Can't wait, it looks great. The white walkers didn't look very white though (cos thats sposed to be one of them at the end with the sword), but I guess maybe they just kept it in shadow to make it more of a reveal when you see them later on.
Fuuuuuuck, too short! This show is looking to be so damn awesome. They look to be staying really true to the books too. Still like 2 more weeks to wait though. :(
Season 2 was "apparently" been green lit way back in Feb (according to rumors) so it seams HBO are quite confident in this.
I hope it draws enough viewers to get seasons 3 and 4, as a Storm of Swords was my favourite part of the series so far
Yeah, Storm of Swords was awesome, some seriously fucked up shit happens in that book. Thats one of the things I loved most about the series, how it avoids falling into typical genre cliches where the good guys are always the heroes and save the day and persevere against the odds and the bad guys always get whats coming to them. In this, more often than not the "good" guys get fucked over hard and the people who do the fucking get away with it. So much bad shit happens to good people in those books. Even "good" is just a relative term, like Tyrion is pretty much one of the good guys, but he perpetrates some evil shit on people in Storm of Swords too (even though they had it coming).
I hope by the time they come to filming the season that deals with Feast for Crows that the next book is out, and they mix that in with the season so its not just a straight adaptation of Feast for Crows, cos I reckon that'd be pretty boring and shit. And as a show it just wouldn't work having a whole season missing a bunch of your main characters. And the stuff in Dorne was mostly shit.
i just finished reading a game of thrones after the recommendation in another thread (plus the upcoming tv series). was seriously awesome. I got really excited about reading the rest of the series until i found out that he sometimes takes 5 years between books...sigh
that being said, am going to get the other 3 that are out and smash them. this is the type of fantasy that i enjoy
Must be the only person who thought AFFC was awesome. Looking forward to this series.
It wasn't bad, I didn't hate it or anything, but it was definitely the weakest in the series imo. It also introduced a bunch of new characters that I just didn't care about (like the aforementioned Dorne stuff), and it didn't continue with any of the characters I really wanted to know more about like Tyrion and Jamie and Jon Snow and Spoiler: the fucked up shit happening with undead catelyn stark
At least it had Arya though, her story is pretty rad, and the girl they've got to play her in the show looks perfect for it too.
Some of the stuff on the Iron Islands was cool though, the priest guy annoys the shit out of me though and I hate Theon, but the badass brother with the warlocks and the dragon horn and stuff that comes back to steal the throne was pretty cool.
I agree about Storm of Swords, really awesome book. Despite being the longest, I think I got through it faster than all the others, just because I couldn't put it down.
A Feast for Crows wasn't shit, but it was definitely the least exciting. I really wanted to know what was going on with Bran, Daenerys, Jon and Tyrion, but instead was stuck with the Iron Islands and Dorne. As Khel said though, Arya's story was pretty interesting, so it wasn't a bad book, just not as good as the others.
Has anything been said about how long each season will be? Or if they're making it as one book = one season? I'm hoping they make them longer than 12 episodes or so, because there's a lot of stuff to cover in there.
Well, in an interview with the hot british chick playing Daenerys she mentioned the scene where Spoiler: she takes the dragon eggs into the funeral pyre and they hatch
So it sounds like the first season is covering the whole first book at least. I dunno if its covering more than that though.
Saw a write up about this in The Age today, can't wait. Also got recommended Camelot by Syco and it's proving to be a pretty decent show so far. Made by the same guys as the Tudors.
i've watched 4 eps of camelot and i think that's all i'm going to watch. i'm finding it very boring and it feels like hardly anything happens in the 50-55 mins it runs for.
This does look pretty good, never read the books which usually works out for the better. Hopefully they start with a 2 hour premier since we've already seen 14 minutes :)
I've been watching Camelot so far but can't stand the main character and don't think the show will hold me long term. It was worth it for Eva Green's boobies though.
From that 14 minute preview though, it looks like they're staying pretty close to the books. I mean I'm sure theres stuff that will change a bit or get left out, but the general impression I get is its very true to the books, which is pretty awesome.
man, i've been super busy lately so haven't had much time to read but i'm a bit over halfway through the book and it's probably already one of the best fantasy books i've ever read.
i seriously rage when i look at the clock and have to stop reading and go to bed/work/whatever ><
i bought the a game of thrones when the show was first mentioned in another thread i think - i had ordered the rest of the books off book depository before i had finished it! looking forward to the show, the 14 min preview was wicked.
i bought the a game of thrones when the show was first mentioned in another thread i think - i had ordered the rest of the books off book depository before i had finished it!
Heh, yeah, I was reading it on my Kindle and had bought the second book before I had finished the first one.
Then I realised I didn't need to do that, because you get books immediately after buying them on the Kindle.
Just finished watching it, its pretty much spot on perfect. The guy playing Jamie Lannister is awesome, and Viserys is great too. Theon Greyjoy is still a smarmy cunt and still makes me want to punch him in the face, so I guess thats a pretty accurate portrayal as well.
Just watched this. God damn that was awesome. Now I have to wait another week!
It was nice too see that they didn't cut out all of the titties either. Nice treat to see Daenerys' rack!
I also noticed they used Tamaskan dogs as the wolves, which is pretty cool. Hopefully they become more popular now, so I can actually get one in Australia.
Yeah, didn't have to wait long at all for tits, I was most impressed. They even had the dothraki wedding scene with all its fucking and violence, I was half expecting them to cut out scenes like that, or at least significantly change them.
Yeah, they changed the scene where Daenerys and Drogo get it on though. Made it look like he more or less raped her, where in the book she actually gets a bit horny and goes at it.
Also, did Drogo have the bells in his hair? I forgot to look until the last scene with him and Deanerys, and he didn't have them there.
I'd never heard of this, and until I saw the release on another site I didn't even realise this thread was about a new TV show, so came back and read it then.
Some of the first episode was very strong, but other aspects of it were not so, in particular some of the acting. The early scenes with the blonde guy and his sister. Very unconvincing - though maybe this is how they come across in the book?.
Another complaint is that it seemed very glossy, it didn't have the grit of shows like The Tudors. If you think it seems strange to compare a fantasy tale with The Tudors then you've missed my point.
I have other complaints, mostly due I think to them having to ramp up the characters that were probably developed over a long time in the books, in such a short space of time, but i'm willing to put all of them aside and give this more of a go.
I got a feeling it might a pre-requisite to have read the books because I haven't and I found the show pretty confusing. Lots of character introductions, jumping all around between history lines of the families and current relationships between the different actors as well as trying to explain a history of the land, this ice wall, the white walkers, etc.
Also had to wait for too long for first shot of mediaeval titty.
I got a feeling it might a pre-requisite to have read the books because I haven't and I found the show pretty confusing.
Yeah, I dug out a copy of the book and read through the first 100 pages and was able to fully follow along only because of that.
It looks like it's going to shape up awesome for those that are even slightly familiar with the story. However if there's one thing I didn't like about it, is that some stuff is skimmed and only really makes sense if you've read the books. On a couple of occasions I saw characters give a small glance or glare at other characters and there might be a page devoted to a snippet of back story and explain why that glance was significant.
I've noticed a few sites have popped up today with that tried to fill in the back story gaps with the characters, and hopefully that'll just be a problem early on in the series because the characters are new.
That's an unavoidable difficulty with telling this story though :)
There's 100 fucking characters to introduce whereas a normal pilot would introduce half a dozen characters.
I think I'm going to have to read the books, it was pretty dull.
Spoiler: The part with the savage type of people seemed to be full retard, all the sudden there were chicks with denim mini-skirts and dirty dancing. Were they meant to be having sex? Because that was the most unrealistic shit ever. I don't like my sex to be portrayed through interpreted dance.
Yeah, it would be a bit of an overload for someone who hasn't read the books, trying to get to grips with all the characters and whats going on, but then really a lot of HBO shows are kinda like that, they just throw you in the deep end and you get to know the characters and the world around them just by whats going on and not through any forced, long drawn out exposition.
Generally I prefer that, than every character awkwardly using the other character's names when they see them so you know who they are, or having some voice over that explains who people are or whats going on. Its more natural to let events just unravel and pick it up as it goes along. I remember in The Wire I was pretty lost for the first episode or two, if you asked me who people were I wouldn't have been able to name names, but you pick it up pretty quick.
This is probably worse though cos theres a shtiload of characters, and when Ned Stark and the king get back to King's Landing, theres even more characters to introduce. Then Jon Snow gets to the Wall and theres even MORE characters to introduce :P
My one misgiving is I'm not too sure about how they're portraying Tyrion atm, its been a while since I read the first book but I don't remember him being portrayed as such a drunkard or a lecher.
Yeah, I know hes always drinking, but I dunno, I never got the impression he stumbled around like a drunkard, he always seemed to stay pretty composed and in control in the books. Dunno, maybe that was just how I pictured it in my mind, I should go back and re-read the books.
i know what you mean, i got that impression too in the books.
like he's a master manipulator who's not really on anyone's team - instead he's got his own plan going on that he's following. though in the books he also does love his earthly pleasures (again, i'm only 1/2 through 1st book) so maybe they were just playing up that aspect due to the feast or something.
edit: or at least that was my inital take on him
Spoiler: e.g. when he goes out of his way to help jon snow and bran. he also seemed to hate his family a lot more in the book than the tv show so far, though they haven't really had much time to build on that yet
Yeah, they kinda touched on that (your spoiler bit), when he was talking to Jon Snow about being a bastard. I'm sure there'll be a lot more hate though when Tywin Lannister comes into it (their father).
Also, a question for people who've read the books and have a better memory than me, who is the other guy who was at the execution and with them when they found the pups? There was ned stark, theon greyjoy, rob, bran, jon snow and then there was another guy and I can't remember who hes sposed to be.
Ah, yeah, it was a young guy so its probably Jory Cassel, good call. I remember Ser Rodrik Cassel but forgot about his son. Ser Rodrik is much fatter and more out of shape than I had imagined too :P
I'm keen to see what they do with Gregor Clegane. 7 and a half feet of pure psychopathic strength. Will they get someone of close height or do some fancy camera work like LotR.
They've already revealed all of the cast in the "making of" featuretts on YouTube for the past few months. Gregor is being played by a 7ft bloke named Conan Stevens.
kinda bummed. the 14minute trailer was the best part of the first episode :(
the rest was pretty boring. i know they generally need to introduce & build characters at an early stage but ffs throw some decent action in so the audience doesn't goto sleep.
yeah wasn't much action, but so many characters to setup, plenty more to come as well
but having read the book - i loved it! can't wait for viserys first tantie, hopefully it is a doozy. jason momoa as khal drogo was good too, cos his character barely speaks so it suits momoa's acting ability
I was really surprised, because while the books were good, they weren't fantastic. I also thought because the books had so many characters and plots, and it was impossible to follow them even in the books, how the hell were they going to do it in the tv series? But they did an awesome job!
It was surprisingly close to the books too, although I haven't read them in a while now. The actors seem to be awesomely cast and the actual production quality is awesome!
Finally some decent fantasy on tv - dragons ftmfw!!!
Its not really, I don't want to say more because then it could end up a spoiler, but yeah, its not spoiling anything and its probably not what you think. I'll put it in tags though anyway just to be sure.
some of the dialogue I thought was a bit second rate
lack of action I didn't care about cos I'm used to HBO series starting out kind of slow but drawing me in with story and character development
some of the dialogue I thought was a bit second rate lack of action I didn't care about cos I'm used to HBO series starting out kind of slow but drawing me in with story and character development
Except Daenerys is supposed to be 13 years old.
I can't help thinging rockape would have loved this series, it has midget porn AND loli in the same hour.
The episode felt incredibly rushed to me; and I've read the book. It must have been a lot to take in for somebody who hasn't read the books.
I agree with what was said about the guy playing viserys; he nailed it. He just seemed so unstable and eccentric! For those who haven't read the books; it will all make sense in time.
It seems to me that the also tried to regionalise the accents of Westeros using different English accents. Pretty cool if true, or maybe it was just a fluke.
Watched it without having read the books. It was a bit confusing, but as Khel said that's not unusual when starting a HBO show. Was especially difficult to follow who all the guys were in the north (think there was two older brothers and a bastard? and nobody else was of particular importance? they all kind of looked the same).
The cities and map intro were great. A few of the characters (especially the uncle and the dwarf) seem awesome. Most everybody else is boring so far, but might get better with time. Youngest sister is promising too.
Everybody and their surroundings seemed way too clean, especially the barbarian guys. Used to seeing that in b-grade fantasy tv stuff like the seeker / stargate / whatever, but was sort of surprised to see that in a HBO show.
one thing that doesn't really come across in the show is that there is only 3 legitimate sons, 1 bastard and a ward.
youngest son (Rickard / Rickon ?) seen giggling during the archery scene ( pretty much an afterthought in teh book)
2nd youngest (Bran) the climbing kid
oldest (Rob) the one that gives the daggers look to the smug young prince at teh meet and greet
the Bastard (Jon Snow) not invited to the feast
and the Ward (Theon Greyjoy) the bug eyed one all to eager to knife the puppies
Second episode was great too, also noticed the credits got updated to show different locations so that was pretty cool.
