HBO adaptation of Game of Thrones - will this be just for nerds? (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

aka "tyrion"

i tried to work from home today but instead i ended up watching the other three leaked episodes. okay now when's the next batch going to be leaked

not soon enough. i need to see the outcome of that last scene!

all the spoilers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0XbcNcNJgQ

Just caught episode 1. It's mostly a "hey, remember where we were a year ago?" recap episode.

Cersei and Jaime do nothing. Some order called the Sparrows is introduced without details.
The Tyrells do nothing.
Varys reveals that he wants Daenerys as queen. Tyrion does nothing.
Daenerys needs to deal with the former ruling class. This one's fine.
Littlefinger and Sansa do nothing.
Brienne and Payne do nothing.
Sam and Gilly do nothing.
Stannis kills Mance. Jon Snow accomplishes nothing.
Reek and Arya MIA. (Bran and Hodor MIA for the whole season, supposedly.)

Tyrion implies he's open to traveling to meet Daenerys. That's something.

Loras does, heh heh, something.

episode 1 was a snooze.

on reflection i kinda think it's been a poor start. as abanana says - they've managed to force everyone back into doing nothing. also ffs when is queen of dragons going to actually do something besides kill a peasant, pardon a peasant, listen to sage advice about how to govern, learn her ideals may not cut it in this brutal world of men, AGAIN.

they may have left Bran's boring storyline by the wayside, but they somehow managed to turn everyone into Bran-crew in this episode. No doubt things'll pick up soon.

They do occasionally have these 'placing figures on the board' episodes, but I think by now, especially with an opening ep, people are impatient for advancement. I've just watched episode two (spoilers->), and, though it's more interesting than the first, the series does still feel like it's marching in place a little, or at least moving forward one step at a time. They seem more interested in hanging out with the characters than charging headlong with the story, though having so many different and totally separate plot lines, it's bound to slow things down. Everyone seems to have been split up into pairs, as well (Jaimie and Bran; Brienne and Podrick; Varys and Tyrion etc), just for added odd-couple banter.

I did like the cut between Tryion saying something like "She wants my head. How many dwarves will she have to kill?" - straight to a dwarf's decapitated head being thrown down onto a table.

And it does look as if it's all about to kick off on the Daenerys storyline at last, after she had that man executed without a trial.

Jon Snuurr's election - no surprises there.

someone on Grantland was saying that in the books the current Daenerys storyline was GRRM's explicit response to the Iraq Occupation, but that the tv show is playing the politics down a bit.

Any book readers with a take?

tbf the "explicit response" presented by the books is "conquering is easy governing is hard" and that seems to be coming across just fine.

At this point they've painted Jaqen H'ghar as this unstoppable mysterious superhero which is cool and great but it makes his original appearance as a prisoner in a cart among murderous oafs not make much sense in that context. I feel like this was probably brought up already, but is there anything beyond fan-theory that addresses that discrepancy?

Er... his superpowers don't extent to bending metal bars?

it's possible he was exactly where he wanted to be?

chap - I'm implying that such an untouchable assassin would be quite hard to catch and imprison in the first place.

rogermexico - yeah thats the kind of fan theory hindsight justification I mean, unless the book/story actually confirms it at some point?

But in general those "I had planned all of this since the beginning" are pretty lazy storytelling devices... "yes, all of these particular events that are in no way under my control all going according to plan"

in the books, the man who meets arya at the house of black and white isn't jaqen h'ghar, and it's heavily implied that "h'ghar" is elsewhere

I guess the root of my question is whether the show is overplaying his abilities vs. the books. The more amazing, feared, and mystical they portray him, the less his original situation makes any sense.

Not losing sleep here, was just curious.

i kind of assumed that the dude you think is jaqen is really just any faceless dude and maybe all the faceless dudes can use that face or whatever. it seemed odd to me that he didn't let her in at first but did only after she kills a pigeon. just seemed to unnecessarily drag the story which is more/less grrm's MO

Game of Thrones: Being an Epic Recounting of Pointless Detours

xpost yeah i'm not saying that's my theory, and it may never be explained at all, but i am def not losing sleep over it. bookswise max otm and afaict the show is overplaying in the interest of keeping things "tight" characterwise. i like art's assumption and i'm kind of choosing that myself for now but we'll see where the show takes it.

I didn't exactly mean to imply Jaqen specifically, but how likely is it that any faceless man could be captured? People who can shape shift their face and kill multiple guards at once on a whim shouldn't need to rely on a little girl to hand them an axe ever if I were to guess.

