Uh hey you dropped your shadow-baby: decadently spoilery Game of Thrones thrad

[dieblucasdie]

Oh shit, DRAMA

http://winteriscoming.net/2012/06/blackwater-director-neil-marshall-on-nudity-and-creating-the-battle/

A little bit of background: Neil Marshall (who directed The Descent and Centurion) directed "Blackwater." He'd never directed a GoT episode before; he was a (nearly literally) last-minute replacement when one of their usual directors dropped out.

From this interview with him:

It was pretty surreal. I’d not done anything like that in my films before. But the weirdest part was when you have one of the exec producers leaning over your shoulder, going, “You can go full frontal, you know. This is television, you can do whatever you want! And do it! I urge you to do it.” So I was like, “Okay, well, if you— you’re the boss.”

This particular exec took me to one side and said, “Look, I represent the pervert side of the audience, okay? Everybody else is the serious drama side—I represent the perv side of the audience, and I’m saying I want full frontal nudity in this scene.” So you go ahead and do it.

Fucking gross.

[YojimboMonkey]

This particular exec took me to one side and said, “Look, I represent the pervert side of the audience, okay? Everybody else is the serious drama side—I represent the perv side of the audience, and I’m saying I want full frontal nudity in this scene.” So you go ahead and do it.

"And in the name of the pervert side of the audieeeeeeence
I wish to welcome you to HBO"

I refuse to think about the lollipop this munchkin was holding

[jebreject]

Oh god yuck

[Antero]

Holy mother of fuck!

Also, I must say, the nudity in that last episode really did seem artificial.  I'm like, yes, that woman is extremely attractive but I am much more interested in the shit happening between Bronn and the Hound.

[Greg Nog]

Yeah, it's not like anyone's watching GoT because they're thinking "FUCK I hope I get to see some tits".  It's weird that there's a dude on HBO that thinks random nudity is somehow a difficult thing for the average watcher of a medieval strategy soap opera to find.

Also I did not think it was possible for me to love Tyrion more and then Oh My Goodness

[elpollodiablo]

I suggested to D that in addition to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando, given the huge success of GoT they might consider breaking ground on the Harrowing World of Westeros in the near future

[dieblucasdie]

Yeah, it's not like anyone's watching GoT because they're thinking "FUCK I hope I get to see some tits".  It's weird that there's a dude on HBO that thinks random nudity is somehow a difficult thing for the average watcher of a medieval strategy soap opera to find.

Also I did not think it was possible for me to love Tyrion more and then Oh My Goodness

Yeah... I mean, they understand that no one is watching this just for the nudity, right? If you can afford HBO, you have a smart phone and you can see naked women literally any time you want

[Thermofusion]

This particular exec took me to one side and said, “Look, I represent the pervert side of the audience, okay? Everybody else is the serious drama side—I represent the perv side of the audience, and I’m saying I want full frontal nudity in this scene.” So you go ahead and do it.

Oh man, amazing. I can imagine conversations like this taking place behind the scenes of every premium cable drama running right now, actually. They all got that tacked-on nudity.

[dieblucasdie]

A friend of mine gets naked in the forthcoming season of Boss, in a Kelsey Grammar dream/hallucination sequence. She had two lines, lol

[milly balgeary]

You know they cast Joffrey right, when you want to punch the actual actor who plays him in the fucking face.

[dieblucasdie]

Oh yeah, that first close-up of his smirk in the pilot was when I knew the show would do the books justice.

[milly balgeary]

I almost growled when he said "If Stannis dares show his face I'll give himmm a red smile"

[jebreject]

Yeah, it's not like anyone's watching GoT because they're thinking "FUCK I hope I get to see some tits".  It's weird that there's a dude on HBO that thinks random nudity is somehow a difficult thing for the average watcher of a medieval strategy soap opera to find.

Also I did not think it was possible for me to love Tyrion more and then Oh My Goodness

Yeah... I mean, they understand that no one is watching this just for the nudity, right? If you can afford HBO, you have a smart phone and you can see naked women literally any time you want

But I mean, people DO watch some of those shows just for the nudity!

[Greg Nog]

You know they cast Joffrey right, when you want to punch the actual actor who plays him in the fucking face.

George RR Martin actually said pretty much that! Number 9!

