f13.net

I don't remember there being much fantastical about it other than some settings. HBO has already shown they can do settings and costuming extremely well.

I think the most critical thing is the casting. The douche who plays Henry in the Tutors (and also the crappy Anne) ruin it for me completely, despite the great Katherine and cardinal. Martin has such vivid characters that a great actor could really tear into it and have a Swearengen-style run of amazing performances. So much fodder for good actors that could be utterly ruined by poor casting choices.

I don't remember there being much fantastical about it other than some settings. HBO has already shown they can do settings and costuming extremely well.

Er...the various rezzes?  Renly's little encounter?  Admittedly, the magic angles have been subtle, but I've also heard that it will start coming faster in the next couple books.  

I think the most critical thing is the casting. The douche who plays Henry in the Tutors (and also the crappy Anne) ruin it for me completely, despite the great Katherine and cardinal.

... So let's all hope the pilot will kick serious ass.

It should. David Benioff and Dan Weiss did a terrific job with the script. And yes, all of you can relax, it's very faithful. Dan and David will be the executive producers for the pilot and (we hope) the eventual series.

Tyrion will have to be special effects and makeup.  There's no fucking way you just stumble onto an actor with Tyrion's proportions that can pull off that character.

A HBO pilot of author George R.R. Martin's fantasy novel "A Game Of Thrones" is set to begin filming in Northern Ireland this October.

Martin announced the development in a LiveJournel post Tuesday following the news breaking on Northern Ireland's government Web site.

"Yes, I'm thrilled. Ireland should be a great place to film," Martin said. "And the facility we'll be using, the Paint Hall, is amazing as well. Before it was a film studio, the Paint Hall was part of Belfast's famous Harland & Wolff Shipyards, where the Titanic and many other ships were constructed. The facility is pretty titanic as well. Of course, all of us connected with 'A Game Of Thrones' are hoping we'll fare somewhat better on our own maiden voyage."

"A Game Of Thrones" follows a tragic struggle between several royal families for control of Westeros, a land similar to England during the Wars of the Roses. Other threats bear down on its population, including a supernatural invasion from the icy north, an exiled dragon queen seeking to reclaim her family's dynasty, and a winter that will last for years.

Behind these events, dangerous men and women embrace treachery in a bid to secure ultimate power.

After its 1996 debut, "A Game Of Thrones" won the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and captured nominations for the Nebula and World Fantasy awards. More awards followed for subsequent books in the series.

Seven novels are planned, with the fifth volume, "A Dance With Dragons," scheduled for release later this year.

The series' location scouting included sites in Spain and the Czech Republic, but ultimately Northern Ireland pushed hard to secure the HBO deal.

"HBO has been responsible for some of the most dynamic and successful TV series ever broadcast, and we are absolutely delighted to welcome the HBO team here," said Richard Williams, chief executive officer of Northern Ireland Screen, which coordinated production finance for the pilot. "We are really looking forward to working with them on such an exciting project. This is a real coup for Northern Ireland and further cements our reputation as a leading centre for film and television production ..."

"There's lots of other exciting news on the pilot as well, but nothing I can share," Martin said. "Sorry, lips are sealed. You'll have to wait for Mr. Benioff and Mr. Weiss ... and HBO."

Martin indicated in past posts that the show would span a novel's worth of material per season. If renewed, the second season would cover the events of "A Clash Of Kings."

David Benioff ("Troy," "The Kite Runner") and D.B. Weiss will write and executive produce. Martin, a television writing veteran ("Beauty and the Beast," "The Twilight Zone"), plans to co-executive produce and write at least one episode.

Glad to see A Game of Thrones is still moving forward:

They need to tell Martin he's not allowed to play with any TV projects for the series until he gets his lazy ass in gear and FINISHES THE FUCKING SERIES.

Seriously, if he keeps writing at the pace he's going, he's going to be dead loooooooong before any conclusion.  It will be much worst than Robert Jordan.

Longer than that,  Dance of dragons is the 2nd half of the last book.  His publisher had him split them up when he was writing Feast for Crows because it was already too long a tome to bind.  he's fleshed a bit more out and added some, but my understanding was the majority was written 3 years ago.

He has released chapters from the book on a inconstant basis. Kinda hard to rewrite shit that you have already released.

Many fans have been wondering why it should take this long for the author to write this new book, what with 50% of it having been completed already. Rumors have been circulating that GRRM did scrap some portions of what he had when they decided to publish AFfC in its current format. Well, unfortunately that's not hearsay. It appears that GRRM did cut some chunks out of the original manuscript and has been tinkering with a few things. Hence, he didn't truly have 50% of it done with and ready to go. Which explains the slower than expected progress for A Dance with Dragons.

