HBO Sends Out a Synopsis

[bardgal]

Not to jump on the "fight for Daenerys" wagon or anything, but I wanted to point something out. Many are saying it's the acting, some the directing, and others say she is doing just great in her role. Those are all opinions, and I'm fine with all of them to be honest. We all enjoy different parts of the show and have gripes with others. But what I wanted to bring up was the complications of how young Dany is in the books and even in the show (where she is a bit older). Her brother is dead, she was married off to Drogo, and now she is suddenly the mother of dragons and a leader....after being "raised" by her idiot brother. I read the books years ago and have reread them again to get ready for the HBO series, and to be honest, in the books Dany drove me CRAZY at times because she made such stupid choices and her maturity just wasn't there. But then again....she was a teenager everyone! A teenager. Perhaps the directors and Emilia are struggling with showing how young and naïve Dany is to the world, while also at times they are trying to show her "dragon blood" attitude and ability to lead. It is no easy task to play someone who will be a great leader one day but at the moment they are nothing more than a child. Same goes for Snow. He is young too. GRRMs characters are very complex, and to show the transitions in character development over a few hours is probably not easy, especially when each character only has so much face time on camera. Emilia, Jon and Arya probably have the most difficult roles to play because they go through so much at such a young age, and their characters develop on a variety of levels throughout the books/show.

:agree:

You're absolutely right. Martin's characters are very complex. It's what makes the story so compelling and addictive.

You also nail the three characters with the broadest archs, who all go from pretty much innocent children to adults trying to survive in a world they never imagined in a rather short time frame. Not only are those kinds of roles hard to play, they're damn near impossible to cast.

Shakespeare has two that are similar - in that when you're the right age for the role, you can't play it. Lear is one. Even an in-shape 80 year-old man can't physically get through 8 shows a week (on stage), from the emotional drain the role creates during a 3 hour performance, to carrying in dead Cordeila ...... which is why 40 year-olds end up playing him in lots of makeup.

Juliet is the female version. 99.99% of 13 year-old female actors simply do not have the life experience to go from innocent child to conspiring sexual protagonist driving the plot, to survivalist defying your family and the law, to the point of calculated suicide, all within the (way more than) two hours traffic of our stage, and make it believable. Most actors even in their 20s have no business in that role. You start having a clue to the scope in your 30s. By then you're too damn old, unless you've been blessed with Alien DNA. :cool4:

The fact they found these kids, who are remarkable in these complex roles, and I'm throwing in Isaac, Sophie who has made Sansa far more interesting (for me), and the magnificent Jack Gleeson as well (what a tragedy for the rest of us that he wants to quit acting...) just blows my mind.

It's one of the best things about this show - the casting is brilliant. Yes, the production is NEXT LEVEL AWESOME, but without this cast.... it would not be the rare jewel it is.

[Currawong]

and I'm throwing in Isaac, Sophie who has made Sansa far more interesting (for me), and the magnificent Jack Gleeson as well (what a tragedy for the rest of us that he wants to quit acting...) just blows my mind.

It's one of the best things about this show - the casting is brilliant. Yes, the production is NEXT LEVEL AWESOME, but without this cast.... it would not be the rare jewel it is.

:agree: Well said.

I am SO glad you mentioned Sansa, because she too is so very young in the books, something which often gets overlooked when commenting on her character and her choices. It's easy to forget that she was a very young and idealistic girl from a protected family environment, with no experience at all in dealing with the nuances and nastiness of politics. Even Ned Stark didn't manage to deal with all that! so how should anyone expect anything more from his young, naive daughter? In many ways, Sansa was the most completely 'alone' of all of the younger characters after Ned's death, left in the minefield that was the Kings Landing court - unlike Dany, she didn't have a Jorah to advise her, she didn't have any close friends like Jon had in the NW, she didn't have the chance to make road-trip allies like Arya, she didn't have someone like Osha or the Reeds, as do Bran and Rickon.

To get a young actress with the maturity to portray Sansa and the complexities of her gradual growth from innocent, naive and sometimes thoughtless victim to a person who is starting to take control over her life, even though others still see her as a pawn - that is an immensely difficult role to cast, and I think they struck pure gold with Sophie Turner. I am really looking forward to watching her over the coming seasons.

