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selenakStill on the road with little time online (also: this is a week of mostly cloudy weather everywhere in Germany, so it's a good thing I'm not travelling for fun), but these two links re: the latest Breaking Bad episode, which after having watched it I could at last read, are fun and fascinating, respectively:
Fun: George R. R. Martin feels outdone and vows to get even. An impressed Martin declared Walter White to be a bigger monster than anyone in Westeros, and decides to do something about that; cue people in the comments saying "but what about Ramsay Bolton and Joffrey?", people defending Walt on account of him doing it all for the family (causing Mr. Martin to jump in with "hey, Tywin is all about family, too"), and one clever commenter stating that the extraordinariness of Walt isn't that he's surpassing, say, Ramsay, in sadism (he's not), but that Ramsay or Joffrey were never introduced as sympathetic characters the audience/reader was supposed to like or in any way admire, whereas Walt was introduced as sympathetic, clever and with underdog-against-the-system appeal, THEN revealed darker and darker sides. The only way this commenter said, Westeros could have a Walter White was if G.R. R. Martin gave Tyrion that arc. Cue suspicious silence of the author and reevaluation of Tyrion's later books activities?
Fascinating: Abigail Nussbaum on BOTH phonecalls in Ozymandias, Walter White, Skyler, and their marriage. Spoilers for all of Breaking Bad broadcast so far.
ETA: Vince Gilligan and the other Breaking Bad writers at work: an article describing the breaking of a season 4 story (so no s 5 spoilers). Note that two of the scribes are female (unlike some other shows I could mention, BB not only has female scriptwriters - Gennifer Hutchison and Moira Walley-Beckett - but also gives ghem key episodes; Moira Walley-Beckett wrote the amazing Ozymandias from last weekend which Gilligan himself described as the best episode they ever did). Also, here's one passage to amuse the fans, aka, the writers debating towards which conflict season 4 should be headed:
Inevitably, the line between "What happens next?" and "Where's a character's head at?" began to blur. "By the end of the season, it should be that Jesse is torn between two friends, or masters … " Gilligan said, groping toward a breakthrough.
"Just say 'lovers'," said one of the writers.
"No, it's a custody battle! 'I don't know whether I want to live with Mom or Dad!'" Gilligan nearly shouted, grinning.
This instantly rang true. Jesse's relationship with Walt had always been that of a dysfunctional father and son. And the room's energy was suddenly refocused.
"Walt is like, 'He's trying to turn you against me, don't you see?'"
"His house is bigger than mine. Is that the problem?"
Gilligan was laughing: "He's got a PlayStation. All I have is Sega."
Fun: George R. R. Martin feels outdone and vows to get even. An impressed Martin declared Walter White to be a bigger monster than anyone in Westeros, and decides to do something about that; cue people in the comments saying "but what about Ramsay Bolton and Joffrey?", people defending Walt on account of him doing it all for the family (causing Mr. Martin to jump in with "hey, Tywin is all about family, too"), and one clever commenter stating that the extraordinariness of Walt isn't that he's surpassing, say, Ramsay, in sadism (he's not), but that Ramsay or Joffrey were never introduced as sympathetic characters the audience/reader was supposed to like or in any way admire, whereas Walt was introduced as sympathetic, clever and with underdog-against-the-system appeal, THEN revealed darker and darker sides. The only way this commenter said, Westeros could have a Walter White was if G.R. R. Martin gave Tyrion that arc. Cue suspicious silence of the author and reevaluation of Tyrion's later books activities?
Fascinating: Abigail Nussbaum on BOTH phonecalls in Ozymandias, Walter White, Skyler, and their marriage. Spoilers for all of Breaking Bad broadcast so far.
ETA: Vince Gilligan and the other Breaking Bad writers at work: an article describing the breaking of a season 4 story (so no s 5 spoilers). Note that two of the scribes are female (unlike some other shows I could mention, BB not only has female scriptwriters - Gennifer Hutchison and Moira Walley-Beckett - but also gives ghem key episodes; Moira Walley-Beckett wrote the amazing Ozymandias from last weekend which Gilligan himself described as the best episode they ever did). Also, here's one passage to amuse the fans, aka, the writers debating towards which conflict season 4 should be headed:
Inevitably, the line between "What happens next?" and "Where's a character's head at?" began to blur. "By the end of the season, it should be that Jesse is torn between two friends, or masters … " Gilligan said, groping toward a breakthrough.
"Just say 'lovers'," said one of the writers.
"No, it's a custody battle! 'I don't know whether I want to live with Mom or Dad!'" Gilligan nearly shouted, grinning.
This instantly rang true. Jesse's relationship with Walt had always been that of a dysfunctional father and son. And the room's energy was suddenly refocused.
"Walt is like, 'He's trying to turn you against me, don't you see?'"
"His house is bigger than mine. Is that the problem?"
Gilligan was laughing: "He's got a PlayStation. All I have is Sega."