I listened to an audio book of him reading many of his short stories and telling stories of his own life, both personal and professional. To be honest, considering he's pretty much sexually incontinent and a raging hippy, I'm amazed he managed to write the Game of Thrones novels thusfar, but I'm not surprised he's dragging his feet with the remainder. He's probably bored to death of the entire thing.

He has released chapters from the book on a inconstant basis. Kinda hard to rewrite shit that you have already released.

HBO doesn't really make a habit out of canceling.. They're not Fox or anything.

Ooh, he's an angry elf.

http://termopilas.tales-tra.com/users/parsec/Pilot_script.pdf

61 pages. Enjoy.

More casting.   Piper is Catelyn.     :why_so_serious:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001061/

Ugh, I hate everything she does. Nice casting assholes. You picked a brown-eyed brunette to play a blue-eyed redhead blonde.

Auburn hair is not blonde.

Sorry, I was thinking of Cersei, I forgot Catelyn was ever a major enough character to be worth bitching about.

More casting.   Piper is Catelyn.     :why_so_serious:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001061/

Unfortunately, Rome is also the closest comp for how the show will be directed, set, and wardrobed, since it's got the same epic royal melee with swords thing going on.

That means it'll be fantastic, expensive, and short.  And one of the main actors will get a role on Gray's Anatomy.

Ugh, I hate everything she does. Nice casting assholes. You picked a brown-eyed brunette to play a blue-eyed redhead.

I discovered halfway through writing the second season the show was going to end. The second was going to end with the death of Brutus. Third and fourth season would be set in Egypt. Fifth was going to be the rise of the messiah in Palestine. But because we got the heads-up that the second season would be it, I telescoped the third and fourth season into the second one, which accounts for the blazing speed we go through history near the end. There's certainly more than enough history to go around.

Not only was she the ugly one, she was the most annoying one on top of that. I mean come on!

And yeah, she's not great to look at either. There are a thousand other ways to go with actresses that can actually act, would look like the actual character, and weren't already type-cast due to 8 seasons on the same TV show. It won't be Holly Combs playing Catelyn Stark. It will be Piper running around the world of Westeros, pissing me off.

SPOILERS!

To be fair though, she's no Cersei.  God I wish she'd die already. 

Wasn't her fate already told at least vaguely in prophecy? My memory might be a bit hazy but i think she is currently captured? But there is no redeeming that bitch, i cant recall disliking a fictional character more.

I hope that George has a violent and humiliating end in line for that bitch.

She didn't have to sound annoying and condescending with every line she uttered. Never once did I find the character sympathic, likable, or remotely agreeable.

People found the Catelyn character anything but annoying? Wha?


You have just described Catelyn for me. Looks like prefect casting to my mind.

Incidentally, looks like GRRM has let lose the game rights to ASoIaF. Anyone willing to make bets about which would be worse out of the TV show or the game(s)?

I too despised Catelyn more than anyone else in the series. I cheered so much when she died, then sighed and cursed GRRM when he rezzed her.

Agreed. She needs to be gangbanged by a pack of baboons and then hung from a ship's mast until crows pick out her eyes.

Is there really a single female character in the series that overall is not on some level pretty despicable?

Is there really a single female character in the series that overall is not on some level pretty despicable?

Daenerys is definitely despicable on at least 'some level'.

But then I like Cat, too, and understand her character beyond "omg whiny non-whore shut up!" so obviously my judgment is flawed.  :awesome_for_real:

Arya Stark cannot be considered "good," as I think its pretty clear she is a raging psychotic.

How the hell can anybody consider Arya not good?  Or psycotic?  What has she done thats bad?  Everything I can think of she's done for the right reasons, even if they didn't turn out the way she hoped.  It's been awhile since I've read the books, but I actually can't think of anything.

Almost all her motivation is selfish?  The path she has gone down has nothing to do with helping other people and is entirely focused on revenge...

Do you normally apply real-world 20th century ethical standards to fantasy novels?  That must be terrible for you.

You know what?  If your point is that having people killed that picked on her makes her a saint than have fun with that.

Almost all her motivation is selfish?  The path she has gone down has nothing to do with helping other people and is entirely focused on revenge...

Read Barbara Tuchman's history of the Hundred Years War

Its recapped a few pages up. Cersei is introduced and promptly gets caught fucking her brother, whom she goads into throwing a child from a window. She then orders a little girls wolf to be killed out of pure spite. Kills the king and Ned, this is just ONE book. Penis envy is not a "window" into why she does these things. Which is the only insight we are given into why she is so fucked up. Catelyn on the other hand is just an annoying nosy bitch, who basically fails at everything she attempts.

I hate to defend the crazy bitch but she did not goad Jamie into throwing Bran out the window, quite the opposite in fact.  I believe she said something like "he was only a child, i could have scared him into shutting up"

Beside Sean Bean and Dinklage I don't know any of these actors, but Tamzin Merchant as Dany looks  :awesome_for_real: :drill:.

