Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire

[Brad]

 

INTRO

Game of Thrones is a fantasy series created by and aired on HBO, based on the "A Song of Ice and Fire" book series by George R.R. Martin. Set in the world of Westeros, the series follows a large cast of characters with interwoven plots. The show currently spans four seasons with two more renewed, and the book series contains five novels with a further two planned. The series is highly successful worldwide with a large fanbase bringing in huge viewership for the channel, and the show being critically acclaimed by reviewers.

 

SHOW SYNOPSIS

The series, set on the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos at the end of a decade-long summer, interweaves several plot lines. The first follows the members of several noble houses in a civil war for the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms; the second covers the rising threat of the impending winter and the mythical creatures of the North; the third chronicles the attempts of the exiled last scion of the realm's deposed dynasty to reclaim the throne. Through its morally ambiguous characters, the series explores the issues of social hierarchy, religion, loyalty, corruption, civil war, crime, and punishment. It is the most recent big-budget work to have contributed to the popularity of the fantasy genre in mainstream media.

 

BOOK SYNOPSIS

The story of A Song of Ice and Fire takes place on the fictional continents Westeros and Essos, with a history of thousands of years. The point of view of each chapter in the story is a limited perspective of an assortment of characters that grows from nine, in the first, to thirty-one by the fifth novel. Three predominant stories interweave: a dynastic war among several families for control of Westeros; the rising threat of the dormant cold supernatural Others dwelling beyond an immense wall of ice on Westeros' northern border; and the ambition of Daenerys Targaryen, the exiled daughter of a king murdered in a civil war shortly before her birth, to return to Westeros with her fire-breathing dragons and take the iron throne which is apparently hers by 'right'.

 

SHOULD I WATCH?

Absolutely! There's a reason this show is chatted about so much and brings in such a wide audience. The show has some incredibly immersive world building and strong characters with stories you really want to invest in. Not only does it touch on some real political issues it's also extremely engaging and entertaining, and your favourite characters never really are safe either, which makes it all the more exciting. There's romance, shocking twists, great action sequences... oh, and naked people because it's HBO. Also, this show is probably on of the most quoteworthy ones on television right now, lawl.

 

There's probably gonna be spoilers here from existing seasons, so I'd advise you to catch up using HBO Go (or any other... platform, you may have available, hoho) before having a scan through all the discussion on this thread. But current season spoilers should really be kept under wraps however, spoilers for shows like this take away a lot of the oomph so let's respect that! Sweeeet. Discuss~

[Speederino]

A couple years ago I watched Season One, loved it, bought the books. This was like an entire year before Season Two came around so I promised myself I'd read at least up to book three before watching the show again.

 

That never really happened. D;

 

I got most of the way through the second book but then college started getting super busy and by the time I was interested in reading it again, it had been three months and I couldn't really remember what was currently going on. So then I promised myself I'd just start it over, but then I realized I was kinda hazy on the first book too, so...yeah. This has kinda been an endless chain of me making promises that I don't keep.

 

But I think this is about to change. As soon as I got online this morning spoilers about last night's episode were completely unavoidable. So today I've started re-reading the first book again and wouldn't you know it, I'm already 100 pages in and I don't feel like stopping. I am half-tempted to just watch the show instead since I know it's going to be a long time before I catch up through the books, but I think this might ultimately might be more rewarding for me in the long run.

[iDEATH]

Just finished the first series about an hour ago actually...I loved it. Fantasy's generally not my thing but the mix of the huge cast, interesting politics and.....yeah not gonna lie, nekkid ladies kept me gripped.

 

I'm definitly gonna start on season 2 soon and I'll be picking up the books shortly too.

[turbojet]

I've read the books and watch this show religiously. And it is fucking tough trying to speak to people about it when they have not read because you can't spoil anything for them. Like, they say things that directly contradict what is going to happen or ask questions which the books provide an answer to. Like, as of this writing, people are trying to figure out who perpetrated the big event called the "Purple Wedding." People are throwing speculation around and they are just off, but you as a reader can't say shit. You can guide them to clues provided on-screen, but that is it.

[Emmett L. Brown]

Having completed the book series 'til the last released one I'm really dreading the possibility of the author not living long enough to complete his work.

[Brad]

Apparently he's told the creators of the show everything that's planned to happen in the following books, so even if he was to sadly pass the show would live on. 

 

Speaking of which, he released an extract from his latest ASOIAF book. 

[turbojet]

The show officially pissed me off tonight. That scene in the septim? That did not happen in the books. Jaime would never rape his sister. It was consensual in the books and she was worried about getting caught by her father and the other priests in the books. Jaime, who was forced to guard the door while a king raped many women including his own sister, would never rape. Jaime, who sympathized with Rhaella before and after the Mad King raped her, would never rape a woman. Jaime, who risked his fucking hand to stop Brienne from getting raped, would never rape the woman he loved for over 30 years. Apparently TV execs thought it necessary to turn a scene between two incestuous lovers into rape. Fuck HBO.

[Emmett L. Brown]

The show officially pissed me off tonight. That scene in the septim? That did not happen in the books. Jaime would never rape his sister. It was consensual in the books and she was worried about getting caught by her father and the other priests in the books. Jaime, who was forced to guard the door while a king raped many women including his own sister, would never rape. Jaime, who sympathized with Rhaella before and after the Mad King raped her, would never rape a woman. Jaime, who risked his fucking hand to stop Brienne from getting raped, would never rape the woman he loved for over 30 years. Apparently TV execs thought it necessary to turn a scene between two incestuous lovers into rape. Fuck HBO.

I hate it when execs throw in stuff like that just to make sure the audience doesn't get too attached to a bad guy. Jaime murdered a child in his first appearance (the fact the child survived is not relevant, since it's extremely strongly implied that anyone who wasn't that particular very special child would've died horribly from the fall). Just throw in a five-second flashback to that scene if you really think the audience is too stupid to keep track of who to root for.

 

Speaking of characters we're not supposed to like, I still think Theon Greyjoy is the most utterly despicable person in the entire setting, and even though his most evil actions result in him being tortured physically and mentally over a very long period of time I'd rather wish he just stopped existing altogether. Which is amazing, because the setting is so jam-packed with incredibly evil monsters, that it's a real credit to the writing to have somebody I can think of as being WORSE than the likes of Gregor Clegane or Cersei Lannister, because unlike those very bad people, Theon constantly thinks he's being "reasonable" and whines to himself in his inner monologues about how unfairly he's being treated while he's justifying murdering two children solely for the sake of "preserving his dignity". For god's sake, even Jaime acknowledged that he was doing a bad thing when pushing a child to his death, but with Theon it's always me,me,me wah, wah, wah, whine, whine, whine!

 

Jaime I could see being redeemable in the long run, especially in light of his strong character development in the latest books, but Theon is scum. At this point he's managed to do ONE noble thing since his mental and physical destruction, so he's served his purpose and should stop existing, by my reckoning. (In all honesty, I'm quite interested to see what happens next with his character, but I'm not likely to stop hating his guts every minute I'm reading about him. Again, kudos to the writing!)

 

I've digressed. I think my point was that the author does a better job of highlighting which characters deserve your sympathy than the HBO executives.