Baelor (109)

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

well it has been pointed out that this show had a smaller budget than typical HBO shows now that they see how popular it is the number are steady not taking the big drop that most do. Hopefully HBO gives them a bigger budget than they did for Season 1 and we can get more of the battles that have been missed so far

Actually the budget is about medium for an HBO show, above some, but below Boardwalk Empire and Rome. But you don't want the budget to go as high as Rome, there massive budget was the whole reason it got cancelled. Nor is HBO likely to massively increase the budget, they want to get good profits and keep it going for as long as posiible, they don't want massive overheads. They might increase it a bit, and the budget will probably benefit from having many of the sets already built, nor will they have to film the same episode twice as they had to with the pilot, but neither are you gping to see the budget double for example.

As it stands the budget is fine. 60 million is a decent budget, plus the tax breaks and government grants they get for filming in Northern Ireland are huge, which means they can film a lot more while it costs a lot less than other shows. And it shows. Look at episode 9, apart from the lack of battle, it looks epic. The Twins, the battlefield full of dead, the crowd at Ned's execution, all looks grand. No, budget is not an excuse, especially when on The Borgias on Showtime, a show with a similar budget, with a similar number of episodes per season, you get scenes like this.

This is far as I'm concerned was utterly a creative decision, where budget did not come into it.

[jmoz]

I didn't say deaths are bad, said overuse of 'shock value' stuff. Eh, you guys enjoy, there's just going to be new characters and more focus on the rest of em, that's all. No biggie.

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

I didn't say deaths are bad, said overuse of 'shock value' stuff. Eh, you guys enjoy, there's just going to be new characters and more focus on the rest of em, that's all. No biggie.

Characters dying simply for shock value means that in the long run their deaths rarely have any real effect on the plot or other characters. Which is patently untrue in the case of Game of Thrones.

[Lahela]

Characters dying simply for shock value means that in the long run their deaths rarely have any real effect on the plot or other characters. Which is patently untrue in the case of Game of Thrones.

Quoted for truth. There is no such thing as a "shock value" death in GoT. Everything has consequences. Everything.

[gotthammer]

Hmm. Is the Borgias, as a whole, good? 'Interesting' battle/siege vid, tho' (did they really use chain-shot against walls? that and the whole siege looked quite 'fast'. still, it was quite pretty, the whole thing ).
And the whole vid posted lasted under 3 minutes.

re: Shae
I know that she'll be important and, as I said, I did like the part (her intro and the drinking game scene). But it did 'feel' like 'padding' to me, after the episode, due to the lack of the battles (or, yes, even just one, namely the Whispering Woods one. Heck, I barely remember the details on either from the book anyway, but I still 'missed' 'em. )

Oh well, there's one more episode. And another season.
(again, it's still a great episode...'cept for the battle thingy)

Something else:
Walder Frey. How old is he again? Is he older than Maester Aemon? While I liked the actor they picked, he does strike me as looking younger (or more 'lively' lol) than as I imagined Lord Frey.

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

Hmm. Is the Borgias, as a whole, good? 'Interesting' battle/siege vid, tho' (did they really use chain-shot against walls? that and the whole siege looked quite 'fast'. still, it was quite pretty, the whole thing ).
And the whole vid posted lasted under 3 minutes.

Imo, it's pretty good (but not as good as GOT ). Takes a while to get going and really hit it's stride, again unlike GOT, but once the French invade and start tearing things up, it gets pretty thrilling.

Something else:
Walder Frey. How old is he again? Is he older than Maester Aemon? While I liked the actor they picked, he does strike me as looking younger (or more 'lively' lol) than as I imagined Lord Frey.

I think they are meant to be the same age, around 90. But Walder Frey is meant to be more "lively." He's a shagging machine, still taking wives and producing children.

[Shylodog]

Imo, it's pretty good (but not as good as GOT ). Takes a while to get going and really hit it's stride, again unlike GOT, but once the French invade and start tearing things up, it gets pretty thrilling.

I think they are meant to be the same age, around 90. But Walder Frey is meant to be more "lively." He's a shagging machine, still taking wives and producing children.

