Game of Thrones

Just watched Game of Thrones on HBO tonight.
I have not read the books yet. Put it off too long. However, after tonight I think that will change! I really enjoyed it. Very complex, and yet very interesting.

Anyone who has read the books: what did you think? was it faithful? Does it look promising to you?

And anyone else just give your thoughts if you can.

I didn't see a thread on this yet, so I figured I'd make one. I'm sure at least a few of you watched it!

One heck of an ending to that episode too. Seriously!

I watched it and enjoyed it, but will have to watch it again as some bits were complicated to follow. And what's with all the brother sister loving? Ick...

jcoffman99 said:

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I watched it and enjoyed it, but will have to watch it again as some bits were complicated to follow. And what's with all the brother sister loving? Ick...

I don't know...keep it in the family I guess. But the young sister who was offered up to the new Conan dude, she is smokin hot.

I liked it a lot. I would have preferred a two hour premier, but they picked the perfect spot to end it.

The kids are a few years older than in the books, but that works out well.

Also, unless I'm misremembering, the Dothraki (the barbarians) were pretty uncomfortable with the idea of the ocean, preferring to live on the open plains.

One minor change in the opening scene:

Spoiler:

When the white walkers attack, the nobleman (the one who was giving orders) actually goes a couple of rounds with one of them before getting killed. The younger man tries to hide, but is found and killed by the now-undead noble, and it's the older man who gets away, to be later found and executed.

Have not read the books but enjoyed the season opener. I do wish it was a tad longer and they definitely give you someone to hate already. I was not expecting the ending but definitely will be watching next week.

I just read the first book this summer. It's pretty good, but I decided to hold off on reading any further until Martin wraps up the series AND I hear it doesn't suck. I'm not investing the time if he can't do that right, and I've done too many novel series where it just fizzles at the end to bother with another.

That said, a few explanations.

jcoffman99 said:

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I watched it and enjoyed it, but will have to watch it again as some bits were complicated to follow. And what's with all the brother sister loving? Ick...

It's in the book. It's actually a major plot point, as I suspect will be revealed later in the show if it wasn't already revealed last night (I haven't seen the episode yet).

SmilingOtter said:

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I liked it a lot. I would have preferred a two hour premier, but they picked the perfect spot to end it.

The kids are a few years older than in the books, but that works out well.

Also, unless I'm misremembering, the Dothraki (the barbarians) were pretty uncomfortable with the idea of the ocean, preferring to live on the open plains.

One minor change in the opening scene:

Spoiler:

When the white walkers attack, the nobleman (the one who was giving orders) actually goes a couple of rounds with one of them before getting killed. The younger man tries to hide, but is found and killed by the now-undead noble, and it's the older man who gets away, to be later found and executed.

I think you're right about the Barbarians. They're supposed to be like the Mongols, so, not much of a navy. It'll be interesting to see how graphically they play out some of the stuff they do. There are a few scenes in particular that were INSANELY brutal. There's also some pretty explicit sex, but I suspect that it'll be sanitized from the porn levels of the book to something merely titillating for TV. (note: the book isn't porn, but to film one scene in particular as the book describes it, you might as well make a porno)

/\ HBO seems to push the boundaries for sexual scenes in shows example being True Blood... I have noticed that back in the day you rarely saw children killed. Seems that has changed more and more.

Yeah, i'm not so sure they are gonna tame down ANY of the sex on this show! Dinklage was getting some pretty wild action last night!

It was pretty good. I like the actors in it, so I'll see how it goes. ALL of HBO shows now seem to be story, story, naked chick, story, sex scene, story, story, naked chick.

Just watched it. It's not bad. A nice representation of the book, I think. The sex was actually more toned down than I expected, based on what you guys said. The books are a LOT more explicit, and the sex scenes were fairly short.

I'll say this, though. It seems like they crammed the first third of the first book into a single episode. Granted, much of that is merely explaining the world and such, but it still went by REALLY quickly.

Haven't read the books, but like Martin's work. I thought the show was awesome! Beautiful production design & the actors did a great job!

Yeah, the actors are doing a fantastic job with the characters. Some of the costume/hair designs aren't quite what I envisioned, but they work.

Possibly a better site to watch online:
http://www.wisevid.com/play?v=4AcwcJ93qJJ0

Looks like they have already renewed it for a second season! Must be pretty confident in what they have seen so far!

They've done that for a few shows. Don't count on it to mean a long-term full run. Rome and Carnivale are two which come to mind. Strong openers, but disappointing follow-up numbers that gradually dwindled. A similar thing happened with Deadwood, but it at least got three seasons. Chronologically, Rome dovetails into I, Claudius. But Carnivale they just cut off mid-story.

The nice news is that you at least have the books to turn to if and when they prematurely shut this show down for budgetary considerations.

Watched it last night. Gonna see how it plays out, but sounds like it could be as good as Pillars Of The Earth!

But what's with all the sex on TV these days?
We have Vampire Porn in True Blood, Corset Porn in several of the period dramas, Rennaissance Porn (The Tudors), Sandal Porn (Spartacus) and now we have Sean Bean Porn!! :

Given that my Mrs owns/controls the TV and thus decides what gets recorded on Sky Plus, I'm getting a little worried about her....

Um...you must not be familiar with the books. There's a TON of sex in the books. Often dealt with far more explicitly than what you see on screen. For example, they toned down the first sexual encounter between the barbarian guy and the blonde gal.

Solo4114 said:

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Um...you must not be familiar with the books.

Um... No, I am not.
Interestingly, I could tell this was based on a book. It had that sort of feel.

It wasn't a complaint or anything. Not by a long shot. I'm used to pretty explicit books, particularly in Fantasy. They generally do it better (Saber & Shadow is a favourite) than on TV.

I'm just noticing that there are a lot of explicit scenes in many TV shows these days. Hence I refer to them by whatever kind of porn they feature, rather than the title :
I do love John Hannah for bringing us the "Jupiter's C**k!!" outburst, though!!

Oh, I know exactly what you mean as far as the "Felt like a book adaptation" thing.

There's a sense that you end up missing a lot of the explanation and backstory that's present in the narrative of the book, and they seemed to have managed to do the entire first 1/4 of the first book in a single opening episode. Now, granted, much of that IS a lot of laying the groundwork, and the PLOT doesn't really take off until after that, but it definitely had that "condensed for time" quality to it.

Even being condensed you still got a nice feel for the characters quickly and flowed together nicely. Sometimes they cram way too much into a movie or show and the story gets lost. I didn't experience that here even being doped up after being released from the hospital

Oh yeah, I definitely thought the acting and writing were all very well done and captured the characters quite nicely. I'm also curious to see where they end the first season. It seems to me that there's a certain natural point where they could "split" the first book and end the season, but I have a sense they won't do that.

I thought the first episode was very well done, and actually more faithful to the novel than I thought they might be.

If anyone is interested, I made a couple wallpapers based on the Stark dire wolf sigil from the soldiers' shields:

Dark Version
Stark Dire Wolf by ~mgbeach on deviantART

Light Version
Stark Dire Wolf- Light Version by ~mgbeach on deviantART

My brother was non stop about the book so we watched the 1st episode together, and I liked it. It is a very compelling story and I am excited to see how things unfold. I guess we're not supposed to get attached to any characters. My only criticism (and it's very shallow) is that Lena Headey is the only attractive female cast member. I know shallow.

You didn't like Peter Dinklage's girl?

So when does Sean Bean die?

He always dies in films. I've only seen two that I recall where he didn't!!