[Abyss]

So just to be clear, in this thread all spoilers for the latest ep are UNBLOCKED
as are SPOILERS for the entire book series to date

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
BOOK SPOILERS
TV SPOILERS
DEATH SPOILERS WOLVES SPOILERS SWORDS SPOILERS
BRATTY LITTLE KIDS SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
EXECUTIONS
SPOILERS
PLOTTING
SPOILERS INCEST
SPOILERS AND EVEN MORE SPOILERS!!!!!!!!


SO THAT should do it.


Elsethread, i give GRRM a hard time for the absurd delays between Song of Ice and Fire books, but at heart i freely admit to being a huge SIF fan boy and i do genuinely think George is an awesome authors whose created a benchmark fantasy lit work that deserves all the praise it gets.

Every decade or so. Sorry, sorry, i'll stop now...

So i was excited to see HBO take on SIF and having now watched the first ep i'm excited to see where it goes.

THE COLD OPENING AWARD: One of my problems with the book series is that not a whole lot happens early in GAME. Technically that holds with this episode (the Dothraki swordfights were drunken silliness), but damn, that was a solid start. The Watch, the WALL(!) the entire thing with the white walker and the dead wildings (wow! way to weild the w's)... this was a REALLY good way to say to the viewers 'there's a lot going on here, and you have to trust us, even if no much more than whoring and politicing happens for the next 33 minutes or so', and i thought this worked nicely.

Also, cool opening credit sequence.

DO I MAKE YOU HORN'Y: The Dire Wolf scene in the book was somehow more significant when i read it, than how it was handled here. Still, i give the production team credit for making the scene clear enough... dead stag, dead wolf, piece of stag horn in wolf... PUPPIES! Tho Jon picking up Ghost was barely an afterthought.

It did give us a token 'Theon is an asshat' moment, which was needed because we hadn't seen much of him before that.

AND THEN WE WAITED: Things slowed down after that. Way down. At least in the book we had Bran kicking Joffrey's ass with practice swords, but sadly that was missing here, probably because Joffrey (and Sansa for that matter) seemed way older than the book made them.

SPEAKING OF JOFFREY: Wow, i just wanted to see him get his face kicked in. The acters/characters were generally really well cast. Size issues aside, the Stark kids worked nicely, especially Arya. The Lannisters were near perfect. Sean Bean IS Ned and i'm already feeling for what's going to happen to him, because you KNOW HBO isn't going to shy away from that (aside: Sansa you TWIT! sorry, i've been carrying that around since 2001 or so...). Sandor Clegane's helmet was PERFECT.

SPEAKING OF FACES YOU WANT TO SEE GET FRIED IN METAL I MEAN KICKED IN: Viserys was just as irritating as he had to be. I wasn't as convinced of Drogo... he didn't quite scream 'undeatefed master of 40k warriors and/or Conan', but good enough. I'm undecided on Daenarys so far but again, good enough. I can at least see her growing into the part.

WOOF: So apparently no one has ever heard of the missionary position in this world. Oh shut up you were all thinking it.

RATINGS DROP: Nice ending. That was as stylish a shove out the window as i could have hoped for.

So i'm in... let's see where this goes.

[edgewalker81]

Abyss, on 18 April 2011 - 03:13 PM, said:

So just to be clear, in this thread all spoilers for the latest ep are UNBLOCKED
as are SPOILERS for the entire book series to date

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
BOOK SPOILERS
TV SPOILERS
DEATH SPOILERS WOLVES SPOILERS SWORDS SPOILERS
BRATTY LITTLE KIDS SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
EXECUTIONS
SPOILERS
PLOTTING
SPOILERS INCEST
SPOILERS AND EVEN MORE SPOILERS!!!!!!!!


SO THAT should do it.


Elsethread, i give GRRM a hard time for the absurd delays between Song of Ice and Fire books, but at heart i freely admit to being a huge SIF fan boy and i do genuinely think George is an awesome authors whose created a benchmark fantasy lit work that deserves all the praise it gets.

Every decade or so. Sorry, sorry, i'll stop now...

So i was excited to see HBO take on SIF and having now watched the first ep i'm excited to see where it goes.

