It’s my first time

[#1dolFAN]

Yeah so I am a superfan of the Song of Ice and Fire series. Completely captivated by the universe that George Martin blessed us with. Read all the prequels, source material, additional literature. Waiting to get my House Targaryen tattoo. But believe it or not, I had never watched the HBO TV series. So I decided to make this post to take ya’ll on a journey of a true fan experiencing the show for the first time. It shall be epic.

[#1dolFAN]

Ok so by the time I started this post, I had already gotten to episode 8 (season 1 of course) so some thoughts so far:

The internal conflict of Theon’s struggle/pride of being a friend to the Starks yet that not erasing the fact of him ultimately being a ward/captive plays out beautifully on the show. Great actor.

Rickon is older on the show than I visualized in the books.

Jesus Christ does Joffrey have such a contemptible look to him.. kind of guy you want to punch in the face and you don’t even know him!

Sansa makes me cringe with her naive jabber and idealistic views on some perfect world that only exists in her head.

Catelyn Stark is a perfect example of the three-dimensional qualities of the characters. She is such an honorable person who cherishes her marriage and her children, yet she is completely unfair and downright cruel to Jon.

Holy crap is the acting top-notch. And I am somewhat surprised yet not disappointed by the frequency of nudity

( . )( . )

[#1dolFAN]

Finished Season 1. Amazing 

[kissdbyfire]

Series 1 was good, even w/ a few red flags in plain view. For me series 2 was when it all started to go pear-shaped, and it only went downhill from there, with series 4 being the last “watchable” one, and 5, 6, 7, and 8 being absolute dumb idiotic rubbish.

 

[#1dolFAN]

14 hours ago, kissdbyfire said:

Series 1 was good, even w/ a few red flags in plain view. For me series 2 was when it all started to go pear-shaped, and it only went downhill from there, with series 4 being the last “watchable” one, and 5, 6, 7, and 8 being absolute dumb idiotic rubbish.

 

What were the red flags in your eyes?

As season 2 is starting off with a focus on the Ironborn, I must say I am feeling a sympathy if not an understanding of Theon’s struggle of not quite Northern enough to be a Stark but not quite Salty enough to be a Greyjoy. Internal conflict to say the least. And when his dad Balon basically throws it in his face in insult.. well I’m not saying I agree with what he did but it at least gives a cause to the effect.

[Nowy Tends]

On 11/29/2019 at 7:18 PM, #1dolFAN said:

The internal conflict of Theon’s struggle/pride of being a friend to the Starks yet that not erasing the fact of him ultimately being a ward/captive plays out beautifully on the show. Great actor.

Alfie Allen didn't get the recognition he deserved. Among the young actors in GoT he is one of the very best IMHO.

[Lord Varys]

The nonsense in season 1 were the Ros stuff that literally led nowhere but nude scenes (they could have done a lot with that character if she had been a way for Varys to get into Littlefinger's inner circle), the pointless death of Mago (who is going to come back in TWoW), the Dany rape (wedding night), the removal or all political agenda and acumen from Cat's character, the Robert-Cersei love story (which is actually removed, strangely enough, in later scenes which then has Cersei having the hots for Rhaegar), and pretty much everything Cersei does if I remember correctly, 'good Alliser Thorne', and Ned the great swordman.

Aside from that a lot of stuff worked. Viserys III was done pretty well, for instance (although that bathtub scene is pretty weird).

Theon does work pretty well in season 2. But even that's barely watchable for me. I vividly recall rewatching season 2 a couple of years back - many years, now that I think of that - and both the wildling stuff with Ygritte, the constant Arya-Harrenhal stuff, and especially the entire Qarth plot are very bad.

[YoungGriff89]

15 hours ago, Lord Varys said:

The nonsense in season 1 were the Ros stuff that literally led nowhere but nude scenes (they could have done a lot with that character if she had been a way for Varys to get into Littlefinger's inner circle), the pointless death of Mago (who is going to come back in TWoW), the Dany rape (wedding night), the removal or all political agenda and acumen from Cat's character, the Robert-Cersei love story (which is actually removed, strangely enough, in later scenes which then has Cersei having the hots for Rhaegar), and pretty much everything Cersei does if I remember correctly, 'good Alliser Thorne', and Ned the great swordman.

