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"Game of Thrones"


kingzoso

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The Winds of Winter is coming. And when it arrives, author George R.R. Martin says the next installment in his best-selling A Song of Ice and Fire saga will feature even more heartbreaking twists. Even more deaths, betrayals and—perhaps more frightening of all—more weddings!

http://shelf-life.ew.com/2014/06/26/george-r-r-martin-winds-winter-tease/

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This was published in the Los Angeles Times a few weeks back, but I wanted to give people a chance to see the season finale first before posting it here, as it contains spoilers. So, if you still haven't seen the GoT finale, proceed with caution.

'Game of Thrones' writers on season finale and why 'All Men Must Die'

By Mary McNamara June 15, 2014

Warning — the following article contains major spoilers about the season finale to "Game of Thrones."

Wrapping up its fourth season, HBO's "Game of Thrones" has not just avoided toppling under the weight of its own story lines, it's become a bona fide cultural phenomenon, with an audience larger than even "The Sopranos." Going into the final episode of the fourth season, writers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff promised the show's best finale ever.

It's difficult to imagine any scene that could beat Emilia Clarke's Daenerys rising from the ashes adorned only in baby dragons, and not surprisingly, Sunday night's episode was not made available to critics for Monday deadlines. But Weiss and Benioff did answer many questions about the season and its finale.

Who chose this season's tag line, "All Men Must Die"?And was there a lot of "and we mean it literally" laughter in the meeting?

We suggested the tag line because the phrase has such resonance in the books (and, we hope, the series). Since we hopscotch between so many story lines in the show, it's difficult to find a single sentence that's relevant for all of the characters. "All Men Must Die" seemed appropriate for this bloody season.

Our friend Rob McElhenney suggested "All Men Must Breathe" or "Everyone Poops," but HBO rejected these offerings.

Throughout the series, Tyrion has been one of the few truly noble characters, in that he has tried to protect those less fortunate and never killed anyone out of malice or even vengeance. Although I was certainly happy to see Tywin go, I felt bad that Tyrion killed him, and I can't even talk about Shae. How do you feel about the new Tyrion and how does his transformation affect the tone of the show?

As much as Tyrion tries to shield himself with self-deprecating humor, wine and faux cynicism, the events of this season have battered his psyche. We see him start to drop the facade during the trial sequence, where he is framed for a murder he didn't commit. We see it in the scene with Oberyn, when Tyrion learns how his sister tortured him even as an infant. And finally we see his reaction when Oberyn, his champion, dies horribly, and Tyrion hears his own father sentence him to death. He's a good man, but he's been pushed too far, and his decision to seek vengeance in the finale shows this is not the Tyrion Lannister we first met in the Winterstown brothel.

How did Peter Dinklage react to news of his upcoming rampage? Or did he already know?

You know what Peter calls a rampage like that? Tuesday.

We've been talking to Peter and Sibel [Kekilli, who plays Shae] about their final scene together for a long time. We would have talked to Charles [Dance, who plays Tywin] about his final scene, but we're afraid of him. Just kidding, Charles. Honestly, Charles. It was George, Charles! Blame George!

Sibel insists that we bring her back as a zombie. We told her that's "Walking Dead"; we have wights on our show. She said something unprintable in German.

At this point, everyone has someone's blood on their hands — Daenerys has grown a bit more ruthless, Arya loves to kill in a way that is a bit upsetting. Meanwhile, characters like Jaime Lannister and the Hound become more human. So what is the "Game of Thrones" definition of a hero?

The definition of a hero is the same in "Game of Thrones" as it is everywhere else; the problem is that heroes in "GoT" rarely survive for long. Ned Stark was a hero, so was his son Robb, so was Oberyn Martell. Courage, nobility and a refusal to compromise are admirable qualities — and generally fatal in Westeros. The characters who endure tend to be more adaptable, more willing to evolve to conditions in a merciless world. Daenerys has shown a ruthless side ever since the moment she unflinchingly watched her brother's skull melt. As a queen, she shows great compassion for the powerless and a willingness to destroy anyone who stands in her way. To some she's a heroine; to others she's a foreign tyrant with messianic delusions.

Arya's childhood was ravaged by violence. Everyone she loved and trusted has been brutally murdered: her father; her mother; her brother; even Yoren, who rescued her from King's Landing. She has decided she will not be a victim. Her nighttime lullaby is her own personal hit list. She doesn't care about being a hero: She cares about surviving and avenging her family.

The closest thing we have to a classic hero is Jon Snow, who always tries to do the right thing and believes in the lessons Ned Stark taught him. His inherent nobility is both a strength and a weakness and gets him in trouble time and again.

How fun was it to put giants on mammoths in the penultimate episode? And did you think "take that, Peter Jackson!"?

All credit to the VFX department for bringing them to life. And to Peter Jackson for showing that a mesmerizing adaptation of a high fantasy classic was possible. Nobody would have green-lit "Game of Thrones" if not for the success of Mr. Jackson's "Rings" trilogy.

