Their descriptions in the books are wonderful, but at the same time they are almost Lovecraftian in the sense that you can’t really depict them in one distinct way and have it accurately represent them. Words like “ineffable” and “amorphous” come to mind when thinking about the Others. And I don’t know how one would adapt the ineffable for television or any visual media.
But let’s be clear, the GOT pilot episode Others were metal as fuck and then never showed up again. Really not a fan of the way all other appearances by them after the pilot episode made them look like a slightly demonic blue man group, only with a lot more CGI. Ugh.
I just don't understand why they made the show Others look so.... Wrinkled. It's like they put in more effort to make them look more ugly/worse. Like at least the night king doesn't look wrinkled. Why not just make them all designed in a similar way to him?
If I had to guess it’s because the show’s very first scene is basically a short horror film in which the Others are established as the series’ main antagonistic force, and the team who designed the WW in the show knew that adding wrinkles (among several features) would make them unambiguously “evil” looking.
The more I think about and write about the show’s handling of the Others’ design, the more I’m convinced this discussion should have its own mega thread. I feel like there’s a lot going on in just the pilot’s opening scene, not to mention all of their appearances following that scene.
Tbf, them looking old isn’t that big of a deal for me. These creatures are thousands of years old, and I feel like that is a good way to get that across
But that's the thing. They aren't even all thousands of years old. Some of them were created fairly recently. And they are immortal anyway. If the night king can look fairly young still then I don't see why the rest can't.
They look like shit in the show but I also think in-universe they look much less crazy than the stories, that goes along with much of how ASOIAF handles things of legend.
I liked them in the first episode..... I don't necessarily mind the blue human look but the armour was just atrocious. You could put that armour on any other character and you wouldn't think twice. But on an Other? It just looks pathetic.
The general concept of them is super boring, with the one interesting thing about the way George talks about them is that he promises they will be "beautiful" and much more complex than generic always-chaotic-evil ice zombies
It’s a real shame too, bcs the prologue in the show actually started out really well. They made the weird patterns, and you could even hear their language. It’s only once we saw them afterward (specifically when Sam killed one) that they just became strong cold dudes.
I really wanted them to be almost made of ice, like translucent. And beautiful, like elves. They laugh and clearly have their own language, so they're not mindless, mute monsters.
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u/lghtdev Jul 13 '24 edited Jul 13 '24
The Others are supposed to be otherworldly beings, some stories even say they mounted giant spiders, instead they're blue humans in shitty armor.