Correct. It's discussing the TV series for book-readers and non-book-readers (thus everyone). Lots of non-book-readers have been asking book-readers questions about the history and such so I am sure some of them appreciate the input. If you want something different go make it happen.
There's no point in arguing about it anymore. The other non-spoiler thread has already been created. I've read the books, and I would certainly never want to hamper anyone's enjoyment of the HBO series which I'm also enjoying. I can't un-remember the stuff from the books, and I think almost everyone has tried to be as considerate as possible with using the spoiler tags. I'm sorry if it lessened the enjoyment of the show or discussion for anyone, but we now have the spoiler free thread, and I think trying to trash people who've been vigilant about not spoiling anything for people in this thread is pointless. I'll enjoy reading the other thread even if I don't post in it.
Regardless, I'm going to continue to use spoiler tags for anything that hasn't been covered on the show yet. And I think I've been the least nitpicky of any of the fanboys here. Anyways, sorry it has gotten to this point and anyone felt inconvenienced. Was never my intention, personally.
Personally, Spoiler annoying the folks who didn't read the books was Spoiler for me Spoiler the whole point of posting in this thread. But seriously, Spoiler good idea about continuing to use the spoiler tag. Even some of us who read some of the books may not have finished reading all of them.
Ha ha, classic. A true fan of this series would never want to spoil something for someone else. The shock value is what makes it so great.
Question: When the first books of A Song of Ice & Fire came out were they as popular and highly acclaimed as they are now?
Wonder if the thread title here can have a [spoilers] added to it, two obvious different threads then. It seems a large amount, if not majority of us discussing the show have read the books so it's certainly better to have two different threads on it.
I remember hearing about it around 1997 but Fantasy is such a small group of fans that you aren't going to hear about them as much as you would a Grisham novel or something.
It's grown in popularity, although it's been well liked from jump. You can tell from how well the Subterranean press special illustrated editions sell. Most of their stuff takes a few months or even years to sell out, but the Ice and Fire stuff sells out within weeks (these books are $100+ each).
First time I heard about them it was recommended to me because I was in the middle of waiting for Jordan to put another Wheel of Time book out and kind of pissed about it. Someone told me to try Martin because they thought they were better books, and 'it won't take as long' for him to finish the series (it was only 2 or 3 books in at that point IIRC). lol
One thing I am curious to see is how the producers of the will be handling the challenge of Spoiler dealing with the increaseing number of essentially separate narratives taking place simultaneously at different locations. A lot of these storylines really don't cross with each other for a long time (if at all) and might get unwieldly to keep track of in the TV format. I don't recall another show with so many storylines going on at the same time.
I think they'll do like the last episode and just have a couple of locations not in an entire episode.
Yeah the show is pretty much set up now as far as history and who is who. There should be minimal background exposition and not too many more new characters the rest of this season, with a lot more focus on the here and now.
This show is still great. Some random comments. The intro - ok, wow, pretty amazing intro with the way they build the world while you are seeing the intro credits. BUT, hate to nitpick, but even watching on HBOGo on my ipad, with the ability to move forward, that intro is too long. again, nitpicking, and to a new viewer, helps show the map, which is something you are always referencing when you read these types of books, but it seems like it takes about 1:45. Hate to gripe, but the show is so good, cut that sucker in half and give me another minute of show! Sean Bean - when did this guy become such a good actor? I never thought he was that good as Boromir. It's not like he took over the show on National Treasure or anything. But he is really nailing this role. Fantasy - while i know much more fantasy is coming, not a lot of "fantasy" so far. Of course, it's a made up world, in a medieval like setting, so it is fantasy, just pointing out, it's basically a political sex drama set in the past at the moment. Aside from a 3 eyed crow in a dream and breif mention of dragon egg's, no fantasy yet. but i'm really pretty happy about that - want some, but not over the op. i guess the direwolves are part of the "magic" in the series, and eagerly await that, because i just always like the dog-human connection fantasy story lines. Characters - keeping in mind i have not read the books, i'm finding they're doing a pretty solid job with the characters, given how many of them there are. it's still a little confusing, especially when trying to associate characters with names. Ned, Stark, Robert - those are easy for me to remember. But the bald guy, the council guys, the people at the wall, the Dothraki's, etc... hard to keep track of who is named who. Visually I know who is who, but when someone is referencing someone else in dialogue, i get confused.
As far as fantasy goes, in episode 1 there was the very beginning with the "White Walkers". That's the only other thing I can think of at the moment, and the Dragon skulls in the basement of the castle where Arya overheard the two men talking.
HBO has a great site to get acquainted with the characters, names, families and places that are great for non book readers, as wiki, google and other sites are bound to have spoilers. http://viewers-guide.hbo.com/game-of-thrones/#!/guide/houses/ I love the hbo map, much better than the ones in my books, but am still waiting for a complete world map... (the books maps are pretty bad/atleast the ones not pertaining to the westeros continent).
Regarding the lack of "fantasy" elements, I think by now it's not really a spoiler to say that Spoiler there ain't a lot of elves and hobbits running around Westeros and the only dwarf we see is Tyrion Lannister. Spoiler To me, the fact that the story is more like historic fiction set in a alternate universe mostly inhabited by humans with magical things here and there is part of the charm of the show and the books. Having too many elves, dwarves, orcs to deal would distract from the human drama. The Ice and Fire universe seems to be a version of what the world would look like from the prespective of a medieval/feudal-age person: he would not see the unicorns and elves running around every day, but he would probably believe in magical thing and scary monsters, etc. so it's part of that reality thats just lurking out there along with brutality of the physical world.
Like I've been telling people who have decided not to watch because they don't like Fantasy; Don't think Lord of The Rings. Think Sopranos in a medieval setting.