Please don't suck.

David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Guymon Casady, Carolyn Strauss, Vincent Gerardis and Martin are executive producing.

D. B. Weiss was hired to rewrite the screenplay for a film adaptation of Bungie's game series Halo, based on the $1 million dollar script written by Alex Garland. The rewrite was during 2006 and planned for a 2008 release. [3] He also penned a script of Orson Scott Card's book Ender's Game.[4].

Weiss is currently working with David Benioff, the writer of Troy, on the HBO TV adaptation of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.[5]

They've managed to not cast a single blond Lannister, that's going to be hard to get used to.

I guess we'll just have to wait for the invention of hair dye. 

More importantly, there will be a carpet/drapes discontinuity.

More importantly, there will be a carpet/drapes discontinuity.

I guess we'll just have to wait for the invention of hair dye. 

 :awesome_for_real:

Lena Headey is about 10 years too old to play Cersei. And she will look really strange as a blonde.

Ehm, Headey is not to old too play Cersei, atleast not significantly. Cersei is not 22, she's more like 32. Mind that Joffrey is 13.

Also, Tricia Helfer is just as "old" as Headey is. :oh_i_see:

Ehm, Headey is not to old too play Cersei, atleast not significantly. Cersei is not 22, she's more like 32. Mind that Joffrey is 13.

Also, Tricia Helfer is just as "old" as Headey is. :oh_i_see:

And she will look really strange as a blonde.

Based on the setting, if Joffrey is 13, I'd peg Cersei at closer to 28 - 29. Not sure if he ever actually stated her age in the books.

Based on the setting, if Joffrey is 13, I'd peg Cersei at closer to 28 - 29. Not sure if he ever actually stated her age in the books.

The Hound, Sandor Clegane, will be played by Rory McCann. Here is the related news entry written by Martin himself:

http://grrm.livejournal.com/109392.html (http://grrm.livejournal.com/109392.html)

Yeah, now I'm curious about who will play the "Mountain that Rides"  :ye_gods:

Tyler Mane + camera shenanigans

Though I always imagined The Mountain as being more fat than buff.  Possibly I just didn't read closely.  Andre the Giant would really have been the best fit, if he could act his way out of a paper bag and didn't seem so friendly (and was still alive).

Heyyyy Mark Addy.

I just didn't really think of Sandor as a giant guy. Always pictured him as more a wirey/lanky guy.

They could have that wrestler guy, Paul Wight. (Not sure what his 'stage' name is these days, but he is ginormous).

Only white guy I can think of that is mountainous.

It looks like the only former/current pro wrestler that they have on there is Andre the Giant. Even though a lot of them have been in a number of movies.

Glen Jacobs 6-8 "See no evil""WWF wrestler"born in spain. 

NERDS REJOICE.   

http://www.thrfeed.com/2010/03/hbo-greenlights-game-of-thrones-.html

Not a fan of Ice and Fire?

Hmm, what's the TV equivalent of vaporware? Why are actors dropping out at this stage?

What I've always wondered though is why someone doesnt just pick up the Tolkien IP and do a show based in Middle Earth's other time periods.  As worn out as LotR was/is it's still the best way to get "normal folk" to watch Fantasy in droves.  And for the Spartacus-types, we should be seeing more Conan, done in TRUE Howard style, which is lots of blood, nudity, and questionable ethics.

After the success of Spartacus, I'm fairly sure HBO is frothing to do this right and get this out.  Prior to Spartacus it kinda felt like the network was a bit gunshy.

I'm in the camp of wishing they'd picked another fantasy series to do though, but the fact is GoT is mainstream and "light" enough to be palatable by most audiences and not require all kinds of post-production.  Whereas something like Dragonlance or Wheel of Time would be mentally out of reach for a lot of folks unless produced perfectly.

What I've always wondered though is why someone doesnt just pick up the Tolkien IP and do a show based in Middle Earth's other time periods.  As worn out as LotR was/is it's still the best way to get "normal folk" to watch Fantasy in droves.  And for the Spartacus-types, we should be seeing more Conan, done in TRUE Howard style, which is lots of blood, nudity, and questionable ethics.

Getting the rights to do LOTR stuff is very very difficult.

Also, Legend of the Seeker (based on the Goodkind books, which are major sellers even if no one on the internet likes them) just got canned, which doesn't bode well for fantasy IPs drawing power.

If it was going to fit itself loosely around the source material it should have done so in the same fashion that Hercules and Xena did.  However, it lacked the camp and fun of those shows while trying to maintain the heady high-fantasy talk about "the Keeper" and "The boxes of Ordin" and "Additive vs Subtractive" magic.  That kind of geekery in a light fantasy show will turn folks off.

