But the title is “Game of Thrones.” How do we (non book readers), know there is only one important throne?
I think this is a good example of why there should be a separate thread for the book/s and the show.
What’s the example?
This thread is basically two thread in one anyway. There’s the discussion of non-spoilery things. Then there are the things in spoiler boxes.
Ask away about things. I’m thrilled to geek out about things.
You were thinking that with just a couple of bumps on his forehead he’d look like Worf from Next-Gen, too?
They could have someone explaining things like my parents did 
Maybe a new thread for this episode? “Game of Thrones - Any questions?”
People who have read the books can answer catch-up questions of people who haven’t, preferably without spoilers.
I finally saw the first episode tonight and I liked it well enough. I’ve never read the books, I’d never even heard of the books before, but the previews for it looked interesting. I was confused at times about who was related to who, and even what everyone’s name was. I don’t think it was the accents, but something about the audio made it very hard to understand when they said people’s names. I know Sean Bean is Ned , the dwarf is Tyrion and the muscular swarthy guy is Khal Drogo, but other than that I have no clue who people are (and don’t ask me to spell anything! I thought his name was “Carl” until I read this thread!) I’m sure the more I watch it the easier it will get.
I do hope the the second episode can have a thread for people who are just watching the show and are not familiar with the books. I don’t want to have to wade through spoilers and insinuations about what things are to come.
Eyebrows speaks for me. I turned on a rerun of this last night, thinking “eh, I’ll watch a few minutes while I sit and have a break, then go on with my life” and Mr. Horseshoe and I got completely sucked in. Never read the books - sorry, didn’t even know there were any, heathen that I am - but this will fill in nicely till HBO brings back Boardwalk Empire and Entourage.
Second that motion (one that I also stated above). This thread has become unreadable.
Perhaps we could have an omnibus, ongoing “speculation based on knowledge of the books” thread, which we could keep segregated from the episode discussion threads.
Works for me…would love to at least lurk in such a thread to see what folks think will happen.
-XT
Yaaaay! Sorry to the series-only watchers…it’s like Lord of the Rings. The plot geekery gets a little wild.
And it doesn’t help that Rob and Jon look like twins.
Really? I think Jon looks very different than Rob. Softer features, longer, curlier, blacker hair. Handsomer, if it comes down to that.
Rob & Theon, on the other hand, look like twins up to a point. Theon looks a little grubbier and smirks more. But it took me a while to figure the two of them out.
Just saw the first episode. It was stunning to look at, pretty much captured how I visualised the book. But the rest was fairly meh.
I like T&A but when it’s every other scene and you’re racing through the story I find it a little overdone. The acting was pretty bad too, every time they spoke a line from the book I inwardly rolled my eyes because they were delivered so abruptly and devoid of any apparent emotion. The best actor was the kid who played Joffrey and he didn’t get any lines! I totally bought his “smarmy little git” with nothing more than a smirk at the feasting table. All the exposition got a little tiresome too but I can forgive that as you have to make the story somewhat accessible to newbies.
Will probably continue watching because I’ll sit through any old tripe with swords, chainmail and fair maidens but I’ll not clear my diary for it.
Does not compute. The acting was pretty stellar all around, I thought.
Yeah, I thought the acting was pretty good all around. The princess really sold the role when she was given to Drago, especially on her wedding night. Or Bran, especially when he was caught. All around, I didn’t have any issues with any of the acting.
-XT
Me either. I actually thought they were, for the most part, astonishingly close to how I pictured them (I agree that Joffrey’s smirk is perfect). I usually expect to see at least some characters not even come close.
FINALLY SAW IT!
Overall, very pleased. It didn’t crush my head with sheer awesomeness like the first episode of Rome did, but the books took a few chapters to get going, so that’s expected.
Perticularly awesome:
Jamie. Holy crap. That’s not an actor playing him, that fucking is him. And his coat was almost equally awesome.
Tyrion. Of course. Aside from all the other great stuff, that bit with him being pleasantly surprised that the hooker had wound him up was pure, weapons-grade Imp.
Visaries was awesome. Just barely holding it together through self deception and desperate for approval. The almost polite little speech to Dany about the 40K was much better than getting shrieky. Perhaps a less pathetic opresser will make Dany a bit more sympathetic.
Speaking of Dany, her crying at the end of her wedding makes much more sense than the book version does. Drogo’s a decent guy for a Dothroki, but gently teaching virgins the arts of love is NOT on their syllabus.
BeanNed is clearly a different Ned from bookNed, (more military, no self-doubt) but that was probably the right choice. All the important stuff should still work fine, and he’s still loveable.
Aging the kids up was a wise decision on many levels.
It’s Nitpickerin’ Time:
Cat lost her political edge, AND got all of Ned’s self-doubting lines. It’s like she turned into the fan-hate “whiny mom” version of herself. Previews suggest she might get better, though.
Speaking of turning into the fan hate version, Theon. Christ. Let’s just say any emotional weight for his later stuff may be slightly diminished. But as he’s likely to be cut down to the bare minimum required by plot, that may not be bad at all. He lost his head-soccer moment, which is a pity.
On that note, I think you forgot a line there, Tyron. After “All dwarfs are bastards in thier fathers eyes,” It’s kind of important. But they might be saving it for episode 2, which would be fine.
Does EVERY dude in Westros and beyond the sea have sex with his pants on?
**The sexy bits were sadly, not sexy. ** Certainly not up to Rome standards. Not all of them were supposed to be sexy, but still.
The white walkers were pretty generic.
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Oddly enough, I hated the steampunk/clockwork intro for a few seconds, but was totally into it by the time it was half over. By the end of the intro, I loved it.
I don’t remember the scene (thank Og for recording devices), but Lena Headley said on Ferguson that her bare bottom was played by a stunt bottom.
For those who haven’t read the books, you can read the first chapter of GoT for free, here:
http://kindleweb.s3.amazonaws.com/content/B004JN1D2I/gz_sample.html#
It serves as a pretty good primer and intro to all of the characters. It’s pretty long for one chapter.