gdp's Comments

Winter Is Coming : GRRM: Blackfish not in first season

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 17:37:13 +0000

Worth noting that The Wire never got canceled. GoT will probably have a much larger budget, of course, but it's also got a small (for TV) fan base before even airing. Then there's the absence of any other really good fantasy TV series, and the fact that the LotR movies, Harry Potter etc. have brought fantasy more into the mainstream. Lots of factors to consider, but I think there's plenty that are going to work in the show's favor.

Winter Is Coming : GRRM: Blackfish not in first season

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 12:06:26 +0000

(spoilers) Just to add a bit, I think they'd have to change the dynamic of the scene a little for it to make sense. Robb wouldn't sit down to have a lengthy discussion over strategy between the Whispering Woods and freeing Riverrun. So having the King of the North thing come about as a response to a reasoned ruling out of all the other choices won't work. What will work is running with the "feeling invincible" thing you mention and have one of Robb's lords just start yelling King of the North out of the blue, and everyone picks it up. The downside of course is that the viewer wouldn't get the reasoning behind it laid out, but they could potentially still do a similar scene to the one in the books when he's getting the riverlords to join up.

Winter Is Coming : GRRM: Blackfish not in first season

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 23:34:25 +0000

No significant ones. George has said Jory will probably be the only Stark guard in King's Landing with any lines, but other than that.

Winter Is Coming : Syrio training with Arya

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:07:21 +0000

This fills me with what can only be described as glee.

Winter Is Coming : Thrones cast heads to Belfast

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:32:42 +0000

Well, yeah. Winter hadn't posted yet when I wrote that, and I don't follow fantasy hotlist.

Winter Is Coming : Thrones cast heads to Belfast

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:19:14 +0000

He's one of the many Pates.

Winter Is Coming : Thrones cast heads to Belfast

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:37:32 +0000

The only Pats listed on towerofthehand.com are Patrek Mallister and Patrek Vance. Neither really seem to have done anything memorable. Guessing if it is in fact a reference to something he just wrote that it's a Pat we don't know yet. Or possibly one of those two becomes vaguely prominent. Still, the death of a character seems a rather big spoiler for him to just come out and tell us, even if it's a minor one. There are also a whole slew of Pates, but Pat seems like a rather strange and unnecessary abbreviation for that.

Winter Is Coming : GRRM on composers

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:21:36 +0000

That is nice. Something like the faster instrumentation early on could definitely work. Kind of upbeat and exciting, with some somberness mixed in from the piano. I'm imagining a similar song where it stays fairly fast and instrumental, but the tone gradually shifts towards the somber and foreboding by the middle, with a shift to even faster, drum-heavy stuff by the end.

Winter Is Coming : The Targaryen sibs as UK Stars of Tomorrow

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:07:26 +0000

Same on all counts. I'm hoping for minimum nerdrage.

Winter Is Coming : The Targaryen sibs as UK Stars of Tomorrow

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:34:24 +0000

Fairly sure Harry Lloyd is the skinny guy in back. Not sure on Emilia my self.

Winter Is Coming : The Targaryen sibs as UK Stars of Tomorrow

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:53:28 +0000

Yeah, I agree that they don't need to stick to the books exactly, but I also figure that if it worked well in the books, it should work pretty well on screen. Not saying that there couldn't be better ways to handle it, though.

Winter Is Coming : The Targaryen sibs as UK Stars of Tomorrow

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:47:59 +0000

(spoiler) Well, as it's written in the book, Drogo sticks the pot full of molten gold directly on Viserys's head, so what actually happens to most of him should hypothetically be left unseen. We'd just see his chest getting burned horrifically, with an echoing scream and billows of smoke. Part of the reason I think they should make it as graphic as that allows, though, is that they can spend more time on it that way. I think it should be fairly drawn out: most people will probably feel pretty happy that such an insane, sadistic bastard got his just desserts, but lingering on it should bring home the gruesomeness of such a violent death. I've always felt that one of the central ideas of ASoIaF is that even righteous killing is nasty work. As for Ned, I'm not concerned with letting the viewer fill in a more gory image. It's just that it works dramatically in the books, so it seems like a good idea to carry it over to the show. Arya doesn't see it, and we don't see it either. It makes it all that much more traumatic because there's no closure, and the next we see of Ned (assuming adherence to the books) is his head, tarred beyond recognition on a stick. More to the point, I don't think gore would really suit the scene. Ned's death isn't supposed to be horror-movie-scary or gross, just shocking and depressing as hell. Plus doing justice to Sean Bean's decapitated head with special effects seems like a tall order without any of the normal conveniences (hood on the victim, basket for the head to fall into, etc.) which are absent due to the impromptu nature of the execution. (/spoiler)