GOT I figure has a shot because intrigue-heavy shows like the Tudors, First Blood and Rome have done pretty well in the past.  GOT won't be tossing a lot of wizardy and magic at the audience at once, forcing them to leap into a world that most don't care about.  Instead it will pull them in with the character drama, slowly introducing the magic and oddities in the same way the characters discover them.

The major problem with Seeker from the few episodes I've watched was just bad writing.  The writers were flailing around trying to make things work and constantly hamstringing themselves.

The question is if the show will build enough of an audience to pay for the giant budget.  Or if the show will survive the mass fan howling when characters and viewpoints are massively scaled back to focus on setting up a couple of major characters while reducing many of the minor characters to one note caricatures.

I dunno, the first book seemed all about Ned up until the end.  I can see building season one around him, a few glimpses of Daen and a focus on Clan Lannister with brief forays into the side characters being totally in tune with the book.   Later books/ seasons I agree it'll be a problem.

Is Boromir Ned?   :uhrr:

No, that's a different Sean Bean.

Starstruck amputees are being offered a golden opportunity to be on television.

A Northern Ireland casting company is looking for amputees to take part in epic fantasy adventure series, Game of Thrones, which is being filmed in Belfast.

Local company, Extras NI, also wants a lot of dark, hairy people for the production to begin in July.

It's like those people in my theatre who got all pissed at the end of the Fellowship of the Ring. "WTF, THAT'S THE END???"

The series Game of Thrones is currently being filmed in Northern Ireland and it is going extremely well.  Like all large scale film/television production it is very challenging but all of the creative executives involved in the project are very happy and there is enormous optimism that the series will be a great success.  Most of the series is being filmed at locations in northern Ireland with some extra filming in Malta for the desert sequences.  The series will involve a spend of more than £20m in Northern Ireland and that is good for the local economy.  Planning is now shifting to arrangements for the second series and Jay Roewe's visit was primarily focused on the planning for that second series.

Oh, he's that fat. Perhaps fatter.  I think they were being nice.

Specifically Blackadder the First era Brian Blessed:

(http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/io9/2009/06/yaDibW_BTvg.jpg)

I always pictured Dany a little more..."ethereal" and skinny, but Emilia Clarke looks lovely anyway.

Jaimie is supposed to look more like Cersei though, but it will do.

The books may claim they're virtually identical (not that I remember)

Third preview trailer (http://www.hbo.com/video/video.html/?autoplay=true&vid=1145144&filter=game-of-thrones&view=null)

This is at least a tangentially on topic question: what are the astronomical characteristics of a planet with multi-Earth year seasons?

Was that the first time they have narrowed down the premiere to 'April'? I just remember seeing Spring 2011.

It is looking really, really good. Now if that useless fuck would just finish the series I might not get a pain in my head every time I think about it.

Looking pretty good. Still think some of the characters look 'off' but hey, what can you do. It is not MY imagination they are putting on the screen heh.

Robert looks better cast in those scenes than he did in the early screenshots, though he still is missing the "beer-swilling jock gone to pot" vibe.

Now if that useless fuck would just finish the series I might not get a pain in my head every time I think about it.

Also, isnt she supposed to be blonde? 

I stopped reading right there.

Where are you getting that Catelyn is supposed to be homely?

Red hair and blue eyes for the Tullys.  It's part of the difference between Sansa and Arya - Sansa favors House Tully, while Arya is Stark all the way.

Definition of COMELY
1
: pleasurably conforming to notions of good appearance, suitability, or proportion
2
: having a pleasing appearance : not homely or plain
— come·li·ness noun

That's what's driving me nuts about this series.. it won't be finished.  They'll take it so far and then end it, because there's no way Martin is wrapping it up any time soon.  Certainly not any time in the next 4 years (Assuming series 1 covers the entirety of the first book.)  I also expect, like Jordan, he'll die before completing them.  Not only is he overweight and over 60, but he's bitched that the fans expect him to devote time to them outside of 'whenever I damn well feel like it.'  I don't expect an uptick in the quality of the books after his death If they're continued, unlike Jordan.   By all accounts Jordan was an obsessive note taker and had reams of material outlining everything so it was easy for a ghostwriter to take over.  I haven't ever heard the same thing of Martin.

I wasnt referring to red carpet pics.  And to me, when someone says a chic is 'somewhat comely' that basically translates to homely. 

This makes me want to reread the books.

But they're so long :(

This makes me want to reread the books.

But they're so long :(

If you re-read, do 1-6, then 9+. 7 and 8 contribute squat,

 :headscratch:

Pretty sure there are only 4 books.

