Well, that was awesome.

Seems interesting. I like the seasons thing.

Is the book any good? I mean, I know it's popular, but is it decent?

Its far above decent. One of the best fantasy novels out there, and a great book outside the genre as well.

I read somewhere (I think it was a GRRM interview) that they initially used violet contact lenses for Dannaerys and Viserys but they had some kind of problem and had to stop using them.

I read the first book. Interesting but not very imaginative. G. RRRRRRRRRRR Martin writes good wholesome characters and some down right evil characters but not very many grey characters. That, already, I find it hard to like - perhaps I've been spoilt but I honestly don't believe someone can be inherently evil or good all the way to the hilt. Tyrion is by far the most human of the lot. Everyone else seems to conform to a single trait, whether it be greed, loyalty or political ambition, played, spun and stretched much too far to be reasonable.

Good to see Winterfell seems to be located in Yorkshire...and Sean looking a bit pudgy nowadays. A far cry from his Sharpe days, that's for sure.

I...wha.... what? I can't think of anyone who is downright evil and even the most arguably good person (Ned) has flaws.

Just finished watching the first episode. There are changes, yes, some bigger than others, but I think it works very well both as its own thing and as a visualization of the book.

Its not the way the characters act, its the why he writes them. Jaime and his sister just oooooze amorality off the page.

Okay, that was actually pleasant. And it had puppies!

I was pleasantly surprised with the first episode, they included enough from the book to keep me happy, while making for an interesting pilot. Can't wait to see where the show goes, it has an outstanding cast and great set pieces.

You should stick with the series a bit longer. Jaime Lannister evolves quite a lot over the series, eventually not only becoming a POV character, but actually becoming sympathetic and a bit heroic. GRRM has enough skill as a writer to take a character who threw a 10-year-old boy out a window and actually make you care about him.

I've got to admit, that was pretty decent. A bunch of things still irk me in the first episode, but I won't rant about them here (mostly for fear of Lady Nerevar's wrath).

The actress playing Cersei was great.

First episode was fantastic.

I can.


Personally I really liked the episode, except for one bit that irked me in how it was handled.

It was

I thought it was pretty good overall, the only thing bothering me at the moment... where was Tommen? I guess that would have been 1 too many characters to introduce?



I guess my feelings toward Jaime changed when GRRM started writing from his POV. He's one of my favorite characters now. There's no way I can think of him as 'evil'.

Like some of the above posters, I couldn't disagree more with you. To me it is completely the opposite. There are almost none black and white characters, most of them are grey. They all have a huge deal of complexity, with all the intrigues going on... even the "good" ones have a lot of flaws and make some "wrong" decisions sometimes.

Also, if you think that Jaime and Cersei are downright pure evil, you should read a few more of the books. I strongly advise you to do so. This series has some of the greatest character development I ever witnessed in a book. Jaime becoming a POV character was great, I couldn't stand him in the first books and now he, along with Tyrion, Jon Snow and some others, is one my favourite characters.

And I have to add, GRRM was a breeze of fresh air from the wave of Tolkien wannabe's and traditional high fantasy setting' books there seemed to be around. Glad that fantasy is evolving, and nowadays we can see a good variety of authors that write in a more down-to-earth style. Variety is good!

Unfortunately, I still haven't watched the episode. Will post feedback when I do though!

I suppose it's subjective on some level, but it's very hard for me to understand how someone can read any of the books in this series and walk away feeling like the characters are black and white. The complexity and nuances of these fascinating characters is what I like most about the series.

I had a chance to watch the 720p version of the first episode. What fantastic production design! Dinklage was a great Tyrion of course as I expected, and Sean Bean was a very believable Eddard. The actors playing Arya and Bran gave impressive performances despite their young ages. Although Viserys and Dannaerys were aged up a bit and looked rather different from how I imagined them when reading the novels, they grew on me. I'm sure it was challenging to play Viserys in just the right tone without coming off as a scenery chewing monster, but Harry Lloyd pulled it off and both actors playing these siblings had a great chemistry working together.

I was very surprised to see Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) playing Cersei, but she pulled it off. I think the actor playing Khal Drogo was one of the actors from Stargate Atlantis. Across the board, the performances were compelling, the cinematography and art direction were epic and this was a great kickoff to what looks like it could be my new fav series.