Winter Is Coming : The Targaryen sibs as UK Stars of Tomorrow

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:14:37 +0000

(also spoiler) Agreed. With some scenes, cutting away might work better (Ned's execution is written that way in the books, after all). For Viserys, the more graphic the better I think.

Winter Is Coming : GRRM on composers

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:03:08 +0000

Memorial actually sounds like it may be partly inspired by another piece by Henry Purcell (who composed the song I linked). Mentioned in the comments of the video, in fact. Nice!

Winter Is Coming : GRRM on composers

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:59:24 +0000

Just had a song/scene idea. It's not really pertinent to anything, but whatever. (AGoT spoilers) Got the thought in my head that Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WKrAQkP6rU&fe... would be really awesome to use for Ned's execution scene. Basically right after Joffrey tells Ilyn to kill Eddard, cut off all sound but the music (starting with the drum-roll leading to the loud part around 1:00) while Arya tries to fight through the crowd to stop it. Then Yoren grabs her and the music fades out to the sound of the bustling crowd and Yoren yelling "Don't look!" Like I said, not pertinent to anything. Obviously a composer means they wouldn't use that song even if by chance they thought the same thing I did, but I figured I'd share anyway. I do think a song that style (loud, mournful drums and brass) would work for the scene, though.

Winter Is Coming : GRRM on composers

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:25:41 +0000

I'm hoping for period-inspired music for feasts, etc., and subtle, understated music for 90% of everything else. Most of the time, ASoIaF is not epic in the traditional sense. Using cliched, overblown orchestral music would seriously overshadow the subtleties of the characters and plot, and at the same time would do nothing for immersion or bringing out the unique feels of each of the settings. The instruments and styles chosen should reflect the culture of the setting being shown at the time (Various flavors of European for Westeros, Arabian/Mediterranean for the Free Cities, something primal for the Dothraki etc.), and the music needs to be quiet and subtle enough that it doesn't interfere with the dialogue (either by making it hard to hear or by making the emotions feel forced). Epic music should be reserved for epic battles, and possibly occasional scenes of serious dramatic importance (A couple events right around the end of season 1 stand out as obvious choices...)

Winter Is Coming : George confirms Tena as Osha

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 15:32:07 +0000

Same here, though I'm sure there's a lot of ways various people say them, like most other names in the books.

Winter Is Coming : GRRM hints at Osha

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 03:56:30 +0000

There's some people who avoid the sample chapters, I guess. Possibly others who don't know they exist and/or where to find them? Mookie: If you're not of the first variety, this is the Theon ADwD sample chapter: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_l...

Winter Is Coming : Breaking down the new cast members

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 00:37:46 +0000

According to posters whose names I forget, that sort of thing has actually been done before. So it's not impossible. Even if they decide not to, I'm betting they'll let us know what's going on without directly showing it (Have Sweetrobin ask to breastfeed, with Lysa popping a breast out as Catelyn leaves the room, say)

Winter Is Coming : More casting clues!

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 02:23:40 +0000

The way he refers to it as "The last" could mean it is in fact the last clue listed, though it probably just refers to the fact that it's the last he's mentioning there. Still, the holly and oak trees etc. stuff seems the most complicated of the clues and therefore perhaps the most likely to be obscure... I'm wondering if we may have been off with the Hollyoaks interpretation all along, and he's refering to some historical/arthurian/etc. story wherein holly and oaks have some significance? Thinking back to the clues on Lena Headey so long ago with the Herodotus reference...