[BOOK SPOILERS] EP101 Discussion

[Mr. X]

Good stuff!

I squeed a little bit over the baby direwolves.

[Arlingzen Bill]

I was hoping to see the children fighting, with Rob's win... That was the only thing missing that I wanted to see...

Jaime is a bastard but his byplay with Tyrion was excellent.

I liked the Others scene.

Well dany ex machina didn't die, there is always next week.

[snake]

I thought the dialogue at times was a bit clunky but overall it was good. The Kingslayer's scenes were done well, perhaps the best in the episode. His cockiness really comes through. The Imp's scenes were not as good. Viserys was very good as was Cat and Arya. The Dothraki wedding fight was pretty cheesy and the overall scene was poorly done IMO.

Overall, good show. Looking forward to next week.

[Ixodes]

Good stuff. I think they did a fine job condensing the first section into the first hour. On to episode 2...

[WarGalley]

I liked a lot though I also thought the Daenarys wedding night scene should have been closer to the consensual act. It also shows a different side of Khal Drogo.

The one thing that irked me was the Others. I pictured them closer to pale, emotionless white skinned knights (a sentient race) that hated living things. These came off more like monsters.

Really liked the intro too. All in all, very Rome-esque.

[Balefont]

the scenes with Daenerys were amazing.

They really were. Can't wait for more!

[DaddyTorgo]

that was one of the few things that I'm not sure I liked as a change - but we will see how it plays out.

Makes a lot of sense from a scripting and exposition standpoint though, as far as setting up that there's some mystery going on (to get people to tune in who might be new to the series), and also sets up the lannister's as the "bad guys."

[CelticCail]

The music is lovely! The intro/opening didn't sit right with me the first time - very unexpected - but I liked it the second time. The theme reminds me too much of The Tudors opening but I'll get over it.

Otherwise, I'm thrilled with how much is directly out of the book including lines, but bothered by the little detail things like that Gared was the deserter in the book, Jon was present at the feast, etc. I don't think they detract from the story too much though.

I think the Dany stuff was gratuitous. The basically rape scene bothered the hell out of me on TV while in the books, you knew everything she was thinking and so on and it didn't seem quite as horrible. Viserys is appropriately creepy/crazy.

Jaime is perfect. I'm in love. Can't wait to see Petyr, the other love of my life.... ;)

[BLU-RAY]

My lemon cakes were an unqualified disaster, but they are edible and don't taste awful. Gotta work on getting the cake part more... cakelike. But the custard did seem to bake out to the bottom of the ramekin, which was nice.

Overall, I think the premier was pretty awesome. It does suffer from exposition, as was mentioned in many of the reviews, but on the whole it was bad-ass.

I don't know if I can watch this series, though. it is PAINFUL seeing these people and knowing what is in store for their characters. :bawl:

Agreed, I have trouble doing rereads for that reason as well.

Liked Benjen a lot, and I already can't wait for Joff to buy the farm. Seriously, fuck that guy. And Tyrion and Jaime are both really good.

[SergioCQH]

Oh wow. I won't even try to guess how non-readers would feel about that episode, but I loved it. The pacing felt quite a bit rushed though. The choice of doggy style for Jaime and Cersei felt odd though. I think keeping the scene more like the book, where he's fucking her standing up against the wall would have worked better. Perhaps they thought doggy style would make the scene grittier.

[BookWyrm]

Man this has been a wonderful hour. I bet GRRM is cheering right now.

The costumes are stunning! I love the way they made Sandor Clegane out.

I loved the warning Daenerys got as she went into the bath - so perfect.

[Timbits]

Awesome. Great acting, really like Ned's and Jon's actors.

Thought the feast would be a longer scene and bigger event. A little bugged by how old some of them are compared to the books.

Laughed when I saw Joffrey, thought he would look different.

I love the wolves and arya.

