Escapist Podcast: Bonus: Game of Thronescast, Season 3 Wrap-Up

[The Escapist Staff]

Bonus: Game of Thronescast, Season 3 Wrap-Up

With E3 finally behind us, the Escapist team wraps up the third season of Game of Thrones.

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[Mumorpuger]

Here's Maisie's Vine that Greg mentioned:

http://vine.co/v/b3XZMHmxzxh

 

[Scars Unseen]

On Walder Frey's motivations:

Spoiler: Book Spoilers

Although it isn't elaborated on in the show, Lord Edmure isn't just locked up. Lord Frey is keeping him alive so he can get his new wife knocked up with the next heir to Riverrun. His potential gain from the Red Wedding is the same as the Lannister's potential gain from the Tyrion/Sansa wedding. That he also gets to wreak vengeance against the oathbreaking Rob Stark is pure bonus, and likely why he is as umm... ...thorough in his betrayal as he is.

 

[RingaFiar]

Really enjoyed that, thanks to all involved. Not many people that I know watch this so for me it's great to listen to a group of fans share their likes and dislikes. The 4th season can't come soon enough

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Really enjoyed this Thronecast, really liked what you guys (and girl!) thought about it.

Episode 10 didn't really felt like an season finale for me and merely a bridge to tie in Season 4.

Now the hard part is having to wait another year until we get more episodes.

 

[AngelOfBlueRoses]

I loved the podcast, but there is something huge that I disagree with.

Joffrey's characterization. Yes, it's more erratic and a bit more crazy in the show, but I think he's far more cruel in the books. There's that whole prostitute scene, which is very disturbing, and the Ros thing in the TV show, but in the books he's -far- more ruthless, such as arranging to have his guards beat Sansa constantly for reasons as little as disobedience and at times even no reasons at all. He just has her beat so that he can keep dominance over her. And as for something you all shot down, Joffrey -does- say in the books that he wants to have Robb Stark's head served to Sansa at Joffrey/Margaery's wedding. Joffrey in the books isn't as crazy as his tv show counterpart, but his cruelty far more than make up for that.

Sansa's characterization is something that I agree on, though, but honestly, Sansa is both a boring character and a terrible one. She was still boring in the show, as she was broken pretty quickly, but she was an annoying character in the books to read and even with the small amount of character development, I still didn't like her all that much. And in the books, she's just plain vicious at times. At least in the show, she's less that and more just a big sister.

And on the topic of characterization, I'm guessing that George R.R. Martin is setting up Theon to have a huge redemption plot, but I think it's a little lost on the tv series. Theon's just not a dick like he is in the books and I thought the betrayal came a bit out of left field. It made sense in the books. He never felt too much love for the Starks and was harsh in behavior towards them and anyone. In the show, he's not that. Sure, he's kind of a prick, but no more than anybody else is. In the show, all the feelings just come out of nowhere.

Don't get me wrong, though. I absolutely love the show and have enjoyed every single episode. The show just has to take a bit of liberty due to the nature of how tv shows work.

 

[Frozengale]

I like Game of Thrones cast, but I'm gonna stop watching because seriously you guys can't go 5 minutes without bringing something up from the other books that a lot of us haven't read. It's incredibly annoying.

 

[Thuggych]

=/ I was really looking forward to this, but I'm unfortunately finding these podcasts less and less enjoyable over time. As a person who has not read the books (or has any desire to) it feels like over time the podcast cast has progressively placed emphasis over direct comparisons between the two forms of media, has less sensitivity towards minor/vague spoilers, and spend less time discussing the show on its own merits. A book perspective is great when trying to fill in the blanks, but constant comparisons are completely unrelateable for a TV viewer.

I think you guys do a great job, and hope for your continued success, but I think it's time for me to find a new GoT podcast more suited towards my viewing experience.

 

[Revolutionary]

Great thronescast guys, I was really looking forward to this, I hope you keep it up.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

I loved the podcast, but there is something huge that I disagree with.

