firesprite
Master Member
You're absolutely right, but personally I'd rather he was working on the remaining books instead of doing commentaries! :lol
Game of Thrones
- Thread starter Husker75
- Start date
You're absolutely right, but personally I'd rather he was working on the remaining books instead of doing commentaries! :lol
Solo4114
Master Member
Have you read the producers' side of it yet? From the sound of it, they DIDN'T know what was up. They source body parts from "body part" suppliers, who then just give you a bulk order of this or that body part. "Twenty heads? Right. Comin' up. Max, go grab some heads from the back. I don't care which, we just need twenty of 'em." Max goes in the back, grabs twenty heads, and it turns out one of 'em is George W. Bush. One of the producers says on the commentary "Huh. And that one's George W. Bush. Isn't that odd?"
AND THEN TEH INTARWEBZ EXPLODEZ!!!!11!!!ONE!!!!
(Well...three months later...)
Anyway, the "BS" I'm calling is the delayed "WELL I'M JUST SO OFFENDED" nonsense over this. I get why HBO is responding as it did. It's got a mega-hit show and does not want to poison the brand by having it get political. The only politics people should be arguing about are which faction has a legitimate claim to the Iron Throne, not "ZOMG GEORGE BUSH'S HEAD WAS ON A PIKE".
I don't think it was quite like that. He spoke quite clearly that the head was in fact Bush's head and the only reason they used it was because they had to use whatever heads they could find to fill the shot. If they didn't know what was up, how come this one guy new?
PotionMistress
Sr Member
We just finished watching the last episode of Season 2, and I really have to say that
I wish the video had crashed just before the final scene.
Let me preface this by saying that I have not read the books yet. And I am head-over-heels in love with this series: it complex, it's well acted, amazing characters, the sets are gorgeous, the costumes are splendid, the stories are intriguing, everything....WONDERFUL, to say the least. But .....
Z O M B I E S ?????? WTF!!!
I realize these are supposed to be 'White Walkers' or whatever (yes, I don't understand completely because I haven't read the books), but C O M E O N! It just seems like a ridiculous plot twist...it sticks out like a sore thumb from the feel and texture of the entire rest of the series (sans the opening scene of the first episode, which almost made me not give the series a chance in the first place)
Talk about pandering to current trends......JEEZ!
Perhaps it was the way they were depicted, animated, etc. but I can't tell you what a fly-in-the-soup moment that seemed to me. It just blasted me out of my 'suspension of disbelief1!
I wish the video had crashed just before the final scene.
Let me preface this by saying that I have not read the books yet. And I am head-over-heels in love with this series: it complex, it's well acted, amazing characters, the sets are gorgeous, the costumes are splendid, the stories are intriguing, everything....WONDERFUL, to say the least. But .....
Z O M B I E S ?????? WTF!!!
I realize these are supposed to be 'White Walkers' or whatever (yes, I don't understand completely because I haven't read the books), but C O M E O N! It just seems like a ridiculous plot twist...it sticks out like a sore thumb from the feel and texture of the entire rest of the series (sans the opening scene of the first episode, which almost made me not give the series a chance in the first place)
Talk about pandering to current trends......JEEZ!
Perhaps it was the way they were depicted, animated, etc. but I can't tell you what a fly-in-the-soup moment that seemed to me. It just blasted me out of my 'suspension of disbelief1!
Solo4114
Master Member
It's not really pandering to current trends. Martin wrote the first book in...what, 1996? Hardly the height of the zombie craze, and the undead creatures appear in that book (as they did in the first season, though you may not remember it). The "White Walkers" or "The Others" are always a threat beyond the wall, and the books hint that SOMETHING is going on with them right from the start.
Ending with the last shot might be argued as pandering to the trend, but it's not as if the stuff ISN'T in the book and was just shoved into the show to sell it better.
To clarify: the "White Walkers"/Others are the creatures commanding the zombies. The zombies themselves, though, appear in the first book. Jon kills one in Jeor Mormont's (the Night Watch Lord Commander) quarters when the corpse reanimates. The first episode features an attack by them on a group of rangers, and in fact, that's how the first book opens.
SmilingOtter
Master Member
Yep, it's why the Rangers have third horn blast (one for returning Rangers, two for Wildlings.) Though the Wall itself is essentially enough to stop them (and not just its size...) the Night Watch still doesn't want them massing on the other side any more than they want the Wildlings doing it.
It's also why Osha (the Wildling imprisoned at Winterfell) says that Robb ought to march his army north instead of south.
I'm thinking that the White Walkers better accomplish their goals before a certain silver-haired young lady shows up. If dragonfire can destroy castles (as evidenced by the nearly melted Harrenhal) walking corpse-cicles won't stand a chance.
