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[Xamdou]

Just bought a case of the Iron Throne beer earlier today. Whoops!

It finally made its way out here to the west coast!

Where did you get it?

 

[Trasher]

Where did you get it?

At a Cost Plus World Market.

I initially used this to find stores it was located in. Seems to be accurate.

http://ommegang.com/#!locator

 

[3N16MA]

I would hope the beer comes with a 10 page description of the colour, taste, and aroma.

 

[fallengorn]

At a Cost Plus World Market.

I initially used this to find stores it was located in. Seems to be accurate.

http://ommegang.com/#!locator

Still nothing in NYC. Why does Cooperstown hate us?

 

[Steelyuhas]

Tim Goodman, of the Hollywood Reporter:

 

[Cornballer]

- Maureen Ryan's review
- Sepinwall's review


EDIT:
- Slate.com put up a 9-minute, narrated video that recaps S1 & S2

 

[Perfect Cha0s]

I'm getting tripped up on two or three of the people.

Jon Tyrion Khal Drogo Ned Jaime? Daenarys
Ghost Benjen/Robert? Arya Robb? The Hound An Other

I think the "Benjen/Robert" is supposed to be Syrio.

 

[Eidan]

- Sepinwall's review

I see where the showrunners are coming from when it comes to the question of more Blackwater-style episodes. I'd be happy with one a season.

ASOS

Spoiler

Next season, I could see all of Joffrey's wedding being one episode.

 

[EsotericManiac]

Really hoping this show picks up this season. Season 2 really dragged ass for me.

 

[Steelyuhas]

WiC's interview with Kit Harington, John Bradley, and Rose Leslie (spoilers)

 

[Anoregon]

I picked up a few bottles of the beer yesterday as well. Tried it last night, it is tasty. I would expect nothing less from ommegang, though.

 

[Subitai]

Greenwald: How Game of Thrones became the most important show on television

Finally read all of this. Interesting that HBO sort of backed into this show becoming its most important property. And, that with the plot being predetermined has given show writers freedom from being pressured to do things with story lines. They can just focus telling it the best way possible within the budget. So, GoT has really changed the way prestigious TV shows are going to be done in the future.

 

[Decado]

Tim Goodman, of the Hollywood Reporter:

Is he aware that they've split book 3 into two seasons...?

 

[3N16MA]

I see where the showrunners are coming from when it comes to the question of more Blackwater-style episodes. I'd be happy with one a season.

ASOS

Spoiler

Next season, I could see all of Joffrey's wedding being one episode.

[ASOS]:

Spoiler

Lets hope we get a nice close up of him choking.

 

[Steelyuhas]

Finally read all of this. Interesting that HBO sort of backed into this show becoming its most important property. And, that with the plot being predetermined has given show writers freedom from being pressured to do things with story lines. They can just focus telling it the best way possible within the budget. So, GoT has really changed the way prestigious TV shows are going to be done in the future.

Yeah very interesting read, and I agree with his points.

Kind of funny how in the last few years, HBO pushed Boardwalk Empire as their next big drama, and it's popularity has consistently decline over its three seasons (still a healthy show, and great). With Game of Thrones, HBO kind of backed into it, and now it's arguably their largest show ever.

Is he aware that they've split book 3 into two seasons...?

I'm not sure, I think he was just commenting on thinking 10 episode seasons for a show are too short.

The reason the show is 10 episodes is that they literally do not have the time in 12 months to write, pre-production (casting, locations), film, and post-production (editing, VFX) more than 10 episodes without decreasing the quality of the show.

 

[3N16MA]

I think some have become accustomed to the 12 episode season that many shows have on cable. GoT kind of sticks out with 10 but I can see how doing more would be a problem according to Steelyuhas.

 

[Trojita]

I think the "Benjen/Robert" is supposed to be Syrio.

Oh yeah I guess I could see that.

Why does Arya have blue eyes? (The person next to Syrio?)

 

[exYle]

WiC's interview with Kit Harington, John Bradley, and Rose Leslie (spoilers)

John Bradley's face looks too small for his head.

 

[RaidenZR]

Really hoping this show picks up this season. Season 2 really dragged ass for me.

Dragged? If anything they rushed through shit so much (except for Dany's storyline) that it left some things making little sense when you investigated just a touch deeper.

 

[Ithil]

Hope it hasn't been posted, interview with Michelle Fairley, Maisie Williams and Isaac Hempstead., it's a couple of days old.

