AVS › AVS Forum › HDTV › HDTV Programming › 'Game of Thrones' on HBO HD - NO SPOILERS or Book Discussion
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

'Game of Thrones' on HBO HD - NO SPOILERS or Book Discussion - Page 58

post #1711 of 3126
6/4/12 at 8:50am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rdclark View Post

How could this finale not seem "disjointed?" Has there ever been a TV show with this many separate narrative threads? With this many characters who never interact with (or have never even met) the others?

Don't get me wrong: I love it. But it has its own standards, that's for sure.

The Wire had many different narratives going on.
Reply
Reply

AVS Top Picks

post #1712 of 3126
6/4/12 at 9:05am
Winterfell: This one kept up last night trying to figure out what happened. Question is who sacked the castle given Theon's statement that he'd seen 500 men surrounding the castle.

Doesn't make sense to me that the men surrounding the castle would have burned Winterfell if they were Stark supporters. Only thing that makes sense to me in retrospect (going all the way back to Theon's second in command suggesting the Winterfell attack to begin with and Theon's sister trying to talk him out of staying) is that this whole thing was one big test designed to see if Theon's loyalties laid with his family or the Starks. His men were in on it and the 500 men outside the wall were either with his father or sister.

I've got to say that the hardest part about watching this show is having the discipline not to read ahead or jump into the spoiler thread for answers.
Reply
Reply
post #1713 of 3126
6/4/12 at 9:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by magillagorilla View Post

Winterfell: This one kept up last night trying to figure out what happened. Question is who sacked the castle given Theon's statement that he'd seen 500 men surrounding the castle.

Doesn't make sense to me that the men surrounding the castle would have burned Winterfell. Only thing that makes sense to me in retrospect (going all the way back to Theon's second in command suggesting the Winterfell attack to begin with and Theon's sister trying to talk him out of staying) is that this whole thing was one big test designed to see if Theon's loyalties laid with his family or the Starks. His men were in on it and the 500 men outside the wall were either with his father or sister.

That hadn't occurred to me, but it certainly fits the facts. Good theory.
Reply
Reply
post #1714 of 3126
6/4/12 at 9:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ph8te View Post

As far as the Warlock goes, he was over confident since it was his home turf as well as he had Dany and her Dragons in chains. All she needed to do was get the right one which she did. He threw an optical illusion via magic, but if she killed the right one his magic means nothing. I think it was more out of shock that her Dragons could be so powerful at such a young age. Remember no one alive has seen living Dragons so they probably thought they wouldnt be able to do any harm. This is just MHO of course.

That still doesn't fill in the holes though. One warlock? No others that could have stopped her without even being in the room? Dany enters the tower without a door by magic so how does she leave? There was no conventional route to whatever floor she was on.
Reply
Reply
post #1715 of 3126
6/4/12 at 9:45am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by VisionOn View Post

That still doesn't fill in the holes though. One warlock? No others that could have stopped her without even being in the room? Dany enters the tower without a door by magic so how does she leave? There was no conventional route to whatever floor she was on.

Just like the chains disintegrating after the warlock burned to death, perhaps, the non-door became a door. Magic brought her in, the magic was dead, so what wasn't visible before became visible....
Reply
Reply
post #1716 of 3126
6/4/12 at 9:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobby94928 View Post

Just like the chains disintegrating after the warlock burned to death, perhaps, the non-door became a door. Magic brought her in, the magic was dead, so what wasn't visible before became visible....

Right, and the show gave the impression that there was indeed only one warlock.
Reply
Reply
post #1717 of 3126
6/4/12 at 10:07am
Well I cheated and looked it up in a wiki. Basically that scene was badly written in the show. Chopped down for television and plot logic be damned.
Reply
Reply
post #1718 of 3126
6/4/12 at 10:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by VisionOn View Post

Well I cheated and looked it up in a wiki. Basically that scene was badly written in the show. Chopped down for television and plot logic be damned.

That it's elaborated on much more fully in the books doesn't surprise me at all. It also doesn't surprise me that TV operates under severe time restraints that the books don't have.
Reply
Reply
post #1719 of 3126
6/4/12 at 10:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by VisionOn View Post


That still doesn't fill in the holes though. One warlock? No others that could have stopped her without even being in the room? Dany enters the tower without a door by magic so how does she leave? There was no conventional route to whatever floor she was on.

