Is Game of Thrones overrated? Is it better than 'Vikings'?

If you remove the nudity/sex scenes from GOT would you still watch?

  • Yes, of course.

    Votes: 5 31.3%

  • No, sex scenes are my fave.

    Votes: 12 75.0%

  • What sex scenes? My wife fast forward's through them all.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    16
El Diaco said:
I guess everyone is different but I cannot understand how somebody could give GoT a legitimate shot and not like it. Yeah there is some gruesome stuff and yeah the good guys don't always come out on top and the bad guys seem to carry on with little consequence. But when they do get theirs, it sure is satisfying. Compared to the drivel that dominates TV these days, Game of Thrones is head and shoulders above 99% of anything else out there. I realize GoT is fantasy and not really set in any known historical timeline but it feels like about 1000 AD +/-. Life was tough then. People killed others for little to no reason, maybe they just wanted their loaf of bread. I don't understand the complaining about despair porn etc. There probably weren't a lot of happy feel good times in an era like that. It just seems rather realistic to me. Vikings seems much the same in that aspect.
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It's easy if you find yourself exhausted by this narrative tool. 'Despair porn' is a critical component of the series and is relied upon to provide a substantial amount, if not majority, of the conflict. I personally view it as lazy and unimaginative when used to such extremes.

I'm also uncomfortable watching sexual assault and torture in television. I can handle it if it's minute and serves a clear purpose, but I'm unconvinced it always does in GoT. Just as examples, True Detective and Breaking Bad had uncomfortable themes and situations, but I always felt I understood their use.

GoT's storytelling style just isn't my thing.

 
Enhance89 said:
El Diaco said:
I guess everyone is different but I cannot understand how somebody could give GoT a legitimate shot and not like it. Yeah there is some gruesome stuff and yeah the good guys don't always come out on top and the bad guys seem to carry on with little consequence. But when they do get theirs, it sure is satisfying. Compared to the drivel that dominates TV these days, Game of Thrones is head and shoulders above 99% of anything else out there. I realize GoT is fantasy and not really set in any known historical timeline but it feels like about 1000 AD +/-. Life was tough then. People killed others for little to no reason, maybe they just wanted their loaf of bread. I don't understand the complaining about despair porn etc. There probably weren't a lot of happy feel good times in an era like that. It just seems rather realistic to me. Vikings seems much the same in that aspect.
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It's easy if you find yourself exhausted by this narrative tool. 'Despair porn' is a critical component of the series and is relied upon to provide a substantial amount, if not majority, of the conflict. I personally view it as lazy and unimaginative when used to such extremes.

I'm also uncomfortable watching sexual assault and torture in television. I can handle it if it's minute and serves a clear purpose, but I'm unconvinced it always does in GoT. Just as examples, True Detective and Breaking Bad had uncomfortable themes and situations, but I always felt I understood their use.

GoT's storytelling style just isn't my thing.
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And that's fine. I'm not saying everyone needs to like it, I just don't understand how people cannot like it. But like I said in the first sentence, everyone is different. I get that it's uncomfortable to watch sexual assault and torture, I don't particularly like those scenes either. I wouldn't necessarily say it serves no clear purpose however. In fact I can't think of one instance in GoT when it doesn't serve a clear purpose. Ned beheading the deserter shows his commitment to those who pass the sentence should swing the sword. Ned's beheading, Joffrey's torturing of the drunk guy, Joffrey's torturing and sexual assault on the 2 gifts from Tyrion, Joffrey taunting Sansa with Ned's head on a spike, etc. show how depraved and disturbed Joffrey really is. I suppose they didn't have to drive the point home so thoroughly but I wouldn't say it was all pointless. But yeah, some of it is uncomfortable to watch and I don't blame anyone who doesn't want to see it.

Everyone just has different preferences. As anecdotal evidence, I was talking about this with 2 of my employees this morning. Emp A is a HUGE GoT fan but he said he did not like Vikings at all. He believes GoT is more wide ranging and immersive. Emp B has watched all of Vikings and is a big fan of it and he just began binging GoT a couple weeks ago. He's early in s5. He now thinks GoT is a better show than Vikings but his rationale is that if Vikings had more sex scenes it would be as good as GoT. Different elements appeal (or not) to different people.

 
B.B. Hemingway said:
I like Game of Thrones, I just think it's overrated.
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To that point, I think I would like GoT more if some of those darker themes/depraved events were less relevant. It got to the point when I was watching seasons 1-3 that I expected something horrible to happen every episode, and it would actually give me moderate levels of anxiety. For whatever reason, that's how uncomfortable some of those things can make me.

I think a lot of it is because of the way I was raised, being constantly told to put myself in other people's shoes and understand things from a variety of perspectives. I see difficult things like that and can't stop myself from feeling extreme amounts of empathy or sometimes imagining how terrible I'd feel if they happened to people I knew. I know it's a show, but I just can't mentally get past the sheer amount of times these themes are used in GoT.

 
Enhance89 said:
To that point, I think I would like GoT more if some of those darker themes/depraved events were less relevant. It got to the point when I was watching seasons 1-3 that I expected something horrible to happen every episode, and it would actually give me moderate levels of anxiety. For whatever reason, that's how uncomfortable some of those things can make me.
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This hits the nail on the head for why I never got past book 1.

I read fantasy books for fun and entertainment and adventure. I don't read fantasy books so I can wallow in a bunch of misery and miserable people - I can read non-fiction for that or watch the news. I don't need the good guys to win all the time, but I'm not going to keep reading something that depressing. (I did end up having them read to me by someone else though). Even when the good guys get revenge, it's too little too late after the crap they've gone through.

That said, for some reason it doesn't bother me with the show. Maybe because I knew for the most part all of the bad things that were going to happen.

 
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Keep your eyes out on Netrflix, they are doing a show called Altered carbon, based on a series of Richard Morgan books, allegedly the budget per episode is 1.5 -2 times higher then GOT's budget. It's a hard syfy with people being able to change bodies and storing their memories in a special device in the neck. Enter the "hero" he was stored inside one of those items without a body as punishment, but he is needed to solve a murder....of a living man. Then there is the Wirtcher and if that one is not a cartoon, they may have their own GOT right there.

 
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