It's also why Osha (the Wildling imprisoned at Winterfell) says that Robb ought to march his army north instead of south.
I'm thinking that the White Walkers better accomplish their goals before a certain silver-haired young lady shows up. If dragonfire can destroy castles (as evidenced by the nearly melted Harrenhal) walking corpse-cicles won't stand a chance.
Jedi2016
Sr Member
They're not just a threat beyond the Wall.. they're THE threat beyond the Wall. They're the reason the Night's Watch exists, although almost everyone (even most of the Watch) have forgotten, and think only about the Wildlings.
As for the naming.. They've been referring to the zombies as "white walkers" in the show. I've come to the unofficial conclusion that the "walkers" are the zombies, while the "Others" are the ones leading them (they've never mentioned that name "The Others" on the show, and this was their first appearance on screen, although they were supposed to be there in the opening scene of the series).
Bearing in mind that I haven't gotten to that part in the books yet.
ghostryder
Legendary Member
Qui-Gonzalez
Master Member
The mounted one was The Other, or White Walker. The "zombies" were Wights, normal folk brought back from the dead. That's why the Lord of Bones/Rattleshirt said to burn Qhorin HalfHand.
SmilingOtter
Master Member
Funny stuff...
I just started reading the first book now that the second season has ended.
There actually is a bit more of the legend/myths regarding "The Others" in the first book. It opens with "The Others" killing the leader of the nights watch party while the second climbs up a tree and hides and the third escapes. The second climbs down the tree after he's sure the others have gone and gets killed by the reanimated corpse of the nights watchman that was killed.
There was also the story told to Bran about the one winter that lasted close to a thousand years and the others had pretty much run amok, creating undead armies that had decimated large parts of the Westeros and something about a character going on a quest to find the "Children of the Forest" to ally with them to help stop The Others.
As far as the undead, they have been commonplace in many fantasy settings, so its not really that out of place.
There actually is a bit more of the legend/myths regarding "The Others" in the first book. It opens with "The Others" killing the leader of the nights watch party while the second climbs up a tree and hides and the third escapes. The second climbs down the tree after he's sure the others have gone and gets killed by the reanimated corpse of the nights watchman that was killed.
There was also the story told to Bran about the one winter that lasted close to a thousand years and the others had pretty much run amok, creating undead armies that had decimated large parts of the Westeros and something about a character going on a quest to find the "Children of the Forest" to ally with them to help stop The Others.
As far as the undead, they have been commonplace in many fantasy settings, so its not really that out of place.
I'm still hoping that we'll see the White Walkers appear as they are described in the book. I don't know. Maybe the higher ups wear their translucent armor and wield those finely crafted and razor thin blades. I just don't like how they look in the series. I actually had to think for a second and tell myself that these were not wights, but the actual White Walkers. They just look too similar.
And I hate to bring up World of Warcraft, but when I read the prologue to the first book, the first thing that popped into my head was DEATH KNIGHTS. Those undead warriors of the Lich King who also dawn armor and weaponry unlike anything that the living craft. They're also resourceful, intelligent, and can raise the dead to do their bidding.
Of course, I wouldn't want to take it to the WoW extremes, but there are some decent artist renditions of White Walkers.
THAT is cool. Not these super thin, old looking zombies with eating disorders carrying spears of ice. They just come off as the zombie version of the Dothraki.
And I hate to bring up World of Warcraft, but when I read the prologue to the first book, the first thing that popped into my head was DEATH KNIGHTS. Those undead warriors of the Lich King who also dawn armor and weaponry unlike anything that the living craft. They're also resourceful, intelligent, and can raise the dead to do their bidding.
Of course, I wouldn't want to take it to the WoW extremes, but there are some decent artist renditions of White Walkers.
THAT is cool. Not these super thin, old looking zombies with eating disorders carrying spears of ice. They just come off as the zombie version of the Dothraki.
AggieChick42
Active Member
I would pee my pants from laughing if it was Hugh Laurie... would he have a cane made from a giant's bone..??
AggieChick42
Active Member
I'm almost done with the 4th book and the books really give you ALOT more insight to pretty much everything... While the TV show is fantastic I still like reading the books because they really answer any questions the series leaves!
Supposedly this is how George R.R. Martin described them when discussing with comic-book artist Tommy Patterson what the White Walkers were supposed to look like in the comic-book adaptation of the story he was drawing
"They are strange, beautiful...think, oh...the Sidhe made of ice, something like that...a different sort of life...inhuman, elegant, dangerous." Martin also confirmed that the White Walkers are not "dead", just an inhuman kind of life."
"They are strange, beautiful...think, oh...the Sidhe made of ice, something like that...a different sort of life...inhuman, elegant, dangerous." Martin also confirmed that the White Walkers are not "dead", just an inhuman kind of life."
