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Shut up about [A Song of Firegames and Icethrones]

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Posts

  • OrcaOrca Also known as Espressosaurus WrexRegistered User regular
    A Nest for Nightmares

    In June 2015, the fifth book (called A Method for Madness at that time) was reportedly slated for release September 2015[1][4] but according to the author, at the end of August 2015 only the first draft was finished and given to beta readers.[5]

    On March 14, 2017, Gerrold announced that the fifth book would be titled A Nest for Nightmares, and A Method for Madness would be the sixth book, with both books nearing completion.[3]
    A Method for Madness

    On March 14, 2017, Gerrold announced A Method for Madness would be the sixth book.[3]
    1 Books in the series

    1.1 A Matter for Men (1983)
    1.2 A Day for Damnation (1985)
    1.3 A Rage for Revenge (1989)
    1.4 A Season for Slaughter (1993)
    1.5 A Nest for Nightmares
    1.6 A Method for Madness

    Sure there's going to be a 5th or a 6th book David, we believe you. After 30 years you're going to deliver the goods.

    :P

  • Inquisitor77Inquisitor77 2 x Penny Arcade Fight Club Champion A fixed point in space and timeRegistered User regular
    edited April 2021
    I, personally, found the first Malazan book to be so tedious that I didn't read the rest. I understand what he is going for, and I totally appreciate folks who enjoy that kind of thing, but for me the story was relatively straightforward and it was just couched in a lot of, for lack of a better term, obfuscation.

    But I will admit to being the kind of person who that kind of thing may not be for. For example, I absolutely loathe Gene Wolfe's works, to the extent of being an asshole about it when people ask me what I think of them. But there are literally millions of people who totally love them. So while I can't recommend them to anyone based on my own personal opinion, I can say, "Some people really seem to enjoy them, so you may like them, too!"

    It's definitely one of those subjective things. Like, at the end of the day, there are no new stories under the sun. So the style really does matter quite a bit, and there are different strokes for different folks.

    Inquisitor77 on
  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    I think the show-runners and writers deserve a lot of shit for the last season.

    At the same time, assuming the final "this is how each character winds up" came from Martin, I have no idea how you get from where the books are now to that ending in a way that actually is satisfying. I'm not sure Martin knows, either.

    I bet they can get there
    -Everyone openly hates Dany, making her cold toward the citizens of westeros
    -Dany burns the red keep because cersei uses a bunch of civilians as a human shield and fuck her
    -Tyrion encourages Dany the entire time to be more ruthless. Book Tyrion is in a *Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaark* place
    -Other Targaryon sides with the crown?

    Dany's trajectory is pretty obvious in the books if you are really looking. She ends ASOS being all "I must stay and learn to rule". The next time we see her in ADWD she spends the whole book learning that ruling is hard and annoying and the end is fairly obviously a setup for her going "You know what? Fuck all of you!" and rolling up with dragons and an army and just putting everyone to the sword. And then sailing for Westeros with that kind of attitude. It's pretty clear imo that this is what the 5 year jump was supposed to cover. We leave her wanting to be a good ruler, we return to find her tired of this shit already.

    I think there's more movement then people notice in the last couple of books towards setting up the final confrontations. I still wouldn't be shocked if it ends up being more then 2 books though.

  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    Too complicated to finish I think doesn't work. But there is a thing with a lot of fantasy series in general where in the middle or 3rd quarter they start to become large enough to be unwieldy. You can see them juggling a lot of threads and straining at the limits of the novel format itself. There's so many balls in the air that it becomes tricky to line them all up to head for the ending and also to do that without bloating books to unpublishable sizes or having the books cover only a select portion of the plotlines in question or having only half of a full arc of the story in them or something like that.

    In general I suspect GRRM is suffering from some writer's block and finding the task of roping the finale into the shape he likes at the quality leve he wants difficult and is just generally not feeling it right now and he doesn't wanna pull a "Stephen King rushing the end of the Dark Tower" type situation.

