Game of Thrones

[jaxa]

Torrents are bad, as everybody can see your IP and file legal action if he wants to. So never use it without a proxy server that hides your IP. Here in Germany, even TV rips are illegal, so chances are you're unlucky once, so that the police got a reasonable suspicion and may therefor perform a house search. And well, I guess everybody has at least a couple of pirated things at home.

 

So, better use one of the one-click filehosters, that guarantee full downloader privacy, like rapidshare.com for instance. Rapidshare does not save the download logs on their servers at all, so you're good to go. But even if they did, at least no random third person can see your IP. There'd have to be a reasonable suspicion first, before police can request information about you from some company.

 

http://www.peerblock.com/

 

PeerBlock can be used to prevent connecting to over ~770 million anti-p2p and spamming peers. It's probably still a band-aid to the problem since you'll appear in lists of peers connected to a particularly torrent (evidence?) but it can be useful and it may offer some plausible deniability (disclaimer: I am not a lawyer). Aside from blocking TCP and UDP connections you can also toggle between allowing/blocking HTTP which may be useful for you as a rudimentary ad blocker. This kind of thing blocks a lot of high profile sites like CNN, but these can be whitelisted if you're up to it.

 

http://torrentfreak....etch-io-110518/

 

Found this the other day on TorrentFreak (a good news source for torrents and file sharing in general). Fetch.io is a web service that downloads from torrent files and filehosts, allowing you to grab or stream the files from the web interface. Haven't tried it yet (should be in beta trial mode right now) but there are similar services, as well as the premium "seedboxes" that people pay monthly for to get something like ~100 MB/s download speeds and similarly high uploads. These services could potentially act as a perfect go-between in your Internet-law-challenged Germany. Services like this use their own servers to download, absolving you of contact with peers, and can operate in jurisdictions that allow them to do their thing as well as resist individual inquiries. Although BitTorrent seedboxes and the like can have perfectly legit uses, allowing law enforcement to either access accounts or shut them down is not in their best interests since the majority are likely using them to infringe copyright.

 

On a side note, the act of individual streaming from sites like the old tv-links and many other look-alikes may become criminalized in the U.S. Link forthcoming. Here: http://isoc-ny.org/p2/?p=1888 . This is something the Obama Administration is pushing for, but it hasn't been seen in the latest legislation known as the PROTECT IP Act. Yes it's an acronym.

 

On topic: I haven't watched the next 4-5 episodes yet, looking forward to it though.

Edited May 20, 2011 by jaxa

[PranQster]

I just subscribed to HBO and am watching my first episode as I type this. Wish I'd seen previous episodes because this is pretty damn good.

 

Edit: Thanks to HBO On Demand, I'm now watching episode One

Edited June 1, 2011 by PranQster

[ungoliant]

good stuff:

 

...and for your extended forecast - Winter is still coming. :laugh:

Edited June 8, 2011 by ungoliant

[7upMan]

good stuff:

 

 

Thanks man! The guy who did the clip has a parody of each ep, find his channel is here. Enjoy!

[PranQster]

Sigh... I'm already jonesin' for season 2.

[7upMan]

LOL who doesn't ^^

[Diego]

I have a love and hate relationship with this series.. whenever I watch an episode I have to watch another one right away! if I don't have another downloaded it takes days for me to feel motivated enough to keep watching. It's like.. it's not that interesting, but right now I want to see what happens next!

[Chiron]

BTW: "A Dance With Dragons", the newest installment of the series, has been released a few days ago.

If you've read the other volumes, get it now. It is awesome !!

[Glyph Seeker]

Man I love the beautiful opening...

 

Just listening to this rock cover over and over now...

 

[7upMan]

I've bought the first book a few days ago. I'm on page 20 or so, and so far it's a great read.

 

Also, I can't help but compare the Game of Thrones TV show with Camelot, that show with Joseph Fiennes and Eva Green (and that Arthur kid, whatever he's called). Man, what a let-down that show was. Nothing worthy mentioning except Eva Green's bare chest.

[PranQster]

I'm a little less than half way through the first book and am enjoying it thoroughly. Film adaptations always differ from the books they are based on, but I am quite surprised how well this book was adapted to film (er... video).

[Diego]

Yeah.. I begin to prefer that Lord of the Rings were adapted to an HBO series instead of movies. They seem to know what they're doing!

