Adapting ASOIAF For the Screen...

[Michael Jon Snow]

Err. You want the show to be shot over the shoulder of POV characters from the books? Wouldn't this basically mean that we almost never see the faces of the main characters? All this talk about trying to capture the POV structure or elements from the book strike me as increasingly bizzare. As Tysha has said, that will take care of itself because Martin's POV characters are the most necessary and active characters. But the series is a hard enough sell to HBO and to audiences that have never read Martin or even read a fantasy before without making them adjust to all sorts of foreign stylistic and structural choices. The show needs to have a simple, organic feel and an episode needs to be structured not to mirror the structure of that segment of the books but to make the episode as dramatically satisfying as possible within the context of the other twelve.

Sorry that one post wasn't clear; you would have to read my other posts to understand.

No, the show would be very boring if it was shot entirely over the shoulder or through the eyes of the focal(POV) characters. My point was that to keep the feel of the POVs from the books, that the show should be shot using segments all focused on one character. During these segments there would be a normal amount of camera changes and a reasonable variety of camera angles. However, I suggested that during each segment the only character to get an OTS shot would be the focal character. It would emphasize that the scenes are about the experiences of that character.

[Zulofritter]

Though I agree with you MJS, I would like to state that telling the story in the best possible way is better than closely replicating the books. A Feast for Crows is going to be the toughest to adapt, mostly because the POVs are all over the place. I'd support drastic changes at that point so that the POVs aren't too far from what the audience needs to see.

[Antacid]

Okay, I’ve screwed up again – I actually meant not only to move Dany I and II into the second episode, but Tyrion II and Eddard II as well. That leaves about 103 pages.

But Tysha, your structure still comes to something like 113 pages in the novel. I think that’d take more than an hour, especially with a Robellion montage (not hearing any new reasons why that’s needed, BTW). Script pages have a lot of white space on them.

To no-one in particular:

I know there’s probably little point in arguing this over and over again, but I just don’t get how ppl think it’s possible to have just one or two scenes in a episode with a character who’s story is entirely separate from everyone else’s. How can that work? Scenes aren’t defined by what happens in them but by where they lead – and if a character’s scenes within one episode don’t lead to a resolution, there is no pay-off.

Even from the start, it’s not going to be enough to just chop the books up. The show needs to be organised so that the chapters are clustered together around a logical progression from setup to resolution in each episode, not ‘because the book was ordered that way’. Someone give me an example of a TV show where a main character whose story was seperate from all the others only appeared in one or two scenes without any kind of a resolution to their subplot – because when the show reaches ACOK that’s what will happen every week if chapter order is left unchanged. ASOS doesn’t repeat a character at all for the first 109 pages! Why am I the only one talking about this?

EDIT: Okay, Zulo's now talking about it. Just not in the context of AGOT

That people are more accepting of adding flashbacks to the beginning than changing chapter order is very difficult for me to understand, because the former represents a much, much more significant departure from the overall structure of the story. And the main argument seems to be: "The ToJ will look so cool!!"

One more thing before I go to work:

The assassination attempt on Bran doesn't seem like the strongest ending to me; it's weak as a cliffhanger, and the resolution leads straight into a bunch of new conflicts.

That’s exactly why it should be the ending. Again: the audience doesn’t know the cool things that will result from Bran’s fall. For all they know he’s dead. You can’t end a TV episode with a cute kid being thrown from a window! Did the 1st LOTR movie end with Gandalf falling from the bridge, or did it end on a quiet scene which “leads into a bunch of new conflicts� And the Two Towers ended on exactly the same kind of note – we know Gollum is going to try something, but it doesn’t end with Frodo being stung in Shelob’s lair and captured like in the book. So have ALL the Star Wars movies. You can't leave an audience completely hanging while they wait for the next installment. That’s an ad break, not an ending.

[Michael Jon Snow]

Since people have moved on to the question of where to break up episodes and seasons, I want to throw my two cents in here.

I would not be bothered at all if some of GoT is moved back to Season Two. I don’t think it would be possible for all of SoS to be done in one season, and so I would suggest that the third Season end at the Red Wedding. Season 4 would, In my opinion, finish SOS and introduce the Ironborn, Dorne and end somewhere early in AFFC/DWD. (End Season 4 with Cersei’s offer to Osney, Euron stepping up at the Kingsmoot, Oakhearts death and some similar point in ADWD. Season 5 would then finish ADWD & AFFC.

