canyonwalker | Entries tagged with game of thrones

I saw in the news today that early next week the Senate will begin deliberating on approving President-elect Trump's cabinet pics. What, already? I gasped. He's not even president yet. He's not president until the inauguration on January 20. Can't we have our last week before starting the next 4 years of deliberate, malicious chaos?

And chaos is what we're sure to have under President Trump. He courts chaos. Like the fictitious character Petyr Baelish in Game of Thrones who quipped, "Chaos is a ladder" as he sowed lies and discord everywhere, Trump uses chaos to divide his opponents and get ahead.

We saw that already weeks ago when Trump started naming his picks for a number of key, cabinet level positions. Matt Gaetz for Attorney General— who has since withdrawn. Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense. Nikki Haley for Director of National Intelligence. All of these nominees have articulated opinions contrary to the missions of the agencies they would be put in charge of. They'd run them off the rails, or at least try to— and that's the point. When you lead with chaos, it doesn't matter if the chaotic things you try to do succeed in and of themselves. They're a success merely if they stymie the normal functioning of the government and distract and tire out opponents and the free media.

Another term besides chaos for what'll be happening with Trump's cabinet picks is Here comes the swamp. In his first term in office Trump railed repeatedly about the importance of "Draining the swamp" in US government. Of course, what he meant by the swamp was the hundreds of thousands of career technocrats across government, all the scientists, engineers, health experts, economists, and lawyers who help make agencies work in fulfilling their missions based on the best evidence and rational administration of the law.

Trump doesn't actually want any of that; he wants people who do his bidding, facts and laws be damned. Thus in a bit of Orwellian language reversal he dubbed the bulk of government "the swamp". But really the swamp is the cohort of utterly dishonest serial liars whose only loyalty is to Donald Trump, the man, who are about to flood into the highest ranks of government. Here comes the swamp.

Recently Hawk and I started watching Season 2 of The Wheel of Time. It's streaming on Amazon Prime. As I write this we've watched the first two episodes already. I'm not going to write about them, though, but the series in general up to the start of S2.

Season 2 is not new, per se. Its 8 episodes of dropped 4-5 months ago (September and October 2023). If I'm a a bit late to the party it's because I haven't been sure I care about this party.

Waning interest in The Wheel of Time is, ironically, not a new thing. It's also fittingly not a new thing, as "There are neither beginnings nor endings to the Wheel of Time," as all WoT fans know, and the Pattern repeats itself. "What was once will soon come again." I lost interest in the books halfway through the series years ago, even after the first third of the series had been a defining part of my life for years. It's how I met my wife, among other things. But as "The Wheel of Time turns [...] legend fades to myth, and even myth is forgotten by the time the age that gave birth to it comes again."

A Long Gap

Part of the reason my interest waned in watching Season 2 is the long gap between seasons. The Season 1 finale dropped December 24, 2021. The Season 2 premier dropped over 20 months later, on September 1, 2023. "When's the next one going to come out?" is something we fans of the books agonized over years ago, particularly as the author's pace of writing and publication slowed down. That was one of the reasons I ultimately lost interest in the books halfway through.

With the streaming series there's an external reason, i.e., one that's not just about the writers: Covid shut them down. The global Coronavirus pandemic hit toward the end of production of the first season. It mucked with timetables for preproduction and production of Season 2.

Slower, Faster

Gaps between books was only part of the reason I lost interest in the written series, and it was probably only the secondary reason. The main reason was the sluggish pacing of the story. Being brief was certainly something author Robert Jordan was never accused of. Indeed, among F&SF fans who didn't like his books back in the day, "They're too slow" was basically the entire criticism. Across the first few books I found in the wordiness a lot of richness in developing the characters and the world. By the 5th book, though, it just became ponderous. By the 6th it was painful. After the 7th I found so little happening in the books that, combined with the slowing pacing of publication, I completely lost interest in the series.

Slowness is absolutely not a problem in the streaming version of Wheel of Time. As befits the dictates of the medium, the showrunners are practically racing through the story. Eight episodes of S1 roughly mirrored the first book in the series, The Eye of the World. S2 looks like it will track more or less to book 2, The Great Hunt, in its 8 episodes. Each of these are 600+ page novels so, yeah, a lot has to be condensed. And honestly that's a good thing.

