How excited I get for Game of Thrones is really out of proportion with how much I enjoy it.  I mean, I like the show quite a bit, but I can't remember the last time I was so excited for an episode of TV that wasn't Game of Thrones.

The very opening shot shows the bottom third of the CN Tower, a GO train, and the Skydome.

I feel like purely from an enjoyment level, this might be the best approach.  Simply because you watch the show, and then afterward you find that all your favourite characters have all these extra adventures and meet all these other interesting people and lots of interesting things happen differently.

It's @Loki100:disqus  .  He was created by CBS in order to keep Survivor buzz going on the internet.  Over time, CBS started accepting offers from other shows for promotion on a freelance basis.  All of his other posts are coldly calculated to make sure no one else suspects.

Yup.

Final Cut is the best, though it does something I really don't like.

Sigh.  Metallica might have one of the most disappointing discographies ever.

Young James Hetfield is a goofy looking motherfucker.

I love that people were boldly predicting that the comments would reach 1000.

Damn straight.  I love the Brienne chapters.  I know they're very shaggy-doggyish (and would stick out badly in any of the other books), but they form the crux of the thematic weight of the book, and even further, the series.  It's a fascinating look into something fantasy novels almost always ignore.

I imagine they're encoded somehow or another, so that any person who leaked them would be IDed and blacklisted.

I've always meant to watch these.

The entire thread for that article was quite excellent.

I am unashamed and outspoken in my love for A Feast for Crows.  Bran's travelling chapters would have worked better in that book, I think.  It has a more laid-back, less frenetic pace, and the content would probably work better thematically as well.

Heh, I think I could cut the plot down some.  I remember writing a spec outline for a A Game of Thrones movie back in like 2005 or so which effectively cut everything but the Ned story.

Yeah, that's easily my favourite Bran chapter.  I guess that one can stay in.  Mostly I was thinking that all of the chapters of him travelling were pretty redundant (not necessarily boring, just not propulsive) and sort of stalled their respective books.

I think there's potential for that method of storytelling to work (uhh, The Wire, obviously) but it's just incredibly difficult to pull off.  When you have so many disparate characters and plots, it's damn hard to pull it together thematically.  The Wire (and Deadwood as well, I suppose) had the advantage of all the…

Yeah, pretty much.  The other alternative would've just been to have made him go into hiding with Howland Reed for a couple books, until someone needs to go looking for him (or perhaps Reed).

It took over four months to film season 3, spread over five different countries, for the running time equivalent of about five feature films.  It's pretty amazing that the turnaround is just one year.

I don't think "Blackwater" is an ideal (or sustainable) model for the series, but the approach of ignoring characters which aren't doing much to focus on the important going-ons has payed off in other episodes.  "The Wolf and the Lion", for example, which might be the show's best, completely excluded Jon and Dany and…