More opportunities to breathe in Season 2 please?
I get that Game of Thrones is a very serious show where anything can happen at any moment, but it also has a good amount of comic relief and "light" scenes with just friends talking things over together and socializing. One of the things that make me enjoy season 1 of the game less is that on one level or another it's near-constant decision-making, with pretty high stakes implied even during relatively inconsequential conversations.
I'm so terrified of antagonizing someone whose friendship I'll need to take advantage of later by saying the wrong thing, or setting the wrong example for people who either look up to me or are waiting to judge that even the fluffier dialogue carries undertones of "don't mess this up, or else". The Forresters are in a precarious situation and you have to be careful who you trust, yes, but I feel like the game could give us more chances to let our hair down and be ourselves with the people who really do have our back without it ruining the tension when things get serious. The importance of trust and companionship is as much a theme of GoT as paranoia, after all.
Case in point: The opening scene at the Twins. We're standing around a campfire bickering harmlessly with our peer while the house's soldiers brag and tussle, and are given every reason to be relaxed and happy for our protagonist at least for the moment. The Freys are preparing to spring their trap, true, but until we find that out the scene is more or less carefree, and we're allowed to explore Gared's character and the setting's power dynamics a bit without any lives hinging on it that we know of. The scene is lighthearted, cheerful and shows great morale among the house's forces. All of which only makes it more poignant when things suddenly go south.
More of that, please.
Comments
"No room to breathe." 6/10 -IGN
I agree, I think they missed a trick there to be honest. For example when you think about it, you have some of the members of house Forester putting their lives at risk in an attempt to protect the others, however they never really interact with the other members and we never really get to know much about their relationships, observations and opinions of the others.
I said this in another thread earlier, but I'll say it again here. In episode 1 Gared looks at the Forester family portrait, however he doesn't really say much about each individual. He only names them and their location, their status (for example he mentions that Ryon is the fourth born son) and iirc combat skill. I think they could've easily elaborated on the descriptions to briefly give some insight into how he viewed them as individuals. I don't know about anyone else, but there were times when I was asking myself why is Gared fighting for the Foresters? I can understand his reasons for wanting to help Gregor, but what about the other members of house Forester? When he looks at the family portrait and talks about lady Forester he mentions that she had always been kind to him and treated him like one of her own, so why couldn't he have said something like that about the other characters.
Ok so we have that one time that Rodrik and Talia are having a conversation at the top of the tower, but it's pretty much all business. I know that the game is meant to be about choices, choices that tailor the game play. So why not give us the option in a light hearted conversation to choose our responses without it having a major impact, for example you could choose if the character reacts in a joking manner or a more sombre tone.
Mhm. We do have moments of characters just socializing, but never without pretty overt tension. For example, in every conversation with Talia you're forced to choose between pushing her to grow up and deal with her losses, reassuring her that everything is under control, or refusing to speak to her, with very little else being discussed. A (Change the subject to something less straining for your little sister's sanity) option really wouldn't have hurt.
Both the Walking Dead and Tales of the Borderlands have lots of moments of people just bonding, and The Wolf Among Us even has a few despite playing out over a much shorter timespan with Bigby being busy as hell and constantly on task. In Game of Thrones some of our characters literally spend months surrounded by friends and loved ones with very little to do other than waiting for things to play out and presumably cherishing each other. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy the game, just that it wasted an opportunity resulting in a very tense experience.
Pause Button.
WISH GRANTED.