people who read the books first...

[gash is back]

how different were the tv characters than what you had built up in your head?

[Lord Davos Baratheon]

In some cases, the difference is gigantic: Tyrion, Oberyn, Tywin, Robb, Ramsay, Daario, Jorah, etc. They all look VERY different from the characters that I ''made up'' on my mind. But on the other hand, some characters look (almost) the ''same'' the way I picture them: Stannis, Ned, Arya, Catelyn, Melisandre... And then there are the ones that stand on ''middle ground'': Joffrey, Daenerys, Cersei, Jaime, Jon, and some others...

Overall, I think the casting was somewhat accurate.

[Ser Falione]

Arya, Sansa, Robert Baratheon and Varys have all been exactly what I imagined.

But I'd place Arya at the top. Maise Williams has grown Arya's character perfectly from dark to darker to even darker.

[rocksniffer]

i have been very satisfied with actor choices, age notwithstanding...best choice the hound...he is exactly as i pictured him. varys, littlefinger, jon snow, arya, dany all pretty accurate for me.

worst change maggy the frog...i pictured a wizened old toothless witch...instead i got a hot young woman with too many teeth...but it made little difference in the larger scheme of things

eta: the whitewalkers are cooler than i expected, and the army of the dead (wights) are also accurate to my imagination

[jet199]

Not enough purple eyes for my liking.

[Lord Davos Baratheon]

i have been very satisfied with actor choices, age notwithstanding...best choice the hound...he is exactly as i pictured him. varys, littlefinger, jon snow, arya, dany all pretty accurate for me.

worst change maggy the frog...i pictured a wizened old toothless witch...instead i got a hot young woman with too many teeth...but it made little difference in the larger scheme of things

eta: the whitewalkers are cooler than i expected, and the army of the dead (wights) are also accurate to my imagination

This. I forgot this.

[Ser Quork]

None of them looked as I expected, but the least like their books descriptions (for me) -

Tyrion isn't nearly ugly enough.

Jaime and Cersei aren't even remotely like each other and (sorry) but not beautiful enough.

Robert is supposed to be huge in height and frame (as well as fat), but is just tubby.

Stannis and Renly - nothing like I imagined!

Brienne is too attractive!

Others (White walkers, in show parlance) - can't stand the wizened things. (See my avatar. ;) )

I expected Theon to be handsome and then a full-on wreck as Reek - he isn't either really.

Ramsay is just too nice looking in the show.

I expected Davos to be younger.

Jorah - not remotely bear-like.

Of course, most of these are good actors - not criticising that. Just the looks.

[Ser Falione]

I forgot to add, Tormund Giantsbane is highly accurate in my opinion. Besides the gap tooth.

[Bugzi]

Ramsey is perfect in the show.

Roose is perfect.

Tyrion perfect.

As is Stannis, Tywin, Ed stark, Arya, Sansa, Jon, Cersei, Jorah, Danni, Theon, I also like the red Viper, Bronn, Jamie, Bri.

The white walkers and the dragons are epic, as are most of the wildlings.

The Hound is a complete miss as far as I am concerned, not least of all because he is far too old.

[Bugzi]

Double post, oops

[Duckfield]

Most characters on the show look VERY different from how they're described in the books. Aside from looks, this also goes for personal characteristics as well.

The only character that was 100% spot on, on both aspects, was Mord.

[lancerman]

I don't qualify since I watched the first few seasons before I read the books. But even with that bias in mind, I can definitely say that I get the sense that these characters in the book were different enough that I can't even project their actor on them.

Renly is the biggest. I almost picture him as a young Robert Baratheon-lite. Maybe more slender and prettier. But still with a great deal of masculinity.

Stannis. The actor has the same character and attitude. But in the same vein as Renly I picture Stannis a lot bulkier, more imposing, almost like something out of a Dracula movie. A bald Christopher Lee on steroids maybe.

