Continuing in our coverage of Game of Thrones‘s appearances on year-end lists, here are some of the latest additions:
E!Online sums season 4 up nicely in their Top 10 TV Dramas list:
“We know we are probably overreacting and being a tiny bit dramatic when we say this, but holy s–t, sometimes GOT makes us want to punch ourselves in the faces over how freakin’ awesome it is.”
IMDB has released their Top 10 Shows list, and Game of Thrones ended the year in the number one spot! The list tracks the programs that were “consistently the most popular with IMDb’s users throughout the year (and were in production in 2014) as determined by page views.” The show finished just ahead of AMC’s The Walking Dead.
On Variety’ s 10 Best Dramas list, Brian Lowry says, “Still graced with a grandeur and scope like nothing else on television, the fourth season continued to produce shocks — including a reminder not to attend weddings in Westeros — interspersed with a dizzying assortment of characters and terrific performances.”
Joanne Ostrow of the Denver Post ranks the show number 2 in her Top 10 Shows of the year, describing Game of Thrones as “visually dazzling, epic in scale with a phenomenal cast,” and noting that “the ever-shifting storylines about epochal, political and generational change in a mythic land keep ratcheting up the tension.”
One thing about Game of Thrones that is undeniable is its major presence in social media, and that reflects in Facebook’s 2014 Year in Review. The show ranks as number 1 in the “Most Talked-About TV Shows in the US” this year.
Vanity Fair shows big love for the late Oberyn Martell on their list of The 15 Best New TV Characters of 2014. The Dornishman grabbed the number 1 one spot. Joanna Robinson writes, “Against all odds, a nation of Game of Thrones fans who swore they wouldn’t be fooled again after last year’s Red Wedding, cried out when Oberyn met his doom.”
“The Mountain and the Viper” makes an appearance on The Atlantic‘s list of The Best Television Episodes of 2014. In addition to the heartbreaking Oberyn and Tyrion story leading the episode, The Atlantic‘s Lenika Cruz points out, this is also the episode when “Sansa finally wised up and proved a worthy (if newly vampy) rival and ally to Little Finger. Reek transformed into Theon to help Ramsay Sn—I mean Bolton capture Moat Cailin. Danaerys uncovered Ser Jorah’s betrayal and banished the heartbroken knight.”
In TV.com‘s Best of 2014: The Best Genre Shows, Game of Thrones is applauded particularly for its final four episodes of season 4, which “were all jaw-droppers more befitting a summer blockbuster trilogy than a television series.
Game of Thrones land at number 19 on The AV Club‘s Best TV Shows of 2014. Myles McNutt comments, “The season’s final shot of Arya sailing off into an uncertain future captures the show at its best: characters we care about on adventures that make it excruciating to wait a week to see the next episode.”
The show clocks in at number 6 on Uproxx‘s 10 Best TV Shows of 2014, with the website highlighting a trio of deaths (Joffrey, Oberyn, and Tywin) and the epic battle of Castle Black.
The New Republic‘s The Best Scenes of 2014 list chooses the conversation between Cersei Lannister and Oberyn Martell in episode 5 of season 4, “The First of His Name” that features the memorable line, “Everywhere in the world, they hurt little girls.” TNR‘s Esther Breger says, “Game of Thrones‘s real hallmark is the medieval power-play: long scenes of characters battling wits and asserting dominance.”
CinemaBlend says in their Top 10 TV Shows of 2014, that what makes Game of Thrones stand out “is not just its careful writing and directing, which hops perspectives and chooses to focus on specific moments on one giant kingdom’s history. Instead, it’s the fact that it is able to take a vast fantasy and compact it into 10 episodes that are riveting.” The show is ranked number 4.
Game of Thrones occupies the number 8 spot in Entertainment Weekly‘s year-end 10 Best TV Shows. EW notes that after four seasons, “there were more opportunities than ever to yell ”WHAT?!” at the TV.” The magazine also names the Royal Wedding episode, “The Lion and The Rose,” as the number 3 Best TV Episode of 2014.
