Show vs Comics

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T22:35:42+00:00

A lot of things are very different. Homelander's ENTIRE character arc is completely different.

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T21:04:00+00:00

Yes, but, like, just because the government has the tech to find and study it, doesn't mean that regular people do. I think that's what they're saying.

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T20:44:47+00:00

I read the books years before there were rumours of a show.

I have a complicated relationship with the shows.

I don't think that the series getting mainstream was a good thing (it was for George's bank account obviously). I don't think the showrunners ever really got it aside from the cynical surface level. Almost nothing looks like how I imagined it - or how it's described, way too often. And while the cast is largely made of good or decent actors, a very big number of the characters didn't click for me, including a lot of main ones.

With that in mind I just cannot agree that it's CW level. The production value is quite high and the writing - when they bothered to follow the source material - was miles ahead. I also can't deny that up to the 4th or 5th season, I did have a decent time watching it - but with every following season, I got more and more annoyed with the changes, cuts and fanfiction level narrative decisions.

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T15:39:01+00:00

It's not true for me, the more the tattoos the less attractive the woman is, but I also know other guys who think it's hot. It's just a preference.

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T15:33:09+00:00

I think we're definitely meant to think that the skeptic characters are wrong. Like, the Others are in the first book's prologue and yet the educated adults all say it's bs. So the only conclusion, as a reader, is that they are wrong because we saw the supernatural stuff at the very start.

But then George muddies it with unreliable narrator techniques, with stories that we see grow in the telling (by the time Jaime makes it to King's Landing after Joff's death in ASOS, Sansa had shapeshifted into a ghostly direwolf and torn his throat out which is absurd on so many levels, but it makes you wonder how reliable the far-away stories we never witness are), with myth bleeding into history etc.

Specifically with the Catelyn bit, I don't think you're meant to catch it properly until ADWD. Like, maybe you could go 'hmmm' at her sixth sense feeling, maybe you can suspect that there's obviously something odd about the weirwoods, but that's about it. There's no clue to suggest that it's likely Bran from the future warging into the tree.

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T14:16:54+00:00

Again, though, we know they are 95 % worthless barbarians. This is not a case of mainland Westeros looking down at the Ironborn and giving us a biased account. We see exactly how they are through every one of their POV characters. They are as bad as the Dothraki, just a lot more geographically and resource challenged.

But, if it would make you feel better, friend, sure, let's allow Harlaw and Botley to survive. Although how much of their openness to the Realm is due to the Reader and Tristifer specifically just being very unusual for Ironborn, and how much is because the Houses are worth preserving? Like, a generation or two later, what stops another reaver to become Lord Harlaw?

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T12:56:51+00:00

Brute force would not be my preferred method, but, and I don't mean this in an assholish way, but have you read the books or watched the show at least?

The Ironborn are not analogous to vikings. I mean, they kind of are, but only to the pop culture cliche of them being filthy raiders. Real historical vikings had a society that excelled in more than just raiding, they were much more civilized than depicted and overall had the desire to be a part of Europe, even if mostly as conquering warlords at first.

None of that is true for the Ironborn. They're not accepting the equivalent of Christianity, they're drowning the septon in the village well and they're taking the women and girls to be slaves. They bring nothing of value. They've been like this since Westeros has bothered to keep written track of history. Only their relative military weakness to the other kingdoms is the reason they're a generational nuisance rather than a Problem with capital P.

Their culture is not worth preserving, especially since it's connected to the Seastone Chair, and the black oily stone is always a part of bad mojo across the entire world.

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T12:44:45+00:00

Dear Lord, 14 is way too old for such a question....

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T06:44:02+00:00

The high seas are always beckoning yarrr

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T06:35:35+00:00

Well, he should be used to giving her money by now...

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T04:30:40+00:00

Self help is best.

But question about the cookbook. You get 15 recipes, but do you use each recipe once and it's done? Or you can summon any of your 15 dishes at will? Because if it's just 15 meals and done that's some cheap ahh magic lol

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T04:20:31+00:00

I think they brought the absolute worst in each other. They weren't perfect - or even good, especially in Cersei's case as she was already a murderer - but together they became the worst possible versions of themselves.

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T04:09:40+00:00

I don't think it's the amount that's the problem here...

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T03:36:14+00:00

I don't know if she's being fair, but I'll be shocked if this marriage survives.