That said, I would move Robb’s rise to KotN to season 2 and end season 1 with Dany’s Dragons & Ned’s beheading.

Just my opinion.

[Tysha]

My point was that to keep the feel of the POVs from the books, that the show should be shot using segments all focused on one character.

This is why I think the whole debate about POV is so silly - of course the segments/scenes whatever you want to call them will focus on the one character. They're the main characters! I don't think adding the odd tiny little scene without the presence of a book-POV (that's book-POV ) character will do any harm but 99% of the show will centre on the characters who have the POVs in the book because they are the ones who do stuff and to whom stuff happens. The story is about them. We don't need to add showy gimmicks to differentiate between the different scenes. The audience aren't stupid - if they see Tyrion wandering around King's Landing they're going to get that the scene is about Tyrion and he's in King's Landing. The characters are what is important, not how their screen time is divided up.

However, I suggested that during each segment the only character to get an OTS shot would be the focal character. It would emphasize that the scenes are about the experiences of that character.

I'm really not sure that would work. I think it would be pretty limiting and actually have the opposite effect from what you intend by decreasing how much we saw, say, Jon's face on screen. If Jon is having a conversation and it's only shown from over his shoulder, not the shoulder of the person he's talking to, it's going to be the other person who gets the screen time. If we want the audience to focus on Jon, or Tyrion, or Sansa, or whoever, it is more important to show the characters themselves than what they can see. Shooting conversations in a shot/reverse shot style is hardly going to detract from the fact that Jon is the main character. It's a standard style of shooting that is used in just about every movie and TV show. We are so used to it as audience members that it is unnoticable and unobtrusive. Deliberately not using it, however, would be obtrusive.

Antacid -

And the main argument seems to be: "The ToJ will look so cool!!"

No it's not. The main argument is that it is the best way of getting out the necessary exposition. The fact that it would look incredibly cool is an added bonus.

You have yet to offer a viable alternative for how to get this exposition out in the opening moments. And it does need to be in the opening moments, before we meet Robert. How can it be done in dialogue and not be clunky, forced or awkward? The only other option I can see is to have a title card at the beginning with a bit of history written on it. That's fine, it's functional, it gets the job done but it's not as interesting as dramatising the ToJ. And if the montage only shows scenes which would have to be filmed anyway for later flashbacks then we don't need to worry about extra cost. Actually, as this is a fantasy adaptation we don't have to worry about the cost. We can afford to dream a little!

As for time constraints ... look at what Excalibur wrote. It is not a long scene and I don't think we even need that much. We don't need to show Robert and Cersei getting married, for example. The whole thing would take about two minutes, it's hardly eating up a load of screen time.

But Tysha, your structure still comes to something like 113 pages in the novel. I think that’d take more than an hour, especially with a Robellion montage (not hearing any new reasons why that’s needed, BTW). Script pages have a lot of white space on them.

How much of those 113 pages are description which can be conveyed in a second with a landscape shot? How much is exposition which can be done with in the first two minutes? Don't think about it in terms of page count, think about the actual events themselves and think how long it would take to show them. That looks like a reasonable hour of television to me.

Regarding Dany ... you keep talking about payoff but if anything having Dany in the first epiosde is the payoff to showing a pregnant Rhaella and Viserys escaping KL at the start. Even if we don't do the montage (though I think we should), we still have to detail the fall of House Targaryen and I think we need to show in the first episode that actuallly the Targaryens are still around - they're not just the anonymous erstwhile rulers who can slip away unnoticed, they are still going to be part of this story.

[The Scabbard Of the Morning]

I think you do the exposition on Dany/Viserys with the scene where the Small Council discusses the Targs, and the scene I proposed where Varys hires Jorah to be a spy. You can have Varys tell Jorah everything about them in order to gain their trust, and that's how the viewer understands them.

[Maester Yobjascz]

I go away from the weekend, and everything gets messy...

Initial Comment - I know that GRRM clues the readers in to Jorah's nature in AGoT, but the problem with the audience learning that Jorah is a spy so early is that it ruins the shock of the betrayal later, in ASoS. If the audience has known for nearly 3 full years that Jorah's a spy, Dany's surprise at learning that Jorah's been a spy will seem out of place... as will her anger and rage. Unless we want to chart Jorah's progression from willing spy to lover-in-waiting, I'd leave the spy nameless for now...