  • RMS OceanicRMS Oceanic Registered User regular
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZCltCw1qqE

    These videos are still fun when they come out. Thank god for lore.

  • JragghenJragghen Registered User regular
    edited April 2021
    Lanlaorn wrote: »
    Lanlaorn wrote: »
    Turns out that one man writing an alternate Wars of the Roses is hard. It exceeds the possible complexity that the human brain can follow. If you look at other epics, like the Wheel of Time or the Lord of the Rings, they are structurally much simpler.

    To make an epic like this work you'd need to start at 25 and devote the next 40 years to it, and be one of those writers who never get blocked.

    What? No, many fantasy novels are as just as complex and were finished in a reasonable timeframe, off the top of my head Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen absolutely has more characters and plots and not only does it not "exceed the possible complexity that the human brain can follow" he completed the 10 book series in 12 years, with each of those 10 books being longer than Song of Ice and Fire books, 1000-1200 page doorstoppers.

    I read the first book of that and it was obscurely and confusingly written but not particularly complex in terms of characters or plotlines.

    I don't remember if the first book properly conveys this (although I suspect it does, I believe there's a large dramatis personae with complicated backstories right off the bat) but then every novel adds more characters and more locations and more concurrent events and plotlines to where I can simply tell you that you're just factually wrong, Malazan is much more complex than Ice and Fire.

    Also apparently the main book series I read is just the start, wikipedia tells me it's like a 23 book universe of novels now.

    I'm OK if Martin just decides he doesn't give a fuck about satisfying his fans, it's frustrating but whatever, he can do what he wants - I really don't think we need to make excuses for him though. Fantasy as a genre tends towards epic multi-book sagas, other authors manage it just fine.

    The first malazan book is a bit much when you start it, but after you work your way through the introductions and get into the story proper, and especially in ensuing books where they retread events from different points of view, its retroactively a lot easier to follow

    and Coltain's Chain of Dogs is one of my favorite high fantasy stories because of how they kept pulling victories off in logical ways without being bullshit

    You can't directly compare the two, Malazan is a lot higher fantasy so there is a lot more that's like "well this guy turns into a fucking dragon after emerging from the warren of darkness", but you have to give Erikson credit at pumping that shit out

    For folks who got off after the first book of Malazan, I totally get it, actually - the quality of writing from the first book to the rest of the series (without even getting into how it has like...3 separate starts because of the different formats it went through) is pretty large. The first book is actually a really good story, but you can't really understand half of what's going on without reading the third book, which is a bit of a problem. It's a hell of a fucking hurdle to clear while just trusting people that things improve with the second book on. But yeah, dude was a machine while cranking those things out.

    For folks not keeping up on stuff, the first of the Karsa trilogy should be coming out this year, titled "The God is Not Willing" and it has a pretty great cover.
    The_God_is_Not_Willing_cover.jpg

    That being said, while it's not impossible to compare them, I would agree that MBotF and ASoIaF were going for different things. My go-to example of it is that MBotF has, I kid you not for folks who haven't read it, giant zombie velociraptors with swords for arms that lived in floating mountains. And it's played straight.

    e: Not sure why it's so tiny, but if you right click > view image, it's full sized.

    Jragghen on
  • MegaMan001MegaMan001 CRNA Rochester, MNRegistered User regular
    This is the only show where I just sold all my Blu-rays of it because I know I'll never watch them again after that ending.

    I am in the business of saving lives.
  • BurtletoyBurtletoy Registered User regular
    edited April 2021
    I gave up malazan somewhere in the middle of book four when I realised how bored I was with the series and there were like 20 more books

    Burtletoy on
  • BurtletoyBurtletoy Registered User regular
    edited April 2021
    I actually stopped watching the show when it passed the books, and somehow the ending hasn't been spoiled for me years later cause no one seems to have given a shit enough to talk about the ending other than that it is supposed to be very disappointing!

    Burtletoy on
  • JragghenJragghen Registered User regular
    Burtletoy wrote: »
    I actually stopped watching the show when it passed the books, and somehow the ending hasn't been spoiled for me years later cause no one seems to have given a shit enough to talk about the ending other than that it is supposed to be very disappointing!