They'd best make a wheelbarrow or something or Bran, he's aged way too much by now to get carried around on Hodor's back.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Hope it hasn't been posted, interview with Michelle Fairley, Maisie Williams and Isaac Hempstead., it's a couple of days old.

They'd best make a wheelbarrow or something or Bran, he's aged way too much by now to get carried around on Hodor's back.

he's in one in the last episode of season 2

 

[RaidenZR]

The reason the show is 10 episodes is that they literally do not have the time in 12 months to write, pre-production (casting, locations), film, and post-production (editing, VFX) more than 10 episodes without decreasing the quality of the show.

I still think HBO is super dumb for forcing this into a 12-month production schedule. I know profits and yearly forecasts and yadda yadda yadda, but it's probably hurt the show more than it's helped. I don't see why they can't give them a few more months per season to either make more episodes, allow them time to craft tighter season and episode structures, and/or give George more padding.

 

[luca1980]

One one hand I can't wait to see this season, o the other hand I would like to give all the books a shoot yet I don't want to spoil me things too much....
Can't decide it...yet hype is stronger than me....

 

[Jibbajabbawockky]

I still think HBO is super dumb for forcing this into a 12-month production schedule. I know profits and yearly forecasts and yadda yadda yadda, but it's probably hurt the show more than it's helped. I don't see why they can't give them a few more months per season to either make more episodes, allow them time to craft tighter season and episode structures, and/or give George more padding.

I think part of it may be that they're working with a lot of child actors too. Can't spend years off in between seasons only to come back to the following season when there aren't any time jumps in the story.

 

[Chris R]

One one hand I can't wait to see this season, o the other hand I would like to give all the books a shoot yet I don't want to spoil me things too much....
Can't decide it...yet hype is stronger than me....

Read the books. They add so much more detail, and by catching up you will be unspoilable!

 

[RaidenZR]

I think part of it may be that they're working with a lot of child actors too. Can't spend years off in between seasons only to come back to the following season when there aren't any time jumps in the story.

I'm sure there's a ton of logistics I'm not privy to, but this is one of those that is 100% unavoidable no matter what their schedule is. Having child actors start visibly aging up on-screen is something you know going in and it's something that viewers just have to accept.

 

[Atsumi]

They deserved what they got in Season 2. In particular, the miserable changes to Arya's story should be shouted from the mountain tops... not only did the changes they made make for infinitely worse television, but they completely subverted her entire character growth. I don't know what they were thinking with Arya's story.

Sorry for replying late to posts, but I was on vacation so I'm catching up.

I definitely liked her chances with Tywin because I feel we never get enough of him in the books, but all the others I agree with. Especially [ACoK]

Spoiler

escaping Harrenhall.

In other news, I just passed the halfway point of ASoS. Hyped beyond belief for this season.

 

[Steelyuhas]

I still think HBO is super dumb for forcing this into a 12-month production schedule. I know profits and yearly forecasts and yadda yadda yadda, but it's probably hurt the show more than it's helped. I don't see why they can't give them a few more months per season to either make more episodes, allow them time to craft tighter season and episode structures, and/or give George more padding.

I don't think HBO sees that as a feasible solution because they'd have to constantly push their other shows around to accommodate for Game of Thrones.

----------------

Some more reviews:

Tim Goodman loves it:

And in keeping with the no-spoiler rule, all that really needs to be said about Season 3 is that the first four hours are immensely enjoyable and leave you, at the end of each, pleading like a junkie for the next six. This, of course, is the curse of Thrones’ finest achievement and it does have one unfortunate side effect for the individual episodes: this sprawling story being told in only 10 episode, doles out in an hour only precious morsels of plot from a variety of characters and clans, then abruptly switches to the next character or clan and so on. The end result is, despite the brilliant quality, a bubbling frustration for more, more, more.

Mike Hale of The New York Times, as with the first 2 seasons, isn't quite as enamored as most:

As this popular adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s “Song of Ice and Fire” novels returns on Sunday night, it falls into an already familiar pattern. Tiny bursts of action are separated by wide expanses of conversation — veritable kingdoms of explication during which medieval spreadsheets of plot, history, geography and family lineage are explained in the mellow tones of stage-trained European actors. Presumably the balance will slowly shift toward action as the plot builds, over the course of 10 episodes, to some climactic mass bloodletting

-----------------

Dinklage talks season 3 for Tyrion

 

[Zoibie]

I see where the showrunners are coming from when it comes to the question of more Blackwater-style episodes. I'd be happy with one a season.

