Game of Thrones [SPOILERS]

[Johny Cee]

Yeah, but the Doctor's gonna put him in a Scarecrow.

 

He was being kind.

[Engels]

Regarding Ironwood's 'tis but tripe!' accusation: Its true. The book is tripe too. Its dirty lascivious male nerd fantasy tripe. Its well written, and the characters are believable, engaging assholes with one or two exceptions. Martin caters to outrage and titillation without remorse. Its Sopranos with swords all the way. Its War of the Roses with the dirty bits thrown in. If it isn't your bag because you're feeling a bit manipulated and made to watch a car-wreck/strip show, then that's not HBO, that's just what it is. It was never high art and I don't think Martin would ever have dreamed of it being considered anything but a good lusty yarn.

[voodoolily]

It did look like a nice horse.

 

I thought the whole thing was basically incest porn for nerds. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[Tarami]

There's actually more sex in the book in the same timespan... although that was cut in the show, because good Lord, we can't have people over forty thirty twenty-five have sex on TV.

[Rasix]

The person they picked for Cat isn't very attractive.  I consider us lucky.

And Lyssa later on.  Do not want.

[Tarami]

That's kind of the point. It would have required cahonas/integrity to show a middle-aged couple have sex on prime-time TV, something I think this show has deceptively little of. I think it would have been a sign of health for a show that's acting all tough and grown-up.

[Threash]

Not if they had kept the original casting choice.

[Ironwood]

Regarding Ironwood's 'tis but tripe!' accusation: Its true. The book is tripe too. Its dirty lascivious male nerd fantasy tripe. Its well written, and the characters are believable, engaging assholes with one or two exceptions. Martin caters to outrage and titillation without remorse. Its Sopranos with swords all the way. Its War of the Roses with the dirty bits thrown in. If it isn't your bag because you're feeling a bit manipulated and made to watch a car-wreck/strip show, then that's not HBO, that's just what it is. It was never high art and I don't think Martin would ever have dreamed of it being considered anything but a good lusty yarn.

Thank you, that does kind of put it all in focus.

[Khaldun]

It's an important thing--Martin wasn't just trying to draw from a different source material than Tolkein (the nasty histories of the War of the Roses vs. high 'epic' literature and mythology like Beowulf) but also the vulgar, brutal and bawdy mood of some late medieval and early modern histories and chronicles.

[Arthur_Parker]

I really like some of the promotion images they have put out.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Ah hell... now I need those Sean Bean ones in full size so I can post them in my work cubicle (I like making my co-workers think).  Or at least in wallpaper size for the computer. 

Sean Bean = 

[Numtini]

Its dirty lascivious male nerd fantasy tripe

Maybe this explains why I just don't get the appeal of the books.

[Khaldun]

My wife, who has not read the books, and was given a very limited amount of background by me with no spoilers, did find a good deal of it confusing but also interesting.

Her comments during the show, about which I remained steadfastly   :

"That fat guy? The king? How soon until he dies? He is so obviously dead."
"The dwarf is kind of funny but a jerk. Is he going to get killed soon doing something heroic so that we feel sorry for him?"
"The wife of the northern guy gives off a vaguely bitchy vibe though not so much as the queen. Is that on purpose?"
(Before the scene where Bran gets a peek at Cersei and Jaime): "The climbing kid is too cute, something bad is going to happen to him."
"Please kill the whiny princess girl who wants to marry the prince, she's obnoxious."
"The kid prince is creeeeepy. Like 'The Omen' creepy. Is that on purpose?"
"Who is this guy [Benjen]? I missed it. I don't understand what he's talking about."
"I am having a hard time keeping straight who all the kids of Sean Bean's character are. There seem to be more than six, even counting the bastard guy."
[re: Viserys]: "Isn't that the guy from Dr. Who? But I don't get him and his sister. Who are they? What's going on?"

Also really did not like the rapey feeling of Daenerys' scene with Khal Drogo, and had a very hard time understanding any of that plot. The knight showing up at the wedding completely confused her--she felt like she was supposed to know him from before, as if he'd been in the earlier scenes in Winterfell.

[Arthur_Parker]

Another poster but bit of a spoiler.

