The Sword and Laser discussion

While talking with TVLine about her new movie, "Heatstroke," Maisie Williams completely called out hardcore "Game of Thrones" book readers. Asked about the omission of Lady Stoneheart from Season 4 of the HBO show, the actress said:

That was a massive deal, but honestly, I really like it. I’m so sick of going on the Internet and seeing all the book readers being snobby, spoiling it for other people, then saying, 'Well, it’s not a spoiler. The books have been out for years.' Like, couldn’t you just stop being mad for a second and let other people enjoy the show?

Full article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07...

Yup she has a point.

Sorry, I'm such a snob I stopped caring about the series a decade ago.

Also, I was watching Doctor Who before it was cool. Buncha poseurs.

Sean wrote: "Sorry, I'm such a snob I stopped caring about the series a decade ago.

Also, I was watching Doctor Who before it was cool. Buncha poseurs."

There's a big difference, though. Not caring about the series all together is fine. Readers who purposely spoil it for the people watching the show and act better because they read it are annoying. Maisie is right on this one.

P.S. I took your tone to be kind of tongue and cheek, and thus, my response isn't an attack at you, but more just to show my POV on the whole shebang.

I know; let the show be its own thing, dammit! I'm actually cheering for the show to deviate even more from the books and hopefully wrap the story up within a reasonable number of seasons.

As for people throwing book spoilers around, what's almost as bad are people sneaking spoiler hints into discussions about the show, intentially or not trying to steer the discussion in the "right" direction. The moderates on rpg.net have had to have some very stern words with people about that.

Maise Williams is turning out to be a very awesome person.

Sean wrote: "Also, I was watching Doctor Who before it was cool. Buncha poseurs."

You mean before it become cool "again" ;-)

I've been watching it since the mid-60's. It was definitely cool up to and including Tom Baker. It lost my interest after that until the re-boot.

BTW Sean you have the best "About this Author" bio I've read on Goodreads.

Tassie Dave wrote: "BTW Sean you have the best "About this Author" bio I've read on Goodreads."

Thanks. My dream is that one day I'll have a Wikipedia entry and that'll be part of it.

Sean wrote: "Also, I was watching Doctor Who before it was cool. Buncha poseurs."

Wait? Watching Doctor Who is cool? ... and I was just watching it because I liked it (at least the new series. Old series is definitely like watching a soap opera. The pacing is slooooow.)

I have a friend who constantly puts up spoilers for the show right after the episodes finish and tells people that if they like it that much they should stay up and watch it. This is the only guy that I threaten to spoil the show for, I throw his arguments back at him about how if he liked it that much he would have read the books.

I think it's finally sunk in to him that he's being an jerk and has since stopped posting spoilers.

Roger wrote: "I have a friend who constantly puts up spoilers for the show right after the episodes finish and tells people that if they like it that much they should stay up and watch it. This is the only guy ..."

I genuinely couldn't be friends with someone like that.

Intentionally spoiling, trying to ruin other peoples fun just has a certain sociopathic quality to it that I can't look past.

Nick wrote: "Old series is definitely like watching a soap opera. The pacing is slooooow.) ."

Definitely. I wouldn't recommend someone who loves the new series go back and watch the 60's and 70's Doctor Who. But for me watching them as a ,back then, current show, that was all we knew. British, and for me, Australian made TV shows then were always slower paced than US TV. Nostalgia, I have learned the hard way, is better remembered than revisited.

It's weird that game if thrones seems to be the one big thing where expecting people to read the source material first is snobby rather than expected (For Harry potter or lord of the rings, for example, if you hadn't read the source material, it was generally accepted you were doing yourself a massive disservice). IMO it has a lot to do with fantasy novels being a nerdy thing for nerdy boys to enjoy, while HBO is a classy thing for all intelligent viewers of all ages and genders to enjoy.

That said, obviously it's rude to spoil things for people. If you knew someone didn't know the ending of the sixth sense, then you intentionally spoiled it, you're not a great person. But expecting everyone to give major spoiler warnings for that or,say empire strikes back, is a bit ridiculous.

I think actors shouldn't really be telling people to not talk about things. :/ It's silly. Art sparks conversation and having the artists stand above art and tell people what they're allowed to talk about in terms of their feelings and impressions about the art is just plain silly.

Though I agree in her calling out people who spoil for fun. And at the end of the day, "purists" will still have the books. Though, I have never met a Game of Thrones "purists". Whenever I saw people talk about Lady Stoneheart and Martell exclusion, it was always in the context of what this means about stories about female characters and the priorities they're given. HBO is claiming that they need to remove characters, yet plenty of characters have been added to create scenes of brutality against women that didn't exist in the source material.
What does this imply?

Though, for the record, I'm not sure where I stand on most of these things. That's why I and others are talking about it. I'm just naming them as examples of discussions that are taking place in the context of character removal and how it's not just about sticking to source material.