ASOS

Spoiler

Next season, I could see all of Joffrey's wedding being one episode.

ASOS

Spoiler

I'd say the battle at The Wall lends itself more to a Blackwater-style full episode. That and it would make sense as the episode 9 season climax.

 

[Eidan]

ASOS

Spoiler

I'd say the battle at The Wall lends itself more to a Blackwater-style full episode. That and it would make sense as the episode 9 season climax.

ASOS

Spoiler

Do you really see the battle of the Wall taking an entire episode towards the end of the season? By episode 9 I feel like Stannis should already be there.

 

[Steelyuhas]

ASOS

Spoiler

Do you really see the battle of the Wall taking any entire episode towards the end of the season? By episode 9 I feel like Stannis should already be there.

ASOS

Spoiler

Yeah I think it's 7 or 8 at the latest, but that still brings up the point, what the fuck do you do with Stannis in season 4, assuming that he leaves Dragonstone near the end of season 3?

 

[AngryMoth]

Sepinwall's review

Many past and present HBO dramas have employed a similarly fragmented narrative style, but it feels like “Game of Thrones” takes this to an extreme. On “The Wire,” for instance, characters frequently crossed paths, and when they didn’t, you could tell how one person’s actions were affecting someone else far away. On “Boardwalk Empire,” the narrative strands don’t always seem clearly tied together at first, but they inevitably come together in satisfying fashion by season’s end.

Both Martin and “Game of Thrones” are playing a longer game than that. There are characters like Daenerys and Jon Snow who are thousands of miles away from the central action in the Westeros capital of King’s Landing, and their stories seem like they’ll take a long while before directly impacting what Tyrion and his nasty relatives are up to. Several characters spent all of last season seemingly just traveling from Point A to Point B on a map. It’s all very clearly leading somewhere, but in many ways “Game of Thrones” requires more patience than its predecessors, and the fractured storytelling makes it harder to invest in what’s happening on the way to the big payoffs. We’re very rarely in any locale, with any group of characters, long enough for each story to have the emotional resonance that the material deserves.

This sums up my problem with the show pretty well and I'm disappointed that they haven't tried to address it for the new season. There are too many plots and too many characters to make a show with any sort of momentum or focus. In season 1 they could get away with it because the main characters interact a lot and the different plots impact one another in subtle ways, but this becomes less and less the case as the series progresses. After season 2 I do think they would be better instead focusing on just 2 or 3 characters per episode even though this is not an ideal solution. Still, there is a lot of good material coming so I'm giving them another chance win me back.

 

[Eidan]

ASOS

Spoiler

Yeah I think it's 7 or 8 at the latest, but that still brings up the point, what the fuck do you do with Stannis in season 4, assuming that he leaves Dragonstone near the end of season 3?

ASOS

Spoiler

Season 4, Episode 4-
Random Stannis Soldier: Your Grace. We've been idling in the ocean for days now doing nothing. We need to go SOMEWHERE. Hundreds will starve!

Stannis: Thousands.

 

[Steelyuhas]

ASOS

Spoiler

Season 4, Episode 4-
Random Stannis Soldier: Your Grace. We've been idling in the ocean for days now doing nothing. We need to go SOMEWHERE. Hundreds will starve!

Stannis: Thousands.

LOL Ship it.

-------------------

A cool roadmap guide of the first two seasons

 

[Zoibie]

ASOS

Spoiler

Do you really see the battle of the Wall taking any entire episode towards the end of the season? By episode 9 I feel like Stannis should already be there.

ASOS

Spoiler

Hmm... yeah I guess the end would be a bit rushed then. I suppose they could move the Janos/Alliser stuff to earlier in the season. What else would they be doing at that point other than preparing for war (that is assuming season 3 ends with Jon riding back north for The Wall.)

 

[Steelyuhas]

ASOS

Spoiler

Hmm... yeah I guess the end would be a bit rushed then. I suppose they could move the Janos/Alliser stuff to earlier in the season. What else would they be doing at that point other than preparing for war (that is assuming season 3 ends with Jon riding back north for The Wall.)

ASOS

Spoiler

Well assuming that Jon just rides North or gets back to the Wall at the end of season 3, you still have the attack on Castle Black from the south prior to the massive assault from the north.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

ASOS

Spoiler

Yeah I think it's 7 or 8 at the latest, but that still brings up the point, what the fuck do you do with Stannis in season 4, assuming that he leaves Dragonstone near the end of season 3?

