[BOOK SPOILERS] EP101 Discussion

[Daenerys Stormborn]

Really? Lysa always struck me as being very unattractive in the books. She may have been pretty when she was young, but it was made pretty clear she had gotten fat and ugly by the time we first meet her.

in the behind the scenes clip that Deserter is speaking of Lysa may be unattractive, but fat she is not. That bothered me too as she was always described as soft and no longer having an hourglass figure. Guess casting just decided to go a different route, not sure why they felt it necessary though when everyone else appears fairly spot on.

[Jacen]

I kept telling myself when it started to shut off my brain and to not mentally take note of every single discrepancy and changed line, but I did it anyways. Damn! :(

While it is awesome to see something I read years ago come to life on the screen, I couldn't shrug off the feeling of something vital being missing in the translation.

Lines that I felt had real emotive power in the books seemed to fall flat, in recital style in the show. "The things I do for love" seemed so weaksauce in this iteration.

Also, I also kept thinking to myself, "If I didn't read the books, I would have no clue wtf is going on". I really have to wonder if the average viewer is going to pick up on any of the little asides and all the background information, or have any clue as to the set up of things.

I wonder if it would have better served a new audience to have some sort of voice-over explaning things...a little history lesson of the Seven Kingdoms, with vignettes or something, detailing the Targaryen reign, and the Rebellion and how Ned and Robert fit into it all. Think of the Lord of the Rings opening...its a very brief but awesome way of giving the uninformed audience a gist of the story and history behind the larger tale.

Anyway, thats my negative view. But there were also many parts that were very cool. Dinklage and Harrington and the guy playing Benjen were very good. I'll keep watching and keep trying to repress my inner critic that is looking for missing things to get miffed about.( I was absurdly pissed Theon didn't kick the deserters severed head :P)

[anne3624]

Eddard, you don't let your kids keep a direwolf. That's a terrible idea.

No freaking way!.....the dire wolves are a BIG part of the Stark family, and I am disappointed that GRRM didn't see that they could help the children of House of Stark...more than they did...he could have had a big story about them. NOT a terrible idea at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!I want a dire wolf at my side....LOL

[The Dude]

3. I didn't mind the new portrayal of the Others, but I thought it was strange for them to take a believable scene from the books and make it stretch credulity. After all, Will survived initially in the book because he was hiding in a tree - the Others presumably didn't see him (while the deserter presumably escaped with the garrons). Just a bit unbelievable that the Others kill his buddies, stand and stare at him, and then let him live.

Will doesn't survive in the book. He descends from the tree and is killed by the wight of Ser Waymer. I agree it seems odd that he gets away, but we were never told how Gared escapes either. We almost have to assume it's intentional in the books as well.

Ugh. Getting really tired of hearing this. All the characters are aged up from the books, including Ned. He's 35 at the start of the book, but in the show he's played by a 50-year-old Sean Bean. But apparently it's ok for him to have wrinkles, but not Catelyn.

And personally, I think Michelle Fairley looks pretty fine for a woman of her age.

I agree all around. I actually really like her as Cat, and maybe even prefer HBOs depiction of the character so far.

I am most impressed with the Arya and Viserys actors. Arya is so perfect and she's barely even said a line yet.

[anne3624]

I thought it was fantastic. Got chicken skin in the opening scene with the Wall and the opening credits were epic. I kept saying to myself, "I can't believe we're actually seeing this on TV!"

The Stark kids are perfectly cast and I love Sean Bean as Eddard. Can't wait to see more.

Minor nitpicks: the Others look like Predators (though that's not necessarily a bad thing, I guess), and the dragon eggs look like big avocados. Also, they should've put some elevator shoes on Robert to make him more imposing, as in the book. Also, what happened with the purple eyes? Must not have tested well.

Its exactly how I pictured it while reading the books!!!....the white walkers are evil...with blue eyes....and those they kill, become white walkers...with blue eyes....very evil....the purple eyes were said to be a problem from the start...but just go with it...for god's sake. the dragon eggs have to be big...after all, dragons are big when grown!..haven't you seen dragons before?....I approve...and I already want to see the next episode!!!!!.....