And the man himself, George R.R. Martin, has made it onto Barbara Walters’s list of the 10 most fascinating people of 2014!
Other list appearances for 2014:
Slightly OT, GRRM himself made it on to Barbara Walters’ 10 Most Fascinating People list for 2014.
So nice to see the series on so many favorable year-end lists. Hopefully the trend will continue next year.
too bad this was easily the worst season so far lol
Well, for some people, including me, this was their best.
Come on, Sight and Yearender, were are thou ?
Flora Linden,
Not off topic really, I’ll add it to the list.
Game of Thrones season 4 also came in at #3 in Hitfix’s annual critics poll. Though this news is about a week or two old
http://m.hitfix.com/news/tvcriticspoll
Arkash,
Seriously, it’s been almost 3 weeks since the first #TheSight video. I just hope they’ll add something more than just a still picture on the next one, otherwise I don’t see why they had to make us wait so long!
The fact that HBO’s YearEnder is also nowhere to be seen makes me really cranky. I just want to see something new, the past months have been so great but the waiting now is horrible! I pray that we’ll get a trailer in January, because if they repeat season’s 3 marketing I’ll probably go crazy.
Anyway, congrats to GoT for another great season. May season 5 be just as good!
Worst for GOT is still better than the best seasons most TV shows can muster, to be fair.
And personally I didn’t think it was the worst. I stand by 3, 4, 1, 2, and 2 was still brilliant.
Perhaps the strongest accolade for this unique series is that it has addressed the “unfilmable” challenge with gusto and style. Although it is not without fervent and plausible criticism and scrutiny from a zealously passionate fan community, it has delivered many amazing sequences from the source material with brutal clarity. Quite an achievement for a traditionally limited television medium.
I enjoy reading the reviews and discussions of this series because the opinions and perspectives are all over the map…almost every scene is substantially debated by a diverse population of readers and non-readers alike. With every sword thrust and witty jape, there will be cheers, screams, snarls, jeers, offenses taken, tears shed, and damning wtf dismissals. For ten weeks each year since 2011, we get to escape to a world that parallels ours and disturbs us simultaneously.
S5 will further test the “unfilmable” challenge from years past. I’m looking forward to it with trepidation and excitement.
Turncloak,
Yeah we already posted that. It’s linked at the bottom of this post. 🙂
aurane waters,
Actually, the opposite 🙂
aurane waters,
For most (going by many polls I’ve seen all over the internet), including me, it was the best.
My fav seasons are
1. season 3
2. season 1
3. season 4
4. season 2
And I think ALL seasons are amazing!
Sue the Fury,
Cool, thanks!
🙂
aurane waters,
Count my wife and I among the few who agree. Most feel that season 4 was the best but for some reason we can hardly stand to rewatch some of the episodes. Just didn’t work for me.
It seems I’m one of the very few people whose order is:
1.) S2
2.) S1
3.) S4
4.) S3
I see so often people claiming Season 3 was the best/strongest and Season 2 the worst/weakest, when it’s exactly the other way around for me.
Hodor’s Bastard,
Amen!
Couldn’t have put it better.
Messy Justin Massey,
let me guess the change in order is because of stannis right
Season 4 was great, but for some reason I think I enjoyed season 3 and 1 more. My order would probably be:
Season 3
Season 1
Season 4
Season 2
Though season 3-4-1 are pretty much at a draw.
Season 2 wasn’t bad but it sure wasn’t as good as the other 3. (my opinion anyway).
The show is definitely on the upswing culturally! Very exciting.
I personally cannot wait for Season 5 though. It’s the make and/or break season, IMO.
Josh,
I thought Season 4 was so boring for so much of the time. The only episodes I genuinely enjoyed were episodes 1, 2, 6, 7, and 10. I liked individual scenes in other episodes but not the episodes as a whole. Only fully enjoying 5/10 episodes=bad season for me.
Nope. Three was the weakest for me as well. I think since S1, the quality of writing has gotten worse, bottoming out with S3. However I feel S4 was the best writing yet so I’m optimistic about S5.
