[Show Spoilers] GoT Always Pays Its Debts - A Game of Homages

[Mr Fixit]

Every now and then, Game of Thrones makes a little nod or homage, referencing a book, show or movie. Standing on the shoulders of giants and all that jazz. Because I'm a forgetful guy, I can only remember two such instances in the first three seasons of the show, though there were undoubtedly more:

• In a sexposition scene with Doreah, Viserys mentioned Vermithrax as one of Targaryen dragons of old, a clear reference to 1981 movie Dragonslayer, featuring a dragon of that name.
  
• Models of many famous (and probably not so famous) Hollywood swords were used in the construction of the Iron Throne – notably Gandalf's Glamdring from LotR, a sword from Ridley's Kingdom of Heaven, and others.
  

Rewatching The Lion and the Rose today, I noticed another great shout-out, interestingly enough again in the "sword department". After having gleefully shredded Tyrion's wedding present (ah, Jack, you'll be missed), Joffrey asks the crowd how to name his new Valyrian steel toy. Among several suggestions, two are quite interesting: Terminus and Stormbringer. Avid fantasy fans will likely recall that Terminus Est is a sword wielded by Severian, the protagonist of Gene Wolfe's seminal fantasy series The Book of the New Sun, known for its great use of an unreliable narrator, among other things. Likewise, Stormbringer is a legendary sword of chaos, wielded by Elric of Melnibone in a series of novels written by Michael Moorcock.

As a longtime fan of speculative fiction, it's always a delight to stumble upon such things. Someone noticed any others?

[Koi No Yokan]

Good idea for a thread!

In Two Swords, The Hound's "A man's got to have a code" felt like a nod to Omar Little from The Wire.

[Ser Baldrick]

Robb - "Perhaps I've made a terrible mistake." Jaime - "A hook would be more practical."

The writers are clearly Arrested Westeros fans, right?

http://arrestedwesteros.com/

[Ser Desmond Wine's Bane]

In Julian May's simply outstanding epic speculative fiction Galactic Millieu series, there is an immortal character named Rogi Remillard who owns a bookstore and at one point is talking about a female customer he likes but "she only reads stupid books about dragons".

I have always wondered whether GRRM was in some way channeling that one line in ASoIaF to smash fantasy tropes: dragons don't sit in caverns under mountains on hoards of gold.

[Mr Fixit]

In Two Swords, The Hound's "A man's got to have a code" felt like a nod to Omar Little from The Wire.

A good catch!

In Julian May's simply outstanding epic speculative fiction Galactic Millieu series...

Haven't heard of this one. I googled a bit and apparently there are references to the work of philosopher and theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in these books. An interesting tidbit, since Dan Simmons in his Hyperion Cantos, one of my favourite book series of all time, also references him quite a bit.

[Ser Desmond Wine's Bane]

Haven't heard of this one. I googled a bit and apparently there are references to the work of philosopher and theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in these books. An interesting tidbit, since Dan Simmons in his Hyperion Cantos, one of my favourite book series of all time, also references him quite a bit.

I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone with an interest in speculative fiction. Before I discovered ASoIaF is was my favorite in fiction by a considerable margin. If GRRM fails to tie up this series in a satisfactory fashion it will go back to number 1. Two of its characters, Aiken Drum "The Non-Born King" and Felice Landry are at the top of my favorite fiction characters list. A couple of others Marc Remillard and Jon Remillard "Saint Jack the Bodiless" are really only nudged out by GRRM's work with Arya, Tyrion et al.

The first book in the series is The Many Coloured Land

http://www.amazon.com/The-Many-coloured-Land-Saga-Exiles/dp/033026656X/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1F5SG4EY9R0E5JQPXQQM

[Daske]

In Julian May's simply outstanding epic speculative fiction Galactic Millieu series, there is an immortal character named Rogi Remillard who owns a bookstore and at one point is talking about a female customer he likes but "she only reads stupid books about dragons".

Loved these. This would be my number one wish for a TV series once GoT has finished. I think it could really work well with the two major storylines being told side-by-side rather than following the books in strict sequential order.

[SlowLoras]

Re: the Unsullied - "...the kind that don't break and run when you fart in their general direction."

Surely a Monty Python and the Holy Grail reference?

[Ser Desmond Wine's Bane]

Loved these. This would be my number one wish for a TV series once GoT has finished. I think it could really work well with the two major storylines being told side-by-side rather than following the books in strict sequential order.

Is there enough money in the world to cover the CGI budget? I mean a single Grand Combat alone would be mind boggling let alone what Aiken Drum does at Gibraltar.