Aside from that a lot of stuff worked. Viserys III was done pretty well, for instance (although that bathtub scene is pretty weird).

Theon does work pretty well in season 2. But even that's barely watchable for me. I vividly recall rewatching season 2 a couple of years back - many years, now that I think of that - and both the wildling stuff with Ygritte, the constant Arya-Harrenhal stuff, and especially the entire Qarth plot are very bad.

I thought the bolded part was one of the best departures from the source material throughout the entire show.  It did drag a bit though, but she did spend most of Clash of Kings at Harrenhal.  

[BlackLightning]

@YoungGriff89

Are you sure you want to do this?

ETA: I meant to direct this message to @#1dolFAN. Are you sure you want to do this though?

[YoungGriff89]

7 hours ago, BlackLightning said:

@YoungGriff89

Are you sure you want to do this?

Oh we're doing it!  You better bring it!  

Spoiler

Real talk for a second though, what exactly are you talking about?  I did think Arya's Harrenhal stuff in the show, and her interactions with Tywin in the second season of the show were better than what happened with Roose Bolton in the book.  Maybe overall the Harrenhal storyline could have been improved by the weasel stew thing, but I don't know.  I didn't read the books until I had already seen season two, so I couldn't really miss the weasel stew thing.  Looking back on the show with the knowledge of the books, I still don't really miss it.  The frequency of Harrenhal in season two didn't bother me.  

 

[kissdbyfire]

UGH UGH UGH, I for one cannot stand Arya and granpa Tywin in Harrenhal.

And I even get that they had the amazing Charles Dance and wanted to get the most mileage out of him as possible. But I still can’t stand that storyline in its entirety. 

[BlackLightning]

21 hours ago, YoungGriff89 said:

Oh we're doing it!  You better bring it!  

  Hide contents

Real talk for a second though, what exactly are you talking about?  I did think Arya's Harrenhal stuff in the show, and her interactions with Tywin in the second season of the show were better than what happened with Roose Bolton in the book.  Maybe overall the Harrenhal storyline could have been improved by the weasel stew thing, but I don't know.  I didn't read the books until I had already seen season two, so I couldn't really miss the weasel stew thing.  Looking back on the show with the knowledge of the books, I still don't really miss it.  The frequency of Harrenhal in season two didn't bother me.  

 

I actually have to disagree @kissdbyfire. I liked the Arya/Tywin stuff in Harrenhal. It was a nice change and it's not like the two WEREN'T there in the same place at the same time. Sure, it wasn't executed very well (i.e. Tywin should've been able to figure out that Arya was a highborn Northerner and acted accordingly) but I liked it.

It would have been much better though if they had Tywin leave at some point and Roose come in. I loved all the Red Wedding hints and foreshadowing we got in the Arya chapters at Harrenhal once Roose Bolton showed up.

That said, YoungGriff, it's funny that you say that the Arya/Tywin stuff was better than what happened with Arya/Roose in the book because the Arya/Tywin stuff was inspired by the Arya/Roose. Some the Arya/Tywin lines are actually taken directly from Arya's conversations with Roose.

My issues with season 2 (and the show in general) actually begin with the finale, 2x10. I "forgave" it (not anymore, went back to hating it) but it always bothered me. I couldn't put my finger on why it bothered me so much until I got halfway through season 5 or so. @kissdbyfire probably can figure out exactly what scene (or rather, collection of scenes) I'm talking about.

@#1dolFAN How far are you now? You sure you want to do this? I mean, it's not too late to turn back and spare yourself.

