[BOOK SPOILERS] The First 15 Minutes

[Tywin's bastard]

Yeah, wasn't he (the escapee) supposed to have been hiding in a tree?

I have to say, I agree with those nitpicking about Catelyn's age and beauty. Not trying to bash the current actress, just saying.. The impression I got was Ned was chiseled and Catelyn was still beautiful and youngish. Doesn't make any sense that Sean Bean is Ned Stark.. He should have been cast as Jorah Mormont. The dude currently playing Jorah isn't much of a 'bear'!

Oh how I wish GRRM had control over casting.

I also agree about the Other being totally cheesy and looking like something out of LOTR, not at all how I imagined them.. Even though we just barely got a glimpse.

Anyway, still excited to see the full thing tonight. We're having a Spring Tourney (feast and combat games) all evening leading up to the show :)

Will, the character that hides in the tree, dies in the book. It's Gared who's further away with the horses that survives. As for the prologue in the show I'd say that we aren't supposed to think that he escapes but that they let him run in fear to the Wall.

As for age, pretty much all characters have been aged up. And if GRRM was in control of the casting (he did have his say though) you'd still have gotten Sean Bean as Ned because that was his first choice from the start.

[Jack Sparrow]

I also agree about the Other being totally cheesy and looking like something out of LOTR, not at all how I imagined them..

As opposed to the cheesy way they were described in the books, with their technicolor dreamcoats.

[GoTreviews]

Will, the character that hides in the tree, dies in the book. It's Gared who's further away with the horses that survives. As for the prologue in the show I'd say that we aren't supposed to think that he escapes but that they let him run in fear to the Wall.

I'm with you on this, that's the only possible explanation... But it doesn't really make a lot of sense, does it ? I mean, considering what the Others are, how could you explain that they'd let someone run ?

As I was saying here it was, for me, the only actually problematic point of the adaptation. The Others sound pretty much like the coming end of all living things in the book... the idea of them letting anyone escape is... well yeah, problematic, to say the least. And it's not like Will was watching the beheading in the distance: the camera works makes it pretty clear that the Other saw him.

So yeah. Slightly disturbing bit of the first 15 minutes. They probably thought that by the time they ever got a chance to talk about the Others again, every viewer would have forgot poor Will :)

[Tywin's bastard]

I'm with you on this, that's the only possible explanation... But it doesn't really make a lot of sense, does it ? I mean, considering what the Others are, how could you explain that they'd let someone run ?

As I was saying here it was, for me, the only actually problematic point of the adaptation. The Others sound pretty much like the coming end of all living things in the book... the idea of them letting anyone escape is... well yeah, problematic, to say the least. And it's not like Will was watching the beheading in the distance: the camera works makes it pretty clear that the Other saw him.

So yeah. Slightly disturbing bit of the first 15 minutes. They probably thought that by the time they ever got a chance to talk about the Others again, every viewer would have forgot poor Will :)

The Others aren't just mindless killers, they do mock Ser Waymar and laugh at him. The could be mocking Will and the humans by throwing the head at him and hope that he'll ride back and make the NW do what they decide at the end of the book.

[Jormi_Boced]

My only critic: The night's watch scenes in the haunted forest- completely annoying to have such a visually stunning environment and then destroy it by forgetting to show the effects of the cold. No frosty breath, no rosy checks. The actors looked like they could have been walking through central park.

I know I know, a minor annoyance. But still an annoyance.

That is a good point, but surprisingly I didn't even notice out of the three times I have seen that scene.

[ja4161]

Hey all,

I wanted to respond to this thread the other day, but unfortunately I had to wait for moderator approval. In any case, I have read all of the books thus far, and listend to Roy Dotrice's readings several times to boot. A Song of Ice and Fire are the best novels I've ever read. The characters are incredibly deep and Martin does a superb job of blurring the lines between good and bad. Did anyone ever think they'd come to sympathize with Jamie, if not actually like the guy? I certainly didn't..., and yet that's exactly what ended up happening.

I think the first two episodes of the HBO series are great. Are they perfect? No. But, the more we complain about the fantasy fiction we love, the less we'll actually see it on television. In that sense, we geeks are our own worst enemies. The most heated debates generally stem from us.

Having said that, I am going to offer a critique here. It's irrelevant though as the prologue has already been filmed and broadcast. To qualify this statement, I'm a 3D animator and the prologue of this book was one of my semester storyboarding projects in college. I was torn between doing A Game of Thrones prologue or the Captain's Log from the Demeter in Dracula. The prologue won out. We all know that there were significant changes in the HBO adaption of the prologue. Will survived the Others while Gared was beheaded. To be fair, the book never states that it was, in fact Gared, who was beheaded. We make that assumption based on how the events unfolded. The deserter remained nameless in the book. That said, we pretty much know that it was Gared who survives the ranging. Royce orders Gared to remain behind and tend the horses while Will leads him to the wildling camp. Now I know people have said that the change in events don't matter. Ultimately the prologue was simply meant to draw you in because the next several chapters are without significant action or suspense. Yet, the prologue in the book tells us several important things about the lands beyond the wall. First, they're vast. Certainly vaster than we're shown in the HBO series. I got the distint impression that wildling encampment was discovered mere hours into the ranging. In fact, the lighting doesn't even shift significantly. In actuality, they were over a week out and deep into the forest. Second, and perhaps the most important change, is that we never actually see Waymar Royce die. They should have shown the fight. I don't really care if they changed the appearance of the Others, but if you can't coreograph a fight scene, you have no business directing this series. The important part of Waymar Royces fight is not that he gets his moment or that he dies..., but rather that he COMES BACK from the dead. It's Waymar Royce that kills Will. For those of us who've read the books, we know that the Others can turn living beings into undead wights. But, the viewers of the HBO series never fully realize this. Sure, we see the wildlings come back from the dead..., but we never really saw them alive either. Who's to say they ever were?

One of the things I've learned as an animator is that is isn't what you know, but what you can convey visually. The HBO episode doesn't really convey the most important aspects of the prologue. Sure, it shows the Wall..., and it's spectacular and massive and awesome. But that wasn't the purpose of the prologue. The purpose is to give us a glimpse of the supernatural elements that are largely missing from the rest of the first book. The expanse beyond the Wall is vast and wild. The weather beyond the wall is harsh, cold and dangerous and hints that winter is coming. And that something lurks beyond the Wall that can turn living men into the living dead!

I have no gripes about the rest of the first two episodes thus far. I think they're fantastic and I hope, for the sake of us geeks, that it brings non-geeks into the fold.