But yes, it has always been number 1 on my wish list.

Edit: Time to stop derailing the thread now.

[The Dublin Warrior]

I think the melting of the Ice in S4 E1 is a homage to Conan the Barbarian's (1982) opening sequence

[Mr Fixit]

I think the melting of the Ice in S4 E1 is a homage to Conan the Barbarian's (1982) opening sequence

Beside superficial similarities - they are casting a sword after all - I'm not certain there's more to this scene. Though who knows. Benioff and Weiss have revealed that their inspiration for the visual look of the show comes from many places. For example, they show great respect and admiration, as well as take their cues from the work of Kurosawa and Tarkovsky.

[Dragonstoned]

This is much better than debating whether the show is good or not.

Ser Dontos 'Schwarzenegger' Hollard channelling Terminator 2 in the Purple Wedding (not the juggling bit), although less of a nailed-on homage than the others mentioned as it is difficult to come up with anything else he could have said.

edit: thanks for the Galactic Milieu recommendations guys, didn't realise people expanded their fantasy etc. beyond ASoIaF - can someone clear up the reading order with GM and Saga of Pliocene Exile though please?

[Ser Desmond Wine's Bane]

edit: thanks for the Galactic Milieu recommendations guys, didn't realise people expanded their fantasy etc. beyond ASoIaF - can someone clear up the reading order with GM and Saga of Pliocene Exile though please?

Sure, read them in this order:

Saga of the Exiles (or Saga of the Pliocene Exiles in some regions)

• The Many Coloured Land

The Golden Torc

The Non-Born King

The Adversary

Linking novel written as a set up for later ones:

• The Intervention

The Galactic Millieu Trilogy

• Jack The Bodiless

Diamond Mask

Magnificat

There was also an 'encyclopedia' type volume released called 'Pliocene Companion'. I never bothered with it but it explains the links the author made between characters in the books and Gaelic-Celtic and Germano-Nordic gods and mythology. The basics of those links can be found online - like the character Lugonn Battlemaster is directly related to 'Lugh' the Celtic Sun God. But I would only suggest picking up this volume if you are really interested in getting into that end of things.

Edit:

The Many Coloured Land starts slow - set in about 2250. Once the story goes back 6 million years it ramps up and the payoff for the setup in the early chapters is huge.

[oxgirl]

I was watching The Godfather II last night and there were a few scenes that remind me of GOT.

One was where they were talking about whether or not a particular hit was viable and Michael Coreleone says: "If anything in this life is certain, if history has taught us anything, it is that you can kill anyone." - Reminds me of Arya's "Anyone can be killed."

Also, when one of the goons is sent to try to kill Pentangelli he says "Michael Corelone says hello." It's a little bit similar because Michael wasn't really involved with the killing, they were just trying to pin it on him, just as Roose implicated Jaime ("Jaime Lannister sends his regards") when Jaime didn't really have much to do with Robb's murder.

[Onna Lewyys]

On the commentary for 3x03 when Ramsay saves Theon from being raped in the woods, and he walks up to the last man kneeling on the ground and shoots him in the face, D&D refer to it as "the Miller's Crossing shot" because it looks just like the execution scene in the Coen Brothers' film Miller's Crossing. (Excellent movie, bthew.)

[It's Not That Littlefinger]

for people who saw the last thor movie,

it was directed by a guy who did some got episodes, and i could definitely tell. from things like showing people sparring in the courtyards to completely redoing the tully funeral on a larger scale. there were more things but i cant remember right now. it was cool to see though

[Mr Fixit]

for people who saw the last thor movie,

it was directed by a guy who did some got episodes, and i could definitely tell. from things like showing people sparring in the courtyards to completely redoing the tully funeral on a larger scale. there were more things but i cant remember right now. it was cool to see though

Alan Taylor is the man! I sincerely hope they'll be able to get him back for an episode or three.

[Mr Fixit]

Elio and Linda in their video review of the last episode mention that there's two homages to a movie hidden in Dany's Valyrian speech. Anyone caught this?

[Swagwell]

Kniggits!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8yjNbcKkNY

[Bungholes First]

In Two Swords the Every Chicken encounter seemed to be a homage to Tarantino movies. It shares many of his stylistic elements and themes with the long closeups on the facial expressions on characters, the filler dialogue about food thats not actually about the subjectl Particularly it reminded me of Samuel L. Jackson slurping the soda while staring down his victim and talking fast food, before delivering his famous Ezekiel monologue in Pulp Fiction and the tense scene where the Allied operatives are questioned on their accent and choice of drink by the SS Officer in Inglourious Basterds.