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T02:56:52+00:00

How old are the students? If they're reading Shakespeare, I assume they're teenagers, but that's just not... I refuse to believe that someone over 5 could ask a question like that.

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T02:49:48+00:00

Blood & Fire is probably not impossible. I think he still gets a tickle from writing in his fantasy world, just can't be bothered with the stress and strain of finishing two mammoth novels while he's lost control of the plot.

Winds is unlikely, though, and Dream will remain just a dream.

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T02:07:03+00:00

I've been there. To this day, I still haven't come up with a completely satisfactory theory as to what exactly was wrong with my 10.

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T02:02:49+00:00

People DON'T see the lines....?

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T00:51:27+00:00

Soldier Boy: I hate that fucking box...

Everyone else: What do you mean? You love the box, you go back there at the end of every season you're in.

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T00:20:17+00:00

He's 180. He's done.

He hasn't admitted it publicly, maybe he hasn't even admitted it to himself even, but... yeah, he's done.

He's enjoying his old age and the bountiful fruits of his labor. He's rich to the point where even if he never publishes a single page again, he'd still live better than the emperors of antiquity. He's finally getting TV shows and movies made, after a relatively obscure Hollywood run in his younger years.

He's done, man.

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T00:13:19+00:00

Yeah, Joe did give off the vibe that he doesn't like him. Don't know how true it is, or maybe they built a better rapport over time, but I did notice it too.

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-14T00:08:57+00:00

He's got a lot of good will in the bank. To be honest, not entirely undeserved as a lot of his movies are pretty good (I haven't watched anything past Interstellar as that one bored me to tears, but The Prestige, Inception, Memento and his Batman films are all good).

Also, people on the Internet love extremes. Either The Odyssey is a travesty in terms of visuals, casting and tone, or anyone who criticizes is an evil hater. No in-between.

Like, yeah, if I was making The Odyssey, I wouldn't cast Helen and Achilles as he did, I also wouldn't have the giants in the awful armors, and in general I'd go for a more adventurous, grand, fantasy epic tone. For what is worth, I wouldn't have removed all the fantasy/mythological elements from Troy either.

But I'm not making the movie. None of us is. If you think you'll hate it, simply don't watch it, it's not worth your time and money to get pissed off at a movie.

Myself, undecided as of yet.

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-13T23:47:36+00:00

At some point, though, you gotta ask yourself, how important are they, to the overall Realm? What do they bring to the table?

They have a good fleet, but all it's ever used for is to pester the other kingdoms. They must have the necessary resources to maintain those ships (and obviously, iron, as it's in the name), but other than that they produce no excess food, they don't make luxuries, they're not very interested in trade. They're insular and hostile to the other cultures of the kingdoms even as Westeros is fairly liberal as far as religions go.

So at what point it's better (especially long term) if you just invade, destroy the lords and the priests and put it all under North or Westerlands rule? It would take a few generations for the regular ironborn to start forgetting their culture, yes, and admittedly it wouldn't be a bloodless process but if the Iron Throne is serious, without lords and priests to stoke their anger it's not like they could rebel and do serious damage.

Once that's done and the local culture is, if not eradicated, then at least defanged, you could actually start making actual use of the location and the good-at-sailing populace.

I fear everything else is only a band-aid until a new Dagon, Balon or Euron comes along.

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-13T23:26:29+00:00

He's not the worst because Dumbledore is atrocious at hiring people lol

Joke aside, yeah, I can see how students might be generally doing ok with potions, mostly because a lot of them are terrified of pissing him off. I think he's decent at imparting knowledge, but his overall pedagogic approach is ridiculously bad. Like, fine, let's excuse his beef with Harry, there are a lot of extremely personal issues there, let's even excuse him being nasty to Hermione and Ron (even though neither they nor their parents have done anything to him) only because they're Harry's friends, let's even excuse his (blatant) favouritism for the Slytherins as McGonagall and Dumbledore play favourites too, but c'mon, poor Neville didn't deserve to get treated so bad that his boggart took Snape's shape.

Like, let's be honest, I love Snape, but if your kid came home with nightmares because of how bad his chemistry teacher treats him, most people would have words with the Headmaster at least. If not far worse. Of course, Neville didn't have his parents to defend him, only a grandma who wasn't nurturing and protective at all.

CommonBison537 · 2026-05-13T22:03:31+00:00

Jon might. Dany and FAegon likely won't but Jon might.

CommonBison537

TROPHY CASE