Yes, it is unfair to call him a ghost writer which is why I didn't specifically name him.  His credentials weren't the point, it was that there were reams of material for a ghost writer to use.  Considering the overall quality of the books has increased significantly, I'm glad they didn't go with just a ghost writer.  (Though my wife did bitch that the latest one did the Jordan "tease for x^10 chapters, then have everything happen in the last 75 pages" thing.)

APRIL: #GameofThrones, an epic fantasy based on the novels by George RR Martin and starring Sean Bean.

I don't want to be too nitpicky, but...those are awfully thick swords.  I always imagined Syrio and Arya practicing with blades similar to epees or rapiers.  Her sword is named "Needle," afterall.  Still, it's a minor critique, I suppose.

Maisie Williams, who will play Arya Stark, is preparing for her part by practicing her needlework. I though you might enjoy seeing these recent pictures of her that her mom was kind enough to send me.

Uhm, guys, those are wooden practice swords. :why_so_serious:

Uhm, guys, those are wooden practice swords. :why_so_serious:

I knew what he meant, it's logical.

I can't believe you didn't look five threads down. ;D

Until the biggest twist of all, when the story just fucking stops. It will be just like Deadwood!

 :heartbreak:

Nice, I don't see how this can fail to be honest, it's not like it's going to pull a battlestar galactica or a Lost on us.  I guess the kid actors being terrible would hurt a lot given how important they are, but the twists of the story line should see it through.

First full-lenght trailer revealed on Entertainment Weekly!!!!!!!!

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/03/03/game-of-thrones-new-trailer/

is this the same one? I couldn't get the EW one to play.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWIyCUHrESk&hd=1

Ugh. I am still massively under whelmed. A lot of elements, casting, acting, costumes, etc are a bit off for me.

Somehow I would be floored if a fantasy novel being turned into a TV show got rave reviews here.

We nerds are a harsh and unforgiving lot down the last unimportant lorelastic detail.

Where's WUA!

I'm just spoiled by watching Spartacus, which took something (yawn) historically-based and pretty much made it rip-roaringly fantastical to the degree it's by far the best show on TV.
GoT needs to be over-the-top or the show won't do the genre or the book any justice. 

Have you read the book? It is as far as you can get from over-the-top fantasy and still lay a claim to being in the genre. The fantasy stuff is really around the fringes, especially in the first book. If they turn it rip-roaringly-fantastical it would be a horrible mistake. That stuff would just distract from what makes the book actually good.

Have you read the book? It is as far as you can get from over-the-top fantasy and still lay a claim to being in the genre. The fantasy stuff is really around the fringes, especially in the first book. If they turn it rip-roaringly-fantastical it would be a horrible mistake. That stuff would just distract from what makes the book actually good.

I agree that it's not high fantasy, but it is absolutely pulp soap opera historical fiction. It's not about descriptions of landscape and character subtleties, but about over the top machinations and shit from a bunch of mostly nasty people that doesn't stop to breathe ever. With battles and backstabbing and incest and child serial killers and fucking and the dead coming to life and so forth.

Dany is a child queen who gets sold in to slavery and then forms an attachment to a warrior king who fucks her senseless - which she grows to love - and then dies (literally that is the relationship), leaving her abandoned to journey through the desert to abandoned cities and magic civilizations. Magic houses of sorcery, dragons, fat bodyguard and hidden knights, etc.

It's well and truly over the top. If you try and play it more like a period piece you are really missing the "holy shit they slaughtered Robb and his whole team at a fucking wedding" side of things and losing a vast tract of the books' appeal.

Literary fiction is quite obviously a genre to itself.

The footage is underwhelming. If I didn't know it was Game of Thrones I would never have guessed. It's just medieval looking dudes doing normal things.

It hit the major points it needed to, compressed or not.  The biggest thing the Crows scene failed to do was relay the true power of the Others that the book did and how far away from the wall they actually were (I just looked, 8-9 days.).  As for its lack of adherence to the actual scene, it worked better than an extended fight scene about characters we don't care about because they're meat.

"I kept watching it and I was fascinated. ... They'd introduce these things and I thought that I knew where it was going. Then they'd introduce [something new] and I'd rethink it. ... We watched it every week trying to figure it out, and as it got deeper and deeper I kept saying, 'They better have something good in mind for the end. This end better pay off here.' And then I felt so cheated when we got to the conclusion."

…

"What if I f--- it up at the end? What if I do a Lost? Then they'll come after me with pitchforks and torches."

He doesn't. He's said a number of times about how it was meant to be 3 books and it keeps changing and getting longer and he has to rewrite all sorts of characters and etc.

George has always known how it's going to end:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxijf8zeZ0I

I imagine it will be like the books, where it takes a while to find its stride

Not.  Just buy the DVD set if it gets good enough reviews here.  It'll cost you less and there won't be the annoying delays between episodes.  That's my plan at least.