Off Script from the Books. A Refreshed Perspective.

"It's too slow" isn't why I lost interest in the streaming adaptation between seasons. The fact of how widely it breaks from the books in ways big and small is. Now, the gap in my interest isn't at the level of a death sentence, like it was for me with the books years ago, or like it seems to be for some fans of the books in rage-quitting the streaming series after S1. I knew I'd watch it eventually. I just didn't care when. Finally the time came on a weekend when the weather sucks and I was bored nearly to tears.

"Books are books and TV is TV." Believe me, I understand that. Major changes have to be made in adapting a huge and sprawling (many would say too sprawling) series of novels. But as I enumerated across my many blogs from watching S1, the writers of the streaming version have diverged from the books in too many key areas. It's not just cutting out side plots and minor characters— which are generally good changes to make— but changing major plots, major characters, major motivations, and even changing the rules of how the universe works (which books author Robert Jordan was very meticulous about).

My pique about the breadth of these changes softened up a bit by watching Game of Thrones in the long gap between seasons. There, my situation with books-vs-TV familiarity was reversed. I haven't read GoT. I found the streaming series fairly enjoyable for what it was without being tripped up by what differed from the books. I did read about some of those differences in fan wikis about the show... and while some fans were evidently really stuck on the changes made, I found them to be positive changes for the most part.

I applied that perspective in hindsight to S1 of WoT. Were the changes all that bad? Most of them were not— but then again, I was tolerant of those changes from the start. A few things still rub me the wrong way, though. Mat ran off for no reason (truth: there was a problem with the actor and he had to be recast). Rand asked Moiraine to pretend he's dead and ran off. Perrin had a wife and killed her. Oh, and the whole arc of series 1/book 1 changed from "Rand learns he's a child of prophecy and struggles to start to come to grips with his destiny" to "The DrAgOn ReBoRn CoULd bE AnYbOdY!1!" with the writers actively concealing some things about Rand to spring it on viewers as a reveal in the season finale.

During my first watch-through of the HBO miniseries Chernobyl I found the actors' accents jarring. It's not that they're speaking English with Russian accents that are hard to understand; it's that they're not speaking with Russian accents. They're speaking with British and Irish accents. It's like watching Star Wars Game of Thrones! Plus, the senior party apparatchik in Pripyat is Maester Luwin from Winterfell.

In the episode 1 podcast showrunner Craig Mazin explains his deliberate choice not to have the actors speak with Russian accents. He notes that even professional actors tend to "act the accent". He didn't want actors subconsciously hamming up a Russian stereotype, turning the show into a self parody a la "Boris and Natasha". Moreover, he explained, he wanted the actors to be able to convey emotions clearly with their voices. It's harder to do that when they're struggling to portray foreign accents.

Mazin still wanted it to sound foreign to US audiences, though. He cast primarily English, Scottish, and Irish actors. By the third episode their accents stopped breaking me out of the moment... except for the few additional times actors used British idioms.

Keep reading: Open Wide, O Earth

S8E6 of Game of Thrones is the series finale. Recent episodes had shown Daenerys Targaryen spiraling quickly into madness. She became the same kind of intemperate, cruel tyrant that her father had been. It's especially a tragedy for her (and the whole freakin' world, btw) because for so many seasons she professed wanting to be a different kind of ruler, one who rules by popular assent instead of fear. She wanted to break the "wheel" of power among high houses that crushes commoners. Instead she became that wheel.

So what happened next after the world got a new, terrifying queen?

( Series finale spoilers )

Game of Thrones S8E5 is officially titled "The Bells" but it really should be called "Kill Them All"— the infamous last words of King Aerys. Twenty or so years later his order is carried out. 😨

This episode is about the final battle for control of King's Landing and hence all of Westeros. Remarks after the cut (spoilers).

( Discussion of S8E5 (Spoilers) )

In Game of Thrones S8E3, "The Long Night", we see the battle for the world. The surviving members of most of the northern houses, allied with Queen Daenerys and her Dothraki horde and Unsullied troops, assemble at Winterfell to meet the onslaught of the Night King's army of the dead, possibly 1,00,000 strong.

