Game of Thrones trailers
- Thread starter Sjoerd3000
- Start date
And now you can wear............... Game of Thrones shoes!!
http://www.stylebistro.com/Daily+Dish/a ... ilable+Now
http://www.stylebistro.com/Daily+Dish/a ... ilable+Now
I've just watched my way through both seasons. There was never any doubt I was gonna like it a good deal - I haven't read the books (yet) but they've always sounded right up my street. And it is.
Does anyone agree that there's similarities in George R. R. Martin's and Terry Pratchett's approach to fantasy? Both have had the same idea of taking fantasy seriously, not using the 'a wizard did it' approach. I know that might sound weird with regards to Pratchett (though maybe not to a forum full of Pratchett fans) because of all the High Fantasy stuff (Great A'Tuin, wizards etc) and the comedy. But at the heart of both GOT and Discworld is the same thing: what if real people populated these fantasy places, acting in the way real people act?
Anyway, GOT: love it, love the fact that the writers don't think viewers are too stupid to keep up with the million storylines and political manouverings and subtleties of politics. By contrast, I watched the first part of the adaptation of Ken Follet's World Without End the other night. The book is excellent, similar in tone to the GOT series, I think, though based in actual history rather than fantasy. The adaptation throws out all Follet's meticulous research and inserts 'what everyone knows medieval people did' tropes. So tiresome.
Back to the point (again): I'm glad of the great cast (Charles Dance is obviously a stand-out as the not-entirely-un-Vetinari-ish Tywin Lannister; and Peter Dinklage is just awesome as Tyrian); I don't even mind the occasionally wobbly accents (Tyrian and Joffrey speak with an accent that can't exactly be called any known English variety, but their accents are curiously consistent with each others' at least).
Like others have said I have a bit of an issue with the sex in the show. It is a bit over-depicted (I sometimes wonder if the show is produced by 14-year-old boys), but more than that I think there's a bit of a prurient, lascivious attitude to rape and sexual abuse. Seriously there is a TON of rape in this show. And I always have a problem with the 'in the olden days, every woman got raped all of the time' thing.
It makes up for this a good deal by having a load of great female characters. And not just characters who are respected because they're behaving liked boys (Arya and Brienne), but also characters whose female storylines are treated as equally weighty and intriguing (Sansa, Catelyn, Daenerys, Cersei etc).
Does anyone agree that there's similarities in George R. R. Martin's and Terry Pratchett's approach to fantasy? Both have had the same idea of taking fantasy seriously, not using the 'a wizard did it' approach. I know that might sound weird with regards to Pratchett (though maybe not to a forum full of Pratchett fans) because of all the High Fantasy stuff (Great A'Tuin, wizards etc) and the comedy. But at the heart of both GOT and Discworld is the same thing: what if real people populated these fantasy places, acting in the way real people act?
Anyway, GOT: love it, love the fact that the writers don't think viewers are too stupid to keep up with the million storylines and political manouverings and subtleties of politics. By contrast, I watched the first part of the adaptation of Ken Follet's World Without End the other night. The book is excellent, similar in tone to the GOT series, I think, though based in actual history rather than fantasy. The adaptation throws out all Follet's meticulous research and inserts 'what everyone knows medieval people did' tropes. So tiresome.
Back to the point (again): I'm glad of the great cast (Charles Dance is obviously a stand-out as the not-entirely-un-Vetinari-ish Tywin Lannister; and Peter Dinklage is just awesome as Tyrian); I don't even mind the occasionally wobbly accents (Tyrian and Joffrey speak with an accent that can't exactly be called any known English variety, but their accents are curiously consistent with each others' at least).
Like others have said I have a bit of an issue with the sex in the show. It is a bit over-depicted (I sometimes wonder if the show is produced by 14-year-old boys), but more than that I think there's a bit of a prurient, lascivious attitude to rape and sexual abuse. Seriously there is a TON of rape in this show. And I always have a problem with the 'in the olden days, every woman got raped all of the time' thing.
It makes up for this a good deal by having a load of great female characters. And not just characters who are respected because they're behaving liked boys (Arya and Brienne), but also characters whose female storylines are treated as equally weighty and intriguing (Sansa, Catelyn, Daenerys, Cersei etc).
to be fair the series sticks pretty closely to the books, and the books frequently depict these sex scenes. I listen to the audiobooks in work since my job involves a lot of time away from other people and they are definitely not something I would listen to without headphones.
The fact that the kingdom is at war goes a long way towards explaining the amount of rape that takes place. historically speaking war has tended to result in an increase in rape as soldiers look to vent their emotions. If you look at the Napoleonic wars this is particularly common after the larger battles and can still be seen today in the actions of certain troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The fact that the kingdom is at war goes a long way towards explaining the amount of rape that takes place. historically speaking war has tended to result in an increase in rape as soldiers look to vent their emotions. If you look at the Napoleonic wars this is particularly common after the larger battles and can still be seen today in the actions of certain troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Tragically, the attitude toward rape in the show (and in the books) pales in comparison to the way rape is dealt with in most of the world. Look at a place like India--supposedly a democracy, and one of the more economically modern countries in the word--and women are blamed for their own rapes. Or look at the Muslim world, where rape victims are considered to have 'shamed' their families and the common punishment for men who rape women is to have them marry their victims.
Even in our so-called "civilized" western countries rape victims have to go through such scrutiny and police and judicial insensitivity that most rapes still remain unreported.
Even in our so-called "civilized" western countries rape victims have to go through such scrutiny and police and judicial insensitivity that most rapes still remain unreported.
Mm, true. But I don't really subscribe to that rape = realism thing within fiction. I'm not denying it's a tragically prevalent thing, I just hate the way shows feel the need to have their female characters subject to sexual violence all the time. Ys, rape happens in real life. In real life people go to the toilet and masturbate a lot too; you don't often see that in fiction because fiction is about being selective in what you show. There's a reason for eveything on screen beyond 'realism' (especially in a made-up world) and the reason for all the rape in GoT just comes across to me as a certain salacious revelling amongst the writers.
Look at Discworld. It manages to feel gritty and dark when it needs to without ever putting its women through that... if
It's a moot point, there's an ongoing debate on the subject (and I guess this is probably not the place to get into it in any depth - I really didn't mean to get so serious!), but I just find GoT's attitude towards sexual abuse a bit... prurient.
Look at Discworld. It manages to feel gritty and dark when it needs to without ever putting its women through that... if
It's a moot point, there's an ongoing debate on the subject (and I guess this is probably not the place to get into it in any depth - I really didn't mean to get so serious!), but I just find GoT's attitude towards sexual abuse a bit... prurient.
