55 replies to this topic

[Independent George]

littlespider, on 23 September 2011 - 09:54 AM, said:

ETA: it was interesting to see small changes they made to either "soften" up characters or "harden" them to make their agendas more clear. They removed Cat's brutal "It should have been you" and Sansa's informing Cersei of the Starks' imminent departure from KL. These moves would have been tougher to stomach on TV. Many book readers have never forgiven Cat and Sansa: my guess is that even fewer viewers would have forgiven them.

Hooper, on 23 September 2011 - 10:31 AM, said:

I'm post-tv reader, and I still remember reading how harsh Cat was to Jon. Had I seen that on the show, yes - you're correct, no forgiveness.

I can't speak for anyone else, but the reason I dislike Cat so much isn't because of Jon Snow (though that didn't help). It's because of Tyrion and Jaime. She basically starts the War of the Five Kings singlehandedly, and then

Spoiler

releases Jaime

for purely selfish, emotional, shortsighted reasons. She's really not much better than Lysa or Cersei in that regard.

Edited by Independent George, 19 March 2012 - 04:16 PM.

[Leuf]

Independent George, on 19 March 2012 - 02:12 PM, said:

I can't speak for anyone else, but the reason I dislike Cat so much isn't because of Jon Snow (though that didn't help). It's because of Tyrion and Jaime. She basically starts the War of the Five Kings singlehandedly,

Yeah, the way she tried to kill Bran, then sent herself a letter blaming the Lannisters for it, then set that fire and planted a dead guy in Bran's room and cut up her hand and blamed the Lannisters for that, and then went down to KL and tricked LF into pinning the dagger on the Lannisters too, and then tracked down Tyrion across the seven kingdoms so she could kidnap him.

[Independent George]

Leuf, on 19 March 2012 - 05:19 PM, said:

Yeah, the way she tried to kill Bran, then sent herself a letter blaming the Lannisters for it, then set that fire and planted a dead guy in Bran's room and cut up her hand and blamed the Lannisters for that, and then went down to KL and tricked LF into pinning the dagger on the Lannisters too, and then tracked down Tyrion across the seven kingdoms so she could kidnap him.

Just because someone else baited the trap doesn't mean she needed to step into it. Right up until the moment she abducted Tyrion, nothing was set in stone; afterwards, it was unavoidable.

[The hairy bear]

Independent George, on 19 March 2012 - 09:56 PM, said:

Just because someone else baited the trap doesn't mean she needed to step into it. Right up until the moment she abducted Tyrion, nothing was set in stone; afterwards, it was unavoidable.

Please, restrict the old Cat-bashing to the specific threads. There's already too many of them.

Anyway, you are totally wrong. The war would also had taken place without Cat's seizing Tyrion. Eddard would also have discovered about the incest. And specifically, if Tyrion had arrived to KL with the news that he had discovered Catelyn traveling undercover in the Riverlands, Cersei would have acted at once.

[mmp]

Having read GoT prior, I thought HBO did a near-perfect job, considering the budget & episode constraints.

My only critique is the extent to which they sexed things up. I expect sex and violence in a GoT adaptation, but the producers decided to fill in some backstory (Greyjoys, Targaryens, Littlefinger) with ridiculous sex scenes.

I think these are important stories to tell, but if you need to constantly flash tits to hold your audience then you're doing something wrong.

I think that the Arys backstory told through Robert, Selmy, and Jaime is a model for how they should fill plot gaps. No gimmicks, just people standing around talking.

[mmp]

Also, if HBO's audience expects a raw production, don't be pussies about it and pretend that men don't have penises. Every sex scene in GoT successfully hides the male genitalia, or refuses to show an aroused penis.

HBO's GoT is a confused mix of dramatic acting and softcore pornography, and they're failing at both because of their ambivalence.

I would prefer if they just focused on drama.

[opark77]

mmp, on 22 March 2012 - 04:01 PM, said:

Also, if HBO's audience expects a raw production, don't be pussies about it and pretend that men don't have penises. Every sex scene in GoT successfully hides the male genitalia, or refuses to show an aroused penis.