    You're probably the happiest person in this thread!

  • MegaMan001MegaMan001 CRNA Rochester, MNRegistered User regular
    Jragghen wrote: »
    Burtletoy wrote: »
    I actually stopped watching the show when it passed the books, and somehow the ending hasn't been spoiled for me years later cause no one seems to have given a shit enough to talk about the ending other than that it is supposed to be very disappointing!

    You're probably the happiest person in this thread!

    The speed with which GOT went from "talking about every episode" to "completely falling off of the pop culture landscape" was craaaaazy

    I am in the business of saving lives.
  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    edited April 2021
    Burtletoy wrote: »
    I gave up malazan somewhere in the middle of book four when I realised how bored I was with the series and there were like 20 more books

    I made it to like book 7 or 8 I think before giving up in disgust. Malazan is ... wordy. But I'm not sure I'd really call it complex. It's more convoluted and obtuse and just stuffed with random shit. Erikson was pumping those truck-stopping motherfuckers out like once a year and it shows in that they all feel like they need some editing passes.

    shryke on
  • HappylilElfHappylilElf Registered User regular
    MegaMan001 wrote: »
    Jragghen wrote: »
    Burtletoy wrote: »
    I actually stopped watching the show when it passed the books, and somehow the ending hasn't been spoiled for me years later cause no one seems to have given a shit enough to talk about the ending other than that it is supposed to be very disappointing!

    You're probably the happiest person in this thread!

    The speed with which GOT went from "talking about every episode" to "completely falling off of the pop culture landscape" was craaaaazy

    It really was.

    Like even in the final season people were talking about each episode and then the finale came and almost overnight everyone went "That... that's how this shit ends?" and then the entire thing was memory holed.

  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    Burtletoy wrote: »
    I actually stopped watching the show when it passed the books, and somehow the ending hasn't been spoiled for me years later cause no one seems to have given a shit enough to talk about the ending other than that it is supposed to be very disappointing!

    That's me too! Although I stopped a bit earlier then that because I thought it was obvious in like season 2 or 3 that the show writers didn't know wtf they were doing and were entirely coasting off GRRM's work. I've been spoiled unfortunately on a few things that happen in the ending cause people throw that shit around randomly but I'm doing fine on most of the details so far.

  • HeraldSHeraldS Registered User regular
    Once they fucked up Tyrion's escape from the Red Keep and Robb's wife I kinda gave up caring. I watched till the end cause it became a weekly get-together in my friend group but my heart wasn't in it anymore. And ye gods what a disaster of a finale.

  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    edited April 2021
    MegaMan001 wrote: »
    Jragghen wrote: »
    Burtletoy wrote: »
    I actually stopped watching the show when it passed the books, and somehow the ending hasn't been spoiled for me years later cause no one seems to have given a shit enough to talk about the ending other than that it is supposed to be very disappointing!

    You're probably the happiest person in this thread!

    The speed with which GOT went from "talking about every episode" to "completely falling off of the pop culture landscape" was craaaaazy

    Same thing happened with Lost. And in the smaller sci-fi pond, with BSG. I think it's the end results of two major forces:

    1) Plotting relying heavily on shocking twists and reveals without a coherent and satisfying story arc. When you are hanging on every new development, it's a big deal. You talk about it and think about it all the time and there's things to gab about with other. But if the overall story ends up feeling random and meaningless, then there's nothing to come back to because you already know all the twists now and all the foreshadowing becomes tiresome because you know it doesn't fucking mean anything. It becomes an ephemeral experience. It doesn't stick with you the way a great story does.

    2) The media landscape is so fractured these days that almost nothing becomes a phenomenon in the first place and as soon as you aren't pumping out new episodes and keeping the hype train fueled, the audience melts away and moves on to a dozen different new things. It's very hard for something to become a cultural touchstone these days.

    shryke on
  • Smaug6Smaug6 Registered User regular
    Turns out that one man writing an alternate Wars of the Roses is hard. It exceeds the possible complexity that the human brain can follow. If you look at other epics, like the Wheel of Time or the Lord of the Rings, they are structurally much simpler.