Edited July 16, 2011 by Diego

[Chiron]

Yeah.. I begin to prefer that Lord of the Rings were adapted to an HBO series instead of movies. They seem to know what they're doing!

 

Amen to that! Aesthetically LotR was great, but the story changes (not the necessarily the cuts) made it almost unbearable to me!

What masterpiece an HBO adaption could have been !

(Imo all this is valid for Harry Potter as well....)

[PranQster]

Agreed. Though I enjoyed the LoTR films in their own right, I have to keep in mind that those films were Peter Jackson's LoTR and not J.R.R. Tolkien's LoTR... only then can I accept the massive amount of changes made. Hopefully they'll stick closer to the original story of The Hobbit for the next round of films.

[Komag]

I prefer the changes - not that I'm saying I like the changed version over the book version, I'm just saying I like that there are large changes so there is something different because variety is better

[Diego]

I love the movies too! But a well made series will look just as good and won't have the time constraint movies have, so they can tell the story at the right pace.

 

Anyway, it was just a compliment to HBO productions

Edited July 18, 2011 by Diego

[PranQster]

I love the movies too! But a well made series will look just as good and won't have the time constraint movies have, so they can tell the story at the right pace.

 

Anyway, it was just a compliment to HBO productions

 

And I agree entirely. 10 hours (minus time for credits, etc.) were dedicated to the first book A Game of Thrones alone. While with the LoTR films, each book was crammed into only 3-4 hours of film... the longer the film, the fewer showings per day in the theaters. IIRC, the movie big-wigs tried to get Peter Jackson to trim The Fellowship of the Ring down to less than 2 hours so they could fill theater seats more times per day. Imagine how terrible that would have ended up.

[PranQster]

I prefer the changes - not that I'm saying I like the changed version over the book version, I'm just saying I like that there are large changes so there is something different because variety is better

 

And yes, the changes were certainly justified. Think of the millions of people who went to see these films without ever having read the books. If the films had been a literal interpretation of the books, many of those people would have been confused, or bored. I could imagine... "Daddy, why did Gandalf leave Frodo to sit on his ass for 17 years after he got the ring from Bilbo? Isn't 50 years a bit old to start such an adventure?". LOL

[Chiron]

It just pissed me off that they made heavy changes that bear the taste of mainstream, but

in my opinion they've not been necessary, the movies would have been success anyway.

 

Examples:

 

• Elves at Helm's Deepm (WTF, this is the humans, the times of the elves are over)
  
• The whole Arwen & Aragorn story arc, the way they "hollywoodized" it...
  ....
  

[7upMan]

While I've read thee LotR books in English and German twice, I can only say that I immensely liked the movies (Extended Edition, of course). To be honest, the books often dragged their feet, story-wise, which is a great point in favor of the movies. Second, since it was years ago that I read the books, I didn't notice the changes to the script right away. Yes, there were changes, but they (imho) were justified and made the story work in the movie genre. As PranQster said, a truthful 10-hour adaptation of each book would have been incredibly boring.

 

In regards to Game of Thrones, let's be fair: A Song of Ice and Fire is WAY more complex than LotR could ever hope to be. Think of the political intrigue, the interaction between the characters, the gritty realism. While I do love LotR, I must also admit that it's the grand-father of GoT, and it really feels like it.

 

 

[PranQster]

It just pissed me off that they made heavy changes that bear the taste of mainstream, but

in my opinion they've not been necessary, the movies would have been success anyway.

 

Examples:

 

• Elves at Helm's Deepm (WTF, this is the humans, the times of the elves are over)
• The whole Arwen & Aragorn story arc, the way they "hollywoodized" it...
  ....

 

Yeah, the Elves at Helm's Deep was a bit goofy, but to people who never read the books it was just fine (except for Legolas boogie-boarding down the stairs).

Though the books didn't go into any detail about Arwen/Aragorn, except in the end notes, I didn't mind that too much because it would have been hard to depict Aragorn's story without having her in it. But yes, it did get quite a bit sappy, I admit. I'm still not too happy with Arwen's introduction, horse chase, and actions at the river. Should have had Frodo defiantly holding up Sting and the rest on the other side of the river with the torches (and with... was it Glorfindel??... can't remember now). I guess it would have been confusing to non-book-readers to have Elrond enchanting the river from afar before his character was introduced though.

[PranQster]

Some changes in LoTR I did appreciate though...

