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3rd Game of Thrones Teaser Upcoming


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There isn't one time in the books that he ever talks of his martial deeds in a way that suggests he cares that people acknowledge that he's a great warrior. He's really more fixated on doing the right thing. I will politely disagree that seeing Ned and Jaime fight was too good to miss ;) it just makes Ned seem as childish a Jaime to me. But yes, it's not surprising coming from Hollywood, and I don't think most people will care.

Is it Ned who thinks about how he doesn't fight in tourneys because people shouldn't play at war? (Maybe a Cat POV). There is an echo of that in his comment to Cersei about "trained to kill". They have apparently left that his disregard for tournaments in, so that's good.

I don't think Ned fighting Jaime is childish. Jaime was threatening him after all. OTOH, it would be nicer if he is reluctant to talk about his fighting ability but its easier to do that in a book, where we can still hear his thoughts.

Did I read somewhere that Ser Royce will not be shown coming back as an Other?

Possibly not. HBO might be introducing the magic elements at a slower pace. Should be ok IMO.

Jaime's hair seems different if you compare the EW pictures with the trailer. Might be a lighting thing. At least he and Cersei seem to have similar hair.

Who is paying for all this fancy ceremonial armor on regular men-at-arms?

I suppose the Lannisters at least have no issues paying to make their men look elite.

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Is it Ned who thinks about how he doesn't fight in tourneys because people shouldn't play at war? (Maybe a Cat POV).

That is (at least assumably) his reason for disliking tourneys, it makes pageantry out of violence, but I don't think it strikes the same tenor as the "trained to kill" line. The "trained to kill" line is more like "You better take me seriously, Queen Cersei, I can do more than follow others, I can end you." At least that's how it seems to me, it's more about impressing that Ned is a significant threat. In the books Cersei fears Ned anyway, because of how close he is to Robert. Making Ned like tourneys would also be weird, so I agree it's good that they didn't take it to that further level.

It may seem like an insignificant difference, but to me Ned would say "Tourneys make a mockery of violence and you should all be ashamed of yourselves" rather than "Oh you know, well, I don't fight in tourneys because I have more important things to do". Similarly I know that Ned definitely tried to impress upon Cersei that she is not safe and ought to feel threatened, but not by invoking his own badassery, rather by pointing out certain facts about her situation.

I understand that monologue has to be transferred to dialogue somehow, and it's tricky. It's still something I'd consider unfortunate just out of pure fangirlism. I rather like Ned much more as a character when he isn't particularly macho. I don't think it'll hurt the production much though :)

As for the blondness thing, I honestly think Lena Headey would not look good if she went any more blond, unless you were going for an obviously unnatural 'do. NCW has looked a brighter blond in different photos compared to his shot in the teaser, so I'm not very worried myself. I think it's better to keep the actors from looking silly and costumey even if it's a slight compromise, and the lions are still look pretty shiny to me. Just my opinion.

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"You better take me seriously, Queen Cersei, I can do more than follow others, I can end you."

I think this is right. Let's keep in mind the actor playing Ned:

His first notable Hollywood appearance was that of an Irish republican terrorist in the 1992 film adaptation of Patriot Games; in a fight scene, Harrison Ford clocked him with a boat hook, giving him a permanent scar. Bean's rough-cut looks made him an patent choice for a villain, and this role in Patriot Games was the first of several villains that he would portray, all of whom come to a sticky end.[11] He became Alec Trevelyan (MI6's 006) and James Bond's nemesis in the 1995 film GoldenEye; the weak-stomached Spence (with Robert de Niro) in Ronin (1998); a wife-beating ex-con in Essex Boys (2000); the malevolent kidnapper-jewel thief in Don't Say a Word (2001). He was also widely recognized as villainous treasure hunter Ian Howe in the popular National Treasure opposite Nicolas Cage. He also played a villainous scientist in The Island (2005), a dedicated father in Silent Hill. In the independent film, Far North, he played a Russian mercenary, lost in the tundra and rescued by an Inuit woman and her daughter; he ends up pitting his two female rescuers against one another. "I think I’m quite good at differentiating between the psychopaths,” he commented to an interviewer.

If Harrison Ford is clocking you with a boat hook you must be one bad dude. Here's hoping Ned becomes the craziest SOB in this game of thrones.

