That's one of the best things about Game of Thrones actually, the series deceptively starts off as a semi-traditional fantasy story, with clear characters the audience categorizes as "good guys" and "bad guys", then proceeds to gradually reveal and grow them until the categories are flipped. One of the things I'm most looking forward to in Season 3 is seeing how some of the villains from Season 1 redeem themselves and become heroic protagonists.

fireproof78 wrote:

I always loved the fact that there is a glossary in the back of the book. I wish more scifi books did that.

My father refused to read any book that needed that, at least with regard to invented words It was a thing for awhile. It also brings up something brought up at a convention panel long ago. An author asked the audience WHY they bought things like the later Dune books Herbert wrote (which I actually liked). Someone stood up and said readers have learned all this detail about fictional universes, and wanted to keep reading something that made use of it. The more complicated the universe, the more they needed to keep reading new stories to keep from feeling like the effort was wasted.

It doesn't work in the Star Wars prequels because only lip service is paid to the politics. It merely states a political intention, but neglects to develop either the background to the argument, or the argument itself. And without a social or financial argument at its heart, and at least two sides to that argument that you can understand (and actually make sense), it's just a half-baked idea. And I find that a poorly communicated/told political story is one that breaks down more noticeably than others. I had similar misgivings about the politics in 300 (see that thread).

If you pick up a random Star Trek episode, you'll find it did this much better, where often within its 45-minute running time it will present a commentary about a political topic. And it does it well because it lends credibility to both sides of the discourse.

In TPM, the taxation of trade routes alone isn't interesting, but it's also nowhere detailed enough to make it interesting. That the motivation of the villains remains vague and seemingly at odds with their desires also hinders its effectiveness as a driving plot force. Why would a Trade Federation block trade? It's just thrown in there but never developed beyond being mentioned a couple of times. Worse, the whole manner of its dealing in the senate is laugable, and stretches plausibility to the extreme because we can't see how this political organisation can ever function. Remember, the senate cannot even agree that Naboo is blockaded, and yet it allows a vote of no confidence regarding the 'non-existent' crisis. What? Did someone even read that twice when they wrote it?

When you create a make-believe world with its own political institutions, demonstrating that they make sense and work is vital. And that requires a fair amount of thought and research in the writing process.

fireproof78 wrote:

New photo of Zoe Saldana featuring an apparent new take on the uniform-not sure what to think...

Into Darkness Show

It's a diving suit

Dune is religion. And, yes, the politics is easy to understand. It's feudal families back stabbing each other. All else is gloss. Everything the reader really needs to know is set up in the opening scene (kid may be messiah, family going into danger willingly because they think knowing the danger limits it). As for the success, the first movie flopped, and the TV versions had more time to deal with the politics (I haven't seen them). There's also lots of action (poisonings, the attack, etc). Really, I don't think of it as a "political" story, at least in the book version.

So I finished watching season 2 of Game of Thrones and fuck I just don't get why people love this show. No, it's not terrible but God damn what's with all the love for this show? I could talk about problems with that show all day, (and I might) but if I was one of the first people to see it, I would not expect people would like this show, let alone love it. So please someone tell me what's up with this?