Allies prepare to defend Winterfell against the dead in Game of Thrones S8E3 (2019)

Allies prepare to defend Winterfell against the dead in Game of Thrones S8E3 (2019)

Seeing how season 7 ended with two major battles to resolve— the battle against the dead, and the battle against Cersei for control of Westeros— I knew that series 8, with just 6 episodes, would have to move quickly to finish the series. Thus I wasn't surprised that this climactic battle arrived in just the 3rd episode.

On the whole I really liked this episode. It's the longest of the series with a run time of 82 minutes, and it's pretty much all battle. That's long. Even epic movie battles are half that. For example, the Battle at Helm's Deep in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, the longest set-piece battle in movie history, clocked in at just 40 minutes. The showrunners of Game of Thrones keep it from dragging by focusing on the the experiences of a limited number of characters such as Jon Snow, Arya Stark, and Bran Stark. We see threads of the story more or less through their eyes. While there are a lot of other first-person characters in the episode (Danerys, Tyrion, Sansa, Brienne, Jaime, Sam, Sandor, et. al.) they have short viewpoint scenes. We mostly see them as they intersect with the episode's main through-lines.

While this episode had the highest viewership ratings of the series and also the HBO network as a whole when it aired in 2019, with nearly 18 million overnight viewers, it also attracted a lot of fan criticism. It seems fans were unhappy primarily with two things. One was a technical matter: the visuals are very dark, making it hard to see what's happening in action sequences.

The Night King among the dead on the battlefield in GoT S8E3 (2019)

The Night King among the dead on the battlefield in GoT S8E3 (2019)

The fans are right... though I'll note that this was not a new problem with this particular episode. It's been a problem across many episodes of Game of Thrones that critical scenes are under-lit, rendering the visuals murky and confusing as to what's happening. As a note, I've adjusted the levels and contrast in the pictures above to make them more vivid. (Do you see how the Night King's eyes really "pop"? Simple Photoshop trick.)

In other productions, particularly in movies, filmmakers use extra lighting in low-light scenes so the visuals show better. There's a story— and perhaps it's apocryphal— that one of the lead actors in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers challenged a director on where all the light at the Battle of Helm's Deep (mentioned above) was supposed to be coming from, as the battle took place in the dark and rain. The director shot back, "The light comes from the same place as the theme music."

The second major fan frustration involves who defeats the Night King. This is a major episode spoiler; find it after the cut.

( How the battle is won— and why I liked it )

Something that's bugged me across the arc of Game of Thrones season 7 on TV is the series's reliance on unearned plot points. The writers have written a number of results into the season's plot that are unsupported by... well... the previous 60+ episodes.

This happens a number of times in season 7. Armies loyal to the queen score major victories... how, exactly? We're told they're depleted of soldiers and money from years of war. Meanwhile their enemy is numerically superior and wealthy. And in one case is holding a defensive position worth a significant force multiplier. Yet the queen's side wins.

The ridiculous victories happen off camera, of course. Some might point out that many great battles in the previous 6 seasons were fought off camera, too. How is this different? It's different because those previous fights were plotted out carefully. George RR Martin wrote painfully long books full of way too much detail about battles. (It's a failing of certain fantasy authors, I've noticed, to be battle obsessed.) Now that the showrunners are firmly beyond everything written in the books published so far, they're totally on their own and they're winging it.... Badly.

It's not just battle results that are unearned. The heroic rescue at the end of S7E6 was unearned. Writers flouted rules of time and space to accommodate lazy writing, then the director sneered at fans for calling shenanigans. The surprise with Petyr Baelish in S7E7 was mostly unearned, too. The writers included major characters suddenly having key bits of knowledge and, more importantly, tight coordination on how to act, without showing how either was accomplished. We can guess where the knowledge came from, but the coordination is hard to believe.

Do other shows take cheap shortcuts in writing to support desired plot outcomes? Of course they do. And I call them out when they happen in those shows, too. But the TV writing for Game of Thrones has been fairly tight in that regard, at least up through season 6. That makes the suddenly amateurish writing more appalling.

