I love this show, and have devoured all the books that are out so far. I think it's safe to say that this is the first show that I've watched where the TV version does justice to the books. Thank fuck it was HBO that made it and not one of the regular corps.

Like GL Tyrion is my favourite character, closely followed by Aya, Ned Stark's youngest daughter. She's such a cheeky scamp, yet strong, brave, caring and honest.

Again echoing GL - you stole all my points ye bastard - it's that sense of encroaching darkness that really clinches it for me. That and the fact that almost all the characters are complex moral creatures (maybe apart from the Lannisters, scum one and all).

Apparently the chap playing Viserys is the great great great grandson of Charles Dickens, which is sort of odd.

Gypsy Lantern said: What do you make of the pacing of it? It's really rattling through the story isn't it. I'm not sure if I would be following all of the complexity if I wasn't simultaneously reading the book.

This I'm not so sure about. Having read them - a good while ago I should add - I probably fill in gaps without even thinking much about it. Still, people who haven't read any of it seem to like it.

Ultimately I think with a world-spanning story like this you need to move rather quickly, otherwise the main arc gets a bit lost in the minor plots.

About the actors, isn't there someone from The Wire there as well? Not seen TW myself, heard it through the grapevine. Bean is good tho, he fits this kind of stuff. The chap who plays the bastard too. Was he in Skins or was that something else?

Yeah, Littlefinger was the mayor in The Wire. I've never seen Skins, but I heard there was someone from that in GoT. 

i have not read the books, but they are on my list.  GL, i do think some of the intrigue would be easier to follow after reading. 

[ spoiler ] [ /spoiler] does the trick. Big baddies you say? There were some serious baddies in the first ep IIRC...

I've read all the books and adore the show.  Tyrion, Jon Snow, and Arya are my favorites, too.

The casting is just about note-perfect, and it's amazingly faithful to the books (although they seem to be accelerating Theon Greyjoy's story a bit).  And the changes from the books are quite solid -- for example, the scene where Richard and Cersei sit down, have a drink, and discuss why they hate each other.

But it's hard to avoid conflating Ned Stark and Boromir.  When my wife heard Benjen Stark call himself First Ranger, she asked "then shouldn't he be played by Viggo?"

I just remembered that I read the chap from Skins is the other bastard, the king's bastard working at the blacksmiths. I know I should probably say "illegitimate child" on here, but it's not really in the spirit of GoT, with all its emphasis on bastards. Not that I've ever seen Skins or know what it is.

Viserys is actually *more* unpleasant in the book, than he is in the series. That actor nails the character though, Dickens family nepotism aside. 

I loved that scene with Richard and Cersei, that isn't in the book. I know loads of people have said it elsewhere, but the actress playing Cersei really does invest that character with more humanity and complexity than she really has in the book.

 

I read the first book in the series about a year ago and thought it was great. A real page turner. Keep meaning to find the time to continue with them. Very well drawn out characters.I haven't watched the show yet but it sounds good. I think after this re-watch of Deadwood i'll attempt to catch up and also grab the second book. 

Spoilerific Clive! Amend amend!

Yikes! *done*

You can use the spoiler tags for that sort of stuff, look at my post just above Evan's.

The end of episode five was a great way to cap the first run of the series. Not a reader of the novels, but the few hints I've heard of what's to come really have me excited.

The strength of the series so far is that the feeling of growing dread GL and Nolte mentioned doesn't come from some Sauron-style bogeyman but from people being selfish, jealous, ambitious and stupid, just the way terrible things happen in the non-fantasy world. There's the beyond-the-Wall stirrings, of course, but for now the series is keeping our eyes firmly on the political element. In particular I liked that the spectacular tournament, which would be a standard set piece in other fantasy, is something that actually has to be paid for (whether the kingdom can afford it or not, and even if nobody really wants it) - gives the show a real sense of weight.

When they talk about Khal Drohgo, I always hear it as Carl Drogo, and imagine he is from Essex. "Leave it Carl! It's not worth it!!" 

Similarly, when they talk about going to the Eyrie, I hear it as the Irie, and imagine it as a Rastafari camp up in the hills. 

LOL - I heard Carl Drogo as well, took me a few minutes to sort that one out in my head.

And doesn't Jon Snow read the news on Channel 4? His interview technique can be a bit intense at times but I wouldn't call him a bastard.

Anyone catch the last ep yet then? I thought this one was a bit more up and down in terms of quality... quite jumpy, hopping from one scene to the other, one sub-plot to another... Obviously there's a lot to fit in in a 50 minute episode, but even so.

Top for me was Tyrion - again! I think they did that whole thing with the Eyrie quite well, mad rulers and all. Lots of ravens too... The ending was class too!

*Spoiler*

 

 

 

 

Possibly Crassus, scourge of Spartacus. Plutarch has the Persians pouring molten gold down his throat before using his head as a prop in a court production of The Bacchae. 

