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mygif

Great article. I feel similar, but maybe a little more hopeful. 🙂

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mygif

I think if you don’t and get the damnable wok back then ownership reverts to the person who has been using it for years now. At least I’d imagine thats how ownership works in a Commie country like Canada…

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mygif

How was Wild Wild West not steampunk?

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Cookie McCool said on April 5th, 2011 at 12:15 pm

Steampunk is NOT a thing. Or at least, it should gracefully give up being a thing because enough already. I’m not ashamed of having zombiepocalypse and robopocalypse plans (because doughy near-sighted asthmatics NEVER fare well in zombie attacks, it’s important to have a plan just in case), but do I really have to make up a steampocalypse plan? Ugh.

Also, your job may give you cool previews, but my crappy job got me a free wok. Suck it!

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mygif

I recommend Sesame Oil for most stir-fry endeavors, FWIW.

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mygif

In the finest internet tradition of my people (the rules-lawyering nerds) I shall ignore the main point of this article in favor of nit-picking. As my esteemed colleague Zenrage has already so eloquently asked…

How is Wild Wild West NOT steampunk? Seriously. It might have been BAD, but it was certainly steampunk. It had a Confederate General in a wheelchair equipped with backwards-firing guns as a self-defense measure! It had a GIANT MECHANICAL SPIDER threaten a frontier town. The only way it could have been more steampunk is if Kevin Kline had had a monocle that was also a targeting reticule and Will Smith had had a gear on his hat.

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Mark Temporis said on April 5th, 2011 at 1:13 pm

ROME was pretty good and had the sort of detail THRONES is going to have. They cancelled it after two seasons because it was crazy expensive–even though BBC footed some of the bill!

That does not bode well for THRONES.

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Mitchell Hundred said on April 5th, 2011 at 1:24 pm

HBO obviously needs to be way more prudent in distributing their moonshine reserves. That stuff doesn’t grow on trees, you know: it comes down from the sky, and it is not at all easy to trap. I’ve been trying for months now. It’s wreaking hell on my sleep cycles.

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mygif

This is something that fans of the books have been chewing over since the show was announced. It is, of course, possible that the show won’t make it to seven (or whatever) seasons. But the outlook isn’t as dismal as you might expect for a few reasons.

First of all, the expense-per-episode of GoT is surprisingly small. It’s still a lavish production and all, but apparently the whole first season only cost $45 million, due in particular to tax breaks they recieved for filming in Ireland. This chart compares the budget of a number of shows, and yes, both Rome and Deadwood were more expensive. Rome was a LOT more expensive, actually–that show was apparently a bit of a runaway monster that wasted a lot of money. The general impression seems to be that GoT is making a distinct effort to keep things reasonable, budget-wise. And while there are some budget-busting aspects coming up in the story, I imagine they have some idea how to keep things sane.

Furthermore, even with the huge budget of Rome and Deadwood, HBO has since said that they regret pulling the plug on both those shows, since they’ve done well on DVD, something that’s a particularly big part of HBO’s profit model now. After all, they own these shows in their entirety and continue to profit off them for years after they’ve aired.

Finally…there’s every reason to believe GoT will be a big hit. Sopranos big? I have no idea, though “True Blood big” seems more than within range–I believe that’s HBO’s most highly rated show at the moment, and it’s arguably their geekiest as well, which is a good sign. The early buzz on GoT seems pretty huge–it’s hard to say for sure, but it certainly looks like a lot of people are subscribing to HBO to watch it, which is the most important thing for ratings purposes, and there are persistent rumours that HBO has already greenlit season 2.

Obviously, if it bombs, it bombs. But I think there’s more than enough evidence to suggest that it’s got enough momentum to go the distance.

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Kid Kyoto said on April 5th, 2011 at 1:45 pm

“ROME was pretty good and had the sort of detail THRONES is going to have. They cancelled it after two seasons because it was crazy expensive–even though BBC footed some of the bill!”

I knew Rome was doomed when they killed off that Ceaser guy, he was easily the most interesting character and once they lost him the whole show seemed to lose its direction.