THE COLD OPENING AWARD: One of my problems with the book series is that not a whole lot happens early in GAME. Technically that holds with this episode (the Dothraki swordfights were drunken silliness), but damn, that was a solid start. The Watch, the WALL(!) the entire thing with the white walker and the dead wildings (wow! way to weild the w's)... this was a REALLY good way to say to the viewers 'there's a lot going on here, and you have to trust us, even if no much more than whoring and politicing happens for the next 33 minutes or so', and i thought this worked nicely.

Also, cool opening credit sequence.

DO I MAKE YOU HORN'Y: The Dire Wolf scene in the book was somehow more significant when i read it, than how it was handled here. Still, i give the production team credit for making the scene clear enough... dead stag, dead wolf, piece of stag horn in wolf... PUPPIES! Tho Jon picking up Ghost was barely an afterthought.

It did give us a token 'Theon is an asshat' moment, which was needed because we hadn't seen much of him before that.

AND THEN WE WAITED: Things slowed down after that. Way down. At least in the book we had Bran kicking Joffrey's ass with practice swords, but sadly that was missing here, probably because Joffrey (and Sansa for that matter) seemed way older than the book made them.

SPEAKING OF JOFFREY: Wow, i just wanted to see him get his face kicked in. The acters/characters were generally really well cast. Size issues aside, the Stark kids worked nicely, especially Arya. The Lannisters were near perfect. Sean Bean IS Ned and i'm already feeling for what's going to happen to him, because you KNOW HBO isn't going to shy away from that (aside: Sansa you TWIT! sorry, i've been carrying that around since 2001 or so...). Sandor Clegane's helmet was PERFECT.

SPEAKING OF FACES YOU WANT TO SEE GET FRIED IN METAL I MEAN KICKED IN: Viserys was just as irritating as he had to be. I wasn't as convinced of Drogo... he didn't quite scream 'undeatefed master of 40k warriors and/or Conan', but good enough. I'm undecided on Daenarys so far but again, good enough. I can at least see her growing into the part.

WOOF: So apparently no one has ever heard of the missionary position in this world. Oh shut up you were all thinking it.

RATINGS DROP: Nice ending. That was as stylish a shove out the window as i could have hoped for.

So i'm in... let's see where this goes.

I tweeted almost that exact same thought regarding the missionary position last night.

[Ceda Cicero]

The profusion of doggy style makes sense with the Dothraki as (IIRC) that's generally how they do it in the books. However (and this, I fully recognize, is quibbling) I don't ever recall Cersei going at it doggystyle with anyone, including Jaime, in the books, and it somehow seems out of character to me. I can't imagine Cersei ever letting any man take her like that. But then again, underneath all that haughtiness she's a huge slut so I guess one could argue it's not too uncharacteristic.

As to the size issues with Dany and the Stark kids, wasn't this deliberate? I seem to recall reading that somewhere. I think they made that call just to make it a little more palatable when these younglings start going through hell.

And for my money, among a cast that I was more or less universally blown away by, Mark Addy stole the show. He's just the perfect Robert, and his chemistry with Sean Bean is fantastic and flawlessly representative of their rapport in the book. The scene in the crypt was, I thought, especially well done.

EDIT:

Also, Abyss...

Abyss, on 18 April 2011 - 03:13 PM, said:

I'm undecided on Daenarys so far but again, good enough. I can at least see her growing into the part boobs over and over again.

Edited to reflect what I'm sure you actually meant.

This post has been edited by Neocount Cicero: 18 April 2011 - 05:32 PM

[Abyss]

edgewalker81, on 18 April 2011 - 05:18 PM, said:

Abyss, on 18 April 2011 - 03:13 PM, said:

...Oh shut up you were all thinking it....

I tweeted almost that exact same thought regarding the missionary position last night.

Neocount Cicero, on 18 April 2011 - 05:28 PM, said:

The profusion of doggy style makes sense ...

See? i KNEW you were all thinking it!!!!

Moving on now...

Quote

As to the size issues with Dany and the Stark kids, wasn't this deliberate? I seem to recall reading that somewhere. I think they made that call just to make it a little more palatable when these younglings start going through hell.