One thing that did strike me though is where is Jon Snow's direwolf, Ghost? Saw him rescue the dire wolf cub but we haven't seen it at all since then, and it wasn't with him when he was riding to the wall.
One thing that did strike me though is where is Jon Snow's direwolf, Ghost? Saw him rescue the dire wolf cub but we haven't seen it at all since then, and it wasn't with him when he was riding to the wall.
Yeah, Ghost was there at the start of the scene where Jon's talking to Tyrion.
i want the stab joffrey in the face.
Yeah, he's so hate-able. I guess they're doing it right then, because I loathed him in the books.
For anyone wondering, I took one for the team and read through this thread without mousing over any black shit (and having not read the books). Appears to be no spoilers as of episode 2, or:
Spoiler: if you can read this your spoiler tags are not working because your browser fucking hates you.
Maybe it was covered up later but thread looks OK, just make sure you're up to date with the eps ;)
Spoilers are unfortunately a given if you're online trying to find more info about the show. There's four books that have kinda been out there for a long time.
I was browsing to try to get some clarity on the minor characters - stay away from A Wiki of Ice and Fire if you care at all about being surprised at the HBO storyline...
I'm pretty much cleared up now. I was just trying to figure out who went with who, i.e. Jory Cassel went south with Ned and Rodrik Cassel stayed north. Also, the bit where Sandor Clegane and Ser Ilyn Payne corner Sansa.
Also, Minor Spoiler: It's kinda implied, but not made explicit like it is in the book that Ser Jorah Mormont is King Robert's spy
Best part of this series so far is seeing those... whitewalkers is it? In the first episode. They were amazingly awesome and we havn't seen anything of them since. They better show up again as that's what made me get into the series.
Fucking noobs, khel obviously edited after i posted.
It was a minor spoiler from the books, not from what has been seen in the episodes, I guess what i said could be a spoiler, but it was what i inferred from the two episodes, i have not read the books.
I can keep away from the thread before the episode airs, but if cunts are going to come in and post book spoilers willy nilly, i'd like to know now.
Spoiler: Cersei is a bitch, and she gets worse, and she gets away with it for a very long time without any comeuppance
I think there needs to be some statute of limitations on what is a spoiler, cos I don't really consider that a spoiler. I wasn't trying to spoil anything, I was just trying to set the tone for what to expect, all I'm really saying is Spoiler: the nasty people get nastier, and stay nasty for the forseeable future.
Its also the type of world where Spoiler: the good guys get fucked over all the time, and the bad guys usually come out on top but then it gets hard sometimes to draw the line between who is a "good" guy and who is a "bad" guy, and that grey area is where a lot of the most interesting characters live.
I'm scared to read this thread due to spoilers on any scale. Gotta say though that while I'm enjoying it, and should probably just be patient, I'm finding it surprisingly uninteresting still. Production quality also doesn't seem much higher than all the other tv fantasy series out there so far, which I'm finding oddly off-putting (I guess I just had high hopes, to not feel like I'm watching a bunch of extras walking around in costumes that don't fit them. Seeing Ronan/Conan as the tribe leader dude is kind of amusing).
As always, characters to hate has made the show a lot more fun towards the end of episode two ;). The three characters going to the wall are all great too.
Still expect to enjoy it once the plot has developed, and damn I love that intro enough for me to forgive any flaws that I feel the show may have so far. :P
Production quality also doesn't seem much higher than all the other tv fantasy series out there so far, which I'm finding oddly off-putting
i beg to differ. the production quality is far superior to other fantasy shows i've seen before. the budget for the 10 episodes this season is estimated to be $50-$60 million.
i beg to differ. the production quality is far superior to other fantasy shows i've seen before. the budget for the 10 episodes this season is estimated to be $50-$60 million.
Yeah Winterfell is well done, and the CGI city shots are incredible. It's just the general... feel of everything. Particularly things like the barbarians, they just don't seem... dirty? Every time they're out in a forest or something, I can't help but see them as actors walking around a forest in costumes.
I saw a post-processing video awhile back which showed how a scene for some sci-fi movie was made slightly more "other-worldy" by altering the colour of the sky etc, whereas if they don't use that I tend to now see it as actors walking around a forest in the same sense of cheap webseries (Riese the Series for example, speaking of which whatever happened to that Alicia Day Dragon Age series...). It's probably just a personal thing, but it pulls me out of the story a fair bit and makes it hard to enjoy medieval/fantasy on film. :S Pillars of the Earth for example didn't really have that problem.
I have a feeling that the Barbarians and the Winterfell are two different production teams. I totally agree about the Barbarians looking really unrealistic, I think it improved a little with this episode but even though their clothes were made from rough cloth and reeds, they didn't look worn at all. When it comes to the barbarians I can't tell it apart from an episode of stargate, hopefully it improves as the series goes on and comes more like that of the Winterfell group.
I was pretty disappointed with the Dothraki Horde. I know they need to save money where they could but i wanted to see a hundred thousand men and horses (cgi'd of course) marching across a vast grassland.
Khel he has proclaimed the book finished on his livejournal and has set a tentative publication date by mid this year. I totally understand your skepticism.
You *are* watching this in at least 720p right? The production is big budget stuff for a television series.
Yes and granularity is not what I'm talking about. It's the costumes (some of them) and shots (panning establishment ones which always start right when some extras are "doing something interesting") which seem like a lot of the b-grade stuff that I watch, not something beyond that which I was hoping for. (it's hard to describe, other than "it's not up there" in immersive cinematic story telling so far, which is what I was really hoping for in a HBO fantasy series, as the genre is so often unable to get over that necessary-quality-for-believability hump).
tl;dr - live action fantasy scenes remind me of Stargate and not say Rome or Spartacus. Directing in general seems a bit weak. Acting and CGI is fantastic though.
edit: Tbh I think all my complaints on that are entirely about the exiles/barbarian scenes, the other stuff is great. As deadlyf said, it's almost as if it's an entirely different production.
It's the costumes (some of them) and shots (panning establishment ones which always start right when some extras are "doing something interesting") which seem like a lot of the b-grade stuff that I watch
I find most of the directing and quality of the shots (environments, lighting, acting, clothing etc) to be superb. I do agree that the exile/barbarian scenes seem different though.
Granted, it's a TV series so it's not going to be all action and killing and stuff all the time. I'm glad they're taking their time to establish things.
You're saying this is worse than spartacus? Your opinion just lost any credibility at all.
Spartacus was cheesy as hell and I started off thinking it was rubbish. Was fun though and had a hell of a plot.
Wasn't saying the show overall is worse, just that compared to a few other shows (such as Blood & Sand), the directing feels... amateurish, like the b-grade shows I watch and not what I was hoping for from HBO. That being said, I think those complaints may be nearly entirely directed towards the exiles/barbarian scenes. Winterfell stuff is mostly fine and I was enjoying those.
The director of the second unit filming the Dothraki scenes may not as good, but surely we can all agree that he's doing great work when it comes to portraying Emilia Clarke's breasts.
Spartacus was cheesy as hell and I started off thinking it was rubbish. Was fun though and had a hell of a plot.
Lol wut? Not sure what you mean about B-Grade directing of fantasy scenes? There's been very little of that so far, except for the bit with Spoiler: The Others right at the beginning.
Spoiler: If you come into a thread talking about a TV show and get upset by spoilers, perhaps try not to click on the thread in the first place
Second episode was much more entertaining than the first, I got the feeling the paced slowed a little with the character interactions and the story line development. The only confusing part was why get lessons on how to suck down some dong, didn't seem to fit with the rest of the show.
Nerfington, don't you get sick of being wrong all the time?
Nah just people like you. :P
I was just stating an opinion on how the show did and didn't work for me. I can't really be wrong unless I'm lying...
Lol wut?
I think Spartacus had an excellent plot.
Not sure what you mean about B-Grade directing of fantasy scenes? There's been very little of that so far, except for the bit with -- right at the beginning.
I thought the beginning was actually fine. Every barbarian scene etc is fantasy. By b-grade I mean it seems largely like some of the dodgier shows I've watched like Stargate, Legend of the Seeker, Tudors, etc. In terms of how it sets the scene. Was just stating my disappointment because I guess I had built higher hopes due to the HBO name brand. Others like say Rome or Deadwood didn't have this issue for me, it didn't feel like watching actors on a set wearing awkward costumes. Really though it's only parts of it, probably just the barbarian stuff, and something about the outside scenes... Takes me out of it.
If you come into a thread talking about a TV show and get upset by spoilers, perhaps try not to click on the thread in the first place
The spoiler issue isn't about people that haven't yet watched the show, it's about people that have read the books spoiling stuff that hasn't yet aired in the show.
Common courtesy for any TV show threads is pretty simple: If it has aired in the U.S. you're free to discuss it openly without spoiler tags (and people shouldn't be clicking on the thread if they're yet to watch it), if it hasn't aired yet, use spoiler tags.
Yeah, I think that's it. The show is taking time to actually establish the world and the characters without spoon-feeding the audience, so it must be slow.
Yeah all HBO shows tend to be, so I'm giving it time.
I wouldn't even attribute it to being on HBO - the show is following the books pretty closely which is great if you don't have ADD as Hog said. An 800 page book isn't going to spooge it's load in the first 150 pages.
I wouldn't even attribute it to being on HBO - the show is following the books pretty closely which is great if you don't have ADD as Hog said. An 800 page book isn't going to spooge it's load in the first 150 pages.
Hrm maybe. So far, for me, it just hasn't been very interesting (the dwarf/bastard, lord stark's awesome presence, and the bitchy queen/prince at the end of episode 2 have probably been the only interesting points). I am willing to wait it out and see where it goes, interesting or no isn't really a matter of ADD but personal taste. I'm only waiting it out because I expect the patience will be rewarded with awesome plot due to the popularity of the books... otherwise I probably wouldn't be watching it much longer (then again I'm a sucker for sci-fi/fantasy and this ain't too bad, so I'd probably end up watching every episode, twice).
Keep in mind there is currently four very big books (well sort of five cos they sell the 3rd one split into two books now, thats how big it is), and the series is still a few books from its finish, so don't expect all the payoffs in the first book/season.
I mean, awesome stuff does happen in this season, but its mostly setting the scene for what is to come, introducing the characters, putting all the pieces in play, building up the characters, giving them the motivation to do what they're going to do over coming seasons, etc. This isn't some serial tv show thats written from season to season, where each season has the highs and the lows and the payoff cos they don't know if they're going to be cancelled or not and don't write that far ahead. This is a story thats all about the slow buildup and the slow burn and taking the time to piece together some truly EPIC shit, so when it does go down, its like a real "Holy fuck!" moment.
I'm going to post another spoiler from the books here, so read it at your own peril, but as an example Spoiler: the white walkers don't really show up again until the third book (or the third season, or maybe fourth season depending how they split it). They're talked about, and theres a brief encounter with one at one point in I think either this season or the next season, but they don't even start coming into the story for real for years yet. But when they do, holy fuck, its a game changer.
Theres at least one Wire alumni due to show up soon as a main character too. When they get to Kings Landing you meet a new character called Peter Baelish, hes a scheming, untrustworthy politician guy, and hes played by the actor who played Mayor Carcetti in the Wire. And thats not a spoiler cos hes in the trailers ffs.
I must admit, Jason Momoa sucks at acting, even when he doesn't speak.
Spoiler: I wouldn't worry about it for long.
QGL needs it's own webcomic, some do it!
I actually wrote and drew a comic for training purposes at my work. While I am a chronic doodler and enjoyed it, I found it incredibly challenging to draw characters that always look the same. I guess CAD would help a lot.
I'll start the webcomic, submit your own comic avatars (like the Southpark avatar maker (find/make something unique and funny, be as original as you can be) and story ideas to greyghostofforest@gmail.com
If random stories don't really interest you, I could always make one of some of the funnier threads that have rolled into archives here. Submit those links and a brief point by point gist (or vibe if you want to stay true to The Castle being a great Australian everyman flick)
Then zip, rar, 7zip, pdf, your own obscure compression method, stenography, or send by carrier pidgeon to greyghostofforest@gmail.com
I'll aim for at least one a week to start off with.
Any tv show that drops the C word is alright with me :D
One of the king's lines from the book is something like "the way she guards her cunt you'd think she had all the gold of Casterly Rock between her legs"
Haven't really taken a liking to any of the characters. The same was true when I read the first book, so I suppose that's a good sign for those who want the series to follow canon, but there's nothing to make me care about the show.
I noticed in this episode they made a point of mentioning a few times that Jaime stabbed King Targaryen in the back when he killed him, but I was sure in the books he did it by slitting his throat with the tip of his sword. Am I remembering that wrong?
I noticed in this episode they made a point of mentioning a few times that Jaime stabbed King Targaryen in the back when he killed him, but I was sure in the books he did it by slitting his throat with the tip of his sword. Am I remembering that wrong?
Nah, you're right. It's mentioned a few times in the books that he opened up his throat.
It's probably of no significance though. There have been a few places where seemingly minor details have been switched around for no apparent reason. I trust GRR Martin is an adviser and would steer them clear of changing any major details that would cause continuity problems later on.
