Although I loathe Cersei, I’m not sure that’s true (at least not at the beginning of the series, when no one knows about Joffrey and Tommen’s true parentage). It’s Robert’s profligate ways which have nearly bankrupted the kingdom, and his disinterest in the more 'boring" aspects of ruling which have left Littlefinger, Stannis, and Greyjoy far too much room for troublemaking. Robert would have been a lousy king no matter who he married, because he’s just not that interested in the actual job. He wanted revenge on the Targaryeans, first and foremost; the throne was an afterthought, and it shows.
That’s a fair point.
nothing to see here
This thread has got to be great fun for people who aren’t familiar with the books and don’t want spoilers.
Maybe we should run a spoilers thread and a spoiler free one. Would TPTB be ok with that?
[del]Given that Littlefinger hasn’t even appeared in the show yet, we’re more catering to the books crowd here, and “Major Spoilers” is in the title, so not really a need for it. Any talk about even just the first book is going to have a LOT of spoilers, since the first ep of the show only covers 9 chapters out of 73.[/del]
Never mind. I thought this was the Littlefinger thread, not the actual first episode thread. :smack:
I’d say a better way is to just start a new thread when the next episode comes out on Sunday. After all, pretty much everything that’s happened in the series so far has already been discussed a half a dozen different ways. You can only analyze so much from a single hour of TV after all. 
-XT
Fair enough. I just don’t want to scare away people who haven’t read the books. I want to hear what they think as the show goes on. Not that the analysis of everything else hasn’t been interesting.
It will probably break down into the same type of discussion after a couple of pages, as people want to discuss the series in relation to the books, but for the first couple of pages you can craft the new thread to try and focus on JUST the series…and then let us all get wild and wooly later on as everything that’s happened only in the series has been discussed.
-XT
I’m revising my opinion of how they’re going to fit the first book into 10 episodes. They managed to cover 9 chapters (and a prologue) in the first ep without really losing much, if any, of the story. There are 73 chapters in Game, so they have some room to maneuver.
This is pretty much how I see them going. If the people that haven’t read the books want to discuss the series they are welcome to. I just think they probably don’t have as much to say at this point. Perhaps as the season goes on there will be more to say.
Half my enjoyment of this, I think, will be seeing the reactions and reading review of people that haven’t read the series. I can sort of be a ASOIAF virgin again, vicariously.
We could do two threads, but I don’t see the point.
Ha ha ha, yeah, I read the first page then skipped to the last one. It isn’t that I don’t want to read the books, I just got sidetracked. For 9 years. And I need to work myself up to read such a long series. 
I figure around episode 6 we’ll hit a cliffhanger I won’t be able to wait for and I’ll read AGoT in a day.
I’m not sure I’d go that far, but yeah, that’s what I meant. the whole Rhaegar/Lyanna/Robert triangle went over my head until I read about it later on the net.
Agreed. A new thread for each episode, methinks, and spoiler anything not revealed in that episode or those that came before.
You’re gonna need a bigger day.
Just think if you read ADWD in a day. Then what? 6 years of more posting on the internet before the next one.
So I missed a couple of words in the dialogue, that would have made it crystal clear about the identity of the ultra blondes. Ya’ know why I probably did that? Because I don’t know these characters yet, and I’m just not that interested in everything they have to say.
Well, it would’ve been 6 years, but then GRRM will get distracted by a football game or something and push it to 8.
It’s not just a couple lines of dialogue. It’s a whole bunch of characters talking about the throne. Some people talk about having taken THRONE. Some people talk about wanting to regain a throne.
This being a story with a plot structure rather than a bunch of random conversations overheard at a bar makes it pretty likely that they’re talking about the same throne.
-Joe
Yea, in a show that tosses dozens of new names at the audience in an hour, I think its pretty unlikely that most viewers will catch that the last name of the king Robert overthrew is the same as that of the blonde siblings. Especially since the focus of Roberts dialogue isn’t on the king he overthrew but on his regrets regarding Eddard’s sister.
I thought it was very well done, but my almost constant thought as I watched was, “How could anyone who hasn’t read the book possibly know what is going on?” If I hadn’t read the book, I would have a hard time just knowing who was related, let alone all the plot subtleties and foreshadowing.
If you haven’t read the book, do yourself a favor and get it.