It made the top 10 of EW as well (but in my opinion not nearly as high as it should have been ranked).
Not sure if this has been mentioned elsewhere and apologies if this is too off topic but anyone see the picture of Stephen Colbert as Gandalf with a shocked expression on his face as he reads Game of Thrones on EW? Thought it was cute and the quote underneath is pretty funny as well.
A lot of different opinions about this season and the order of favourites.
Unaware until I checked, my ratings actually correspond with the critics’ ratings.
1) S4
2) S3
3) S2
4) S1
I felt like Season 1 was a bit too much to jump into for non-book readers. It wasn’t until near the end of Season 1 that I got what it was about (I stayed tuned for Arya). Season 2 ranks just above Season 1 for me because while I was now aware of what the series was about, the Red Waste storyline was a bore. The whole Jaime plot didn’t get much interesting until S3. The most exciting thing for me in S2 was the battle of the blackwater and Jon and Ygritte playing a game of outfoxing each other. Having said that, Arya and Jaqen in Harrenhall is probably one of my favourite storylines. Season 3 is where it heavily improved for me, imo. Jaime’s character development was surreal. Beyond the wall with Jon among the wildlings was intriguing. Rooting for Robb Stark, only to find him losing the war with Arya finally reaching her family at the worst possible time (although strangely luckily the best time for her) pulled my heart strings. Season 4 was top notch for me. Everything within season 4, I adored. I have high hopes for Season 5 due to the trend I am seeing. I tend to like each season more than the previous. I am also very excited for Dorne and Braavos.
Guess I should add – congratulations to them on this year’s accolades. Highly deserved.
dragonbringer,
My avatar gives me away, right? 😉
Well, I’ll freely admit I’m an absolute biased show-watcher and heavy Team Dragonstone- & Theon-fangirl.
Your said reason was just one of some (before I continue, please believe me I’m usually no loud and vocal “Character Assassination!!! Blackwashing!!” screaming fan, although there are exceptions of course),
I once listed on westeros.org:
*Why S2 is my most favourite*
– Because of Team Dragonstone’s scenes/storyline,
– Theon’s scenes/storyline,
– Tyrion’s interesting storyline as Hand in KL,
– the awesome Promo poster / DVD cover (yes, I’m that superficial),
– the episode “Blackwater”,
– the soundtrack (which is always perfect, but I love S2’s the most),
– all the Stark kids’ scenes, aso…
(And I’ll say I very much love ACOK)
*Why S3 is my least favourite*
– Because of some (some! Not all) Team Dragonstone’s scenes,
– some Theon’s scenes,
– pointless Tyrion/other Lannsiters or Tyrells/Pod fillers,
– Catelyn appeared too less and was pushed in the background,
– Talisa/Robb love story,
– many of Sansa’s scenes,
– the lame Promo poster / DVD cover
BUT(!) I’ll definitely give season 3 the whole Jaime/Brienne storyline (I LOVED everything about them, especially the bath-scene and the bear pit, both were extremely well handled) & The Red Wedding.
And Jon’s and Dany’s material was definitely way better than in S2.
All that being said, I won’t really call S3 the worst for me, just my least favourite (because it was still very good TV), and it’s a super-subjective opinion (I would never dare to write an online review or something, since I’m so biased) and everybody might very well disagree 🙂
Oh, and I – since I’m such a Team Dragonstone- and Theon-fangirl – have a good feeling S5 will be ranked very high in my order next year.
Season 1 was and always will be the best.
Roocat,
I saw the picture too. Thought it was really funny, and a nice wink to the series. Heh. 😉
Back on topic, Seasons 1 and 4 are my personal favorites. I thought they held together as whole, self-contained stories really well.
Messy Justin Massey,
Okay, and when I’m already listing some superficial reasons, here’s another:
S2’s trailer with Varys’ famous power-riddle + Florence and the Machine’s “Seven Devils” was just A.W.E.S.O.M.E.
