Recap - Episode 3: ?Lord Snow?

[wulfy42]

This is like....well, crazy. Do you normally skip random chapters in books? They all tie together into a whole, you know.

When I read the series I generally skipped many of the boring characters chapters, which you sadly can't do with the TV series. In addition the mystic aspects of Bran have been totally left out (could have shown visions at least etc) at least so far, and the whole "dragon egg" setup has really been left out as well at this point.

It's not horrible and might have potential to get better later on after the characters start to be fleshed out a bit more (if they actually flesh them out) but for now it seems like they are rushing through everything quickly and missing out on many important character developments early on. I realize it's hard to deal with internal dialog in video, but Bran and Snow especially really need to have their thoughts broadcast in some way to understand how they are changing and developing as characters (same with the dragon princess...can't remember her name).

My wife is watching the series with me and has tons of questions since she has not read the books. Since she rarely asks questions when watching movies I am guessing it is pretty hard for someone to follow all of this if they do not have previous knowledge of the story. I don't really see who will really enjoy this series if so much is left out from the series (making it hard to enjoy if your a fan) and so much is left unexplained if you are not.

They are not random at all. In general I only do it for books that use a writing style that breaks chapters up between different characters perspectives.....and only if those perspectives are not directly involved with each other. If you have read the Wheel of Time books for instance I originally started just skipping all of Perrins chapters up until the next to last book. By the next to last book I skipped most of the Aese Seidi (sp) chapters as well (skimming them only for relevant material). In the final book (only partially written by Jordan) I only read the Rand and Matt sections (maybe 1/4th of the book)I wasn't interested in the rest at all.


Books that stick to only one character or have the story continue directly from one characters perspective to another I read straight through. Books that basically tell more then 1 story at a time are the ones I pick and choose as I often find myself interested in one storyline and totally bored by another.

In the Game of Thrones series I found most of the pure politics extremely dull. I enjoyed the dragon lady's storyline, Brands storyline and Snows storyline (and Tannister Lancaster as well). I know they all merge a bit later on, but I basically only read the chapters that directly affected the characters I actually cared about.


Rarely do I have to skip chapters in a series although the use of multiple stories that eventually intersect is becoming far more common lately (sadly). In a few cases it has been done very well so that I truly enjoy each story line and the culmination when they all come together is great. I did not find that to be the case with Game of Thrones though (it was the case with early Wheel of Time books but not by the end for me). I believe Wheel of time (the later books) is where I first started to skip chapters (Didn't care about Perrin at all by like the 7th book). I'm reading 2 series (was reading 3 until last night) all of which I do not skip chapters in. I'm reading Devon Monk's Allie Beckstrom series (on the 3rd book), I'm in the middle of Carrie Vaughn's Kitty goes to war (think it's like the 8th book in the series) and I just finished Shotgun Sorceress last night (around 4 am) by Lucy Synder.

All great books/series and I never skip a chapter in any of them (all except Vaugn even skip between characters points of view...but do so in 1 constant story so I don't mind).

I've read pretty much every good science fiction or fantasy author out there. If it's in a top 100 list I've certainly read it. Also read most childrens and teen fiction as well. I can count the number of series that I skip chapters in on my fingers because generally I don't bother reading a series if I don't like the whole story. The main two are late Wheel of time.....and Game of Thrones. I realize Game of Thrones is on the top of many peoples favorite fantasy booklist....but it certainly is not even close to on the top of mine.

 

[dragon_tail]

The episode was really good in my opinion. I liked the added Rober/Jaime/Selmy/Lancel scene very much, it has a purpose to establish Robert's drinking habits even more, and also to show his resent for the Lannisters. Also, we got introduced to Lancel, who is going to be kind of important later on. The scenes on the Wall were my favorite for this episode, specially those involving Tyrion. I really loved how he puts Jon back on Earth when he says he is better then the rest of new recruits. Also, Dothraki language is great. It sounds like a real language, and the actors use it really good, it sounds as if they were using it all their lives.

