FantasyFan73

^^^ i was talking about my time at school- my degree at university was in mathematics :) But yes we read dickens, a translation of quixote, shakespeare and c.s.lewis etc at school.

I just took a peek at the top ten selling books of all time, and was surprised to find i read most of them at school as part of the curriculum - unsurprisingly the only ones in the top ten we were not required to read were the two fantasy books. So yes i would say the true classics dont disappear over time.

I couldnt stand true blood, but i dont think a show needs 'amazing indepth' storylines to be good fun. Rome was not particularly well written, but it was very enjoyable indeed after a slow first episode.

I should add, i dont care how an expert rates the 'greatness' of a book, as i understand it C.S.Lewis put tolkien forward for a nobel prize and the judges were unimpressed. I couldnt care less, to me a great book is one that sucks people in, and successfully affects their emotions. Martin has managed to do that in his first 3 books, and so did LOTR (which i read 5 times but havent read for ten years)

And yet fantasy has wide appeal In 2003 the bbc did a survey asking people what their favourite book was The winner was Lord of the Rings

I dont understand the aggression from so many people i must admit. Different people like different things, it doesnt mean 1 is right and the other person is wrong. Personally i loved every season before this, but havent loved S5 i still enjoyed it but the quality doesnt compare to s1 to s3 in particular for me , but then i thought book 4 was mediocre and felt book 5 was tedious. However if people loved S5, fair play to them :) And if people think books 4 and 5 were amazing, again fair play to them :) In conclusion i think maybe it is best to view them separately and not view it as some sort of competition?

I dont know how anyone can like the sansa/ramsey arc It consists of Reek: Over the top conflicted face Ramsey: Over the top cartoon villian face Sansa: Over the top broken face Repeated multiple times.... Best for me has been the wall POV this season, mireen has been ok but not great, same with kings landing, dorne has been comical but not in a good way

^^^^ I still think GOT is better than most things on TV to be honest, its purely that the 'shock' scenes feel contrived and gratuitous for me- plus theres no way around the fact dorne is crap. The scenes with the sandsnakes have me cringing a lot of the time. It wasnt the bad pussy line that made me wince most it was seeing 'deadly serious' dialogue delivered over a game of patta cake. Hated the way they got rid of barristan too, i loved that character. I dont think for a minute that intelligence is anything to do with enjoying 'travelogues' or enjoying action though. And surely the idea of consuming media is entertainment? I love good dialogue, but dont want long winded descriptions of food etc on the written page, i want things to happen (personal preference of course)...more importantly you cant translate that stuff to film. I am still holding out for an improved S6 though so i will keep watching

I am doing a rewatch at the moment (ill do a reread at some point too) and there are some brilliant moments, i will say the robb stark story was better on the show than books for me The king of the north scene worked for me, and robs grief when he is chopping the tree and speaks to cat REALLY worked for me Here is hoping that S6 produces moments like that in bucketfuls.

I agree, it was a case of 'get to shocking scene no matter how contrived and jarring it is' for me. If we had some build up then maybe it would have worked, but instead we had time devoted to crap about sand snakes flashing breasts and playing some daft slapping game. The earlier seasons had stuff i loved (arya and the hound, robert and cersei discussing their marriage, walder frey trolling rob etc) This season i loved... hard home.

And thats the problem, they drive characters to do 'the worst thing you can imagine' even when it makes no sense this season. I am convinced it is purely to get the media reporting on it the next day, but in some cases it spoils characterization

The most annoying thing for me about the battle was ramsay, i thought the depiction of overwhelming forces closing in was ...ok (although where the heck did they get tonnes of knights from). Ramsay is...cartoon like for me right now though. And we havent seen the hostility of the north to the boltons depicted at all? I think they have squandered sansas arc, i previously had a feeling she would 'grow'... and now she is permanently stuck in the role of helpless victim? Killing kevan would NOT have affected show watchers in the slightest, most show watchers would barely know who he is, heck i had to explain to my OH why trant was on aryas list....as it had been a while, kevan has had almost no screen time FTW.....i didnt like how they made thorne a more complex character, then ripped that up, but hey ho but apart from that it was ok Walk of shame, i felt was well done, but a bit long as so much to cover!.