Did we really ever see more than one warlock? He often used magic to duplicate himself so it may have only been him. Also as it was said before it appears to have been magic shielding the entrance. Once the Warlock was dead one would think any spells he controlled also stopped working. Also, just because the door was hidden to get in doesn't mean it was hidden to get out.
Reply
Reply
post #1720 of 3126
6/4/12 at 10:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rkhopkins View Post

Sansa has been urged twice now, by the Hound and now Littlefinger, to leave King's Landing and has refused. I think her motive for that may be more sinister than many think. I think that she hates Joffrey so much that she does not want to leave the capitol until she see's him dead. I would not underestimate her.

I hadn't thought of that possibility, but you may be right.
Either way, it shows she ain't too bright.


Quote:
Originally Posted by RobertR View Post

I thought it was one of the best episodes of both seasons. So many interesting character and story arcs going on.

I liked that scene VERY much. I've been dying to have the power of the dragons showed and Daenerys' control over them, and it was! That they could have that much power even at their tiny size really makes me look forward to seeing what they're capable of fully grown.

Count me as one of the people who likes the richness of the narrative. They can keep this going for several seasons, and I'll be happy.

+1


Quote:
Originally Posted by FreeBaGeL View Post

Xaros being a phony (and Dany learning the value in visual deceit) was a nice touch. I bet she uses that when building her army.

Agreed.


Quote:


The only storyline that I didn't really buy was, as usual, Jon Snow's. At least there was some movement on it this week, but with the way they built up Snow I don't believe that he would have had the stones to kill Halfhand without hesitation when he let Snow disarm him. I also don't buy that the wildlings would have immediately made the jump to "oh we can totally trust this guy because he killed an ally that was clearly goading him into a fight, let's untie him and introduce him to our king".

It is a little hard to swallow, but it seems to be where it's going.


Quote:


Is it just me, or did the White Walkers in this episode look different than the ones from the first scene of the series? I can't remember specifically, but I thought in the first episode they were shown (or hinted at) as big, really tall monster-like things that were extremely agile rather than human-style zombies.

Exactly what I thought too.
Reply
Reply
post #1721 of 3126
6/4/12 at 10:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by RobertR View Post

That it's elaborated on much more fully in the books doesn't surprise me at all. It also doesn't surprise me that TV operates under severe time restraints that the books don't have.

It's times like this that I'm hating the 10 episode season HBO is working to. It doesn't bode well for the future either. I can only assume that as the books get bigger and more epic in battles and character numbers then it's going to be far harder for HBO to squeeze everything in and events are going to make less sense.

I didn't cheat about the Winterfell situation in case it might be explained next season with the twist mentioned above, but I'm really just expecting that it didn't resolve properly because the show removed the parts that would have explained it.
Reply
Reply
post #1722 of 3126
6/4/12 at 10:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by RobertR View Post

That hadn't occurred to me, but it certainly fits the facts. Good theory.

I have to agree.
Reply
Reply
post #1723 of 3126
6/4/12 at 10:24am
Well, I'm convinced that I should start reading the books. I'll start as soon as I finish rereading the works of Heinlein.
Reply
Reply
post #1724 of 3126
6/4/12 at 10:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by VisionOn View Post


It's times like this that I'm hating the 10 episode season HBO is working to. It doesn't bode well for the future either. I can only assume that as the books get bigger and more epic in battles and character numbers then it's going to be far harder for HBO to squeeze everything in and events are going to make less sense.

I didn't cheat about the Winterfell situation in case it might be explained next season with the twist mentioned above, but I'm really just expecting that it didn't resolve properly because the show removed the parts that would have explained it.

That's why they are devoting 20 episodes (2 seasons) to the third book.
Reply
Reply
post #1725 of 3126
6/4/12 at 10:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by RobertR View Post

Well, I'm convinced that I should start reading the books.

Actually, this season has had the opposite effect on me.
Generally speaking, I was constantly surprised with where the storyline went....and I like surprises from my TV shows.

I was going to read the series, but not now.
Reply
Reply
post #1726 of 3126
6/4/12 at 11:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by oink View Post

Actually, this season has had the opposite effect on me.
Generally speaking, I was constantly surprised with where the storyline went....and I like surprises from my TV shows.