We bring from the mountain A tendril fresh cut to the palace A wonderful prey

of course that should be Parthians, not Persians.

gen, we have spoiler tags! like so

[ spoiler ] [/ spoiler ]

without the white space, of course.

And yes, that was indeed what I was thinking of, cheers.

Peter Dinklage owns every scene he's in.

I'm on the second-to-last chapter of the first book.

ok, i just watched episodes 4 and 5.  tyrion, jon and arya are still my favorites.  was super excited to see how daenerys' character is progressing, especially in terms with her jerkface brother.

Here you go.

As for Gypsy Lantern's (hidden) comment, there are plenty of disconcerting surprises to come.

lovely, evan, thank you! i've only read through a few houses so far and its already congealing so much better in mah brane.

I'd say this is an obvious downfall with any sci-fi or fantasy serial - how do you get the backstory and context in? FWIW I'd say that GoT has it fairly easy in that respect seeing as the world of GoT is fairly standard medieval fare with a bit of added magic. War of Roses essentially.

Just finished the last chapter.

Just picked up "A Clash of Kings". Tiny, tiny print. Annoying. 

Gah, I so envious of everyone reading through the books for the first time.  You just don't see anything coming.  I finished all four in a week (my day job is pretty easy).

Sort of a spoiler, but probably as true for where the series is at the moment as it is at the end of the first book:

More of a spoiler:

That's a safe assumption.

Just caught up on episodes 6 and 7 (which has leaked online). I love how HBO keeps adding these gratuitous sex scenes into it that are not in the book. Do they have to fill some sort of tit quotient for each episode? 

I'm slightly in two minds about the whole thing. The series is visually great, and does real justice to the books. The books, though, are a bit.......I dunno. They're a fun read, but I can see so many ripped off ideas, and horrible modernisms (well, I strongly dislike them anyway) that it deters from the overall enjoyment. It's okay pulp, but I certainly am not in the whole 'OMG this is the greatest series EVAH!' crowd. In fact, I'm thinking the series is actually better than the books, as it leaves out a lot of dead weight, and adds in some fantastic stuff - like, as mentioned above, the conversation between Robert and Cersei. That had my jaw drop for the pure awesomeness of the scene.

I'm almost finished with Clash of Kings - realized while reading it that there are some things that occur in the second book that the show is foreshadowing, while the first book didn't. I'm amazed that they managed to get all the important bits of the first book in AND deepen many of the characters AND also fit in references to material from further on in the story. 

I'm also a fan. I've recorded and kept all the episodes so far on my Sky+ so I can watch them again and again after the first season ends. I'll wait til the season finale before I think about reading the books. I have a long enough (and ever-expanding) "to-read" list as it is (damn you Amazon!).

New Internet meme: Stupid Ned Stark.

Okay, I haven't seen the latest episode but I know what happened - I've already seen people throwing up their hands and saying they won't even watch the last episode. How are y'all feeling?

Already read the book, so I knew what was coming.

Thought it was reasonably done, with a few interesting touches: for example, Ned sees Arya in the crowd, and it's very clear that Cersei, Littlefinger, and Varys all are making efforts to stop the execution before it happens.  Didn't really clearly get the chance to see Ilyn Payne, though, which would have been nice.

Hmm. Knowing what Ilyn looks like would be nice later... and my understanding is that they also didn't make it very clear that Ice was used, which is sort of a bummer.

I'm shocked. Not with what happened but with Ilyn Payne being played by Wilko Johnson, guitarist with Dr Feelgood and also The Blockheads. Kind of apt, in a way.

Well, as Butch Coolidge would say: Ned's dead, baby; Ned's dead.

I have to say I'm glad they're not wasting much time and screen real estate on big battles and such. It's much more interesting to follow the characters.

I think that's actually one of the strengths of the books as well: relatively few actual battles are being described in detail - more often they're second hand accounts of the battle, as heard of by the characters themselves.

damnit!  i really liked ned. i wonder if cersei knows she's created a monster?

The great thing (IYSWIM) about Ned dying is that it shows a) the author's intent to keep the audience on our toes and b) that this isn't some black and white LOTR type fantasy where the good guys are supergood and the bad superbad. There are good humans and there are bad, but proper BAD is what lies beyond the Wall.

i know...i know....once a greatly loved character is killed off, we're on the alert, because all bets are off on who is going to survive. i will miss ned, though.  robb's got quite a lot of work ahead of him.

also, sean bean is rad.

Alwin said: I think that's actually one of the strengths of the books as well: relatively few actual battles are being described in detail - more often they're second hand accounts of the battle, as heard of by the characters themselves.

Not being fussed to see battles is usually a minority view in film and telly; it's a show rather than tell medium. I'll be interested to see how GoT balances that with concerns of budgets and faithfulness.

Who knows, though. Maybe they've just replaced all the gratuitous violence with gratuitous sex. Maybe the producers are banking on us not feeling as though we've missed ten minutes of slaughter if they're giving us ten minutes of lesbian porn in their place?