Thompson on hollywood (part of Indiewire) had The mountain & the viper in its top 10 episodes: http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/the-top-ten-tv-episodes-of-2014-20141205
Edit to fix the link
Rygritte,
Completely agree. It’s the only season where I can go watch any of the 10 episodes and not want to skip any scenes. The show just had a different feel to it, i dont know if it was because of the directors or being filmed in Malta that just had a stunning visual aspect (not that the other seasons didn’t but still).
Roocat,
The Colbert pic (and related collection) is hilarious. Btw, what was the caption underneath the pic? I didn’t see that.
Flora Linden,
I agree. Seasons 1 and 4 are my favorites. I’d rank the seasons:
1. Season 1
2. Season 4
3. Season 3
4. Season 2
Season 1 is the best because it just got better and better from episodes 4-10. Season 4 was the most consistently good season, with no clunkers, IMO. Seasons 2 and 3 each had several episodes that were not my favorites. Obviously, the great thing about art/tv/movies is that it is subjective. There are no right or wrong answers. You like what you like.
Darjan,
It could be because it followed the book more closely, and any changes from the books tend to be the most jarring, disliked parts of an episode/season. I never skip scenes on rewatches, but the closest I’ve come is during the Robb/Talisa scenes in season 2 and 3. Probably why season 2 is my least favorite season, along with the changes/cuts to the Jon/Halfhand relationship and the silly Qarth storyline. I really enjoyed everything related to King’s Landing,Stannis, and Arya(although no Weasel Soup was a downer) in season 2, though.
Anybody watching what some are saying is Netflix’s $90 million attempt to cash in on GoT’s popularity, Marco Polo? I’m only through four episodes but my gawd is it DULL!!
Words Are Wind parody for episode 9: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8SCf1dIsXc
related:
What Culture put out their list of 10 greatest tv episodes of all time and “The Rains of Castamere” made it in there. 🙂
http://whatculture.com/tv/10-greatest-tv-episodes-time.php/6
Not the best season of GOT, but still deserving.
Possibly minor tidbit here. (Sorry for my English here). I work for a local Barcelona newspaper on the entertainment & culture section, so I contacted Natalia Marcos from ‘El País’ for info on the shooting, locales, etc. I asked her about the ‘secret actor’, since, what the hell, what was there to lose. Apparently it’s not really a secret, though they did tell her not to divulge it while the shoot was still going on-
, probably not a spoiler for book readers, but interesting for the rest of the fandom I thought. I’ll incorporate that plus other anecdotes about the shoot into my article next week.
Felipe,
Felipe,
Woah. That’s a big change from the books if true. I don’t even know what it could mean, but it’s fascinating.
Felipe,
Wow, wasn’t expecting that. Color me spoiled. (Not upset or anything, just surprised.) I’m excited and confused at the same time.
Luka Nieto,
Blind Beth,
Let’s wait for him to clarify/qualify that bit of info though. With a bit more context
presence may mean something different than y’all think it suggests now.
Balerion The Cat,
It is amazing that I remember S2 as being just okay but now on rewatch, it is phenomenal. And my least favorite season… Think I’ll just keep punching myself in the face – ha!
Felipe,
Of the Night,
Greenjones,
I asked specifically about the Alcázar so it is probably Dorne, though I can’t say for sure if anything else was shot there (if so, she didn’t tell me). I knew he goes on a journey in the books but judging from the comments here he went somewhere else?
Of the Night,
It was because many actors were filming scenes together (feasting, shaving). For some reason, Benioff thinks 2 characters talking are the best scenes. They can be, but most are dull (khuh khuh khuh). Close-ups of 2 characters talking have dramatically increased since Season 2 (due to the story?). Lengthy monologues have also been on the rise, such as, Cersei’s drunk ramblings during Blackwater and Jaime’s bathtub monologues.
Also, as Pimpslap pointed out, Season 1 followed the book almost verbatim. It ruined the book for me. The rest of the books ruined the rest of the series, and waiting for TWOW is ruining my life.
