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[BOOK SPOILERS] Is the show being heavy-handed?


Anomandaris86

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I know they have to cut out a lot of minor details in this show, leaving only important stuff, but I kind of wish they would be more subtle on some of these things. When Ned started reading from that lineage book and ended with "Joffrey Baratheon, gold of head" I couldn't help but roll my eyes a little bit. I think we get it.

Two other things that stood out:

-Theon getting pissed on and constantly reminded of his hostage status. His betrayal won't come as any great surprise. Also removing him kicking the head makes him seem a lot more sympathetic than he actually is.

-The dragon eggs. Is there any doubt that they won't hatch at this point?

Thoughts?

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I agree. Sometimes I feel like the viewers are being beaten about the head with information. We're being obviously led down the garden path.

Hints in the book are sledgehammers in the series. It seems like the last person to figure anything out is poor Nedd.

Just because it's a different medium and story lines need to portrayed differently doesn't necessarily mean that the viewers need to be treated like children and not allowed to figure anything out for themselves.

That said though, I'm enjoying the series immensely. It won't be fun to watch if I get bogged down by the details I don't like.

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Very heavy-handed.

Besides what the OP mentioned, I would also add Loras & Renly going all kissy eyed, then Littlefinger making rather obvious jokes at the tourney about the latter "having" the former. By the time they showed those two shaving, I think no one doubted the nature of their relationship, whereas in the books it took how long until it was obvious? Much longer, anyway.

It's still a good show, though.

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I thought Littlefinger's "whispers" to Ned more heavy handed.

But it's probably all necessary. Not everyone can follow the story without some hand holding.

Yeah Littlefinger's stage-whispers had me cracking up and rolling my eyes simultaneously.

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We've read the books. My wife, who hasn't, didn't catch on to Joffrey et al. being Jaime's children until last night's episode when Ned was going through the book of lineages. "(paraphrasing) Why's he going on about the hair? Ohhhh. Joffrey is Jaime's son!" So it may seem heavy-handed to us, but not to the median viewer. Though I tend to agree about Theon. We get it. Oh curse your sudden yet inevitable betrayal!

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It's been ridiculously heavy-handed. But eh, about what you'd expect from a script gone over by some film school grad and a marketing exec.

I mean, it's clear they spent as much money as they could have on the show, but much of it still comes off as cheap. That's just the medium of television.

Compare and contrast what they've done with 'Game of Thrones', with a series like 'Rome'. They managed to do Rome on a similarly limited budget, but in such a way as to make it feel far more epic, complete with a truly epic battle. Not to mention, the combat was far more brutal and kinetic, than they've managed to show.

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It's been ridiculously heavy-handed. But eh, about what you'd expect from a script gone over by some film school grad and a marketing exec.

I have to LOL at the random anonymous Internet poster with no established credibility whatsoever taking shots like this. Well done, I am sure they really feel the sting of that one. :thumbsup:

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It's been ridiculously heavy-handed. But eh, about what you'd expect from a script gone over by some film school grad and a marketing exec.

I mean, it's clear they spent as much money as they could have on the show, but much of it still comes off as cheap. That's just the medium of television.

Compare and contrast what they've done with 'Game of Thrones', with a series like 'Rome'. They managed to do Rome on a similarly limited budget, but in such a way as to make it feel far more epic, complete with a truly epic battle. Not to mention, the combat was far more brutal and kinetic, than they've managed to show.

Eh ... what? Where was the epic battle in Rome that was actually onscreen? The only one I really remember was Pharsalus, and that was embarassingly awful (not the personal fights, which were pretty good). The only one I liked was the first one, where Pullo dived into the Germanic crowd.

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Compare and contrast what they've done with 'Game of Thrones', with a series like 'Rome'. They managed to do Rome on a similarly limited budget, but in such a way as to make it feel far more epic, complete with a truly epic battle. Not to mention, the combat was far more brutal and kinetic, than they've managed to show.

Well, I know that the purchasing power is different in the two shows' filming locations, and AFAIK the final GoT budget figures haven't been released to the public. Nonetheless, GoT's public budget is $50-$60 million for 10 episodes, and Rome's was $100-$110 million for 12 (slightly shorter) episodes. That's a big difference, even given the PP disparity. I'll grant that I'm not sure it'd have a big impact on the nature of the combat shown so far -- but we also have yet to see any actual battle. Maybe they saved it up for the Whispering Wood, or for the Green Fork, which we know is still coming.

Edited: Rome was amazing, but they didn't manage a season on $100.

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The medium requires things be done less subtely. Even with the increased exposition I still bet alot of people find the whole thing confusing at times.

It is hard to imagine what it would be like to see this thing without having read the books.

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It's been ridiculously heavy-handed. But eh, about what you'd expect from a script gone over by some film school grad and a marketing exec.

I mean, it's clear they spent as much money as they could have on the show, but much of it still comes off as cheap. That's just the medium of television.

Compare and contrast what they've done with 'Game of Thrones', with a series like 'Rome'. They managed to do Rome on a similarly limited budget, but in such a way as to make it feel far more epic, complete with a truly epic battle. Not to mention, the combat was far more brutal and kinetic, than they've managed to show.

Rome was big budget. They spent more than double on the first season of Rome than Game of Thrones first season budget. Rome is one of the most expensive per episode produictions ever with the big war miniseries like The Pacific and Band of Brothers, and maybe Deadwood.

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Well, my brother and his friends haven't read the books and they haven't found it particularly heavy handed. With so many characters to learn and plot threads to keep track off, I think they've done a good job making a series that regular people who haven't pored over the books hundreds of times can enjoy and follow without feeling as though they are lost and not understanding a lot.

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It has to be heavy handed due to the medium of TV. It becomes hard to follow subtle clues when you condense 6 chapters into one episode and only air 1 per week. Have you read or watched any of the reviews/discussions from non-book readers? There are still a large number of people that don't know the names of some of the main characters or how they're related to each other.

Is it better to get the Renly/Loras relationship out of the way now or to have a scene in every episode that hints at it. Personally, I'd like to see the major plots of the story shown on the screen instead than to have a large number of scenes hinting at all the revelations that will be revealed later... most of which aren't important to the overall story.

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There are some heavy-handed parts (*cough* Renly *cough* Loras *cough*), but overall the TV show is being as heavy-handed as it needs to be. In consideration of the non-reader audience and the fact that we're watching an hour-long TV show that attempts to adapt roughly 80 pages off a book each week, the show is doing a great job in being subtle (or not) as the need arises.

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One bit from episode six seemed totally out of place. When LF asked Eddard 'isn't a fish the sigil of your wife's house' or some such. Silly, when LF was brought up there and Eddard could hardly forget. A less clumsy comment could have conveyed the same information "A direct slap in the face of your wife's father - his own sigil". Still a bit unnatural, but far less so.

I do think they are handling the biggest mystery pretty well - "?+?=J". There are hints but not sledge hammers.

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^ Actually from that same scene, I thought the part that was heavy-handed was LF naming The Mountain/Gregor after saying (aside) to Ned: "Now don't we know someone who fits that description?" I don't think we needed LF to spell that out.

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