*crosses fingers*

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Looks awesome! All the actors seem to be doing great jobs (well, Catelyn's voice annoys me and Jon looks way too much like a pedophile with that stache, but otherwise...). It's hard to judge from 45 seconds worth of material, obviously, but a teaser's job is to get me excited, and I'm hella excited.

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I didn't like the "I was trained to kill" line at first. It really didn't feel like a Ned type thing for him to say. After all Ned is *not* a killer in the same sense as a man like Sandor Clegane. I would fully expect to hear something like that out of The Hound's mouth. I figure they probably took it out of context though and after watching it a few more times I tried to guess what the original context of their conversation might be.

There's a running theme about the fairy-tale-like aspects of knights being mostly false. Sansa in particular has some fanciful notions about what knights are like and those illusions are largely torn down. I know that Ned is not technically a knight, but I think for these purposes he can fall into that category. I think Ned's line was meant to reinforce the idea that these knights and lords aren't there to play games and poke each other with sticks. Ned was trained to fight, not to follow blindly like a good little knight.

This is all just speculation, but giving it this context makes it fit a bit better with my mental image of Ned. I have a feeling that maybe a lot of you saw this context immediately, but to me, at first watch, the line seemed to be more Ned boasting or posturing. To me that's just not his character and that's why it didn't sit right.

*edit* - Typo

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Guest Other-in-Law

There's definitely things that I don't care for the way they've handled (agree completely with Lady B's view on making Ned sound cocky like Jaime), but Ned's tone when speaking to Bran sounded just fine. In the book, there was mention about Bran needing not to look away during the decapitation since father would know if he did. Bringing the kid along to an execution clearly reads as An Important Life Lesson tm, the sort of moment when he would put on his lord's face to drive home the importance of it. In fact, later on Ned even makes a crack about how three year old Rickon needs to face his fears and grow up, because Winter is Coming.

So no, he really doesn't sound any harsher than the depiction in the story. Bran was a little bit afraid of not living up to his father's expectation, as I read it.

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That is (at least assumably) his reason for disliking tourneys, it makes pageantry out of violence, but I don't think it strikes the same tenor as the "trained to kill" line.

You are right that they are different situations but one still reminds me of the other. And Ned is going to be more of a fighter in the TV series. The only question is how far they will go. He has a tete-a-tete with Jaime in E1 also apparently but the main thing is that they still seem very distinctive characters. Jaime is all about pride and pomp. Ned more about duty. Changing him into a fighter does alter that but doesn't undermine it at least.

It'll be very interesting to see the full Cersei-Ned conversation. I did get the impression from somewhere that Ned still thinks that tourneys make a mockery of violence. And as O-i-L said, his chat with Bran seems spot on.

Anyhow, for me, part of the fun will be seeing what they have changed. While there are things I don't want to see, i'm generally not very bothered about all these tweaks.

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Interesting. Ned doesn't sound cocky at all to me with that line. To me, he sounds almost... unhappy about his admission.

And why not? For Ned, killing people is a necessary evil. Telling her this as a rejoinder to her dig about his being a follower seems more complex than just some threat. I'll be very interested in seeing the context of the rest of this new scene, to try and get more of a sense of what Ned's meaning is.

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Interesting. Ned doesn't sound cocky at all to me with that line. To me, he sounds almost... unhappy about his admission.

And why not? For Ned, killing people is a necessary evil. Telling her this as a rejoinder to her dig about his being a follower seems more complex than just some threat. I'll be very interested in seeing the context of the rest of this new scene, to try and get more of a sense of what Ned's meaning is.

I read it in the exact same way. There's a hint of melancholy in the way he says it that suggests killing is something he really does not enjoy doing, is reluctant to do, even, but it's something he's been trained to do very, very well.

Edit: for grammar.

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There are some things I really liked about this teaser, such as the bleak, appropriately stark North. Also Bran, who really looks like a Bran, and Old Nan's voice over, which conveyed just the right feel. That voice over alone gives me hope that they are hitting the right tone.

I think Sean Bean will do a fine job, but he doesn't fit my image of Ned at all. He's too ... rough around the edges, there's too much physicality and bad-ass potential there. I do think he sounds a bit cocky, but I think that's in Bean's voice and natural attitude. Ned should have been more solemn (Bean feels weary, but not naturally solemn).

Catelyn is not a favourite of mine, so I don't have strong feelings there. I think Fairley will do a good job and I think she looks fairly good for the part.

