Movies & TV Shows
Game of Thrones Travel Speeds Have Become a Problem
Game of Thrones is a series that has prided itself on realism in a fantastical setting. Any character can die at any moment from any mishap. As the series has gone on and strayed further from George RR Martin’s books, Game of Thrones has become more and more fantastical. While this leads to excellent sequences with dragons, White Walkers, Children of the Forest, and so much more, it has begun to sacrifice its realism. This is especially the case when it comes to traveling speeds in more recent seasons.
Now, some out there will argue that Game of Thrones is a fantasy and that we shouldn’t take a world with dragons and ice zombies so seriously. Normally, I’d be inclined to agree, but when a series breaks its own rules that it set out to establish over 5 seasons (and books), then it becomes an issue.
Characters, messages, and general information are traveling way too fast now. In previous seasons, it would take characters weeks, sometimes even months, to get to destinations that characters are going back and forth from in single episodes now. Just a simple glance at the map of Westeros can give you a pretty good idea of why this is an issue. You can argue that there isn’t much content left in Game of Thrones so the story needs to be wrapped up quicker, but passage of time isn’t being shown well.
*Spoilers for Game of Thrones up to the most recent episode (7×06) ahead! Proceed with caution*
Season 6 of Game of Thrones is where this issue started to rear its head, especially towards the end. Arya got Westeros from Braavos in a single episode, Jaime traveled from the Twins to King’s Landing in a few scenes and the Sept of Baelor was still burning, etc. The worst offender was Varys going from just arriving in Dorne, creating alliances, and heading back to Meereen in just a few minutes our time. All these distances would take the characters weeks to travel, and months in Varys’ case, but they all happen in single episodes.
It wouldn’t be as much of an issue if they were showing or at least implying to proper passage of time either. You could suspend disbelief for some of these season 6 super-speed journeys, but it’s basically become teleportation in season 7.
In the first episode of season 7, Cersei already knows Jon has become King in the North and has already sent him a raven (something that would take a week at least). Yet, this scene happens directly after the scene he becomes King in the North while it’s only been shown to be at most a few hours. Tyrion and Davos traveled to King’s Landing and back to Dragonstone in a single episode, while similar passage of time was shown at Winterfell. What’s even worse about that is that in the same episode Gendry goes from King’s Landing, south several hundred miles to Dragonstone, and north several thousand to the Wall.
I feel like for me personally, it’s bothered me but I could mostly ignore it and shut my mind off for quality TV. That being said, last night’s episode is where things went too far. Gendry runs a distance that took the group a whole day to walk, sends a raven all the way to Dragonstone, and Daenerys rides her dragons all the way to their location to save them. This all occurs within what is only shown to be a single day. Back at Winterfell, things are progressing as if it’s only been a day (maybe two if we’re stretching it) and Jon and company are only shown getting one night of sleep.
There is absolutely no way this could’ve happened in one day just following Game of Thrones’ own rules. Even discarding the fact that it’s a fantasy show and we shouldn’t take it seriously, when a series sets rules for itself it should follow them lest it get bogged down in plot holes like this. Last night’s episode has been the single biggest leap of faith Game of Thrones fans have been asked to take so far and fans online are already starting to call it out. Considering how few episodes we have left in the series, these kinds of major plot conveniences and dumbed down world rules are bound to continue. That isn’t to say it isn’t still a good series, but it’s not as good as it used to be due to issues like this.
Trailer for Season 7 Finale:
Generally, The Marvels is good. It has a 59 on Rotten Tomatoes, which isn’t great, but it’s better than Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania and Disney+’s Secret Invasion. Perhaps director Nia DaCosta’s video game inspirations contributed to that.
The American filmmaker said Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children influenced her latest film at a press junket with IGN. “It’s just an amazing movie, with great fight scenes and a great ending sequence with the main character being thrown into the sky by all the other characters,” she said.