Petyr Baelish has been one of the important minor characters throughout Game of Thrones. Rarely a viewpoint character (at least in the TV series) he nonetheless has served as a powerful and scheming advisor to several kings, queens, lords, and ladies. Across the series increases his personal rank from being head to a very minor house to being lord of a medium house to being lord-protector of one of the great houses. He makes this climb by being thoroughly evil and sowing chaos.

"Chaos is a ladder," he memorably proclaimed. "If only you're brave enough to climb it." In previous seasons we've learned that he's a plotter responsible for the deaths of various nobles. In season 7 he tries to turn Sansa and Arya Stark against each other, hoping one sister might kill the other. Spoilers from the season 7 finale after the cut.

( S7E7 spoilers )

Game of Thrones S7E6, "Beyond the Wall" involves a climactic battle: "The Battle of the Frozen Lake", as people call it. While the battle is narratively powerful, the writers took a lazy shortcut the writers took broke my suspension of disbelief. A heroic rescue that's shown arriving in 12-16 hours really should have taken more than two weeks to arrive, if time, distance, and the reality of traveling speed mean anything.

This is not the first instance of the TV series's showrunners playing fast-and-loose with time. As they've condensed carefully plotted but overly long storylines from the books, sometimes the timelines don't match up. For example, did a character ride 500 miles through a war zone in 2 days? Did an army seemingly sail or march halfway around the continent in a week? Until now these plausibly could be hand-waved away. A few weeks could pass between episodes or even between scenes in one episode. The endangered heroes' predicament is clearly urgent: they're surrounded by an enemy horde in sub-zero weather with no food or shelter. They have hours to survive. Yet somehow, in that time, a raven flies 1,000 miles with a written plea for help strapped to its leg, and help comes.

You might ask why unrealistic flight speed for a common bird is what suspension of disbelief falls apart on in a story where we've accepted that there are dragons and hordes of undead animated by dark magic.

There's a bedrock principle in the genre of fantasy and science fiction that a writer only gets a small number of "freebies" in setting up their story. Small being, like, one or two. In fantasy, that's typically the presence of magic and fantastical creatures. In scifi it's often faster-than-light travel and certain other bits of fantastical technology like hoverbikes, matter replicators, or instantaneous communication.

Beyond the basic existence of these 1 or 2 freebies everything else must be earned. And to be earned it must follow rules that are internally consistent. In this story it's an unforgivable shortcut to say, "Surprise! After 65 episodes, we're just now revealing that ordinary birds actually fly at the speed of light."

I am, of course, not the only fan to criticize this aspect of S7E6. Nor am I even the first. I mean, I watched this episodes five years after it dropped. Lots of critics are 5 years ahead of me.

It's interesting to see how the showrunners responded to this criticism. Director Alan Taylor sneered in an interview with The New York Times, "I've only looked at one review online, and it was very much concerned with the speed of the ravens. I thought, that's funny — you don't seem troubled by the lizard as big as a 747, but you’re really concerned about the speed of a raven."

Yes! We are bothered by that! We accept that huge dragons exist but not that ordinary ravens can fly 500 mph (nor even that said dragons can fly that fast) because of that bedrock principle of the genre I explained above. The director's response isn't an explanation at all but a Twitter-quality retort making fun of the critics instead of addressing their actual, valid point. The director either is a complete idiot about the $10-million-an-episode genre he was hired to direct, or he thinks his audience are complete idiots.

In the season 7 opener of Game of Thrones Arya Stark shows us that not only is revenge a dish best served cold, but when you refrigerate it it can keep for a few weeks and you can whip up a batch that serves 24. 😨😈😵

Leave one wolf alive and the sheep are never safe -- Arya Stark, Game of Thrones

Leave one wolf alive and the sheep are never safe -- Arya Stark, Game of Thrones

( Spoilers for S7E1 )

Sansa Stark has interesting character development across seasons 5 and 6 of Game of Thrones. She grows from being a person who's always being pushed around by others' decisions into someone who understands how the Game of Thrones, aka politics in Westeros, is played and starts to assert her own agency. But does she really gain agency over her own role in the world, or is she the literal sophomore— a "wise fool"; a person who's learned a little about playing the Game of Thrones but is still being manipulated by people vastly more skilled than her?