[kissdbyfire]

9 minutes ago, BlackLightning said:

My issues with season 2 (and the show in general) actually begin with the finale, 2x10. I forgave it but it always bothered me. I couldn't put my finger on why it bothered me so much until I got halfway through season 5 or so. @kissdbyfire probably can figure out exactly what scene (or rather, collection of scenes) I'm talking about

I don’t think I can... after all, that episode is a clusterfuck of stupid (as so much else). But the things I personally hated the most were:

Dany’s HotU stuff 

Mel and Stannis

Everything and anything to do w/ Talisa

ETA: and of course I may be forgetting more atrocities 

 

[BlackLightning]

2 minutes ago, kissdbyfire said:

I don’t think I can... after all, that episode is a clusterfuck of stupid (as so much else). But the things I personally hated the most were:

Dany’s HotU stuff 

Mel and Stannis

Everything and anything to do w/ Talisa

ETA: and of course I may be forgetting more atrocities 

 

Nah, the atrocities you have mentioned are well enough. But I was talking about one in particular and it's on your list. I don't want to spoil the sweet summer babes.

Think about it. Season 5 is when I started having issues with season 2 episode 10. What happened in season 5?

[YoungGriff89]

13 minutes ago, BlackLightning said:

That said, YoungGriff, it's funny that you say that the Arya/Tywin stuff was better than what happened with Arya/Roose in the book because the Arya/Tywin stuff was inspired by the Arya/Roose. Some the Arya/Tywin lines are actually taken directly from Arya's conversations with Roose.

Of course it was, but Charles Dance and Maisie Williams were a great dynamic.  That's the main reason why I liked Tywin there better.  Maybe Michael McElhatton would have been just as good, but we didn't get nearly as much build up for Roose Bolton as we had for Tywin at this point, and I think keeping him with Robb throughout season two helped to set up the events of season three better.  Also, Tywin was easily the most interesting character in seasons two-four, due in no small part to how D&D used him in season two.  I give them a lot of credit for how they translated the first three seasons (not so much season four onwards) in both what they changed and what they managed to keep.  Not perfect, but better than anyone could have anticipated.  

[Lord Stannis-The True King]

@#1dolFAN  Any Updates? Surly you've gotten past season 2 by now.ghhhhhhg

[Count Balerion]

In seasons 1-2 I hadn't read the books, so was just going with the flow and trying to figure out what was happening. I do remember finding the scene at the end of season 1 w/ LF really weird. Even if the women were hot.

Season 2 I was taken aback by much of Dany's storyline. Wait, what? I didn't mind Talisa, but I guess it did seem a little odd that she was randomly wandering around the battlefield.

I liked seasons 3-4, but by then was watching more critically.

As for the rest of it .... well, the OP will draw his own conclusions. And then we can point him in the direction of TDD's videos.

Enjoy it while you can!

[Alyn Oakenfist]

3 hours ago, Count Balerion said:

And then we can point him in the direction of TDD's videos.

I'd say Glidus. Glidus is better as the gateway drug to get you pumped before you go into the serious stuff, of one guy spending years explaining everything Deevus and Dutthead did wrong.

[Alyn Oakenfist]

3 hours ago, Count Balerion said:

I liked seasons 3-4, but by then was watching more critically.

Honestly, I know a lot of people disagree, but Season 4 is the best one of the show, when considering it on it's own

Like storytelling wise and character wise it was probably the best. BUT the changes it made, especially the Tysha reveal, would have grave consequences later on. Not as bad as removing fAegon and merging Sansa with fArya, but pretty bad. Plus it's the only season that doesn't character assassinate Stannis. So just on it's own, not considering the mess that came after to which Season 4 did contribute, I really feel like it was the best.

[Count Balerion]

2 hours ago, Alyn Oakenfist said:

I'd say Glidus. Glidus is better as the gateway drug to get you pumped before you go into the serious stuff, of one guy spending years explaining everything Deevus and Dutthead did wrong.

Or maybe Preston.

I checked my "reviews" of season 4, and it looks like they're mostly pretty favourable. Season 5 is weird, because at first my reviews look fairly mild, as if I thought it was going to turn out good. Then I went back over it at the end and reviewed everything much more harshly. Maybe I had been giving it the benefit of the doubt earlier.