Winter is coming!

[bloodygranuaile]

I think I may need to rediscover the LJ-cut for this post.

Game of Thrones. Oh dear oh dear, where to start?

There have been three episodes aired of this show so far and I am already feeling like too much is going on for me to write about it all in one post. If I want to talk about the critical and fan reactions, as well, I could probably write a post as long as the first book. But I'll try not to.

To begin at the beginning... well, at the beginning, there are oddly steampunky opening credits. Don't ask me why they went with a clockwork theme for a medieval-era-based show, but if I had to guess, it would be because this opening sequence is just too cool to pass up. I mean, seriously:

 

 

Anyway. The pilot had a little bit of obligatory HBO-ing, which I really didn't mind, because it's HBO and you sort of expect it. They didn't go overboard, mostly it was kept to Tyrion's introduction scene. I felt like this was a fairly good choice because it sets up for the most fun part of reading any of Martin's works, which is having your expectations thwarted, so introducing Tyrion a bit unneccessarily as a drunken lech seemed to me to be a good lead-in to the fact that he's basically the smartest person in the series. It then makes it a bit surprising when he starts going into his speeches about books and stuff in his humorously affected accent. It seems to have put off some watchers who weren't familiar with the books, because the pilot has to introduce like twenty speaking parts, so you don't get past the tropey setup for any of them, so there are no surprises in episode 1. They only really have time to eke in any sort of characterization and backstory you can start to get a grip on for about three people, who they have to rush because they are going to be dead soon. From the pilot, according to the outsiders, it looks a bit like a story about Ned and Robert kinging, and there's also Viserys and some useless teenage twit with no personality out in the desert somewhere. I'm not sure how they could have fixed that, though. But I can't help but wonder if they'd have been able to squeeze in another minute or two of explaining someone's ridiculously fucked up backstory (they all have such deliciously fucked up backstories!) if they'd left out some of the slurpy blowjobs and hookers.

They haven't made that mistake again in the following episodes, though. Danaerys and one of her maids (I can't remember the names) have a weird little “teaching Dany how to please the Khal” scene, but oddly enough, it is actually almost all talking and very little physical anything at all. They are all fully clothed and there isn't even any kissing, let alone what you'd expect HBO to make of that scene. It is basically like “here is how you sit on top of somebody” and the maid tells her stories about some famous courtesan. And then the rest of the episodes are shots of how gorgeous Westeros is, and talking and talking and talking and some violence and then a shit-ton of talking about violence. Most of the violence is short and quick, and very individualized, which makes sense since the War hasn't started yet. We hear lots of fucked-up backstories, including one of Cersei's that may or may not be true or at least she may or may not have actually been sad about it. We meet several dozen more characters, and it is established that Arya is fucking awesome. We start to feel bad for everyone hating on Jaime Lannister even though we hate him too; also he is smug a lot and looks like Dennis Leary. The Dothraki put their vests back on, and we start meeting some of them as people instead of as scary brown Vulcans, although so far Khal Drogo is not one of them. Tyrion and Jon Snow have awesome conversations, sometimes with each other. Catelyn does some detectiving. Joffrey and Sansa both suck. We learn about the Watch and the Baratheon revolution and Mad King Aerys and all that other history. Basically, although they had to cut stuff out, they managed to put a lot in.

So far the Targaryen storyline is the weakest, I think, although that sort of makes sense because it's also the weakest in the books for like three thousand pages until it starts to trickle into your brain that it's actually the most important plotline. But we're not there yet, and we can't see into Danaerys' head, which necessarily leaves out a lot of the strongest bits of the whole first part of her story arc. Sadly, they have also left out any nuances of Khal Drogo's characterization that were introduced through actual actions of people doing and saying things. They changed how the wedding night went down, which really kind of ticked me off, because the great thing about that wedding night scene was how it managed to be sort of ambiguously terrible and almost sweet, and it really, really shouldn't have been able to be anything other than straight-up terrible, but Danaerys' life and situation is so fucked up that Drogo's attempt to check in with her at all through the language barrier was still basically the most consideration anyone had ever shown her. Even though he'd basically just bought her from her brother and she really didn't have the option of opting out, anyway. The power in that scene comes from how creepy and sad it is that so little can seem like, and count for, so much. Instead, they turned “No?” into “No!” and dropped the “Yes” and the end until it was basically the exact same scene they had in that week's episode of The Borgias. Blargh.

Viserys is amazingly assholish, though. I want to punch his skinny little face every time he comes on screen, and I mean that in the best way possible. I cannot wait for him to get crowned, except then I will miss the fun of going “Damn, what an asshole! I can't wait for him to get crowned!”

Everything in Westeros is done amazingly, except perhaps for Catelyn's slightly cliché detectiving scene. Bran's nurse tells awesome scary stories in this awesome old lady voice, and King's Landing is gross and dirty and at the same time gorgeous, just like it ought to be. Tyrion and Arya are probably my favorite characters at this point—partly for the same reasons as they are everyone's favorite characters in the book (i.e. because they are awesome) and partly because Peter Dinklage and Maisie Williams are both just magic. I've been a big fan of Peter Dinklage for a while, he is seriously an amazing actor. Maisie Williams is new but I am absolutely blown away by her adorable badassness as Arya—she doesn't turn into Creepy Action Hero Little Girl, she really plays her as a real, believable tomboyish sort of little girl who fights with her sister and is dissatisfied with the expectations for her. The scene with her first “dancing” lesson was heartwarming and adorable and funny (big thumbs up to the dude who played Syrio Forel, too!), which is perfect because everything is going to go absolutely to shit very soon.

All the people in King's Landing sound like posh public school Brits and those from Winterfell sound like Liverpudlians or something (my class/regional grasp of various British accents is a little weak; I am no Henry Higgins). If the intent was to go for there being a distinct Northern accent, then that is pretty cool. Otherwise, I'm confused.

Big props to Lena Heady for, among other things, her fabulous crankyface, which is featured most prominently at the feast in the pilot episode. The crankyface looks especially fabulous with the big braided hairdo she was rocking at that party. I will have to reserve judgment on her overall performance until we get to see Cersei being a little more evil, though.

I am running out of thoughts off the top of my head, since I am in the train and cannot rewatch the episodes to make comments on every second of them. Which is probably good, since this ramble is enormously long already.

Also, just to remind everybody, A Dance With Dragons releases on July 12. I will be at the bookstore.

Also also, I have been remiss in posting metal videos lately. So here is Blind Guardian's A Voice in the Dark, which is about ASoIaF, and I think specifically about Bran. Don't ask me what's up with the magic lollipop; I have no idea.

 

So, what did you love and/or hate about Game of Thrones?