[BOOK SPOILERS] EP101 Discussion, Mark II

[Ferrum Aeternum]

No. Dance events happen concurrent with Storm events, then extend a few months beyond. But scrapping the gap lead to the Myrenese Knot, which lead to great chunks of Storm having to be scrapped and rewritten.

When you say Storm I think you mean Feast?

[gumby]

No. Dance events happen concurrent with **Storm events, then extend a few months beyond. But scrapping the gap lead to the Myrenese Knot, which lead to great chunks of Storm having to be scrapped and rewritten.

**Feast

[Talleyrand]

I really liked the casting of Harry Lloyd as Vis and Iain Glen as Jorah. Also Jamie Sives fits my image of Jory Cassell very well. I also hoped Robert would be taller and thought that Eddard was colder as a person.

[Killuncle]

Thank Christ for that. I thought I was a bit mad there. A 5 year gap would have been a good idea if it meant that Ayra could have been trained as some kind of Natalie Portman from Lyon type assassin. Oh well.

Great show, apart from the hound's comical helmet.

Night.

[gumby]

Thank Christ for that. I thought I was a bit mad there. A 5 year gap would have been a good idea if it meant that Ayra could have been trained as some kind of Natalie Portman from Lyon type assassin. Oh well.

Great show, apart from the hound's comical helmet.

Night.

Speaking of Hound and Comical. I thought his hair looked as if he passed out drunk and his buddy shaved half his hair off.

[Tsavong Lah]

There weren't too many problems that I had that haven't been mentioned many times over.

I guess I am one of the few who wasn't blown away by Viserys. He was fine, but it felt a little off.

And while I know this is HBO, and is ASOIAF, at times it still felt a bit too gratuitous.

Ultimately it just went by so fast. Many of the little things that really stick in my mind aren't going to make it. I won't hate the series because of it, but I just need to understand that there won't be Theon kicking the head, the training in the yards at Winterfell, etc.

[castleonthehill]

I'm a bit miffed that they denied Ser Waymar the chance to rattle off one of the best boob jokes in the books, but hey, that's just me. Thought they nailed most of the other comic attempts though. I guess I kind of always knew that Dinklage would be a great Tyrion, but NCW's flippant and irreverant jabs felt natural, and more importanly, were funny. And Addy's King Bob is already hilariously on his way to self-distruction. D&D might not have gotten everything right, but I'm glad they have a basic feel for GRRM's humor.

[JackintheBeanstalk]

Feast!! Thank you.

[Volderon]

There weren't too many problems that I had that haven't been mentioned many times over.

I guess I am one of the few who wasn't blown away by Viserys. He was fine, but it felt a little off.

And while I know this is HBO, and is ASOIAF, at times it still felt a bit too gratuitous.

Ultimately it just went by so fast. Many of the little things that really stick in my mind aren't going to make it. I won't hate the series because of it, but I just need to understand that there won't be Theon kicking the head, the training in the yards at Winterfell, etc.

That's for the best though isn't it? It's good they don't include all the scenes because then you can still read the book for the scenes that weren't in the television series :)

I loved pretty much everything about the show. I had no expectations for it and so was not disappointed at all. They're staying as faithful to the book as they can and I love it.

Actually, the only thing I didn't like was Tyrion...felt a little too forced with his lines.

[JackintheBeanstalk]

What I liked best about this episode is that, when all the episodes are in and people start to rewatch them, many of the little details seeded here will make perfect sense and seem brilliant in hindsight.

[Maltaran]

I guess I am one of the few who wasn't blown away by Viserys. He was fine, but it felt a little off.

Isn't he supposed to be a little off? He certainly convinced me he was the Mad King's son.

There were some nice bits of foreshadowing there - Robert asking Ned how well he handles a boar spear, and Ned saying "Better than you", for example.

I liked the little heraldic icons by each actor's name in the credits to show which House theyir character is. Are the icons for the crew also real Westerosi heraldry, or were they created for the credit sequence?

Conclusion - I need to watch this again. Probably more than once.

[Kalbear]

Speaking of Hound and Comical. I thought his hair looked as if he passed out drunk and his buddy shaved half his hair off.

Yeah, my wife said the same thing. Especially since it came with the line 'rough night?" I expected Tyrion to come back 'not as rough as yours - did you lose a bet?"

The Hound was actually one of the more disappointing parts for me. Him being a slightly ugly guy who has a shitty combover kinda wrecks it.