Yeah, I hardly think a small change like that is going to matter in the slightest, but as I said, it just stuck out to me that they made a point of mentioning how he did it a few times.
The wall seemed to be much safer than I was imagining, I didn't imagine it to have battlements like that, I had imagined it to just be flat on the top (cos they're always going on in the books about how they have put salt and stuff the ice at the top to stop people slipping and falling off.)
I want to know why they're doing next to nothing with the direwolf pups. Ghost followed Jon around like a shadow in the books, yet he wasn't even in the last episode, and was only briefly shown in one shot in the previous episode. They become pretty important in the books, so I'm worried about how little time they've given them.
Hollywood animal trainers are $$$!! I'm sure with all the money they're paying for Sean Bean to give that grimacing Boromir face the rest of the production is barely making ends meet.
Hollywood animal trainers are $$$!! I'm sure with all the money they're paying for Sean Bean to give that grimacing Boromir face the rest of the production is barely making ends meet.
They're just using Tamaskan dogs for the show, not actual wolves. I don't think it's a money issue.
Also, I was surprised when I saw Renly Baratheon in the latest episode. I didn't picture him looking quite so... boyish? I know he's supposed to be young, but I imagined him to just be a younger, fitter looking version of King Robert. The rest of the casting has been spot on what I imagined though.
I also can't get enough of Tyrion Lannister, almost every scene with him is great.
agreed. he is pretty much saving the series for me atm. i haven't read the books. i also agree with nerfington that (so far) this show compares unfavorably with other hbo shows like rome or deadwood. those shows had phat action every ep! now i know this is gonna make the fanboys all whiny about character development & quality storylines & wotnot... but there is definitely scope for more action scenes within the story imo.
I also can't get enough of Tyrion Lannister, almost every scene with him is great.
Yeah, Tyrion is awesome. The Lannisters are a generally loathsome bunch, but Tyrion always managed to keep me interested during the books. It's always good seeing what he's up to.
agreed. he is pretty much saving the series for me atm. i haven't read the books. i also agree with nerfington that (so far) this show compares unfavorably with other hbo shows like rome or deadwood. those shows had phat action every ep! now i know this is gonna make the fanboys all whiny about character development & quality storylines & wotnot... but there is definitely scope for more action scenes within the story imo.
Those shows were HBO original series, so they could do what they wanted. They had more wriggle room to appeal to the ADD folks. Game of Thrones is already written for at least 5 seasons worth. It's a best selling series for a reason dude, there's plenty of action coming up, just relax and soak it all up.
So I was just checking out the characters on imdb. Howcome so many main characters only appear in 3 episodes (ones we've now seen) and there's 9 episodes total?
It could just be that they stop featuring every character in every episode, because as the characters split up and go their own ways there will be more and more plots to follow, so not every one might feature in every episode.
I'm enjoying it a lot more with episode 3. Agree that the dwarf char is fucking awesome, and the scenes tend to oscillate between seeming high/low quality.
The Spoiler: Winter is coming theme is definitely interesting, and I'm starting to get to know the characters enough to enjoy them. :D
Though I'm still confused about how many kids Stark has. I know there's the two sons in Winterfell, the two daughters, the Bastard at the wall, but is there another one somewhere? The guy with him in the capital?
Though I'm still confused about how many kids Stark has. I know there's the two sons in Winterfell, the two daughters, the Bastard at the wall, but is there another one somewhere? The guy with him in the capital?
5 kids, 1 bastard, 1 ward.
boys at this point in the tv show are all at winterfell (from oldest to youngest): Robb, Bran (cripple), Rickon
girls are all at king's landing: Sansa, Arya
jon snow is now at the wall
ward = theon greyjoy; don't want to spoil anything about how that came to be about but essentially he's sort of an adopted son but not quite. he remains in winterfell when ned goes to king's landing to take up the position of hand Spoiler: and i think he will feature somewhat in the next episode (or perhaps the one after depending on pacing).
that spoiler above is barely a spoiler at all but just putting it in tags to be safe :D
What's with your spoiler Nerf? "Winter is coming"? They've said it 3 times an episode already and Old Nan even explained what it means to Bran lol.
Also it's like the valiant spoiler tag jumped in because it knew it had something to cover but looked at how many words it needed to black out and couldn't be arsed with the rest.
And 1 Bastard, Jon Snow. The show hasn't shown much of Rickon I think the only time I saw him is when they were all linned up for the kings arival to Winterfell. Never read the books so I don't know if he has a more major role further down the line.
Haha Nerf, 'Winter is Coming' is the sort of motto of House Stark. I'm pretty sure if's been written under the title of the show in some of the promotional stuff. It isn't a spoiler. =P
Yeah, Rickon has barely been in the show, but that's not terribly unusual, he isn't really featured a lot in the books either. I wish they'd show his direwolf though. His name is Shaggydog, and he's a lot more wild than the other wolves.
I thought Rickon's Direwolf only went wild when Spoiler: Rickon started to get angry and resentful and the wolf picked up on his emotions. So I'm sure when that happens they'll show it, cos its a pretty important revelation in its own right.
Also, the guy with Ned when he got to Kings Landing, the guy he ordered to look after his daughters, was Jory Cassel. Hes no relation or anything, just one of Ned's men at arms, and the son of the old grey haired Ser Rodrik that accompanied Ned's wife.
This show is messed up, I just watched an episode and some of the story was interesting but mostly sex, gore and violence, rape, incest. It just makes you wonder what kind of sick fuck wrote this.
Oh, him.
You can tell by looking that he molests children.
K I'll start. I hope the actor who plays the dwarf guy goes down in history as one of those amazingly brilliant actors. I don't often like how much praise and worship that industry gets, but that guy is -amazing-
Peter Dinklage is his name, hes gone a heap of stuff, and hes always good. I remember right back when they first started casting this, like years ago, and they announced that he was Tyrion I was like fuck yeah, perfect. Even while reading the book, he was kind of what I'd pictured Tyrion being like anyway.
haha khel, my first thought of tyrion was that brian peppers guy (you know the picture off the interwebs of the dwarf guy who was a criminal or something) , with the bulging eyes (it was really the mention of tyrions bulging eyes that made me think of brian peppers) but peter dinklage is smashing it, i think they've got tyrion's sly wit pretty well down
I enjoyed yesterday's episode. They finally showed Ghost again, however briefly. If I had one complaint about the show, it'd probably be how little they've featured the wolves. They follow their respective owners around constantly in the books, so you really come to like them. It's a shame they're hardy seen in the show.
Possible very bad book spoiler probably already spoiled by taggs anyway; Spoiler: So am I to assume from that (Book?) spoiler taggs that I wont see the Lannisters taken out/get their come-uppence this season?
Scooter: Spoiler: Not really, no, the Lannisters are one of the key families in the series. They're not going anywhere. But, other unexpected things happen within the Lannister family later in the series which I won't spoil, as I don't know how much you've read, if any at all.
Reading the book in tandem with the show, trying to get ahead with the book as I just started reading this week. Really impressed with how the show follows the book so closely. Everything from the script to the timeline, etc is so close so far with only a few minor deviations which I think they've done to make the show easier to understand.
Book spoiler for taggs and scooter regarding the future of the lannisters:
Spoiler: The lannisters don't get wiped out, in fact in this first season/book, they kinda win. And Tyrion isn't going anywhere, hes an awesome character and hes still around even in the latest book. Jaime actually becomes an awesome character too and goes through a lot of shit, so the only person you really end up wanting to get some comeuppance is Cersei, and she doesn't get it for a long, long time :(
Also, I hope theres more of the tournament in the next episode, cos I was really looking forward to seeing the introduction of Loras Tyrell (the Knight of Flowers) and him Spoiler: fucking over the The Mountain in the jousting. Also Thoros of Myr with his flaming sword in the melee. Hope thats in the next episode :(
I saw images of Loras Tyrell at what looked like the tournament a fair while ago, so I reckon he should be in the next episode. He didn't look as pretty as what the book described him to be, but his armour was every bit as elaborate.
Well, that episode had a bit more dong and gaysex than I was expecting. Maybe I don't remember it from the books, but
Spoiler: I don't remember Renly and Loras Tyrell being so gay for each other, and I definitely don't remember Renly getting a gobby from Loras Tyrell. Maybe I just completely missed the subtext in the book, but I don't even remember it being implied that they were gay for each other
These are some quotes from the books which suggest they are gay, spoiled in case.
Spoiler: “...I got Margaery. You’ll be pleased to know she came to me a maid.”
“In your bed she’s like to die that way.”
“And it relieved him {Mace} of the difficult task of trying to find lands and a bride for a third son, never easy, and doubly difficult in Ser Loras’s case.”
“There are those who say that Ser Loras is better than Leo Longthorn ever was,” said Tyrion.
“Renly’s little rose? I doubt that.”
“Now sheathe your bloody sword, or I’ll take it from you and shove it up some place even Renly never found.”
By the way, the actor they got to play littlefinger is awesome. He was good in the wire but hes perfect as littlefinger
Yeah, I never picked up on Renly and Loras being hot for each other from the books, but I do remember the text implying Renly was gay:
Spoiler: with all of the stuff about Margaery still being a maiden even after being married to Renly.
I'm not really sold on the casting for Renly and Ser Loras either. Not that they're bad actors or anything, just that Renly looks a little too pretty/girly and Loras not pretty enough. Doesn't matter though, they're doing a good enough job.
Spoiler: Also, unless I missed something along the way, I wasn't aware of Ser Jorah being the informer until it's revealed in A Storm of Swords (I think it was that one). Did I just miss something?
^ Nah it's revealed early on in Game of Thrones where the King and Ned are riding by themselves on the way back from Winterfell. The scene in the series is in episode two where they're sitting around a table eating. The dialogue's nearly the same but the main differences are in the book you find out Jorah Mormont is trying to earn his name back by spying for the King and that the title of Warden of the East has been promised to Jaime Lannister: "No one man should hold both East and West"
Yeah, I don't remember it being revealed in the book that Mormont was the spy either till a lot later, but if what Dazhel is saying is right then I guess I just missed it too. I mean, I'd kinda figured it out and assumed he was the spy, but I don't remember it actually being revealed till later. Not that it really matters anyway. I guess some subtle things like that will be lost in the translation to TV anyway cos the book plays a few tricks with perception, since each chapter is from the point of view of different characters, and the story is told based upon the knowledge that character personally has.
One example from the last episode is the bit where Arya gets lost and overhears the conversation. In the book its kept very mysterious and she doesn't know who the people are because they aren't familiar to her. But in the series its pretty obvious one of them was Varys cos you could see and hear him and already knew that character.
Yeah, the novels being told from the point of view of characters certainly made things more interesting a mysterious in the books, but it also kind of limits what you can be shown. Like, the scene with Loras and Renly couldn't have taken place in the books because neither of them are PoV characters. I'm not saying we really need to see more of Loras giving Renly gobbies, just that the show isn't restricted in that fashion, for better or worse. I'd kind of prefer the scene with Arya seeing Varys and Magister Illyrio being uncertain. I don't recall those two characters being revealed in that scene at all in the books.
One example from the last episode is the bit where Arya gets lost and overhears the conversation. In the book its kept very mysterious and she doesn't know who the people are because they aren't familiar to her. But in the series its pretty obvious one of them was Varys cos you could see and hear him and already knew that character.
Yeah I was hanging out for this episode just to figure out who these guys were!
In the book I think it was implied that one is Varys, but it's not clear at all that the other was Ilyrio. I don't recall Varys and Baelish talking later about it from the book but when Littlefinger mentions a foreigner that's probably supposed to be the giveaway.
There's quite a few little changes here and there, I think mostly in an attempt to condense things down otherwise they would probably need twice as many dialog/exposition scenes and the audience would be asleep.
I guess you have to read the books to get a visual imprint of the characters' names/spelling to be able to keep up with them in the story and dialog?
Apart from the most main characters I don't know who is who by name - they all sound similar.
Fairly annoying as I feel like I'm missing parts of the story :/
I guess you have to read the books to get a visual imprint of the characters' names/spelling to be able to keep up with them in the story and dialog?
Yeah, reading the books has made all of the characters really easy to keep track of, but I've wondered how well my housemate and girlfriend are coping. :P
so who was the dude with the hand that copped a knife in the face from pretty-boy lannister? was that one of the hand's sons?
Taggs already said this, but in spoiler tags, so I don't know if you read it. That was Jory Cassel, nephew of Rodrick Cassel, the old knight escorting Lady Stark.
I'm keeping track of the characters by face and location, helpless with their names though. Wouldn't recognise that squire dude in the north who's father was apparently an enemy of the Starks, he seems a bit rando at the moment but I guess will become relevant later. Not sure exactly who Stark's third son is either (the non-bastard, non-cripple, non-acting-lord-of-Winterfell one). edit: That's three, the third non-bastard one. :P
That scene with the mad lady was all kinds of creepy, can't help but wonder if they're going to get slammed for child abuse or something for filming that. :/
All in all it's getting very interesting. Pity there was no John Snow and Men of the Black (or whatever their name is) in this episode, I love The Wall characters.