Chapter Order - I agree that things will have to be moved around, as each episode needs to be linked together somehow... whether thematically, geographically, etc. Bouncing around too much saps the energy of each chapter, and makes it harder for the audience to keep track. Remember, we're trying to reach an audience that *hasn't* read the books several times over.

Moreover, unless we're going to move chapters from ACoK back to AGoT, we need to average 6 chapters per episode. This is barring a double-length premiere... which still leaves the average around 5.5 chapters per episode. Granted, some chapters are longer than others, by text, and others are shorter... however, some of the longest chapters, like the Battle of the Green Fork, should be relatively short on film... most of the text is dedicated to sights and sounds, and fast-paced action.

That said, here's my suggestion:

I would open with the Prologue. I would expand it slightly, starting with a few scenes back at Castle Black. I would show the men mocking Waymar Royce... and show him beg Benjen for a command... and perhaps showing Benjen and Mormont discussing it before accepting... and forcing Waymar to take Gared and Wil. Then show them beyond the Wall, finding the wildling camp, and being taken by the Others. This would open the series with a rather good bang, I believe... the slower start should lull a bit of complacency from the audience, with the Others providing a bit of action. Since we're watching from Wil's perspective, there's no apparent danger... we're voyeurs, watching safely from a tree as Waymar is cut down. And then *bang*, the focal character of the scene is surprised by Wraithmar and killed. Scenes at Castle Black may show the Wall, but no wide-angle shots showing everything... we never show the tops of Castle Black, and certainly not the Wall. We don't want the audience to get a sense of it being the end of the world until Jon and Tyrion arrive later.

Opening Title.

I would open with Excal's opening ToJ sequence. Trimmed down to the bare essentials (visuals associated with the specific dialogue between Eddard and the Kingsguard), it shows a young Eddard and his friends, the Kingsguard as it once was, a short sequence (5-10sec) with a young Robert fighting his way to Rhaegar on the Trident, a short sequence (5-10sec) with Queen Rhaenys and a frightened young Viserys boarding a ship to Dragonstone, with King's Landing burning in the background, a short sequence (5-10sec) with a young Jaime dragging Aerys II off the throne and killing him, and a short sequence (5-10sec) of the Tyrells and Redwynes bending their knees, followed by "here it begins" and closing with "no, here it ends". This is a short sequence... maybe a minute and a half to two minutes. It provides enough background for the audience to know that there was a rebellion, that the Starks took part, that it succeeded, and that some of the Targaryens escaped. That's all they need to know, and that's all they're given.

From there, we follow Excal's intro, with Eddard and his boys going to behead Gared. This scene continues with finding the direwolves. Shot from Eddard's PoV, it follows up on the ToJ sequence, establishing Ned as a (perhaps 'the') main character of the story. Useful later on when Eddard is beheaded.

We return to Winterfell, and switch to a Catelyn PoV... though the focus remains on Eddard. She walks by the children, who are listening intently to a story being told by Old Nan... the Dragonknight, or perhaps Robert at the Trident, or the Sword of Morning. Catelyn is there long enough to overhear the gist of the tale, before continuing on to the godswood to see Eddard. She tells him about the letter, Jon's death, and Robert's visit.

Then we return to Eddard's PoV with the King's arrival, and the crypt scene. This plays out as written.

We close with Catelyn II... where they receive the missive from Lysa Arryn, and Eddard agrees to take the Handship... and to take Bran south, along with the girls. The difficulty here is that, without Jon at the feast, we need to postpone the decision sending Jon to the Wall... so while the discussion occurs as written, Eddard hesitates to decide, and will think on it... perhaps commenting that Benjen hasn't yet arrived at Winterfell, and that they'll talk sometime *after* the feast.

This first episode introduces the Starks, and focuses on Eddard entirely... From his involvement in history, to his disbelief of the dangers to the North, and focusing largely on the decision to take up the Handship.

Second episode, focuses on Jon. We open with the feast (Jon I), introducing Jon's impetuous side... along with Benjen, Tyrion, and, I believe, Mance Rayder. We know Mance is there, so whoever acts him later should ideally be in the shadows somewhere, playing some music and singing... perhaps even have him talk to Jon briefly.