Joffrey's characterization. Yes, it's more erratic and a bit more crazy in the show, but I think he's far more cruel in the books. There's that whole prostitute scene, which is very disturbing, and the Ros thing in the TV show, but in the books he's -far- more ruthless, such as arranging to have his guards beat Sansa constantly for reasons as little as disobedience and at times even no reasons at all. He just has her beat so that he can keep dominance over her. And as for something you all shot down, Joffrey -does- say in the books that he wants to have Robb Stark's head served to Sansa at Joffrey/Margaery's wedding. Joffrey in the books isn't as crazy as his tv show counterpart, but his cruelty far more than make up for that.

Sansa's characterization is something that I agree on, though, but honestly, Sansa is both a boring character and a terrible one. She was still boring in the show, as she was broken pretty quickly, but she was an annoying character in the books to read and even with the small amount of character development, I still didn't like her all that much. And in the books, she's just plain vicious at times. At least in the show, she's less that and more just a big sister.

And on the topic of characterization, I'm guessing that George R.R. Martin is setting up Theon to have a huge redemption plot, but I think it's a little lost on the tv series. Theon's just not a dick like he is in the books and I thought the betrayal came a bit out of left field. It made sense in the books. He never felt too much love for the Starks and was harsh in behavior towards them and anyone. In the show, he's not that. Sure, he's kind of a prick, but no more than anybody else is. In the show, all the feelings just come out of nowhere.

Don't get me wrong, though. I absolutely love the show and have enjoyed every single episode. The show just has to take a bit of liberty due to the nature of how tv shows work.

In the book we are privy to Theon's thoughts. It really is hard to convey the "two families, but son of neither" bitterness that he has without scenes explicitly stating that. I haven't watched the show beyond season one (didn't like it) so I don't know if they do this. If not, then his betrayal would seem particularly vicious.

 

[Greg Tito]

=/ I was really looking forward to this, but I'm unfortunately finding these podcasts less and less enjoyable over time. As a person who has not read the books (or has any desire to) it feels like over time the podcast cast has progressively placed emphasis over direct comparisons between the two forms of media, has less sensitivity towards minor/vague spoilers, and spend less time discussing the show on its own merits. A book perspective is great when trying to fill in the blanks, but constant comparisons are completely unrelateable for a TV viewer.

I think you guys do a great job, and hope for your continued success, but I think it's time for me to find a new GoT podcast more suited towards my viewing experience.

You make a great point. Well, with next season I think a lot more of the plot will be stuff we haven't read so hopefully we can draw you back in for a listen then. It's also getting tougher and tougher to have people on the podcast who HAVEN'T read the books yet. At least in our office.

Greg

 

[Splitzi]

It seems people are getting annoyed with book spoilers...hmm. Do they realize how incredibly hard it is to keep that from bleeding through when they compare the books to the show, especially with the show stopping in the middle of book three? On top of that, since the show is diverging from the books, the minor spoilers might not even be in the show. Also, the books are pretty old, with 4 coming out in 2005 and only 5 being recent(2011). This leaves the Thronescast in a weird spoiler territory, because they are well within their rights to spoil the books, but the show messes that up. I think book spoilers are completely separate from show spoilers at this point, because the have consistently changed the books for the show, and are very different at this point, and no one knows what direction the show will actually go in.

 

[Yojoo]

Enjoyed the podcast as always, I've been missing this the past few weeks so I was glad to see that you all hadn't stopped doing it.

Seeing as how you've all read the books, I was surprised nobody brought up what I considered to be a MASSIVE missing scene from episode 10, and very worthy of spoiler tags for those who haven't read book 3:

Spoiler

Sam didn't meet with Coldhands! I was anticipating that being the final scene of season 3, putting off the much less interesting scene of Sam meeting Bran for early Season 4. Coldhands is one of the most enigmatic figures in the series, and his brief meeting with Sam beyond the wall was an extremely powerful chapter. It also would have, in my opinion, offered a much more interesting hook for Season 4 than the crowd surfing.

 

[Kross]

Seeing as how you've all read the books, I was surprised nobody brought up what I considered to be a MASSIVE missing scene from episode 10, and very worthy of spoiler tags for those who haven't read book 3:

Holy crap, I forgot all about that scene (read the books years ago).

