22 replies to this topic

[Buster]

Is the show failing to tell the story to people new to the series?

I know a lot of people that have been watching Game of Thrones and haven't read the books. Some have watched each episode multiple times, yet none of them know what is happening in the story and are always getting characters names wrong. An example of this would be Yoren, the Night's Watch recruiter. One of my friends was convinced that his name was Baelor after Ned shouted that to him before getting his head removed. From what I can see, the only reason that people watch the show is for the sex, violence and Tyrion's witty one-liners.

The story seems to be too complicated to tell to TV viewers, most are not willing to put in the effort to get the story straight in their head and remember who is who.

[Extark]

Well i don't think show is hard to follow as you described. My story about books and TV series shows it can be vice versa.

In my country GoT released as 2 volumes. I was reading too many fantasy novels back then and i was keep reading at foreign forums how "A Song of Fire and Ice" is great series. So i bought first volume of GoT as soon as released. It was simply a half book which i read between many other fantasy books, so don't blame me. I found the book interesting, but didn't get much about who is who, thought it must be better at Second half and moved on to reading other fantasy books and forgot the book in time.

When i heard about TV series i was excited, since i was reading fantasy books, playing fantasy games (mostly playing games than reading lately lol), i was hungry for some good Fantasy movies. And since Lotr, holywood was keep doing crap Super Hero movies and some crap history movies, i don't know why.

After watching TV series i actually started to understand whats going on in Westeros and who is who. And the people i know (I'm the only one read the book around me) watching the show seems they are understanding whats going on and who is who. Yes maybe if i ask who is Hodor, some of them probably wouldnt remember him by his name, but all of them surely knows about main characters at least.

And another plus for TV series, it made me read all the books.

[Arkash]

Quote

One of my friends was convinced that his name was Baelor after Ned shouted that to him before getting his head removed.

That made my day! =D

[The Freshmaker]

Nah... I watch the whole season 1 first, when I got hooked I'm just wanting to know more and gotta hold on the ASOIAF books (and join this forum). So yeah I don't think people watch for the sex.

[Chelly]

I saw the first season first before reading the books and I didn't really have a hard time. I can see how some of the more specific cultural and historical details might not be fully understood in the first viewing but as far as the plot and important characters, if somebody is not following then they are not paying attention. I don't think the sex really has an impact on who watches it or not.

[Dracarya]

I've noticed a lot of people getting confused with Stannis, Melisandre, Davos, etc, and the other new characters, like Craster and the Ironborn. They don't know their names, what they're doing, who they are. I didn't have a problem with watching season 1 before reading the books, but I guess there's a lot more to keep track of in season 2.

It annoys me when people don't know the names of the 'bigger' characters though, like Tyrion (no pun intended), Cersei, Catelyn, Robb, Sansa, Joffrey, etc etc. One of my friends called Gendry "Gammon"!!

[Rogue Knight]

I went to my father's house and Sunday night we watched the first 5 episodes and he was not lost. In fact he rather enjoyed it. He won't read the books, but that is because he's not a reader and he has poor vision.

*Plus on a side note I doubt people watch it just for the nudity simply because that's like saying, "people read the books for the nudity scenes and not the underlining story."

[Chelly]

"Gammon" That's funny. My sister who yet to read the books, called Osha "Tonks". Now she knows her name though, because I corrected her. Was her name ever introduced in the show? I can't remember.

The one thing I do remember being slightly confused about was the bastard surname thing and why wasn't Jon a "Stark".

Edited by Chelly, 17 April 2012 - 03:24 PM.

[Lady Tippy Wolfsbane]

Kagoora, on 17 April 2012 - 03:20 PM, said:

I went to my father's house and Sunday night we watched the first 5 episodes and he was not lost. In fact he rather enjoyed it. He won't read the books, but that is because he's not a reader and he has poor vision.

*Plus on a side note I doubt people watch it just for the nudity simply because that's like saying, "people read the books for the nudity scenes and not the underlining story."