Walder Frey is supposed to be 90, Maester Aemon is 102.

[gotthammer]

But Walder Frey is meant to be more "lively." He's a shagging machine, still taking wives and producing children.

Yeah. I realized my 'error' in using the word 'lively' after I had posted that.

[Cold Fuzz]

I didn't say deaths are bad, said overuse of 'shock value' stuff. Eh, you guys enjoy, there's just going to be new characters and more focus on the rest of em, that's all. No biggie.

I'm actually about 1/3 of the way through A Feast for Crows right now. From all the major character deaths in the books since the beginning, I'm not exactly shocked that so many of them have been eliminated. If the final books in the series progress the way I think they're going to, I'd say that every major character death that's occurred is actually necessary in my opinion.

This is just speculation but I frankly wouldn't be surprised if the entire Night's Watch ends up being utterly wiped out in the future with only a handful of them left alive. Don't get me wrong I love the characters in the Watch but given the alarming events on the Wall that have already happened this season

Spoiler:

and what comes later

having all the brothers annihilated is a very real possibility.

[jmoz]

Characters dying simply for shock value means that in the long run their deaths rarely have any real effect on the plot or other characters. Which is patently untrue in the case of Game of Thrones.

I don't understand where you're getting the notion that things of shock value cannot have consequences. Only thing that I can think that has that feature where things of shock value don't have consequences is a surprise ending or something.

I'm actually about 1/3 of the way through A Feast for Crows right now. From all the major character deaths in the books since the beginning, I'm not exactly shocked that so many of them have been eliminated. If the final books in the series progress the way I think they're going to, I'd say that every major character death that's occurred is actually necessary in my opinion.

This is just speculation but I frankly wouldn't be surprised if the entire Night's Watch ends up being utterly wiped out in the future with only a handful of them left alive. Don't get me wrong I love the characters in the Watch but given the alarming events on the Wall that have already happened this season

Spoiler:

and what comes later

having all the brothers annihilated is a very real possibility.

Yeah, that's kinda what I mean, the shock value stuff becomes a norm and loses its effect through overuse. But you just know he won't kill off some of the characters, Daenerys and probably Jon and Bran.

[Cold Fuzz]

Yeah, that's kinda what I mean, the shock value stuff becomes a norm and loses its effect through overuse. But you just know he won't kill off some of the characters, Daenerys and probably Jon and Bran.

Hmm, I was never shocked about Ned's execution when I first read the book to be honest. With most of the deaths, none of them are really shocking to me. It's war and people will die whether by force of arms or betrayal. If virtually none of the deaths are not shocking, then it doesn't make sense to me to say that the deaths are for shock value. If the deaths are there for shock value, it should follow that there should be shock as a response, right?

If there's anything resembling shock for me in the books, it's the choices that various characters make that result in, say, a large city being invaded or the cataclysmic outcome of a battle, especially if one side expected victory and got their asses handed to them instead.

To my mind, there is currently only 1 character that can't die in the series and book.

[MattSilver 3k]

Hodor!

[Cold Fuzz]

Hodor!

Dude...

[MattSilver 3k]

Dude...

Alright alright. I personally think, and this is just speculation, but the two main characters who'll never kick it are Jon and Dany. Song of Ice (Jon) and Fire (Dany), after all.

[Cold Fuzz]

Alright alright. I personally think, and this is just speculation, but the two main characters who'll never kick it are Jon and Dany. Song of Ice (Jon) and Fire (Dany), after all.

I would have chosen Hodor for being such a Giant.

But seriously though I think you're right. I think Jon and Dany are two sides of the same coin somehow. Now I know he doesn't have the blood of the dragon as his hand got burned with that lamp. Dany of course handled that very hot dragon egg and she wasn't burnt. Her handmaiden however, got some second degree burns. But we don't know who Jon's mother is and I think there's something more to him than meets the eye. I think he and the Starks' destiny are tied to the goings on at the Wall.

If the two of them were to meet one day, now that would be very interesting. I think they'd get along very well. Like you, I think he and Dany will be the only main characters that won't be killed off.