Was pretty lawsly how everybody thought Stark's daughter was a boy, would make sense on paper but I thought it was very clear that she wasn't in live action. Still wasn't bad, made for good story.
I really don't want to have to wait for more, it's not fair.
The sons of Eddark Stark are Rob (the acting Lord of Winterfell), Bran (the cripple), Jon Snow (the bastard) and Rickon (the youngest). Rickon has barely been shown, which isn't that odd. He's not hugely prominent in the books either.
Yeah, it'd be tough to mistake the girl playing Arya for a boy, but I can let it slide. Arya is awesome, definitely one of my favourite characters in the whole series, and the girl they've got playing her is doing a fantastic job.
That scene with the mad lady was all kinds of creepy, can't help but wonder if they're going to get slammed for child abuse or something for filming that. :/
I was bored (ok, very bored) so with the power of google I threw together a cheet sheet for all the characters that have cropped up so far. Might have missed a couple cos it was all from memory and there is a mcfucktonne of characters.
Yeah, I forgot about him, like Midda says hes barely relevant. He has a bit more in the books than he has in the show so far, but hes still largely irrelevant. And annoying.
I just noticed that the introduction shows the house sigils next to each actor's name, kind of cool to see what the actual "Game of Thrones" is starting to come together.
kind of cool to see what the actual "Game of Thrones" is starting to come together.
Yeah, by the end of the first season there are Spoiler: five different kings all laying claim to different parts of the seven kingdoms. The second book is called "A Clash of Kings" and its certainly that.
While I guess it helps knowing the characters and stuff, having read the books, in some way I think its not as good having read the books, because nothing comes as a suprise. Like in later seasons when theres twists and turns and truly shocking stuff happening, people who haven't read it before are gonna be blown away, but for people who have read it, it wont have quite the same impact (though I'm sure it'll still be extremely cool to see it all realised on screen).
So in a way I'm a bit jealous of people who haven't read the books and don't know whats gonna happen, cos you're in for one hell of a ride.
Another good episode. As someone that has read the series a few times the only thing I could wish for was that they had a much larger budget. As a TV series, even as an HBO one, you really notice where they've had to scale back what was in the books.
The tourney from episodes 4 and 5 is one example. In the show it's just a single stand and a single jousting lane or whatever. In the book it's a huge affair with hundreds of knights etc., thousands of spectators and has jousting, archery and the melee.
You also notice the lack of the Direwolves (due I'm sure to the cost of training that breed of dog I imagine). Something that for readers of the book will notice in the episode that aired today.
Still, they've done a very good job with what they have so far. Today's episode was another good one. :)
I reckon thats the best episode so far, that was epic. As soon as I saw the name of it I knew how it was gonna end, so I was excited going in cos I love that scene, but the whole episode was just full of awesome stuff. But yeah, the lack of direwolf in that scene you're talking about was really noticeable, though for people who haven't read the book, it probably wont matter in the slightest. They seem to be pushing Theon Greyjoy much more as a character in the show than they did this early in the books too. For most of the first book I didn't even really know who Theon Greyjoy even was.
I'm glad they kept the "wear it in silence or I'll honour you again" line, thats one of my favourite bits of dialogue in the whole series :P Like the guy they've got for Berric Dondarrion as well, not that it'll matter for a while yet, but he looks good for the part.
You also notice the lack of the Direwolves (due I'm sure to the cost of training that breed of dog I imagine)
They're Tamaskans, which are pretty much identical to Huskies in both demeanor and intellect, so they're not difficult to train. I'd like to know why they're so scarcely shown though, it's one of by biggest gripes with the series.
Well, I'd say we'd have to be at the bit soon with Jon Snow, where he takes his vows and becomes steward for commander mormont, theres a pretty important interjection by Jon's direwolf not long after that too so it'll be interesting to see if they keep that, or change it.
Keep an eye out for episode 7 today or tomorrow, it's up on HBO-Go website but you need a subscription to the US TV channel I believe to watch it so VPN isn't enough.
I imagined Viserys crowning to be more brutal, like some melting/bubbling skin and him screaming for longer and taking a lot longer to die. But I guess I can see why they didn't go that route :P
I dunno if the #1 spoiler on that list is going to be as unexpected in the show as it was in the books though, like I've talked to some friends who haven't read the books and they're already saying "Yeah, its obvious this is gonna happen" without me saying anything. Whereas when I read the book I REALLY wasn't expecting it.
Am I the only one that feels a little bit underwhelmed with the show so far? Each scene on its own is extremely well done... there is no denying the production values. As a whole though, the show feels very disjointed to me, like it is literally a series of 'webisodes' in a big playlist.
Having read the books I understand that adhering to the book fairly closely has a large part to play in this but the amount of time it takes to read a viewpoint chapter meant that it felt much less chop&change-y than the show feels. The wire is the most obvious example of a show which does this successfully.
But yeah, the lack of direwolf in that scene you're talking about was really noticeable, though for people who haven't read the book, it probably wont matter in the slightest.
I assume you mean in the forest? If so i haven't read the book and was wondering where the fuck his wolf was, as it seemed almost exactly like the earlier situation where the wolf saved the day.
Nice ending, but also thought it could have more gory, seems like a situation where if they couldnt show more (due to ratings or whatever) they should have shown less, leave it to your imagination a bit.
I haven't read the book but I'm really enjoying the story unfolding in this series.
If anyone's interested, have a look at Plotweaver and see if you can piece together the story so far a bit better than I have done.
To make it worth your time I've got a $30 iTunes gift card to give away to the best/coolest/craziest/most batshit loco entry (within reason)
You can load in this .plt file into the webapp (sourced from Khel's character summary) to save some time in getting started on the character interactions.
Ok, i'm a little slow, but could someone please clarify for me that the blondie annoying dude who got his crown and calisi Spoiler: aren't actually brother and sister?
a question for the folk that have read the books... do they ever explain the weirdness of the seasons? the long n short winters & summers n stuff? like is there a planetary axial wobble or is it just magic? :P
Nah, it's never explained, and I doubt it will be. It's just a crazy fantasy world. The 'why' with the long seasons isn't really important anyway, it's more about how they get through it.
Why has nobody figured out how to rip episode 7 off HBO's online thing? I need me some more Game of Thrones!
They have, it's just not good quality and probably not worth it yet. The draw back to watching it early is that you have to wait an extra week for a new episode anyway. Catch 22!
Is this even airing in Australia yet? I want to watch this show back to back in the best possible quality once it finishes airing but I have a feeling that if it hasn't aired here yet that the blu-rays won't be available for quite some time.
Why has nobody figured out how to rip episode 7 off HBO's online thing? I need me some more Game of Thrones!
I said a few posts back that it's available (on Usenet, anyway, I assume there's a torrent somewhere). It's only SD, and according to the comments it's poor even by SD standards. Just wait until next week, otherwise you'll have to wait twice as long for episode 8.
Nah, it's never explained, and I doubt it will be.
I remember reading somewhere that it was going to be explained in a later book, something along the lines of magic. That could have been wrong though and I can't find it now to confirm.
I'd be happy if it wasn't explained, at the end of the day it's just a plot device.
If Martin keeps getting fans pestering him about the seasons he might be tempted to throw some fucking midichlorians in as a way of taking the piss.
Tbh I'd be a little happier if nobody stated what is and isn't explained in the books without spoiler tags, I love not knowing and wondering whether things will be answered.
Definitely a catch-22 with the double-wait if we were to watch ep7 now... >_>
Tbh I'd be a little happier if nobody stated what is and isn't explained in the books without spoiler tags, I love not knowing and wondering whether things will be answered.
Stuff like that is totally irrelevant though. If something from the books is worthy of spoiler tags, I'll put it in spoiler tags. Things like that just have no bearing on the story whatsoever, so I'm not going to bother warning you.
Episode 7:
Spoiler: Why oh why did they have Ghost bark when he went through the gate in the Wall? He's not only supposed to be a wolf (and wolves don't bark) but also he's meant to be pretty much always silent even for a wolf.
well i know for a fact that the blonde dragon lady looks so much hotter as a brunette, and her brothers golden crown was the prefect ending for the little dick
You know what else isn't explained in the books? How human life evolved on that world. Oh sorry, spoilers!
Haha Spoiler: I'm sure G.R.R.M. has said the human life didn't evolve but was created by the old gods, no, wait was it the new gods, or maybe it was the Dothraki horse gods... uh oh religion thread!
yeah seems very mini series, jumping and leaving things out but its good in a way because there isn't episode after episode of boring plot building shit that is not needed.
Quality was not that bad, got a little framey at times but it was easily watchable when I streamed it through to my TV. I'll just rewatch it next week anyway, but it was good to get a double dose of Game of Thrones in the one week :)
Littlefinger just keeps getting better and better, they cast him so perfectly. Tywin Lannister makes his first appearance too and seems to be cast pretty awesomely also. That wildling chick they are keeping at Winterfell is NOTHING like I had imagined her when reading the book though.
That wildling chick they are keeping at Winterfell is NOTHING like I had imagined her when reading the book though.
Yeah, I remember when I was first looking up all of the actors for the show, and getting to her and seeing that they'd cast the chick who played Tonks and thinking it was a bit odd. She was described as being a kind of oldish hag.
This show still rocks. The thing about this show is almost every actor is enjoyable to watch.
Yeah, agreed.
I wasn't convinced with Mark Addy in the role of the king before the show started, but those doubts were happily dismissed in the first episode. :) The main issue I had is that I remember him from The Full Monty delivering lines like "Anti-wrinkle cream there may be, but anti-fat-bastard cream there is none. "
Aiden Gillen is doing a bloody fantastic job of Petyr Baelish. :D
Lysa Arryn's rubber tit was the worst part of the series so far, it just looked so fake like that thing De Niro wore in Meet the Fockers. Production values surely are a bit hit and miss, you've got fuck off awesome CGI from the Wall and vertigo shots from the Eyrie and yet sprawling Vaes Dothrak scenes are being shot in the studio under a tent and they can't CGI a single boob so that it doesn't look like crap?
I considered it last night but decided to start Forever War instead. As an attempt to cure a massive bout of depression. Possibly the worst book ever for such a goal it seems. :P
Just for the record, staying home by yourself and reading a book, is not a very good cure for depression.
I think the worst part of this tv show is not so much the week-to-week wait between episodes, but its gonna be the year's wait between seasons. At least with the books when you finished one book you could dive straight into the next one.
Just for the record, staying home by yourself and reading a book, is not a very good cure for depression.
Depends on the person and the issues, I was trying to forget my (highly inflated) worries so decided to try reading which I used to do all the time as a kid, getting into the imagination ignore-reality zone. :) Sorta worked, sorta.
I reckon I'll read the books once season 1 finishes, partly because I won't be able to endure the wait and partly because I feel the show's quality is sometimes still lacking a certain something, and I'd probably enjoy the story as told by the books more. Want to enjoy what's left though so will stick with the show for the remainder of thrones.
That episode was over all too quickly, I need more. That being said, I felt like that plot could have been dragged out over many more episodes and still been enjoyable, if not moreso, it moved so fast. Ah well, at least the show will never stagnate at this rate.
It was pretty obvious what was going to happen, especially after Littlefinger's talk during the err, try outs. It was actually really frustrating to watch because it was so obvious it made Stark look like an idiot for walking into such a blatant trap. Hell even the king dieing during a hunting trip seemed painfully obvious, I mean when has a king ever gone on a hunting trip in a story and not had an "unfortunate accident".
Haven't read most of this thread so someone here would have mentioned it already but I just have to say that the intro music is undoubtedly fucking awesome. Every time I hear it, and then hum it for about half a day after the episode, I just keep imaging the fantasy world this is created in.
I'm really enjoying this. I've read the books a couple of times but there seems like so much I have missed! George really gives the right scenes the context they deserve.
Looking forward to re-reading Game of Thrones after this season ends.
Yeah the lesbian scenes really seem like a cash in, kinda annoying because while I have no problem with porn I don't want want my serious-business stories to be wasting time pretending not to be porn.
Also anybody else never have seen an animal skinned and found that whole scene captivating/disturbing? :P
and I frikkin love the intro TicMan, it's undoubtedly at least 10 to 30 percent of the source of the show's awesome.
Haven't read most of this thread so someone here would have mentioned it already but I just have to say that the intro music is undoubtedly fucking awesome. Every time I hear it, and then hum it for about half a day after the episode, I just keep imaging the fantasy world this is created in.
yep i love the intro. i usually skip them but this one is too awesome not to watch each week.
Yeah the lesbian scenes really seem like a cash in, kinda annoying because while I have no problem with porn I don't want want my serious-business stories to be wasting time pretending not to be porn.
if you were paying attention during that scene, you would have noticed it wasn't all about sex. it gave some good back story about littlefinger and his motivations.
Oh yeah I know rav and I loved it, I just thought that the lesbo action was a token 'porno' addition that shows use to try and seem more hardcores, which sort of counters the effort in my mind.
It was actually really frustrating to watch because it was so obvious it made Stark look like an idiot for walking into such a blatant trap.