They hit it on the nail,,, perfectly, I just don't see how they can get the whole story in an 8 epidsode series.....something will be left out..:(

[Hound Reborn]

This day has finally come after months and months of anticipation!! And it definitely did not disappoint... However, there were some changes and scenes left out that bummed me out a little bit, starting with the opening prologue scene...

When Waymer Royce fights the "Whitewalkers" AKA the Others, he was supposed to duel one of them for a short while as a few Whitewalkers stood and watched... In the opening scene, he gets decapitated almost immediately.. THAT WAS LAME AND STUPID!! Definitely the most disappointing scene for me... Also, while were still on the opening scene, HBO got it all wrong and reversed... Will, "the younger looking guy who Ned kills in the show, was actually strangled and killed by Waymar Royce, "the Wight" after he came down from hiding in a tree, according to the book... Gared, the older ranger was supposed to be the one who freaked out and deserted the nights watch and was NOT killed by a White walker......... Also, when Gared gets his head cut off by Ned, Theon was supposed to laugh and kick the head, LOL.. However, This did NOT happen in the show.. But thats a minor detail...

The sex scene with Jaimie and Cersei was all wrong too,,, omg was it wrong! She wasn't being doggied according to the books.. Also, Bran clearly heard them speaking before he saw them.. Jaimie was supposed to hold him up with one arm, then fling him out the window.. The show decided to have them secretly having sex in some room that looked like an abandoned area of the castle, lol.. Didn't like how they brutally destroyed that scene.. Besides, Bran was supposed to hear some very secretive and vital information he's GOING TO REMEMBER soon... But the show decided to screw that up. *sigh*

That's all I feel like pointing out right now.,

As for the overall characters and look,,, Robb does look to similar to Jon in the show.. The books described him having Auburn hair and in the show its too brown... I also didn't see Theon wearing his Kraken insignia, but that's minor.. Catelyn and Visery's are the worst looking characters I've seen, and they don't act like they're supposed to in the books... Visery's with his horribly ridiculously baaaad looking wig made me sick to watch! His personality is all wrong as well.. He needs to be more insane, crazy, hot tempered, and deranged... If you never read the books and watched the first episode, you'd think he was a stuck up snobby noble... Hopefully, his attitude and demeanor will evolve like by next episode to how he really is supposed to be.. As for Cat, Michelle Fairley is to old and not nearly as attractive as she's described in the books.. Very disappointing.. Jennifer Ehle would have been the better choice, don't quite know why she left the series...

And last but certainly not least........ Watching Rory Mccann as The Hound literally drained the life out of my body.. Most of you probably don't recall the scene where he is seen without the helm.. Well, lets just say you wouldn't have caught it If you didn't see the missing hair on the left side of his scalp... Mccaann looks to out of shape, old, with bad hair, and uninteresting to say the least.. We all know The Hound eventually evolves into a somewhat major character... Rory Mccann just doesn't do it for me,, and that is very hard to swallow considering The Hound is my favorite character, hence my forum name. :) However, when I first saw him with his armor and awesome Dog helm, I was very pleased..

Overall, I liked the pilot even though it did move a little slow and became boring after the opening scene with the whitewalkers.. Honestly, I'm happy HBO started off with that scene since I read all the books, however, they should have left that out for those who haven't read the books... Now all those people will literally spend the rest of this season expecting more awesome scenes containing the Whitewalkers and will end up being very upset to see they won't make another appearance this season LOL...

My cousin read only the first chapter of the book and decided to watch the series first... He described how boring it was and almost fell asleep trying to stay awake, lol.. I personally didn't mind the boring parts, cuz we all know half of the first book was basically the typical introduction getting to know the character process... I'm sure other people who didn't read the books also found the last 40 minutes boring.. I just hope those people stick around cuz by episode 3, I guarantee you will be hooked.. Just be patient with all the political intrigue involved early on...