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mygif

@Kid Kyoto: *slow clap*

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mygif

How is Wild Wild West NOT steampunk? Seriously. It might have been BAD, but it was certainly steampunk.

Wait – was he talking about the movie or the TV show?

I thought he was bagging on one of the best TV shows ever made, but if he was just slamming that crappy Will Smith movie …

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LashLightning said on April 5th, 2011 at 3:59 pm

That bit at the end only reinforces the idea that Flapjacks is merely the alternative personality of Christopher/MGK. Or some sort of evil twin from a parallel universe of evil twins only that they’re just silly and not evil.

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Cookie McCool said on April 5th, 2011 at 5:13 pm

Is it wrong that I was hoping Rome might go alternate-history, and decide not to kill off Caesar? Ciaran Hinds was too good to get all stabbed up like that.

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mygif

“…or Kevin Anderson…”

What, you want the hypothetical posthumous continuation/conclusion to just flat-out suck rotting zombie taint?

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mygif

It will be revealed in the Kevin Anderson penned Winter Is Here, that the Targaryens and the Starks intermarried quite frequently, and thus Jon Snow is 99.999% Targaryen, which will be just enough for Daenarys.

Also, somehow, the swords will rise up and revolt.

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mygif

I dunno… I kinda liked Dune: House Atreides…

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mygif

But just think, if it does Really, really well then we might see the endlessly cooler Malazan Book of the Fallen CGI someday? Eh eh?

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mygif

I doubt that’ll ever happen Matt. Given how hard it is to even pimp out Gardens of the Moon to people who claim to love that kinda novel. (My tactic of hitting them over the head with the book seems to not work very well)

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Flypaper said on April 6th, 2011 at 12:49 am

That’s why you should always start ’em with Deadhouse Gates. It’s no more confusing, and I have yet to meet anyone who isn’t wearing that mindblown expression by the end of the Chain of Dogs.

On topic, I’ve tried and repeatedly failed to get into Game of Thrones. I tend to get about halfway through it before realising that I dislike almost every character in the book, and that I’m not someone who enjoys the “awful people do awful things to each other and to the designated victim-characters” genre.

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mygif

@Matt D: I don’t think endless monologues on being weary of the world and general philosophy from *everybody* work so much on TV.

@Flypaper: Really? There are actually a good number of characters with very strong moral convictions in Martins books. Jon Snow, Danaerys Targaryen, Eddard Stark, Sam Tarly and so on. They may not be perfect, but who is?

Compared to, say, the “Prince of Nothing” series, by R. Scot Bakker, where every character is a total dick, a lot of the ASoIaF characters come off much better.

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mygif

@Skwid: I thought the sesame oil was for flavoring, not for the basic stir-frying procedure (it usually has a lower smoke point than peanut oil).

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Craig Oxbrow said on April 6th, 2011 at 9:51 am

Jon Snow, the presenter of Channel 4 News?

… Probably not, in context.

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bunnyofdoom said on April 6th, 2011 at 2:01 pm

I would like to argue the greatest fantasy writer claim there. Counter-point is… Terry Pratchett.

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@flypaper- I might add Tyrion and Jamie Lannister to that list.

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I just wanna see Elijah Snow punch a bitch. Is this so much to ask?

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I just want to see Elijah Snow punch a bitch. That’s a;;/

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Mark Temporis said on April 7th, 2011 at 2:57 pm

RE: Rome. hehe, funny but as good as Ciaran Hinds was (and kudos to them for NOT doing the Senate scene everyone’s seen anyway), to me where ROME went off the rails was replacing Max Perkis as Octavian.

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mygif

I’m a fan of both George R.R. Martin and Terry Pratchett and I think the greatest living fantasy writer is Guy Gavriel Kay, although I’m willing to listen to arguments for Jack Vance.

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I’m one of those bad people who want kid characters, and who believe that some of the scenes in the books won’t be translated faithfully to the screen(due to the lack of shiny moonshines).

I haven’t watch the show yet, only preview(which pumped and brought back my expectations to life), maybe because I’m waiting for the DVD when the steam of raving critics cool down.

But I would rather watch mini episodes of MGK and Flapjacks just talking. It would be worth barrels and barels of moonshine.

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