Humble Asskicker

Episode 11 turned out to be brilliant, nearly flawless, but I think I enjoy this thread even more. Some of the objections raised are absolutely hilarious. My favorites so far are the 'Craster's just not filthy enough!' objection (because an incestuous wildling shouldn't be capable of grooming himself, and of course...IT'S UNLIKE THE BOOK CRASTER - UNNECESSARY CHANGE, UNNECESSARY CHANGE!!!); also the objection where one of the commentors absolutely lost their shit over Dany's horse dying. Just try reading that in the Comic Book Guy's voice. :lol: Next favorite objection: the outrage over the Cersie/Littlefinger scene. It was an awesome scene that altered their characters for the better. It made Littlefinger less of a demigod omniscent plotter and more human. And it continued to make Cersei's character far more interesting and entertaining than in the books. But it's not book Cersei or Littlefinger, so it completely ruins everything and diminishes the quality of the show by a factor of warp ten! Most confusing objection: that the direwolf looked too CGI, because I honestly could not see it. It looked about as realistic as you could get. Also enjoying reading the numerous temper tantrums over Catelyn's change - another change from the books that is for the better, although not from the nitpicker's POV. Anyway, couldn't help tweaking some noses, though it's probably unnecessary because enough people are perfectly capable of working themselves up in a lather on their own. Nitpickers make the barren hours absent a new GoT episode worth living. There's no way to say this without coming off as condescening, because, well, it is condescening, but thank you guys so much, and please continue unleashing the rage. Can't wait to see what other sacriligeous, ruinous changes the show is going to make in the future. Just so long as Renly takes only a single bite from his peach, because two bites would be not only gratuitous but destroy all the good will I have towards the show. No bites at all is just beyond contemplating, as it would circumvent the entire significance of the series as a whole.

Ran, What? I thought he meant when the wizard SPOILER: Tigana saves Catriana and admits the good guys were right all along. I loooved when the wizard was enslaved. It was a refreshing poke of complexity in the midst of "look at us, we're all decent fellows fighting a just cause" which bothered me. To that point, it really seemed that the only complexity to be found was on Brandin's side, where Gavriel saw fit to give him more than the usual one dimension for the villains, but forgot to extend that favor to the protagonists. With the wizard, it seemed Gavriel was really shooting against that, but then...no. Good guys were right all along and the wizard was just being a sullen ass.

I had the very same opinion, except for the purple prose point - I felt that while occasionally plodding, it wasn't too decorative, and was direct enough to advance the plot efficiently. I loved the first part of Tigana, but from there it just became this difficult to endure caricature fantasy. SPOILER: Tigana I initially really enjoyed the setting and historical influence and also the character of Tomasso, Sandre's nephew, to be terrific, and the build-up for Sandre himself to have whet my expectations. Also, the twists and turns of this part were truly unexpected and exciting, and made me think that this was going to be an extraordinary novel. Then there was the switch to Dionora, a character I found to be rather plain, and somewhat annoying, as her character was oft-opined as having a very delightful personality, enough so that she could captivate Brandon's interest, but during her dialog interactions she comes off as banal and somewhat antithetical to what we are lead to expect. Her situation was interesting though, and I was eager to see what happened with Alessan's group, so I plowed on. But then I found, that while the initial return to Alessan's group was very awesome indeed, pretty soon it turned painful. The characters had what was very much a David Eddings flavor or comradery, with the supposed wit of their rapport, and the fierce grins and other annoying behaviorisms that grow tiresome very quickly. The characters are pretty static throughout the series - until the end. And the story kept switching to minor characters, given a brief time to narrate who they were and throw them some background which was generic fantasy. These diversions could have been an interesting departure from standard fantasy narrative, but the characters were so absolutely boring, and I had already seen them so many times in other fantasy books, or games. One of the most egregious departures actually felt like a Zelda side quest (the hilarious fight with the Others, where a bunch of farmers, who bore the tradition of a Secret Order, were fighting the ultimate battle for existence, pitting their mighty farmer mettle against what essentially are Boggarts, using the corn as their tools to slay the evil that besets them). It came out of no where, and could be excised without any problem. The only purpose the characters play later on is to fight against Brandin and make him seem uber-super-OMG-powerful. If Gavriel had scaled down Brandin's power, the extreneous characters could have been eliminated altogether, and it still wouldn't have neutered the impact of the scene. Another thing that bothered me was the really stupid deus ex machina that saved Catriana. Gavriel had written this beautiful scene of someone who was willing to sacrifice everything for what she believed in, and made you feel to much for this complex character, and then takes that and assassinates it, undermining the whole point and effect of the scene. It was one of the biggest douchebag moves that Gavriel does in the novel, and he really makes a habit of those. It also simultaneously murders another interesting character - the wizard captured against his will - which added a nuance of complexity to the good guys, and so it was like a one-two punch. Anyway, I found towards the end that despite Dionora remaining a plain and somewhat irritating character, her situation and character easily became the best part of the book. And the ending (not epilogue) was spectacularly executed, almost enough for me to forgive the rest. But the epilogue itself was about as awful as you could get. It reminded me of the epilogue of the final Harry Potter book. Everyone was hooking up, and it was like a pure injection of saccharine.