We continue with Arya I, which opens with her knitting... but she soon runs out and finds Jon. Together, they watch Bran and Tommen spar with blunted swords, and Robb and Joffrey spar with words. Shows the relationship between Jon and Arya...

Then it's on to Bran I... he's initially looking for Jon, but Jon's in a bad mood since learning he's going to join the Watch. (Per the books). I'd expand this a bit, and include a short scene with Bran and Jon. Jon's angry and frustrated, perhaps because he knows Benjen was right, but doesn't want to admit it. Bran has trouble understanding it, so goes off climbing... sees what he sees, and 'falls'.

From there, we go to Tyrion I. Stays with the books, but I'd add a sequence with Tyrion and Jon... While going from the library to breakfast (where he meets with Cersei and Jaime), he waddles past Jon and Robb... who are talking about Catelyn. Robb urges Jon to visit Bran before he leaves, arguing that Catelyn won't mind. Jon feels otherwise, but wants to see Bran. Perhaps Tyrion offers some advice, perhaps not.

We close with Jon II, and the goodbye scene. Jon has matured and come fairly full circle... we opened with him being a whiny brat, wanting to join the Watch.. and we close with him going on his way, willing to face Catelyn to say goodbye to his half-brother.

To be continued...

[Michael Jon Snow]

This is why I think the whole debate about POV is so silly - … The characters are what is important, not how their screen time is divided up.

The question really goes to how the scenes are arranged. Do you run the scenes in a chronological order and jump from focus char to focus character, with short choppy segments*** or do you run a bunch of scenes about a character together (say 5-10 minutes worth or more) and then jump back in time a little bit to go to a new character somewhere else. This creates an overlapping time line as we have in the book.

***ETA I Think this would give the show a very Soap Opera feel.

I'm really not sure that would work. I think it would be pretty limiting and actually have the opposite effect from what you intend by decreasing how much we saw, say, Jon's face on screen. If Jon is having a conversation and it's only shown from over his shoulder, not the shoulder of the person he's talking to, it's going to be the other person who gets the screen time. If we want the audience to focus on Jon, or Tyrion, or Sansa, or whoever, it is more important to show the characters themselves than what they can see. Shooting conversations in a shot/reverse shot style is hardly going to detract from the fact that Jon is the main character. It's a standard style of shooting that is used in just about every movie and TV show. We are so used to it as audience members that it is unnoticable and unobtrusive. Deliberately not using it, however, would be obtrusive.

There are several ways to shoot a conversation. And I am not saying that you could not do a countershot of Jon when he is having a conversation with Mormont, as an example. You just wouldn’t do the Over-the-shoulder countershot that has the back of Mormont’s head in the frame. If Mormont is to Jon’s left, you have the countershot come from Jon’s right side. You can also shoot the conversation from a neutral position with both people in the shot. Or change between these three angles.

Here is why I think keeping the POV element is important. It is pretty obvious to the reader that Sansa sees the world differently than Arya and Jon do. Bran perceives different things than Cat does. When we are in Sansa’s POV knights are the most wonderful things in the world and life is just like the songs, Joff is handsome and Cersei is dreamy. In Arya’s POV she has a much better insight into motives of everyone around her. Joff is a weasel and Cersei is a bitch. She notices the commoners and interacts with them. Except for the ones she actually deals with, Sansa never notices the “small folks” around her.

I just think it would be so cool for Arya’s scenes to be grittier, a knights surcoat might have travel dust on it, and rust on his chain-mail, where you might see a horse take a crap and that is just part of life, and there are commoners everywhere. In Sansa’s scenes all of the knights are in polished armor and their surcoats are brilliantly clean and there are no commoners except when there needs to be. We would get the feeling that much of the perception of the world is based on the preconceptions that the characters bring to their view of the world.

Dany would be another great example. You could build up the fear and dread she is feeling as he wedding draws near and how overwhelmed she is. And then she rides off with Drogo and he is such a gentle lover that she has this ray of hope. And then the dreary monotony of her life and how she overcomes not by being resigned to her fate, but by grabbing her situation by the tail and making it her own. How she truly falls in love with her husband and how she takes charge of her own destiny.

None of this is possible without a clear understanding that when you are seeing the scenes with Jon in them, that you are seeing the world that is colored by his experiences. When you see the Tyrion scenes, you are seeing them with the skeptical eye that Tyrion has learned to use. When you see the world in Sansa’s scenes you are seeing her idealized views of the world.