Felipe,
If you want to know (spoilers kept to a bare minimum, just the location of travels and characters in involved)
Felipe,
Was
with him?
Tyrion Pimpslap,
I was beginning to think I was the only person who didn’t like Talisa Twitface (though I haven’t minded Oona Chaplin in other things). Some of the other season 2 changes didn’t disturb me as much as they seem to have jarred with you though.
Of course GoT tops, season 4 had the Legend of Gin Alley!!!! Greatest hero the watch ever had!
Afeastfordances,
Tyrion smashing beetles is the only scene I can’t skip fast enough, but I also tend to skip Robb’s introduction, interaction, and marriage to Talisa. Don’t even get me started on Grey Worm & Missy’s love affair. *smashes beetles*
Dame of Mercia,
Definitely not the only one (I also like Oona though). I still cling to the Honeypot theory as the only way to justify her behaviour and inconsistent knowledge gaps. Not that there is likely to be anyway of confirming it now with Tywin dead. It’s been too long anyway to include it.
Rygritte,
I don’t understand the hatred for the beetle scene, it’s one of my favourite scenes. The way Tyrion (a doomed man in his own eyes) talks about the futility of life and how an external and almighty force could determine fates on a whim. I love that scene.
Of the Night,
It’s because we were waiting for the duel, and some(me) were hoping for another scene between Oberyn and Tyrion before the combat. The scene itself was okay, some loved it, some hated it. Had there been another Tyrion/Oberyn scene earlier in the episode, I think it would have been better received.
Of the Night,
Oh, and the beetle scene was great.
Tyrion Pimpslap,
Agreed. I rather enjoyed the bug metaphor (even though it was a catty dig at Orson Scott Card). Kafka would be proud.
Hodor’s Bastard,
It says “Wait until he finds out that Boromir dies AGAIN” 😀
Roocat,
Lol. Thx!
Afeastfordances,
Yeah it’s much harder to justify it narratively than logistically. I guess that with all the other changes to characters there we still don’t really know how that story will play out so it makes it more difficult to work out how this addition might fit.
It’s definitely the KHUH! KHUH! KHUH! & Tyrion’s imitation of his cousin. That noise alone makes me want to smash the tv. The scene effectively showed Tyrion losing his wits which I believe was the point. Your interpretation sounds kinda religiousy which is probably why I hate it.
Afeastfordances,
This is an adaption, therefore get use to HBO consolidating book stories and even altering them for dramatic purposes, especially with only three, at the most four seasons left.
BTW Aurane Waters, season 4 is my second favorite of GoT atm, in order…
Season 1…9.7/10
Season 4…9.4/10
Season 3…9.3/10
Season 2….9/10 If not for Blackwater and that awesome ending…8.4/10
Ha. GW and Ms scenes were written and acted beautifully, an unexpected breath of fresh air highlighting D&D’s subtlety. Same as the beetle scene ,very well acted.
Felipe,
Thank you Felipe for the info!
Yes, it is making sense that the boat stop in Dorne instead of Bravos..Arya storyline in Bravoss is full and packed for season 5 while sam and co boat trip can be more flexible…
Very happy that sam and co are not staying at Castle black and are taking their trip to Oldtown!
Rygritte,
There’s nothing religious about it. Our lives *are* futile in the sense that at any time, the almighty force that is death could take them away. We have absolutely no way of knowing when this will happen and absolutely no way of preventing it. That’s just an unavoidable fact of life, it has nothing to do with religion or “spirituality” or anything of that nature.
There’s a new “sight” on threeeyedraven.com. But I only was able to watch it once and figured “I can repeat it!” but then when I hit reload it says “The Vision has come and gone.” ARGH WHY DO YOU DO THIS. So what do I remember?
–A quick shot of Sansa’s face looking directly at the camera (looked new)
–The face of a heart tree
–Tyrion’s face, looking grim. Did not see facial hair. Not sure what it was, old or new.