I don't think you will be saving much money...HBO DVDs are notoriously overpriced. If you got it for < $50 I would be surprised, which is about what 3 months of HBO would get you. That also gives you access to their entire On Demand library (at least on Comcast), so you could watch a lot of their other programming. I am still trying to find a WORKING (long story) full series set of The Wire for less than $120 if possible, and that is several years old by now.

Yes, this was kind of my calculation... $48 for 3 months.. a bonus is all the extra HBO stuff .. so yeah, gonna go for it.

Thanks for the opinions in any case.

If your cable company offers InDemand, you can now go back and watch a bunch of other HBO shows there when you are subscribed.

So I'm getting married the day this airs.   :grin:

I'll have to wait a few until I get to see it.

Why? Does your hotel not have free HBO?    :why_so_serious:

Disks are out to the reviews and the first reviews are starting to hit. A fawning one here:

http://www.cinemablend.com/television/Game-Thrones-Review-Winter-Coming-Series-Premiere-31310.html (http://www.cinemablend.com/television/Game-Thrones-Review-Winter-Coming-Series-Premiere-31310.html)

I read one other that was negative, although the author admitted from the start he didn't like the genre. Keep your eyes open for more please.

If that was the one on Slate, ugh. That guy is a huge tool.

Edited to add: Ha! Free HBO weekend. I can put it off until I've seen the first one.

Bah, lucky. No free HBO weekend here.

As for the price of DVDs vs HBO: I don't watch enough TV to justify $48 for "all the great stuff."  I see HBO on my Guide and it's never got more than a few things I'd want to watch. Those that it does I can also get from Netflix. 

Also, if you buy the DVDs early or at the right places, you can get a great deal on them, particularly the week of release.   Best Buy usually does an early-buyer price and I've got plenty of reward bucks to cash in for more off.  I won't be spending $50 on it.  Hell, even Amazon has Rome for $27 per season now.

I was pretty lost. Lots of exposition goes by really really fast in various forms of accents.  I'm sure it will unfold a bit and I will continue watching but I had to rewind it a bunch to catch stuff and still didn't get all of it.

All dwarfs are bastards in their father's eyes

Having not read the books. Rome, Spartacus, and a number of others were better pilots.  I'm not felling this, seems like some generic fantasy, oh, and rapeings.

Having not read the books. Rome, Spartacus, and a number of others were better pilots.  I'm not felling this, seems like some generic fantasy, oh, and rapeings.

I thought this looked good. Good opening, managed to help me not get lost with the geography. My only real gripe was that the eye make up guy bits were confusing. I'm not sure what his name is and if he's even the supreme leader of that tribe or whatever. It felt as if sometimes they were talking about him and sometimes someone else. I'd rather watch it when the series is done and I can watch big chunks in one sitting if I want to but I'm always that way.

Kal Drogo

The first episode of Spartacus was horrid, if you remember correctly.

The dude from Stargate Atlantis?

It was a first episode, so I'll give the pacing and how much they threw at us a bit of a pass. I do hope it actually slows down a bit and focuses more.

I may be in the minority, but I actually like Jaime and the casting for him. Just the right amount of smarm.

In a latest sign of international success, the premium pay network’s newest show, Game of Thrones, premieres on Sunday, but has already become HBO's best-selling series abroad ever, fetching more than $2.5 million an episode, more than 50% above the international price tag for The Sopranos, the paper said.

Why was Ned carrying a longsword in the scene when they find the puppies? Is Ice only used for executions? That is not the impression I got from the books, but oh well

2nd series seems like a safe bet (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hbo-top-1-billion-international-176907).

Ratings out tomorrow apparently.

I thought that was something they got right, Ice was an executioners sword for Ned. I could be wrong.

"White dude" is perhaps a bit of an overstatement, he's half Hawaiian. It isn't like John Wayne playing Ghengis Khan or something.

He looked like all the other horse warriors to me, i don't see what the problem is.

Game of Thrones: Sky Atlantic, 9pm – Fantasy epic Game of Thrones took the crown as Sky Atlantic's most popular show to date for its launch episode on Monday, 18 April.

The big-budget HBO spectacular starring Sean Bean averaged 743,000 viewers between 9pm and 10.10pm, with a peak of 823,000.

It beat the Sky channel's previous highest overnight audience, believed to be the first episode of Martin Scorsese's Boardwalk Empire, which averaged 438,000 on its opening night.

Game of Thrones' audience is likely to be around 50% higher when viewing on timeshifted viewing on Sky+ is taken into account.

I liked Sean Bean in it, but everything else was just "Look, we are edgy. Here is some blood. Here is some implied sibling sex. Look, we are really edgy. Here is some not so implied sibling sex. See you next week."

She wasn't raped (although that could have been a lot clearer) and she's not an Elf, if you want to make shit up at least make it funny.


