, especially when shows start to feel like they could go on forever or get overconfident about how long people will follow.

Even if I knew nothing about the books or the production plans, knowing the type of tv drama it is, it doesn't seem like an ongoing thing. There's not much precedent for that.

Soap operas, CSIs, Law & Orders, etc.

You could conceivably start new storylines after the main ending

the ending (winter) never comes, you just extend it indefinitely until people stop watching/until you stop making money. this is how the majority of narrative TV works.

There's not much precedent for that.

I mean wtf literally every show prior to the Sopranos was ran into the ground until it stopped making money, narrative/cast coherency be damned

the ending (winter) never comes, you just extend it indefinitely until people stop watching/until you stop making money. this is how the majority of narrative TV works.

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 31 May 2016 22:51

That would be shit. This is clearly a post-Sopranos show, very different from regular soaps, crime, even Doctor Who, Buffy, Xena and X-Files. Completely different template. When I said there is no precedent, I mean there aren't many shows that show how Game Of Thrones could successfully continue for many more seasons. They're juggling so much and doing it on an unusual scale for tv.

The studios might want to churn them out as long as they make money but the cast/crew and audience are more invested in satisfying story arcs. That's what makes this type of tv work.
As great as Sopranos and Oz were, they were bridging into the era of tighter, shorter arcs and can't help but seem a bit too long now.

Imagine how shit The Wire's 6th season would've been

Where are those characters now? We need to know? Baltimore has winter, too!

To help promote the series to a broader audience including multicultural urban youth, HBO commissioned an album of rap songs dedicated to Game of Thrones. Entitled Catch the Throne, it was published for free on SoundCloud on March 7, 2014. A second volume of songs was released in March 2015, prior to the beginning of fifth season. This volume again consisted of songs from hip-hop artists, but this time also included contributions from several heavy metal bands. It was released as a free download on iTunes and SoundCloud.

I never heard about this!

https://soundcloud.com/catchthethrone

pushing dragonglass into a man's chest either makes him into the world's first white walker or just saves his life depending upon what?

yes can someone pls explain this because I was also confused.

Also I note we now have a gathering of Peeps with Veridian Swords - Arya and Needle, Sam's dads sword, Oathkeeper... not sure what others.

Needle isn't valyrian

jon snow's is, right?

These are the weapons the wiki mentions:

Blackfyre (lost), Dark Sister (lost), Oathkeeper (Brienne), Widow's Wail (Tommen), Longclaw (Jon Snow), Brightroar (lost), Heartsbane (Samwell Tarly), Lady Forlorn (House Corbray), Petyr Baelish's dagger

The Stark sword Ice begat Oathkeeper and Widow's Wail

Oh ok no idea where I got the thoguht needle was in that list lol

just catching up... continuing GOT beyond its intended conclusion (whatever that is) would be a sad, JOEY-level coda to what is otherwise a significant cultural event (even if I'm bored now)

anyhoo GRRM has already solved this for them with the ADVENTURES OF DUNK AND EGG, which gives them a FEAR THE WALKING DEAD-style companion/successor.

Natalie Dormer should at least get a boost from "attractive woman seen briefly on-screen" to "romcom lead's kooky best friend." Although she deserves more!

― a 47-year-old chainsaw artist from South Carolina (Phil D.), Tuesday, May 31, 2016

hey, never forget!

http://peliculasenrmvb.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/The-Forest.jpg

I do t really understand how Daeny got her dragon back. Did I miss some linking scene explaining that or was it just like ok, Daeny's got her dragon back and she's riding it?

she had a somewhat prominent role in the last couple of hunger game movies

there were ways they could have made the show last longer but my guess is that the success of the show is enough to keep it on but not so much that hbo would really try to milk it like they did w/ the sopranos or like showtime does w/ any show that anyone ever watches at all. deadwood got canceled cuz it was too expensive w/ the sets and the large cast (and this show is more expensive on both those counts), rome had cofinancing w/ another network (the bbc or itv i think) and even then only got two seasons (and you wanna talk rushing thru storyline, look at season two of rome). got does better than either of those shows, it's a phenomenon and the biggest hit hbo has had since the sopranos (though really that only means 'bigger than true blood'), but when you consider it has all the expenses those shows that basically got canceled for being too expensive to produce had plus it has cgi to deal w/ in every episode (albeit often kinda poorly done - jaime going up the steps on his horse this week was bizarre) plus usually at least once a season some big battle (rome hilariously pretty much always skipped those) and i can imagine it's a crazy expensive show to make. the walking dead isn't nearly as expensive to make.

lol true blood

Surely Kit Harington's metamorphosis into the new Orlando Bloom is already well advanced?