[GeorgeIAF]

I didn't know where to post this news given the fact that i can't start a new topic, i'll post it here, hoping that a mod will move it to the right category if i got it wrong. So here it is :

http://www.slashfilm.com/hbo-is-considering-a-game-of-thrones-prequel-series-says-george-r-r-martin/

I think this is a great idea and i hope they pull it through :)

[bardgal]

:agree: Well said.

I am SO glad you mentioned Sansa, because she too is so very young in the books, something which often gets overlooked when commenting on her character and her choices. It's easy to forget that she was a very young and idealistic girl from a protected family environment, with no experience at all in dealing with the nuances and nastiness of politics. Even Ned Stark didn't manage to deal with all that! so how should anyone expect anything more from his young, naive daughter? In many ways, Sansa was the most completely 'alone' of all of the younger characters after Ned's death, left in the minefield that was the Kings Landing court - unlike Dany, she didn't have a Jorah to advise her, she didn't have any close friends like Jon had in the NW, she didn't have the chance to make road-trip allies like Arya, she didn't have someone like Osha or the Reeds, as do Bran and Rickon.

To get a young actress with the maturity to portray Sansa and the complexities of her gradual growth from innocent, naive and sometimes thoughtless victim to a person who is starting to take control over her life, even though others still see her as a pawn - that is an immensely difficult role to cast, and I think they struck pure gold with Sophie Turner. I am really looking forward to watching her over the coming seasons.

And Sansa is the only one without a direwolf at this point. To me, that seems to isolate her character even more. Turner's performance has become so compelling - we see her go from young, innocent girl with deep, hopeful, fairytale fantasies, to becoming an emotionally reclusive survivalist. Love her!

[Steve Stark]

Oh I agree that Sansa is young and is a difficult role to play as well. I would even throw Robb in there as being young and taking over his father's position while calling in the banners would not be an easy task for someone of his age. Yet that part does seem easier to play, or maybe he is just an outstanding actor. I suppose the reason I listed Dany, Jon, and Arya is not only because of their age, but due to the dynamic behind their characters and their roles in the series. Jon facing the White Walkers and the dangers of the north while Dany is raising dragons, an army, and is leading her people back to a land she comes from but never knew (not to mention nearly starving to death, watching her brother and then her husband die). Both Jon and Dany did these things at a very young age. And Arya I threw in there because she is a baby yet she has killed people, traveled to other lands on her own, and watched many horrific things compared to the others when she is only a little girl. But of course Sansa probably has more to play in the future, so her character can most certainly be thrown in there. Dealing with capture, watching her father die, and surviving the reign of Cersei would not be easy for a child. Overall the casting has been awesome, and I particularly enjoy the scenes with Tywin and Arya. Actually, anything with Tywin in it has been awesome. Charles Dance is certainly a god in the acting department. The scene of him carving up the deer and instructing Jaime on the family line was one of my favorite scenes. And Davos and Jorah were two other excellently cast individuals. The whole thing has been cast excellently, and casting kids for those roles was no easy task.

[bardgal]

You nailed it Steve!

[The Dragon has three heads]

I disagree. Talisa as a plot device does the same as what Jeyne did in the book: It gives Robb a heart, and make him more human/less cold than Ned.

Disagree. Ros has been a brilliant device for compacting several characters in the books, while telling us the difference between Winterfell & KL.

As Abaddon said so well above: "There is never "no point". There is always a point. You may not agree with it, I may not agree with it, but it's naïve to think they don't have what they consider to be good reasons for making changes."

TV audiences rely on sound for names, not the printed text. Osha/Asha sound the same depending on whose dialect is speaking them, and would likely sound identical to a majority of viewers. Osha makes an appearance first. She got her name. At least they kept Asha's name remotely close to her original, and didn't rename her Gwyndolina or something.

Seriously? Emilia went to one of the most prestigious drama schools in the UK: Drama Centre London. Sorry you don't like her. But that's just a petty, hateful comment.

As for them skipping Tyrion killing shea? Don't bet on it.

Good post.