You should introduce him to the audio books. I have a hard time reading due to headaches, so the audio books are amazing. They gave me a deeper love for the series.

[Aegnor]

A friend of mine, that is watching the show, absolutely loves it. One scene he described as "I was fully expecting the fat dude to get stabbed from behind when he was giving that gift to the creepy dudes daughter/wife. Hopefully that made sense I know no ones names in the show besides Robb, Tyrion and Joeffry".

So yeah, people may not fully understand everything that is going on, or know everyone's names, but they get enough to still love it.

I pointed my friend out to that character list that the TWOP site has for their unspoiled speculation thread.

[Drogon's Personal Trainer]

Chelly, on 17 April 2012 - 03:22 PM, said:

"Gammon" That's funny. My sister who yet to read the books, called Osha "Tonks". Now she knows her name though, because I corrected her. Was her name ever introduced in the show? I can't remember.

That will be because Natalia Tena played Tonks in the HP films.  I watched the first series before reading the books and wasn't confused at all - and even then I groaned/yawned at the scenes with Ros.  My son watches the series but doesn't want to read the books, and he's keeping up, no problem.  My sister, on the other hand, a non-book viewer, simply moans: 'There's too many characters to keep track of'..... *sigh*

I think the first series (I watched the stack when it was re-run over Christmas) was pretty clear.  My daughter had read the books by then - I hadn't.  I do remember a convo that went something like: Me: 'So that's Ser Hugh of the Vale - and he's the one who's poisoned John Arryn?'  Daughter confirmed.  Me: 'So John Arryn - the previous Hand - knew something dangerous?'  Daughter confirmed.  So then it was a logical leap to: 'So, who's arranged for Ser Hugh to be killed?'  Daughter said: 'You'll have to wait and see....'

So, honestly, I think we do need to give the majority of the TV audience credit for picking things up.  Same as - to me - it was obvious as soon as Bran started seeing the 3-eyed crow that he was going to get some kind of psychic power, and the fact that he woke up when Lady was killed.

But I know everyone isn't the same.  I confess to being very interested in the characters and the story I saw unfolding, so it made me invest more brain power in trying to work things out.  My sister, on the other hand, hasn't got a clue - even now, Series 2.  She just knows there's a girl with dragons and Sean Bean got his head chopped off.

Edited by Drogon's Personal Trainer, 27 April 2012 - 01:31 PM.

[Brienne the Beauty]

Book readers know them by their names because that's how we met them first; TV watchers know characters by their appearance. This is nothing unusual for TV. I've watched 3 seasons of the Sopranos, and maybe know half the names.

I think its funnier when people mix up characters by appearance; show-only fans seem to often confuse Lancel and Loras. Similar names, vaguely similar appearances. I'm not sure how they reconcile in their minds that LancelLoras is simultaneously gay and sleeping with Cersei.

[Chipster92]

Brienne the Beauty, on 27 April 2012 - 01:28 PM, said:

I think its funnier when people mix up characters by appearance; show-only fans seem to often confuse Lancel and Loras. Similar names, vaguely similar appearances. I'm not sure how they reconcile in their minds that LancelLoras is simultaneously gay and sleeping with Cersei.

Maybe they just think LancelLoras is a bisexual master of teleportation?

Edited by Chipster92, 27 April 2012 - 02:56 PM.

[Morvran]

My non-reader girlfriend is most confused about what's going on north of the wall.  Last night she asked me to remind her why the hell they were all wandering around in the snow.  She was completely confused about who Craster was as well (and couldn't remember why they were there).  I think there was a little disconnect between the end of last season and this season concerning that plot line.  I also think the banter between Night's Watch brothers is so random and off-the-cuff that it's hard to follow, and maybe hard for non-readers to tell when someone is simply busting someone's balls or disclosing an important detail.  

