Game of ThronesFollow

OMG, the TV series is starting in the US really soon? How soon?

Is Arya the brave little Stark girl who learned to fight? I like that one a lot too. Yeah, he hasn't got too many "good" characters to kill off any more.

I actually LIKE that he has been brave enough as a writer to kill main characters. Most writers cocoon readers in a dream world that doesn't really acknowledge how dangerous their imagined worlds would be to live in. Power struggles, crime, diseases, in worlds without constitutions, police forces, good communications or medical science. Novels are chock full of The Lucky.

Fine Literature, that examines what it is to be human, is more brave and cruel to its characters. But I wouldn't call ASOIAF fine Literature. It's really good SF, but it's not literature. There's some good SF out there that has unhappy or downer endings, but they are in the decided minority. There might be people who like those books, who can cope with that severe tug on their heartstrings in their recreational reading. But after all the death and bloodshed, I personally hope that Martin rescues some of the good out of the ashes. I'm still hoping for a happy ending and a rescued world.

AIIEEE!

Ugh, I have work scheduled for when it starts.

Thank God for DVRs.

I must say, there were probably more boobies in this version than I pictured when I was reading the books.

It's a series on HBO. There has to be lots of boobs and sex where the people apparently have genitalia on their stomachs.

Based on the previews that I've seen, the wolves should have enough of a role in the show that they'll include their names soon enough. Cute pups!

I enjoyed it well enough. Sure did move fast, though I think I understand why. Seemed like the writers were quite concerned with hooking the non-reader audience. They wanted to get done with almost all of the character introductions and early characterizations, while still having a few major events (Spoilerthe wedding, Bran's fall) to generate interest. The deviations from the novel all made sense, and seemed mostly related to pacing.

SpoilerSpeaking of that wedding, the honeymoon was a fair bit harsher than I recall from the books. Yeesh.


I still love all the casting choices, perhaps even more so. Peter Dinklage looks to be awesome, and the guy playing Jon Snow seems like he'll make the character more interesting to me than he was in the books. Cersei will be great.

The scenery was a bit hit-or-miss to me. The scene with Ned and Catelyn in the godswood looked fit to be framed, and the scenes of the Wall and beyond were pretty suitable. But Winterfell came off as very forgettable (even more so than it did in the books!) and the Dothraki wedding seemed rather tiny.

Also, neat intro-title thing. Very cool looking, symbolic, and a practical way to get everyone used to the locales.

Edited, Apr 18th 2011 9:03am by Eske

My guess is that with the quick pacing of the first episode, the writers figured that the characterization shift for Drogo would come on too soon (i.e: he's introduced as a cold-blooded killer, then is immediately shown to have a softer side in his very next scene).

Either they plan to soften that side of his personality in the coming episodes, or they just figured that his character works well enough as a nasty guy. I do think that the latter could work, if they fiddle with Danaerys reactions a bit. If they have Drogo stay harsh, then Danny's maturation could be shown to come solely from the power that he gives her, or from the way that he protects her. I suppose that he doesn't have to have a gentle side for things to make sense.

One thing that bugged me is that I didn't see Hodor at all. Did I just miss him (I find that somewhat unlikely, considering who he is supposed to be...), or do you think they might be purposefully leaving him out because of the nature of his character?

I don't particularly like Hodor's character either, but Spoilerhow will Bran get around without Hodor to carry him on his back? Will they just ignore that aspect and not show him being carried around by anyone? Maybe they'll just have someone else do it? I certainly can't picture anyone else being able to carry him everywhere though. That was the only thing that raised a question in my mind.

SpoilerConcerning the "rape", I can see where you're coming from, but I never really thought of it that way myself. It certainly started out that way, there's no denying that, but I always felt that by opening up to her and showing his gentle side, he showed that he understood, at least to an extent, the situation she was in, and she responded in kind by opening up to him as well. As far as I can remember, the sex never actually started until after she accepted him, in which case I think it doesn't necessarily have to be classified as rape (other than the fact that he still started out by taking her clothes off against her will, which is definitely still an issue). Again, I'm a little fuzzy on the details, so it's possible I'm getting this all wrong. Either way though, they're going to have to show some kind of event that gets Dany to fall for him, so it'll be interesting to see how they do that.

Score.