Spoiler: One of my favorites now that I recall it, and the best part of that character's story as of yet in my opinion. (click for spoiler)

I get the feeling Coldhands is part of the general mysticism of the area, and probably stays a mystery outside of "possibly a strong willed former member of the watch." He'd likely come across more as a magic-for-the-sake-of-magic type of gimmick if that scene were in the show.

 

[GAunderrated]

The format is slowly becoming better (viewing wise) and all that need to be set up is a 4 split screen from the chest upwards.

It helps the viewer feel like they are apart of the conversation more in my opinion than seeing 4 people with mics talking to each other.

Of course that is just my opinion on the matter still enjoy the podcast.

 

[AngelOfBlueRoses]

I loved the podcast, but there is something huge that I disagree with.

Joffrey's characterization. Yes, it's more erratic and a bit more crazy in the show, but I think he's far more cruel in the books. There's that whole prostitute scene, which is very disturbing, and the Ros thing in the TV show, but in the books he's -far- more ruthless, such as arranging to have his guards beat Sansa constantly for reasons as little as disobedience and at times even no reasons at all. He just has her beat so that he can keep dominance over her. And as for something you all shot down, Joffrey -does- say in the books that he wants to have Robb Stark's head served to Sansa at Joffrey/Margaery's wedding. Joffrey in the books isn't as crazy as his tv show counterpart, but his cruelty far more than make up for that.

Sansa's characterization is something that I agree on, though, but honestly, Sansa is both a boring character and a terrible one. She was still boring in the show, as she was broken pretty quickly, but she was an annoying character in the books to read and even with the small amount of character development, I still didn't like her all that much. And in the books, she's just plain vicious at times. At least in the show, she's less that and more just a big sister.

And on the topic of characterization, I'm guessing that George R.R. Martin is setting up Theon to have a huge redemption plot, but I think it's a little lost on the tv series. Theon's just not a dick like he is in the books and I thought the betrayal came a bit out of left field. It made sense in the books. He never felt too much love for the Starks and was harsh in behavior towards them and anyone. In the show, he's not that. Sure, he's kind of a prick, but no more than anybody else is. In the show, all the feelings just come out of nowhere.

Don't get me wrong, though. I absolutely love the show and have enjoyed every single episode. The show just has to take a bit of liberty due to the nature of how tv shows work.

In the book we are privy to Theon's thoughts. It really is hard to convey the "two families, but son of neither" bitterness that he has without scenes explicitly stating that. I haven't watched the show beyond season one (didn't like it) so I don't know if they do this. If not, then his betrayal would seem particularly vicious.

In my opinion, it's not so much that we aren't privy to Theon's thoughts, but rather the way he acts in the show is different compared to the books. Theon acts out quite a bit in the books, such as kicking Gared's head and laughing or saying harsh words at others' expense as a rather commonplace thing. He's crude, like a man in his position should be, and he shows no love or loyalty for the Stakrs. In the show, it's different. He's not so crude, at least no more so than the other characters, and aside from a few off hand comments, and appears to be fiercely loyal to Robb right up until he goes to the iron islands. I think it's partially that we don't have his thoughts to see, but mostly that he just acts different enough to make his betrayal seem more out of left field in the tv show.

 

[StriderShinryu]

I have to agree with those who were disappointed in this podcast edition.

First, while I understand that the 4 episodes in one recap was necessary scheduling wise it sort of killed much of the content. It spead the given time really thin for each episode besides the major moments and ended up feeling like a "best of" rather than any sort of deeper examination. When so much of the content is glossed over because it either doesn't stand out as notable when recalled over a month later or just isn't remembered at all it's a pretty glaring issue.

Second, I really missed the perspective of those who either hadn't read the books or weren't totally immersed in recollection of every detail. This podcast, far more than any previous one, felt like just a parade of not only book to TV comparisons but also a lot of "well, the books are better" type talk.

 

[II2]

Just a small point for Tito: mentioned the gratuitous nature of the sex scenes as 'sexposition' a few times... I think the word you're meaning to use it "sexploitation".

 

[lemby117]

Just a small point for Tito: mentioned the gratuitous nature of the sex scenes as 'sexposition' a few times... I think the word you're meaning to use it "sexploitation".

I believe that he is referring to the practice of giving exposition or advancing the plot during sex scenes known as "sexposistion"