She doesn't have trouble following the Renly-Stannis plot line or the ones at King's Landing and Pyke.  Harrenhal was a little confusing at first but Tywin's arrival seemed to sort that out nicely.

[Hear Me Roar!]

It's very confusing for most non-readers, that is for sure. I've gathered as much. Many of them pick up on some of the plot but also miss a lot of it, too. In that regard, the show is failing in many aspects, but I think it is also succeeding in quite a few aspects as well. At the end of the day, this was a massive undertaking and expecting them to pull off the entire A Song of Ice and Fire story perfectly with every detail and having it perfectly accessible, was just a feat that was not possible. I'm happy with the job they are doing, though. The problem lies with the nature of the casual viewer. They just don't have the attention span to catch every piece of dialogue, which in a show like 24..means nothing, but in a show like Game of Thrones, means you could be missing crucial plot information and it snowballs from there.

My roommate hasn't read the books and constantly takes smoke breaks during the show and he seems to enjoy it but at the end of the episode thinks he knows what happened, but when I talk to him about it, it's very clear he has no idea. He thought Robb was Jon and Jon was Robb on numerous occasions (which in the context of the show makes ZERO sense, why would Catelyn be embracing Jon Snow after Ned Stark's death?). He thought the rider that came back to Daenerys with his head in a satchel was one of the Gold Cloaks that ... wait for it... Yoren threatened. Yep. That was when I just gave up on him ever understanding the show and I stopped even trying to explain anything.

Edited by Hear Me Roar!, 30 April 2012 - 12:06 PM.

[_Oberyn_]

Tippy, on 19 April 2012 - 06:31 PM, said:

You should introduce him to the audio books. I have a hard time reading due to headaches, so the audio books are amazing. They gave me a deeper love for the series.

Indeed. Roy Dotrice its superb and adds new depth to the books. I would recommend the audio books to anyone not just people with sight problems.

[mike_s_6]

Okay, let me tell you about the people I know who watched.

The person who recommended it to me also read the books, and she's the only person with whom I can discuss the show in an in-depth manner. I read the books though before watching, so I didn't get lost watching it.

And here are the non-book readers:

Boyfriend of that friend I previously mentioned couldn't place who Davos was, even after I mentioned that he's the guy with Stannis and the creepy red sorceress. He couldn't place Stannis either.

A young male colleague of mine watched only the sexy parts and other "interesting" parts. When he tried to watch the whole thing, he got bored and read the summary instead. He thought that Dany birthed the dragons in a burning house.

Other young male colleagues watched it properly, but they read the wiki so they understood the plot well, and know spoilers too.

My high school friend didn't want to watch it because she heard that it's confusing. Another high school friend watched, saying that she was so confused cause all the men had beards, thus making it hard for her to follow the characters. Conversely, another high scool friend thought she understood it fine.

I had my husband watch the first episode, and I had to explain that the woman in the ending is the Queen, and it was incestuous because they're twins. He says he has interest in watching the rest... But since then, he has watched and finished REWATCHING other much much longer serieses, so I guess he's really not interested.


...
So yes, I have a hunch that people who read the books appreciate the story more, plainly by knowing what the hell is happening!

Edited by mike_s_6, 01 May 2012 - 02:19 AM.

[Arkash]

I've convinced a lot of friends really recently to watch the show... they all want to read the books, and when we do watching sessions, I'm always there to explain them some subtilities or elements of history, but overall, they have no problem at all following... got asked a lot of questions about Robert's Rebellion and Aegons's conquest, so glad they did catch those hints in the series.

[SerArthurHeath]

I know people watching just the show and reading and watching at the same time. Nobody I have spoken to has had any problem following it at all.

[Arkash]

First fail last night... I tried to introduce the show to a friend, but knew it was going to be hard, she's very sensible... and it didnt work, she couldnt bear the sex and gore... nor the atmosphere... well, I aknowledge my defeat... dont care, I still did got totally 4 other friends in it very recently. And they will all read the books!