I did notice that the actress playing Sansa had a slightly annoying, very nasal voice. It's possible this could grow to become a hindrance to audience empathy in later episodes where Sansa will be making some questionable choices.

Also is it just me, or did the actor playing Jaime Lannister fumble a couple of lines where his accent seemed very odd?

He's a dirty foreigner, that's why!

Peter Dinklage as Tyrion. I couldn't help but smile everytime he appeared, he nailed the role.

Dude.... are you on biosocial? Cause I just saw the same post there, too



You don't want to wake the squirrel, do you? :stare:

(seriously, feel free to rant).

I had the same feeling on book 1, but it totally change in book 2. Clash of Kings revealed some of the "otherside" of each character.

I was quite surprised when I watch some of the footage. It wasn't the Viserys in my thought, but Harry did add good nice extra layer to him with his acting. Fanatic to the brink of dementation, but hidding it deep enough not to be shown.

Ok, just finished watching the first episode and... really well-done!

I love how they worked out the tiny details in different places (Wintefell, The Wall, Pentos), the atmosphere and setting were really great!

Regarding the cast, I liked it in general. The kinship bettween Tyrion and Jaime seems more fleshed out than in the books, and I liked both actors, I think they accurately represented their roles. Tyrion was perfect, Jaime... not exactly how I imagined him, but still pretty well-chosen. Cersei also has the feeling of the book. Just wish she was younger and more of a classical beauty (imo, of course), like she is depicted...

Sean Bean is perfect for the role of Ned, and the actress who plays Catelyn also seems ideal, very motherly and the love bettween the too is very latent!

The gang of brothers, well, I like the ones they picked for Sansa (I'm sorry, I can't help but love strong British accents :wub: ), Robb, Rickon, Bran... for Arya, I still have to see more of her. Jon... hrrr... I'm not sure. Physically, he seems really out of place for me. Like, a lot out of place! But seeing that actor, well, act, I actually think he might end up nailing the role He seems to fit the character... too bad he differs so much from the mental image I have of Jon, gotta learn to live with that I guess...

Daenerys and her brother also seem allright for their respective roles. Dany more than Viserys (which I think should have been depicted as a bit more cruel... where was the nipble twisting scene? :shrug: ).

Overall, I loved what they did with this episode. It has a great tone, and manages to pull off a unique identity! Really great. The ways they deviated from the series weren't too extensive, and it was fine like this, with various little details and scenes that help us get the feeling of Westeros

I'm going to hold off on judgement for a few more episodes (I've read that the second episode was disappointing to a lot of the critics that saw much of the season pre-release). Outside of the few niggles about things being changed, things that were revealed with subtlety in the books that were spelled-out in somewhat questionable ways in the episode, and the general heavy-handedness that one would expect in a book-to-HBO adaptation I thought it was decent. So far I think the casting is pretty good. Catelyn, Jon, and Sansa don't look how I imagined, but the actors bring some of the other qualities I'd expect from those characters to the roles.

@urrinor - I definitely agree about Viserys being portrayed as not cruel enough, but maybe that will come out more in future episodes. The writers have already made significant changes to the timeline.

To those that read A Game of Thrones and stopped, I'd recommend reading A Clash of Kings before passing judgement on the series. Over half of A Game of Thrones is little more than a primer for the rest of the series. It's a seriously huge story.

It just might be the raging Jacobin in me showing through but I thought the entire premise of noble men and women romping about the place with no real connection with the general populace is a bit off putting. Seems to me like its a highly idealised feudal system but there seems to be a real disconnect between the base of their power (serfs and artisans) and those in charge. Its a rather high and mighty top-down view of the whole situation and the only place where this doesn't really occur is with the Khal and his band of merry men.

TL;DR - I am a raging Jacobin.

Arya from book 2 onwards is all about serfs and worse. Davos is a promoted smuggler, and I'd say the entirety of the Night's Watch are just serfs (Jon's story in books 2 and 3 is even more common-man). Brianne gets into the lower classes in book 4. Thats just off the top of my head. In the end, thats both a reflection of reality and a narrative choice. Peasants didn't really have much of a choice, and hence you can't write a story about power struggles on a continental scale about Farmer Joe (unless you go the farmboy-becomes-hero route, which I think we can all agree has been beat to death). I think a story about the impacts of war and politics on smallfolk would be interesting, but Game of Thrones is about a game for the throne