Since Tom Bombodil was omitted entirely (probably for the better), I appreciated that the scene with Old Man Willow was still included and that Treebeard still said Tom's quote to free Merry & Pippin.

I kind of liked how they had Faramir start off a little less friendly than in the books, under pressure to please his father.

Gandalf letting off some fireworks on his way into Hobbiton to make the kids happy, even though the book specifically says he didn't... was very easy to let that one slide.

Liked all of Moria except the cliff-hanger/dwarf-toss scene.

 

Still not happy with:

Gandalf wanting to go over Caradras while Gimli wanted to go through Moria... that was totally backwards and I'm still scratching my head about it.

 

Back on topic though... Since I am now halfway through reading A Game of Thrones, and am much more familiar with all characters, I have started re-watching the whole series (third time now) to catch any details or dialog I had missed before. I read that Peter Dinklage may be up for an Emmy nomination and couldn't agree more if he is.

[jdude]

When I first started watching this series, for the first 30 minutes my impression was that I wouldn't like it. But after watching the first episode, I spent the next two days watching all the rest of the episodes! I really like this series, if TV had more stuff of this quality I would watch far more often.

 

I've heard that series like this are becoming more popular because movie audiences are dropping. I don't know how true this is, but removing the 1-3 hour restriction to tell a great story is a great move imo.

[PranQster]

Unfortunately, HBO On Demand has (temporarily) dropped this series. I think they are preparing to re-broadcast the whole series, starting on the 23rd or so. Hopefully it will be back in HBO On Demand after that. Amazon has the series ready for pre-order on blu-ray and DVD... no idea when the actual release day will be.

Edited July 20, 2011 by PranQster

[PranQster]

Sigh.... I'm nearly done with the 5th book. Now I'm going to be jonesing for the next one for a long time.

Super extra spoilers...

don't read on unless you have already read A Dance with Dragons!! ... Unless you are not planning on reading the books and want to know what's going on.

 

Poor Tyrion... things aren't going well for him. He's a slave in a camp just outside the walls of Danaerys' city (so close but hasn't met her yet), along with a dwarf woman who was one of the 'jousters' at Joffrey's wedding (I giggled like a schoolgirl when that little fucker was murdered). Ironically they were forced to joust on the backs of a pig and a dog in the fighting pits to amuse Danaerys' new asshole of a husband/king (who arranged for her to be poisoned).

Danaerys finally rode Drogon, after he showed up at the fighting pits and started breathing fire on people and eating them. 214 dead and many more wounded in that little incident. At least she didn't eat the candied locusts, made 'in her honor', while at the fighting pit... else she'd be dead now. Also, it turns out that Gregor Clegane (he's dead) did not bash her cousin's brains out when he was a baby... that was a different baby who had his head smashed on the walls. He's still alive and plans to claim the Iron Throne with her as his queen.

Arya, aka 'no one', has her sight back... I have a gut feeling that her trainer 'the kindly man' is actually her old 'dancing master', Syrio Forel... In the first book she doesn't know what happens to him, but in the TV show, after she leaves the room, there is a cry of pain along with the sound of a steel sword hitting the floor... but his sword was wooden I think he is an assassin and face changer.

Barristan Selmy is a badass old knight as he ever was... heh, "Here boy! Melt it down and add it to the others!". But now he's a bit sad because nobody knows where Danaerys is since she flew away on Drogon's back.

The first book and first TV season taught us that we're supposed to not like Jamie Lannister... of course he did try killing Bran. But he's turned out to be a pretty badass dude with much more honor than most other characters.

Brienne recently showed up alive. Last report of her was of her being hanged by the order of the undead zombie once known as Catelyn Stark. Brienne had shouted a word as she was being strung up... must have been quite a word... I'm thinking... "Jamieeeee!!!

Jon's kicking butt and taking names at the wall... making friends with giants & wildlings and using them to populate and rebuild the abandoned forts along the wall.

Bran is becoming a full-fledged seer and will soon become one with the roots of the weirwood trees north of the wall

Rickon hasn't been heard of since disappearing with Osha into the wilds... rumor has it that they went to the island of Skagos, where cannibals live.

Theon was very naughty for a while, but is starting to come around again (having some skin flayed off and losing fingers and toes humbled him a little)... he's helping Jayne, the fake "Arya", to escape from Roose Bolton's completely demented son Ramsey.

Hodor kicks ass as always.

 

Anyway... just a few chapters to go.

Edited October 29, 2011 by PranQster