I was going to read the series, but not now.

I feel the same way.

The only problem is with the message boards, this one excluded. There are some jerks out there who love ruining surprises. I read some of the comments on a CNN.COM article about the finale. Luckily, the comment was removed, but not before some others read it. Earlier, somewhere else, another poster wrote but a single line. It was a general statement, that I won't repeat, but it still had an effect.

I've stopped watching movie trailers because they give too much away now too.
Reply
Reply
post #1727 of 3126
6/4/12 at 11:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by oink View Post

Actually, this season has had the opposite effect on me.
Generally speaking, I was constantly surprised with where the storyline went....and I like surprises from my TV shows.

I was going to read the series, but not now.

Of course, that means you'll never read the books, since they'll have no surprises for you after watching the series. One or the other.
Reply
Reply
post #1728 of 3126
6/4/12 at 11:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rkhopkins View Post

That's why they are devoting 20 episodes (2 seasons) to the third book.

Yes - the pages per episode for the third book should be significantly lower than even season one. This season is probably the high watermark for book compression, since the fourth and fifth books will likely be spread across three seasons.

EDIT: forgive me if discussion of number of book pages counts as "book discussion"!
Reply
Reply
post #1729 of 3126
6/4/12 at 11:34am
The "one" warlock thing was kind of disappointing, and then there was the ease with which they captured the "king"...it's like all of Qarth was a deception. Weren't there guards and whatnot? So who runs the place now? All of the 13 are gone.

Also, what's happened with Bronn now that he's been relieved of command?

Yeah, the Jon Snow thing looks like it's headed the way of Avatar--hey, what ever happened to his uncle? Did he join the wildlings too?

If there's about to be a battle between the nightwatch and whitewalkers, I can almost guarantee you one thing: we won't see it. They'll just have the chubby guy arrive and show us the aftermath.
Reply
Reply
post #1730 of 3126
6/4/12 at 11:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by kromkamp View Post

Yes - the pages per episode for the third book should be significantly lower than even season one. This season is probably the high watermark for book compression, since the fourth and fifth books will likely be spread across three seasons.

so book 3 = 2 two seasons
book 4 and 5 = 3 seasons

total 5 seasons ...

What will they do in following 3 years waiting for book 6?
Reply
Reply
post #1731 of 3126
6/4/12 at 11:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by markmathers View Post

I agree. Is it just me or my setup, or does HBO's audio seem quieter than most other cable channels? I find myself turning the volume up several decibels higher than I would any other channel.

Quote:
Originally Posted by oink View Post

I noticed that too.

Is it possible that you're not listening with the proper gain setting? As was the case with the recent "Luck" on HBO the use of a proper gain setting allowed for the audio to be heard with very nice dynamics. The soft portions were low in volume, as they should be, while the loud moments were very loud indeed, the result of an expansive dynamic range. Many networks compress their audio track so much that everything has nearly the same amplitude, an explosion is barely perceptively louder in volume than a soft whisper. Try listening to USA Network, syfy Network, or even my local CBS station KPIX, virtually zero dynamic range and the presentation suffers because of it.

I'm happy when I come across a show where I have to increase the gain to a reference, or near reference level as it usually means the audio technicians are doing a great job of giving us a presentation with a very lively and expansive dynamic range.
Reply
Reply
post #1732 of 3126
6/4/12 at 11:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by keenan View Post

Is it possible that you're not listening with the proper gain setting? As was the case with the recent "Luck" on HBO the use of a proper gain setting allowed for the audio to be heard with very nice dynamics. The soft portions were low in volume, as they should be, while the loud moments were very loud indeed, the result of an expansive dynamic range. Many networks compress their audio track so much that everything has nearly the same amplitude, an explosion is barely perceptively louder in volume than a soft whisper. Try listening to USA Network, syfy Network, or even my local CBS station KPIX, virtually zero dynamic range and the presentation suffers because of it.

I'm happy when I come across a show where I have to increase the gain to a reference, or near reference level as it usually means the audio technicians are doing a great job of giving us a presentation with a very lively and expansive dynamic range.