    To make an epic like this work you'd need to start at 25 and devote the next 40 years to it, and be one of those writers who never get blocked.

    I mean, writing anything is as hard as you make it. You can tell the story of an alternate-universe War of the Roses in one, normal-length novel. You just tell the story from one or a couple of character's points of view and only hit the highlights of the whole thing.

    Martin has apparently decided to tell a War of the Roses as a play-by-play account of the entire war from the points of view of dozens of people.

    I liked the books when they were about the Starks and the Lannisters. If he'd kept it about them, losing characters and plots as Starks and Lannisters died, it would be a sprawling epic but a manageable sprawling epic. He could have even come back later and written novels telling the story of the war from the point of view of other houses, fleshing out the world and its history. Instead he's just doing all of that simultaneously.

    I honestly think it's probably too painful for him to proceed. The show did demonstrate all this stuff converges, but it also requires the deaths of a lot of characters I'm sure Martin feel connected to after all this time. It might be a question of will as opposed to actually tying it to together.

    steam_sig.png
  • MegaMan001MegaMan001 CRNA Rochester, MNRegistered User regular
    I judge every prestige television show by one single metric: is it regularly discussed at my job, an operating room at a large academic hospital in the Midwest.

    Everyone was watching GOT. This metric also demonstrated that yes, they did fuck up the lighting at the Battle of Winter fell, because the next day the only thing anyone was talking about was that they couldn't see anything.

    I am in the business of saving lives.
  • Kipling217Kipling217 Registered User regular
    You know, I had a screed about the difficulties of keeping armies in the field during the War of the Roses, but decide to not bore you.

    What I think ASOIAF needs is something akin to the Magna Carta; Namely the smallfolk and lesser bannermen deciding that they want a say in how the seven Kingdoms are run. I mean half the problems in the book come from the fact that power is held in the Iron Throne and few powerful magnates with zero accountability. Robert spending his days whoring and not ruling is how they got in this mess in the first place. Rob Stark executing one of his own bannermen without anything resembling a trial beyond; he who passes the sentence, wields the sword bullshit. Littlefinger borrowing millions from the Iron Bank and nobody noticing.

    Part of what makes the show so bad is that it ends with the same system, only with different people in charge. Bran isn't going to live forever,though probably longer than most. What is going to happen to Westoros once all the good people on his Small council are dead? You need a large council, like a permanent Kingsmoot from the Iron Isles.

    It could even be Dany's breaking point, she is Queen by divine/dragon right, who are these peasants to demand she share power?

    For a political story, you need a political ending.

    The sky was full of stars, every star an exploding ship. One of ours.
  • monikermoniker Registered User regular
    MegaMan001 wrote: »
    Jragghen wrote: »
    Burtletoy wrote: »
    I actually stopped watching the show when it passed the books, and somehow the ending hasn't been spoiled for me years later cause no one seems to have given a shit enough to talk about the ending other than that it is supposed to be very disappointing!

    You're probably the happiest person in this thread!

    The speed with which GOT went from "talking about every episode" to "completely falling off of the pop culture landscape" was craaaaazy

    The show runners just forgot that themes aren't actually childish or for book reports.

  • Atlas in ChainsAtlas in Chains Registered User regular
    At this point, I think a lot of people would take a wiki style summary of the last 2 books from George just to know the intended end and be done with it. Finishing things is only as complicated as he wants to make it. It's clear he would rather do anything else than finish, though.

  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    edited April 2021
    Kipling217 wrote: »
    You know, I had a screed about the difficulties of keeping armies in the field during the War of the Roses, but decide to not bore you.

