Game of Thrones

Anyone watch it or read the books?

I started with the show, but was so enthralled by it that I immediately began reading the books after Season 2 was over.

After you were excaiming how good it was, I was debating watching it, then these guys got me into DayZ

I started the books a couple of years before the show, and finished A Dance with Dragons recently. Whilst the books, as with all adaptations, are obviously superior to the show, the show is very good. My favourite episode so far has to be S02E09: Blackwater.

I watched a few episodes of the first season of the show and it couldn't really hold my attention or interest, unfortunately. I plan on going back to it or reading the books at some point, though.

Can't believe some people are still on this forum... Hi King Amazon.

what up

I found this SNL skit a couple days ago:

http://gawker.com/5902076/snl-explai...ame-of-thrones

While it is pretty funny, it brings up a good point that in television recently there has been a drastic increase in nudity, GoT a great example.

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment...ver-last-year/

Now I don't mind the tits or cunt shots, but the media has a way of influencing our ideas and perspectives. And I wonder at times if excessive nudity or porn desensitizes us to the point of taking away from the appeal or amount of pleasure in sexual or nude encounters.

Honestly, I don't mind the nudity as long as it is in the right context. For the setting of Game of Thrones, it's probably not inappropriate. Another good example is Spartacus: Blood and Sand/Gods of the Arena/Vengeance. Being set in the times of the ancient Romans, it's entirely appropriate for slaves to be sexually abused, and nudity/sex isn't really seen in the same light as it is these days. When used in this way, it serves to further bring the show to life and adds another layer of realism.

Beyond that, though, it would be pretty hard to form an argument that it's some sort of media conspiracy, considering it's really only an issue on premium channels. You could probably argue that the media does overly sexualize things, and I would probably agree. I think they are just catering to their audience, though. Sex sells, as they say.

I have to agree with K_A here. In the contexts that they are using it, nudity was perfectly normal. Children in Rome, unless wealthy, wouldn't wear cloths until their teen years. There was no point, to warm, and they may die anyways. So I see how they use it to be perfectly okay. But I don't think there is some huge thing the media is after, beyond more realism in their shows.

And it really is effective. The best comparison I have for it is Harry Potter vs adult fantasy novels. I loved Harry Potter when I was younger, but as I got older I started reading adult fantasy novels which involve violence, rape, swearing. They aren't the primary themes, but they do occur when in the right context. It serves to create a much stronger level of realism, and even causes you to become more attached to the characters, perhaps.

The Walking Dead is probably another good example of this, especially the graphic novel. I was actually kind of disappointed that AMC ended up getting The Walking Dead, as it would have been able to stick to the realism of the graphic novels much better on a premium channel like HBO or Showtime. The graphic novels feature rape, torture, maniacs who decapitate children for fun, etc. Certainly things that AMC cannot reproduce.

I need to start reading the books because I love the show. The ending to Season 2 had me really confused though.

Anything in particular you'd like explaining?

The Walking Dead is probably another good example of this, especially the graphic novel. I was actually kind of disappointed that AMC ended up getting The Walking Dead, as it would have been able to stick to the realism of the graphic novels much better on a premium channel like HBO or Showtime. The graphic novels feature rape, torture, maniacs who decapitate children for fun, etc. Certainly things that AMC cannot reproduce.

I don't know. AMC has gone a decent job of the show. The only thing that stuck out to me that they overtly censored was the murder of children; almost reminds me of Bethesda's Fallout 3.

Take AMC's Breaking Bad for instance. It attempts to show the reality of cooking meth and the occurrences associated with such a trade, and the brutalities/gore, even though I'm still in the first season, were not really masked by any scene change or whatsoever.

My original point was, it seems like we're drifting towards the extreme of sexual looseness and immodesty, with the media at the head of the pincer. Premium broadcasting or not, people watch it, and it has some degree of influence in our every day lives.

Perhaps we are drifting back from where we are, but I don't think it's like this is a first for humans. There have been plenty of cultures that don't view nudity and such like we do.

Most ancient societies were ok with it. France is pretty lax I hear.

Most ancient societies are deceased. It's an interesting pattern; not necessarily one that applies to all civilizations that fell into ruin, but to many-that of lacking conventional moral restraint in sexual behavior and other associated vices preceding the toppling of an order.

And you'd be more correct in citing Germany or Switzerland with regards to sexuality.

If you think the morality of ancient cultures (Ancient Rome is a good example) had anything to do with their downfall you're probably wrong. You could maybe argue that their morality led to conflicts, for instance slave rebellions and such, but beyond that you would have a hard time making a decent argument that morality had anything to do with it. You could maybe argue that greed had a lot to do with it, and you'd probably be right, but that's really something that is inherent to humans/survival of the individual. And even then, it isn't necessarily the greed of the cultures that fell but rather the greed of the cultures that killed them and took their stuff.

The best argument I can make against morality being a factor, though, is to suggest a hypothetical situation. Imagine there were an ancient culture that was perfectly moral, never stooping to cheap tactics in war, the use of slave labor, etc. They would probably be one of the first to fall, considering the less moral cultures of the time would have more tools at their disposal and more power. I'm pretty sure most or all of the really big empires were built on the backs of slaves, including our own.

For further reading, see: China.

After Breaking Bad broke off this season, I was thinking of watching this. Work's been getting in the way of a lot lately, though.