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[BOOK SPOILERS] EP101 Discussion


Ran

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Just watched ep1 of Game of Thrones. :} What are your thoughts?

Credits: awesome, really nice, like the use of the map

Prologue: we got our first glimpse of the Wall - looks fantastic. Really liked the shots in the woods. Definitely would have preferred the scene from the book where the kid is in the tree trying to keep quiet while the Others murder his party. Crazy that they didn't use that. But was still pretty good.

I was a bit disappointed with the Others... they looked like wildlings to me. :{ Where was the little rippling armor?

Characters: for me Bran, Cersei, Arya, and Dany stole every scene they were in.

For all the Dany haters out there...hehe well how about that?! Are you kidding me? Thank you HBO. Maybe a bit too gratuitous but I'll take it. Yum. But beyond how hot Dany is, the Pentos scenes were pretty good. Thought the "savagery" of the Dothraki was a bit overdone, but it still sets up the plot.

Bran and Arya - cutest kids ever. Looking forward to more scenes with them.

Cersei - she commanded all scenes she's was in, just the way it should be.

Scenes: Winterfell was perfect. Need to see more of King's Landing to get a feel. Can't wait to see more of the Wall cause that was the most spot-on of all.

Overall: as a fan it was a celebration and joy to watch. I just hope it translates well for new comers.

What do you think? ....

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"It's true what they say about northern girls" :lol: Tyrion's been listening to the Beach Boys!

I liked the lil' foreshadowing when Jaime tells Tyrion, "Our sister craves your attention"

Tyrion: "She has odd cravings, our sister"

Jaime: "A family trait"

At first glance, you think Jaime is talking about Tyrion's whoring but... ;)

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I liked the shots of inside Winterfell. Just how I pictured it, dark and dingy.

The Silent Sisters were great.

I always wondered why Cersei is called Cersei Lannister instead of Cersei Baratheon, like Catelyn is called Catelyn Stark instead of Catelyn Tully.

Loved The Hound's armor and can't wait to see Barristan the Bold.

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My husband knows nothing about the books. I think he perked up when breasts were exposed, and said "what the hell?!" when Bran was pushed from the tower. Poor man has NO idea what he is in for.

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"It's true what they say about northern girls" :lol: Tyrion's been listening to the Beach Boys!

I liked the lil' foreshadowing when Jaime tells Tyrion, "Our sister craves your attention"

Tyrion: "She has odd cravings, our sister"

Jaime: "A family trait"

At first glance, you think Jaime is talking about Tyrion's whoring but... ;)

Ahh, I didn't catch that. Very nice foreshadowing.
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I enjoyed it minus the Dothraki wedding scene, which I found to be a bit tacky. I kind of feel like they spent so much time trying to shock you throughout the episode that it lessened the impact of the ending. Then again that might have something to do with watching to with my parents. I don't think they fully understood what was going on, it will be interesting to see how they take to the coming episodes.

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Loved The Hound's armor and can't wait to see Barristan the Bold.

I can't wait to see Littlefinger and Varys. The events in King's Landing will be even better than this episode, if that's possible.

As much as I loved it, I can't help but worry about non-book readers. Are they interested enough?

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Loved the intro. Viserys is amazing, he actually seems to be Aery's son with those mad eyes.

Didn't like the change they did with Catelyn, maybe they try to portray her more sympathetic to people. I was irked with the scenes of the wedding, and the way Robert was acting at the feast.

Loved Arya, Dany, Tyrion and Jaime.

Great episode overall.

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Thought the Stark kids were all great. Sansa looks way too old to be playing a 13 year old.

You do realize that she's 15 in real life. How old did you think she looked, 20?

Some of these Sansa criticisms seem a bit off to me. She, in no way, looks too old to be 13. Especially how they dressed her down for the role to make her seem as innocent as possible.