[Michael Jon Snow]

Maester Y.

I like your break down, but wonder if the TOJ scene before the title credits and the Prologue after might flow better.

Also, I definately think that either ep 1 or ep 2 has to end with Bran's fall. "The things I do for love and Bran half way to the ground is just too good of a scene to not end an episode with.

[Zulofritter]

I know there’s probably little point in arguing this over and over again, but I just don’t get how ppl think it’s possible to have just one or two scenes in a episode with a character who’s story is entirely separate from everyone else’s. How can that work? Scenes aren’t defined by what happens in them but by where they lead – and if a character’s scenes within one episode don’t lead to a resolution, there is no pay-off.

Even from the start, it’s not going to be enough to just chop the books up. The show needs to be organised so that the chapters are clustered together around a logical progression from setup to resolution in each episode, not ‘because the book was ordered that way’. Someone give me an example of a TV show where a main character whose story was seperate from all the others only appeared in one or two scenes without any kind of a resolution to their subplot – because when the show reaches ACOK that’s what will happen every week if chapter order is left unchanged. ASOS doesn’t repeat a character at all for the first 109 pages! Why am I the only one talking about this?

EDIT: Okay, Zulo's now talking about it. Just not in the context of AGOT

There's the aforementioned Carnivale. A better example might be McNulty in The Wire; arguably the main character who was barely there last season. HBO does often make you wait several episodes before some sort of resolution; maybe I'm just more tolerant of this.

That people are more accepting of adding flashbacks to the beginning than changing chapter order is very difficult for me to understand, because the former represents a much, much more significant departure from the overall structure of the story. And the main argument seems to be: "The ToJ will look so cool!!"

Well said.

That’s exactly why it should be the ending. Again: the audience doesn’t know the cool things that will result from Bran’s fall. For all they know he’s dead. You can’t end a TV episode with a cute kid being thrown from a window! Did the 1st LOTR movie end with Gandalf falling from the bridge, or did it end on a quiet scene which “leads into a bunch of new conflicts� And the Two Towers ended on exactly the same kind of note – we know Gollum is going to try something, but it doesn’t end with Frodo being stung in Shelob’s lair and captured like in the book. So have ALL the Star Wars movies. You can't leave an audience completely hanging while they wait for the next installment. That’s an ad break, not an ending.

Minor point, but I'd cut the scene as he's falling, not right after he hits. And I can think of plenty of shows that end episodes on some sort of violent action, notably Rome, 24 & Deadwood. I'll admit, I'm partial to those endings (though 24 takes it too far, and it's more suprising when there's no twist at the end). I'm noticing that your comparisons are movies, and not TV shows.

Back to Bran's assassin, how would you show it? What would the last scene be? The last bit of dialogue?

[Maester Yobjascz]

(w/MJS' post about characterized PoV's) Here here!

That's what I was trying to say earlier about the unreliable narrator. It's done well in books, and it *could* be done well on film. I think MSJ's suggestions show how. The distinctions are subtle, but present... and the audience will eventually catch on. Just wait 'till AFfC with the Cersei PoV's. It'll be fun trying to figure out what her issues are.

MJS - the reason I put the Prologue sequence before the opening titles is that it allows a PoV and thematic break point. If we did the Prologue later, then it breaks the continuity of the Eddard-focused episode. We've got a bit of Eddard, followed by Gared, followed by the rest on Eddard. It doesn't quite fit in. As a lone exception, it fits better before the title sequence... which the audience easily accepts as providing a shift in theme and PoV.

[Michael Jon Snow]

They will catch on by the third or fourth viewing. Initially I think it will be to subtle and will just flavor the scenes without being glaring indications of the chrs personality.

Oh and Cersei’s POV might be filled with dark shadows in every corner and people giving looks that make no sense.

Maesyer Y, I would amost want to wait and make that decision about the TOJ & Prologue scenes until they were shot. Cool part about digital editing, they can do it both ways and decide which they like better.

[Maester Yobjascz]

Okay, a new approach occurred to me. Let me briefly rephrase things:

Episode I -

Prologue (slightly expanded)

Opening Title

Bran I (from Eddard's Pov, with the short ToJ sequence)

Catelyn I

Eddard I

Catelyn II

Episode II -

Tyrion I (part 1)

Opening Title

Jon I

Arya I

Bran II

Tyrion I (part 2)

Jon II

I like the idea of using the opening titles in every episode as a thematic break point. This will allow us to use two independent stories: one short, one long, and separated by the title sequence.