Really not trying to hanker for a perfect answer too much just clarifying my point.

I'll just move on to seemingly obsess over the next nit picky discrepancy now.

I also thought Arya's scenes were pointlessly extended in this episode. She goes in a house! Didn't need to take that long.

So how about Sam and Gilly's no-sexposition scene. Compare with the last episode's Loras sexp-- no wait, just sex scene.

Brienne always knows how to brighten my mood with ultraviolence. Also, Arya's effortless pigeon decapitation was cool.

Loved all the location photography, horses running through the forest, boats in the Braavos canals, crowd scenes. A great change of pace from all the boring two-shots in the last episode.

Is that black and white building a real location in Croatia or CGI? There was something inherently menacing about it. I wondered at the time if Arya would have gotten a different initial result if she'd knocked on the other-colored door.

Thrilled that Bron is back. I missed that guy.

I was perfectly happy with last episode but found this one a little slow.

Keeping fingers crossed that the crazy wife of Stannis will get a tasty death scene.

Glad that Night's Watch coward got humiliated in front of everyone.

Couldn't Dany just have jailed that guy or gave him some other punishment?

Really surprised that Dornish guy wasn't interested in making a move. I thought this series was going to start with them coming down hard on the Lannisters. Their home looked lovely.

House of B&W exterior seems to be a set. http://watchersonthewall.com/split-pillars-confirmed-meereen-game-of-thrones-filming-continues-toome-today/

It rarely happens, but the House of Black & White was just about how I imagined it from the book. The streets of Braavos were significantly less populated with extras than my imagination, but otherwise I thought it was pretty cool.

It rarely happens, but the House of Black & White was just about how I imagined it from the book.

Yeah, loved how it didn't have windows.

I'm enjoying the Varys and Tyrion road movie and am kind of stoked for Jaime and Bronn on tour as well but in general most of the enjoyment in these first couple of eps as come from watching characters bounce off one another. They kinda need to do something soon.

Really starting to steer away from the books now, isn't it? Or am I just forgetting what happened in the books?

Yeah loads of quite significant changes, Jaime and Bronn going to Dorne is completely new for example. Even more to come in e3.

I'm guessing Bronn simply went away in the books but is too much of a tv show favourite to disappear?

Seems like they're consolidating a lot of the roles

I think they've always done that but they're doing it even more now.

so i guess daenerys' arc is supposed to mirror the millenia-long evolution of political rule? from leaders of warlike clans to philosopher queens, joining tribes together into something resembling a coalition, the formation of an advisory counsel...uh, i don't know where i'm going with this, but my point is that by the end of the show i fully expect to see daenerys defeated in an open election supervised by UN observers

or on trial for warcrimes

Dragons of mass destruction.

indicted by the highgarden war crimes tribunal

Maisie Williams was walking even more effeminately than she has in the past, hasn't she?

I also thought Arya's scenes were pointlessly extended in this episode. She goes in a house! Didn't need to take that long.

I can't remember if the house was connected to the land, if the only access was by the boat, or if the boat was the quickest route they took. But the point of the extension is that a wait weeds out the insincere applicants. Fairly classic trope. My question was 'if she was denied initial entry, what about the alleyway scene convinced Jaqen to accept her into the fold? That she was facing down three bullies?

he just wanted to eat some pigeon.

"You passed the test!"

"Really? That's great!"

"Yeah! I rejected you at the door so I could see how you'd handle that. You waiting for a long time. Like maybe a whole day. I was impressed with your persistence"

"Well, I mentioned I crossed the sea and had nowhere else to go. But then I got bored and pissed off so I threw the coin in the water and left."

"You proved that you are... slightly more patient than a few other people. You show great promise, child."

"I didn't do anything. I mean, you were the one that scared off the muggers."

"Check this out- recognize this coin?"

"You probably have a whole chest full of those things. Can I go eat this filthy pigeon carcass now?"

One jokey theory I've heard is that Arya wasn't allowed in initially because she knocked on the black door - if she had knocked on the white door, she would have been.

I was expecting Spy vs. Spy to answer.

It was like a video game scene. Unlock the door by chanting names, killing pigeon, throwing in water.

coin

The framing of Arya midway between black & white doors was my favorite shot of that episode. And agreed about the day (?) she waited being a "Why was THAT the difference?" stumper.

think it speaks to the general blahness of this ep that no one's bothering to post about it. the farther they go off the map, the more generic the scenes seem to get :(