[Hoax]

had a very hard time understanding any of that plot. The knight showing up at the wedding completely confused her--she felt like she was supposed to know him from before, as if he'd been in the earlier scenes in Winterfell.

Yeah this. If they wanted to include the horse barb wedding bits they needed another 30 min or something to make it sensible.

[Paelos]

"Please kill the whiny princess girl who wants to marry the prince, she's obnoxious."

 

[Merusk]

"Please kill the whiny princess girl who wants to marry the prince, she's obnoxious."

 

[Threash]

I had to explain to someone that the Targaryens weren't pervy elves and Tyrion wasn't a Tolkien dwarf.

[Arthur_Parker]

[Paelos]

I never got why people liked Arya so much. Her story lines alway made me roll my eyes.

[Teleku]

I think Engles description isn't quite fair, since the reason the series is popular is because its very well written, and has very deep characters and good development.  But overall, I suppose thats a decent way to frame it.  I always felt it was catering more towards realism and history rather than nerd porn, however (the middle ages were gloriously fucked up).

I never got why people liked Arya so much. Her story lines alway made me roll my eyes.

[Merusk]

I'll echo what Teleku said.  I didn't like her at first, but as a main character her story is one of the more interesting ones.

[Rasix]

Book related spoiler:

[Tannhauser]

Just wanted to pop in and say that first poster is fucking epic win.  I don't know much about GoT, but that poster seems to encapsulate it.  Iconic.

(I swear I'm not gay for Boromir)

[Rasix]

Bob, that was a little mean. Spoiler it or I'll just nuke it. It's hard to select text on my iPhone.

Edit: nuked.

[Strazos]

I don't seem to remember the Daenerys sex scene being so...rapey, in the book.

[Rasix]

I don't seem to remember the Daenerys sex scene being so...rapey, in the book.

It wasn't. AP quoted some of the text earlier.

[lamaros]

Wish I had my book with me...

[Tale]

Is "You win or you die" a slogan from the books? I think it sucks. Everything else about the posters I like.

[angry.bob]

Bob, that was a little mean. Spoiler it or I'll just nuke it. It's hard to select text on my iPhone.

Edit: nuked.

Huh? Spoiler what? I've never read any of the shitty books, I was just guessing based on hamfisted plot billboards. Unless the part I was right about was the vikings and wrong about everything else, you've just confirmed that I've already seen this story in every crap fantasy novel ever written. Seriously, it's so treadworn Khaldun's wife could probably predict the entire miniseries.

[lamaros]

That's called foreshadowing and is meant to make you be able to do that.

Predicting the whole series in a general sense is pretty easy, but you will absolutely get some bits wrong.

[Samwise]

Is "You win or you die" a slogan from the books? I think it sucks. Everything else about the posters I like.

It comes off better in the book than it does on the poster.  

"When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground."

[lamaros]

I watched it.

Fucking awful.

Really fucking awful.

Almost everything about it, apart from Dinkage and Bean, was useless. To be fair the script let every other actor down in a huge way, but still...

God it was awful. I felt embarrassed to tell my girlfriend that I had enjoyed the books after sitting through that tripe.

[Sparky]

Saw the pilot.  Acting was pretty wooden, all the lines from the book sounded very stilted and unnatural when spoken out loud.  But maybe that's GrrM's fault.  Found all the exposition a bit gruelling too.  Will probably continue watching because I'm a huge fantasy nerd but I won't clear my schedule for it.

[lamaros]

There's actually more sex in the book in the same timespan... although that was cut in the show, because good Lord, we can't have people over forty thirty twenty-five have sex on TV.

All the sex presented in the first episode is handled differently in the books (or not in the books). Hell, half of everything is handled differently.

I found the sex and nudity in the pilot to be not at all in keeping with the books in the way it was presented and jarring and juvenile in a way that even GRRM never reached. Only the Tyrion bit was half right, up until Jamie fucked it up...

I am really pissed off with how bad the show is; it's like they made the wrong choice every time they had to decide how to adapt the book. Including the fundamental ones. What have the gone with in the end? All I can feel is a 'shit TV' genre...

I wasn't expecting much, but it is still a huge letdown.