HBO's A Game of Thrones

[[ETM]]

Oh hell yes. Even the fanatics had almost no issues with this one. Martin hit it out of the ballpark.

[Irish]

Amazing episode.

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I really want every single Lannister to fucking die.

]

Edit: I can't get over how good this show is becoming.

[Raiders]

Seeing as HBO Go doesn't really work for my slow-ass download rate, can anyone tell me what Robb said to the Lannister spy before letting him go? DirecTV froze for a second thanks to a thunderstorm.

[Irish]

Seeing as HBO Go doesn't really work for my slow-ass download rate, can anyone tell me what Robb said to the Lannister spy before letting him go? DirecTV froze for a second thanks to a thunderstorm.

"Tell Lord Tywin winter is coming for him. 20,000 northerners marching south to find out if he really does shit gold."

[Henry Gale]

As someone who's only aware of the story as it unfolds through the series... [

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I wasn't expecting that at all.

]

[Sxottlan]

Wow. So that happened.

[amberlita]

I love the reactions of first time book readers or non-book readers. Nobody ever sees that shit coming.

[Henry Gale]

An amazing reaction (entirely a spoiler to anyone that hasn't watched the episode yet):

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[youtube]owf6D2vfZqM[/youtube]

]

[Kurosawa Fan]

Just a reminder for everyone to avoid spoilers, please.

[Irish]

HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK

[Fezzik]

I love the reactions of first time book readers or non-book readers. Nobody ever sees that shit coming.

Twitter practically MELTED last night with the reactions. It was glorious to watch unfold.

[ledfloyd]

i'll repeat what i said last week about doctor who.

um... holy fucking shit.

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this raises a point, because i've been debating whether or not to read the books, and i think that scene had a lot more power because i didn't know what was coming. i kept expecting something to sweep in last minute and change things. because that. doesn't. happen.

]

[[ETM]]

I've been waiting for it, since I was spoiled a looong time ago, but it was still very powerful.

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I haven't expected the battle to be... no battle. That was a slight disappointment.

]

One more thing - I really liked Sibel Kekilli as Shae. I found out today that she used to do hardcore porn until 2002, when she was discovered and slowly became one of the most acclaimed young German actresses. After... looking her previous work up, it was strange seeing her on the show afterwards. Also, warning - don't google her with safety off in public.

[Acapelli]

can't believe they did that

[Irish]

I've been waiting for it, since I was spoiled a looong time ago, but it was still very powerful.

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I haven't expected the battle to be... no battle. That was a slight disappointment.

]

I decided to read the books and am about half way through the first one now.

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On the whole, the show's very good about hitting the highlights, but here I agree with you.

It seems Robb's clever misdirect and Jaime's capture was given the short shrift. Likewise with the big reveal that there's a Targaryen on the Wall (Robert had to know that, didn't he?).

Both surprised me, and given the pacing of the first book I'm expecting GRRM to give it more focus.

]

[Irish]

can't believe they did that

I have to give GRRM credit. It was really goddamn clever. Usually I can spot his sort of thing coming, but this time it took me by complete surprise.

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In the book, boy, Ned really is "one of these things is not like the other." Everyone, all the point of view characters, operates from some kind of vulnerability; they struggle to gain or maintain a place in their world.

Everyone except Ned. While reading the book, I kept thinking of that line from Amadeus, where Mozart complains to the Emperor that the characters in opera "are so lofty they sound as if they shit marble."

Ned shits marble by the ton. He's noble, moral, wise, strong, kind, merciful and just. But that's also his problem, because all those super-heroic qualities also make him dramatically inert. There's never a question what he'd do in any given situation (unlike, say, Tyrion or Jon) so he quickly becomes dull. GRRM uses him to sleuth out the question of the Lannister family tree and little more (occasionally, he raises doubts in the reader's mind about Robert's moral strength).

Given that, and that he operates as a kind of hero-with-a-thousand faces Obi Wan (the good and true mentor) to his children, it makes perfect sense to kill him off.

GRRM was particularly clever about it, though. I have to give him worlds of credit. He made Ned feel like the center of the story, grounding all of the other characters and their places in the world of Westeros. His death is a great void leaving the reader/watcher particularly adrift.

Which leaves me wondering who, if anyone, is going to move into the spotlight.

]

[amberlita]

I have to give GRRM credit. It was really goddamn clever. Usually I can spot his sort of thing coming, but this time it took me by complete surprise.

[

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In the book, boy, Ned really is "one of these things is not like the other." Everyone, all the point of view characters, operates from some kind of vulnerability; they struggle to gain or maintain a place in their world.

Everyone except Ned. While reading the book, I kept thinking of that line from Amadeus, where Mozart complains to the Emperor that the characters in opera "are so lofty they sound as if they shit marble."

Ned shits marble by the ton. He's noble, moral, wise, strong, kind, merciful and just. But that's also his problem, because all those super-heroic qualities also make him dramatically inert. There's never a question what he'd do in any given situation (unlike, say, Tyrion or Jon) so he quickly becomes dull. GRRM uses him to sleuth out the question of the Lannister family tree and little more (occasionally, he raises doubts in the reader's mind about Robert's moral strength).

Given that, and that he operates as a kind of hero-with-a-thousand faces Obi Wan (the good and true mentor) to his children, it makes perfect sense to kill him off.

GRRM was particularly clever about it, though. I have to give him worlds of credit. He made Ned feel like the center of the story, grounding all of the other characters and their places in the world of Westeros. His death is a great void leaving the reader/watcher particularly adrift.

Which leaves me wondering who, if anyone, is going to move into the spotlight.