Yeah on a similar note, that's one point I never really understood about the books.
At this stage Ned Stark realises the truth so he gets up there on the soap box and says "Joffrey has no right to inherit the throne!" but he doesn't say why. If he'd blurted out in the throne room that Cersei was fucking someone on the side and that the little squirt wasn't even related to King Robert, it surely would have raised some questions.
The outcome might still have been the same, since the city guard was with Littlefinger, but Ned could have dropped the bomb and blown the whole thing apart.
if you were paying attention during that scene, you would have noticed it wasn't all about sex. it gave some good back story about littlefinger and his motivations.
Haha yeah, most nude scenes are like 'hey cool, boobs' but this one was like 'shut the hell up - Baelish is giving his cool evil maniac speech!'
Was about to post then i realised it's a massive spoiler, show is pretty fucking good... couple miss hits from the book and does it seem to anyone else that it's moving a lot faster now? kinda wish it would slow down since it's prob gonna have seasons.
Yeah, but each season is one book (I would assume), and they still have a lot of ground to cover. From memory the first book started moving pretty quickly around this point too
I've been watching this thread grow and grow over the weeks, read a few posts on the first page and promised myself not to read anymore untill I catch up with it.
I put on the first two episodes last night and was going to goto bed at about 10pm... ended up staying up till like 2am watching all 7 episodes. This grabbed me by the absolute balls and has me hooked!!!
What an amazing series!
What books do I need to buy?
Also, Khel awsome pic... you need to get bored again and do a family tree next ;-)
Spoiler: I'm having some hard times getting my head together on the whole king that was murdered by the guard thing... i know they have given you alot of info but I still think there is some info missing on that whole thing... because I still dont get it... his liniage... why he was murdered... why they call him the crazy king etc...
Spoiler: the mad king was Aerys Targaryen (the second?), the father of Viserys and Daenerys, the remaining Targaryens who have been fleeing ever since Aerys was killed by Jaime Lannister in the rebellion. Jaime was one of the Kingsguard under Aerys, the Kinsguard are an order of knights sworn to protect the king and it's seen has a huge honor to be selected as one. that's why it's a big deal that Jaime was the one who killed him.
they called him the mad king because he was actually batshit insane. this probably has something to do with the Targaryen custom of marrying brother to sister. he was murdered during the rebellion which was sparked when Rhaegar Targaryen, Aerys' oldest son and heir (also Viserys' older brother) kidnapped Lyanna Stark, Ned's sister who was betrothed to Robert Baratheon. Ned's father, Rickard, and older brother, Brandon, were murdered by the mad king in front of the entire court when they went to Kings Landing to demand her safe return so Ned and Robert rebelled and were also joined by the Lannisters.
i've probably missed a fair bit of the detail but if you want more info there's a few wiki sites that have popped up about the book and the series.
Haven't read most of this thread so someone here would have mentioned it already but I just have to say that the intro music is undoubtedly fucking awesome. Every time I hear it, and then hum it for about half a day after the episode, I just keep imaging the fantasy world this is created in.
Spoiler:the mad king was Aerys Targaryen (the second?), the father of Viserys and Daenerys, the remaining Targaryens who have been fleeing ever since Aerys was killed by Jaime Lannister in the rebellion. Jaime was one of the Kingsguard under Aerys, the Kinsguard are an order of knights sworn to protect the king and it's seen has a huge honor to be selected as one. that's why it's a big deal that Jaime was the one who killed him.
they called him the mad king because he was actually batshit insane. this probably has something to do with the Targaryen custom of marrying brother to sister. he was murdered during the rebellion which was sparked when Rhaegar Targaryen, Aerys' oldest son and heir (also Viserys' older brother) kidnapped Lyanna Stark, Ned's sister who was betrothed to Robert Baratheon. Ned's father, Rickard, and older brother, Brandon, were murdered by the mad king in front of the entire court when they went to Kings Landing to demand her safe return so Ned and Robert rebelled and were also joined by the Lannisters.
i've probably missed a fair bit of the detail but if you want more info there's a few wiki sites that have popped up about the book and the series. last edited by taggs at 10:57:14 31/May/11
I haven't read the books at all and I already knew most of this from the show. They give it to you in bits and pieces, I didn't know that it was a big deal that Jamie killed the king, or that father and son got murdered because they wanted lyanna stark back, I knew they all died at the court and no one said a thing.
Anyone thanks for sharing taggs.
Anyone else think the intro sounds a bit like a zelda tune? The violin part at the start.
Yeah, I was just saying that to a friend of mine last night, they don't stress in the tv show how bad it was for Jamie to kill the king, and not enough people go around calling him Kingslayer. Like, in the books, they really stress that point, which makes it cool when Jamie reveals what was actually going on and why he actually did it.
They'll prolly talk more about the mad king Aerys killing Ned Stark's father and brother later in the series though, cos Jamie talks about it a bit later in the books, so all the gaps will end up filled in sooner or later.
From the way things are going I can't see how Ned Stark is going to survive, but I hope he does because Sean Bean's acting is incredible.
Personally if a girl can't act regardless of how hot she is then I'd... oh wait no I'd still say yum and probably declare that I'm in love with her.
On a side note, I can't believe that they cancelled the new wonder woman show, those heartless bastards.
I'm not looking for depth, he can keep on standing around looking pretty and ranting on about how he's going to give his son an "iron chair" for as long as he likes. ;)
Have no idea how Ned's going to get out of this one.
yep cool ep n i am really digging it now that the action has ramped up to an acceptable level ;p
the khal going ape over the assassination attempt was pretty epic :D
Does seem like Ned's the only one trying to play fair in a game without rules.
Which is pretty much why he gets fucked :( Thats what makes him a tragic character, he tries so hard to be honorable, and expects other people to act the same way, in a world where honor just doesn't matter jack shit.
does he expect them to? or does he just maintain his code regardless
I think he's smart enough to not expect too much but probably wants to hold onto his honor more than he should in spite of it. I'm nowhere near Episode 7's plots in the books but I can sense some arse whooping (how much so I don't know yet, though some people here probably do).
he's a northman, and in the books it is often mentioned that northmen and Starks in particular are rigidly honourable, even and often to their detriment (in the case of Ned's father Rickard and brother Brandon who went to the Mad King to protest Rhaegar Targaryen taking Lyanna away and were horribly killed for it, rather than just attacking people and starting a war, a la Lannisters)
Yeah, I guess I don't mean he expects people to be honorable, its just hes born and bred that way, like hes wired to think that way and just has trouble thinking the same way people like Littlefinger or Cersei Lannister would. Some of the fucked up things they plot and scheme just wouldn't even occur to him cos they're so far outside of his realm of experience and his upbringing and stuff.
Its like a really dangerous, naieve form of culture shock I guess.
House Baratheon doesn't seem to have much substance from what I've seen in the eps so far? Looks like the Lannisters have eradicated it through marriage.
I wanna contribute to how awesome this show is, and talk about the cool storyline, but I've read the books and I'm really bad at accidentally spoiler-ing things :(
yer there's not many baratheons. there's only robert (now dead), renly, stannis and their families.
all of robert's kids with cersei aren't even his. he probably has a few bastards but their not technically baratheons. renly's gay so he has no kids and stannis only has a daughter.
Sounds like Stannis might be some kind of baddass though?
One of the other impressions I had was a kind of die out of the old guard; Ned and Robert are getting on and have been in power for 17 years(?), seems like a well due shift to the younger crowd.
Hes not a bad guy, but hes like a hard-nosed son of a bitch type. Like if christians existed in Game of Thrones he'd be a real fire and brimstone Old Testament kind of guy; hes extremely conserative and he punishes even the smallest transgression harshly and without mercy. Real "eye for an eye" kind of punishment. He is a good guy though, and his men are very loyal to him and dedicated to him, as Ned said hes a good soldier and a good general. But as a king he would be a puritanical dictator, he'd be the sort of person who would pull the whores out of the whore houses and put them to the sword for their immoral ways, without any thought to the political or financial ramifications.
He'll come into it a lot more in season 2, you probably wont see him at all in this season.
donal noye (blacksmith at the Wall) who worked for the Baratheon's before he lost his arm, described the brothers as "Robert was the true steel. Stannis is pure iron, black and hard and strong, yes, but brittle, the way iron gets. He'll break before he bends. And Renly, that one, he's copper, bright and shiny, pretty to look at but not worth all that much at the end of the day."
Stannis becomes quite an important character later in the books, bit of a tool though
i always pictured him as a thinner mark strong (sort of like how he is in kick ass, but with a bit more hair around the edges) but robert carlyle would be good too
Loving this show hey... got me hooked. Grabbed the first book of Book Depository the other day for 8 bucks. Keen for a good read and if it's as epic as the tv series i'll grab the whole series i reckon...
i pictured taller, cos the baratheons are supposed to be bigger blokes (although mark addy isn't that tall) but stannis gets a lot thinner they reckon in the books as they go on, loses his hair and gets thinner/more aged
Can we start a game of thrones book thread where someone outlines what happens in the books? I can't wait week after week for this shit... i want to know nooooowww...
Whats the deal with fat samwise at the wall? Is he going to end up as some hulk smash character? cause thats the impression i get.. Or do they never venture beyond the wall?
Sam was made a steward because he reads a lot (though I don't think they've really made that known in the show yet), which is important in a world where there are plenty of people who don't know how to read or write. The Watch is made up of more than just soldiers. They're like a small community. They need all sorts of jobs to be filled to keep everything going.
He's up there because his father didn't want to let his lands and title be passed down to a cowardly fat kid and wanted them passed to his younger brother instead. He got given the choice: Piss off and defend the big ice wall or you're gonna have some sort of accident...
Sam was made a steward because he reads a lot
That too, but I kinda thought he was made a steward because he couldn't swing a sword to save himself.
Was disappointed that the only one of Stark's bannermen who got screen time was the Greatjon Umber (even though, he was pretty cool), I was really looking forward to seeing Roose Bolton.
Also, they didn't introduce the Blackfish when Catelyn was in the Vale :(
Also, they didn't introduce the Blackfish when Catelyn was in the Vale :(
Yeah, they're really pushed for screen time I reckon, only two more eps to go I thought they'd be a bit further along by now.
GRRM posted last year that Ser Brynden has been benched until season 2.
At this stage it looks like they might cut Hoster Tully and Edmure Tully until S2 as well. :(
I was loving the guy that plays tywin. Until I remembered the last time I saw him, which happened to be at the end of the ali g movie. Now dance for me. Bitch.
The show also has dragons. And I guess pirates. And they've mentioned the Faceless Men who are stealthy assassins (i.e. which surely is close enough to being a ninja).
I would say expect a twist and that he has a plan, but the twist in game of thrones seems to be that people with the last name stark constantly seem to screw themselves over.
edit: So now that I'm finally cynical of every stark's actions, and am left thinking that the youngest daughter should be the head of the house, maybe they'll decide it's the perfect time to do something unexpected and rob will have a plan. Except I can see that coming, so it will be like a triple bluff, and Rob will still lose. Gotta get in the minds of the creators!
David Bradley's performance of Lord Frey was outstanding, skin crawlingly and yet deliciously disgusting and he was only on screen for 2 and a half minutes tops. I was pleasantly surprised by how they treated Maester Aemon's scene with Jon Snow as well.
Those would have been the best scenes of the episode if there wasn't another that obviously overshadowed it.
Yeouch. Not surprising though, most book stores go for the cheap cash-in when a tv series like this starts. I saw a set of 7 Harry Potter novels on sale a little while ago for $250... o.O
Was really disappointed by the lack of battles in this ep, especially robs.
I don't think Robb's first battle is described in that much more detail in the books either.
Yeah Robb's battle happens off-screen as it were. However Tyrion's battle does happen in the books and he doesn't get knocked out before it even starts. It also has Gregor Clegane leading the vanguard with Tyrion and his Mountain Men on the left flank of the vanguard nearest the river.
nuthr epic ep :) so did the witch really poison drogo's wound in the first place? it seems a bit odd that such a seasoned veteran would cop a life threatening infection from a little cut on the tit. spoilerise me!
i am loving the pace of the show now... there is a great feeling of dread building as all the catastrophes start coming together.
nuthr epic ep :) so did the witch really poison drogo's wound in the first place? it seems a bit odd that such a seasoned veteran would cop a life threatening infection from a little cut on the tit. spoilerise me!
more magic to come!?
oh no! I've been telling people this is a good fantasy series because there's not really magic involved :/
I'm loving the dude that hangs out with Tyrion, really likeable character. Probably shouldn't get attached to characters in this series though...
also the prank tyrion's dad played on him as a kid was pretty harsh.
I'm loving the dude that hangs out with Tyrion, really likeable character.
Haha yeah Bronn, he's played by English actor Jerome Flynn and he's doing a top job.
The exchange when Tyrion first introduces him to Tywin was great and brought a chuckle:
T: "And here we have Bronn...son of..."
B: "Eh...you wouldn't know him."
rekn. bronn rocks. but tyrion is still my favourite character... i cracked up when he was admitting to his crimes to the lords & ladies of the vale ;p "if i close my eyes i can still see her tits bouncing" lols
it might not have been in the books but the scene where tyrion stirs up his hill tribes for battle n then gets rolled by them as they march out was hilarious.