Despite poor reviews upon release in 2005, Advent Children has become a Final Fantasy cult classic. DaCosta seems to agree that the film is a classic. PlayStation exclusives also influenced the Marvels.
In the interview, she said she didn’t want the superhero film to look “too much like a video game” but did draw from Sony’s biggest franchises, like The Last of Us and Horizon Zero Dawn. “For me, it was from the best games, the best stories that you get, that sort of inspires me to play, and I think inspires people to watch movies like this,” she said.
Since movies have shaped video games since their inception, it’s interesting to see the dynamic slowly changing. Now that technology and interactive storytelling are more complex, filmmakers are looking to PlayStation for inspiration.
Netflix reported third-quarter earnings and is doing well. Revenue increased as the company added 9 million subscribers worldwide.
Netflix is also using this opportunity to raise the prices of some of its U.S., U.K., and French plans to differentiate ad-free plans from its entry-level ad-supported plan. New subscribers to the most expensive plan will pay $22.99 per month.
Let’s step back and examine Netflix’s current situation. Netflix cracked down on password sharing in its home market and dozens of others in May. The third quarter is the first full quarter under the new rules, so we can see the effect of password sharing.
The company removed the basic tier in the U.S. and U.K. two months ago to simplify its offering. People must pay a lot to remove Netflix ads.
Reports suggest that many customers are experiencing subscription fatigue and considering canceling some streaming subscriptions, but Netflix still has room for growth, especially with advertising revenue.
The company has 247.15 million subscribers. The number of subscribers increased 8.76 million this quarter. Netflix subscribers haven’t grown that much since Q2 2020, when Covid lockdowns were enforced worldwide.
Netflix earned $3.73 per share on $8.5 billion in revenue this quarter. As ads plan subscribers rise almost 70% quarter-over-quarter, ads are contributing more to the bottom line. Nearly a third of new subscribers use ads.
Netflix shares are up 13.75% pre-market ($393.79 per share) on good news for shareholders. However, subscribers will be unhappy because the company will raise prices for some plans again in three key markets. Full breakdown here.
In the U.S.:
- Standard with ads: $6.99 per month (no change)
- Basic (no longer available): $11.99 per month (up from $9.99)
- Standard: $15.49 per month (no change)
- Premium (with 4K streaming): $22.99 per month (up from $19.99)
In the U.K.:
- Standard with ads: £4.99 per month (no change)
- Basic (no longer available): £7.99 per month (up from £6.99)
- Standard: £10.99 per month (no change)
- Premium (with 4K streaming): £17.99 per month (up from £15.99)
In France:
- Standard with ads: €5.99 per month (no change)
- Basic (still available in France for now): €10.99 per month (up from €8.99)
- Standard: €13.49 per month (no change)
- Premium (with 4K streaming): €19.99 per month (up from €17.99)
New subscriptions start at these prices today. Bills for existing subscribers will rise in the coming weeks.
When your writer—one of Hollywood’s hottest—tries to hide their involvement, it’s a bad sign. The Borderlands film’s original script was written by Craig Mazin (The Last of Us, Chernobyl), who recently asked the WGA to use the pseudonym “Joe Crombie” instead of his name.
We hope this means Mazin considers Joe Abercrombie, Lord Grimdark, the grittiness GOAT, but that theory is unproven. Since Mazin wrote the script in 2015 for Eli Roth to direct, a steady stream of writers has been brought in. Aaron Berg, Chris Bremner, Sam Levinson, Zak Olkewicz, Tony Rettenmaier, Juel Taylor, and Oren Uziel have put around 70 fingers in the honey pot.
The name change likely avoids confusion. Mazin probably doesn’t want to be blamed for Jack Black/Claptrap madness, but he wants to keep his rights.
To clarify, the Borderlands film finished filming in 2021, but Roth was replaced by Tim Miller (Deadpool) in January.
When this surprising star-studded film (Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, Cate Blanchet) limps out, what are your expectations? We think this was supposed to coincide with Borderlands 3’s 2019 release, but it’s overshot the mark.
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