They are not random at all. In general I only do it for books that use a writing style that breaks chapters up between different characters perspectives.....and only if those perspectives are not directly involved with each other. If you have read the Wheel of Time books for instance I originally started just skipping all of Perrins chapters up until the next to last book. By the next to last book I skipped most of the Aese Seidi (sp) chapters as well (skimming them only for relevant material). In the final book (only partially written by Jordan) I only read the Rand and Matt sections (maybe 1/4th of the book)I wasn't interested in the rest at all.


Books that stick to only one character or have the story continue directly from one characters perspective to another I read straight through. Books that basically tell more then 1 story at a time are the ones I pick and choose as I often find myself interested in one storyline and totally bored by another.

In the Game of Thrones series I found most of the pure politics extremely dull. I enjoyed the dragon lady's storyline, Brands storyline and Snows storyline (and Tannister Lancaster as well). I know they all merge a bit later on, but I basically only read the chapters that directly affected the characters I actually cared about.


Rarely do I have to skip chapters in a series although the use of multiple stories that eventually intersect is becoming far more common lately (sadly). In a few cases it has been done very well so that I truly enjoy each story line and the culmination when they all come together is great. I did not find that to be the case with Game of Thrones though (it was the case with early Wheel of Time books but not by the end for me). I believe Wheel of time (the later books) is where I first started to skip chapters (Didn't care about Perrin at all by like the 7th book). I'm reading 2 series (was reading 3 until last night) all of which I do not skip chapters in. I'm reading Devon Monk's Allie Beckstrom series (on the 3rd book), I'm in the middle of Carrie Vaughn's Kitty goes to war (think it's like the 8th book in the series) and I just finished Shotgun Sorceress last night (around 4 am) by Lucy Synder.

All great books/series and I never skip a chapter in any of them (all except Vaugn even skip between characters points of view...but do so in 1 constant story so I don't mind).

I've read pretty much every good science fiction or fantasy author out there. If it's in a top 100 list I've certainly read it. Also read most childrens and teen fiction as well. I can count the number of series that I skip chapters in on my fingers because generally I don't bother reading a series if I don't like the whole story. The main two are late Wheel of time.....and Game of Thrones. I realize Game of Thrones is on the top of many peoples favorite fantasy booklist....but it certainly is not even close to on the top of mine.

When I read that you skip chapters, I thought you don't read much or that you were only looking for the action parts or something. That was wrong obviously, it looks like you read more then me XD. I just don't understand how you can skip chapters when they are all connected, even though every chapter is from a point of view of another character. You don't really get the whole picture, and many of those "oh wow" moments are lost that way I guess. But I guess that, since you read a lot of other fantasy books u liked, it doesn't look like a loss not to experience the whole effect.

That aside, do you like Wheal of Time more then A Song of Ice and Fire? I haven't read WoT, but it looks like a promising series, since it is being mentioned everywhere.

 

[wulfy42]

The episode was really good in my opinion. I liked the added Rober/Jaime/Selmy/Lancel scene very much, it has a purpose to establish Robert's drinking habits even more, and also to show his resent for the Lannisters. Also, we got introduced to Lancel, who is going to be kind of important later on. The scenes on the Wall were my favorite for this episode, specially those involving Tyrion. I really loved how he puts Jon back on Earth when he says he is better then the rest of new recruits. Also, Dothraki language is great. It sounds like a real language, and the actors use it really good, it sounds as if they were using it all their lives.

That aside, do you like Wheal of Time more then A Song of Ice and Fire? I haven't read WoT, but it looks like a promising series, since it is being mentioned everywhere.

The first bunch of books in the Wheel of time series were great. I enjoyed all the characters and the story as a whole. As the series progressed it started to break up, sort of like Game of Thrones, with individual stories that didn't connect that much. That took like 6-7 BIG books before it happened though and I would re-read the whole series each time a new book came out.

Eventually I really ended up only liking one main character (Mat) although I still cared about Rand for a long time as well. Still it takes a long time before the series seems to go downhill (in my opinion of course) and it's very worth reading up to that point.