Still can't believe Ned's gone, it seems so uncharacteristic of a story to have had characters like Ned and Robert learn so much, influence so much, and then die well before witnessing the outcomes. :/
more magic to come!?
oh no! I've been telling people this is a good fantasy series because there's not really magic involved :/
Don't worry, they handle it really well. It's not common, and it's generally done in a really dark, indirect, somewhat fucked up manner. There's nothing like Harry Potter/Merlin type magical glowy balls flying around or anything.
nuthr epic ep :) so did the witch really poison drogo's wound in the first place? it seems a bit odd that such a seasoned veteran would cop a life threatening infection from a little cut on the tit. spoilerise me!
In the books what happens is this:
Sometime after Drogo's Khalasar leaves Vaes Dothrak they come across another Khalasar that is sacking the Lamb Men city and they proceed to slaughter the other Khalasar and then plunder the Lamb Men city themselves. Drogo gets injured during the fight with the other Khalasar.
Drogo claims his people need the help of their own healers more than he does for just a scratch but his cut gets worse and Dany is asking for it to be looked after and the Maegi/Witch/Wisewoman (who Dany saved from being raped again but who had already been raped a few times) says she can poultice the wound but that it will itch and sting and Khal Drogo must make sure not to take it off until it has healed. The Khal's bloodriders threaten the Witch with death if she fails to heal Drogo so she has every incentive to make sure it works and indeed her treatment would likely work.
Drogo says okay, and applies the poultice but after a few days it ends up itching too much for him and he takes it off and swaps it for a poultice of mud and leaves etc. This then becomes infected and he falls from his horse etc. just like in the show and the show pretty much matches the book from there to the end of that scene with Mormont carrying Dany into the tent not knowing that the witch had said noone must enter.
Even just an extra 3 or 4 episodes would have been good. Hopefully the popularity of it means they can make the next few seasons a bit longer.
I'm also hoping that season 4 isn't just following A Feast for Crows, since it was only half of the characters. I imagine that since A Dance with Dragons will be a few years old by then, they'll blend them together over 2 seasons. Hopefully.
yer i was thinking about that last night midda. hopefully they will do what you said otherwise people will wonder why certain characters aren't in the show any more, to suddenly appear in the next season.
From what I have read the producers want to split book 3 into 2 seasons - s3 and s4 and then do books 4 and 5 which are semi concurrent into 3 seasons - s5-7.
Which would help to reduce the change of the TV show catching up to Martins slow writing for the last 2 books
Yeah, it's a shame that HBO didn't make each book 20 episodes or so rather than 10. It would make much more sense with the extra time.
Indeed.
It's explained so much better in the book, but I got what I was expecting from the show since the Dothraki storyline has been pretty consistently bland. The scene where Viserys gets what for was alright but it still wasn't anywhere near as satisfying as Ned's untimely demise.
The one where Drogo fires up was the only truly good Dothraki scene so far, though I'm REALLY hoping they can break out of that rut for the s1 finale next week...
I went to bookshop on weekend - Game of Thrones was $25 for first book. Too much so I'm gonna check out book depository.
I recently bought the entire 4 series From Amazon.com, was only $20US plus a bit for shipping.
Agree with other sentiments .. WTF at poor Ned, he was awesome and one of the big name actors! And Tyrion is probably my favourite character in the TV series too.
Was a bit disappointed that they're cutting out all the battles, but I guess they don't have the budget for it. Didn't get to see the battle between Drogo's Khalasar and the rival one, or the battle of the trident (I guess they're not introducing Roose Bolton in this season at all), and yeah it would have been nice to see Robb capturing Jaimie. It doesn't happen off-screen in the books, and its a cool scene where Jaimie is just going fucking nuts and killing everyone in his way in an attempt to get to Robb and kill him. Would have been a good opportunity to show off Jamie being the awesome swordsman that he is, cos they haven't really showcased that at all.
^ Really? I'm trying to get into this... just watched ep 4 and i'm wondering when the fk is winter coming cos i want to see some action. Is this more like a medievil neighbours?
Fark me i did not see that coming... Already discussed it with the mrs... once this season is done, we're sitting down and watching the whole thing again to pick up all the little stories and tie up the loose ands that inter twine. Fucking can't wait for next week now hey. Man the little king cunt needs his head punched in something cruel
Hmm? It *does* happen offscreen.
The characters *talk* about what happened during the battle but you don't see it from any characters PoV.
Yeah, it's not seen up close from any of the characters, but the reader still experienced the battle through Catalyn, who I'm pretty sure was close enough to listen to what was happening.
Still, they've added completely new scenes to the show before, and this battle is later described in pretty good detail by Jaime (and I think Theon too maybe?), so it would have been nice to see it.
i gave this show a chance. found too many reasons for me not to watch it. seems to love the incest angle and the degrading of women. which as we know, was all the rage in fuedal times. take that out, and its a pretty substandard storyline based on themes that have been done a hundred times over.
Author George R.R. Martin was asked if he had a resolution or ending to the seemingly endless conflict. He replied that the end would be a cloud of dust or snow being driven by the wind across a vast graveyard full of tombstones.
Hmm? It *does* happen offscreen.
The characters *talk* about what happened during the battle but you don't see it from any characters PoV.
Ah, its been too long since I read the books then, I guess cos of the detail it gets described in, in my head I've pictured the actual scene of it happening. Still would have been nice to see it though :(
Like, I can understand not having enough budget to show the battle between Roose Bolton's men and Tywin Lannister's host, or the fighting between the two khalasars, but the thing with Jamie was just a small group of men ambushing him when he was out with a couple of scouts. Surely they could have done that :(
its a pretty substandard storyline based on themes that have been done a hundred times over
lol, the entirety of human storytelling are based on a few themes that have been done a thousand times over.
Judging by the shocked responses in this thread about the supposed 'good guy' getting the chop I'd say this story's at least capable of a surprise or two.
I have to agree with wetwired. Have not read the books yet well aware noone wants to fight Jamie Lannister one on one.
They made it obvious Boromir.. err sorry Ned didn't want to fight him, only to keep his honour, and escaped with his life only because someone stabbed him in the leg.
I wasn't impressed at first, and some things still underwhelm me, but the plot and characters are turning out to be markedly better than most everything else out there. imo. May not be your cup of tea, but I struggle to see how anybody can actually call it "bad" or the same old.
They made it obvious Boromir.. err sorry Ned didn't want to fight him, only to keep his honour, and escaped with his life only because someone stabbed him in the leg.
i kinda got the impression that ned wasn't that impressed with jaimie's fighting skills... the sarcastic way he commented about how clean his armour was & how he had chosen his enemies wisely. also when jaimie was talking to tywin about the fight & tywin asked why ned startk wasn't dead... jaimie seemed to be making excuses about it... i could be wrong but that's the impression i took away.
hah, mantorok, the character has seeped into sean bean's psych! defending a maiden's honour in a tavern ;p
"He came in with a cut on his arm and a bruise on his eyebrow. We saw to his injuries with the first aid kit. He seemed okay and wanted to have another drink."
Yeah I think they make it pretty obvious that Jamie is badass.
Though, they made a big deal of how badass Robert and Ned were back in the day, but they're old now, like 40-50, whilst Jamie is in his prime..30ish? Not a fair comparrison.
Surely there'll be someother dude that's more badass then Jamie.
I think they also make it obvious that Jamie has a lot to learn, and a fair bit of maturing to do regardless of his prowess as a swordsman.
Tywin's lecture in the tents summed it up well.
I didn't think he was a great fighter from just watching the show, merely a good one. It was after I started reading the book that I found out he's meant to be really good.
And yeah I got the impression that Jaime was unbeatable as a swordsman. Still curious whether the first sword of Bravos(?) survived, since if Jaime lives (which I think somebody suggested he doesn't) it could lead to an interesting thing. But nobody tell me :D
What I want to know is when does Peter Dinklage get a bit of action with Lena Headey?
If she's willing to root her brother, it's surely not lowering her standards that much to root her midget brother.
Haha Spock, Lena Headey doesn't even get her rack out. Wait til you see all the other young ladies.
Though do yourself a favour and watch them from the start or you'll be unbelievably lost.
It'd be like never watching any of the Star Wars Trilogy and then flicking over just as the Wicket shows up with the Ewok army.
"He came in with a cut on his arm and a bruise on his eyebrow. We saw to his injuries with the first aid kit. He seemed okay and wanted to have another drink."
Another witness reported Bean as saying: "It could have been worse, at least they didn't have slice at my head."
Pretty good interview with the writers of the show about season 2 (though it has some spoilers for the end of this season, so you should probably not read it yet if you haven't read the books):
She's a little different to what I pictured, but I'm not disappointed. She comes across as a kind of classy hooker, which is how she was portrayed ion the books. I don't recall it being mentioned that she had an accent though.
Yeah, the accent threw me a bit, but shes classy enough and hot enough that she fits the role in my mind. Not quite as I imagined her, but then I don't think I had a really clear picture in my head of what I thought she looked like anyway.
Edit: Just read that interview about season 2, sounds promising. I like that they're giving characters that don't necessarily have much of a role in the second book some onscreen time still, cos Jamie is too awesome to hardly see him for a whole season. I'm really, REALLY looking forward to the scene between him and Catelyn though, in the dungeons at Riverrun, I loved that scene in the book, hope they keep the dialogue exactly the same.
a German newspaper revealed that Kekilli had acted in several pornographic films. Go ahead, do a Google image search of "Sibel Kekilli" with the SafeSearch off: there are a LOT of pictures of her with a penis in her face.
lol Mantorok, it's not too often you see a website give helpful instructions on how to search for porn on the internet.
Wasn't this the second porn star they've cast? I'm too lazy to scroll back in the thread but I think I saw of Petyr Baelish's brothel women was from porn as well.
i spent all day yesterday watching episodes 1 to 9 for the first time. what a mind fuck. That was awesome.
On par with Rome, cant wait for the next episode.
I followed the instructions and there wasn't THAT many pictures of her with penis in her face. To be fair, there was just as many pictures of her with penis in other places too.
I like that they're giving characters that don't necessarily have much of a role in the second book some onscreen time still, cos Jamie is too awesome to hardly see him for a whole season.
Yeah, I was happy about that too. I'm more than happy for them to shuffle things around if it means a better translation to the screen from the books.
I don't think the series sums up how awesome and reviled Jaime is. Eddard Stark is only a few years older than him, and Ned is well regarded for his combat, command and leadership skills.
The comments about Jaime picking and choosing his battles are largely referring to him breaking his oath as a Kingsguard to kill the king and how the Lannisters basically waited until Robert's rebellion was won before joining in. Jaime is regarded as craven and an oathbreaker; yet people are too afraid to come out and call him that to his face because he could slice and dice them. I guess that's a pretty hard thing to convey in a TV series.
I got that he was a martial bad ass though was also prone to picking his battles (often in a manipulative sense of causing others to fight him). Never picked up that the Lannisters waited during the rebellion, still have very little idea what occurred before the show started.
I wouldn't say it's on par with Rome, but it's definitely got a certain pull in the slowly building plot. Bit sad now that Ned's dead though, not sure I want to watch people just kill each other off if that's all there essentially is to the story. Will wait and see, still have very high hopes.
Rome (like Deadwood etc) may take an episode or three to get into, but easily ties for number one spot in the best shows I've ever seen. It gets *very* good.
Edit: Oh ok, so apparently p doesn't stand for peers, hes just looking for HDTV rips. Sif it matters! I'm gonna buy the series on bluray anyway, I'll get my high def fix of it then :P
Sif watch this is anything other than HD.
In fact, sif watch any show in anything other than HD.
On the one hand, the books are indeed awesome. But on the other hand, having read them does lessen some of the impact of stuff in the show that would otherwise be a shock. Like what happened to Ned, since I've read the books, didn't come as much of a shock or a suprise when I saw it in the show (though it was still a big shock when I read it in the books).
So I guess it just depends whether you want to see new and unexpected things happening on screen, or if you don't mind reading about them in book form first and then seeing them come to life on screen (which, in my opinion, has still been pretty damn awesome to see).
I think if you want to read the books anyway, read them before you watch the show. The huge events in the books seemed to be a bit more surprising for me compared to the show. Not that the show isn't doing a good job, but just the nature of books compared to TV, it's a lot easier to control what information the reader has compared to the viewer of a TV show.
Yes (so far and unless they massively up the tempo, yes).
The wait for the next season is going to suck, should I just buy the books?
Maybe, I am not sure they will stick to 1 book per season model. Book 2 (from memory, a long long time ago) loads of main characters from book 1 basically only get minor mentions and then reappear in book3.
Book 2 tho from memory has titties, dragons, big sea battle and massive land battle... no ninjas however...
I think if you want to read the books anyway, read them before you watch the show. The huge events in the books seemed to be a bit more surprising for me compared to the show. Not that the show isn't doing a good job, but just the nature of books compared to TV, it's a lot easier to control what information the reader has compared to the viewer of a TV show.