Catelyn. I just view her as a lot younger. Maybe mid to late thirties. Old enough to look like she's no longer a spring chicken, but young enough that she still has all of her beauty and isn't showing aging.

Eddard. Same as Catelyn. He should be more like Viggo Mortenen in LOTR imo. These are people who were in their primes no more than 15 years ago.

Cersie. I think of something more like Sharon Stone in Casino.

By that same token, it's hard to read an Arya chapter without picturing Maisie. Samwell is basically dead on. Jon more or less is the same. I picture Sansa as a slightly younger version of Sophie Turner.

[ColdBenDaario NaStarkHands]

Catelyn. I just view her as a lot younger. Maybe mid to late thirties. Old enough to look like she's no longer a spring chicken, but young enough that she still has all of her beauty and isn't showing aging.

Eddard. Same as Catelyn. He should be more like Viggo Mortenen in LOTR imo. These are people who were in their primes no more than 15 years ago.

This is just collateral damage from aging up the kids- if you've got the 24 yr-old (ish, he's born in 1986) Richard Madden playing Robb Stark in season one you can't have his parents being portrayed by actors only in their 30s, even if Richard is ostensibly playing a teenager (is Robb's age ever explicitly laid out in June show?).

[WinterRaven]

Almost all of them were different for me. The two who were very similar to how I imagined them were Balon Greyjoy and Roose Bolton. In fact, when I first saw Roose on screen I knew it was him immediately before they even named him.

Their voices in particular are quite similar to how I imagined them (although Roose's was always difficult for me to think of because he's always described as talking very quietly).

Neither were perfectly similar to how I imagined them (e.g., I always imagined Roose as a cartoon of sorts), but they were quite close and the actors were good choices in my opinion.

[WinterRaven]

I forgot to add, Tormund Giantsbane is highly accurate in my opinion. Besides the gap tooth.

I always thought of book Tormund to be a lot funnier than he is on the show. The show version is quite serious.

[Archmaester Drew]

Many characters are different in appearance (and character) from the books, but the ones I find most jarring are Catelyn, Jorah, Ramsay and the Others. :)

[King Viserys Targaryen IV]

My only real complaint is that for a book that places so much importance on lineage and inherited traits, they did not follow the hair/ eye colors very well.

Would have it been so hard to give Daenerys and Viserys silver hair and purple eyes? Or Cersie and Jaime bright blond hair?

Or Jon brown hair?

for another show I wouldn't really care, but the characters having the family traits is important.

[pettes]

Robb is the most different in my oppinion. Tywin, Arya, Sansa, Jeor Mormont and Samwell are spot on in my oppinion.

[The Dames do Moan]

My only real complaint is that for a book that places so much importance on lineage and inherited traits, they did not follow the hair/ eye colors very well.

Would have it been so hard to give Daenerys and Viserys silver hair and purple eyes? Or Cersie and Jaime bright blond hair?

Or Jon brown hair?

for another show I wouldn't really care, but the characters having the family traits is important.

They tried to give the Targs purple eyes, but they said contacts just didn't look right and you couldn't properly sense the character emotions while they were wearing them.

For me the biggest difference is the WW. I imagined like these vaguely beautiful type ice beings rather than what is shown.

Obviously the kids are a lot older, but most look pretty similar if I aged them up in my mind. Robb I expected to have hair color like Sansa's.

[OberynBlackfyre]

They tried to give the Targs purple eyes, but they said contacts just didn't look right and you couldn't properly sense the character emotions while they were wearing them.

For me the biggest difference is the WW. I imagined like these vaguely beautiful type ice beings rather than what is shown.

Obviously the kids are a lot older, but most look pretty similar if I aged them up in my mind. Robb I expected to have hair color like Sansa's.

^^ I think that's my biggest gripe too when it comes to characters or things being different. Especially after GRRM gave a great description about the WW as being "other worldly beautiful", kind of like Ice elves.......and then they were reduced to basically homicidal corpse like natives.