I would think one of the biggest challenges you face, besides losing main characters at an alarming clip, is juggling all those story lines and giving everyone enough screen time. I am imagining an enormous white board, but maybe you guys should be the next spokesmen for iPad — seriously, how do you keep it all going? Do you break the script episode by episode? Or do you treat it more like a 10-hour film?

We're Luddites, so we use index cards on corkboards. Each story line (Castle Black, say, or Arya/Hound) gets its own color. At our peak in Season 3 we were up to 13 different colors. One upside of losing main characters at an alarming clip is we no longer have to use taupe or mauve. Once we've mapped out each story line we start putting cards on the board and argue over which scenes should be in which episode and in what order. We end up reordering quite a bit in post, when we've seen the directors' cuts and realize certain transitions make more sense than others.

Who's been the hardest character to let go of so far?

Ah, we'd be like grandparents trying to choose a favorite grandchild. And it's hard to separate the characters from the actors. We miss them all.

Except Rose Leslie [the Wildling Ygritte], who is evil incarnate.

What has surprised you most about the audience reaction to the show? And now that you're officially "bigger than 'The Sopranos'" do you ever panic and wonder "how are we going to top that?"

Well, as far as being "bigger than 'The Sopranos'" — plenty of television shows had higher ratings than David Chase's masterpiece. But how many had a more enduring impact on our culture? "The Sopranos" changed everything.

So there's no point in panicking about topping "The Sopranos," because we won't. But that's OK. We have hundreds of other things to panic about. We have a schedule so we don't forget to panic about anything that needs panicking.

I have to ask: How did they make Oberyn's head explode? And how many takes?

Those few gory seconds took a remarkable team effort: Barrie Gower, our prosthetics whiz, created a skull for the Mountain to crush. Our brilliant VFX team, led by Steve Kullback and Joe Bauer, worked on the illusion of the Mountain's thumbs digging into Oberyn's eye sockets, then partially reconstructed Oberyn's face for the gruesome aftermath shot. Tim Kimmel and the sound team came up with that awful sound of the skull exploding. All this grisly gorgeousness was pieced together by ace editor Tim Porter, and directed by the incomparable Alex Graves.

I've been camping this week, and I have to admit my relationship to crows has changed significantly. Are there things about this story, or this experience, that have changed the way you look at or think about things?

No one invites us to weddings anymore. It all went exactly according to plan.

mary.mcnamara@latimes.com

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Interesting read Strider. I never knew you were a fan of GOT. I think that is the first comment in here i've seen you make about Game of Thrones.

Some of the comments I agreed with and others I just zoned out and glazed over as tv show/read the books/don't know any better naivity. I swear if I hear one more person say how great Emily Clarke's portrayal of Daenerys is, I will do a Viserys meltown on them (don't remember who Viserys is ..... read the books)

So kingzee ..... are you hoping for a Breaking Bad or GOT win in the Emmy Awards?

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I saw that interview that GRRM gave where he said we can expect more battles. more deaths and more marriages in the next book. My question is....who is left to get married? Sansa is married (although it wasn't consumated so it may be null and void), Tyrion, Bron, Roose Bolton and Dany. Jon can't since he took his vows, Cersei has no desire for marriage (unless it will increase her power) and Jamie is too busy.....ummm....traveling the countryside. Tommen is engaged. Almost everyone else of importance is dead or already married. Except Arya....and right now she doesn't seem to be the marrying type! Hodor?

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Interesting read Strider. I never knew you were a fan of GOT. I think that is the first comment in here i've seen you make about Game of Thrones.

Some of the comments I agreed with and others I just zoned out and glazed over as tv show/read the books/don't know any better naivity. I swear if I hear one more person say how great Emily Clarke's portrayal of Daenerys is, I will do a Viserys meltown on them (don't remember who Viserys is ..... read the books)

So kingzee ..... are you hoping for a Breaking Bad or GOT win in the Emmy Awards?

To be completely honest I am hoping for a final "Swan Song" for Breaking Bad. As much as I Love Game of Thrones, I hope to see BrBa back in the spotlight once more. Game of Thrones will have the spotlight next year.

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UPDATE:

US fans will be able to buy Game Of Thrones' fourth season on DVD and Blu-Ray from February the 17th 2015...

February the 17th is the date for our US Game Of Thrones-watching chums to write on a mental Post-It Note. That's when the snazzy season four DVD and Blu-Ray sets (see images below) will be released stateside.

No UK release date has yet been announced, though all things being equal, we can expect to hear the satisfying thud of a bubble-wrapped box-set arriving through the letter box around a week later in the UK.

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To be completely honest I am hoping for a final "Swan Song" for Breaking Bad. As much as I Love Game of Thrones, I hope to see BrBa back in the spotlight once more. Game of Thrones will have the spotlight next year.

Here we go again...

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Interesting read Strider. I never knew you were a fan of GOT. I think that is the first comment in here i've seen you make about Game of Thrones.