I reckon this is likely the case. A lot of so called twists were fairly obvious and the not so obvious ones like the main character losing his head happened so fast that there was no suspense compared to reading about it over a few pages in a book. I didn't want to read the books while the show was running but I reckon I'll read them before the next season as the plot twists are better in book form IMO and action better in TV form.
the not so obvious ones like the main character losing his head happened so fast that there was no suspense compared to reading about it over a few pages in a book.
Nah, that was just as sudden in the book, they were totally making it out like he was going to be allowed to take the black, and then Joffrey is like "nope, kill him" and BAM hes dead. It was so sudden and so short, that it had me thinking "Nah, they wouldn't kill the main character like that", and I was thinking he somehow wasn't dead and it was faked. Cos in the book you view that scene from Arya's eyes, and she doesn't actually see Ned get his head cut off, so I was like, maybe it didn't really happen. But nope, that was it.
Theres similar bits in the other books too, where really huge events, that have massive impact on the characters and the story just happen really suddenly and with very little fanfare. Makes it seem even more brutal.
That episode was done incredibly well. They did a good job at fitting so much content into that episode without it feeling rushed. Sucks to have to wait a year for some more. :(
On the other hand, it's less than a month until A Dance With Dragons is released, which I am super pumped for.
I thought that it was kind of slow and odd and lacking sean bean, ending was great though.
Think that guy might be whatever comes after Y TicMan. ;)
Can't believe my posts got nuked, just because people took an entirely different interpretation of my story... :p
edit: Also was there some faint vocals at the end of the intro song which never used to be there? Or have all my encodings just sounded different? (I was working to several different versions of the song yesterday avo...)
Oh, and I also think the guy playing Commander Mormont is fucking awesome. He performs the role incredibly well. He perfectly fits his nickname "The Old Bear" too.
Needed more of the Hound, like the creepy, disturbing relationship between the Hound and Sansa, and they showed him in the armor of the Kingsguard in the last episode, but never showed Joffrey actually promoting new people to the kingsguard.
Maybe there'll be deleted scenes when it comes out on dvd/bluray, that'd be pretty sweet.
Yeah, I was wondering if I just wan't paying attention or something, because I don't remember seeing Joffrey appointing The Hound to the Kingsguard. Seems like something that should be in there, since he also makes a point of making sure they don't start calling him a knight.
how come his brother was a knight and not him anyway?
book spoilers be below:
Spoiler: basically, gregor has been a totally sadistic psychopath ever since he was a little kid and has always been a lot bigger than sandor. one day when they were children sandor was playing with one of gregor's toys in a room and gregor came back from somewhere (training or something) and found him. without saying a word gregor grabbed his little brother and shoved his face in a brazier full of burning coals, that's why sandor has a disfigured and burnt face. ever since then sandor has been completely disillusioned about the supposed honor and chivalry of knights because his older brother is total cunt to everyone but still swore the vows of a knight to be good and protect the weak and whatnot. he sees that most knights are nothing more than armored thugs who get what they want through force and doesn't want to be one and goes out of his way to make sure people don't call him lord or knight.
jeez poor ol' drogo copped the rough end of the pineapple.
sux to have to wait till the next season to come out now.
i wanna see the 'other side of the wall' action :D
Yeh cos the pre-pubescent kid on the boob wasn't creepy enough!
Joffrey really fucked up killing Ned, should have put him in Black if he wasn't such a fuckwit. Can totally see the South being a complete shitfight when Winter comes.
Winter takes quite a while to come, even at the end of the fourth book, its still coming (though its getting pretty close). Everything erupts into a complete shitfight long before winter comes :P
They spent so much time on the dragon eggs that I figured something had to happen with them, but started to doubt they'd do it given the low-key fantasy.
Post about winter two up looks like it should be in spoiler tags, I read a bit and then tore myself away in fear.
Started on the first book last night. After the first 50 pages, I've already got a whole different view on a few things. It's nice to see the extra detail in the book and how they approached it in the tv series. Good times.
Started on the first book last night. After the first 50 pages, I've already got a whole different view on a few things. It's nice to see the extra detail in the book and how they approached it in the tv series. Good times.
I found the same thing, started reading the first book about 7-8 eps in and I immediately understood more and saw characters differently. Not a bad thing, just an observation.
I noticed she wasn't breastfeeding the dragons either, not that I mind, cos that was kinda creepy in the book
When you first see them it looks like one is breastfeeding to me, so it's interesting that it was probably on purpose.
Post about winter two up looks like it should be in spoiler tags, I read a bit and then tore myself away in fear.
Winter is just winter, its a season, leaves drop off the trees, things get colder. Its the opposite of summer, where things are warm and everythings in bloom. If your enjoyment of the show really hinges on not knowing when the seasons are going to change, then you're doing it wrong. "Winter is coming" is the Stark words, thats the importance of that phrase, more than some big secret about the changing of the seasons.
The breastfeeding scene was what I was hoping for most. I thought it was going to be an important visual, really sets it as her being the mother of dragons.
I highly recommend reading the books even after seeing the show, I thought the series was awesome, finished reading first book around ep 8 and then 2nd book ep 9. I found the tv series decreased in my opinion in the last 3. Although not sure if it actually did or because my viewpoint was tainted now. The books are so much more involved, it felt rushed to me.
Its not like Tolkien or anything, but its also not action action action, theres lots of politicing and character stuff going on. I didn't have any trouble at all reading them, and in fact couldn't put them down, but I had a friend who read them who has a short attention span and he was saying he would just skip ahead a page or two when they started talking a lot, or when it was explaining the lineage of a character or something else he found boring. But then he got totally and completely lost later in the books.
I have a short attention span, so if there isn't anything happening i'll stop reading all together.
The first book starts off slow. Basically the only reason I decided to read the books was because Khel was raving about them a few years ago in an old thread, so I stuck with it. After a while, I couldn't put them down, and there was literally less than 2 minutes between me finishing one book and buying and downloading the next on my Kindle. This continued until I'd read them all.
As Khel said, it's not drawn out like Tolkien, but it's not Harry Potter either. There are some points where my eyes started to glaze over when he's describing some family lineage or the gown that some woman is wearing, but for the most part, something interesting is always unfolding.
but started to doubt they'd do it given the low-key fantasy.
It's a low magic world in the sense that not a lot of people can use magic, not that there isn't serious magic around the place. This becomes more and more apparent as the books go on. It's not like "LOL Elminster is here to save the day!" or anything, but there are some seriously powerful magic at play.
heh i was totally suss about that kings landing grandmiester guy being duplicitous... nailed it :D
was funny seeing him get up n sprightly work the kinks of acting like an old man out
I like how they call people craven in the books, instead of coward. I think they just said coward in the show, but craven sounds so much cooler, and so much more insulting.
think they used about 3 different words in 1 chapter to say "horse"
often the language is explained if you give it time... or at least you can usually figure it out. when i read it i was a bit frustrated starting out cause it seemed like he would just fuck with words for the sake of it but most fans will tell you that it helps to make the world feel familiar but different to ours - whatever.
anyway, the horse shit in the first chapter i seem to remember it explains that they are different breeds of horse and says something about their sizes i think.
See I'm thinking, if the books are still good to read after watching the tv series, but having read the books first takes something away (from the tv series), i'll read each book afterwards in the off season. Anyway that's what I'm going to try and do. After reading the first book I probably won't be able to stop.
often the language is explained if you give it time... or at least you can usually figure it out. when i read it i was a bit frustrated starting out cause it seemed like he would just fuck with words for the sake of it but most fans will tell you that it helps to make the world feel familiar but different to ours - whatever. anyway, the horse shit in the first chapter i seem to remember it explains that they are different breeds of horse and says something about their sizes i think. tl;dr gurm is an absolute fucker
oh it definetly doesnt detract from the reading. the horse thing was just an example and yes it does add to it because basically its a huge horse comapred to a small one!
who would you cast as stannis baratheon? a mate (who hasn't read the books) reckons viggo mortensen though i think this would be a very bad choice as he seems way too charismatic and attractive (no homo) for it to be a good fit imo. i'm struggling to think who i'd put there though.
I don't think its a spoiler to say that Stannis exists and that he isn't the most charismatic dude around, that's common knowledge surely? The Lords of the North didn't get down on one knee to Rob because Stannis is a cainer.
I certainly wouldn't choose Viggo Mortensen for Stannis. I reckon Mark Strong would be great if they can give him a bit of a haggard/slightly older look.
I think someone earlier was talking about Robert Carlyle for Stannis but I can't be assed searching through the previous posts to find the conversation.
I certainly wouldn't choose Viggo Mortensen for Stannis. I reckon Mark Strong would be great if they can give him a bit of a haggard/slightly older look.
that's a really, really good one tbh.
Somebody mentioned that Gerard Butler may be in the running. He seems kind of appropriate for what I envision.
i think his name got put under stannis on imdb but it later turned out not to be true, or so some very limited googling has told me.
Yeah, I think Khel said he'd like to see Robert Carlyle as Stannis. I love Robert Carlyle, but I don't think he quite has the frame for when I envisioned.
Earlier in the thread someone suggested Mark Strong as Stannis, and I reckon that'd be pretty damn awesome. Probably not gonna happen though cos he has movies in the works.
Edit: Oh, I should have refreshed this thread before posting.
Was reading the Winter is Coming wiki about the show, and they suggested Christoper Eccleston and Rufus Sewell as Stannis. I reckon both of those could be pretty good, Rufus Sewell could be perfect for it.
I reckon Michael Shannon would be awesome as Theon's priest uncle. If anyone else watched Boardwalk Empire, he was the intense, creepy prohibition agent. I always imagined Aeron Greyjoy as intense and almost on the edge of being insane.
Yeah I'd wager Michael Shannon or Mark Strong myself, although Eccleston would be pretty good as well, though he's not typically an "intense creepy" actor.
I think the choice of words, such as specifying different horse types, helped the characters feel more real and fleshed out. Destrier, courser and garron are all words that describe different types of horses. In a world where people use mostly horses to get around, they would use more precise words to describe the horses around them. Much like how people will often specify ute, van or wagon when discussing these types of vehicles, even though you could really just call them cars.
Also, I can't stop walking around singing "It's a nice day for a Red Wedding" to the tune of Billy Idol's 'White Wedding'. Can't wait for that scene, will be epic. Oh and I don't think that's a spoiler, because eleventy-billion weddings happen around the same time and you won't know which one I mean until it's too late...
I read the first one and a half chapters, while it was originally word for word like the tv show it eventually deviated (different ranger lived in the show, oddly). It immediately became a more fleshed out world as it described the Ser character who was riding in the group of three who first discovered the white walkers, made it seem like there's a lot more 'Sers' and houses than I thought.
Tbh I thought that the writing wasn't great, and that the show did a better job with the beheading scene etc. Will see where it goes. Seeing as the author is the head writer or producer or somesuch on the show, it might be fair to say that the show is his improved second draft. ;)
I certainly wouldn't say the show is an improvement. They made some strange decisions in the show which don't seem to be any sort of improvement to me. This whole season showed nothing of Roose Bolton, who's going to be become fairly important, and so little of the direwolves that one who hasn't read the books could be forgiven for wondering why they're in the show at all.
I certainly wouldn't say the show is an improvement. They made some strange decisions in the show which don't seem to be any sort of improvement to me.
Yeah, which reminds me of the scene in the last episode that pissed me off the most, where Catelyn is talking to Jamie Lannister. Unless I'm grossly misremembering the books, thats meant to happen at Riverrun, and happen much later, and in the books its a MUCH better scene. One of my favourite scenes in the entire series. And I get the feeling that the bit with Catelyn and Jamie in that episode, is all we get. Ripped. Off.
Nah, I think the scene you're thinking if is still going to happen. That's near the end of A Clash of Kings, and it's too important to miss. It happens after Catelyn meets Brienne.
I was thinking mark strong would make a good Euron Greyjoy but whoever mentioned Michael Shannon as the priest nailed it. The character in boardwalk empire had exactly the right kind of zeal, shit... we already know he can drown people.
of that genre
Since the whole first book is the lead up to civil war and the focus of the series is obviously political machinations rather than just fantasy battles I dont really think you have a leg to stand on. Breaking traditions of the genre is kind of what the series is about.
The only battle I remember from the first book was the one between Tywin's host and the 2000 of Robb's host. Tyrion doesn't get knocked out at the start in the book, and yeah, it would have been nice to see, but as Qmass said, war isn't really the focus of the story at this point. There's plenty of hugely epic battles to come, don't worry. I'm sure the huge following the show has now means they'll be more willing to pump money into it to make sure it lives up to expectations.
Yeah, it would have been nice to see that battle, but even in the book its over pretty quickly. Thats one of the things I found pretty cool about the battles in the book, how brutal and fast and not fancy at all they are. Its not like the movies where two armies clash and then theres a melee and everyones doing all this cool fighting. Two sides clash, people get decapitated, fucked up, chopped to bits, then the losers retreat. Theres no prolonged combat its like rock, paper, scissors. BAM you're fucked, die.