]

[

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I think the point is that the children move into the spotlight. While naturally to promote the show they splashed Sean Bean's image everywhere, otherwise I don't think they did anything the book didn't do which is something of a bait and switch. It seems like the story is Ned's but really A Song of Ice and Fire is the children's story. I just hope that people have been able to become attached to folks like Arya, Jon, and Robb (especially for him in the last couple episodes) to find a reason to stick to the show now that the seeming central character is gone.

]

[Irish]

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I think the point is that the children move into the spotlight. While naturally to promote the show they splashed Sean Bean's image everywhere, otherwise I don't think they did anything the book didn't do which is something of a bait and switch. It seems like the story is Ned's but really A Song of Ice and Fire is the children's story. I just hope that people have been able to become attached to folks like Arya, Jon, and Robb (especially for him in the last couple episodes) to find a reason to stick to the show now that the seeming central character is gone.

]

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Yep yep, exactly. Well said. Thing I'm wondering is, which one. Robb isn't very well drawn in the books or the series (suffering from similar dramatic problems as Eddard), and he's not a point of view character in the first novel.

Jon and Arya are more fun in the book, but they're also really young, too young in my mind to drive much of the plot. (I can't imagine the series deviating from the books much at all).

Sean Bean being cast in the "lead" is one of the things that threw me off. I never imagined they'd kill a name actor in an ongoing series like that.

Two of the characters that were driving most of the story (Robert and Ned) are now gone. I'm looking forward to how this is resolved.

]

[Lucky]

[

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Yep yep, exactly. Well said. Thing I'm wondering is, which one. Robb isn't very well drawn in the books or the series (suffering from similar dramatic problems as Eddard), and he's not a point of view character in the first novel.

Jon and Arya are more fun in the book, but they're also really young, too young in my mind to drive much of the plot. (I can't imagine the series deviating from the books much at all).

Sean Bean being cast in the "lead" is one of the things that threw me off. I never imagined they'd kill a name actor in an ongoing series like that.

Two of the characters that were driving most of the story (Robert and Ned) are now gone. I'm looking forward to how this is resolved.

]

If the first 300 pages of the 2nd book are any indication, the solution is to widen the scope of the series. A more crude title for the second book so far would be "A Clusterfuck of Kings."

[Lucky]

By the way, the last episode was top notch. Loved the opening scene with Varys and Ned, Tyrion and Shae's dynamic (good casting there, ex-porn star or not), and the look on Catelyn's face when Robb comes back (it's for moments like these that filmed medium has power over a novel). Anyone else find the duel between Dany's protector and the aggressive horseman poorly handled, though? I was also disappointed by the lack of a battle scene as there was some genuine tension in the book during that sequence.

[Irish]

I was also disappointed by the lack of a battle scene as there was some genuine tension in the book during that sequence.

Only in that it's another eyebrow-raising element you need to accept if you want the plot to move along (sort of like Tyrion's dagger).

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If Drago is undefeated the the warrior-to-end-all-warriors, how did he get hurt so easily? If these guys scrap as much as the show/book claims they do, then once hurt wouldn't Drago realize the seriousness of his wound? Instead he brushes it off like it's nothing and almost dies because of it.

]

I was also disappointed by the lack of a battle scene as there was some genuine tension in the book during that sequence.

Figure that was a way to keep down the budget. The show is creative in the ways it depicts the larger world without hiring a slew of extras or resorting to mass CGI (something that Spartacus: Blood and Sand did often).

You never feel like it's 4 guys walking around plaster of paris castles, but in reality I'd guess that's exactly what it is.

[Irish]

If the first 300 pages of the 2nd book are any indication, the solution is to widen the scope of the series. A more crude title for the second book so far would be "A Clusterfuck of Kings."

Heh! As much as I'm enjoying the TV show/first book, I'm wondering if I should continue onto the second.

[Lucky]

Figure that was a way to keep down the budget. The show is creative in the ways it depicts the larger world without hiring a slew of extras or resorting to mass CGI (something that Spartacus: Blood and Sand did often).

You never feel like it's 4 guys walking around plaster of paris castles, but in reality I'd guess that's exactly what it is.

I'm sure you're right on with the budget constraints. If I remember correctly, that battle took place through Tyrion's eyes in the novel and he barely made it off with his life. I was hoping for a dwarf's perspective of war, but they gracefully skipped over the whole ordeal. It has been interesting to note the route they took to adapt this book. If you would have asked me before the series started, I would have predicted this part of the book would be exaggerated to take up a majority of an episode. Boy, was I wrong. It was essentially cut entirely. On the other side of the coin, I would not have expected what they have done with the secondary characters in embellishing them more. King Robert, Theon, Varys, Robb, Tywin, and Shae (so far, at least) have all been given extra colors of life in the show that their counterparts on paper didn't have. Having read the book ahead of time and being familiarized with the story, these shining secondary characters have been the best part of the show.

[[ETM]]

good casting there, ex-porn star or not

Oh, I agree, I just find her fascinating.

[number8]

Heh:

Bean was apparently stabbed in the arm during an altercation outside a London pub, after a passer-by made lewd comments about his female companion.

The 52-year-old actor reportedly followed the man down the road to challenge him about the comments, and was later attacked.

According to eyewitnesses quoted by the Daily Mail, Bean was stabbed in the arm with what was believed to be a broken glass and punched in the face during the incident on Sunday evening.

But, ever the hard man, the Lord Of The Rings star decided against going to hospital – and returned to order another drink from the pub.

http://www.metro.co.uk/showbiz/86630...-april-summers