And totally a good move. One of the problems with the original series is the gaes of the Stark kids and Dany when things starts going south... i think Robb is what? Like 14? when he takes over the united North armies... yes, yes, kids matured faster then, yes yes for that style time period it's correct... whatever, Viserys is still groping his 13 year old sister before marrying her off and it ws jarring enough in the book without making it quite as fncked up in the visual medium. The Parents league is going to have enough to whine about already.
At least Sansa LOOKED older than 13.

Quote

And for my money, among a cast that I was more or less universally blown away by, Mark Addy stole the show. He's just the perfect Robert, and his chemistry with Sean Bean is fantastic and flawlessly representative of their rapport in the book. The scene in the crypt was, I thought, especially well done.

I waver on this because it was one of the most wink wink nudge scenes to the book fans that would have just lost non-book viewers. It could have been less insider-ish, but i was right there loving it with the rest of the geeks.

Quote

EDIT:

Also, Abyss...

Abyss, on 18 April 2011 - 03:13 PM, said:

I'm undecided on Daenarys so far but again, good enough. I can at least see her growing into the part boobs over and over again.

Edited to reflect what I'm sure you actually meant.

moving ON now....

[Ceda Cicero]

See, re: what you said about insiderish-ness, I am still wondering why on earth - when this is arguably the number one concern from every corner - they don't run just a paragraph or so of script (think "A Long, Long Time Ago...") before or after the title sequence. At least for the pilot, possibly for the entire first series. It wouldn't have to be much, but man, a few sentences could go a LONG way for new viewers. Something like...

"The Seven Kingdoms of Westeros were conquered by Aegon Targaryen. For centuries, the Targaryen dynasty ruled from the Iron Throne in the capital city of King's Landing, until Aerys Targaryen, the Mad King, was deposed by Robert Baratheon with the help of his allies, Eddard Stark and Jon Arryn. XX years later, Robert sits the Iron Throne, but Westeros has grown restive. Far to the North, beyond the barrier of the Wall, an ancient and unseen threat stirs - Winter is Coming."


I mean seriously. Was there any conceivable reason not to do this? Am I alone in thinking it would be enormously helpful for new viewers?

[Abyss]

Neocount Cicero, on 18 April 2011 - 05:49 PM, said:

See, re: what you said about insiderish-ness, I am still wondering why on ...they don't run just a paragraph or so of script....Am I alone in thinking it would be enormously helpful for new viewers?

Helpful, or massively offputting.

I suspect that someone decided that it's easier to let the less informed audience think 'oh, so this is ancient england or something' rather than dwell on the details, which are confusing enough to the uninformed.

[Puck]

Neocount Cicero, on 18 April 2011 - 05:49 PM, said:

I mean seriously. Was there any conceivable reason not to do this? Am I alone in thinking it would be enormously helpful for new viewers?

Nope, you're totally right in that, I think. I never read the books [and I'm not planning to, just saying] and what you wrote up there makes understanding what's going on quite a lot easier.

[acesn8s]

Abyss, on 18 April 2011 - 03:13 PM, said:

So just to be clear, in this thread all spoilers for the latest ep are UNBLOCKED
as are SPOILERS for the entire book series to date

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
BOOK SPOILERS
TV SPOILERS
DEATH SPOILERS WOLVES SPOILERS SWORDS SPOILERS
BRATTY LITTLE KIDS SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
EXECUTIONS
SPOILERS
PLOTTING
SPOILERS INCEST
SPOILERS AND EVEN MORE SPOILERS!!!!!!!!


SO THAT should do it.


. . . WOOF: So apparently no one has ever heard of the missionary position in this world. Oh shut up you were all thinking it. . . .

You know Tyrion was reppin' the Missionary position under that flesh-o-lanche.

[Avatar]

Nice review Abyss!

[Ceda Cicero]

acesn8s, on 18 April 2011 - 07:29 PM, said:

Abyss, on 18 April 2011 - 03:13 PM, said:

So just to be clear, in this thread all spoilers for the latest ep are UNBLOCKED
as are SPOILERS for the entire book series to date

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
BOOK SPOILERS
TV SPOILERS
DEATH SPOILERS WOLVES SPOILERS SWORDS SPOILERS
BRATTY LITTLE KIDS SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
EXECUTIONS
SPOILERS
PLOTTING
SPOILERS INCEST
SPOILERS AND EVEN MORE SPOILERS!!!!!!!!