Well said! I roll my eyes every time I see people complain about "quiet dialogue", followed by an exaggerated complaint about "bleeding ears" from the loud parts when the gain is raised to hear the dialogue at a comfortable level. Wide dynamic range is MUCH more exciting than the compressed stuff many people seem to embrace.
Reply
Reply
post #1733 of 3126
6/4/12 at 11:53am
So who did Rob marry?
Reply
Reply
post #1734 of 3126
6/4/12 at 12:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rkhopkins View Post

Sansa has been urged twice now, by the Hound and now Littlefinger, to leave King's Landing and has refused. I think her motive for that may be more sinister than many think. I think that she hates Joffrey so much that she does not want to leave the capitol until she see's him dead. I would not underestimate her.

Littlefinger didn't urge her to leave, he said he would help her leave. He told her that Joffrey wasn't done with her. I'm pretty sure she is not free to go whenever she wants. The Hound didn't exactly leave under good graces.
Reply
Reply
post #1735 of 3126
6/4/12 at 12:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dm145 View Post

So who did Rob marry?

I believe that was Lady Talisa (Charlie Chaplin's granddaughter....)...no?
Reply
Reply
post #1736 of 3126
6/4/12 at 12:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jaypb View Post

I believe that was Lady Talisa (Charlie Chaplin's granddaughter....)...no?

Yes, it was her he married.
Reply
Reply
post #1737 of 3126
6/4/12 at 12:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RobertR View Post

Well said! I roll my eyes every time I see people complain about "quiet dialogue", followed by an exaggerated complaint about "bleeding ears" from the loud parts when the gain is raised to hear the dialogue at a comfortable level. Wide dynamic range is MUCH more exciting than the compressed stuff many people seem to embrace.

Well, it's easy to get conditioned to that with so many TV networks all doing it. When viewing HBO content it helps to remember to try and use a cinematic viewing mindset, one where you would likely find properly done audio, versus a TV network where loud is best so let's make everything loud, resulting in everything having the same amplitude. It's like they say, "It's not TV, it's HBO!"
Reply
Reply
post #1738 of 3126
6/4/12 at 12:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by magillagorilla View Post

Winterfell: This one kept up last night trying to figure out what happened. Question is who sacked the castle given Theon's statement that he'd seen 500 men surrounding the castle.

Doesn't make sense to me that the men surrounding the castle would have burned Winterfell if they were Stark supporters. Only thing that makes sense to me in retrospect (going all the way back to Theon's second in command suggesting the Winterfell attack to begin with and Theon's sister trying to talk him out of staying) is that this whole thing was one big test designed to see if Theon's loyalties laid with his family or the Starks. His men were in on it and the 500 men outside the wall were either with his father or sister.

I've got to say that the hardest part about watching this show is having the discipline not to read ahead or jump into the spoiler thread for answers.

Anyone catch the dead bodies in Winterfell to see if any of them were wearing ironmen armor?

I didn't, but if they weren't, my guess is that the ironmen burnt Winterfell down and took off through the secret passageways. Still doesn't explain why Bran and crew emerge from the crypts with no one around and somehow Maester Luwin is alone next to the Godswood tree. Bolton's bastard see the place burning and decide there was nothing left for him to do? They either didn't want to cast for the Bolton's bastard because he has no further role, or he comes into play much later in the series and didn't want to worry about recasting him a couple years down the road.

Quote:
Originally Posted by rkhopkins View Post

That's why they are devoting 20 episodes (2 seasons) to the third book.

Is that a fact? Hadn't heard that. It'd be nice if 2 seasons didn't have to be spread over 2 years.
Reply
Reply
post #1739 of 3126
6/4/12 at 2:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rdclark View Post

In the meantime, this season finale had to service...

King's Landing, Tyrion, Sansa, Littlefinger, etc
Jaime & Brienne
Arya & Co
Dany & the Dragons (great name for a rock band!)
Winterfell, the kids, and Theon
Jon Snow
The rest of the Black Brotherhood
Robb, Catelyn, etc.
Stannis Baratheon

Who did I miss?

We don't know the fate of Davos and his son.
Reply
Reply
post #1740 of 3126
6/4/12 at 2:09pm
Yeah, in order to "service" everyone they needed a 2 hour finale, sure the episode was 63 mins long.. not enough..
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: HDTV Programming

AVS Top Picks

AVS › AVS Forum › HDTV › HDTV Programming › 'Game of Thrones' on HBO HD - NO SPOILERS or Book Discussion