HBO's Game of Thrones (1 Viewer)

[Jim_C]

Glad to see so many people deciding to read the books. They're really quite good. Enjoy!

 

[joshEH]

By the way, if y'all are enjoying Game of Thrones, and Sean Bean in particular, his latest Middle Ages film Black Death was just released on Blu, and it is a considerably better movie than the profile of its release would lead you to believe.


Also, it's quite reminiscent of Thrones in a number of ways: it's medieval fantasy that's not too insistent on the "fantasy" part, it's got excellent characters, Bean is supremely well used, and it gets a hell of a lot of mileage out of its small budget. In fact, if the year ended today, it would be an easy pick for my favorite film of 2011. Do check it out, as it deserves a bigger audience.

 

[Patrick_S]

Please leave all book related information out of this thread.


Since this thread is about the HBO series book related information simply does not belong at all.

 

[Josh Dial]

Originally Posted by Patrick_S

Please leave all book related information out of this thread.

I'm pretty sure I'll continue to include relevant discussion in well-marked spoiler tags, thanks.


Additions and subtractions vis-a-vis the books is very much pertinent to the discussion of the show--especially considering that the first book was published over 15 years ago.

 

[joshEH]

Agreed with Josh (Dial).


While the really major, huge novel-spoilers should probably masked as much as possible, he's absolutely correct that it's virtually impossible to avoid bringing the books into any discussion of a television series based directly off of them, in some capacity or other. It'd be like trying to suppress all comparisons between the DC Comics versions of Bane and Catwoman, and Christopher Nolan's depiction of them, when the next Batman movie comes out.


We can certainly be as careful as possible about the crucial spoilers, but the very broad-strokes, minor comparison-stuff is pretty much fair game in a situation like this one.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

Longtime forum participants need not read Patrick's comment as anything different from what has always been true here at the forum -- if it hasn't aired within an episode yet, it's a spoiler. To the best of my knowledge, the only clarification specific to this case are

- Comparisons to things which have occurred already in the episode, but occurred differently in the books.

- Things which have already occurred, but were left out of the episode due to time/narrative constraints.

We shouldn't be talking about who lives, who dies, who becomes what, etc.


So... does anyone disagree with that?

 

[Josh Dial]

Originally Posted by Mikah Cerucco

Longtime forum participants need not read Patrick's comment as anything different from what has always been true here at the forum -- if it hasn't aired within an episode yet, it's a spoiler. To the best of my knowledge, the only clarification specific to this case are

- Comparisons to things which have occurred already in the episode, but occurred differently in the books.

- Things which have already occurred, but were left out of the episode due to time/narrative constraints.

We shouldn't be talking about who lives, who dies, who becomes what, etc.


So... does anyone disagree with that?

He was *clearly* asking for more than you described: "all book related information."


Sorry, but I am going to continue pointing out differences between the books and the tv show--in well-marked spoiler tags, of course. I am even going as far as to spoilerize book differences for episodes that have already been aired, because I don't want to risk anything.


I'm not sure how to handle things that were left out because of various restraints, as you mentioned, but my feeling is they should be spoilerized, too, as we never know if something is left out, or merely shifted a few episodes later in time.


That all being said, people who have read the books need to realize just how important even small pieces of info can be. Why discuss characters from subsequent novels in open text? Heck, one could almost consider casting info to be spoilers at this point.


At any rate, I agree my the evil Josh from the other universe.

 

[Greg.K]

I resubscribed to HBO last week to see what the buzz was about with this show. I'm all caught up now via VOD (actually an episode ahead now thanks to HBO GO). I'm not a big medieval fantasy fan but I'm loving this show so far, especially since it's not so heavy on magical elements (enough hints of it to keep it interesting though) and is more reality-based,and focused on human conflict.


I can definitely see reading the books, but I'll wait until this season is over.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

Originally Posted by Josh Dial


He was *clearly* asking for more than you described: "all book related information."