Is it? You may be right...I'm generally selective about what I post about, especially when it comes to tv, books, movies, music, as I learned long ago that my tastes are out of sorts with the majority. I don't even watch that much tv anymore, often preferring to watch a show I like on DVD in one fell swoop.

I can't pretend to be a GoT fan. I never read the books and have only caught the occasional episode here and there. I do prefer it to many other current shows, such as True Blood.

But since I know many others here enjoy the show and may not have been aware of the LA Times piece, I felt obliged to share it here.

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You could not PAY me to attend this wedding over the weekend:

The essential ingredients for a wedding, as any Game of Thrones fan knows: something old, something new, something borrowed, something definitely not red.

The Red Wedding, technically a celebration of the marriage of Edmure Tully and Roslin Frey, is much better known as the site of one of the series’ most bloody massacres. So when Reddit user alip_93, a professional photographer, was hired to snap photos at the wedding of actor David Bradley’s daughter, he knew there would be a photo op with the guy who engineered the deaths of (spoilers) Robb, Catelyn, and many other heroes of the North:

Waldey-Frey-REDDIT.jpg

Image Credit: Reddit

Good work, alip_93. It looks like Walder’s really intimidated. Now, go pay off the band so they don’t play “The Rains of Castamere” (and maybe confiscate their crossbows for good measure). When you’re done, check all the windows and doors to make sure there’s an escape route. It also might a good idea to free the direwolves that guests have tied up outside—you don’t want them to fall victim to Lannister sneak attacks.

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Thanks Strider, I read about the GoT wine, but didn't knwo they had an ale!

They even have GoT Jimmy Hats! There is the Valyrian Steel and the Needle, the former is for, um, larger folk while the latter is being marketed mostly in Asian countries.

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The Winds Of Winter Release Date Delay Explained By Game Of Thrones Creator George RR Martin

By Christine Jane Caparras | August 18, 2014 9:07 AM EST

George RR Martin the creator and author of the best-selling book series "A Song on Ice and Fire" and co-executive producer of the HBO adaptation of the said books entitled "Game of Thrones" has explained the reasons behind the delay on the release of the sixth book in the series. Martin has been under pressure from obsessed fans of both the books and the series to put out the sixth book and he has explained that as the story goes further along it becomes harder for him to keep track of the story line and the characters.

449901-game-of-thrones-season-5-george-r

REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
George R.R. Martin, author of the "Song of Ice and Fire" fantasy series that is the basis of the television series "Game of Thrones", gestures during his masterclass at the Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) in Neuchatel July 10, 2014.

With numerous characters and story lines to think about as well as a timeline that spans thousands of years, Martin needs to keep his facts straight. In an interview with the Independent, Martin shared that he needs to go back and check what was written about each character before continuing to write about them. In order to do this, He shared that he still uses a DOS operating system with Wordstar 4.0. A primitive system he admits, but the program serves its purpose well by having a search and replace function that Martin uses to look up characters that he intends to mention again just to see everything he has said about that character in the previous books. With more books and more characters to think about, the task has proven to have become tedious and drawn out.

Martin also states that he has charts and family trees that he consults from time to time but in general, everything is in his head. This causes concern for some fans who have raised questions about the author's health and the probability that he might not be able to finish the story. Martin has expressed annoyance at this and has even said some strong words to people who have been making negative speculations about his health. Despite the annoying few, Martin states that the fans of the books and the series are wonderful and some have even read his mind and have guessed some parts of the story line correctly.

Five books have so far been released in the series "A Song of Ice and Fire" namely "A Game of Thrones," "A Clash of Kings," "A Storm of Swords," "A Feast For Crows" and "A Dance With Dragons." The fifth book entitled "The Winds of Winter" is reportedly expected to come out in 2015 after immense pressure from fans worldwide. Another book, "A Dream of Spring" is expected to complete the series.

"A Dance With Dragons" came out in 2011 and due to the immense success of both the books and the HBO TV adaptation, fans are eagerly awaiting the next book. The series had finished airing the fourth season in Spring 2014 and the fifth season is in the middle of production. The story is already catching up to the books with come characters' story lines already dipping into the fifth book.

With the immense pressure to release the next book and with the series quickly catching up with the books, Martin has decided not to write the screenplay for the episodes for season 5 but will instead focus on completing "The Winds of Winter." Season 5 is expected to come out in Spring 2015 and the next book is expected to come out also within the same year.

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I finally just started the 5th book yesterday (this is why I haven't been around much!) and am about 100 pages in so far. Book 3 took me about 2 months; it's very slow going, but I'm glad to be reading it. It is definitely a lot of information to keep straight; I don't see how GRRM and other authors (JKR?) do it.

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Hi Virginia,

That is one of the excuses GRRM uses as to why he hasn't finished book 6 yet. He even invites big time fans to lunch to go over characters in the books and where he left them as even HE can't keep track of where they left them in the books!

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