I could have done without the sex scenes on TV but two of them were central to the story & the Tyrion one was a pretty accurate way to introduce him.

I liked the dwarf.  He said 'bastard' a lot.  He could have been Scottish.

I really don't give a crap, but I will say that the show I watched last night was quite clear that she was getting raped.

Hey, ho.

Ooh, Glen Cook - What did he do ?

She pretty much get raped in the books too. So if it come across as a rape (haven't seen the ep yet) it is a fairly accurate representation; if not fully expained in regards to subtlties.

Also it's pedophilia in the books? Young girl sold in to sexual slavery to Ghengis Khan is the gist of it.

Worrying for me tho.  It was tripe.

If it had been in book form I'd have put it down and not gone back.

She pretty much get raped in the books too.

No she doesn't, I actually quoted the passage from the book, I'd have quoted the full section but I felt odd c&p'ing something that's borderline erotic fiction.  She had the marriage forced on her but then Drogo immediately gives her the horse and she starts to feel a sense of freedom for the first time in her life, because her brother is an insane, cruel little bastard and she's free of him.

That's not to say that the scene in the tv show couldn't have been a lot better.

Did you just openly post a spoiler?  :mob:

If they put the red wedding on screen, some of you are going to have a goddamned fit.

I thought you weren't going to be watching it?  And no, a summary of events from the book, but only up to the end of episode 1 isn't a spoiler.

This is the kind of problems we get taking this to the screen. The back story was thoroughly under explained. The 'releasing the dragon' line meant nothing to the viewers.

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

It did look like a nice horse.

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.

Its dirty lascivious male nerd fantasy tripe

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.

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

 

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

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

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.

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

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.

The Nerd Rage is strong in this one.

Somehow I would be floored if a fantasy novel being turned into a TV show got rave reviews here.

We nerds are a harsh and unforgiving lot down the last unimportant lorelastic detail.

Where's WUA!

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'm not. It's gonna be fucking terrible.

And I'm not just trying to shit on every ones parade, I want a TV series to do epic fantasy well, but it's just not gonna happen.

Nobody gives a flying shit if the occasional tit is in accordance to the books. People watch this show because it's adult fantasy. There is a market for that now. We should all be very grateful.
The fact they chose this rather dark story and took it to prime time is in itself extraordinary. We've become an audience that's being catered to through big TV productions, imagine that.

My wife quit when she realized they were going to kill the wolf.

My wife quit when she realized they were going to kill the wolf.

I read that link as "Show her tits" at first.

About Cersei,.

Somehow I never put it into that perspective- I was just assuming

Yeah, she seemed much more well-rounded as fuckhungry for her brother, coddler of her incest-born monster child, murderer of her husband and husband's best friend(s), killer of cute dogs, contemptuous of her own people, sacrilegious, hateful to her dwarf brother, cheerful commissioner of assassins, and so on. Making her poison her own child? What a monster!

I don't think Martin would have gone that route because that makes her completely unbelievable and not human. I mean it's crossing the line of power hungry bitch and complete psychopath.

Here's something you won't hear every day: I mostly agree with Paelos. There's being a stone cold bitch in book one, and then there's what is sounds like Cersei is in the TV show. She's not a total pyschopath in Book One, however giant a bitch you think she is.

I think they should have left it out of season 1 and done a full episode on it (or more) in season 2 as a parallel story line.

I really really like Peter Dinklage's character - he has the best lines and he handles them so damn well. Sean Bean is always good. The rest of the cast I'm not too sure about. I haven't seen enough of them or know enough about the characters they are trying to play to make a judgement.

Maybe next year HBO can do a series on The Black Company, just for Ironwood.

Well, it does have really good opening credits.

Can't even imagine trying to pitch it. Within 20 pages you're talking about blood-drinking, liver-eating, man-leopards.

(Feast for Crows spoiler)

Tyrion (Peter D.) is pretty much one of the best characters in the books, in terms of characterization, depth and humor.

(Feast for Crows spoiler)

Sean Bean does a good Eddard. The actor playing Jon Snow is doing pretty well, as is the actress playing Arya. The guy doing Robb Stark could definitely look a little less lost and hollow-eyed all the time.

In general, I think the second episode is falling into a better cadence than the first, with a lot less whip-cutting between completely disparate sets of people and events - it's solidifying down to the folks on the road, the folks at the Wall and the Targaryen/Dothraki storyline. It still cuts between the stories too fast for my taste - the multi-POV effect works well in the books, but it's disconcerting when carried out every 3 minutes on screen.

Second episode was much much better.

Dany plotline is still tacky and horrible, though.

Second episode was much much better.

Dany plotline is still tacky and horrible, though.

I thought they pretty much nailed Syrio. Maybe a few years older would have been ideal, but he was very good.