SO THAT should do it.


. . . WOOF: So apparently no one has ever heard of the missionary position in this world. Oh shut up you were all thinking it. . . .

You know Tyrion was reppin' the Missionary position under that flesh-o-lanche.

Isn't that posish more commonly and popularly referred to as "cowgirl?"

[moridin]

Abyss, on 18 April 2011 - 03:13 PM, said:

So just to be clear, in this thread all spoilers for the latest ep are UNBLOCKED
as are SPOILERS for the entire book series to date

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
BOOK SPOILERS
TV SPOILERS
DEATH SPOILERS WOLVES SPOILERS SWORDS SPOILERS
BRATTY LITTLE KIDS SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
EXECUTIONS
SPOILERS
PLOTTING
SPOILERS INCEST
SPOILERS AND EVEN MORE SPOILERS!!!!!!!!


SO THAT should do it.


Elsethread, i give GRRM a hard time for the absurd delays between Song of Ice and Fire books, but at heart i freely admit to being a huge SIF fan boy and i do genuinely think George is an awesome authors whose created a benchmark fantasy lit work that deserves all the praise it gets.

Every decade or so. Sorry, sorry, i'll stop now...

So i was excited to see HBO take on SIF and having now watched the first ep i'm excited to see where it goes.

THE COLD OPENING AWARD: One of my problems with the book series is that not a whole lot happens early in GAME. Technically that holds with this episode (the Dothraki swordfights were drunken silliness), but damn, that was a solid start. The Watch, the WALL(!) the entire thing with the white walker and the dead wildings (wow! way to weild the w's)... this was a REALLY good way to say to the viewers 'there's a lot going on here, and you have to trust us, even if no much more than whoring and politicing happens for the next 33 minutes or so', and i thought this worked nicely.

Also, cool opening credit sequence.

DO I MAKE YOU HORN'Y: The Dire Wolf scene in the book was somehow more significant when i read it, than how it was handled here. Still, i give the production team credit for making the scene clear enough... dead stag, dead wolf, piece of stag horn in wolf... PUPPIES! Tho Jon picking up Ghost was barely an afterthought.

It did give us a token 'Theon is an asshat' moment, which was needed because we hadn't seen much of him before that.

AND THEN WE WAITED: Things slowed down after that. Way down. At least in the book we had Bran kicking Joffrey's ass with practice swords, but sadly that was missing here, probably because Joffrey (and Sansa for that matter) seemed way older than the book made them.

SPEAKING OF JOFFREY: Wow, i just wanted to see him get his face kicked in. The acters/characters were generally really well cast. Size issues aside, the Stark kids worked nicely, especially Arya. The Lannisters were near perfect. Sean Bean IS Ned and i'm already feeling for what's going to happen to him, because you KNOW HBO isn't going to shy away from that (aside: Sansa you TWIT! sorry, i've been carrying that around since 2001 or so...). Sandor Clegane's helmet was PERFECT.

SPEAKING OF FACES YOU WANT TO SEE GET FRIED IN METAL I MEAN KICKED IN: Viserys was just as irritating as he had to be. I wasn't as convinced of Drogo... he didn't quite scream 'undeatefed master of 40k warriors and/or Conan', but good enough. I'm undecided on Daenarys so far but again, good enough. I can at least see her growing into the part.

WOOF: So apparently no one has ever heard of the missionary position in this world. Oh shut up you were all thinking it.

RATINGS DROP: Nice ending. That was as stylish a shove out the window as i could have hoped for.

So i'm in... let's see where this goes.

I gotta say, in the book it seems to me that there was more emphasis made on how the dire wolf died. Yes they showed Ned pull the stag antler out of the wolf, but it didn't come across as ominous as it seemed in the book.

Casting was great, I thought. The actors for Ned and Tyrion are my two personal favorites. Ned comes across as the serious honor boung man with the weight of the world, or in this case his king, on his shoulders. And I don't know what else can be said about Tyrion. His performance was great, IMO.

