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

oh! i missed that somehow.

I don't think it was very clearly explained.

I can't even remember if it was explained tbh

May have been a throwaway line in the previous ep that that was what he was off to do.

i think that's the case?

also man that executioner's sword was lol hueg

they talk about it the previous ep when tyrion brings bronn & co. to his dad

i was waiting for those two when they were chilling with the whore to start playing truth or dare.
that scene was pretty dull until they got to the story about Tyrion being married.

explains alot.

also man that executioner's sword was lol hueg

was supposed to be Stark's own sword, "Ice", which they just left out of the show for whatever reason.

Some of the madness i was referring to earlier
http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/06/13/game-of-thrones-reaction/

haha I read that

part of me feels like ppl don't understand entertainment

They also left out one particular detail from Tyrion's story, but now I'm wondering if that was revealed at another point in the books.

people that write about tv for a living make me sad.

neddy!

man, spoilers for this seem impossible to avoid today. feel sorry for people who don't have HBO. :(

Feel really sorry for the Brits, whom I think are watching it right now (or just finished it). Twitter was especially bad.

i managed to avoid...clicked on this thread instinctively just before watching it then closed it down while looking away from the screen, close shave.

had a nagging suspicion ned hadnt been made to look anything but p lame and worthy for a long while, but still - whoa

altho plenty of shows have had a colourful cast revovling around a boring centre so maybe i'm just bullshitting

havent read the books but havent had any problems understanding what's going on until this episode when i couldnt remember who "stannis" was? am i being dumb?

(i don't wanna google him in case i get bookspoilered :/)

No, you aren't. Put it this way, each of the books ends with an appendix that lists all the major houses, characters, and relations. Its a lot to keep track of.

i assume cersei's ruthlessness is about to be tested.

agree with whoever said joffrey is a little shit, obviously. hope he gets a chopping soon enough, the milky bar king.

when i hear "lannisters" i keep thinking it would be a good name for a family hotel in fyfe. also the theme music is really funny, it would be good to make up lyrics up for which included the words "game of thrones" repeatedly as the last three notes of the repeated motif.

sorry i have few serious points to make, the show is great.

x-post stannis has barely been in it, he is the mystery man. few weeks ago we all wondered who he was too. think if you search for stannis itt some kind foul has described the ex croatian midfield man

some kind soul...not foul

Stannis is Robert Baratheon's brother; he's the middle sibling. Renly is the youngest brother, the dude who offered his swords to Ned to march on Cersei, then got the fuck out of Dodge when Ned turned him down; Renly is more charismatic and well-liked in the books so he thinks he should be king over his dour older brother Stannis. Ned thought that since all of Robert's supposed children were actually Jamie's, the line should pass to Stannis.

right and why's stannis so mysterious? does he just do his own thing like the crazy breastfeeding lady

dunno when i missed all this info, i'm usually ok with this stuff

actually since i mentioned stuff revolving around boring centres (ned) i must admit i did kinda feel a pang of worry that without his noble anchoring role this show would go a bit ott spartacus

i mean i do love spartacus but this isnt that

Basically Stannis is off running shit elsewhere in the kingdom.

stannis used to hang in kings landing always in a bad mood, but peaced out to his castle, which is on an island, when he realized that joffrey isnt roberts kid and hasnt been back or really talked to anyone. so everyone assumes that hes assembling some kind of army or whatever, but no one really knows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owf6D2vfZqM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

that was all done pretty well i thought. series is ending strong. only most of a year to wait until the next one.

X post Just noticed that was already linked. Sorry.

Stannis is this awesome cross between whiny crybaby and battlehardened soldier. The fact that he lives on an island seems to be convenient for both Stannis, who hates pretty much everyone in the world, and everyone in the world, who think Stannis is a dick.

wtf nedddddd!
and almost-horse-zombie khal drogo!
and aaagh war!
this show...

it's gonna give me nightmares tbh

horses do not fare at all well in this series

I sorta don't care about the battles---I'm in it for the ~machinations~

― all the pretty HOOSes (gbx), Monday, June 13, 2011 3:18 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

i kinda agree - i dont need riproaring battles. at the same time, there's a lot more tactical and strategic detail to them in the books and i think it would've been cool if they preserved more of that instead of boiling it down to 'we tricked tywin and caught jaime' - i think that stuff is cool as heck and should've been in there, because its as much a part of the machinations as anything.

for show-watchers who are confused, here's a detailed thing about how everything went down (spoiler-free) that i swiped from another board:

Tywin is in a shitty position as he has the neck to the north of him and Robb's army in between him and the Westerlands. I expect they'll explore this in the next episode. Though in regards to the tribesmen, to put it in perspective there's only about 400 (or was it 200) or so tribesmen in total. They weren't the van, they were just put in the van. They're really much too small otherwise.