All the bits the "writers" have made up are fucking awful. Crass and unsubtle.

Well, I admit I almost cried out of happiness during the last scene with Arya and Syrio: the background music, the subtle expressions of both actors (and by Sean Bean at the end)...The book and its characters really came alive, but even more than that, it was a fantastic moment of TV. Loved it.  :heart:

Dwarf remains the highlight.  Indeed, a show starring only the dwarf and the wee tomboy would suit me just fine.  He could call people bastards and slap them and she could grow a few more years.  It'd be awesome.

If anyone wants me, I'll be over here on the fence.

The only disappointing part of the show continues to be the almost complete neglect of the dire wolves.  Jon specially should hardly ever be apart from his.

I think Littlefinger is fantastic.  Loved all the scenes with him in it.  Kinda matches perfectly with the books imo.  Scheming little bastard.

he auditions for season two of Game of Thrones are set to begin today in London. In fact, they are likely on-going right now. These auditions will only be the first round of many, many rounds of auditions, so don’t expect casting announcements any time soon.

If it is any thing like last year, the first round of auditions will only be in front of a casting associate or two. They will be recorded and sent to Nina Gold, David Benioff, D. B. Weiss and George R. R. Martin. From there, they will make a list of callbacks and those folks will come in and audition in front of Nina and usually either David or Dan. So we’re only at the start of a long process.

Also, for those who have hopes of making it onto the show, this post has some good information on where to send your headshot and CV. It also includes a rundown of the types of extras they need. I haven’t seen a call go out from Extras NI yet, the company that supplies the extras, so this info might just be a rehash of last season’s extras casting call. But I’m sure they will need more of the same.

'til it gets removed for copyright reason...Syrio Forel and Arya training scene from episode 3  :heart:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79Invy0tvOc

When her smile beams and she says "...a needle!" I can't help but smile as well, no matter how many times I already watched this :)

Yeah I like the casting choice too.  Really overall I've been impressed with most of the casting, especially of course Tyrion and Arya.

Third episode was kinda slow, but things should pick up. Though I still  just groan every time we switch to the Dany storyline. I hope it's kept to a minimum, that whole aspect just comes off as cheesy, except for Jorah, who really carries every scene he's in.

I love Syrio's satisfied hah! when Arya catches the sword the second time.

The Arya and Tyrion scenes got my wife back into it. She really does not like the Dothraki plot even now that it's less rapey, and the Stark-Lannister rivalry stuff is still baffling to her. Littlefinger also confused her.

That's how he is in the books.

I guess so too, because never having read the book, he screams "Paladin archetype who will lose everything because of his honor and steadfast loyalty" to me.

I think that's about right about Ned even in the books, though.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Absolutely in the same vein.  It's one of the reasons I've always enjoyed the books so much.

More fantasy elements are eventually integrated into the story, but it still never becomes high fantasy, thankfully.

They really nailed the inn scene at end, the ending of 3 & 4 were the best bits but nice to see episode 4 also had a strong opening with Bran's dream.

These last two episodes have been fantastic.  They did a much better job with Sam than I thought they would.  Could have expanded a bit on his background, but they handled it well.

It gets more confusing with him.  They're playing him a lot more sympathetic than I thought they would this early on.  Of course, he's not a POV early on, so you're getting a lot more than you normally would.

These last two episodes have been fantastic.  They did a much better job with Sam than I thought they would.  Could have expanded a bit on his background, but they handled it well.

My only quibble was the size of the inn/amount of extras. In a room of 15-20 people no way Catelyn could go unnoticed. Should have been about 3x that many people there in my mind's eye.

Catelyn made no move. Lord Jason Mallister himself rode with them, surrounded by his knights, his son Patrek by his side and their squires close behind. They were riding for King’s Landing and the Hand’s tourney, she knew. For the past week, the travelers had been thick as flies upon the kingsroad; knights and freeriders, singers with their harps and drums, heavy wagons laden with hops or corn or casks of honey, traders and craftsmen and whores, and all of them moving south.

She studied Lord Jason boldly. The last time she had seen him he had been jesting with her uncle at her wedding feast; the Mallisters stood bannermen to the Tullys, and his gifts had been lavish. His brown hair was salted with white now, his face chiseled gaunt by time, yet the years had not touched his pride. He rode like a man who feared nothing. Catelyn envied him that; she had come to fear so much. As the riders passed, Lord Jason nodded a curt greeting, but it was only a high lord’s courtesy to strangers chance met on the road. There was no recognition in those fierce eyes, and his son did not even waste a look.

“He did not know you,” Ser Rodrik said after, wondering. “He saw a pair of mud-spattered travelers by the side of the road, wet and tired. It would never occur to him to suspect that one of them was the daughter of his liege lord. I think we shall be safe enough at the inn, Ser Rodrik.”