um this is REALLY belated, but the term 'space opera' has been around since the 40s.

I'm only reading this now, but…wow. Just WOW. I really hope you broaden your horizons a bit at some point in your life.

but the point is—in the realm of storytelling, are these deaths "cheap" or not? Are they only used to create a series of shocks to combat the inevitable desensitization? I would say that they are.

2edgy4me

um, GoT is not Shakespeare. It's a laughable comparison. This is just pop sword and sorcery, and they are using bleakness as a giant smokescreen for the fact that they have no idea what they're doing.

my sense of why they bring that in is because of the huge cheating scandal that took place there in the mid-80s in athletics…(being the first athletic program to receive the 'death penalty')…they had a slush fund for players for SIXTEEN YEARS before it was finally shut down, so showing the people implicated in that…

"And why is Serge not asked to go with them?"

1. Fuck that priest guy. Seriously.
2. Does anyone else hate Thomas with a deep abiding passion? To me he is the true villain of this show: wanting order at all costs in a place where that is pretty much impossible, he keeps upping the ante. Anytime I have to look at his stupid face I just go grrrr inside. I don't…