Sansa and Petyr discuss their next steps in Game of Thrones S6E9

Sansa and Petyr discuss their next steps in Game of Thrones S6E9

In public appearances after season 6 the showrunners were adamant that Sansa has gained agency. The thing is, the facts of the story they wrote do not support that opinion. It's clear in season 6 that Sansa is not (yet) in control of her own destiny but is merely getting results that are a combination of what others (particularly Petyr Baelish) choose to give her for their own selfish reasons and, frankly, dumb luck. Season 6 spoilers after the cut.

( Critique contains spoilers up through season 6 (and ONLY season 6) )

It's been over a week since I finished season 6 of Game of Thrones— "That's the one with The Battle of the Bastards," friends of mine who watched it years ago recall it— and here I still am writing about it. Well, life intervenes. And I don't want to go rushing from one season to the next, anyway. I like to take a short break to savor what's happened and build more appetite for the next season.

"The Battle of the Bastards" isn't the only subplot that reached a climax in season 6. The subplot of Cersei's scheming to regain control over the Iron Throne reached a climax, too.

Queen Cersei on the Iron Throne

As I imagine what will happen next in the series given these two storylines I'm also thinking about the fact there are only 13 episodes left. So whatever happens next will have to happen fast... yet we've got both the "Daenerys is coming with an army to conquer the realm" and the whole "Armies of the dead are coming to kill everyone" storylines to resolve! That's where Cersei's story is important because I think she makes it possible for the latter two to be resolved quickly.

( Spoilers from Season 6 )

I finished watching season 6 of Game of Thrones over the weekend. I'm impressed with how strong it continues to be. In fact it seems to get better every season. Moreover, every episode is compelling.

This is a high standard even among highly acclaimed shows. For example, The Sopranos was great overall but dragged multiple times in seasons 4-6. Several episodes were, frankly, dull— and one or two had me asking, "Has this show jumped the shark?" I toughed through the weak episodes because I expected/hoped the payoff at the end would be worth it.

With Game of Thrones the only tough thing is pacing myself. It's so tempting to click "Next Episode" each time and stay up half the night... and I I don't really want to stay up half the night! I've limited myself to generally 2 episodes per sitting. Having finished season 6 I'm itching to dive in to the last 2 seasons— which are kind of partial seasons, at 13 episodes combined.

Several seasons ago it wasn't clear that I'd get to this point. Not only was there the chance of a mid-series slump like with The Sopranos, but after I watched season 1 I felt put off by Game of Throne's themes of evil routinely triumphing over good because good is stupid and clueless, and gratuitous sex. I took a 6 month break before being ready to start season 2. But season 2 redeemed what was wrong with season 1, and every season since then has been great.

A few blogs ago I wrote, Who is Jon Snow? A Guess. That was based on a clue in S6E4. Well, just six episodes later it's answered pretty clearly in S6E10. Spoilers after the cut.

Note, these are book spoilers as the scene discussed below has not been published in the books yet (though I've been told that way more hints have been given there than in the series).

Young Ned Stark prepares for a fight in Game of Thrones S6E4

Young Ned Stark prepares for a fight in Game of Thrones S6E4

( Spoilers. Click to expand. )

Of course, virtually nobody else still alive in the series knows this yet— including Jon himself.

"Battle of the Bastards" is the title of Game of Thrones season 6 episode 9. The long episode features not one but two huge battles. In one Danaerys Targaryen and her allies in Meereen fight off a naval invasion and school the foreign leaders coordinating the attack. In the second forces loyal to Jon Snow and Sansa Stark, including 2000 Wildlings, attack the armies of Ramsay Bolton to recapture Winterfell from him. The latter is a lengthier, more involved, and grittier story arc. Much of the camera work follows Jon fighting at ground level. By contrast, the naval battle was mostly distance shots and mostly CGI.

GoT S6E9: Jon Snow in the Battle of the Bastards

GoT S6E9: Jon Snow in the Battle of the Bastards

Here are my thoughts about the Battle of the Bastards, organized as Five Things:

( Thoughts about the battle (S6E9 spoilers) )

From the start of Game of Thrones it's stated that Jon Snow is the bastard son of Ned Stark. While that's the official line for most of the series, there are hints that Jon is someone else. The notion of who came together for me with a seemingly unrelated scene in S6E4. In a flashback to ~20 years ago we see Ned Stark and a handful of his bannermen fight two legendary kingsguard at a remote keep on the edge of nowhere.