    What I think ASOIAF needs is something akin to the Magna Carta; Namely the smallfolk and lesser bannermen deciding that they want a say in how the seven Kingdoms are run. I mean half the problems in the book come from the fact that power is held in the Iron Throne and few powerful magnates with zero accountability. Robert spending his days whoring and not ruling is how they got in this mess in the first place. Rob Stark executing one of his own bannermen without anything resembling a trial beyond; he who passes the sentence, wields the sword bullshit. Littlefinger borrowing millions from the Iron Bank and nobody noticing.

    Part of what makes the show so bad is that it ends with the same system, only with different people in charge. Bran isn't going to live forever,though probably longer than most. What is going to happen to Westoros once all the good people on his Small council are dead? You need a large council, like a permanent Kingsmoot from the Iron Isles.

    It could even be Dany's breaking point, she is Queen by divine/dragon right, who are these peasants to demand she share power?

    For a political story, you need a political ending.

    It's not just a political story though, or even primarily one. And I'm not sure it's really that interested in being about the establishment of a more stable government in Westeros in the end.

    The suffering of the smallfolk is highlighted a bunch, especially with the Brotherhood without Banners, but that kinda ends up in a nasty place. Though who knows where it's intended to go later since the meeting between Lady Stoneheart and Brienne seems like it should be a major turning point.

    The restoration of some kind of proper ruler seems like the kind of place a high fantasy story or a medieval romance ends.

    shryke on
  • CelestialBadgerCelestialBadger Registered User regular
    I don’t mean to say Malazan is bad, it’s just not much like ASOIAF in any way apart from both being epic fantasy.

    ASOIAF is actually very plainly written: the complexity is not in language or worldbuilding but in the web of characters and their relationships.

  • MonwynMonwyn Apathy's a tragedy, and boredom is a crime. A little bit of everything, all of the time.Registered User regular
    shryke wrote: »
    MegaMan001 wrote: »
    Jragghen wrote: »
    Burtletoy wrote: »
    I actually stopped watching the show when it passed the books, and somehow the ending hasn't been spoiled for me years later cause no one seems to have given a shit enough to talk about the ending other than that it is supposed to be very disappointing!

    You're probably the happiest person in this thread!

    The speed with which GOT went from "talking about every episode" to "completely falling off of the pop culture landscape" was craaaaazy

    Same thing happened with Lost. And in the smaller sci-fi pond, with BSG. I think it's the end results of two major forces:

    1) Plotting relying heavily on shocking twists and reveals without a coherent and satisfying story arc. When you are hanging on every new development, it's a big deal. You talk about it and think about it all the time and there's things to gab about with other. But if the overall story ends up feeling random and meaningless, then there's nothing to come back to because you already know all the twists now and all the foreshadowing becomes tiresome because you know it doesn't fucking mean anything. It becomes an ephemeral experience. It doesn't stick with you the way a great story does.

    2) The media landscape is so fractured these days that almost nothing becomes a phenomenon in the first place and as soon as you aren't pumping out new episodes and keeping the hype train fueled, the audience melts away and moves on to a dozen different new things. It's very hard for something to become a cultural touchstone these days.

    The ending of BSG is perfectly fine and I will fucking die on this hill

    uH3IcEi.png
  • OrcaOrca Also known as Espressosaurus WrexRegistered User regular
    Monwyn wrote: »
    shryke wrote: »
    MegaMan001 wrote: »
    Jragghen wrote: »
    Burtletoy wrote: »
    I actually stopped watching the show when it passed the books, and somehow the ending hasn't been spoiled for me years later cause no one seems to have given a shit enough to talk about the ending other than that it is supposed to be very disappointing!

    You're probably the happiest person in this thread!

    The speed with which GOT went from "talking about every episode" to "completely falling off of the pop culture landscape" was craaaaazy

    Same thing happened with Lost. And in the smaller sci-fi pond, with BSG. I think it's the end results of two major forces:

    1) Plotting relying heavily on shocking twists and reveals without a coherent and satisfying story arc. When you are hanging on every new development, it's a big deal. You talk about it and think about it all the time and there's things to gab about with other. But if the overall story ends up feeling random and meaningless, then there's nothing to come back to because you already know all the twists now and all the foreshadowing becomes tiresome because you know it doesn't fucking mean anything. It becomes an ephemeral experience. It doesn't stick with you the way a great story does.