That's all I have right now...

P.S I love Arya already. She was hands down my favorite character from tonight's episode :) Maisie Williams was spot on perfect!

[smegma]

I watched it with my exhusband, and then again with my 16 year old daughter. First I warned her about all the sex and violence scenes before they happened and she was fine with it - this was probably the first thing I've ever let her see that was undeniably MATURE, but she handled it very well - we made a few jokes about boobs and stuff and it was fine. I thought it was going to be totally uncomfortable but it was just "us girls" so it was cool.

I loved it. It actually exceeded my expectations, which I didn't think was possible. I thought all of the scenes did a great job of developing the story and characters. Yes it is different from the book but that's what I wanted - a tv show, not a page to tv transcript. I've read the books so many damn times that it's great to not know exactly what is coming next, even though...I know what's coming next...if that makes sense.

I was fine with the change from the Dany/Drogo scene - yes I liked the way it was in the book, but I think it was still handled well, even if a slightly different take. It was actually way less brutal than the reviews had led me to believe - maybe that's saying something about my sexual tastes? lol :spank: Anyway, I think the evolution of their relationship can still feel organic if done right - and by all accounts, everything has been done right.

And the credit sequence - okay, I had heard it was great, but it was also better than I expected. I watched it like six times.

My exhub, who has read through part of ACOK, really liked it a lot as well. My friends that haven't read the books were quite taken and very impressed. My daughter hasn't read the books (but my stupid exbf spoiled for her a little bit) was only a little confused about who the Targs were, but that's cause she was texting with someone when Robert says they aren't all dead. Otherwise she knew what was going on very well, and she's 16. And demanding a pet direwolf immediately.

Love Jaime. LOVE LOVE LOVE Viserys. Love love Jon Snow. Love Ned. Love everyone.

My daughter also said that Joffrey had "jerkface". lol

Anyone know anything about the Others' language? I know it was supposed to be another language created, but what the hell, I want to know more about this!

Totally looking forward to next week.

[smegma]

No freaking way!.....the dire wolves are a BIG part of the Stark family, and I am disappointed that GRRM didn't see that they could help the children of House of Stark...more than they did...he could have had a big story about them. NOT a terrible idea at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!I want a dire wolf at my side....LOL

He was quoting a line from the series "Chuck", where the main character is seen reading the book and making that comment.

[smegma]

For all those worried about what isn't being explained - they have nine more episodes to provide some exposition. Yes some stuff will get overlooked, but they can't explain EVERYTHING up front, they have to have some for subsequent episodes. Just like many tv shows, sometimes what we see isn't explained right away and it's part of the journey of the viewer to wonder wtf that all meant, what's going to happen, etc.

[SergioCQH]

Anyone know anything about the Others' language? I know it was supposed to be another language created, but what the hell, I want to know more about this!

The only language that has been created is Dothraki. The speech of the Others is just supposed to sound like cracking ice.

[Analu]

Its exactly how I pictured it while reading the books!!!....the white walkers are evil...with blue eyes....and those they kill, become white walkers...with blue eyes....very evil....the purple eyes were said to be a problem from the start...but just go with it...for god's sake. the dragon eggs have to be big...after all, dragons are big when grown!..haven't you seen dragons before?....I approve...and I already want to see the next episode!!!!!.....

They hit it on the nail,,, perfectly, I just don't see how they can get the whole story in an 8 epidsode series.....something will be left out..:(

Easy there, Anne. I'm definitely "going with it". Like I said, I thought it was fantastic. Those were just minor nitpicks I thought I'd mention =)

I was gauging the reactions of those I watched it with to see if they liked it. Seems like they did. I watched it with my wife, sisters and their husbands, and was so anxious to see what they thought of it. They said they hadn't seen me look this nervous and fidgety in years. lulz

[smegma]

The only language that has been created is Dothraki. The speech of the Others is just supposed to sound like cracking ice.

I believe Ran said something about it being created as well, in addition to the Dothraki. Unless I'm mistaken....