Again, Joffrey, even without saying a word made me want to kick him in the face, lol. I also loved the hounds helmet and I wish they would have shown his face better, I want to see what he looks like.

All in all, I loved the opening episode. It seemed very much in keeping with what I can recall from the book. Hope it keeps it up.

Ps. The wall looked bad ass. I think they did a great job of showing the scope and size of it.

[Ceda Cicero]

I agree with your point about the stag/dire wolf foreshadowing being less obvious in the pilot than it was in the book, but I for one was sort of happy about this. I always thought, cool as it was, that it was a fairly obvious bit of foreshadowing, almost too obvious.

Also I guess there was no way to translate that to screen without inserting a bit of dialogue about the omen, and then you run the risk of cheese factor when people are standing around indulging in exposition-style dialogue about an omen that's fairly obvious, but that no one would realistically talk about that extensively.

[Ulrik]

Second episode is... also great! Its slower, so non-readers will have problems.

SPOILERS!
SPOILERS!SPOILERS!
SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!
SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!


SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!

Joeffrey is bitch like in book:) Really, part with butcher´s son proves it. Great casting.
Killing Lady is....hardcore. Really hardcore.
Drogo learns truly horse riding
Direwolf protecting Bran in coma is EPIC!

SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!

SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!

SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!

SPOILERS!SPOILERS!

SPOILERS!

[Ceda Cicero]

Ulrik, on 18 April 2011 - 10:27 PM, said:

Second episode is... also great! Its slower, so non-readers will have problems.

SPOILERS!
SPOILERS!SPOILERS!
SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!
SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!


SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!

Joeffrey is bitch like in book:) Really, part with butcher´s son proves it. Great casting.
Killing Lady is....hardcore. Really hardcore.
Drogo learns truly horse riding
Direwolf protecting Bran in coma is EPIC!

SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!

SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!

SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!

SPOILERS!SPOILERS!

SPOILERS!

Did I miss something? How've you seen the second one?

[Ulrik]

Journalist special premiere... (and I have miniature of Payne´s sword )

[Cyphon]

Tyrion fucking owned that episode. Anyone coming away from that not liking him can only be a dick.

Casting was good, all the people bad mouthing Addy months ago can STFU.

Benjen, awesome in black.

Cersci - Have you bled yet? Awwwwwwwkward.

Doggy style for the win.

Was I the only one thinking that Dany looks like a vaguely normal woman as opposed to various stereotypes.

Also, Jon Snow is yet to develop into the Suvudu esque powerhouse he will become.

[Ceda Cicero]

Cyphon, on 18 April 2011 - 10:43 PM, said:

Also, Jon Snow is yet to develop into the Suvudu esque powerhouse he will become.

Ah, Captain Cyphon, I only know of one Suvudu esque powerhouse.

[Cyphon]

Neocount Cicero, on 18 April 2011 - 11:02 PM, said:

Cyphon, on 18 April 2011 - 10:43 PM, said:

Also, Jon Snow is yet to develop into the Suvudu esque powerhouse he will become.

Ah, Captain Cyphon, I only know of one Suvudu esque powerhouse.

He may be a powerhouse, but we are of the shaved knuckle and that means nothing.

Also, "All dwarfs are bastards in their father's eyes."

[D'rek]

Cyphon, on 18 April 2011 - 10:43 PM, said:

Was I the only one thinking that Dany looks like a vaguely normal woman as opposed to various stereotypes.

Well the Dothraki are apparently now composed of every skin tone from sub-saharan-african-dark to greek-with-a-tan, so any stereotyping of her and she'd fit in with them far too well...

[Jahdu]

I only really had 1 quibble about it. It might seem weird to some but I just didn't like
the scene where Jaime shoves Bran out the window.

When I read it, in my minds eye, when Jaime says "The things I do for love" he does so in
a kind of whistful, sorrowful manner. In the TV episode the way the actor said that line
(and to me it was quite an important line in context of the story), it just didn't come
across with the gravity I expected.

That aside it held up pretty well to what I remember of the book.