    2) The media landscape is so fractured these days that almost nothing becomes a phenomenon in the first place and as soon as you aren't pumping out new episodes and keeping the hype train fueled, the audience melts away and moves on to a dozen different new things. It's very hard for something to become a cultural touchstone these days.

    The ending of BSG is perfectly fine and I will fucking die on this hill

    Challenge accepted.
    :P

  • 38thDoe38thDoe lets never be stupid again wait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered User regular
    Monwyn wrote: »
    shryke wrote: »
    MegaMan001 wrote: »
    Jragghen wrote: »
    Burtletoy wrote: »
    I actually stopped watching the show when it passed the books, and somehow the ending hasn't been spoiled for me years later cause no one seems to have given a shit enough to talk about the ending other than that it is supposed to be very disappointing!

    You're probably the happiest person in this thread!

    The speed with which GOT went from "talking about every episode" to "completely falling off of the pop culture landscape" was craaaaazy

    Same thing happened with Lost. And in the smaller sci-fi pond, with BSG. I think it's the end results of two major forces:

    1) Plotting relying heavily on shocking twists and reveals without a coherent and satisfying story arc. When you are hanging on every new development, it's a big deal. You talk about it and think about it all the time and there's things to gab about with other. But if the overall story ends up feeling random and meaningless, then there's nothing to come back to because you already know all the twists now and all the foreshadowing becomes tiresome because you know it doesn't fucking mean anything. It becomes an ephemeral experience. It doesn't stick with you the way a great story does.

    2) The media landscape is so fractured these days that almost nothing becomes a phenomenon in the first place and as soon as you aren't pumping out new episodes and keeping the hype train fueled, the audience melts away and moves on to a dozen different new things. It's very hard for something to become a cultural touchstone these days.

    The ending of BSG is perfectly fine and I will fucking die on this hill

    Which one is that? Season 1? Season 2? :)

    38thDoE on steam
    🦀🦑🦀🦑🦀🦑🦀🦑🦀🦑🦀🦑🦀
    
  • Smaug6Smaug6 Registered User regular
    I, personally, found the first Malazan book to be so tedious that I didn't read the rest. I understand what he is going for, and I totally appreciate folks who enjoy that kind of thing, but for me the story was relatively straightforward and it was just couched in a lot of, for lack of a better term, obfuscation.

    But I will admit to being the kind of person who that kind of thing may not be for. For example, I absolutely loathe Gene Wolfe's works, to the extent of being an asshole about it when people ask me what I think of them. But there are literally millions of people who totally love them. So while I can't recommend them to anyone based on my own personal opinion, I can say, "Some people really seem to enjoy them, so you may like them, too!"

    It's definitely one of those subjective things. Like, at the end of the day, there are no new stories under the sun. So the style really does matter quite a bit, and there are different strokes for different folks.

    I love the first Malzan book, but I definitely bounced off of it the first two times I tried to read it

    steam_sig.png
  • Smaug6Smaug6 Registered User regular
    Orca wrote: »
    I'm used to sprawling series where the author gives up instead of writing a satisfying ending.

    Jim McCarthy and Colonel Elizabeth 'Lizard' Tirelli, whatever is going to happen to you and the Earth?

    Let's not forget Patrick ROFLTHUS

    steam_sig.png
  • CptHamiltonCptHamilton Registered User regular
    Smaug6 wrote: »
    Orca wrote: »
    I'm used to sprawling series where the author gives up instead of writing a satisfying ending.

    Jim McCarthy and Colonel Elizabeth 'Lizard' Tirelli, whatever is going to happen to you and the Earth?

    Let's not forget Patrick ROFLTHUS

    Rothfuss's not finishing is sad but not surprising. He went from "academic grinding away at his Great Fantasy Epic for years (decades?) at night and on weekends" to "Wildly successful author, internet sensation, and popular attendee of conventions and geek-oriented web content" overnight, then also had a bunch of both good and bad upheavals in his personal life. Given that he's also hyper-critical of his own work mechanically, suddenly going from family and friends having read his work to a fair chunk of all fantasy readers in a dozen languages was basically guaranteed to make him freeze up.