HBO's GoT is a confused mix of dramatic acting and softcore pornography, and they're failing at both because of their ambivalence.

I would prefer if they just focused on drama.

Depicting sex is not automatically pornography. Littlefinger's training scene is not staged to arouse in my opinion but it was one of their shakier moments of invention. The Viserys and Doreah scene was pretty far from ridiculous and again seemingly not intended to arouse (why make it so awkward and degrading if your aim is pornography rather than characterisation?) Theon's scene with Ros was again pretty far from arousing - the end of the act and a fair amount of violence are not exactly pornographic. I wonder who you would have had Theon talk to? Viserys sleeping with Doreah is referenced in the book so I can't even see that one as invention.  

Male genitalia in season 1 = 2, female genitalia in season 1 = 1. Aroused genitalia of either gender in season 1 = 0.

Edited by opark77, 23 March 2012 - 03:04 AM.

[Syprox]

My main complaint with season 1 is The Hound... I believe his character's been completely toned down/wasted relative to the book.

[stormborns]

Renly Baratheon, on 07 July 2011 - 08:19 PM, said:

My biggest fear is a season two then a cancellation. MY next biggest fear of coarse is that five seasons get completed but we still haven't seen book six and probably won't for another 10 years.

oh no

helppp

[atia-]

I think it's weird/cool that Joffrey recommended a standing Royal Army of 10,000 men.

[Independent George]

I'm re-watching the season in preparation for Sunday; I had an inadvertent laugh watching episode 3.

JAIME: What has the boy told them?

CERSEI: Nothing. He said nothing, he remembers nothing.

JAIME: Then what are you raving about?

CERSEI: What if it comes back to him? And he tells his father what he saw.

JAIME: We'll say he was lying. We'll say he was dreaming. We'll say whatever we like. I think we can outfox a ten year old.

Yeah... I wouldn't be so sure about that, pardner.

dannister, on 27 March 2012 - 03:40 AM, said:

I think it's weird/cool that Joffrey recommended a standing Royal Army of 10,000 men.

Joffrey actually said he wanted 10,000 men from each Kingdom. So, 70,000-80,000 regulars in total, depending on if you count the Riverlands.

[lostinwesteros]

I raced through all 5 books, then just had to get HBO, and watched the whole season, loved it!  Now I've almost finished watching the series for a second time, and there are things that I'm just now catching on to.  

One example - when reading the book, I couldn't figure out whose voices Arya overheard talking of killing Ned (when she chased the cat way down in the chambers at the bottom of the keep).  It was only seeing the series the second time that I was able to see that the two men talking were Varys and Illyrio!  That puts an entirely different spin on every subsequent reference to either or both for the rest of the books that I had completely missed.

So - loved it and can't wait for April 1st . . . and can't ever bear to think how long we'll have to wait for TWOW!

[nightwisp]

I loved it! And my husband who has never read the books got addicted to the show, he especially liked the Dothraki scenes. Sure, there were a lot of things left out which is in the book but the most important points, and plots were left in.  Most of the characters were as I expected, but i agree they cast Cat a bit too old, but considering this is medieval times, Cat has given birth and raised 5 children and tended to an enormous household, it would age anyone, so Cat looking older would be logical.   I especially liked the casting of Walder Frey. What a scrooge! lol Overall, I'd give the 1st season a 9.

Edited by nightwisp, 21 April 2012 - 09:02 AM.

[House Balstroko]

As of now, this is the best book adaption I've ever seen. The characters played their parts well and I'm glad the producers decided to go for lesser known actors, in general. My only minor gripe was not seing Mya Stone and the climb to the Eyrie.

[justashadow]

The show got me hooked and I'm now reading the books!!

[GoldenFleece]

A big complaint of mine is the show not making the Targaryans have purple eyes, I mean why?

I have seen Emilia Clarke photoshopped with purple eyes and she looks absolutely memorising, I just don't understand - all it would have taken was purple contact lenses.  It makes them otherworldly and unique.