Young Ned Stark prepares for a fight in Game of Thrones S6E4

( Spoilers up through S6E4 )

Spoiler policy: My guess in this blog is just that— a guess, based on information revealed up through S6E4. Please do not comment with answers revealed later in the story.

Update: that was fast! Jon's identity is revealed (to us viewers) six episodes later, in S6E10.

Hodor is a popular minor character in the Game of Thrones series. He's mentally disabled and can only say his name, "Hodor"— which he does enthusiastically at times, to viewers' amusement. He's a strong and loyal servant at Winterfell whom the Stark family value.

Hodor from Game of Thrones

In the TV series it's implied in earlier seasons that Hodor wasn't always mentally disabled. The books so far never address it. Perhaps he was kicked in the head by a horse as a youth and suffered a brain injury? Certainly there were people at Winterfell who knew him when he was a boy... including his grandmother, Old Nan... who'd know when he was injured, if not also how/why.

In S6E2 we get a small spoiler about Hodor's past. In S6E5 we see the full story. It's a major reveal. And... Holy shit, it hits hard.

Spoilers ahead. Note this is also a spoiler for not-yet-published book 6. These scenes have not occurred in the 5 published books. In a behind-the-episode featurette the showrunners explain that author George R.R. Martin revealed these events to them as plot twists that will be in book 6 or later.

( Spoilers from S6E5... and Book 6! 😨 )

In Game of Thrones S6E4 Sansa Stark and Petyr Baelish meet again for the first time in several episodes. Given what's happened in Sansa's storyline, she has a lot to say to Petyr. Though what she says is intense, it's relatively brief. That leaves me wondering whether she understands the true depth of Petyr's deceit.

Fan sites don't have a lot to offer on this question, alas. That's because there's no authoritative book source to draw additional detail from. This storyline in the TV series represents sort of a mash-up of two separate storylines in the books combined with something that might happen in yet-to-be-published book 6. Spoilers up through mid season 6 beyond the cut.

Game of Thrones: Sansa and Petry have an intense conversation

Game of Thrones: Sansa and Petry have an intense conversation

( Discussion about Sansa and Petyr's meetup in S6E4 )

Tyrion Lannister, portrayed so well by actor Peter Dinklage, has a bigger part in the story in season 6 of Game of Thrones than anytime since season 2— when he rocked. Part of the fun with seeing Tyrion is that he's witty— and not evil. Tyrion delivers some great lines in S6E2, "Home".

Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones

( Minor spoilers on the context of this great quip & two others. )

In Game of Thrones S6E2 a major plot twist happens that I think a lot of us saw coming a mile away. It was one of those "When, not If" things. Spoilers after the cut.

( Discussion of what happened (episode 602 spoilers) )

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Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

Entries tagged with game of thrones

Here Comes the Swamp

Starting Season 2 of Wheel of Time

A Long Gap

Slower, Faster

Off Script from the Books. A Refreshed Perspective.

Chernobyl: Those Accents, Tho

GoT S8E6: Daenerys's Story, Jon's Story

GoT S8E5: Kill Them All

Got S8E3: The Long Night, The Big Battle

Game of Thrones Season 7: Unearned Plot Points

GoT S7E7: Petyr Baelish's Story

GoT S7E6: Let's Ignore Time & Space!

GoT S7E1: Arya's Revenge

GoT Season 6 Critique: Sansa Lacks Agency

GoT Season 6 Wrap-up: Cersei & What's Next

Game of Thrones: Going Strong after 6 Seasons

GoT S6E10: Who is Jon Snow? Answer.

GoT S6E9: Battle of the Bastards. 5 Things.

GoT S6E4: Who's Jon Snow? A Guess.

GoT S6E5: Hodor's Story

GoT S6E4: Sansa and Petyr

GoT S6E2: Tyrion's Great Lines

Game of Thrones S6E2: Well, That Was Fast