    I kinda suspect Martin underwent a similar, if slower, process. The man clearly enjoys the process of writing when he's writing for himself. When a ton of people are anxiously awaiting his next words, though, I dunno if his brain locks up or he just doesn't want to do it, but the bigger ASoIaF got, the slower it came. I read recently that he's been actually posting about writing Winds of Winter on his blog again in the past year. Now that everyone's basically given up on the novels and the show has fallen out of the zeitgeist maybe he's motivated again. At least until the HBO spinoffs show up.

    Luckily the world still has folks like Sanderson and King to just crank out new stuff to read year after year.

    PSN,Steam,Live | CptHamiltonian
  • ShadowenShadowen Snores in the morning LoserdomRegistered User regular
    MegaMan001 wrote: »
    Jragghen wrote: »
    Burtletoy wrote: »
    I actually stopped watching the show when it passed the books, and somehow the ending hasn't been spoiled for me years later cause no one seems to have given a shit enough to talk about the ending other than that it is supposed to be very disappointing!

    You're probably the happiest person in this thread!

    The speed with which GOT went from "talking about every episode" to "completely falling off of the pop culture landscape" was craaaaazy

    It really was.

    Like even in the final season people were talking about each episode and then the finale came and almost overnight everyone went "That... that's how this shit ends?" and then the entire thing was memory holed.

    Part of that is no doubt due to the speed of modern pop culture churn, but yeah, you expect at least a few diehards to stick with it.

    Instead it goes from "biggest thing" to even the people who liked the ending going "Okay, that was nice, what else can we watch now?"

  • CelestialBadgerCelestialBadger Registered User regular
    Shadowen wrote: »
    MegaMan001 wrote: »
    Jragghen wrote: »
    Burtletoy wrote: »
    I actually stopped watching the show when it passed the books, and somehow the ending hasn't been spoiled for me years later cause no one seems to have given a shit enough to talk about the ending other than that it is supposed to be very disappointing!

    You're probably the happiest person in this thread!

    The speed with which GOT went from "talking about every episode" to "completely falling off of the pop culture landscape" was craaaaazy

    It really was.

    Like even in the final season people were talking about each episode and then the finale came and almost overnight everyone went "That... that's how this shit ends?" and then the entire thing was memory holed.

    Part of that is no doubt due to the speed of modern pop culture churn, but yeah, you expect at least a few diehards to stick with it.

    Instead it goes from "biggest thing" to even the people who liked the ending going "Okay, that was nice, what else can we watch now?"

    People still watch things like Breaking Bad that ended but had decent endings.

  • BurtletoyBurtletoy Registered User regular
    I feel like the final episode of Seinfeld pretty much killed that show, too. But it's been... decades, so maybe I misremember

  • RichyRichy Registered User regular
    Shadowen wrote: »
    MegaMan001 wrote: »
    Jragghen wrote: »
    Burtletoy wrote: »
    I actually stopped watching the show when it passed the books, and somehow the ending hasn't been spoiled for me years later cause no one seems to have given a shit enough to talk about the ending other than that it is supposed to be very disappointing!

    You're probably the happiest person in this thread!

    The speed with which GOT went from "talking about every episode" to "completely falling off of the pop culture landscape" was craaaaazy

    It really was.

    Like even in the final season people were talking about each episode and then the finale came and almost overnight everyone went "That... that's how this shit ends?" and then the entire thing was memory holed.

    Part of that is no doubt due to the speed of modern pop culture churn, but yeah, you expect at least a few diehards to stick with it.

    Instead it goes from "biggest thing" to even the people who liked the ending going "Okay, that was nice, what else can we watch now?"

    People still watch things like Breaking Bad that ended but had decent endings.

