bobinator said:
I think this is my issue. The time jumps seem like a cop out on actual character development. There's no subtlety to it like on GOT. We just fast forward from set piece to set piece, and the characters are just that way now. We don't see their slow development like on GOT.
I dunno, I'm still watching, I'm just kind of thinking out loud on here. Without a big outside thread, which we sort of had one and then Daemon already took care of it, I just kind of find myself thinking "who cares which unlikable person ultimately wins?"
In GOT there was always this backdrop of impending doom that gave more weight to the political squabbling.
I guess the only alternatives were :
1. Skip the backstory all-together and start the series with the king dying and the SHTF (or just before)
2. Spend 2-3 years on where we've gotten to this point - would give much more time for backstory, but probably seem really slow.
(I haven't read the books, this is me just presuming what the future story holds)
Those being the other options - I'm good with what they're doing - we're getting the necessary backstory on the major players in the world. When SHTF shortly, we have the benefit of knowing their motivations... but it didn't take us years to get there.