[Trebla]

Despite how big he is, I didn't notice Hodor standing by Bran when Robb arrived. No wonder Theon and Jon are so petulant, Hodor is in the front row! :P

Jaime also got a couple of good lines as he visited Cersei in the throne room:

Tywin impersonation: "Lannisters, Lannisters don't act like fools"

On Robert: fucking boars and hunting whores. Or is it the other way around?" :lol:

Kudos to whoever noticed the Unsullied at Dany's wedding feast. They are guarding some robed Magisters. So many little touches like that are what have me so geeked up. You'll note that Drogo is wearing a belt with large gold medallions on it. :D

[gumby]

Kudos to whoever noticed the Unsullied at Dany's wedding feast. They are guarding some robed Magisters. So many little touches like that are what have me so geeked up. You'll note that Drogo is wearing a belt with large gold medallions on it. :D

Never even thought they were Unsullied until it was said. I thought that is was strange the they were wearing helms, but now it makes sense.

[The Anti-Targ]

I couldn't honestly tell Jon, Robb, and Theon apart.

Yes, I think Robb's auburn hair should have been a lot more auburn, closer to Sansa's colour, in order for at least Jon and Robb to visually stand apart more. Theon's position in the household might be a tad confusing, people will know he's not a Stark kid, but he also doesn't behave with a servant's/subject's deference. But I don't think the audience will have a problem differentiating him from Jon and Robb.

There are too many characters to be able to develop them all in a single episode. I felt the show gave us enough of the characters in this episode for it to be a good start. But with such a large cast of important characters giving each sufficient screen and script time will be a challenge. Once they go their separate ways it'll be easier to keep things in order. People new to the show haven't a clue about what's in store for the characters, so they're assuming the characters who got decent screen time are the (only/main) key characters. The show would have been worse off had they tried to develop more characters than they did. They got the balance pretty much right for the time they had available IMO.

I think it's important for the relationship between Robb and Jon to be given a bit more of a showing before Jon hives off to the wall. The audience needs to know that Robb likes Jon and has brotherly affection for him, and vice versa. Otherwise their subsequent actions will seem a bit out of place.

I think people who are expecting from the series the same thing as the books deliver are being unrealistic about what a TV series can deliver (even if it was 12 episodes it wouldn't be able to deliver to book level expectations). I've always tried to have realistic expectations about the series, from the ages of the child characters to the changes in character motivations (Cat re Ned becoming the Hand being the big one people have ben fixated on...until Drogo/Dany came along). I changed my tune on screen adaptation bastardisations after LOTR. There were a lot of changes there, which pissed me off quite a bit. But after listening to the director commentary on the (extended) DVDs Peter, Fran and Philippa acknowledged many of the changes and offered explanations for them which, for the purposes of movie adaptation made sense.

The message is simple. If you don't want to witness any changes from the canonical literary work don't watch ANY movies or TV shows adapted from books you've read (especially a big book).

Episode 2 can't come soon enough!

[Ran]

Re: the Hound's makeup,

The scene with Tyrion is from the original pilot. They changed the makeup a fair bit between the pilot and the reshoots. In the pilot, he had a much balder right side of his head, and the makeup was otherwise different. Clothing, too. Think he looks better post-pilot.

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

Treb - he isn't, he's in the second row, behind the Starks. He's just that tall. :lol:

[Tywin's bastard]

Despite how big he is, I didn't notice Hodor standing by Bran when Robb arrived. No wonder Theon and Jon are so petulant, Hodor is in the front row! :P

Hodor actually is in the second row. He's just so big that he appears to be in the front row when we see it from the front but you see he's in the second from other angles.

[woodsman816]

Ok so i've been reading the boards forever but never post, so i figure im still new to the forums. I want so badly to enjoy the show more than I did. Not to say that it was bad by any means, but i feel .......underwhelmed by many moments that in my head were much more grand. The finding of the the pups for one was much less dynamic than I had hoped (no brotherly love between Robb and Jon in the race that led to them, no fear on the faces of the men at arms that accompanied them). Another part that left me somewhat flat was the heavily veiled violence of Viserys. To be honest I don't even know if I would have known how violent "waking the dragon" is supposed to be if i had not read the books first, where as in the books he's a bully right off the bat. Bran's fall was also somewhat less grand than I had hoped.

That being said I know these complaints would be none existant if I hadn't had read these scenes multiple times and imagined them in my own way. I doubt viewers unfamiliar with the books would notice these things. Alot was great. Robert was fantastic (even though I feel Ned was too close in height). Joff didn't have a line and I already can't wait to see the bastard choke. Arya was great. I really hope I can let go of my preconceptions and enjoy the show as a stand alone interpretation as the series progresses.

[Kalbear]

Another thing that I loved about the first episode was the clear camaraderie of Ned and Robert. I know it was there in the book, but I really felt it in the show. The small look that Ned gives Robert after the 'you got fat' line was awesome. The needling he gives for the spear is another nice touch. There was this weight of warmth and familiarity that they did so very nicely. And the look Cersei gives Robert when he visits Lyanna's tomb....great.