–A raven cawing (I think old image)
–A small boat rowing past a portcullis – not Sansa leaving with Dontos, this was sunlit, and it was going from left to right
–Cersei’s face, obscured by a wicker-type criss-cross thing.
–The Kingsguard book, being slammed closed (may have been the Jaime image from Season 4)
Um. I quoted the wrong bloke. Meant Rygritte. Who stole my old moniker BTW.
Greatjon of Slumber,
Very cool! Out of curiosity, how did you get access to it? When I go directly to the Three Eyed Raven website, there’s nothing there but the option to sign up via Twitter or SMS (which I’ve already done). So far, I haven’t received any messages from either of those two sources beyond the initial sign-up confirmation.
Of the Night,
It’s hated because it replaced an incredibly significant book scene between Jaime and Tyrion with a pretentious thematic writing exercise.
I just got one of The Sight messages through twitter. I only watched it once because I didn’t realize you can only use the link one time.
I remember seeing:
-Sansa
-Tyrion
-the Braavosi captain rowing a small boat
-Arya touching the water (well I don’t think it showed her face but it was obviously her)
-Cersei behind a screen of some sort (I couldn’t tell what t was, I first thought it was a litter but I’m not sure)
– a weirwood tree – – the White Book being slammed closed.
The shots of Arya and the captain were obviously new but I wasn’t sure if any of the other shots were.
Mine is the Furry,
I’m also a fan of the Grey Worm/Missandei stuff. Subtlety is great but it does come with the risk of people just not getting it. Also I don’t think your old user name has been stolen so much as you’ve been shipped with Ygritte. This is of course unrealistic as you’ve clearly only got eyes for Sue. By the way what do we call the Grey Worm and Missandei pairing. I’m inclined towards Grey Mist. I know they T shouldn’t be there but I think it works.
LMAO.
Of the Night,
How about just ‘Sexual Chocolate’?
Three Eyed Raven texted me! Got a very quick video of a sword that looked like Ice, Arya opening an eye, Jaime waking up with a start. It went by so fast, no reruns allowed.
Morgan,
Interesting. Someone over at Westeros who subscribes said it involved Jaime having a nightmare. Wonder if there’s more than one.
A Three eyed Raven just broke its neck flying into my patio French doors.
Stupid fuck.
I just got mine via text. I think that there might be more than one video. It matched up with what Greatjon of Slumber and Morgan have reported. Nothing about Jaime having a nightmare.
As others have said, I was only able to view the video once, and then it disappeared.
-Sansa, staring straight ahead at the camera. The image was a bit distorted, like the effect that movies and TV sometimes use to dramatize someone waking up from a dream. Couldn’t tell if it was part of the shot or an intentional effect, but the footage looked like it might be new.
-A shot of Tyrion (no beard) sitting in the dark, looking sullen. I’m pretty sure that this was old footage from when Oberyn visits him in “Mockingbird”.
-A face carved into a Weirwood tree. Probably old footage – it looked similar to the one at which Bran had the vision in Season 4. However, even if it is new, there would be nothing to identify it as such since the face on the tree occupied the entire shot.
-A raven cawing. Possibly old footage. Didn’t notice if it had three eyes or not.
-The Braavosi captain and Arya in rowboat, moving left to right across the screen. Some gray stones like those we saw from the filming reports of Kastel Gomilica behind them. Definitely new footage!
-A hand (it looked like it belong to a woman or a girl) trailing over a dark pool of water. Definitely new.
-Cersei, peering out from behind a ornate grate. It looked like she might be in a litter. Definitely new footage!
-The white book being closed. Possibly old footage, although I don’t remember the exact angle of the shot from the show.
Mine is the Furry,
You’d think that the third eye would give it better depth perception.
Mine is the Furry,
He forgot his two regular eyes. Probably some newb warg.
This promo is a total bust.
Thanks for the descriptions- I’ll make a post of them, so keep them coming, guys!
I did not receive anything from the Sight!