If you have not read the Belgariad series by David Eddings and the Riftwar series by Raymond Feist I would highly recommend them. The Song of Ice and Fire series is very popular. I like to mix up my fantasy with science fiction to some extent (urban fantasy I guess you'd call it) which often involves including werewolves, vampires or magicians in modern (or futeristic) times. If you like that type of book you might want to try Jim Butchers Dresden series (also made into a TV series awhile ago) or Laurrel K hammiltons Anita Blake books (the early ones are very good until the author decides to start just writing porn for some reason).

If you like dungeons and dragons at all you might want to try Margret Weis and Tracy Hickmans Dragonlance books (and quite a few other good series as well), and you may have already heard of The Drizzt Du Orden books by R. A. Salvator (he writes quite a few other good books as well which in some cases eventually intertwine).

For science fiction I'd recommend reading Orson Scott Card (he has some fantasy as well but Ender's Game and some of the later books in it's series are awesome).

L.E. Modesit Jr also has a few great series to read (recluce and Corean Chronicles to name a few). If you like Star wars at all I'd highly recommend reading the books by Timothy Zhan which directly continue the original series (and in my opinion are much better).

I think my main problem with the type of writing in Game of Thrones etc is I'm a very old school science fiction/fantasy reader. I've been reading non-stop since the mid 70's and I like my story to not jump around that much. Even if I do like all the characters and all the stories being told, I don't like jumping around from one story to another (I like to get into a story and just devour it....often reading a book in 1 night). Books that jump between characters break that up for me as I have to switch to another persons perspective and series of events. If I don't like the other story/character.....well then I just skip it so I can keep reading about the ones I do.

 

[PeePantz]

I absolutely love these recaps. Not only are they informative and well written, they are hilarious. Susan Arendt's sarcastic writing style has these articles quickly becoming my favorite part of the Escapist.

Great call on the Cam resemblance! I thought the same exact thing when watching the episode except he had the body of Cam coupled with Ferris's personality.

 

[dragon_tail]

Oh, wow, thanks, you gave me a lot of potential reading material. I haven't heard of most of those books you mentioned, I think I only know R.A.Salvator. If I am not terribly mistaken, he wrote the "War of the Spider Queen" series. I tried to get into that, but failed. I really didn't like the writing, as you mentioned, it feels like dungeons and dragons. I have nothing against DnD (I play it sometimes) but I am looking for more in my reading material, and I couldn't find it in that series. I think I will try WoT, and Star Wars, since I never read any of those books.

 

[Canadish]

Not read the books myself, so I can certainly see these articles as useful. It can be hard following all the names and relationships as the series is moving along so quickly.

In the shows defense, I haven't got the impression that Drogo is a mindless brute.
He seems to just keep his thoughts to himself. Still. Rape to Snuggling in 2 episodes was a little odd.

I'm thinking of dropping the series for now and reading the books. It seems like a story that needs time for all the detail that only a book can give.
Would fans of the novels recommend that over watching the show?

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

Oh, wow, thanks, you gave me a lot of potential reading material. I haven't heard of most of those books you mentioned, I think I only know R.A.Salvator. If I am not terribly mistaken, he wrote the "War of the Spider Queen" series. I tried to get into that, but failed. I really didn't like the writing, as you mentioned, it feels like dungeons and dragons. I have nothing against DnD (I play it sometimes) but I am looking for more in my reading material, and I couldn't find it in that series. I think I will try WoT, and Star Wars, since I never read any of those books.

Salvatore didn't write the "War of the Spider Queen" but i think he edited it (it was one of those series that rotated between 3 or 4 different writers, if i recall. Also, if you've enjoyed ASoIaF, don't read any of Salvatore's crap. He used to be one of my favorite writers, but i've come to realize he's a total hack (weak pun intended, since sword fights are the only thing he writes well). I suppose if you're 25 or under, or you just like very mindless books, he's ok.

WoT is awesome, but i'd disagree that the earlier books are better. The first book is awful, and through most of the next few books, Mat (who is later pretty much the best character in the series) is a total dick. Honestly, though, that's my only real complaint with the earlier books.