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Daenerys appearance


C.T. Phipps

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The Targs are a beautiful beautiful unearthy sort of royalty. So like the designers for the elves of Middle Earth, the HBO series has a big job ahead of them making them real yet unearthly. The white hair has to be so distinctive that you can't mistake it for normal hair after all, yet can't look like something from an anime.

How do you think it's come out?

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Not particularly fond of it. She looks strange with the hair. I think Viserys looks better. It's probably just because in my mental image Dany always had much straighter hair with a slightly lilac sheen to it (don't know where I picked that up from). I also imagined her much paler.

Ignoring my own mental images. They got the otherworldliness right. There's a bit of strangeness with the pure white hair.

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Not how I imagined her, but I think Emilia Clark is a beautiful actress, and I'm hopeful she'll be able to play this difficult role well. Since they upped her age for the series, I think it makes sense she's not as waif-like as in the books. I'm not really bothered that they ditched the exotic eye color as I think the hair makes her stand out well enough.

I think Daenerys is the type of character where no actress could be found that would please everyone. Such a challenging role to cast.

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I think Emilia Clarke is very pretty and I'm sure that she will make a great Dany. She has expressive eyes and a nice voice. However, I don't think she even remotely looks 15. But given the nature of her role, I don't mind that at all.

Tazmin Merchant was actually closer to what *I* had imagined - but it isn't a total disappointment that they changed the actress if they felt she wasn't able to fill the role as well as they had hoped. To me that is infinitely more important than anything else.

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I'm absolutely loving Emilia Clarke. Yes, she's not the skinny waif I mentally envisaged but the 'otherworldliness' is dead-on. This screencap actually made me gasp out loud. The hair looks stunning, and I think the shade of her dress gives her eyes a slight lavendar tint (I'm actually one of those who thinks purple eyes just wouldn't have translated well to screen).

Oh, and is it wrong that I'm finding Viserys really, really hot? Damn you, Harry Lloyd. With the lightly cultured, poisonous voice and the hint of madness we've glimpsed in the previews (I love the way he grabs Dany's wrist because it looks like it hurts) he's going to be bloody amazing in this.

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I agree with the sentiment that Dany is just really, really hard to cast. She has a very distinct fantastical look, and there's a lot of intense drama in her story, so she requires a good if not great young actress. Emilia Clarke is not much like my head's visualization of Dany, she's a lot earthier and, for lack of a better word, fresher, less waifish and otherworldly (though yes sometimes her large eyes and the white hair really grab you). But I don't know how much of a difference it will make, she's still young and attractive and fairly petite like Dany is supposed to be. I'm most concerned with her acting skills right now. She's a relative unknown, and this is a huge part. If her acting and the script deliver I will be able to buy her otherworldly "most beautiful woman in the world" aspect as something of an informed attribute, i.e. because the other characters in the story will react to her accordingly. I suspended disbelief enough to buy that that Gabrielle Carteris was a high school kid on 90210, so I'll be fine.

If it were up to me I would have made the Targ hair a more pale champagne, but perhaps this was the best route as the white really screams "different".

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Oh, and is it wrong that I'm finding Viserys really, really hot? Damn you, Harry Lloyd. With the lightly cultured, poisonous voice and the hint of madness we've glimpsed in the previews (I love the way he grabs Dany's wrist because it looks like it hurts) he's going to be bloody amazing in this.

*sigh* You're not the only one! I think he's going to do a brilliant job with Viserys (and is terribly pretty). Unfortunately, if he's awesome, I'll be sad when Viserys finally gets crowned...and that's just not supposed to be sad!

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Oh, and is it wrong that I'm finding Viserys really, really hot? Damn you, Harry Lloyd. With the lightly cultured, poisonous voice and the hint of madness we've glimpsed in the previews (I love the way he grabs Dany's wrist because it looks like it hurts) he's going to be bloody amazing in this.

Same here. Harry Lloyd will do wonders with this character, I'm pretty much convinced. 

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Personally, I'm not terribly fond of any ultra-thin types.

So I'm very pleased and I think they've done a halfway decent job recreating the "elven beauty" that the Taergs are supposed to possess.

Viserys is another excellent casting call there.

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Ha, this seals the debate. Although, don't agree with Smegma's take on it. I thought Merchant would've been disastrous. Glad we dodged that bullet.

Seals the debate? I just mean from a visual standpoint, nothing about talent. I've never watched anything she's been in, but I knew who she was. GRRM also said that he immediately thought she'd make a great Dany when he first saw her in Tudors. Judging by his reaction on his blog, I think he was genuinely upset that she was replaced. His "Requiem for a Queen" entry definitely spoke volumes.

That being said, I don't think these decisions are made lightly so I'm sure the powers that be saw something that they didn't like. Sometimes when that happens, the actor they replace them with becomes iconically associated with that role (such as Eric Stoltz being replaced by Michael J Fox for Marty McFly and Stuart Townsend by Viggo Mortensen for Aragorn). As much as I love Eric Stoltz (and I really do - Some Kind of Wonderful is one of my absolute favorite films), am I glad that the producers/director saw something wrong with his casting and put in someone else they felt was more suitable? Of course! And that was in a role that didn't have any fan preconceived notions - yet Eric Stoltz was obviously not working, for whatever reason (and he is a talented actor too!).

They hit the jackpot with Harry Lloyd though <3

Change the story, keep him alive!! Have him reclaim his rightful throne!

(Not really, but it's a damn shame he'll be gone so soon).

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