[Antero]

Yeah, it's not like anyone's watching GoT because they're thinking "FUCK I hope I get to see some tits".  It's weird that there's a dude on HBO that thinks random nudity is somehow a difficult thing for the average watcher of a medieval strategy soap opera to find.

Also I did not think it was possible for me to love Tyrion more and then Oh My Goodness

Yeah... I mean, they understand that no one is watching this just for the nudity, right? If you can afford HBO, you have a smart phone and you can see naked women literally any time you want

It's part of their visual impact strategy, though.  Every big HBO show has tits and a violent death in the first ten minutes of the pilot.

[elpollodiablo]

Not the Sopranos!

[Antero]

They did!  Or at least brutal, graphic violence.  When I saw that I was like, "oh, here's the template."

---

The lady who plays Margery Tyrell is very very very pretty.

[jebreject]

Huh.

[elpollodiablo]

I thought the finale was a little weaker than the rest of the season! Partially it was an effect of feeling really, really rushed; if they'd had a 12 episode order I think they could have done much better service to the end game. There were several scenes, though, like Maester Luwin's last and the conversation between Tyrion & Shae, that were just kind of... bad. Sloppily written, weirdly blocked, poorly performed. At least that was my impression on first viewing; it might not seem so striking when I rewatch it in a few months or whatever. Except the Tyrion & Shae scene, probably--that woman continues to be the worst performer on the show. And considering what's coming next season... cripes.

[jebreject]

I agree! It felt like the whole episode was cut very ... strangely, too.

[dieblucasdie]

Yeah, I agree, though I do I think a lot of that is just Clash of Kings's fault; basically none of the plotlines end in a satisfying way. Stretching it out over 2 more episodes might've made some things make more sense, but it would've been all downhill after the Battle of Blackwater, regardless.

I did really like the Theon stuff and the Jamie/Brienne stuff, though.

Also, apparently Tywin's horse shitting as he enters the throne room is directly from the books! Foreshadowing!

[YojimboMonkey]

I didn't think Maester Luwin's last scene was bad, I dunno. Shae is bad but I think Dinklage makes it work, whereas often when you have a really good actor paired with a really bad one the good one just makes the bad one stand out more, somehow Dinklage is so good that I can overlook Shae.

The White Walker reveal at the end was a little anticlimactic for me 'cause he seemed a lot like just another corpse, though an older and wrinklier and bluer one. Going back and watching it again it was a little better but mostly I had jeb's "Huh" reaction. Welp. Army of zombies, medieval attire, check.

I guess the house of the undying was done about as well as they could have done it, given the concerns that I think blucas mentioned earlier about how it could end up spoiling the next several seasons done straight.

The lady who plays Margery Tyrell is very very very pretty.

I will appreciate her more if there is ever a scene in which she is not smirking.

[elpollodiablo]

I really liked Theon's scene with Luwin, but the Winterfell stuff ended so abruptly! Given another episode or two, they could've maybe found a way to wrap it up more gracefully. Richard Lawson pointed out on the Atlantic Wire that doing the whole Reek/Ramsay Snow thing would've been impossible, which is true, but they could've thrown us a bone there at the end--show us the battle! Or at least a bit of the sacking! Or just introduce us to the Bastard really quickly.

One of my consistent and unreasonable gripes about this season was Not Enough Boltons

[elpollodiablo]

Also, apparently Tywin's horse shitting as he enters the throne room is directly from the books!

God I loved that. I think I turned to D and said "there's this entire series in three seconds of film"

[dieblucasdie]

Yeah, I think they just didn't want to have to cast and introduce yet another character, logistically. If they introduced him really quickly at the end, that's another actor they have to cast and either sign for a multi-season deal for a brief appearance, or else sign a guest actor and just pray he's still available later, OR recast later. I can see why they didn't do that. I assume at the beginning of next season, we'll find out more about the razing of Winterfell.

If it's any consolation, I'd imagine they'll want to keep Alfie Allen in the show, so dollars-to-donuts we'll get to see the start of his transformation into Reek next season, and I'd bet we'll even get to see the Hornwood stuff firsthand, instead of just hearing about it, with Theon there.

I'm pretty psyched for next season. The slower pace, and the build to you-know-what. Holy shit.

xpost