So anyway, re: the war, in the novels, up to this stage without any spoilers:

Jaime Lannister lead an army (15,000 in book, 30,000 in show) to attack the Riverlands whilst Tywin lead a second army (over 20,000 in book, 30,000 in show) north against Robb's host.

Jaime scored several quick and easy victories against the Tully armies and essentially forced them back into Riverrun, the Tully stronghold, and laid siege to them.

Robb has to make a choice about going south to face Tywin or crossing the Green fork to face Jaime. He eventually decided to split his force, with the bulk of the army on foot (some 16,000 in the book) going south as loudly and publicly as possible to face Tywin's host, whilst he himself lead like 4,000 horse (Catelyn noted that Robb, like his father, always lead the most dangerous and crucial bit by himself) or something to cross at the Freys (where they were joined by several thousand Frey horse and infantry) and use their strategic speed and surprise to ride on Jaime.

The foot army attempted to steal a night attack upon Tywin's host but were alerted of. In the morning the two sides had a pitched battle besides the Green Fork river (and this was known as the Battle of the Green Fork) Tywin had Gregor "The Mountain" lead the left flank as the van, right besides the river. It was later revealed he intentionally placed the weakest elements - free riders, mercenaries, squires, mounted field hands and Tyrion's tribesmen, under the command of an unthinking savage, in the Van on the left so that they would be defeated, and that Robb, who Tywin thought would be brave and eager and not cautious enough, would commit to the hole in Tywin's line, at which point the rest of Tywin's army would wheel and trap and crush Robb's army against the river. The Stark army proved too cunning however and retreated before that could happen, suffering a considerable defeat but maintaining the bulk of their strength. It was also established here that Tyrion was actually quite a decent fighter, and he killed several enemies as well as defeating a northern knight.

Here Tywin realizes that they've been fooled, as Robb had used this time to steal a march upon Jaime. Robb's cavalry attacked in the night from multiple sides in small raids on Jaime's camp, designed to draw Jaime who was brash into pursuing them into the woods. Jaime did so with about a third of his army and Robb ambushed him from the woods. Seeing the battle was about to be lost and being metal as hell Jaime Lannister lead a charge against Robb himself and attempted to end the battle right then and there, and he killed a handful of Robb's retinue (all sons and young nobles of his bannermen) before he was captured. And this was known as the Battle of the Whispering Woods.

So as it stands at this point in the books, there's still a Lannister army at Riverrun but they have no commander and their encirclement has been broken. Tywin is trapped between a still considerable Northern army to his north and Robb's army to his east cutting him off between him and the Westerlands.

That sounds cool enough to make me want to pick up the book again.

It reminded me of the Battle of Pharsalus in Rome, where they basically showed a banner hitting the mud and then Pompey explained what happened to Kevin McKidd. They did give us a pretty full-on battle for Philippi in the second season, but they also cut the episode order from 12 to 10, which was fairly unheard of for HBO in those days and I always assumed it was so they could afford to do that battle.

I dunno...I like a good battle scene. I don't require it, but for a medieval-y drama, it'd be nice to have a couple of barnburners.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Am I watching wrong if I was half-expecting Arya to make it onto the stage thing to run "King" Joffrey through w/ Needle??????????????

Sorry, by "half-expecting," I meant "wishing with all my heart, and money."

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. THIS SHOW.

What I'm saying is, I could use a vaguely Eastern European courtesan right now to play drinking games with me.

Stupid Ned meme:
http://winteriscomingbitch.tumblr.com/tagged/stupid+ned

oh! i missed that somehow.
― magic punani (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 13 June 2011 21:01 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I don't think it was very clearly explained.
― Inevitable stupid samba mix (chap), Monday, 13 June 2011 21:01 (Yesterday) Bookmark

There's a lot of that happening. I'm finding that as long as I can follow the bigger arcs/themes, the details sprinkled throughout (Rickon, say) will become clearer when the story needs them. (Except for stuff like Stannis, where I've spent a couple of episodes going "wait, who's that again? Why do they keep talking about this dude?").

Whatever happened to the other Stark brother who was hanging with the Night Watch guys - was it Benjen? Is he gone for good?

benjen's disappeared, as far as anyone knows

http://uk.eonline.com/uberblog/b247126_game_of_thrones_sean_bean_stabbed_in.html

wtf

Despite his wounds, Bean refused any medical attention and opted not to go to a hospital.

Instead, the actor accepted a first aid kit from the bar staff, then ordered another drink.

almost too badass sounding to be true!