There's a lot of facial hair I could have done without, like on Jon and Drogo (afraid that beard looks darn stupid). Lannister hair colours are annoying, because I do think those things matter a lot. And don't get me started on Dany's eyes, that really bugs me. On the whole, I am most worried about Dany, in part because she's my favourite and in part because it is the riskiest part of the story. Emilia Clarke will have to be very good to carry that storyline and to overcome the issues of her appearance (not sure she can sell young and vulnerable enough, for example) and her wardrobe.

I am exited overall that its happening and hopefully will be very well received, but I am also a bit upset about not getting to see some of the things I would have wanted to see, at least not the way they should have been portrayed.

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Beards often look silly in real life too and yet we men still grow them. :) It looking weird on Jon may be the point (sign of how he is trying to look grown up but failing). While for Drogo they could just be going for a strange look since he is from a strange culture.

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There were some lines to Catelyn in the pilot ("I'm not your dog to command"?) that I recall being relayed that also put me off Ned's apparently pumped up badassery, so it isn't just the contrast with Jaime that concerns me, but I'm happy to agree to disagree, and I do agree that we need more context to tell for sure.

BTW,

Also, is it just me, or does anyone else think that Leana Heady looks way too sweet, innocent, pleasant and gentle to play Cersei? I'm really excited to see how she portrays the character!

I've been saying for ages that that's exactly how Cersei should come off to all outward appearances. If anything, Lena Headey's naturally strong looking face was very much not Cersei to me at all, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why people thought it was appropriate for the character (other than evil = strong, good = soft). If Lena's pushing a more genteel demeanor then you can actually believe that Sansa is taken in by her, trusting her time after time. Sneaky people don't get much mileage by looking sneaky, and even Cersei's a winner for a time.

Other thoughts: I don't really connect with Ned and Cat as "Ned" and "Cat", but the acting quality seems very good.

I'm torn about Drogo's beard, I kinda think the mustachio look would seem pretty silly itself.

Am quite happy to see Alfie Allen's hair dyed brown. No remaining qualms about Mark Addy. Agree that Emilia has a tall task ahead of her, hopefully HBO have chosen well.

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I read it in the exact same way. There's a hit of melancholy in the way he says it that suggests that killing is something he really does not enjoy doing, is reluctant to do, even, but it's something he's been trained to do very, very well.

Yes, this. Melancholy is exactly the word for it. It's the same reflective sadness that he approaches his beheading duties as Lord Stark with, and very similar in tone to the message he tries to impart to Bran about the relationship between honor, duty and death.

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I've been saying for ages that that's exactly how Cersei should come off to all outward appearances. If anything, Lena Headey's naturally strong looking face was very much not Cersei to me at all, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why people thought it was appropriate for the character (other than evil = strong, good = soft). If Lena's pushing a more genteel demeanor then you can actually believe that Sansa is taken in by her, trusting her time after time. Sneaky people don't get much mileage by looking sneaky, and even Cersei's a winner for a time.
Agreed. When I saw her and Ned together I was struck by how perfect she was. She isn't the conniving villain from Disney movies. She's beautiful and not in an evil way. She needs to appear to be innocent and guileless to seduce others into underestimating her. She nailed it better than I could hope.
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See, I think people get this really wrong. I've never believed Tyrion was really all that ugly (apart maybe from the mismatched eyes - that could be a bit off-putting, like he was a changeling or something), he was just perceived as ugly because he's a dwarf and dwarfs tend to have blunt disproportionate features compared to a normal person.

Gotta Love the Tyrion slap too. That looks ripped right off the page.

I'd think of the area around King's Landing as maybe mid-France or Southern France in terms of climate.

If The North is like Scandinavia/Northern Britain, say the Vale and the Riverlands are kinda Germany-England, The West like Northern France (Normandy-ish?)

I'd think that King's Landing would be sort of like medieval Paris.

Loved the clip! Only thing that bothered me was the music (for some reason :dunno:)...And the chuckle after "Winter is coming", strikes me as off.

I agree with the Tyrion comment. I imagined him as an average or even attractive looking dwarf, that everyone else (except Tysha- she loved him and the way he looked) saw as horrid because he didn't fit with the norm. In the later books he does look horrid (for reasons we all know).

Kings Landing was Florence (always thought the Lannisters as the Medici family) to me, and the Free Cities are Venice.

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