[HawkZ]

He was quoting a line from the series "Chuck", where the main character is seen reading the book and making that comment.

Though to be fair, it is a terrible idea :P That whole little "horrendous freaking judgement" moment where he pulls a Bond villain with Cersei seems a lot more in-character when you remember that this is a man who gave his 3 year old a wolf cub... ;)

[Jaxtile]

Ggggreat! first episode. My buds were over, half having read the book (elbowing each other 'look it's Rodrick!') other half not. My parents were pretty neutral, mates all liked it and poor girlfriend is all 'Bran's going to live, right? He's not dead right?'

:devil:

[moonjump05]

My daughter also said that Joffrey had "jerkface". lol

Yeah, someone I was watching with thought Joff looked like Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter. I think it works.

[smegma]

Yeah, someone I was watching with thought Joff looked like Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter. I think it works.

It's funny, cause when I pointed out to her that it was the same actor who played the little boy near Arkham in Batman Begins she was floored, cause he looked so sweet and innocent then haha.

[aeu]

I kept telling myself when it started to shut off my brain and to not mentally take note of every single discrepancy and changed line, but I did it anyways. Damn! :(

While it is awesome to see something I read years ago come to life on the screen, I couldn't shrug off the feeling of something vital being missing in the translation.

Lines that I felt had real emotive power in the books seemed to fall flat, in recital style in the show. "The things I do for love" seemed so weaksauce in this iteration.

Also, I also kept thinking to myself, "If I didn't read the books, I would have no clue wtf is going on". I really have to wonder if the average viewer is going to pick up on any of the little asides and all the background information, or have any clue as to the set up of things.

I wonder if it would have better served a new audience to have some sort of voice-over explaning things...a little history lesson of the Seven Kingdoms, with vignettes or something, detailing the Targaryen reign, and the Rebellion and how Ned and Robert fit into it all. Think of the Lord of the Rings opening...its a very brief but awesome way of giving the uninformed audience a gist of the story and history behind the larger tale.

Anyway, thats my negative view. But there were also many parts that were very cool. Dinklage and Harrington and the guy playing Benjen were very good. I'll keep watching and keep trying to repress my inner critic that is looking for missing things to get miffed about.( I was absurdly pissed Theon didn't kick the deserters severed head :P)

Wow, I was going to make a long post, but Jacen just went ahead and saved me the trouble...Agree with all of the above, except for Theon's kick. I didn't mind that.

I really, really liked the show, but I kept thinking "Thank God I read the books" throughout the episode.

[Wulfnor]

To begin with, I read the book about a year or two after it came out. An have not reread it since. So my memory is sort of fuzzy. The one part that really seemed railroaded with a huge logic hole in it, was the one concerning the Topic Title. First of all how did the Night Watch deserter escape the White Walker that was no more then 15 feet from him. Second how did he get south of the Wall, which has held back the Wildlings for 8,000 years? An once he got south of it. If he wanted to survive and escape capture, why would he be anywhere near Winterfell, walking out in the middle of a big grassy plain in the middle of the day? If it would been me. I would of stayed as far away from Winterfell as possible. Keeping to the forest and traveling only at night. But I suppose for the sake of expedience they had to do it the way they did. Another thing that bothered me was that there was no sign of agriculture in the lands surrounding Winterfell. No farmsteads or hamlets where in sight. You would think they would be trying to harvest as much food as possible to prepare them for the coming of Winter. An I know that Winterfell was supposable built on a hot springs. But you would think there would be piles of firewood everywhere, also in preparation for Winter, But besides those few things I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to upcoming episodes.

[Corvinus85]

I don't know if anybody else mentioned this, because damn, there are already over 200 replies to this thread, but the Hound's armor is awesome, but I think a bit annoying to fight in, especially on horseback. I only say this because his visor, or upper jaw kept bouncing as he rode in the courtyard. :D

[Horus Ex Machina]

Don't know how long they'll let me keep it but here it is for your enjoyment if you want to give your DVR or Tivo a rest. The opening credit sequence.