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StannisLivesOn t1_j9yvhbx wrote

Reply to comment by Sharks2431 in Game of Thrones Season 4 has to be in the GOAT discussion. by Boss452

They wanted to take out magic to appeal to "mothers and NFL players". That's a real quote.

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monsieurxander t1_j9z9pz5 wrote

It's not a real quote. Someone misquoted them as they were live-tweeting an event, and publications ran with it. When the audio turned up with what they actually said, those publications didn't rush to correct themselves. What they actually said:

>“With the fantasy genre on television, tonally it’s very easy [go too] campy. Every scene, you change these two lines and it’s Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” Weiss jokes. “Also, in terms of fantasy exposition, with proper nouns, it’s almost like a game of Jenga, where you’re trying to plow as many of them as possible without the whole thing falling over. In the first pilot, we had one too many and the whole thing fell over. Going forward, we tried to keep that stuff to a minimum, because we didn’t just want to appeal to a fantasy fanbase. We wanted them to love it, and we wanted our parents to love it, and people who play professional football to love it. We wanted to reach a wider audience, and to do that keeping the tone [under control] was very important.”

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VitaminTea t1_ja238vw wrote

Even if it were a real quote, a show aiming to appeal a broad audience is not a bad thing.

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drupoxy t1_j9zn57k wrote

There is a middle ground between Season 1 of the Witcher in which they absolutely do have too many "proper nouns" introduced for most viewers, and then whatever it was that they gave us. The key is being a good writer, so, ya know...

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MissKhary t1_ja0atob wrote

I feel like The Witcher was confusing on purpose though with the timelines, it's like they wanted you to always be wondering "wtf was that about"

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drupoxy t1_ja0fivq wrote

I was able to follow it without any issue because I had CC turned on. Without those, all of the jargon and names tossed at you are much harder to remember. So for example, if you see the queen's name in ep 1, it's pretty straightforward to connect the dots later in the show when they mention her in the past tense.

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MissKhary t1_ja0gibd wrote

I had read the books and played games, and while I knew the storylines I still kept getting a bit tangled in the timelines. But then again the books with their short story format also jumped around. So while some things were obvious as different times, some things were only apparent in hindsight, even if I had some frame of reference that the average viewer would not have. So I think it HAD to be purposeful, because it was confusing even to me, but I only realized HOW confusing it was in the last episodes.

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OathOfFeanor t1_ja3zdtb wrote

It may not be verbatim but that is still exactly what they said...literally the same message

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monsieurxander t1_ja48296 wrote

Aside from the massive difference in tone... they're talking about fantasy vocabulary, not magic itself.

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AH_BareGarrett t1_ja0pegl wrote

They wish their writing was half as good as Monty Pyrhon.

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Mentoman72 t1_j9yxykv wrote

Ashamed to admit I'm one of the people that this was for. Everytime the show turned into dragon fest i was bored. The dragons are easily my least favorite part of HOTD too. I like the political drama, not so much the fantasy elements.

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Jacknboxx t1_ja05x5i wrote

I agree with you and I'm not ashamed to admit. The political scheming was by far the best part of the show. The dragons and White Walkers were always much less interesting.

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OathOfFeanor t1_ja40uhd wrote

There are plenty of 100% drama shows out there, no need to ruin a well-written fantasy that incorporates politics into it very well.

I don't want full CGI dragon episodes either but if you completely remove them the story doesn't even make sense. IMO they would be better used like a monster who you rarely see on screen at all, but that doesn't mean they don't exist and they are erased from the story.

If you are not a fan of fantasy you probably do not even realize what we are talking about with Lady Stoneheart. Catelyn Stark comes back from the dead. That's a pretty major plot point for a major character to come back from the dead, and they just left it out because they are clueless schmucks who didn't know what to do with it.

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Mentoman72 t1_ja418e5 wrote

I know about Lady Stoneheart. I understand the fantasy elements are important to the story, I just said they're my least favorite parts. I didn't ask for them to be removed or anything.

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OathOfFeanor t1_ja42gv7 wrote

> I didn't ask for them to be removed or anything

And I never said you did. However you commented in support of it after the fact and cited multiple examples where you are in favor it happening.

In contrast I don't like seeing well-written stories ripped apart and having the elements that make them special removed or suppressed just for generic broad appeal.

I don't like pure political dramas but I don't want Hollywood to start modifying them to make them more appealing to me; I just don't watch them.

I just feel like the original story should be told a little closer to the way it was written. Sorry if I have been overzealous in expressing that.

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