[the maid of woodlynne]

I, too, sqeeeed like mad over those direwolf pups. Summer's ears are just precious! All in all, excellent start. And yes it flew by. Considering my biggest beef is that the title sequence didn't do a thing for me (too much hype?) this was an epic win. Cannot wait for next Sunday!

[Trebla]

The acting was superb. If I had to choose my favorite from ep. 1, I'd choose Harry Lloyd as Viserys. He was perfect. Slimy, arrogant, pathetic.

Least was the guy playing Illyrio. I liked him in V For Vendetta but he just seemed a bit off. Too bad Ian McNiece couldn't have played it.

eta:

The choice of doggy style for Jaime and Cersei felt odd though. I think keeping the scene more like the book, where he's fucking her standing up against the wall would have worked better. Perhaps they thought doggy style would make the scene grittier.

heh, I was kind of amused by it. My thought was "I guess they don't like missionary in Westeros either!" My guess is they did it for suspense. You're wondering who Jaime is nailing and then Cersei lifts her head and u are like, "WHOA!" That's what my dad said. Or perhaps they didn't want Lena Heady being lifted up as she was pregnant at the time.

[Xray the Enforcer]

I've been staying the hell away from all spoilers, so I could view this with (mostly) fresh eyes. I really enjoyed the way Benjen Stark and Jorah Mormont were introduced. I am sure that non-book people are not going to make much of it, but for me those scenes were really interesting. I liked the way the handled the Dothraki wedding scene -- it might seem overdone to those of us who have read the books, but it was a good shorthand for getting across just how barbarian the Dothraki are without all the exposition that made some of the other scenes slow way, way down.

[Balefont]

Good stuff!

I squeed a little bit over the baby direwolves.

Well Niel and I squeed A LOT!

[makotohanabi]

The direwolves are so cute, they need an episode of them being cute.

Really love Arya's scenes was worried how she'll be portrayed. Loved the scenes with Tyrion, he was the best part of the Winterfell scenes. Glad for the Dany scenes and loved her outfit, will try to make a con legal version in the future.

Overall after watching the first episode I love my favorites more (Dany, Tyrion, Arya) and hate the ones I hate more (Cat and Sansa) more.

[peterbound]

Sansa was like 11 in the book. Even aged up to 13... how hot do you expect a 13 year old to be?

Hotter than that, at least possessing the promise of future hotness. Like i said, just me. All and all i thought it was great. I kept watching it with a skeptical eye though, trying to pick out the parts my non geek friends are going to ding me on tomorrow, being that i talked them into watching the show.

[Ormond]

I really have been paying no attention to any advanced publicity about this -- never watched any clips before tonight -- and just an hour before the show started I got HBO for the first time just to see this.

And I really, really think the extra $25 a month it's going to cost me on my cable TV bill just to see this is more than worth it. That was the best hour of a television series I've seen in years. I was incredibly impressed by the acting, especially the actress who plays Daenerys.

And the TV series actually fixes what I thought was the main fault of the books -- the kids are described as being too young in the book for how they act. Having Bran be 10 instead of about 7 at the start of the story is perfect. I just couldn't believe he was as young in the books as GRRM described him. IMHO, the TV writers/producers actually made the story much better simply by aging the Stark kids a bit.

I am really looking forward to next week's episode. And if this series keeps up its quality and gets the number of viewers it deserves, I'll be looking for a lot more babies named Sansa, Arya, Bran, and Daenerys to be showing up in the USA. :)

[Abaddon]

After all of the build up, don't really have a lot to say. Very satisfying to see the full episode on my HDTV after all this time. A few missed notes for me here and there, but overall, they did an amazing job of cramming a lot of story and setup into a very short span of time with minor alterations. I will probably have more thoughts on it after I get a chance to watch it again (not tonight... too tired).

I thought I would be dying for Ep 2 right after Ep 1, but I don't feel that way (although I am not disappointed). Looking forward to next week.

The Dany rape scene (I would call it unambiguous in the show) was really painful -- as it should be.