Game of Thrones, Fire and Blood, 6/19/11

I pictured them bigger but they were perfect – the whole episode was perfect.

Refresh my memory, please. Who was the man with Roz and what does it mean that he’s apparently pretending to be feeble?

I assume that Maester Name-I-Can’t-Remember (who is on the Small Council, with Littlefinger, Varys, etc) pretends to be feeble so that people will underestimate him, and he can manipulate things without people like Littlefinger and Varys catching on.

Maester Pycelle. He may not be as physically feeble as he pretends, but he did lose his train of thought. As he was prancing about in his nightgown, I kept yelling “keep it on!” His whore’s nakedness & Lancel’s were both pathetic–young people being used by those with power. Dany’s dragon-bedecked nakedness revealed her power.

Quite an excellent episode. I had read the books after I heard the PR about the series & was not disappointed. I wonder how many book virgins will be tempted during the long months to come?

One.

More than just you; the books are among the top sellers in the Science Fiction & Fantasy section of Amazon.

Pycell, right. My brain kept wanting to make the first letter a T, but I knew that couldn’t be right, since the full name that got filled in from that is Tywin. (I think I may have been thinking of Luwin from Winterfell…)

On the whole, mostly, but the way she was holding the green one to cover herself just made her a bit awkward looking, which dulled the effect. (No, this is not a failed attempt to hide a pervy ‘but I wanted to see the goodies!’…it really was awkward looking.)

All 4 books are on the current NY Times bestseller list for mass market paperback fiction.

I am now officially in those stats.

I’ll read Game of Thrones but no further.

I think the dragons should have been a little bigger given the size of the eggs, but loved it.

I will probably read all the books before the next season begins, cause I don’t want to wait to find out what happens. I’m about 300 pages into the first.

As of last Monday, the box set was #1 overall on Amazon.

I bought the books individually. I was going to get the boxed set, but I was put off by reports of whole chapters being missing due to misprints.

Character who grew on me the most: Catelyn Stark. My first impression was that she was too old, but that actress is amazing at coming across as strong. Runner-up: Daenerys Targaryen. She came across as stoned (ok, dazed) in the first few episodes, but she really came into her own at the end.

Most perfect casting: Jamie Lannister. Someone pointed out that he looks like Prince Charming from Shrek, and holy shit does he ever. Just like he’s supposed to. And he does disdain really well. Perfect. Runner-up: Petyr Baelish. I figured the crooked mayor from The Wire would do a great job as a duplicitous bastard, and he does.

Most disappointing character: Cersei Lannister. She’s kind of plain, both appearance-wise and acting-wise. Not bad in either, but decidedly average, which doesn’t seem right. Runner-up: Jon Snow. He’s just an ass without any sympathetic characteristics. Pretty poor showing for the guy on the cover of the book.

Most unexpectedly awesome character: Jorah Mormont. And I think he won even before he caught the Dothraki’s sword under his arm. If I were royalty in exile, I’d want him at my side. Runner-up: Varys. He tells Ned that he’s no hero, but he’s about the next best thing in King’s Landing.

Best of the children: Joffrey Baratheon. His handling of the seditious bard in the last episode was just the icing on the cake. Very well done. Runner-up: Arya Stark. A little hampered by a lack of screen time, but she owned all the non-Syrio Forel scenes she was in.

Best Death: Viserys Targaryen. Even with the silly “thunk” as he hit the ground, and even with the quick-melting gold. Runner-up: (Sorry, Ned). The Dothraki who challenged Khal Drogo and whose name I am too lazy to look up. I mean, Drogo ripped his tongue out through his cut throat. I’ve seen a lot of action movies and I’ve never seen that.

Most Overrated: Tyrion Lannister. Yeah, I know, I’m in a minority of one here, but Dinklage’s performance just didn’t do it for me. I don’t know if it’s his phony sounding accent or his (probably deliberate) overacting, but… yeah, he just didn’t do it for me. No runner-up.

Characters I want to give awards to for general coolness, but can’t think of a specific reason: The Hound, Bronn, Ser Barristan Selmy, Maester Luwin (for putting Theon in his place so elegantly)… man, so many. How many months (and please say months, and not years) until Season 2 starts?

Did anyone else feel like Mirri Maz Dhur was basically right? I thought what she did was the equivalent of killing Ghengis Khan and baby Hitler.

I was surprised by the sudden end of Drogo. I thought he would act as a source of threat to the fighting families but he never even made it across the sea.

I was also surprised by the totality of Joffrey’s depravity. I figured he wasn’t going to bs nice to Sansa but the while thing about making her look at the heads – how did the kid get so sick?

I had also pretty much given a pass to Cersei for her incestuous relationship with Jamie based on the idea that okay every once in a very very rare while two siblings are going to be genuinely in lust with each other. But somehow seeing her with Lancel made ms think that there’s something seriously wrong with her.

I’m afraid that I’m starting to dislike the portrayal of Littlefinger. He’s starting to get too cartoonishly moustache-twirly. I think I’m just tired of listening to him talk. He isn’t nearly as witty as he seems to think he is.

I nearly stood up and cheered for old Pycell getting his hollies with Roz. And Roz, damn, I never get tired of seeing her naked.

Can’t answer the questions withoug spoilers, but that is Robert’s bastard being sent to the wall. I did think it was kind of odd that his ‘master got tired of him’, or however he puts it; can’t even remember if he KNOWS he’s Robert’s bastard. I’m going to guess ‘yes’ simply because otherwise I don’t see why he’d go straight to The Wall rather than find work elsewhere.

Yep, she said " you turned up, burned my temple, killed all the people and you expected me to be grateful, sucks to be you now eh!"

Didn’t help her much in the long term though.

Roll on spring.

I wonder if Martin chose her name because she’s the catalyst that sets off the wars.

Since the series is over this shouldn’t count as a spoiler: I was disappointed in the ending scene with Daenerys. The build up to it and the reactions of the few remaining Dothraki was so much better in the novel and could easily have been accomplished in the time shaved from the “meanwhile in an irrelevant sideline” scene with the Maester and the Ho.

I have a question for those of you who have read the books. Is there ever any explanation for why Dany is impervious to heat or flames and her brother wasn’t? Are we supposed to notice the disparity, even? It’s been bothering me. A simple yes or no will be sufficient, in a spoiler-box. I don’t want to ruin it for myself if there’s an involved explanation.