I do like them making Cat seem more human. I hated her in the books as well, mostly bc GRRM did little to humanize her as he did with seemingly every other character in the series. Even Cersei begins to earn a bit of sympathy in AFFCs. Changing her opinion on Ned going south seems a right move to me in hindsight.

seeing the Unsullied now, thanks for pointing that out upthread--they aren't pudgy here though.

Noticed this as well. Makes me wonder if they're going to be portrayed as eunuchs.
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I am probably in the minority here but this is what I really liked:

1. The pace. I really, really enjoyed the break-neck speed of the show. The books are dense (I mean that in the most positive sense of the word) and they cover a lot in just a few pages. The books threw a lot at us in a really fast pace, we just didn't realize it because we READ at our own paces; the show MOVES at its own pace, so it seems faster. This was one episode and it grabbed us by the end of the first episode probably in the same place where the books grabbed us: with a valiant knight throwing a child off a roof.

2. Viserys: I want to point out that every actor NAILED their character or played the character with enough skill to draw that character into a new place. However, no character actually improved in scope than Viserys. In the books, in the first few chapters, Viserys is, in effect, a weasley nutzoid- crazy, stupid, impetuous, sniveling and arrogant. The show's Viserys - instead of keeping those character traits disparate and apart (pulling each one out as needed)- drew every one of those character traits inward into a single point: Viserys Targaryen is a maniac. He is crazy, he acts crazy, he draws all around him inward into his maniacal thoughts; he is hurtful and dangerous and decidedly unrealistic, arrogant and sniveling etc etc etc. But in every scene, the actor polishes is all together and hones it into the maniac, Viserys III.

3. The Ambition: No story line was cut down or shortened in order to make room for the other. The books nailed EVERY important point as needed with only slight alterations. The fact that the book could fit all that in in such a small space is a worthy accomplishment.

4. Smiling Ned: Am I the only one who liked that Ned Stark actually smiled in the show?

What I am on the Fence on:

1. No. The scene where Dany is bedded by Drago, in the books, is very slow and very very very touching. Drogo sheds the horse-lord-savage-skin and instead shows a "softer" side; he is actually tender to Dany and shows that he is capable of loving her. In the show, the actress is clearly terrified of Drogo and is "fucked" while terrified. This worked in one sense (she's a scared child who is a thing not a person to all involved and she is truly alone), but failed in another: that her and Drogo actually had a relationship.

2. The Things I Do for Love: The most important scene in the show almost failed for me. For starters, in the book, Jaime saves Bran before he tries to kill him (showing Jaime's duality). But moreso, Jaime treats this cavalierly even for Jaime Lannister. In retrospect, Jaime always stated that he knew what was at stake when he pushed Bran from the window; in the show, Jaime treats it as nothing more than a nuisance. Now, Jaime IS that arrogant, but in the books- I always got the sense that Jaime knew how horrible this was and knew what was going to happen- and did it anyway. In the show ... he didn't even look at Bran.

3. Sansa: Age 15. Sansa Stark, in the books, is 11; on the show she's 13; the actress playing Sansa is clearly 15. The actress playing Sansa looks much, much older than the 11 year ofl I have in my mind's eye, and given Sansa's dialog, her position in the books, and her reputation (wrongly achieved IMHO) on these boards makes what she is saying sound far far far more petulant and childish than if they came from an 11 year old- in which case they would appear age-appropriate. This can go either way, but so far- she sounds as bad on the show as others have said in the books.

What I did not like:

1 (and only) "And which one of you was a marksman at age ten... other than my daughter who is age nine." Seriously- I know they have to make Arya into a tom-girl who can kill, etc, but ... no really, she does not train and if she does its in secret, etc, but she can nail a bulls-eye first try. Its called ham-handed and it showed.

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Another thing to add is that I think Joffrey was perfectly cast.

How do I know? Because as soon as he appeared on my tv I wanted to punch him in the face repeatedly.

I was watching it with someone who hasn't read the books and they said "he's a smug prat isn't he." And I just knew he was the perfect person for Joffrey.

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