ASOS

Spoiler

In the books Stannis doesn't leave Dragonstone until after learning of Joffrey's death. They could change that for the show, but I feel like it would be a poor change given that it would leave him little to do in Season 4. My guess is that this season will end for the Dragonstone crew with them learning about the Red Wedding and Davos reading the letter from the Night's Watch.

 

[aceface]

Still nothing in NYC. Why does Cooperstown hate us?

That beer finder also says it's not around here but it is here. Check any store that sells Ommegang. By the way, I had my first bottle this past weekend. DELICIOUS.

Edit: just checked again, it's listed on there for NYC now.

 

[fallengorn]

That beer finder also says it's not around here but it is here. Check any store that sells Ommegang. By the way, I had my first bottle this past weekend. DELICIOUS.

Edit: just checked again, it's listed on there for NYC now.

Awesome! I'll pick some up after the checking out the exhibition.

 

[Steelyuhas]

ASOS

Spoiler

In the books Stannis doesn't leave Dragonstone until after learning of Joffrey's death. They could change that for the show, but I feel like it would be a poor change given that it would leave him little to do in Season 4. My guess is that this season will end for the Dragonstone crew with them learning about the Red Wedding and Davos reading the letter from the Night's Watch.

ASOS

Spoiler

Ah, you're right. I've read so many season 3 outlines of him leaving at the end of the season that I forgot he doesn't actually leave until after Joffrey's wedding.

 

[3N16MA]

I need to read a good synopsis of each book so I can get refreshed. It's all starting to blur together and I can't remember where it starts and ends.

 

[Trojita]

Hope it hasn't been posted, interview with Michelle Fairley, Maisie Williams and Isaac Hempstead., it's a couple of days old.

They'd best make a wheelbarrow or something or Bran, he's aged way too much by now to get carried around on Hodor's back.

Arya has boobs?

Wut

 

[Drazgul]

I need to read a good synopsis of each book so I can get refreshed. It's all starting to blur together and I can't remember where it starts and ends.

Something wrong with Wikipedia's plot summaries?

 

[3N16MA]

Something wrong with Wikipedia's plot summaries?

They're not bad but I was hoping for something in more detail. I have been reading the character profiles of just about everyone on the Ice and Fire wiki which helps.

 

[Cornballer]

They're not bad but I was hoping for something in more detail. I have been reading the character profiles of just about everyone on the Ice and Fire wiki which helps.

Tower of the Hand is a great resource. Steely linked it in the OP.

 

[Cpt.Underpants]

Thronecast - Season 3 - Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

 

[3N16MA]

Tower of the Hand is a great resource. Steely linked it in the OP.

Thanks for the link as it's pretty much what I was looking for. I really should go through the OP in more detail.

 

[Subitai]

This sums up my problem with the show pretty well and I'm disappointed that they haven't tried to address it for the new season. There are too many plots and too many characters to make a show with any sort of momentum or focus. In season 1 they could get away with it because the main characters interact a lot and the different plots impact on one another in subtle ways, but this becomes less and less the case as the series progresses. After season 2 I do think they would be better instead focusing on just 2 or 3 characters per episode even though this is not an ideal solution. Still, there is a lot of good material coming so I'm giving them another chance win me back.

It will be interesting to see if more people start feeling this way after this season.

Sorry for replying late to posts, but I was on vacation so I'm catching up.

I definitely liked her chances with Tywin because I feel we never get enough of him in the books, but all the others I agree with. Especially [ACoK]

Spoiler

escaping Harrenhall.

In other news, I just passed the halfway point of ASoS. Hyped beyond belief for this season.

You should still stay out of this thread until you've finished the epilogue. The emotional rollercoaster goes really high, and really, really low.

 

[Ambitious]

Awesome, a cinema in my city (Vienna, Austria) is organizing a Game of Thrones event tomorrow. They'll show the last three episodes of season 2 and there will be a party afterwards, with harp music and mead. Tom Wlaschiha, the actor portraying Jaqen H'ghar, will be present for a Q&A session. Looking forward.

Just left the cinema, it has been a nice evening. Tom seemed pretty cool. During the Q&A session, one girl asked him if he had sex at the set. The fuck?

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Just left the cinema, it has been a nice evening. Tom seemed pretty cool. During the Q&A session, one girl asked him if he had sex at the set. The fuck?

Our society is fucked.