I do t really understand how Daeny got her dragon back. Did I miss some linking scene explaining that or was it just like ok, Daeny's got her dragon back and she's riding it?

Dragons can fly and are really big and noticeable and this one has probably been actively looking for her.

There was some huffing and puffing some way ahead of her, no? They made a point out of her noticing it and then going off on her own.

What was the story on the initial separation between Dany and the dragon?
They both flew into wherever the Dothraki happened to be straight after they'd escaped from the arena where they'd had several spears thrown at them. The dragon was wounded wasn't it? But it disappeared and didn't get attacked by the Dothraki or would they have thought of it as sacred or something?
Anyway, dany got taken by a bunch of Dothraki and left a ring behind for Jack Taylor to find but there was no sign of the dragon . Or am I remembering that wrong?

some shit happened, you know. it happened and then more stuff happened while they cut to Arya having a miserable time and stuff.

xpost
Sounds about right. Obviously the Dragon is the mastermind behind everything that happens. We're just too dumb to understand it.

Speaking of Arya, I'm kinda hoping she'll not just run away with the theatre crü but also use them as a means to get to the different places where there are names to be struck off her list. No one will suspect the stupid actors.

Loving Uncle Dayus Echsmakina coming in and saving Bran at last minute. When he took his mask off there was this whole climactic silence before I realised he hadn't been in the show yet, despite somehow knowing everything Bran had been up to by that point. Way to go, Uncs, where were you when hold the door was kicking off?

He was in the first season.

If we're talking about ppl not pulling your weight, in that opening scene you'd have thought Bran would have had it in him to warg into a horse or something actually useful.

Yes, he was there for two episodes of the first season and his miraculous «return» was what the assassins of Jon Snow used to lure him to them so it had been foregrounded. In terms of timing it came off as terribly clichéd though.

thought as much.

Yeah, but at least they didn't kill Meera (xpost)

If we're talking about ppl not pulling your weight, in that opening scene you'd have thought Bran would have had it in him to warg into a horse or something actually useful.

he was already warged out of it - his eyes were rolling back in his head, he had taken too many wargs.

who do u think will have the best post-got career?

Of the actors who were not already established, I'd bet big money on it being Maisie Williams.

It's weird how in the Bran-storyline they've held back on introducing so many big characters. Reek/Ramsay, the Reed siblings, Coldhands/Benjen Stark. In every case the show has introduced them later than the books, and in every case viewers have complained that they ended up underdeveloped and that introductions were clumsy.

Totally forgot about Natalie Dormer being in the Hunger Games movies.

Speaking of Arya, I'm kinda hoping she'll not just run away with the theatre crü but also use them as a means to get to the different places where there are names to be struck off her list. No one will suspect the stupid actors.

― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Wednesday, June 1, 2016 6:34 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The reverse of that OG Star Trek episode where the former war criminal is hiding out among a Shakespeare troupe . . . OF THE FUTURE.

The showrunners have probably dealt with many fanboys begging to find out what happened to Benjen and the Brutus guy from Rome but the answers seemed to make most viewers wonder who those guys were

ask the maester column is back on an actual web site:

https://theringer.com/ask-the-maester-game-of-thrones-blood-of-my-blood-bran-samwell-benjen-mad-king-c2f4aeb058ee#.syf5bdi9y

In the article, wildfire is briefly mentioned and it made me wonder whether wildfire could be used against the white walkers

x-post: Book readers really wanted to know whether the dude was Benjen Stark, but it isn't really so much because they miss Benjen, as it is because the dude enters the scene in book three, riding on a giant zombie-elk, and is just an all-round mysterious character. Introducing him now, and immediately saying he is Benjen, perhaps misses the point a bit...

Doesn't the show introduce "Reek/Ramsay" at the exact same point the books do? He's not a terribly developed character in the books IIRC.