On that i agree,you have put my feelings better than i did on another thread. As for books 4 and 5, well i think we can agree the pacing and style was different to the first three books? If people loved that, then thats great :) There are fantasy works i love (abercrombies first law books, brent weeks night angel trilogy, butchers furies series, the stormlight archive) that im sure many find awful I will still buy the next asoiaf book for sure, and still watch the next season as well ;)

I think the actor who plays tyrion is brilliant to be honest The time there was short, but the dialogue they did have- i enjoyed

^^^ i get what your saying, but disagree on tyrion 'arriving too early' for me that hugely improved the mereen arc

As an example, my colleague who i share an office with got to game of thrones very late (hes show only). He started watching 6 weeks ago The first 4 seasons he was totally addicted watching 3 or 4 hours a night, badgering me with questions about characters when i was trying to work. This season he has gradually lost interest- although he loved hardhome. I personally think that HBO had a deal with GRRM about how many book spoilers they could reveal, and that may have impacted the show. As for the books, well its been a few years since i read them but i didnt 'hate' 4 and 5, i just remember thinking they could have been edited into 1 book,and that it would have been a good book. I actually felt nervous about admitting i didnt 'love' those books :)

To be honest i dont know if thats the reason or not, like i said the main issue is that too many things felt contrived or done purely for shock value (burning shireen, making trant a pedo, brienne turning away JUST as the candle was lit)... i could go on but basically several things have made me cringe I dont know if the producers have done this because they found the source less inspiring, or because they are misunderstanding what the audience wants to see. I do know my unsullied friends find this the worst season though. I have been watching old episodes lately, compare this season to the scenes with say... arya and the hound and its no comparison. Oh btw, im not a book hater, 1-3 were the best fantasy i have read

I want the show to be brilliant, and still think it is pretty good... i watch little TV and this is the one series ive got into more than anything. I loved seasons 1-3 and liked season 4. This season though has been up and down, i felt they seemed to be going for the 'shock factor' and contriving instances that would get talked about on media etc. Im not bothered by gore, or horrid things happening, but in the early seasons it felt logical and plot driven (red wedding, ned stark killing etc) This season it hasnt, it has felt like the producers have gone 'hey lets do a shocking scene that gets the media talking' I felt the way they built stannis up with his daughters touching scene then shortly after had her burning was a particularly contrived plotline and felt completely off. I think dorne is awful, and i hate the sansa arc as well But, i will get myself shot for saying this, but when i read the books i felt the early books (1-3) were far superior to 4 and 5, and do think the producers have less quality material to draw from.

I understand what your saying, but for myself (and i suspect a lot of people) if you dont actually care about any of the characters then you dont care what happens.

I am a book reader, but not a fanatical one (i didnt love book 5 at all). I tend to think of the two as seperate entities. I felt season 5 dropped in quality, my unsullied partner got bored of this season too (although she loved E8 and arena part of E9)

My prediction (not joking -its what i expect) S6 E1 Jon is burnt and is gone for good. The hordes of women with an unhealthy level of investment in Kit Harington cancel their HBO in a fit of rage, expect twitter feeds to be full of 'i quit this show' Meanwhile, in essos we will be treated to a buddy movie as daario and jorah gallop across grasslands looking for dany, i have a horrible feeling they will find the dropped ring in a LOTR styled sequence. At the wall, the new POV will be davos and maybee olly. Cersei will take her revenge, the nun has a horrible fate awaiting her in particular. Margaery will do the walk of shame, not because it advances the plot but because naked margaery will be good for ratings. Jaime will turn the ship around and we will have lots more dorne. __ I hope all of that is wrong, but i can see it.

To get his book out I think there was a deal with HBO to avoid as much as possible spoiling more of the books, hence so many cliff hangers. I essentially saw it as HBO giving GRRM a chance to get the book out, and GRRM doing his best to take that chance