In ep.2, I suggest a bit of playing with the audience. Although episode one appears to focus on Jon, it'll focus on Tyrion just as much, but more subtly (as is Tyrion). The episode opens with Tyrion breaking fast with Jaime and Cersei... exchanging comments about Bran and his fall... but not including Tyrion's suggestion that Bran might have a story to tell when and if he awakes. Then we fade to Opening. We resume with Jon's story, as I described in my previous post. However, even though Jon figures prominently in every chapter, Tyrion will be there as well... he's clearly in Jon I at the feast... but he'll be down in the yard when during the sparring in Arya I, and Bran will see him below as he begins his climb. After the fall, we'll return to Tyrion in the library... following him to that breakfast in the beginning. Same scene, different angles and cuts... and continuing past where it ended the first time. Then we conclude with Jon II and his goodbyes... before he and Tyrion mount up and leave Winterfell.

[The Scabbard Of the Morning]

It seems you are adding jumps in time for no reason at all. Why start with after the fall and jump to before the fall. There realy is no need for that.

[Antacid]

Master Yobjasc, have you read all my posts about how the first episode can’t end before the assassination attempt on Catelyn? You’re really serious about having a whole hour of TV devoted to Eddard deciding whether or not to be Hand or not, aren’t you? OMFG. You're like the anti-Tysha!

You have yet to offer a viable alternative for how to get this exposition out in the opening moments. And it does need to be in the opening moments, before we meet Robert. How can it be done in dialogue and not be clunky, forced or awkward?

Hmmm, okay. I’m going to ignore the way you haven’t answered my criticisms of Excalibur’s montage here and here and answer as if you had.

How about if you changed it round so Eddard got the letter instead of Catelyn. Catelyn can ask him why he’s subdued, then Eddard can tell her Jon is dead and he’s had word the king is coming. Catelyn knows less about Jon than Eddard, so the details can come naturally as him explaining why he’s upset. Right?

How much of those 113 pages are description which can be conveyed in a second with a landscape shot? How much is exposition which can be done with in the first two minutes?

I don’t know, and neither do you. It’s very difficult to be precise without writing the bastard. To me it seems more like an hour and a half, and that’s my 103 page version. I wrote the Prologue as a script for practise a while ago and it came to 4 pages/minutes, and that's with no flashbacks and no exposition about Gared, Royce and Will other than that they're NW and are nowhere close to civilisation when the attack happens.

Regarding Dany ... you keep talking about payoff but if anything having Dany in the first epiosde is the payoff to showing a pregnant Rhaella and Viserys escaping KL at the start.

Who? You mean the two figures glimpsed fleetingly in one shot? Oh, them! Wow, yes, my emotions were heavily invested in them.

Even if we don't do the montage (though I think we should), we still have to detail the fall of House Targaryen and I think we need to show in the first episode that actually the Targaryens are still around - they're not just the anonymous erstwhile rulers who can slip away unnoticed, they are still going to be part of this story.

Explain why it’s necessary for the first episode if the surviving Targs can be mentioned in dialogue, and specifically why it will damage the series to delay Dany’s physical entrance to the episode 2.

[Maester Yobjascz]

Episode 3 focuses on facing fears... giving us a thematic linkage as opposed to a PoV one.

Eddard II

Opening Title

Daenerys I

Tyrion II

Sansa I

Daenerys II

Jon III

Eddard III

We open with Eddard's ride with King Robert. Sets up the theme of difficult journeys, noting a difficult journey in his past, and setting up events showing how difficult his current journey will be. Eddard hesitates at the end, debating whether to continue the journey... and decides to. It also introduces Dany, which helps after the opening titles.

We progress to Dany I... and her beginning her journey. She's afraid of everything, and we'll need to expand this slightly scene a bit to show where she's come from (beggars, continuously running form the Usurper's hired knives). She meets Jorah and Drogo for the first time.

Then to Tyrion II... while showing his journey north, the focus is mostly on Jon's journey... as he realizes the true nature of the Night's Watch, and throws another tantrum.

Then on to Sansa, who's beginning her journey south to the land of songs, where she'll be a Queen. But her journey quickly devolves, as she and Joffrey come across Arya and Mycah.

