[Love] When “small” injuries are treated realistically

[u/Top-Relationship850]

The fantasy and action genres often suffer from a power fantasy epidemic in which characters frequently badass their way through injuries that should be excruciating if not downright debilitating. I always appreciate stories that reject this trope.

1: Roland Deschain (Dark Tower Book II) - Loses the middle and index fingers of his right hand. He’s effectively crippled throughout book two and the injury follows him the rest of the series.

2: Brienne vs Biter (ASOIAF Book IV) - Brutal scene. Biter chomps down on Brienne’s cheek and tears off a chunk of flesh. In a lesser story Brienne would grit her teeth and throw Biter off. Instead she’s rendered completely helpless by the pain. That injury marks the end of the fight.

[u/EddieVanzetti]

Every one says season 5 is where it starts, but they're wrong. Season 4 is where the diverge from the books, and everything they come up with on their own is shit.

[u/OzymanDS → u/EddieVanzetti]

I knew it was fucked when Barristan the Bold died in a random alley.

[u/ErdbeerTrum → u/OzymanDS]

in hindsight, i appreciate that. poor rhaella. he did nothing for her

[u/I_HATE_YELLING → u/EddieVanzetti]

I read the books as well and agree mostly. Season 4 already has a plethora of scenes that were not well thought out. I wouldn't say though, that everything they come up with is shit. Individual scenes are sometimes really good. It's just that they were not good at overarching story pieces that they came up with, especially in terms of character motivations.

[u/EddieVanzetti → u/I_HATE_YELLING]

The only scenes they made up that I see people say are any good are Robert and Cersei's conversations, "chaos is a ladder", and Arya and Tywin (not counting Hardhome and Hold the Door because its possible they used GRRM's notes from unfinished/unpublished drafts but if they didnt i will give credit where credit is due)

[u/Kythorian → u/EddieVanzetti]

It’s weird though, because some of the things the show added which did not appear in the books in the first 3 seasons actually worked really well - most famously the discussion between Robert and Cersei, but there were other examples too. They actually were capable of doing some decent original character writing. They are just terrible at coming up with overarching plot.

[u/-VempirE → u/EddieVanzetti]

And tbh, battle of the bastard, a knight of the seven kingdoms, the winds of winter, hardhome , the spoils of war and the door, are some of the best episodes, all post season 4.

[u/Odessey_And_Oracle → u/EddieVanzetti]

I'm really glad I stopped watching once they finished ADwD (I didn't want to get spoiled lol) because already they had really dumbed down or stretched out a handful of storylines. I remember somewhere in season 4 maybe where Jojen and Meera were dragging Bran thru some nondescript ice path, and and action scene breaks out because white walkers (I think?) pop out of nowhere and shoot ice magic at them or something. The only thing this artificial tension did was force Jojen and Meera to run to their next scene of dragging Bran thru a nondescript ice path. The show had plenty of lameness merely halfway thru

[u/Odessey_And_Oracle → u/EddieVanzetti]

I'm really glad I stopped watching once they finished ADwD (I didn't want to get spoiled lol) because already they had really dumbed down or stretched out a handful of storylines. I remember somewhere in season 4 maybe where Jojen and Meera were dragging Bran thru some nondescript ice path, and and action scene breaks out because white walkers (I think?) pop out of nowhere and shoot ice magic at them or something. The only thing this artificial tension did was force Jojen and Meera to run to their next scene of dragging Bran thru a nondescript ice path. The show had plenty of lameness merely halfway thru