So I haven’t gotten my teaser trailer text from “thesight” yet -_-
oh, on my twitter i received a message, «Sorry, the visions may only be received on a heldhand device»
What does it mean?? (as a french, i am not sure i understand the problem here
Sue the Fury,
I agree. I don’t have a twitter account and I’m not giving my phone number away just for little promos, regardless of how much I love GoT. The could have just made a web service of some sort and that would have been it. – Well, sooner rather than later the promos will turn up on youtube, I guess.
Laurence,
A hand-held device is something mobile and small, something you can hold in your hand and take with you where ever you go. Smart phones, tablets etc. are hand-held devices.
So apparently when I initially replied “YES” to the initial “thesight” text it didn’t recognize it. I just replied YES again just now and got a reply stating “You now have the power of The Sight. Keep watch for visions of the future. Reply HELP for help, STOP to cancel.”
For f*** sake. I hope I still get the trailer :/. I sent an email to [email protected].
I started a new post. If anyone sees something new, feel free to provide a description so we can add it to the post. Hopefully this will all get sorted out.
If they were going to gather up everyone’s phone numbers and twitters, they really should have made sure everything worked first. This only-view-it-once thing is especially obnoxious.
Laurence,
Try to open it using your phone, not your computer.
Oh and by the way. The minions running GRRMs Twitter account have absolutely no idea how to give a westorsi version of the 12 days of Christmas. This is their latest text. God awful
@GRRMspeaking: On the sixth day…the Tyrells were all class…#12DaysofWesteros #books #GameOfThrones http://t.co/b6Irn49tTk
In regard to Vanity Fair’s selection of Oberyn as the “Best New Character”….
I first saw this in Pedro’s Twitter account. It made me very happy.
Of the Night,
I’ve been trying to open it via phone and it’s still not working. Just keeps erroring out. And my iphone’s pretty new so I don’t think my phone is the problem. Maybe the site’s overloaded?
Of the Night,
i don’t have a cellphone. (heldhand device!)..(i know, i am from the age of stone, but, i like it this way) i do have a lap top and register on twitter with the Sight…They didn’y specify those things were only for cellphone and tablets!! CRAP!!!! my teaser!!!!!
Well I’m not even on twitter so I was just making an educated guess. Like with most things in life I don’t actually know what I’m talking about.
Same problem here. *sigh*
Your old one suits you better. If you want to go back to it, I can go back to mine.
Rygritte,
So who were you before?
Of the Night,
http://i.picasion.com/resize79/605fb58baa63c36666c65f41811e859f.jpg
Nah. Keep it. I’ll go back to Rygar. We can pretend we are brother and sister, White Stripes style, not Lannister style.
Rygritte,
That’s a work of art.
Fargo and True Detective blew GOT out of the water this year.
Mine is the Furry,
I’ll try not to embarrass you too much.
Mine asks me to turn on my phone’s audio…but it is on already!
Jared,
I did what you did, just 2 weeks ago. So next time they send another one, you should get it. Was totally cool.
Welcome to the club. 🙁
Greatjon of Slumber,
I got it about ten minutes after I asked! And it was indeed very cool (first new footage of Season 5)! Though it appears that we’re two of the lucky ones. Other people are having some serious issues. Either they can’t access the video at all, or they can’t get it to play.
So as roll-outs go, it’s a bit of a fiasco. It appears that the Three-Eyed Raven may have had a few drinks before he went out for his evening flight. He’s having some trouble.
Fully deserved. It’s the best show on TV and season 4 was the best season yet.
Just some guy from England…,
This many many many many times over.
Balerion The Cat,
I’m thinking that too. Anyway it’s great to have confirmation Peter is back as Aemon.
Jaime was not even there at that point in the book, so it didn’t replace anything. Incidentally, the tendency of fans like yourself to misidentify good writing as “pretentious” gives all of us fantasy fans bad names: please stop doing that. (Thrones might be a chance for us to recover from the collective black-eyes that Tolkien fans gave us 12 years ago, after all.)