Then we begin resolutions...

Daenerys' II shows her wedding... and her finding that her fear is misplaced. Tension mounts during the wedding, but concludes with Drogo's tenderness... her journey isn't as bad as she feared.

Jon III continues Jon's anger at being in the Night's Watch, as he arrives only to be tormented by Alliser Thorne and the other new recruits. However, Donal Noye smacks some sense into him, and Jon turns himself around, befriending the other recruits, but making an enemy of Thorne.

We conclude with Eddard III. While the journey's of the others (Daenerys and Jon) are getting easier, his does not (prophetically). The squabbling of Arya and Sansa costs Lady her life, and even though Eddard wins a slight victory by denying Cersei her wolfskin, the episode ends with the Hound riding up with Mycah's body in a bag. 'He ran, but not fast enough'...

[HellaGood]

Can I just point out that episode one, if it's going to be two hour long, will be the length of an average movie (that's including commercial breaks). Try and use that as a comparison when you're trying to justify ending the episode with Robert's ARRIVAL. I mean, that doesn't even complete the character orientation. You could comfortable get through that in 30 MINUTES. IMO, the first episode would need to go up to AT LEAST Bran's fall, though I'm inclined to agree with (Antacid, I think?) and say that the first episode should go all the way to the assassination attempt. Events have to take place, not just conversations and character introductions.

[Antacid]

^^^ what he said.

[Maester Yobjascz]

You're like the anti-Tysha!

Yeah... it does seem that way, doesn't it...

Antacid, I've read your posts on why we need to end with the assassination attempt (meaningless quibble - it's an attempt on Bran, not Catelyn... you also double-posted...), I'm just not certain I agree with you.

Even if we skipped Daenerys, and went straight from Jon II to Catelyn III (we see the assassination attempt immediately after Jon says goodbye and heads out... presumably with everyone else who's leaving), it still tries to cram in 11 chapters. Barring a double episode, I don't see it happening. That said, if you don't have time to fit all eleven, the best break-point that I see is leaving Eddard on the horns of a decision down in the crypts.

While I think it's possible to end Ep.2 with the assassination attempt, it would break the continuity, at least as I've done them... My version focuses on Jon and Tyrion... ending with a chapter in something that *has* to be Catelyn's PoV becomes very difficult. However, if it is a double episode (which I'm not counting on), then the structure can change a bit, and it becomes possible to end with the assassination attempt. I just don't see getting there in a single, hour-length episode.

As to bouncing around in time in Ep.2 with the Tyrion chapter, it's something that I did, not because I'm thrilled with the idea of using the time-bounce approach (although it's a *very* common technique, it seems), but because I wanted that flexibility later. I wanted the ability to make drastic shifts in PoV and theme, in order to accommodate the limited Daenerys chapters. There are very few of them, and I'd rather sprinkle them around. Moreover, I like the idea of having an elongated opening sequence to help set the tone for the main sequence... However, if the format is 10-15 minute sequence, followed by title, followed by 45-50 minute main sequence, then we've got to make that consistent. And the only way to do that in Ep.2 that I could come up with was by splitting the Tyrion chapter, and moving it up.

[Maester Yobjascz]

Ep IV: Surprises

Tyrion III

Opening Title

Eddard IV/Arya II

Catelyn III

Catelyn IV

Bran III

We open with Tyrion dining with the officers of the Night's Watch, followed by his conversation with Jeor Mormont, and looking off the Wall with Jon.

Opening Titles

We then shift south, to where Eddard is just arriving at King's Landing. He has his initial meeting with the small council, and then we continue with Arya II, during a small family dinner after the small council meeting. Arya gets angry about Sansa and the tournament, and runs to her room, where Eddard discovers her with Needle... and arranges for her lessons with Syrio (though her first lesson with Syrio is for a later episode). Eddard's chat with Arya is interrupted by Vayon Poole, who announces that Petyr Baelish has arrived, and we shift back to Eddard to continue with Eddard IV, and the trip to the brothel, where we find Catelyn. Catelyn has an injured hand, and begins to explain what happened.

We shift to Catelyn's PoV for Catelyn III and IV, and we see the assassination attempt, the voyage south, and the business with the knife, implicating Tyrion (contrasting with what we see in the first act).

The episode closes with Bran's dream, and his waking up, naming Summer.