    Friends and The Office are the two biggest titles on Netflix. The idea that only a few die-hards hang on to shows while everyone else moves on to the next pop-culture craze is certainly not supported by the numbers we're seeing.

    sig.gif
  • Smaug6Smaug6 Registered User regular
    Shadowen wrote: »
    MegaMan001 wrote: »
    Jragghen wrote: »
    Burtletoy wrote: »
    I actually stopped watching the show when it passed the books, and somehow the ending hasn't been spoiled for me years later cause no one seems to have given a shit enough to talk about the ending other than that it is supposed to be very disappointing!

    You're probably the happiest person in this thread!

    The speed with which GOT went from "talking about every episode" to "completely falling off of the pop culture landscape" was craaaaazy

    It really was.

    Like even in the final season people were talking about each episode and then the finale came and almost overnight everyone went "That... that's how this shit ends?" and then the entire thing was memory holed.

    Part of that is no doubt due to the speed of modern pop culture churn, but yeah, you expect at least a few diehards to stick with it.

    Instead it goes from "biggest thing" to even the people who liked the ending going "Okay, that was nice, what else can we watch now?"

    It's crazy especially compared to the berserk frothing over the game of thrones Scotch

    steam_sig.png
  • monikermoniker Registered User regular
    Richy wrote: »
    Shadowen wrote: »
    MegaMan001 wrote: »
    Jragghen wrote: »
    Burtletoy wrote: »
    I actually stopped watching the show when it passed the books, and somehow the ending hasn't been spoiled for me years later cause no one seems to have given a shit enough to talk about the ending other than that it is supposed to be very disappointing!

    You're probably the happiest person in this thread!

    The speed with which GOT went from "talking about every episode" to "completely falling off of the pop culture landscape" was craaaaazy

    It really was.

    Like even in the final season people were talking about each episode and then the finale came and almost overnight everyone went "That... that's how this shit ends?" and then the entire thing was memory holed.

    Part of that is no doubt due to the speed of modern pop culture churn, but yeah, you expect at least a few diehards to stick with it.

    Instead it goes from "biggest thing" to even the people who liked the ending going "Okay, that was nice, what else can we watch now?"

    People still watch things like Breaking Bad that ended but had decent endings.

    Friends and The Office are the two biggest titles on Netflix. The idea that only a few die-hards hang on to shows while everyone else moves on to the next pop-culture craze is certainly not supported by the numbers we're seeing.

    I still rewatch Empire Strikes Back from time to time. Good stories last. Stories that rely on unpredictable twists get you one surprise shock, but then it just becomes dull unless there are other things driving the story or really good foreshadowing.

  • knitdanknitdan In ur base Killin ur guysRegistered User regular
    Dozens of new posts

    No news

    I hate you all

    “I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
    -Indiana Solo, runner of blades
  • zepherinzepherin Russian warship, go fuck yourself Registered User regular
    knitdan wrote: »
    Dozens of new posts

    No news

    I hate you all
    I feed

  • BurtletoyBurtletoy Registered User regular
    edited April 2021
    Wasn't the book thread different from the TV thread? Or were they merged after the show caught up with the books?

    Burtletoy on
  • knitdanknitdan In ur base Killin ur guysRegistered User regular
    Burtletoy wrote: »
    Wasn't the book thread different from the TV thread? Or were they merged after the show caught up with the books?

    Oh yes, most definitely

    The book thread was gleefully hate-watching the show for years and unfortunately some people couldn’t resist the urge to go into the show thread and make “clever predictions” which were actually book spoilers

    On the other hand we mostly kept mum on the Red Wedding, which eventually led to one of my favorite posts on these here forums...”the book thread sends its regards”

    And then I think they got merged after the show passed the books because there was no longer a point in keeping them separate.

    “I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
    -Indiana Solo, runner of blades
  • SageinaRageSageinaRage Registered User regular
    I think a lot of people really underestimate the value of a good ending to a story. I've become much more wary of getting into episodic stories as I get older because I'm tired of them setting up crazy premises and then clearly having no idea what to do with them. The ending is the proof of a good storyteller.

    sig.gif
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