"Game of Thrones" - HBO Series Coming in 2011

[Kete]

I'm eager to see who's cast as Stannis. Wildfire's gonna be pretty cool, too. Oh yeah, and Pycelle being owned. I'm positive that will be shown.

When I read that part, I was dreading having to watch it.

[TeamRAD]

I always pictured Stannis as Patrick Stewart.

I pictured Stannis as Count Tyrone Rugen! 

I'm eager to see who's cast as Stannis. Wildfire's gonna be pretty cool, too. Oh yeah, and Pycelle being owned. I'm positive that will be shown.

When I read that part, I was dreading having to watch it.

While reading that part of CoK, all I had was Crystal Method's "Name of the Game" playing in my head moments shortly after the door was busted open segueing into Tyrion, Bronn, and Shagga's arrival. Pycelle had it more than coming for betraying the Realm multiple times, and cheered Team Tyrion on during the process.

[D.B. Barnes]

Spoiler

Appropriately somber episode. I enjoyed the little guy's take on Ned's death and his father's acknowledgement that he knows what the hell he is talking about. Looking forward to seeing that relationship develop. Took some solace in Lady Stark smacking Jaime Lannister in the head with a rock but I won't be satisfied until he burns alive.

King Douche turned into King Giant Douche and yet I still don't feel the least bit sorry for Sansa.  

Androgynous Arya is fucking awesome. She's got a kick-ass blade and that little girl's blood is all angered up!

Really interested to see where Daenerys' story is going. Zombie Drogo didn't exactly work out.

Anyway, can't wait for the next season. It starts in a couple weeks, right? Wait, what? Really? Fuck!!!

[Bob]

Wow, we need 2 levels of spoilers.   One for the show and one for people reading the books and talking about future events.

Do we really need a spoiler for the season 1?   In the mean time, I will spoiler until everyone agrees one way or the other.

The kid who plays Joffrey is great.   He does the whiny little shit really well.

So, the hot blonde chick is now the fireproof blonde chick with dragons.   Hmmmmm.

And yeah, Zombie Drago was a bust.   

Didn't read the books, but most fantasy writers seem to have kids that grow up into important roles or heros, so I think interesting times are ahead for Ned Stark's kids.

[iv3rdawG]

Ya, it seems that way. I think they've submitted at least four other actors in that category as well.

[dignan]

Hot Pie!!! 

And, I could care less about Stannis, I'm more interested to see who they get to be Dolorous Edd. 

[D.B. Barnes]

I could look at this all day...

[wurwolf]

I am reading the books now that the first season is done and I'm a hundred pages or so into Game of Thrones. I found it hilarious that one of the first things anyone says about Joffrey is when Jon Snow is asked his opinion of him and he says that Joffrey is a little shit. It seems to be the perfect epithet for him.

[wurwolf]

It might be different for me, you're right. Unlike the book readers, I am picturing these characters as the actors who portrayed them rather than thinking of them as a product of my own imagination, and oddly enough (given the fact that a lot of book readers think Lena Headley is way wrong for the part of Cersei) I am having the least trouble picturing Cersei. For some reason Ned is different to me than Sean Bean. Tyrion, I think, is meant to be uglier than Peter Dinklage, but I am not complaining about that casting choice, as I think Dinklage completely sells the role. Everyone else seems right on.

I am amazed at how true (so far) the show was to the book. I see a lot of the same lines that I remember hearing in the show. Most of the scenes play out the same exact way, it's just that with the book you obviously know more of what the characters are thinking.

The ages are also fudged a bit -- everyone seems to have gotten a bump in age for the TV show, especially the kids. Sansa is supposed to be 11, Joffrey is supposed to be 12, and Dany is supposed to be 13, but again, I am not complaining about that. Joffrey and Sansa acting like prats at 12 and 11, respectively, is understandable to me, but Dany becoming who she is by the end of the book when she's only 13 at the start seems ridiculous and completely unbelievable. As much as this series was about fantasy, there still has to be some humanity involved that is common with the reader (or viewer).

Yeah, that "scene" was almost a deal-breaker for me as well. I think I mentioned in The Wire thread here that I had to stop watching the show after they killed off Stringer Bell, because that death was so visceral and heart-breaking for me. Despite the fact that Bell was a drug lord and a thug, he was nevertheless a man trying to better himself and approach his business professionally, so when he was gunned down (and the way in which they shot the scene) I was so moved by it I just had to stop watching, if only for my own sanity. It was almost that way with what happens in Episode 9 of Game of Thrones, but I think the rest of the show is too compelling to give up, so I will be there front and center in the spring of 2012 for season 2.

[Ortega]

The year long wait for Season 2 started to wear me down, so i DL'd a copy of Clash of Kings off of iBooks.  Seeing as i already read most of the Southern Vampire Mysteries and still enjoy True Blood, hopefully this won't spoil my enjoyment of the second season.

[Nergol]

Stannis? I nominate Phil Glenister for the part.

[wurwolf]

Also, one other really super awesome thing about reading the books after watching the series is that now I know how to pronounce names. I would have been stumbling all over some of those names (Viserys Targaryen, anyone?) if I hadn't heard it on the show.

[wurwolf]

It's got to be a damn sight better than I would have pronounced it, left to my own devices. It would have been "Tar...mumble mumble..."

[Bob]

Also, one other really super awesome thing about reading the books after watching the series is that now I know how to pronounce names. I would have been stumbling all over some of those names (Viserys Targaryen, anyone?) if I hadn't heard it on the show.

I still have not gotten a good hand of all the fantasy names.    I do better when they do not refer to a character offscreen by name!

[wurwolf]

Really? It's just Tar + Gar + Yen, all words which exist in English.

I am not one who processes words in unfamiliar formations very well, be they written or spoken. If it takes more than a split second to figure out my mind discards it and moves on.