The show itself is book related information, so I'd suggest there's no need for a strict literal interpretation of what may have been a hurried post to address spoilers in the thread. As you said, there were posts discussing future books in open text. As a person who hasn't read the books and is enjoying the show immensely, I didn't have the best reaction to that. I'm glad Patrick posted the reminder. Anway, I wouldn't bet my retirement fund on it, but I'm fairly confident you both have the same general idea about what constitutes spoilers in this thread. But others may be newer to the forum, or just unable to contain themselves, so a bit of guidance is helpful to preserve the experience for those of us encountering this massively complex, unpredictable, and entertaining story for the first time.

 

[Josh Dial]

Really great episode this week.


I especially enjoyed Littlefinger's scene at his whorehouse.


His final shot of the episode was definitely better than the book. Lord Baelish: the man you love to hate!

 

[Patrick Sun]

Does the guy playing Littlefinger remind people of Ed Norton?


I, uh, had to review Littlefinger's recounting of his chasteness twice...

 

[TravisR]

Out of curiosity, how is the Dothraki language presented in the books? Is it spelled out in their tongue or do they just print the translation? I'm pretty impressed by how it sounds like a real language on the show instead of the actors just making up a gibberish foreign language.

 

[Josh Dial]

Originally Posted by TravisR

Out of curiosity, how is the Dothraki language presented in the books? Is it spelled out in their tongue or do they just print the translation? I'm pretty impressed by how it sounds like a real language on the show instead of the actors just making up a gibberish foreign language.

Martin writes all foreign languages in English, and simply adds "...he said in the Dothraki language" or "switching to Valyrian, he said..."


If I recall correctly, one of the HBO behind the scenes specials noted that they have a noted linguistics professor creating the foreign languages, chiefly Dothraki, for the show. I agree it sounds quite well-done.


Drogo chewed up his scene and spat it out! Great stuff.

 

[Greg.K]

The last couple of episodes have cemented this as my favorite show currently airing. Awesome stuff.

 

[Sam Favate]

Haven't seen last night's episode yet, but did catch up through last week's (No. 7) and wow. That episode was the best yet; really intense and every time I thought the show was over, ending on a dramatic high point, they did one better. It's as intense as the best of the (new) Battlestar Galactica or The Sopranos.


My only issue is that I don't know how all of these plot points will be resolved in the remaining three episodes.

 

[mattCR]

Without any real spoilers: if it goes the way of the books, which I expect, many (most) of these issues will NOT be resolved, they will be ongoing for Season2, etc. That's one good thing about a program designed for a multi-year run at a network like HBO. As long as they see this through, we'll never feel crunched to get year end resolution

 

[Josh Dial]

If anything, the issues get *more* complicated, rather than resolved

 

[Greg.K]

Works for me...

 

[Spero D]

Wow. That ending is bullshit. I just read a review that says thats how it goes in the books (I haven't read them), but still a shame to see him not be in the show anymore. Powerful nonetheless.

 

[Tim Gerdes]

Originally Posted by Spero D

Wow. That ending is bullshit. I just read a review that says thats how it goes in the books (I haven't read them), but still a shame to see him not be in the show anymore. Powerful nonetheless.

I don't know that I'd go as far as calling the ending bullshit, but I do think that HBO may have miscalculated here. I have not read the books, and am coming to this series without prior knowledge. The problem isn't so much that HBO's show follows the storyline as laid out in the novels, but that they hired a relatively well-known actor to carry a series and have now upped the ante in the "no one is safe" mantra first laid down during The Sopranos.

As a newbie, the story is interesting, and it plays very much like a chess game where sometimes even major players are sacrificed. That said, while the political machinations are compelling, I think HBO runs the risk of alienating viewers by eliminating their lead actors. The body count in season 1 is already fairly extensive. I'm more than a little worried that in another episode or two we'll be left solely with a cast of children.