Charlie of the EmergencyAwesome youtube channel just posted a discussion video about the trailer. He included a fullscreen version of the teaser trailer at the very beginning of the video, followed by a discussion of the camera shots and the poor execution of HBO’s advertising.
Wimsey,
I’m referring to the fact that that was the last scene Tyrion and Jaime had together. By excluding Tyrion’s revelation to Jaime and Jaime’s revelation to Tyrion, it turns a bunch of prior scenes into loose ends, which is pretty definitively bad writing. Tyrion and Jaime have a very interesting relationship, and instead of elaborating on it at all, they wrote an obvious and overlong scene about philosophy (and what may also have been a pointless jab at Orson Scott Card).
Also, nice Harry Potter avatar. Surely that will lend credence to your opinions on what constitutes quality writing.
Brian,
Although I personally didn’t mind the beetles monologue (except for the implied OSC bashing), I must say that I am troubled by the possibly snowballing deviation that Jaime and Tyrion now have going forward in the show. At the end of ASoS, both were taken aback by each other’s statements (Jaime telling the “truth” behind Tysha and Tyrion telling the “truth” regarding Cersei) made during their last encounter. They didn’t leave each other optimistically/friendly at all and basically ruined each other’s perception of reality….very bittersweet and cursed. The show almost made them fatally-flawed buddies at the end of S4. I am looking forward to how this is addressed in S5 (if at all).
One more Game of Thrones Top 10 for the road! This one’s from Andy Greenwald of Grantland who, at least in my opinion, is one of the most thoughtful enthusiastic, and entertaining critics out there. (As it happens, he’s Unsullied).
http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/the-10-best-tv-shows-of-2014/
Here’s what he had to say about Game of Thrones’s fourth season (it came in 7th on his list).
The fourth season of this low-key family drama was its best for all sorts of wonky reasons: The way its constant character shuffling ultimately settled on the best possible pairings; the way it learned to hide heavy exposition inside of transcendent action, like slipping poison into a chalice of wine; the way the expansive world map finally began to fold in on itself, transforming an entertaining, digressive epic into a single, thrilling story. But what matters to me most about Game of Thrones isn’t that it’s one of TV’s best shows. It’s that it’s unquestionably the most fun. For 10 weeks every spring, a certain kind of madness spreads among fans like wildfire on Blackwater Bay. It’s a dizzying, exhilarating streak of breathless recaps, crazy theories, bad puns, and worse Dothraki. (And I haven’t even mentioned the cat!) If this is what the Mad King felt, I wish he had reigned for 1,000 years.
Amen to every word of that.
No, it did not: there were no “loose ends” out there. Nothing set up by prior scenes is left unresolved in some way: it was always all about Tywin. Indeed, one problem with the book that got some criticism at the time (amidst the uproar about the Red Wedding) is that Tyrion’s turning on Jaime is much too forced: Tyrion has to know that Tywin was behind everything, and that Jaime was just another pawn in Tywin’s games. Tywin is the antagonist here: not just for Tyrion, but for all of the Lannister siblings. Tyrion is smart enough to know this. By focusing on Tywin and Tywin alone, the set of scenes emphasizes the story (i.e., love/hate relationships) without muddying the waters with extraneous matters. And this is the key: scenes like this firmly implant both the story and the themes in the audiences’ minds.
Moreover, it almost certainly was not a shot at Orson Scott Card (not that he doesn’t deserve them!). Why bother? The vast majority of the viewing audience has never heard of him. It was simply just a comment on the arbitrariness of life, and the absurdity that there could be moral judgement in this way. The gods are mad and men are madder, after all. Martin (who, like many people with Catholic parents, views religion with very jaded eyes) makes this something of a theme throughout this and other stories he has written.
To that end, the writing was fine. Whatever ends you imagined went untied simply were not there in the first place, so that is not an issue. The scene did a good job developing both characters in question, it emphasized the plight in which both brothers were (Tyrion betrayed by two family members and in danger of farcical judgement by non-existent gods, Jaime torn between family members).
My bet is that that it won’t have much of an effect. After all,
. Moreover,