Winter is just winter, its a season, leaves drop off the trees, things get colder. Its the opposite of summer, where things are warm and everythings in bloom. If your enjoyment of the show really hinges on not knowing when the seasons are going to change, then you're doing it wrong. "Winter is coming" is the Stark words, thats the importance of that phrase, more than some big secret about the changing of the seasons.
Woah woah woah.... So Winter is not some horrendous scurge upon the country? It's just Winter as we know it? The way they talk about it it's eternal darkness and the monsters come out, is this not the case?
I was thinking it'd be quite good to read the first book after seeing the first season, to experience the rich backstory/more detail/etc.. as you're craving it after having seen the show and knowing nothing else, so it would pad it all out nicely.
Think Mark Strong would make a good Stannis, kind of how he was in the new Robin Hood.
The way the show put it to me is that their seasons, don't change quick and last only a few months. That take ages to change and last years. You imagine a 3-4 year long winter, somewhere where it snows. Without modern convinience.
Snow on crops, cold all the time, shorter days. Everything would be harder. For years.
Just imagine how fucked up that would be. Thats why they 'fear' winter.
Yeah, winter is bad for how long it lasts, people die during the winter cos it gets so cold for so long and they just run out of food. In the books it even talks about people leaving their homes around Winterfell and such and moving south before winter comes, because otherwise they wont survive. The furthur north you are, the worse it is, which is why its such a big deal for the Starks. The keep at Winterfell is even built so that hot water can be piped through the walls during winter to keep the people inside warmer.
Don't have to wait for winter for the monsters to come out though, they're already out beyond the wall, its always winter beyond the wall.
The keep at Winterfell is even built so that hot water can be piped through the walls during winter to keep the people inside warmer.
Actually, they always have hot-water flowing through the walls at Winterfell. The keep is built on top of hotsprings, with the water pushed through from the pressure. I remember Sansa or Arya or someone at the start of the first book saying/thinking something about leaning on the wall and how it always feels warm.
So, the wait is gonna be too long. I've decided I'm gonna read the series now and be one of those smug cunts with spoiler tags when the series returns.
There's a pretty good deal on amazon for the first 4 novels in a boxed set :
Comes out at hust under 30 bucks if you choose the cheapest shipping, but will take about a month to get here. Is currently $40 (free shipping) on book depository.co.uk.
apparently the embargo on the a dance with dragons book was accidentally lifted and a couple hundred books were released, so watch out for spoilers online.
Pre-purchased my copy from the Kindle Store, so I'll most likely be waiting until the proper release date anyway. $9.50 is probably the best price around though, plus it will just appear on my Kindle when it's out. My girlfriend is using my Kindle at the moment though to read the first 4 books, so she'd better have them finished by then, as I'll be taking it back regardless. :P
Isn't Storm of Swords in two books though? The one I have is split into two books, I didn't know there was a one book version.
The Kindle version is just one huge book. I didn't know it was split up until one of my mates mentioned something about A Dance with Dragons being the 6th book. I was confused.
Just came in to post this news. From a small thumbnail, yeah, I thought she looked a little too feminine, but after seeing how huge she is (and not terribly attractive), I reckon she's a pretty good choice.
Just got an email from Amazon saying that my copy of A Dance with Dragons has been charged to my card and delivered to my Kindle! Woooo! Getting stuck into it tonight! =D
Has anyone else been reading A Dance with Dragons? I'm not very far through it yet, but it's already had some fucking awesome shit go down. Loving it so far.
** Warning, possible spoilers for people who haven't read the books may follow***
Yeah, I'm reading Dance with Dragons atm, only about 150 pages in but
Spoiler: Jon Snow is already being awesome. I dunno about Tyrion though, not liking him as much in this book as in others and he seems a bit fucked up in the head now, and hes just going on and on about the "where do whores go" thing and replaying over and over in his head the killing of his father. Its getting a bit tired.
I like the choices for Stannis and Davos, Davos I really like in the books and he looks how I imagined. Stannis I imagined a bit harder, in that photo he looks more like the Stannis from ADWD than say from say CoK.
As far as Jon SnowSpoiler: I think hes pretty lame in this, hes not as interesting just idle in Castle Black - not enough Longclaw or Ghost action, Tyrion and Reek are the best. To me it shows how boring the previous book is without Tyrion
Maybe Tyrion gets better, but I'm about 200 pages in now, and so far Tyrion's bits are pretty boring and shit, nowhere near as good as hes been in the past imo
yeah doesnt get good till he leaves pentos. Nothing much happens in first 300 pages. same as last 200, the last book will be worthwhile when shit gets wrapped up nice and good. I think only storm of swords ended in a good way.
Slightly old news now, but haven't seen it mentioned. Game of Thrones got nominated for 13 Emmy awards, including best drama series, and best actor for Peter Dinklage as Tyrion.
This show is awesome - i have watched half of the first series so far and really enjoyed it. A lot of people have said its like The wire crossed with the Lord of the rings which i tend to agree with. HBO rocks :)
Heh, I was just rewatching it the other night with my brother, and when Robb got to the Twins I was thinking "Wow, what are the odds they would ACTUALLY find a location with a bridge like that to act as The Twins". I guess the odds were pretty slim :P
Theres another one on youtube put out by the stargate visual effects team, their showreel i think, has all the mundane things i never even thought about them using bluescreens for, like a guy walking down the street.. put a bluescreen behind them to block out real traffic and replace it with your own or whatever.
Heh, I was just rewatching it the other night with my brother, and when Robb got to the Twins I was thinking "Wow, what are the odds they would ACTUALLY find a location with a bridge like that to act as The Twins". I guess the odds were pretty slim :P
It's probably not a matter of finding a location, I'm sure if the production team looked they could find or build something that resembled the twins. It's more than likely just a money decision.
They could spend $X scouting for somewhere that might be 95% of the look they wanted and then go to the effort of shifting the entire shoot there. But since they've already got an handy special effects team out the back they could spend $Y digitally imposing something over a riverbank shot at one of their existing locations.
$Y probably isn't cheap but $X might be an order of magnitude more expensive.
kind of amazing how much green screen + effects are used nowadays.
Yep, that stargate studios reel was incredible... just stuff that you wouldn't expect to be a green screen shot is done for shooting convenience
Yeah Theon Greyjoy was very random for the first half of season 1, but he eventually made sense (possibly from the character sheet that somebody from here put together).
i always imagined roose bolton chubbier. hopefully he has the soft voice down pat and they pale up his eyes a bit more. needs to have a real menacing air i reckon.
also wtf, in that article midda they've changed Asha Greyjoy's name to Yara - anyone know why?
Which is pretty stupid cos I don't think Osha is even referred to by name in the first season. Why not just change HER name if they were so worried, since Asha Greyjoy is much more of a major character.
Also, for anyone who's reading the new book, I can't help but picture this guy as Moqorro
I liked book 2 better than the first, A Storm of Swords is simply amazing. Best in the series. The fourth book has its moments, but falls short of the others. I still haven't finished the latest, but I'm really liking it so far (about 2/3 of the way I think).
Yeah, it was still good, but since it only follows half of the characters, I wasn't as into it as I was with the others, especially coming from the spectacular third book.
I'm about 100 pages from the end of the latest book now, and while its been good, and I enjoyed it more than the fourth one, it still doesn't come close to Storm of Swords. There hasn't really been many (or any?) huge moments in it, whereas Storm of Swords just seems to be packed full of awesome "holy fuck!" moments. I mean theres some cool twists in the new book, and definitely some great scenes, but yeah, Storm of Swords set the bar pretty high.
Theres also nowhere near enough Jamie Lannister in the new book, which is a bit of a disappointment, and Tyrion isn't as good as he has been in the past either. Jon Snow and Theon Greyjoy's chapters are prolly the ones I've enjoyed the most, still find myself having trouble giving a shit about the Dorne characters though. The Daenerys stuff is just starting to get annoying, one minute the author is painting her as this conquering queen and the next shes acting like a naieve little girl. Some stuff just happened though in one of her chapters, that I hope signals a bit change in her character and gets things moving forward again. Also, Barristan Selmy becomes a PoV character for a few chapters which is pretty sweet. He really didn't like Robert very much.
Not sure how pissy people will get about spoilers, so don't read this post if you're likely to shit your pants (though I'm not actually mentioning any events from any of the books, just characters).
Yeah, I'm finding the Daenerys chapters to get a little wearisome. I don't think they're bad or anything, but I'm not looking forward to them like I do with the others. Also agreed about Tyrion.
I don't mind the Dornish chapters too much, but yeah, they're particularly exciting. Jon's are great though, and I was surprised to come across chapters following characters from A Feast For Crows, since I thought this book would only be following the characters not featured in the previous book. I've just come across my first Jaime chapter, which I wasn't expecting at all, so I'm not actually disappointed about a lack of Jaime, more pleasantly surprised that he's in it at all. Same goes for Arya.
Just finished it, and ok, I have to say, fuck you George R. R. Martin. I'm not gonna even post spoilers even spoiler tags, but theres stuff that happens near the end of the book and, well, fuck you George R. R. Martin.
awesome but i'm kinda wary when it comes to novels being turned into comics. especially after magician was turned into a comic a few years back and they stopped making it half way through. piss me right off.
Thats more how I had imagined Catelyn while reading it actually, the actress who plays her in the show was nothing like I had pictured the character (though she still does do a good job).
Also, that first cover, the Alex Ross one, looks fucking sexy. I wish the books had covers that good.
Yeah, I pictured Catelyn looking a bit more attractive and younger, but I don't know why, because I'm pretty sure she's described in a fairly similar fashion to her appearance in the show.
I have trouble remembering what happened in Clash of Kings and what was in Storm of Swords, cos I pretty much read them back to back. Is Qhorin Halfhand in Clash of Kings? What about that band of people Arya meets who work for/with Berric Dondarrion? And theres Thoros of Myr but they might not use him now till a later season.
Theres still the Blackfish though, they'll have to cast him, and the other Tullys like Edmure and Lord Hoster. And what about the Brave Companions and Vargo Hoat, they're in the second book aren't they?
Ah yeah, Qhorin Halfhand is a big one. He was in A Clash of Kings. The Bloody Mummers are big ones too, they were in the second book.
I don't quite remember, did Blackfish meet Catelyn at the entrance to the Eyrie in the show like he did in the first book? Or did they replace him with someone else? Either way, I don't think any of the other Tullys have been cast.
Nah, the Blackfish was never in the first season of the show, they ended up cutting his scenes and were going to introduce him in the second season. I don't think there even was any scene with Catelyn leaving the Eyrie, there was the scene where she was talking to her sister and telling her she had to go and asking her to come and help, then next time you see her shes turning up at Rob Stark's camp.
I'm still hoping they find a role for Ian Mcshane, he belongs in a series like this.
Spoiler: Well maybe I'm further along than half!? So far he's killed off Renly, Catelyn, Robb, Joffrey and Ygritte, as well as chopped off the kingslayer's hand ...
keep meaning to pick up a dance with dragons on the way home from work but i've been forgetting. this thread has reminded me and it will definitely be bought on the way home today!
Keep in mind that A Dance With Dragons mostly takes place at the same time as A Feast For Crows, covering the stories of the characters who weren't in the fourth book. There's a chapter here and there that crosses over, but not much. Don't expect to see much of Jaime, Arya, Sam, Brienne, etc.
Heh I know I'm a bit late with this (have been avoiding the spoilerific turn this thread has taken, still not past book 1) - but I was just googling a certain actor who I loved in John Adams (the guy who played Jefferson), and it turns out that he's playing this Stannis Baratheon guy. Small world, that's so awesome.
Yeah, my girlfriend sent me that earlier. They have a big picture of Emma Clarke and a headline saying that a model has quit the show, despite Emma Clarke being completely unrelated to the story.
No idea who she was supposed to be playing. She doesn't even have an IMDB page. It just says she was "the king's mistress," yet the only king I remember having a mistress was Robert, and he died in season 1.
Whatevs, not terribly concerning, just some chick who didn't want to get her tits out.
I can't think of what character that could even be, a mistress to the king? For a start, which king? But even then I can't think of any mistresses that any of the kings have.
Tyrion is the King's Hand, not the king, and they've already had Shae in season 1. She's also been in porn, so she isn't shy ab out nudity. Anyway, it's not her, and Stannis doesn't have a mistress, he's a hardcore conservative/honorable type.
Yeah, same Khel. The only thing that came to mind was the scene in season 1 where Jaime is standing outside the king's bedroom while he has a heap of chicks in there.
I'm the opposite Hogfather, found book 1 to be a great yarn (read it before the tv series), but book 2 feels like it's slowed down a lot.
I take that back, the last 15 chapters are pretty f'n great. :D
Edit:
I can't think of what character that could even be, a mistress to the king? For a start, which king? But even then I can't think of any mistresses that any of the kings have.
Spoiler: The only ones I can think of are Jeyne Westerling or Melisandre but they've already been cast elsewhere and Westerling & Robb Stark happens later than book 2. Maybe they mean Kyra, Theon Greyjoy's mistress? He proclaims himself Prince and they have a bit of rolling in the sack in Clash of Kings.
